Faerie Fiddler

Each faerie community has exactly one fiddler, never more, and it serves to protect its neighbors and make the world nicer by its own lights. Fiddlers look more human than most faeries: wizened, miniature old men in gloomy, outdated finery, perhaps tails and a dented black topper, playing a breathtakingly fine tiny fiddle. They are cheerful and sprightly despite their age, though so thin it seems a miracle their coats do not fold flat. They speak every faerie tongue plus those of nearby human and demihuman communities.

A fiddler never starts a fight but can handle one. Its small size and endless capering give it an excellent Armor Class, it resists most magic, and it is completely immune to enchantment/charm spells.

Its fiddle carries magical tunes, played for pleasure or defense. Each can be resisted with a save vs. spell, but since the tunes are subtle, a character must state the intent to resist. The least tune, woven into ordinary dance music, banishes hunger, thirst and fatigue for those dancing to it; a dancer with the dancing proficiency can adapt the steps to fight without tiring, and every faerie in the fiddler's community gets this benefit, whirling through combat untiring.

Each round the fiddler can also aim irresistible dance at one creature within 30 feet (save vs. spell negates). It lasts only five rounds, so against many foes the fiddler must keep renewing it. He uses it to support faeries driving off intruders, to cover the retreat of those who cannot or will not fight, and to cover his own escape, which he makes only after every other faerie is safe.

The strongest tune punishes those who offend faerie sensibilities without outright attacking: refusing to dance, scoffing at faeries' existence, or, worst of all, trying to cheat one. It carries the fatigue-banishing effect plus a time warp in which each hour of dancing equals a year outside, so four hours of revelry might mean coming home four years later to find the house long sold. A save vs. spell negates it, but only if the listener consciously wants to resist; otherwise no save is allowed. This tune works only once a month, when the moon is full, so the culprit has to be coaxed back to the ring at the right time. Typically the fiddler pretends not to notice the insult and invites the offender to a once-in-a-lifetime celebration a few days later; other ruses include 'accidentally' mentioning a precious faerie treasure on display at full moon, or daring a belligerent offender to come back and try it again then.

Fiddlers live among faerie communities and serve them in many ways, above all playing at their festivals, gatherings and revels. The fiddle itself is not magical (the fiddler's own magic flows through it), but its fine workmanship and tiny size make it worth 3 to 60 gp.