D&D 5E What is this villain's next step?

hawkeyefan said:

I’m familiar with the adventure and the NPCs involved, but I don’t know if you’ve made significant changes to things or not, so this idea may or may not work.

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Yeah, since you're familiar with Tomb of Annihilation, I've made a couple changes to how Xandala appears there. In ToA Xandala's motive is kinda divorced from the main story. She's an outsider. Instead, I tied her draconic bloodline to two elements in Chult: a black dragon called Mergandevinasander who I have as once inhabiting the Aldani Basin & to the Sewn Sisters. I also made her a sort of renegade Red Wizard. Thus, she serves to foreshadow those elements. Still trying to iron out the kinks in her backstory.

Can Xandala possibly convince the party that the NPC has come under the sway of the artifact, and is no longer in control of his own actions? Perhaps she can convince them to subdue the NPC, and transport him to a location that holds the key to breaking the curse....a garden that contains the “Summer Bloom”, a rare flower that can restore the NPC’s right mind.

Of course, instead she leads the PCs to the medusa’s garden where they’re ambushed by both the goblins and the medusa.

Maybe that could work?

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Yeah, that's totally possible. But the goblin paladin PC's zone of truth kinda kills that; all he has to do is cast it and pose the question "Are you lying about him being under the artifact's sway, yes or no?" Sure, Xandala can refuse the spell, but that immediately makes her suspect. The PCs are already wondering what's up, whether the missing NPC (Artus) is mistaken and indeed has a daughter, or if Xandala is mistaken or lying; while discussing their course of action, zone of truth was brought up.

I'm not saying that zone of truth rules out all such scenarios – the last time he tried to use it, his line of inquiry proved inconclusive because he was investigating a murder in which the murderer wasn't directly responsible and had made another innocent culpable. However, the situation with Xandala is one of those cut-and-dried ones that zone of truth is intended for.

Although, since the NPC is actually a doppleganger dsiguised as the NPC, I don’t know how long that would remain a secret from her....

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Right, as soon as Xandala tries to cast dominate person on the doppelganger, the spell fails because it's a monstrosity and not a humanoid. Perhaps her first move is to convince the goblins to steal the ring from "Artus" while he sleeps.

Does the doppleganger have the artifact in question? I don’t know if this was explicitly stated in your descriptions above.

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The doppelganger does NOT have the artifact. The doppelganger has some skills beyond the MM doppelganger, including the sphinx's Inscrutable Trait, Survival proficiency, skill with a longbow, and Spellcasting (wizard) allowing it to cast message, minor illusion, blur, illusory script, Nystul's magic aura, and whispering wind (homebrew spell). Part of its routine is casting Nystul's magic aura on its ring and itself to make the ring appear to be the Ring of Winter and itself appear to be under the magical effects of the ring. The party's bard PC subtly cast detect magic on the doppelganger, and learned what the magic aura wanted him to learn.

It's a bit convoluted, but the doppelganger met the missing NPC (Artus Cimber) in the jungle, sympathized with his plight & read his mind, planning to masquerade as the famed explorer Artus Cimber (for the doppelganger's own ends). Well, Artus realized what was happening, but the Ring of Winter is slowly making him coldly pragmatic, so rather than warn the doppelganger not to attempt the masquerade due to the many enemies he has, Artus let the doppelganger do its thing, hoping to use it to flush some of his enemies out into the open. The doppelganger is an agent of one of the Beggar Princes of Port Nyanzaru that I made up known as the Invisible King who seeks to liberate elementals (esp. air elementals) from binding magic, and has made an uncomfortable arrangement with Withers (from the Tomb).

Quickleaf said:

That's a great twist! Unfortunately, while I did mention Xandala's beauty, I didn't foreshadow any suitors.

The only thing that springs to mind is the NPC Brother-in-Law (gladiator) of the ranger PC... the PCs parted ways with the NPC Brother-in-Law a week ago on bad terms, as the party decided to use a consumable magic item for other reasons rather than helping the Brother-in-Law find the one responsible for turning his sister (the ranger PC's wife) into a zombie. Essentially they choose a "greater good" rather than the Brother-in-Law's "personal vendetta."

It's possible the goblin hunting party ran into him along the river... though it would be out-of-character for the Brother-in-Law to ally with goblins, maybe despite the disagreement with the PCs he still views the ranger PC as family... so he could "join" the goblins as a guide, the goblins think they're press-ganging him, when his real intention is to keep an eye on them. But then when the Brother-in-Law meets Xandala he is smitten by her. Maybe she is the first ray of light he has seen in a long time? A chance at a new beginning? Not realizing he is being thoroughly manipulated.

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Most of my players would go to extreme lengths to save a NPC especially if it were a spouse. No one made an effort to bring the sister/wife back from the dead?

Perhaps Xandala could use the offer of magical scrying and find a way to bring back the sister from the dead while playing like a dryad. If news of the sister/wife becoming a zombie is public, Xandala could use it as an excuse to approach the gladiator with a tale of how sorry she is and sympathetic she is to his plight. This gives her two psychological pressures to use to influence the gladiator to do her bidding.

[MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION] Gotcha. I figured you had made some changes.

I suppose how you proceed depends on what you want from Xandala. Is she meant to be a one time opponent? It doesn’t seem so since you’ve connected her to the archmage and other story elements. So it seems you have or would prefer to have long term plans for her.

Is it possible she can learn of the doppleganger? Maybe she can reveal its true nature in an attempt to earn the party’s trust?

Is there any item or means by which she can bypass the Zone of Truth spell? I mean, she has a decent Cha save, so she may be able to resist it, but that means the PCs will know she may be lying. Is there something that she can ise to defeat the spell? If not, would you be willing to add such an item?

The way you have set her up, and the connections she has, seems to have her poised to be a potentially powerful enemy, and possibly a long term villain. So it would seem a shame for her to make a move now if the reault would be her defeat.

Draegn said:

Most of my players would go to extreme lengths to save a NPC especially if it were a spouse. No one made an effort to bring the sister/wife back from the dead?

Perhaps Xandala could use the offer of magical scrying and find a way to bring back the sister from the dead while playing like a dryad. If news of the sister/wife becoming a zombie is public, Xandala could use it as an excuse to approach the gladiator with a tale of how sorry she is and sympathetic she is to his plight. This gives her two psychological pressures to use to influence the gladiator to do her bidding.

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Ah, for brevity's sake I left out details to focus on my question about the villain Xandala.

But, as to your question, in Tomb of Annihilation (the adventure I'm running), a Death Curse prevents raising the dead. The ranger PC's wife's death happened off screen as backstory "a while ago"; she was turned into a zombie and the ranger PC had to end her life. This is how his favored enemy became undead.

While the brother-in-law / gladiator NPC (brother of the dead wife) understood the PC's actions, it's still a sore spot. Unlike the ranger PC who channeled his emotions into fighting undead and seeking to undo the Death Curse, the brother-in-law / gladiator PC took it personally and wants to know who turned his sister into a zombe and get payback.

The ranger PC is tight-lipped about this painful piece of his past, so while it's now known to the other PCs, it is not something that was divulged to their archmage patron (nor Xandala). The archmage (and hence Xandala) was informed that the PCs met another party in the jungle that included the ranger PC's brother-in-law and "came to terms" that weren't entirely satisfactory, and the brother-in-law NPC parted ways, but that's the extent of what the PCs shared IIRC.

[MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION] I see. I do not run published adventures, I prefer to create my own. The politics of which have been compared to Dune, "Plans within plans".

I see the ranger and gladiator as allies who agree to disagree as both their end desires are related. Perhaps Xandala could find the gladiator and his party and say something along the lines of "The other group while noble is also foolish, ending the curse will not stop the person who created it from doing it again, however, your wiser way of ending that person will stop both the curse and make sure it never happens again. All I need is your strength to get me this little thing and I will then be able to help you in ways you cannot possible imagine."

hawkeyefan said:

[MENTION=20323]Quickleaf[/MENTION] Gotcha. I figured you had made some changes.

I suppose how you proceed depends on what you want from Xandala. Is she meant to be a one time opponent? It doesn’t seem so since you’ve connected her to the archmage and other story elements. So it seems you have or would prefer to have long term plans for her.

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Not necessarily. While I agree I've set her up to have greater long-term villain potential, her most important role is foreshadowing other factors, such as the lengths that others are willing to go to find the missing NPC (Artus) and, in turn, the lengths he's willing to go to evade his enemies. I wouldn't bring her into play unless I was willing for the players to crush her plans and end her life...I guess that's part of my DMing philosophy. I do, however, want to play her as a prepared, manipulative, and intelligent adversary.

Is it possible she can learn of the doppleganger? Maybe she can reveal its true nature in an attempt to earn the party’s trust?

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Maybe... she has never met the missing NPC (Artus) before, AFAICT, so she wouldn't have a basis of comparison to catch little details that don't add up.

The only spell I know of that detect shapechangers is moonbeam – a druid spell. The party has a druid PC but she doesn't usually prepare this spell.

The failure of her dominate person might, I could rule, inform her that this is not a humanoid she's dealing with.

Also, the doppelganger isn't immune to cold damage like the real Artus, so a ray of frost or ice storm cast upon him should reveal as much.

A ring of mind shielding would prevent the doppelganger from using Read Thoughts on her...a reasonable precaution for someone already doing deep cover work...but not help in ID'ing the doppelganger as such.

Of course, dispel magic could break the Nystul's magic aura, allowing detect magic / identify to reveal the doppelganger's ring is not the Ring of Winter.

Is there any item or means by which she can bypass the Zone of Truth spell? I mean, she has a decent Cha save, so she may be able to resist it, but that means the PCs will know she may be lying. Is there something that she can ise to defeat the spell? If not, would you be willing to add such an item?

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Well, the goblin paladin PC joined the party later in the game, so while Xandala is aware the party picked up a reformed goblin member, she doesn't know that he can cast zone of truth. So devising some brute force "it doesn't work on her" magic item would feel out of place since she doesn't have the intel that she'd need such a thing. With zone of truth, my preference is to use half-truths and clever villainous strategies to evade the truth.

In this case, I can't see any line of answering zone of truth that would allow Xandala to evade being found out. She'd probably refuse it outright, if it comes down to it.

The way you have set her up, and the connections she has, seems to have her poised to be a potentially powerful enemy, and possibly a long term villain. So it would seem a shame for her to make a move now if the result would be her defeat.

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Mhmm. Xandala is the type to minimize risk to herself. She's playing a long game. I'm imagining her manipulating the goblins, manipulating (or polymorphing) the brother-in-law/gladiator NPC, and trying to engineer conflict between the PCs and the medusa queen. Don't know the specifics yet, but I'm thinking that's her general approach. Ideally, if discovered by the PCs, she has an explanation ready: "I saved you from a doppelganger in your midst, and this is the thanks I get?"

I'm also giving Xandala an ace up her sleeve. If recognized as a villain & defeated, she knows a few things she might use to barter for her life. In particular, I'm having their archmage patron (Syndra Silvane, suffering from Death Curse) being proactive in searching for a cure to her illness and traveling to the Mistcliff Mountains where the Lost Laboratory of Kwalish is located. I've foreshadowed this previously. Xandala knows this is a dangerous venture and that the hirelings the archmage hired have their own motives; she can disclose this as well as the location on the PCs' map if they wish to aid the archmage.

There's a spell for this situation: Scrying.
Seriously, it's perfect.

Yunru said:

There's a spell for this situation: Scrying.
Seriously, it's perfect.

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Indeed, but there are a few snafus:

First, the artifact in question (Ring of Winter) blocks divination used to locate its wielder. I've also made other rulings that suggest this effect "bleeds out" to encompass a party traveling with the wielder.

EDIT: Hmm, but maybe Xandala doesn't know that. And it's not the real ring. But it's not the real Artus, either. So she might scry on one of the PCs.

Second, the villain is a sorcerer and scrying isn't available to sorcerers. Part of the internal logic of sorcerer magic seems to be it's limited to (a) non-expensive material components and/or (b) non-long casting time spells. I haven't done an exhaustive comparison, but at first blush that seems to be the reason for scrying not being available to sorcerers. The closest thing to a rationale I could find from the designers was a tweet from Mike Mearls: for sorcerer, we avoid more complex spells. Sorcerer magic is simpler, more direct.

EDIT: Hmm, but I could give her a crystal ball.

I was thinking more from a Spell Scroll, but if the Ring blocks divination... I'm not sure.

Yunru said:

I was thinking more from a Spell Scroll, but if the Ring blocks divination... I'm not sure.

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Well, Xandala knows the party's last-known-location due to a magic map that's blood-linked to them. However her "mistress", the archmage, is in possession of the map and unlikely to part with it (since she relies on the map as a focus for casting project image to reach the party, even in places she has never visited). Xandala did meet the PCs in person at the beginning of the adventure, however, so for scrying purposes it would probably be a straight Wisdom save (DC 17 in her case).

I haven't had to adjudicate scrying saving throws in 5e yet. As DM, do I just call for a Wisdom save from the player in question, without explaining what's going on?

Successful scrying might explain how goblins know how to find the PCs' camp amidst a very very large jungle.