Evil power behind the king?

[Byrons_Ghost]

How about a celestial, or some other creature dedicated to order? Maybe the father and brother weren't great rulers, and were letting the kingdom fall apart, so the celestial encouraged the youngest brother to take the throne. Which he did through murder.

Maybe the celestial encouraged that aspect as well, reasoning that the kingdom would be a better place without them. Or maybe the would-be king came up with his own ideas, and the celestial found out to late. Either way, she's got too much invested in the king and his rule to let some nobody adventurers bring him to "justice".

There might be dire circumstances for the kingdom if the last of the line is killed, such the army of ninjas that was constantly hovering over Shinjo in recent OotS episodes.

 

[Bad Paper]

succubus

 

[Gundark]

edit: Needs more NPCs to make it cool. It's a start.

Well yeah I have lots of NPCs. There are different houses (similar to Game of thrones). different motivations and the like.

 

[shilsen]

a gnome

Ummm ... he said he wants his PCs to be high level when they tackle it, not epic.

 

[Crothian]

Ummm ... he said he wants his PCs to be high level when they tackle it, not epic.

I just think it can be something a little more mundane and doesn't always have to be something exotic.

 

[Thomas Percy]

You can find inspiration at Lords of Mandess and Tyrants of Hell.

 

[Intrope]

The first thing that leaps to mind is Raksasha (presumably, there are female ones...). They're masters of disguise, and this plot seems very Lawful Evil to me--especially if the intent is to rule the kingdom for the long term via the puppet king.

For that matter, the greatest weakness of such a creature (detect evil!) can be negated largely by not being anywhere near the king during the daytime. And the Raksasha can control the king, since she spends all day with his children/her hostages!

If they're high level, she'll probably need extra sorcerer levels. Alternately, she could be built as a stealthy grapple monk; her natural defenses would make that pretty nasty!

 

[Michael_R_Proteau]

The nanny was the daughter of a lady in waiting at a court that was visited by the old king before he ascended the throne. The king's lusts led him to force himself on the lady and waiting and the nanny was conceived. The old king (then crown prince) left to return to his own kingdom never thinking again of this women he left with child. As his bastard daughter grew up, she learned to hate the old king form her bitter mother. When she came of age she decided to seek vengeance on the old king and her half siblings who led the life of priviledge she wa sdenied after her mother's dishonor was discovered and they were turned formt he court.

In her quest for vengeance, she sought a means to gain access to the king's court to get close enough to exact her revenge. In her pursuit she comes across a hat of disguise, but unbenownst to her, the hat has been possessed by a powerful fiend. When she sdones the hat, the fiend has access to her soul and uses her hatred and lust for vengeance to gain ahold of her. She eventually becomes the king's nanny and seduces the crown prince (using the rice's lusts to her advantage turning the table on the royal line), and induces him to muder the old king (who violated her mother). Through her the scheming fiend gains influence on the king and thus on the kingdom itself. The nanny is a shapechager because of the hat of disguise and has her own reasons to hate the old king and his progeny, but this is used to bind her to eh fiend possessing the hat's will, and thuis the fiend can ursue his own agenda and becomes the power behind the throne. The nanny can be exposed and removed, but the hat remains to twist amd control whoever comes into possesion of it, and remains the true threat until the fiend can influence events to be released from his prison and asume power for himself leading to the high level final confrontation. Maybe a plan to sacrifice the king's children to the fiend is discovered leading to the nanny and that is your red herring.

-M

 

[Gundark]

The nanny was the daughter of a lady in waiting at a court that was visited by the old king before he ascended the throne. The king's lusts led him to force himself on the lady and waiting and the nanny was conceived. The old king (then crown prince) left to return to his own kingdom never thinking again of this women he left with child. As his bastard daughter grew up, she learned to hate the old king form her bitter mother. When she came of age she decided to seek vengeance on the old king and her half siblings who led the life of priviledge she wa sdenied after her mother's dishonor was discovered and they were turned formt he court.

In her quest for vengeance, she sought a means to gain access to the king's court to get close enough to exact her revenge. In her pursuit she comes across a hat of disguise, but unbenownst to her, the hat has been possessed by a powerful fiend. When she sdones the hat, the fiend has access to her soul and uses her hatred and lust for vengeance to gain ahold of her. She eventually becomes the king's nanny and seduces the crown prince (using the rice's lusts to her advantage turning the table on the royal line), and induces him to muder the old king (who violated her mother). Through her the scheming fiend gains influence on the king and thus on the kingdom itself. The nanny is a shapechager because of the hat of disguise and has her own reasons to hate the old king and his progeny, but this is used to bind her to eh fiend possessing the hat's will, and thuis the fiend can ursue his own agenda and becomes the power behind the throne. The nanny can be exposed and removed, but the hat remains to twist amd control whoever comes into possesion of it, and remains the true threat until the fiend can influence events to be released from his prison and asume power for himself leading to the high level final confrontation. Maybe a plan to sacrifice the king's children to the fiend is discovered leading to the nanny and that is your red herring.

-M

Good stuff

 

[LostSoul]

Well yeah I have lots of NPCs. There are different houses (similar to Game of thrones). different motivations and the like.

Oh, I might not have been clear; I was talking about that little tangent I went on with the allip.