Evil power behind the king?

[joshuakanton]

What about a Ghost with the Malevolence and Rejuvenation special ability?

The Ghost's essence is in the children and the Nanny's close proximity to the children allows the Ghost to possess the Nanny continually.

If the Nanny is defeated the Ghost could have the children play upon the King's guilt and say the "evil" Nanny would never have manipulated him if you had spent more time with us. Then the Ghost could possess the King or another trusted advisor. The King spending more time with his children allows his trusted advisor more control over the kingdom and the cycle starts over again.

It also makes it difficult to kill the Ghost, as killing the children should not be a viable option.

 

[Nifft]

How high a level PC group? I ask as I was planning something with a shapechanger but then hit a stumbling block - namely true seeing.

That's not a stumbling block, it's just an expiration date. It's cool that the PCs will, at high enough level, be able to see through certain low-level tactics.

Perhaps there are a LOT of shapechangers in positions of power. Perhaps this ignites a war against lycanthropes, dopplegangers, and mimics... er. Yeah. Those first two anyway.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Gundark]

Thanks for he suggestions here guys. Lots of great ideas. I'll be using the Iron Heores ruleset so I don't think I'll have to worry too much about magic getting in the way. I like the idea of an intellignet item that is manipulating the nanny. Thus she for all purposes is not worth the notice.

However a Succubus is a good idea too.

argghhh descisions!!!

 

[Kafkonia]

Thanks for he suggestions here guys. Lots of great ideas. I'll be using the Iron Heores ruleset so I don't think I'll have to worry too much about magic getting in the way. I like the idea of an intellignet item that is manipulating the nanny. Thus she for all purposes is not worth the notice.

However a Succubus is a good idea too.

argghhh descisions!!!

I'm glad you liked my idea, so here's something to incorporate both of the above. I will warn you that it could be quite disturbing depending on how you present it...

An intelligent evil item is controlling the nanny, who in turn is manipulating the king. The goings-on have attracted the attentions of some members of the lower planes, and a succubus has been sent to investigate and get as close to the seat of power as possible. To do so, she has impersonated one of the children and is trying to seduce whoever she has to to gain power and/or acquire the item. And being a master manipulator, she'll probably orchestrate things so that the PCs' goals help her along -- perhaps even positioning herself to appear as an ally to the PCs (maybe a friendly spirit temporarily possessing the child in question.)

Wheels within wheels.

 

[Nifft]

An intelligent evil item is controlling the nanny, who in turn is manipulating the king.

A Fiend of Possession (Fiend Folio) can inhabit an item, right? If so, perhaps that's the best conjunction of "evil sword" + Succubus.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Quartz]

For something simpler, how about an evil slaad?

 

[Nifft]

For something simpler, how about an evil slaad?

"No really, I'm a princess! Kiss me!"

-- N

 

[Kafkonia]

For something simpler, how about an evil slaad?

Manipulating the king and being the power behind the throne seems awfully lawful for slaadi. Unless it's doing so with the intent of then eliminating the king and plunging the kingdom into anarchy.

 

[Gold Roger]

The Nanny was a noble and paladin from a neighbouring and now occupied country- which has been terribly wronged by the old King when she was still very young. (This makes her well educated, charismatic and powerfull enough)

This poisened her mind and turned her to evil. Since then the now-ex-paladin has been working to infiltrate the court, see her nemesis, the in her eyes evil old king dead and take revenge upon the people that destroyed her country, by turning the ruler into an opressive tyrant.

Of course, the old king was a good man, who was burdened heavily with the burden of responsibility. When an outside force put him in a situation where had to choose between heavy suffering for his realm or a unreasonable seeming attack on his neighbours, he attacked, even though it almost drove him mad. His pained spirit still lingers, but is very restricted in the physical world (so he can barely influence what happens).

Of course said outside force is still in existance and growing in power. If revealed, it would not only be shown to be the enemy of th kingdoms people, thee old king and the PCs, but also the new king and the nanny, who both may still be redeemed (or only the nanny can be redeemed but the spoiled new king can't for another twist).

The question is wether the PC will manage to piece to the heart of the matter or the nefarious outside power will only reveal itself when the PC's have defeated the new king and his nanny, in the process throwing the kingdom into a justified but devastating civil war...

To add even more, the remeinders of the nannies old people are still opressed within their now occupied realm, using the kings tyranny and civil war to throw of their bonds turning the civil war into an open conflict.

 

[grodog]

So IMC that I'm designing the current king murdered his father and older brother in order to sit on the throne. While he is evil and ambitious, he was manipulated into action by a creature that is shapechanged as his childrens nanny. The creature and the king are lovers, not that the creature loves the king, but finds that the king's lust is his weakness. The king knows that the nanny is something more than human, but doesn't know what. Thus the creature really rules the kingdom through her puppet lover

The question is I'm having trouble with what the nanny is. I don't really want the old standbys (doppelganger/orge mage/dragon).

I'm planning on the PCs to be high level when they confront her.

So any ideas what she could be?

You could, with some modification, leverage Rob Kuntz's Maze of Zayene adventures for this scenario. In them, Kuntz postulates

Spoiler

that the wizard Zayene has taken over the kingdom, and has usurped the throne through the use of some specialized cloning spells. In the modules, he's replaced the king with these clones, but you could easily shift that to be that he has summoned the succubus that's slaking the king's lusty thirsts, or otherwise modify to meet the needs of your backstory.

The modules are:

M1 Prisoners of the Maze
M2 Dimensions of Flight
M3 Tower Chaos
M4 The Eight Kings

The first three are 3.0 modules from Necromancer Games @ http://www.necromancergames.com/products.html, the fourth is 3.5 from Different Worlds @ http://www.diffworlds.com/kalibruhn.htm. All four modules are also available in AD&D/1e formats from Noble Knight, eBay, etc., from Kuntz's original publication of them in 1987 (via his Creations Unlimited company).