Having trouble with a villain.

[RangerWickett]

Stahn Li, stay out.

So, in my new game, I'm running it with the same setting of my campaign before last. That was a very successful game, and it ended with all the major villains defeated, one of the PCs married to a princess and starting a kingdom, and things quieting down, even if all was not perfect.

Now it's ten years later, and we have new PCs.

I want to involve a few loose plot threads, and let the players see how their old characters affected the world, but mostly pave new ground. Some of those loose plot threads are:

• A huge rift to the elemental plane of fire floats in the sky over a vast sea, the result of mis-using an artifact that could teleport armies. That artifact has been destroyed, but the rift remains, though thankfully the area around it is uninhabited. Still, people have noticed that the seasons are much hotter than before.
• A few immortal villains are just trapped in tombs and such, not out of the picture. One in particular was a genius mage, working on a plot to control all magic in the world, and I want to have a few of her old plots still be in motion. Some cultists might be trying to free her. I don't want her to be the main villain, but perhaps one of her doomsday spells might be an impetus to get the party to do some investigating.
• A powerful wizard academy was established, and they have to abuse their power at some point.

All I really know is that I want the PCs to go on a planar adventure across several planes. I know what the planes are, and have some interesting locations planned. But I don't have a villain.

I suppose I could just have Leska's old plots be destroying the world, and have the party set off to find a way to stop it, but I want an actual opponent the party can thwart. Maybe a cult devoted to her, or maybe someone with a planar agenda not related to theirs.

Any suggestions?

 

[RangerWickett]

The planes:

1. The Plane of Fire - the first planet, nearest to the sun.
2. The Plane of Air - the second planet.
3. The Plane of Life - the campaign setting prime. It is orbitted by the Plane of Dreams, which is the moon.
4. The Plane of Water - the fourth planet.
5. The Plane of Earth - an asteroid belt in vacuum.
6. The Plane of Spirits - the fifth planet, a huge gas giant that can only be seen by the dead, to whom it seems to glow.
7. The Plane of Time - a shattered ring that surrounds the Plane of Spirits like Saturn's rings. The dead stay here briefly after they die, lingering for eight months before they pass on to the Plane of Ruins. However, different sections of this plane's rings are different timelines, allowing time travel if you're willing to, y'know, die.
8. The Plane of Ruins - the final planet, a lifeless world that stands as a gateway between this system of planes and the rest of the multiverse. Only the dead can cross through here, because the ancient Ban of Pleian sealed the rest of the system, leaving only this way in and out.

I'm thinking maybe a villain knows that the world is dying from one of Leska's unfinished plots, and he wants to escape, but the Pleian Ban keeps him from escaping. He wants to open up the world, but to do so he must visit all the planes in the local system, which lets the PCs fight him in different ways.

A single villain is a bad idea, because the party is 10th level. Need flunkies and stuff, and some good backstory. And why is opening up the world to other planes so bad? True, in the ancient past, the local races sealed the world to keep demons from invading, but is that such a big deal now?

Or do you have other ideas for villains?

 

[dreaded_beast]

Reading your descriptions reminded me of the "Deathgate Cycle" of books.

You could have a villain that is interested in destroying the planes. The Plane of Ruins was actually the original Plane of Life. However, through the fault of the original inhabitants, their plane was destroyed and created the current Plane of Life in the process.

One of the survivors has discovered a way to restore the Plane of Ruins, but it will cause the current Plane of Life to become the new Plane of Ruins. In order to do so, the "villain" must go to each plane and "destroy" it.

I see the villain as a high-level sorcerer type, that is well versed in all sorts of ancient lore and a well-traveled planewalker. However, he is not really full "evil" in the true sense of the world, since he sincerely wants to restore his home. The problem is that he is willing to sacrifice the current Plane of Life in order to do so.

The rip in the Plane of Fire is the "villain's" first step to reaching that goal.

 

[Volaran]

Perhaps this mage academy gains control of one of the spells/rituals/plots initiated by Leska that would let them gain control or great influence over the world's magic, perhaps even letting them close this elemental rift.

Leska might have been a clear cut villain, but a full academy might be able to convince others that they can manage this kind of power, each mage serving as check and balance against the others.

Perhaps even have the PCs assist the academy in gaining this power somehow, convinced that it will do good. Use it for that purpose successfully, then let the power begin corrupting.

 

[RangerWickett]

I just got a mental image of the PCs accompanied by dozens of mage students, going up against the cannon fodder of the people guarding Leska's tomb, with red shirts dying on both sides. Could be fun. I'll have to use this.

But I do still want more ideas.

 

[sir_ollibolli]

I was always toying around with a Galactus-type event... some big force from out there trying to feed on the life and souls of this planetary system, and the players will have to race against time to find a solution to turn him away (defeating him is not an option)

 

[Hand of Evil]

One of the cult of your trapped villian now runs the mages guild and has been corrupting new mages and has been gathering items of power to free his prior boss. The guild could be in a shift of alignment, moving from say lawful good to lawful neutral to lawful evil. This has created a 'rift' inside the guild and some have gone missing, to be used as a battery for a communcation device to talk to the trapped wizard.

 

[RangerWickett]

Oh, well, the wizard school was always very chaotic good-ish. They were never that organized. So maybe if they started getting organized, it would send off some mild warning signals.

I'm off to eat and look sad that I can't vote in Georgia (missed the deadline to register, which was October 4th or something), and when I get back, I'll hopefully have more ideas.

My problem is that I keep on thinking of old third-string NPCs who could show up as villains for the new game, but it doesn't feel right.

I'm thinking of naming this campaign "Tonzura Koite." Points for those who can explain the Excel Saga reference.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Villians

Ok, based on your campaign description, it appears your looking for the following in terms of a villian.

1) Not an individual.
2) Must fit within the context of a planar campaign theme.
3) Must reasonably oppose 10th level players.

Since you seem to have chosen to use elementals planes to a great degree, why not use Elementals modified by various templates?

Using the 8 HD 'Large' elementals as a starting point, or jumping up a size from there if your players are beefy enough to make the 8 HD variety too easy, make some changes based on templates from the Manual of the Planes and / or the book of Vile Darkness. Or tweak manually.

To really mess with your players, I suggest the folloing changes.

1) Reverse the weaknesses. Nothing will baffle the players more then fire elementals that must be slain by fire.

2) Do not explain why the elementals keep showing up until later. Just keep hitting the players with them.

3) Hit the players just after other battles when they are weak. Many DM's end up running combats wherein the players get full rest between fights. Hitting them when they are depleted will make it a tighter fight.

4) Have the elementals shift to another type of Elemental in the middle of the fight. This is just to further screw with your players.

I would probably make the elementals do Corrupt or Vile damage, and inflict the vile diseases described in the BoVD. This should give you a corrupt chaotic elemental. I understand that the Temple of Elemental Evil uses variant elementals, so you may either wish to exploit that connection, or use it as a red herring on players who know too much.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[RangerWickett]

I could use elementals as flunkies, yes, and I like the idea of 'fighting fire with fire' and such. But I do want a primary leader that the PCs can personally oppose, preferably someone from their same plane, or at least someone who has lived there for a long while.