Help me Hurt my PCs

[Reynard]

The short version: with a single exception, the PCs are all evil mercenary types, 'made men' of a powerful master who, as it turns out, is a Great Wyrm Red Dragon. Basically, he has them gathering a collection of ancient relics of great power and particular interest to dragons. Recently, the PCs have managed to irritate two other Wyrms, a Gold and Bronze (NOTE: dragons in this setting are essentially 'alignmentless', as they predate the good/evil axis of gods). Anyway, they engaged in some activites that not only turned their master against them, but both of the other dragons (none of whom are allies, and are all competing for the relics). On the run and now without the vast recources of their master at their disposal, these PCs need to be harried like never before. I don't necessarily want to waste them all, which is what would happen if any of the dragons actually caught up to them, but I want them to feel like they could be destroyed at any moment.

A couple wrinkles: one of the party is a paladin who has been forced to associate with the evil mercs in order to retrieve said relics "when the time is right". Also, the PCs don't have a lot of friends, because they have pulled a KoDT on every place they have ever visited (the core of the groups call themselves the Whispers of Evil, even). And, finally, the PCs were originally geased by their master so that if they ever came into possession (as a group or as individuals) of one of the relics, they must return it to him as quickly and efficiently as possible. The master has 4 of the relics in his possession, and there are three left out there somehwere. The relics are essentially the Nine Rings, except they are crowns and there is one for every race.

Whatcha got?

 

[Henry]

First of all, ALL of the Dragons should know quite a bit about the party, having access to divinatory magics through personal means or underlings, and should probably know about the Paladin. One or all of them (particularly the more benevolently acting ones) should be contacting him and asking for some inside help. Whether the Paladin does it is up to him, but sewing discord is always plot-driving, especially if it's for the Good.

Now, there's nothing like simple offering of money. One or more of the Dragons (the ones with closest ties to human civilzation) could through minions be offering a reward for the whereabouts or death of the party members. The reward could be sufficient enough for bounty hunters to go after them, and the bounty hunters should be of increasing power level as they continue to elude capture. There's nothing like having to disguise yourself every moment because your face (artist's conception and description) has been plastered over every town you go into. If the party doesn't shield itself against Diviniation magics, then they can expect to have a new pack of Hunters on them every week or so.

Finally, depending on their past activities, the Dragons may actually set up sting operations for the party. If it becomes well know by their history that they take certain types of jobs, or go raiding abandoned mines, etc. Perhaps one of the Dragons could set up just such an occurance in the area. Now ain't it a gas to find that the abandoned mine you just decided to explore has a lockdown portcullis, and a pack of hunters inside with capture equipment!

 

[Arcane Runes Press]

Well, the most obvious thing is that, shorn from their master's protection, many of the people they hurt in the past are now free to come gunning for them.

So, in addition to good aligned groups that should be hunting down these minions of evil, you should have hordes of wronged parties hounding them as well.

It's also possible that they might come into conflict with one or more other powerful entities, who have decided that these adventurers, who were valuable agents of a dragon, might serve well as their own minions - once their tendencies to betray their masters have been... lobotomized out of them.

Good powers might decide to seize hold of them too, and turn them into living weapons against their master. In fact, a cunning power might feed them one of the crowns, and sew it with some powerful enchantment designed to cripple or destroy the dragon, knowing the PCs absolutely have no choice in returning it to their former master - in essence, they're given no choice but to haul a spiritual atom bomb back to its detonation point.

 

[Hand of Evil]

1. Well first thing is to put a price on their heads...DEAD

2. Have random attempts on their lives

3. Vengence, thou shall be mine - Have someone after them that is a VILLIAN to them, the law and/or crazy kid that like to fire bomb them

4. The good guys - have someone take their prize away from them in the middle of the night, this could become a chest game, move and counter move, gain and re-gain items

 

[Reynard]

Some more background:

In addition to the Big Crowns, they happened to find one that predated them and was less powerful. This one made the wearer (who must have giant blood) The Giant King of the North. One of the PCs is a half giant psionicist. What they did not know was that the Dragons themselves stole the method of making crowns and made the Giant Crowns. The Giant Kings were thrown down, and the race based Regents were put in there place. What they also don't know is that "The Adversary" made the Big Crowns in the first place to corrupt the races into choas and war and death. (NOTE: the Regents who wore the crowns were killed by a good guy consipracy and the crowns were hidden. The dragons don't like those crowns because they are capable of controlling or killing dragons, because the Adversary knew that dragons were the only things in the world powerful enough to undo his rule. And finally, the Creator made Warforged -- from Eberron -- to serve as his minions on earth -- they are actually angels in haiting alchemechanical bodies -- but they have long since been margialized by first the Giants, who ruled for 5000 years, and then the corrupted racial rulers).

Anyway, the PCs' master and another dragon cut a deal -- the master gives the other dragon the Giant Crown (dragons can completely control the wearer) for the Dwarf Crown, which the other dragon managed to take from the PCs in the first place -- and they took a swipe at him in the process, unprovoked and unnecessary. Of course, the master doesn't tell them this when he sends them to make the trade, but the wearer of the Giant Crown guesses it. Long story short, they screw the other dragon and their master and are on the lam.

Because their master knows them so well and they still carry gear tget got from him, he can scry on them and locate them at any time. because the other dragon possessed the giant crown for a short time, he can do the same. A third dragon, a gold, has also come into contact with the PCs and is a major rival of their red wyrm former master. While he might try and get them to join him, he has plenty of minions of his own looking for the remaining crowns. Note that the gold is not a good guy and wants the crowns as much as the others. Note also that the dragons want the crowns out of pure self preservation. As long as the crowns are out there, some mortal can say "Die" and a dragon does.

I tend to run games loose, and react to the PCs. But here, I need a plan so that the PCs know they screwed up big time. What I really want is some stuff that the PCs won't see coming. They are pretty tough (11th level, with lots of hand picked equipment based on their relationship with the red wyrm) but there has to be a way to scare them.