Help with a villain for my players... (My players stay OUT.)

[Terraism]

Ok - the campaign I'm running has just gotten off the ground - we've had five sessions, and everyone's gotten acquanted with their characters, each other, the area they're in (and won't likely be leaving for a while) - and I'm looking to create an overarching villain for the next couple adventures. Basic background as follows...

The town, Thorncrest, doesn't actually qualify as a town. It's less than a hamlet, even - around ninety residents. The PCs, with two exceptions, are natives, and fairly young. The small valley they live in is blessed with an "Antipathy" focused on "people who have ill-intent" laid down a long time ago by a powerful individual who loved the little place. The magic is failing now, and, for the first time in generations, the people are having to deal with outsiders and, worse, bad guys.

The PC's just - with a lot of work - repelled a marauding group of hobgoblins. They didn't kill many, just injured and intimated them (trickery; the PC's weren't actually capable of their threats. ) I'm thinking the hobgobs might be back in the future, looking for revenge, but for now, I'm more concerned of an overarching threat.

So here's where I'm confused. The valley has a fairly heavy fey population, and was, at one point, relatively important - but that was a long time ago. I'd like to have some historian digging at things interested in taking a look, but I don't know what importance it may have had or who'd be looking for it. So any ideas are very welcome.

 

[reason]

The uncaring archeologist with support from an uncaring nearby city government is a possible plot. Not necessarily evil per se, but completely unconcerned about the effects on the locals of bringing in, say, a few hundred prisoners-rented-as-common-labor would have on the locals. This can build up nicely over time - archeologist comes in and pokes around, asking questions, roaming, maybe even hiring people. He comes off haughty, but not much worse than that. Then it starts ramping up, with the prison laborer scenario, plus dragging in taxmen, getting the authorities interested in people who don't cooperate, etc, etc.

That's all before they succeed in digging up whatever it is they'll be digging up. Might be the same thing that whoever is sending the hobgoblins as scouts is after - but while the archeologist is working from hints on old manuscripts, that hidding someone is old enough to remember first hand.

Reason

 

[Terraism]

~bump~

[Muses] Third page in eight hours. I miss Plots & Places... Anyone else have ideas?

[Edit] Right - I can comment the idea I have gotten, which is to say, I like it. Quite a lot, actually - I'm intrigued by the idea of a villain the PC's can't fight. Still, I don't have any idea what he'd be doing there...

 

[Ruined]

Maybe the archaeologist is searching for the item the wizard used as a focus to lay down that antipathy enchantment. Perhaps some kind of hearthstone gem of reknown. If he's going to extremes to get it, he could have been kept away by the antipathy beforehand.

Also, for the fey angle, to make him more 'vile' in his uncaring nature, you could have some of the methods he employs, while acceptable and harmless to the city inhabitants, be deadly to the fey. You can look into older Changeling material by White Wolf for instances of banality and see how it is as deadly to the imaginative fey as cold iron is.

 

[Piratecat]

[Muses] Third page in eight hours. I miss Plots & Places... Anyone else have ideas?

Actually, I'd say that combining the two was an unqualified success. Overall, responses seem to be getting 2-3 times the responses that they would have gotten in P&P.

So, just to make sure I don't prove myself wrong. . .

Since the valley has a heavy fey population, I like the idea of an evil fey infiltrating the town. He needs something hidden there by the fey long ago. As such, he assumes the guise of an important traveler (or better yet, he dominates an "imposter bad guy" and takes the role of the person's pet) and begins paying people to do some archeological digging in the town's foundations.

Since you want him to last a while, he should use charm magics and misdirection to enlist a handful of puppets. Making the bad guy be Mr. Miller from the corner store is mean to the PCs, because they just can't kill the guy, and lets the evil fey really enjoy himself during the hunt. And what happens when he dominates or charms the PCs' families to do his dirty work. . .?

 

[NewJeffCT]

OK, how about this?

The historian stumbled across some ancient prophecy about an idyllic small town that was protected by your antipathy spell. He had heard of the nice life in Thorncrest and put two and two together and came to the assumption that Thorncrest was this town. He then filed it away in his memory banks.

Years later, the historian in his nearby city, sees a merchant returning from Thorncrest and this merchant has gone mad screaming ‘The Dark Child is coming, the Dark Child is coming’ over and over. The next night, a red (blood) moon rises in the night – and a bell has been rung in his head. He looks up the prophecy again and it seems to be this same prophecy about Thorncrest...

However, in the prophecy, things will turn very dark and evil in the town as evil powers, long lost in the valley, will return seeking vengeance. There are several signs given in the prophecy - trees with green leaves dripping blood; mysteriously dead cattle with strange markings upon them; hoofbeats are heard in the town center in the dead of night, but nobody sees a thing; a small glade filled with flowers withers and dies suddenly – that sort of stuff.

The historian journies to Thorncrest to see if any of these other signs are coming to pass, as the prophecy portends not just dark times for the valley of Thorncrest, but for possibly the whole world.

 

[Nightfall]

Slacerians ruins are buried deep in the ground. Like 2 miles. But suddenly all that digging has them feeling a little antsy. That or Mind Flayers.

 

[Greybar]

I like the idea that the kindly, nice historian is being manipulated by an evil patron. The patron has not been able to penetrate the town due to the magical protections, but desires the object of power that was hidden beneath it. Indeed, hiding this object is why the antipathy was place there. Perhaps other, less obvious auras like perhaps a nondetection or two making blank spots versus diviniation type spells.

The evil patron has given the historians funding and a few clues, presenting them as interesting notes that the patron ran across. "My dear Andreas, I know you are interested in the antiquities of the now-faded satyrs of the silken veil. I ran across these notes in an old book of mine. Please do let me know if they prove useful."

The fey are indeed fading away, perhaps having lost their own historical memory of the object due to the very magical protects that defends it (or because they use oral histories instead of written histories).

The PCs won't want to fight the historian. He is a nice guy, if single-minded. They may even want to help him bypass the secret traps and guardians of the object(s) of power. What heroes don't like buried dungeons?

Perhaps the historian will gladly hire them, recover the item, pay the PCs and tromp off to his patron. The PCs think they've finished the scenario and are ready to move on to your next plot. Then in a year or so you can slam them with the badguy who has used the object they recovered to dominate the kingdom...

john

 

[NewJeffCT]

Ok - the campaign I'm running has just gotten off the ground - we've had five sessions, and everyone's gotten acquanted with their characters, each other, the area they're in (and won't likely be leaving for a while) - and I'm looking to create an overarching villain for the next couple adventures. Basic background as follows...

The town, Thorncrest, doesn't actually qualify as a town. It's less than a hamlet, even - around ninety residents. The PCs, with two exceptions, are natives, and fairly young. The small valley they live in is blessed with an "Antipathy" focused on "people who have ill-intent" laid down a long time ago by a powerful individual who loved the little place. The magic is failing now, and, for the first time in generations, the people are having to deal with outsiders and, worse, bad guys.

The PC's just - with a lot of work - repelled a marauding group of hobgoblins. They didn't kill many, just injured and intimated them (trickery; the PC's weren't actually capable of their threats. ) I'm thinking the hobgobs might be back in the future, looking for revenge, but for now, I'm more concerned of an overarching threat.

So here's where I'm confused. The valley has a fairly heavy fey population, and was, at one point, relatively important - but that was a long time ago. I'd like to have some historian digging at things interested in taking a look, but I don't know what importance it may have had or who'd be looking for it. So any ideas are very welcome.

Please post a follow-up whenever you get a chance - thanks...