Thanael
Explorer
Interesting topic.
Has anybody read the module Dark Druids by Rob Kuntz?
http://www.trolllord.com/druids.htm
Has anybody read the module Dark Druids by Rob Kuntz?
http://www.trolllord.com/druids.htm
I know Druids can be evil, but how evil can they really be?
- Thread starter Thyrkill
- Start date
Is it important that the druid be Evil (and note the capital "E", or possibly say it as "eeeeeeeeevil!")? I ask because when I wanted to challenge the PCs (one of which is a druid) with some druidic baddies I simply created a rival druidic organization. From what the PCs have encountered of its members, some are actually eeeeevil (and tainted enough for them to register via Detect Evil even in a world where I only allow such a thing to detect the truly evil and/or "tainted"), but others are not. Its turned out pretty well for me so far.
Thanks for the great replies everyone!
Sammael: I will check out the Unapproachable East for the Blightlords...could be what I am looking for.
Hong: Though I don't have Faiths and Avatars, I am intrigued by Moander's fate. I wonder if my druid could have killed Finder, in Moander's (Lolth's) name, and be Moander's Chosen, unwittingly just a pawn in Lolth's schemes (though probably not adverse to them in the first place).
Enkhidu: I need him to be evil because I have already set him up to be feared by the elves, druids, and even Turlang...it gets complicated
Matt
Sammael: I will check out the Unapproachable East for the Blightlords...could be what I am looking for.
Hong: Though I don't have Faiths and Avatars, I am intrigued by Moander's fate. I wonder if my druid could have killed Finder, in Moander's (Lolth's) name, and be Moander's Chosen, unwittingly just a pawn in Lolth's schemes (though probably not adverse to them in the first place).
Enkhidu: I need him to be evil because I have already set him up to be feared by the elves, druids, and even Turlang...it gets complicated
Matt
Storyteller01
First Post
You don't neccessarily have to make your druid 'anti-nature' or blighted to be evil. He could just focus on the crueler aspects of nature:
Pepsi wasp larvae and their relatives don't just eat a host; they selectively eat the least vital organs first, to keep the host alive as long as possible.
Some parasites take control or completely alter their host to fit their needs.
Etc.
He doesn't have to be an extremist or a hater of nature. He fulfills a role by producing growth through conflict. Survival of the fittest and all that. He just believes that he IS the fittest, and chooses to prove it over and over again. Since he fulfills said role, the usual gods of nature can grant him the abilities.
Pepsi wasp larvae and their relatives don't just eat a host; they selectively eat the least vital organs first, to keep the host alive as long as possible.
Some parasites take control or completely alter their host to fit their needs.
Etc.
He doesn't have to be an extremist or a hater of nature. He fulfills a role by producing growth through conflict. Survival of the fittest and all that. He just believes that he IS the fittest, and chooses to prove it over and over again. Since he fulfills said role, the usual gods of nature can grant him the abilities.
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Torm
Explorer
Sorry. Lots of posts since I started typing this one, including some that revealed that the Druid is both male and a character the PCs have been introduced to by reputation: my druid below wouldn't work so well, but I'll leave her anyway in case anyone else likes the idea.
Nothing says the druid's evil needs to be related to their connection to nature. Reading the title of the thread, what sprang to mind was a female druid who runs a forest-dwelling "orphanage" of sorts, near a city, for children that run away and end up there, and children whose parents die and they wander to there. Sometimes the druid sees children with their parents in caravans or such who "didn't look happy where they were," and takes them - and sometimes in the process of raiding caravans for supplies and killing all the adults, she ends up with some leftover children. Some of the older children have eventually taken to her ways, as well, stealing what they need and taking the occasional child as well. The younger children are made to understand that the welfare of the other children is based on their "good behavior", frequently with violent demonstrations.
Plot hooks leading to this character could be looking for a missing child, investigating a series of petty thefts in the city with similar MOs, checking into a missing caravan with evidence of missing children in the wreckage site, or one of the PCs noticing a young teen who looks to have been violently abused and following up on it.
And thus the druid's Evil has nothing directly to do with her connection to nature - nurturing plants might be the thing she does where she appears the most Good.
And of course, all this is leading up to the scene with a young girl who has only recently been allowed to go back into town with the older children to commit some of the thefts, who brought back a fencing foil, nuch to her mistress's displeasure - "No....METAL.....WEAPONS!", thrash thrash thrash.
Nothing says the druid's evil needs to be related to their connection to nature. Reading the title of the thread, what sprang to mind was a female druid who runs a forest-dwelling "orphanage" of sorts, near a city, for children that run away and end up there, and children whose parents die and they wander to there. Sometimes the druid sees children with their parents in caravans or such who "didn't look happy where they were," and takes them - and sometimes in the process of raiding caravans for supplies and killing all the adults, she ends up with some leftover children. Some of the older children have eventually taken to her ways, as well, stealing what they need and taking the occasional child as well. The younger children are made to understand that the welfare of the other children is based on their "good behavior", frequently with violent demonstrations.
Plot hooks leading to this character could be looking for a missing child, investigating a series of petty thefts in the city with similar MOs, checking into a missing caravan with evidence of missing children in the wreckage site, or one of the PCs noticing a young teen who looks to have been violently abused and following up on it.
And thus the druid's Evil has nothing directly to do with her connection to nature - nurturing plants might be the thing she does where she appears the most Good.
And of course, all this is leading up to the scene with a young girl who has only recently been allowed to go back into town with the older children to commit some of the thefts, who brought back a fencing foil, nuch to her mistress's displeasure - "No....METAL.....WEAPONS!", thrash thrash thrash.
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AdmundfortGeographer
Getting lost in fantasy maps
Thyrkill said:
Some ideas might be to just come up with a philosophy. Say, the elf druid has seen the light that the world has been tainted by something, and it now needs to be purified to be restored to "balance". Nothing will satisfy until balance is restored, and that the balance must be managed, preferrably by him.
Another take on this, and a bit more specific, is a zero-population-growth philosophy. An evil druid might take it upon himself to keep populations below his determined number. Maybe that number, now that he has had his "enlightenment", is far lower than its current number and he has decided to take action.
Fitting this to a specific Realms deity might be challenging, so maybe just a deity isn't right but instead simply "nature".
Regards,
Eric Anondson
MerakSpielman
First Post
My vision of the Evil Druid has them doing things like:
1) A local village has stepped up it's logging operations and is wrecking the nearby forest. The druid's solution to this problem is to destroy every man, woman, and child in the village (can't have witnesses giving the authorities clues as to who did this, now can you?).
2) A party druid recieves an animal messenger from a nearby druid in trouble. Bringing his party along, he finds the other druid fighting a batch of ettins. The party destroys them. The evil druid, though thankful for the rescue, says he attacked the ettins because this is a sacred grove which only druids are allowed to enter, on pain of death. Terribly sorry, but...
1) A local village has stepped up it's logging operations and is wrecking the nearby forest. The druid's solution to this problem is to destroy every man, woman, and child in the village (can't have witnesses giving the authorities clues as to who did this, now can you?).
2) A party druid recieves an animal messenger from a nearby druid in trouble. Bringing his party along, he finds the other druid fighting a batch of ettins. The party destroys them. The evil druid, though thankful for the rescue, says he attacked the ettins because this is a sacred grove which only druids are allowed to enter, on pain of death. Terribly sorry, but...
Rel
Liquid Awesome
My last campaign was rife with Evil Druids, including an entire organization of Elven ones.
They were the "Dark Druids" and were all Blighters (from the Masters of the Wild book). They were created by a big, fat ritual gone badwrong when the Elves, beset by the Imperial Legions, delved into magics best left untouched. Their goal was primarily to wreak vengeance on the Empire that attacked their homeland in the first place.
The other Evil Druids were a group of "Druid Secret Police" called The Keepers of Night whose primary job was to conceal an ancient alliance between the Druid Circle and the Cult of Bane. The ruthlessly tracked down and killed any who threatened to reveal this old alliance, including the family members of one of the PC's (a Druid himself). They were ultimately confronted and largely destroyed by the same PC.
There were also Evil Druids on the Druid Council itself. These were primarily ones who were complicit with the Evil deeds done by the Keepers for purposes of retaining their power and position within the Empire.
Further details are, of course, in the Story Hour.
They were the "Dark Druids" and were all Blighters (from the Masters of the Wild book). They were created by a big, fat ritual gone badwrong when the Elves, beset by the Imperial Legions, delved into magics best left untouched. Their goal was primarily to wreak vengeance on the Empire that attacked their homeland in the first place.
The other Evil Druids were a group of "Druid Secret Police" called The Keepers of Night whose primary job was to conceal an ancient alliance between the Druid Circle and the Cult of Bane. The ruthlessly tracked down and killed any who threatened to reveal this old alliance, including the family members of one of the PC's (a Druid himself). They were ultimately confronted and largely destroyed by the same PC.
There were also Evil Druids on the Druid Council itself. These were primarily ones who were complicit with the Evil deeds done by the Keepers for purposes of retaining their power and position within the Empire.
Further details are, of course, in the Story Hour.
John Morrow
First Post
Thyrkill said:
There is an extreme form of environmentalism that considers mankind, itself, a blight on the planet and people who honestly believe that the world would be a better place without human beings. Have your elf view the sentient races as a blight on your world because of how they destroy, abuse, and enslave nature and make his ultimate objective the elimination of all sentient life. If you want to take that a step further and make him really Evil, give him an sense of self-righteousness such that all sentients deserve not only death put to suffer in return for the suffering they have caused nature. Such a character would continue to "revere nature" by treating all sentients as something outside of nature and threatening it. This is the sort of character that would save a wounded rabbit but slaughter an innocent sentient.
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