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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neil the Knight" data-source="post: 6996909" data-attributes="member: 6801269">Lets explore a little more about having  Asgaroth as a reoccurring villain.let's see what the book says about him:"Many years ago, a wicked cleric named Asgaroth came to this area to build a shrine to himself and his God. He gathered about him a cluster of undead and began the construction of his temple. Unfortunately wile searching for a powerful evil  relic, he was slain by a paladin named Van-Doren."Of course The first thing I will need to change about him is the fact that he is dead. Next to be an effective arch nemeses the party will need to encounter him or find clues of his evil deeds through out the campaign.In my last post I discussed how the party would first stumble across his trail when following the clues that lead them to the Temple of Blood Overflowing for the climax of the Mad Gods Key adventure. Here would be a good place to insert the PC's first sight of him as he leaves with the ripped pages from the tome and the party to face Veltargo and his pet.The first place we find signs of him in LCoB is The Cave of Dead, one of the wilderness locations where, as mentioned above he has an unfinished shine to an unknown evil God. Apart from being full of undead there are two important parts to this cave. First is Asgaroths calling card."Ominous totems: 6ft tall wooden spikes adorned with five or six shrunken heads tethered to the posts by their hair"The second is an unfinished dark energy focus."The northern half of this cave is 4 feet higher than the southern half and reach by two wide, broad steps that stretch the entire diameter of the temple. There are three 10 ft wide niches in the north. Within each niche is a small black pedestal with in which are different items.The eastern niche contains a gold half lidded eye about 6 inches diameter. The middle nice is empty but there is a heart shape depression in the pedestal measuring about 10 inches from top to bottom. The western niche contains a gold clawed hand, lying palm up."One of the items Asgaroth will be searching for in Barakus will be The Heart of Darkness. The item it self doesn't do much except radiate strong evil but when inserted into the pedestal in the middle niche the alter is complete and the cave becomes and evil focal point and all kinds of nasty things happen. It causes creatures in the cave to make a save or have their alignments changed, creature like undead become stronger and anyone who follows a good aligned dietie's divine spells are wiped. My idea was to use this cave as Asgaroth personal study/ research hide out. Chalk it full of books about Devron and Barakus. Maybe maps on some of the upper cavers he's already explored, half solved clues to a couple of the puzzles in the lost city etc. I did not plan to have an encounter with him the first time the party come to these caves but if the party decided to come back once they've found the Heart of Darkness, which can be blessed along with the golden claw and eye to create a positive energy focal point,  and as you can imagine this would anger Asgaroth greatly so he would confront the PC's.It would be a defend the base style encounter. A good aligned divine caster would need to make either 3 consecutive or 5 accumulative successful spell casting ability checks. Mean wile the remaining party would need to defend the cavern from wave after wave of undead that Asgaroth would be sending to hinder them.One of the side quest inside Endhome is The Slaving Priestess."Elan Kanto a female Priestess of Da-Jin arrived in Endhome several years ago and saw an opportunity. The city was Rife with homeless beggars, and she had contacts with a slaver, Dash Montrose, who was always on the lookout for cheap "cattle". She then proceeded to set up a fake Temple of Jamboor and began "taking in" these lost souls, feeding them, bathing them, and putting them to work around the temple. Then after a few weeks of good care she carted the men and women to the docks in the middle of the night where ship from Dash Montrose was waiting. The captain handed her a purse of coins, she handed him the confused rebel, and these lost souls would never heard from again." The party is tipped off to the disappearances either by a beggar asking for help or by Father Beamus, a cleric of Solanus, requesting the party look in to this for him.The idea here would not nessesarly to have Elan Kanto involved directly with Asgaroth and his cult but have Dash Montrose selling the slaves to Asgaroth who is in turn, taking them to a seaside caverns, abandoned fort or keep (such as Rivergaurd keep from PotA) and transforming them into undead. What he is doing with all these undead......I'm not sure yet.The next place i thought to insert Asgaroths medling, is with the Ghoul King on the 4th lv of the dungeon. The king (though he is unaware of its true function) possess The Helm of Power. An artifact crafted by Devron to rejuvenate him to his full power (which trust me the PC's want to avoid at all cost). There is a chance for the players to RP with either the Drow or Ghouls on this level (depending which side the players want to take, If any). During the RP with either side I would insert an off hand comment about how all humans are the same when negotiating. Referring to Asgaroth who tried to or did (depending on who's possession I want the helm in) already try to negotiate with either the Drow or Ghoul.</blockquote>

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