Seeking an impactful way to reveal the BBEG in hiding...

[magnusmalkus]

How do the PC's find out about the Evil Wizard/Lich who hides behind a veil of legitimacy?

I'm trying to avoid the cliched "'self-reveal' -> throw mooks in the PC's path -> escape" scenario.

And I find it rather anti-climatic for the PC's to be told by a patron or mentor "The cruel Judge Barclay is really the Cult Leader! Somehow find evidence and expose him!"

Any help?

 

[beholdsa]

Just some random brainstorming:

Maybe the evil wizard tries to recruit the PCs as minions.

Maybe the PCs stumble upon his lair by accident, or because they were led to believe that it's a simple bandit lair to raid, and they overhear him giving a speech to his underlings.

Maybe the heroes come into possession of a seemingly useless magical artifact, and he legitimately buts it off of them, and then the heroes encounter his evil minions in possession of the artifact.

Maybe he sends them on a quest far away, and then simply makes his move while they're out of the city, and they come back to realize that he's up to no good.

Or maybe the heroes notice weird magical auras coming from his home, and are compelled to investigate, thus revealing his dealings.

 

[Ashabel]

One thing that I try to always keep in mind is that the BBEG never thinks of themself as evil. What sort of leads/hints have you dropped so far?

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[ccs]

This presumes that your evil one is hiding....

The Emperor & Darth Vader in Star Wars? Not hiding.
The Evil Queen in Snow White? Not hiding.
Count Strahd Von Zarovich? Not hiding.
In Pathfinder: Queen Elvanna - the Witch-Queen of Irrissen, & the rest of the winter witches under her? Not hiding.
I'm sure there's more examples.

Now what the PCs can DO about these NPCs, at least initially....

For ex; I'm about to start running the Reign of Winter AP for my Sunday group. By the time the pizza arrives during the 2nd session they'll KNOW Queen Elvanna is the BBEG(irl). They've stumbled into her plot & the only way out of it will almost certainly involve throwing down against her.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Do it the Darkseid way!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw68uJ8DREg

 

[magnusmalkus]

Good suggestions... I'm still writing the plot arch so there is no player or even a game yet. I have not dropped any hints nor is anything written in stone.

I had an idea to implement a BBEG in the campaign: A lich who successfully hides behind the public mask of a cruel but effective elderly Judge. He earned his lifetime position legitimately when he was younger, no one knows he's become a lich and he has sufficient means magic (non-detection) and mundane (disguise) to conceal his undead nature and evil identity. He is, most definitely 'hidden'.

The tip of the iceberg of his evil is that he's condemning criminals to death - supposedly to be cremated in the 'purifying fires' - but instead, uses the criminals to bolster his undead army by having his undead minions turn them into vampire spawn, wights, ghouls and zombies which he's using to harass someone, somewhere. He's also enslaved non-undead and keeps them under his command such as the dragon chained at the bottom of a huge pit called 'the City Dump' and charged with incinerating the kingdoms garbage lest he become buried by it. I do not yet know what other evil he may be up to.

That darkside video also clinched it for me... give exposition to the BBEG in all his evil glory, then have the PC's cross the Judge in his mundane identity and think... "Hey, there's something familiar about that creepy guy... his voice... his demeanor." THEN add the idea about finding an item in the hands of the undead army that was given to the judge by the PC's might expose another crack in his concealed identity.

Right now, he's just a generic two-dimensional bad guy. He (lawful) evil because he enjoys holding authority and the power of life and death over others. He cruel streak is nasty and dark (enjoys watching torture). He nourishes himself with the emotional energy of Fear. Yes, he knows he's evil and he feels no remorse. In his lich identity he's depraved, soul-less, and insane. His angry, bitter 'mortal' identity allows him to reign-in and control his shattered psyche... but when he gets 'hungry', the crazy comes out.

I don't know who my players will be or what kinds of backgrounds they have but I'll need to find a reason to TARGET the PC's... not just rely on their inherent 'goodness' to sniff him out and take him down. In the end, I want the conflict of giving the PC's an evil enemy who is a well known and respected public official. no-one will believe them, it will be entirely up to them to find a way to expose him.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm still excited to hear them.

Thanks folks.

 

[Ashabel]

Good suggestions... I'm still writing the plot arch so there is no player or even a game yet. I have not dropped any hints nor is anything written in stone.

I had an idea to implement a BBEG in the campaign: A lich who successfully hides behind the public mask of a cruel but effective elderly Judge. He earned his lifetime position legitimately when he was younger, no one knows he's become a lich and he has sufficient means magic (non-detection) and mundane (disguise) to conceal his undead nature and evil identity. He is, most definitely 'hidden'.

The tip of the iceberg of his evil is that he's condemning criminals to death - supposedly to be cremated in the 'purifying fires' - but instead, uses the criminals to bolster his undead army by having his undead minions turn them into vampire spawn, wights, ghouls and zombies which he's using to harass someone, somewhere. He's also enslaved non-undead and keeps them under his command such as the dragon chained at the bottom of a huge pit called 'the City Dump' and charged with incinerating the kingdoms garbage lest he become buried by it. I do not yet know what other evil he may be up to.

That darkside video also clinched it for me... give exposition to the BBEG in all his evil glory, then have the PC's cross the Judge in his mundane identity and think... "Hey, there's something familiar about that creepy guy... his voice... his demeanor." THEN add the idea about finding an item in the hands of the undead army that was given to the judge by the PC's might expose another crack in his concealed identity.

Right now, he's just a generic two-dimensional bad guy. He (lawful) evil because he enjoys holding authority and the power of life and death over others. He cruel streak is nasty and dark (enjoys watching torture). He nourishes himself with the emotional energy of Fear. Yes, he knows he's evil and he feels no remorse. In his lich identity he's depraved, soul-less, and insane. His angry, bitter 'mortal' identity allows him to reign-in and control his shattered psyche... but when he gets 'hungry', the crazy comes out.

I don't know who my players will be or what kinds of backgrounds they have but I'll need to find a reason to TARGET the PC's... not just rely on their inherent 'goodness' to sniff him out and take him down. In the end, I want the conflict of giving the PC's an evil enemy who is a well known and respected public official. no-one will believe them, it will be entirely up to them to find a way to expose him.

If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm still excited to hear them.

Thanks folks.

For something like that maybe combine some other aspects as well.

Hire the adventurers to escort the criminals to the purification site, and make it straight up easy monies at first.

Increasing the occurrence and gold involved may raise suspicions of those players already paranoid, and might entice them to infiltrate the site to witness the ritual(s).

And/or

Have them "promoted" for doing such an excellent job and not asking questions. They are now one step closer to the inner circle and have them escorted around as one of the newly undead escapes somehow and they have to track and "return" it.

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[Ralif Redhammer]

For the reveal, you could always copy, er, be inspired by the Watchmen: “Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”

Another possibility is to give them a reason to question stopping him. Maybe a villain that they will defeat and bring to justice earlier in the campaign did some reprehensible things. And there he is, acting as a dejected, suffering zombie. Isn’t what he’s doing a just form of punishment…or at least, that’s what he believes. Or maybe his undead are the only thing keeping an even worse threat in check.

 

[MarkB]

Do the Mrs Doubtfire reveal. One day when the Judge is particularly tipsy and hasty, he accidentally gets mixed up and addresses his team in his Judge outfit, then gets changed and goes to court in his Evil Overlord outfit.

 

[Blue]

I've had PCs find written instructions to bad guys when they defeated them, after earlier having been exposed to that handwriting. Gave an INT check for "you know, the handwriting seems familiar" and then let them work it out. In my case, the handwriting match was a spell scroll purchased from a local church, but that just depends on who the BBEG is. Proclamations from people in power, bounty notice from the head of the merchant's guild, today's specials from the innkeep.