Your Favorite Villains

[ltclnlbrain]

Teil, the eloquent half-fiend bard/assassin with a strange fetish for vermin. He started off as a human rival for the affections of Cid's, the fighter PC's, girlfriend, but the PC drove him out of town by bringing to light his devil-worshipping practices. Later he came back with a horde of ankhegs that was ambushing trade caravans. The PCs managed to drive him off again, but not before an ankheg had killed Cid's pet dog, Ginger. Cid and Teil met again when the bard assassinated the mayor of a large town to foment tensions between it and the capital city. Cid pursued Teil throughout the city out to the docks, where they engaged in an epic one-on-one battle. Cid won, but as Teil stood dying, he swore an oath to a devil prince and fell through a portal to Hell, where he became a half-fiend.

Many years later, Teil returned and kidnapped Cid and his now-wife. He tortured Cid to try to extract hidden information regarding the location of a powerful artifact that his father had locked away in Cid's mind. He killed Cid's wife in front of him and had a cornugon tear off his left arm at the shoulder. Mean stuff that. Cid was eventually rescued, but not before Teil had the location of the artifact. The party sought him down and after a grueling battle with Teil and his minions outside the vault where the artifact lay, Cid finally managed to strike him down once and for all.

 

[Turanil]

As a DM I have overused and overabused the really bad guys that don't care about their bad ways, and the atrocities they commit, thinking it's perfectly normal. Some example:

1) An evil urban solo campaign where the PC was a priest assassin of an evil god. His sister (a prostitute) had been kidnapped by an enemy thieves' guild. They did send the PC a letter, to which was joined a leg (of her sister naturally). The leter basically said: "Okay freak, do you want to get your sister back? Or just keep the leg as a souvenir? If you don't do what we say, we we'll have to also remove her teeth, so she won't accidentally bite the beggars of the leprosy when they use her for their pleasure..." Now, since the PC was an evil cultist-assassin, he said "I consider my sister dead, but I SWEAR! the pigs will pay for that!!". I don't remember how the story ended, but the PC was really angered to death.

2) Another campaign, same player, but a LN ranger. The PC had begun his adventuring life by being sent to retrieve two important symbols (a ring and a sword) of his clan, that had been tolen from the clan's chief (who had been assassinated to get the items). Of course, the chief was a relative of the PC. After much search (several adventures), the PC finally captured the thief and did ask him where the sword was. The rascal answered contemptuously: "Pfff... I gave it to a guy in a tavern, in exchange for a few drinks..." The PC angered: "This was the symbol of our clan!" The thief: "Oh well! I was thirsty! A whole day without a pint, can't you understand!? Besides, I don't know who this guy was..." Needless to say, the PC immediately cut the throat of the thief.

3) Another campaign, same player again!!, but a LN monk. The adventurers had overcome a group of bandits who had taken over an inn in the wilderness. The barmaid told she had been repeatedly raped by the odious and stinking brutes. The monk went to interrogate one of the brigand: "So you did rape the girl?! It never occured to you to ask her if she was okay?" The brigand: "Ask?? Why should I care? She is only a woman after all..." The PC broke each of the brigand's 10 fingers one by one.

Maybe, I should later try some OTHER sort of baddies.

 

[jerichothebard]

Salem, a Lich spawn - basically a low-level lich - plauged my characters through most of their first six levels. He returned several times, each time with a more heineous plot to harass the heroes and tarnish their good names.

They destroyed his physical form several times, but finally found his phylactery.

And donated it to the Zoo... a specially designed facilty used by the Hunters of the Dead for training recruits.

So basically, he lives in this cave, and is destroyed approximately once a week by the forces of goodness and butt-kicking.

Forever.

A fitting end.

 

[demiurge1138]

Another of my favorite baddies was from my epic campaign- Alastor the Grim, the Excecutioner of Hell. One of the PCs, an increasingly evil barbarian, contacted a balor with the express purpose of entering the services of Demogorgon. Irritated by the mortal's presumption, the balor told him to retrieve the head of Alastor the Grim in the hopes of killing him.

The player took the balor at face value. And managed to raise an army of paladins (acting under false motivations) to storm Hell itself to take down Alastor's citadel. After weeks of dirty fighting against some of Hell's finest, the party makes it into the fiend's chambers, where he turns to them.

And hands them his own head. The illusion of Alastor vanishes with a Will save, but the head remains (after all, pit fiends regenerate).

They never caught up to him.

Demiurge out.

 

[Terraism]

(For Jondor: I believe that dispelling a spell cause it to end, and when fly ends, it turns into a slowfall spell. Look: Should the spell duration expire while the subject is still aloft, the magic fails slowly. The subject floats downward 60 feet per round for 1d6 rounds. If it reaches the ground in that amount of time, it lands safely. If not, it falls the rest of the distance, taking 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet of fall. Since dispelling a spell effectively ends it, the subject also descends in this way if the fly spell is dispelled, but not if it is negated by an antimagic field. -- from the SRD.)

OD&D, Gez. (Yeah, I thought it, too.)

And donated it to the Zoo... a specially designed facilty used by the Hunters of the Dead for training recruits.

So basically, he lives in this cave, and is destroyed approximately once a week by the forces of goodness and butt-kicking.

Forever.

A fitting end.

And it just begs to have him escape at some point...

 

[Darklone]

Lichie Lich... ehem.

I do prefer to (ab)use former player characters.

 

[GrayIguana]

This was rather fun to recall old villains that I’ve thrown at my groups. Unfortunately, what I think will be a great nemesis, often only lasts for one encounter. Lately, I try to save my best creations as NPCs that the group may need to depend upon.

In the past there was . . . Gorgus (not the most original name) who was a cambion / minion of Demogorgon. He had a heavy mace that acted like a sword of sharpness (2e), except that it pulverized body parts. The group got to see him in action against a neutral party and which set in the seeds of fear. From there they pretty much ran from him until they were forced to kill him.

Then there was . . . The Nycaloth. The PCs never knew it’s name, but the group accidentally freed it from it’s magical prison. To repay the group, it only plagued them occasionally. The beast only would attack when he could have one-on-one time with a PC. Using a great flaming ax, he killed two PCs and took their magic items. The campaign ended with the daemon still prowling the world.

Now in my current campaign, there is Senuset. She is an aristocrat who hates non-humans. Her hatred is so strong that she has gone to extreme lengths for the power to destroy humanoids who try to gain power within her country. She has become a 7th level Disciple of Baal (CR13 total). The group knows she is up to no good. One of the party has even seen her preaching her beliefs to members of the empires’s legion, but they don’t have one shred of evidence. They also don’t want to risk confronting her. Did I mention that only one member of the party is a human? In the mean time, the group keeps growing in power and influence and crossing Senuset’s path. Which means the group gets ambushed by more and more powerful groups of devils.

 

[The_Gneech]

I started my campaign with The Sunless Citadel, where the 1st-level characters encountered the Dragonpriest -- who came this close to summarily whomping their butts. (I did alter his appearance to look like a FR dragonkin rather than a troll -- it suited him better.) Finally they knocked him out and shoved him back into his tomb, then ran like blazes.

Not too much later after that, when they were in another section of the dungeon, they heard a horrendous crash from his crypt, and knew what had happened -- he had escaped! Fortunately for them, all he did at that point was leave, being more or less out of his head from the centuries of inprisonment.

So the group continues through The Sunless Citadel, recovering Calcryx and returning the baby dragon to Meepo as advertised. Unfortunately, all they did was cast a sleep spell on him and toss him into a bag. So when they came back up from the lower levels they discovered a shredded bag and a frozen, shredded Meepo, but no dragon.

Fast forward a year, to find the 8th-level heroes traveling a kingdom away, where the party mage is kidnapped -- by the Dragonpriest, now returned to whatever semblance of sanity he may have once had, now with levels of wizard and with a familiar of -- wait for it -- Calcryx, the white dragon!

Chaos, horrific battle, and at least one PC death ensued. Using smart tactics, the heroes took out Calcryx first, causing the Dragonpriest to lose a level on the spot, and then they finally slew him as well, to much cheering and slapping of high-fives.

They are going to be so annoyed when they encounter his angry ghost...

-The Gneech

 

[randomling]

In one campaign that I play in, Harecules (from the Lost City of Gaxmoor module) tormented the party from about 9th to 13th levels, around 18 months of real time I believe. By the time he died, about 4 sessions ago, he had racked up an impressive list of dead PCs and NPCs that were friendly to us. We finally finished him off with the help of some high level NPCs, who wanted to raise him, but we beheaded the body, stole both bits, incinerated them, and scattered the ashes separately. It would take some effort to bring him back!

The Overking, whom we tried to assasinate and failed about a year ago real time, is still bothering some PCs.

 

[diaglo]

Darn You, Bargle to Heck.


also the Lich from D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth