I'm chewing on a campaign inspired by Red Hand of Doom. The Litch Druid is bothering me a bit. I want him to be a neutral evil power in the region. He doesn't want to expand his domain, he wants to be left alone (until the Goblins steal his phylactery and black mail him anyway).
I want to foreshadow his existence, but how do I have the players buttheads with his minions if he is currently minding his own business in the Thornwastes?
Part of my motivation is that I want to use one of his minions as a reoccurring foe for the party. It is sort of like a druidic similacrum(?) grown like a clone from a Gulthias Tree. When the party kills one another is born from the tree with the same memories.
Can anyone help coming up with ideas to run-ins with these things?
Re foreshadowing: Maybe the players hear rumors about strange happenings in the Thornwastes? Some travelers talking about how they have to go around it, or they passed near and had some strange (or even bad) experience. I'm thinking something like the regional effects around where a dragon roosts.
The lich may also have a penchant for a certain pub or entertainment nearby and sneak in occasionally. He finds out the players are interested and keeps trying to get them to go away without revealing himself.
As far as run ins, maybe the recurring foe is a pet of his (intelligent or otherwise) that keeps trying to escape. Revenants are a possibility too.
A spore druid who discovered a method of lichdom that allowed him to defend a druids grove and "fairy circle" of fantastic mushrooms. From some hobgoblin raiders a millenia ago. When a tribesmen was killed they were grabbed and carried back to the spore circle dumped in and the spores regenerated the physical and metal structure.
Oddly enough when the zombies died.. they to were grabbed or what portion remained and it happened all over again.
The problem is certain items are needed to keep the circle healthy.. and a smuggling ring has been set up to supply this under the control of the lspore lich master. It is not impossible for humans or humanoids currently working for the druid lord to be grabbed and refreshed just like the originals. And have them met again even though under a different stat block.
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Itinerant Deputy Shire-reave Tomas Burrfoot - world walker, Raft-captain, speaker to his dead
Toddy Shelfungus- Rider of the Order of Ill Luck, Speaker to Friends of Friends, and Horribly big nosed
Jarl Archi of Jenisis Glade Fee- Noble Knight of the Dragonborn Goldcrest Clan, Sorcerer of the Noble Investigator;y; Knightly order of the Wolfhound
Seems simple enough. He has some good loot, rumors of which get around. If your party is not motivated by simple greed, the loot is some cool magic items. Perhaps once the party learns they'll have to go up against a lich to win the loot, they'll reconsider, but it's too late. The party know of his existence, so now they must be eliminated.
Just because he doesn't want to expand doesn't mean he's sitting around eating potato chips and yelling at the TV all day. He's still got something he wants to accomplish. Why did he want to become a lich in the first place? Usually that's not just because they want to be immortal, but because they need the extra time to finish some great work, and they can't finish it in one lifespan. If this one isn't interested in conquest, what is he interested in? Maybe some kind of experiment or ritual or new spell he's developing. He doesn't care about land, he just wants to keep working and not be hassled.
The minion the party runs into is BBEG's errand boy, who gets sent out collecting ingredients, or tracking down rare scrolls of knowledge that BBEG needs for the next stage of his work. And he just keeps making new ones if the party kills one off, either a clone, or a homunculus, or a golem -- probably a homebrew type monster. If you want to up the ante, you could say BBEG is able to retrieve the minion's memories, and so when he makes the next one, make changes to make it better. Like if it dies in a fireball, the next one will be fire resistant, to keep the players on their toes.
He can be doing magical experiments to increase his knowledge and the results of some of his experiments can leak out and be noticed by people in the area. A cloud that’s bright purple, a weird beast that’s a hybrid of a frog and a sparrow, etc.. Just random things that he’s causing or creating with his magic that people notice.
The best villains are those that started out as good and just kind of ended up evil. Have them come across old books about the great good druid that saved the world and how he will come again when the world is at it's greatest need.
The trees are an automated process set up by him when he was beginning his conversion to evil. They are specifically designed to make sure people leave him alone and patrol an area killing monsters in a large area, and gently keeping people out of a smaller area (where the trees resurrect and the evil druid resides).
The players find the trees hunting monsters they are hunting. Anything the trees kill they get no experience for.
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I'm chewing on a campaign inspired by Red Hand of Doom. The Litch Druid is bothering me a bit. I want him to be a neutral evil power in the region. He doesn't want to expand his domain, he wants to be left alone (until the Goblins steal his phylactery and black mail him anyway).
I want to foreshadow his existence, but how do I have the players buttheads with his minions if he is currently minding his own business in the Thornwastes?
Part of my motivation is that I want to use one of his minions as a reoccurring foe for the party. It is sort of like a druidic similacrum(?) grown like a clone from a Gulthias Tree. When the party kills one another is born from the tree with the same memories.
Can anyone help coming up with ideas to run-ins with these things?
Re foreshadowing: Maybe the players hear rumors about strange happenings in the Thornwastes? Some travelers talking about how they have to go around it, or they passed near and had some strange (or even bad) experience. I'm thinking something like the regional effects around where a dragon roosts.
The lich may also have a penchant for a certain pub or entertainment nearby and sneak in occasionally. He finds out the players are interested and keeps trying to get them to go away without revealing himself.
As far as run ins, maybe the recurring foe is a pet of his (intelligent or otherwise) that keeps trying to escape. Revenants are a possibility too.
A spore druid who discovered a method of lichdom that allowed him to defend a druids grove and "fairy circle" of fantastic mushrooms. From some hobgoblin raiders a millenia ago. When a tribesmen was killed they were grabbed and carried back to the spore circle dumped in and the spores regenerated the physical and metal structure.
Oddly enough when the zombies died.. they to were grabbed or what portion remained and it happened all over again.
The problem is certain items are needed to keep the circle healthy.. and a smuggling ring has been set up to supply this under the control of the lspore lich master. It is not impossible for humans or humanoids currently working for the druid lord to be grabbed and refreshed just like the originals. And have them met again even though under a different stat block.
Itinerant Deputy Shire-reave Tomas Burrfoot - world walker, Raft-captain, speaker to his dead
Toddy Shelfungus- Rider of the Order of Ill Luck, Speaker to Friends of Friends, and Horribly big nosed
Jarl Archi of Jenisis Glade Fee- Noble Knight of the Dragonborn Goldcrest Clan, Sorcerer of the Noble Investigator;y; Knightly order of the Wolfhound
Seems simple enough. He has some good loot, rumors of which get around. If your party is not motivated by simple greed, the loot is some cool magic items. Perhaps once the party learns they'll have to go up against a lich to win the loot, they'll reconsider, but it's too late. The party know of his existence, so now they must be eliminated.
Just because he doesn't want to expand doesn't mean he's sitting around eating potato chips and yelling at the TV all day. He's still got something he wants to accomplish. Why did he want to become a lich in the first place? Usually that's not just because they want to be immortal, but because they need the extra time to finish some great work, and they can't finish it in one lifespan. If this one isn't interested in conquest, what is he interested in? Maybe some kind of experiment or ritual or new spell he's developing. He doesn't care about land, he just wants to keep working and not be hassled.
The minion the party runs into is BBEG's errand boy, who gets sent out collecting ingredients, or tracking down rare scrolls of knowledge that BBEG needs for the next stage of his work. And he just keeps making new ones if the party kills one off, either a clone, or a homunculus, or a golem -- probably a homebrew type monster. If you want to up the ante, you could say BBEG is able to retrieve the minion's memories, and so when he makes the next one, make changes to make it better. Like if it dies in a fireball, the next one will be fire resistant, to keep the players on their toes.
He can be doing magical experiments to increase his knowledge and the results of some of his experiments can leak out and be noticed by people in the area. A cloud that’s bright purple, a weird beast that’s a hybrid of a frog and a sparrow, etc.. Just random things that he’s causing or creating with his magic that people notice.
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The best villains are those that started out as good and just kind of ended up evil. Have them come across old books about the great good druid that saved the world and how he will come again when the world is at it's greatest need.
The trees are an automated process set up by him when he was beginning his conversion to evil. They are specifically designed to make sure people leave him alone and patrol an area killing monsters in a large area, and gently keeping people out of a smaller area (where the trees resurrect and the evil druid resides).
The players find the trees hunting monsters they are hunting. Anything the trees kill they get no experience for.