villain outline, any thoughts?

[Zodling]

anything anyone can think to add to this?

there was an adventuring wizard.

he fell in love with a member of his party

she was turned into a vampire

he killed other party members to stop them from killing her?

he starts researching a way to cure vampirism: there isn’t one.

he decides to become a lich, defeat the master vamp, and be reunited with his love.

enlists PC aid to obtain items necessary for conversion, but they don’t know that’s what they’re doing.

wizard gets idea to have PCs kill master vamp

in course of events, they kill his love as well.

heartbroken, he goes through with ritual, now PCs have lich enemy.

any comments welcome,

Z

[DaMullet]

Well, are the PCs getting an opportunity to know this? I think it would be interesting if they got bits and pieces of it, and then at the very last had to rush back to the wizard's keep and stop the ritual.

[LoopyZebra]

An interesting twist I could see is that the female vampire, because of her 'condition', no longer has feelings for the wizard. The wizard was going to become a lich anyways, right? I don't see her death as necessary to provoke him into it, and she could become a villian in her own right after the master vampire is killed. Perhaps she was just stringing along the wizard into killing the master vampire, and some sort of conflict could erupt between them afterward. That'd be a far more interesting end, and the campaign has a bit more to it. As it is, I really like it, though.

[alchemy.freak]

Another Idea, the Female Vamp could kill the Lich as he completes the ceremony to become one. Turns out she never loved him, she took great joy in manipulating him, but she has no intention of spending eternity with him. now she has all eternity to learn the powerful magic that this wizard was learning and gain awesome power, unless the PC's stop her.

kinda like what Zebra was saying, but a little different

[Koji]

There are a whole lot of messed up things you could do with this. As for the actual end result of the story, try dropping clues to what's going on the whole time. If the party catches on, they can try and split up the pair or turn them on each other and not have to fight anyone. If they don't, perhaps two groups come up that each hates either the wizard or the vampire (I'm guessing the group that hates the wizard could be related to the vampire's master).

The party has the chance to betray their leader and help either group, which results in one of the lovers dying and the other coming for revenge. If they faithfully serve the wizard and fight off the interloping groups, eventually the vampire is free and the wizard is a lich. Imagine fighting those two at the same time! :smalleek:

Keep the story loose and mutable, and the players will feel like they're really having an impact on the world.

[Zodling]

I was going to have a huge portrait of the wizards lover (pre-vamp) in his receiving room, so the PCs would see it when they visit the wizard. If the players don't remember my description, I will have them make an INT check to see if they note the resemblance when they see the she vamp.

The PCs won't know about the master vamp when the wizard sends them after it. The wizard will instead act like it is just another mission, since I plan on having him be a semi-regular employer of the party.

I will give any arcane casters in the party chances to make Knowledge checks to see if they recognize any of the items as being for lich-making.

Zebra, alchemy.freak, I was toying with the idea that if the party doesn't kill the she-vamp, that she will no longer love the wizard. He would blame the PCs, (hey, why not) so now they have two enemies.

Also, I had a thought that they might figure out what the wizard was up to and kill him first (before he sets them on the master vamp), and the she-vamp wants the revenge, and convinces her master to help.

[LoopyZebra]

Zebra, alchemy.freak, I was toying with the idea that if the party doesn't kill the she-vamp, that she will no longer love the wizard. He would blame the PCs, (hey, why not) so now they have two enemies.

Also, I had a thought that they might figure out what the wizard was up to and kill him first (before he sets them on the master vamp), and the she-vamp wants the revenge, and convinces her master to help.

I like the other ideas there, but I don't really like how you have branching plots in which the Female Vampire's emotions aren't consistent (that is, if I'm reading what you said correctly, if not, ignore that entire sentence).

Another idea, kind of like Koji's and an evolution of my previous one, after they kill the master vampire, perhaps both Female Vampire and Lich Dude become enemies of the party and enemies of each other, but the party has to side with one (A "Lesser Evil" scenario) to eliminate the other? There's a lot of directions you could take this after the master vampire's gone.

[Zodling]

I like the other ideas there, but I don't really like how you have branching plots in which the Female Vampire's emotions aren't consistent (that is, if I'm reading what you said correctly, if not, ignore that entire sentence).

Another idea, kind of like Koji's and an evolution of my previous one, after they kill the master vampire, perhaps both Female Vampire and Lich Dude become enemies of the party and enemies of each other, but the party has to side with one (A "Lesser Evil" scenario) to eliminate the other? There's a lot of directions you could take this after the master vampire's gone.


What I meant was that she no longer loves the wizard (due to her "condition"), which isn't an issue if she dies, but if she escapes the PCs, then she and the lich become, as you say, enemies of the party and of each other.

I hadn't thought of making them ally with one anyway.

[LoopyZebra]

Ah. I just didn't see a reason for her to take revenge on the party if she didn't love the wizard, and seemed like you were changing her emotions based on the PCs actions in game. My bad.

[Zodling]

Nope, I just organized my words poorly.