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I have been toying with the idea of giving the players a bit of foreshadowing for just how evil the Arkonas are.
So far what I have come up with is this. Since Glorio has been "kind" to the populace in Old Korvosa, I figure he may have extended this "kindness" to some of the local women. So number of young Rakshasa(sp?) are running around Old Korvosa. I want to send the party to a orphanage where one of the little fiends was sent after the death of his parents.
So does anyone else have any ideas on how to make this work? I don't want to have the party killing children (and I know Raks age fast) and so need a way to get them interested without resorting to that.
Well, bring on the ideas!
To me, the threat of the Rakshasa is what he does or can do before the PCs meet him in physical combat, because as been said they have "glass jaws." They are great masterminds though. Think about how the Arkona empire really works in your Korvosa, and build the personel chart - who is responsible for what, what that person really is, and how Arkona controls his loyalty.
As for the children. Remember that Rakshasas are Outsiders. They are "demons" in human form, not human themselves. Therefore, even as children, they are "demons" in the guise of a child, not really a child. I can understand PCs still being squeamish about confronting one, but at the end you can tell them that the Rakshasa is no more a child than a wizard using Disguise Self.
When dealing with evil children, you really want to go with the Village of the Damned approach. What makes evil children so scary, is that rarely act like children. They seem to be much more alert, mature, and rational than even adults.
I would make the Rakshasa kid the leader of a kid gang inside the orphanage who effectively rules the orphanage, not any adults working there. You might even have him be so pyschologically dominant that he's "beaten" one or more adults working there so that they really obey him. The ones who don't succumb find themselves in a bizarre "war" against the child, and in the best fashion of the Omen are either killed in terrifying accidents or kill themselves to escape the monster.
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The Orphanage from (in?) Hell... that's twisted. Wow. My players are in the process of finding homes for all of Lamm's Lambs that they've liberated. If one or more ended up in a place like this and then tipped off the PCs, whew, that'd be a trip.
As for rakshasa kiddos, look no further than the November 2003 issue of Dragon, p. 96. Half-rakshasa! Might want to make the disguise self ability at will to keep up appearances, though. It runs contrary to rak-production as described in the "Faces of the Earthbound Evils" article in Pathfinder 9, though, so YMMV.
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First off. Great ideas Black Fox thank you. Secondly I may have to go back and reread the rak article but I thought it stated that children with humaniods generally end up raks and already know how to alter self. Still I like the ideas.
Yes, 'tis so. It's for that reason that I've been hesitant to use the half-rakshasa, but it still caught my attention while I was doing the traditional "new campaign start-to-finish idea mining of my Dragon and Dungeon collections" so I copied and tucked that page in PF 9. Shhh, don't tell the copyright coppers!