I'm about to use the Vermin Lord in the Midnight Muddle backdrop this week, but have never seen a post here about anyone else's experiences. I'd love to hear about anyone that used him, be it in a role-playing and/or combat situation. Here's my plan...
In my campaign, the PC's are currently at the Sanctum of Heironeous, to try and get Melinde the Paladin (follower of a PC) raised. I'll use that as a good way to have them clear up the problem at the shrine of Heironeous in Midnight Muddle, i.e. the vermin lord. Originally I was wondering if the PC's would stumble across him by themselves, but they have not bothered exploring the area (probably because there's enough to do already, what with being impersonated by dopplegangers etc). So then I thought no worries, I won't need the backdrop then!
But when the paladin died, the players were scratching their heads as to how to get her back to life. The previous time someone died, they ended up at the church of saint cuthbert in diamond lake, where they became part of an elaborate multi-day ritual concocted by the high priest to make it look like he was conduit to a miracle (when he actually sent for a scroll of raise dead from the free city). In the process, the party Ogre was convinced to start praying to Saint Cuthbert, even indulge in self-flagellation in order to help in the process (to my amusement!) Needless to say the party ended up giving the church of saint cuthbert a wide berth from then on. So after some discussion, they decided to look for a church of Heironeous when Melinde died, after all, she was his paladin (and the party cleric worships a god Bleredd who is quite obscure in these parts and has no temple in the Free City).
At the Sanctum of Heironeous, the highest level person is a Fighter/Cleric who cannot cast Raise Dead, so he's said sure he can help find some way to raise her, if the PC's can investigate some trouble that went down in the Midnight Muddle that the church hasn't got around to investigating properly (I figure some acolytes must have gone there to retrieve the dead body of the priest who died in the fire, but not done a thorough investigation due to lack of man-power, time and/or people of high enough level e.g. maybe an acolyte or two went missing).
So the PC's should be off investigating Midnight Muddle, soon finding the Vermin Lord posing as a worshiper of the Weeping Widow (or whatever she was called - supposedly an aspect of Heironeous). I think the vermin lord will be cautious, but knowing the PC's are not from around here he'll ask them various questions (in a public place, not his shrine) then maybe ask them to come visit at a more appropriate time, but only one person at a time as his shrine is very small and so on. His aim will then be to bluff his way out of any sticky situation, killing the person if that doesn't work. If the Pc's are on to him (which they should be), I'll have him burst out of his lair, flying about with his praying mantis familiar claiming the PC's are trying to kill him while attacking them with various spells - a mad, flying combat in the back-street of Greyhawk.
Once he's dead or captured and turned over, the PC's will be referred to the church of Rao, who will raise the paladin but I'll also get them to extract an oath from the Ogre/Ftr to learn the ways of Law and use them to combat the growing chaos they see writhing under the surface of the world (a tie-in to him taking the Kensai prestige class).
So that's the plan, we'll see how it turns out soon. As always, things have a habit or finding their own path as we go along!
As I say, I'd love to hear about anyone that has used the Vermin Lord (my guess would be most people just had too much going on in the Free City to make full use of it all).
Hmmm... I am still interested to hear from anyone who was used the Vermin Lord in their AoW campaign...
He debuted in mine last night, and was prtty quickly knocked into the negatives where he stabilised himself (lucky d10 roll) then the PC's took a while to kill off the air elemental he'd summoned. Prior to combat, only two PC's went to his shrine, looking for clues as to the burned out buildings. He invited one PC (the noble female) downstairs for a "private showing" of the weeping woman, which she accepted more out of curiosity than anything else. When he unveiled his praying mantis (familiar) and started summoning the elemental, she hot-tailed it back upstairs and set the fighter on him. Was kinda fun, as I decided he'd installed a trap-door that connected the basement with the street above, so he the mantis and his summoned creatures could get some air manouverability (he was a 7th level druid / 5th vermin lord in my game, so cold fly). Still the cramped conditions didn't make it easy on him, and once the mantis was dispatched he was pretty close behind and two PC's took them all out in only a few rounds.
Now he's at the Santum of Heironeous, a prisoner awaiting execution for killing the old priest as well as the two acolytes that went looking for him.
My players only did a cursory investigation into it, but didn't find out enough to get involved. They did do quite a bit with the other backdrop information, however.
There were two things that kept my players from investigating further:
1) The events surrounding Hall of Harsh Reflections and The Champion's Belt had them looking into other things, like uncovering the doppleganger plot and trying to return the elf girl to her familty without alerting the doppleganger in the house. And then, at the end of the Champion's Belt, they found Eligos dead, and that kept their attention away from the vermin lord.
and
2) We have no party cleric or paladin that would have noticed the religious inconsistencies that could alert the party to what's going on.
But...
Those are the reasons that the vermin lord has been so successful in the first place: his operation is fairly low-key... there are definately bigger problems in Greyhawk... and the lack of any real religious power to disprove his claims.
I would have liked to run that little side quest, but didn't get the opportunity. I like reading about your experience however, and I hope there are others that will share as well.