I’ve a couple of favorite villains in the AoW campaign – I think all of us DMs do. I like Theldrick, Loris and Lashonna. Many liked the Faceless One. I got to listening to the newest pod cast (highly recommended, by the way), and thought about the face-off with number one bad guy Lashonna.
Digressing for a moment, I have a side encounter (and theme) that basically solidifies the idea that the PCs are the chosen/prophesized heroes of the Age of Worms (as hinted in the LoLR adventure). But if you think about it, Lashonna has employed them as agents. To this end, I have a group of evil NPCs that will confront them: they will call the “Good” PCs “Agents of Doom”, not Agents of Good. In the NPCs eyes, the PCs are evil as they are ushering in Kyuss by working for Lashonna. (A lot of evil people have much to lose if Kyuss takes hold on Oerth. They plan on killing the PCs then killing Lashonna and destroying Kyuss themselves.) This also plays to another theme I have been touching on: Good vs. Evil isn’t black and white; evil is in the eyes of the beholder.
But going back to the pod cast on horror effects, I had this idea that perhaps the PCs were destined to usher in (and eventually destroy) Kyuss far before they met Lashonna. Enter an underutilized and perfectly suited Allustan. What if he appeared when the PCs finally face Lashonna for the last time on the last levels of the Alhaster Spire and he says that he was behind the whole thing? In fact, he could even be Lashonna if you really wanted to throw in a crazy twist. In any case, he was the one that planted the seeds for the PCs to help usher in the Age of Worms. Again, this could work where Allustan was working for Lashonna, or if he was Lashonna (so they see Allustan on the Spire, whom morphs into Lashonna).
This twist would be most effective on PCs that started from the first campaign of course, but could still be a revelation for those players whom have read the modules or thought they knew exactly what would happen in the end. Any thoughts?
As i am playing in Eberron i will haveto change the ending as well but mostly to work in alot of rakasha into the final modules...
Allustan seems to me a perfect candidate for Fizbanisum as i call it...
Spoilers
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Taken from Dragonlace Cronicles the absent minded fireball specialist wizard Fizban the Faboulous was indeed a avatar of Palatine the Platinum Dragon god of God and Law
But as a twist i whould use The Traveler as he has nothing to gain from Kyuss from taking over the world and ushering in a new Age of Demons...
To that end i might even change out Allustan for Menzonian at Magepoint and then say that his house in Dimond Lake is just his "summer home"
I think that your twist is pushing things too far. Alustan an evil guy who is actually Lashona?...So Eligos and the others knew that he was Lashona all along?..So that makes half the importanta NPCs actually evil...The PCs will probably be like "Ok?!...so what's next?..Kyuss is actually Olidamarra in disguise?? And he just wanted to play a trick on us.. how stupid we are,haha..."
Dunno, I think the ending of the campaign is good already, and BTW; if I knew that the avatar of Great Paladine was that old crazy wizards I'd guess the dark Lady's avatar is actually a halfing..lol
This is certainly the kind of neck breaking twists I love in my game, but it also makes the players, Manzorian and everyone who knew Allustan look stupid, as previously mentioned.
What about instead of Lashonna and Allustan being the same being, what about Lashonna showing up to the fight with a dominated Allustan in tow, using him as a shield against the players?
'Put a favored NPC in danger'
DM's tip #58
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I REALLY like the Allustan idea, but I agree that it would be difficult to have him be evil without having to explain his connection to the other NPCs. I'm modifying the end of my campaign anyway- in mine, there's actually another goddess behind everything, and it would be great to have Allustan be her lackey. Any thoughts as to how to make this work (again, without making Manzorian, Eligos, the PCs, and everyone else with whom he's interacted look stupid/naive)?
Sorry for not clarrifying - I meant an official D&D pod cast. its at Wizards website.