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I have often found that some NPC's go unused to their fullest potential, take for instance Captain Okaral. This guy seemed to be the quiet, steely assassin waiting to do the party in. The module never used him in that aspect though, leaving it up to the DM to use him later. After defeating the Ulgurstra my party had a taste of lawful evil with the captain of Raknian's gaurd.
"The damage done to the service level was extensive, leaving much of the center nearly impassable. This required a longer route to the room that housed the secret entrance to the level below. As they made their way through the rooms Okaral carefully scanned each of the rooms, it's contents and it's former inhabitants, now deceased in the party's wake. These were the eyes of a well trained and astute man, Masog could tell there was no detail that went unnoticed by the captain.
Upon reviewing the chambers in their entirety he turned back to the two party members and flatly stated, "I had no knowledge of these passages or their contents; as embarrassing as that might be for me to say. It reflects poorly on the overall effectiveness of my job." He drew a deep breath and continued, "You have taken items and information from here already I assume? I would like very much to see them." He looked intently at Johan.
Tha paladin felt slightly uncomfortable under his gaze and the thought
occurred that this man could be lying. Unable to truly determine if that was the case Johan fell back on what he could discern. He carefully concentrated on Okaral's aura, looking for the signs of darkness around the man. It was clear, Okaral was evil. He smiled wryly at Johan, the hairs standing up on the back of the paladin's neck.
Just then the sounds of many voices came from the hall, the city officials had arrived, escorted by the remainder of the party.
"As you can see this wasn't a one day operation, we can trace this back several months, perhaps up to a year in the making." Tesservet was telling the clerics.
The city guard commander entered right behind, "Gentlemen, ladies." He
nodded in the direction of Masog, Johan and Okaral's entourage. "I trust there will be full cooperation amongst all interested parties. This is going to be one mess we're all going to have to answer for."
Okaral strode forward, "I am at your disposal, anything my men or I can do we would more than willing to help. In regards to my employer that is where I will have to draw the line, not good for business you see. I will be sure to see to it that no one in this employ stands in your way or inhibits your investigation. We will not be able to assist in the apprehension of Raknian if that is your intent." He turned his cloak about him, it's purple hue and embroidered trim denoting his privileged position in Raknian's roster. As he made his way out of the room he made the proper respectful acknowledgements of each of the city officials. He paused near Johan, leaned in and said,
"That was rather rude of you, you could have just asked you know." With that he gave Johan a smirk and a sideways glance and left the room."
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The real enjoyment on my part as a DM came that night. When one of the party members had decided that the party was causing so much trouble for the bad guys, no one was safe. They decided to send the half celestial ranger to warn Eligos of potential reprecussions. The ranger arrived about the same time Okaral was planning to assasinate the sage. Outside in the courtyard one of the remaining dwarven barbarians awaited his opportunity to revenge his loss in the arena. After a fantastic fight the badly hurt ranger entered the house only to be back stabbed by Okaral. As the assassin stepped over the dying ranger, the ranger reached up and grabbed a corner of Okaral's cloak.
THe party returned to Eligos's house two days later to find not only the sage dead, but also a beloved party member. The dead ranger still clutched a torn piece of fabric from Okaral's cloak.
I plan to have this assassin haunt their steps all the way to Alhaster.
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That's great! ***spoilers***
Okoral and Raknian got away in my Age of Worms campaign and it still bugs the pc's to this day. I wish I would have added some templates and sent them at the party when they fought Kyuss. Loris Raknian and Okoral are still wanted in Greyhawk though, so maybe I can figure out a way to add them to the savage tide campaign we are currently running. The group of 6 dwarf pc's would love to indirectly get a shot at them again.
I have often found that some NPC's go unused to their fullest potential, take for instance Captain Okaral.
Totally agree. Okaral was an interesting individual with but a passing cameo. The director/writer/DM (me) simply couldn't find the time to insert him into the story for a more satisfying role.
I gave Okoral the favored spawn of Kyuss template (from Dragon#?) & had him amush the party while camped at night, on the way to Magepoint. They killed him, but not before he slew one of the party clerics.
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I had him as an unofficial 3rd member of Pitch Blade in the battle against my group.
He used Dust of Disappearance before going up the lift and hit the players from behind while they were dealing with the dwarves.
Nice thing about DoD, attacking didn't make him appear. The players were freaked out. It also made the encounter a lot more interesting.
I had my players walk in to Eligos's house just after Okoral's (attempted, IMC) assassination of Eligos. Okoral nearly killed the party cleric, but was turned into a frog by the party wizard, who promptly stomped on him and squished him flat. Not much roleplaying, but they definitely hate the vanished Raknian even more, now. I'll have to think where to have Raknian re-appear. Perhaps in Darl Quethos's company?
I had him accompany the dwarf who was defeated but not killed in the games, in an assassination attempt (as revenge for the defeat), under the arena at night. The dwarf got toasted pretty quickly, but Okaral survived and was arrested when he claimed he was simply a hired gun or something like that (then he was let go, of course, when Raknain pulled some strings). The PC's saw him again (with Raknain) when in Alhaster - I was careful to keep them in public and be very cautious, so while Okral was actually dominated at one point, Raknian and he still got away and survived to this day. Which is handy, because I'm now running a new campaign featuring Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, which features a return of Raknain. Suffice to say I think Okaral will be there too...
Okaral gave a hand to the dwarves twins during the fight, a thing the players realized quickly upon spying on him and Raknian. The day before the finals, at dawn, the group's rogue ethereal jaunted in Raknian's abode and coup-de-graced Okoral with fatal results... It was carefully planned and realised, and I let it succeed. Unfortunately Okoral happened to have killed Eligos that same night...
Raknian fled at the end of the last fight in the Arena. They will encounter him later on in the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk (that I just started to introduce on their way back to Diamond Lake.
My group experienced the Blood of a Champion ending (Auric got munched by the apostle.) Raknian became a Kyuss knight and took off and the PCs were left to deal with the urgulstasta and the ensuing chaos. Okaral proceeded with assasinating Eligos and is now in cohoots with Smenk, which should make life miserable for the party in the future. I plan for these two to eventually hook up with Khellek (he survived the games), and may even tie in a Maure Castle side trek with these bad guys dogging the party. There is some great potential here.
Good dungeon!
Hmm, this could take some doing.
See, I was never happy with the idea of Racknian being a bad guy. It was so blatant and I have the sort of players who may or may not 'play along' with the story. They may join in the games to get closer to their adversary, but at the same time, they would really like to kill him in his sleep.
So I made Loris the good guy and Okoral the focus of the villainy doings.
Bozel and Okoral were working together to sacrifice Racknian to the Ugster. I made Okoral into a delusional psychopath who worshiped the ground Racknian walked on. Okoral had been with Loris for years and saw age creeping in on the focus of his obsession. So, as a favor to Racknian, Okoral worked with Bozel to 'grant' his hero eternal life.
He also killed one of the player's love interests and gave him her head in a box, a la 'Se7en'
"What's in f'n the box!?"
Yea, the players killed him right quick.
But then again, that's what Clones are for.