So as all my recent posts have stated, I'm putting together an Eberron/Sharn campaign that for the first half will revolve around the Saint Demain trilogy, with some Shut Ins, Homebrew and the Styes tossed in.
Yesterday I was bouncing around ideas of where the campaign would go after 10th level and I realized I would either need to go to Non-Eberron adventures (perfectly fine) or homebrew my own, playing off all the connections the characters will have made. My only problem is that with any luck Victor will have become the PCs arch enemy and if I were to keep the campaign going past 11th level, which I would want to, I really need to find a way to link my "evil Baddy" to Victor in some way. My first thought was that like Palpatine to Anakin, whoever my great evil is, will say Khyber and I use the name without knowing, could by Vol, Kyuss, the Demon-god RPett!, Anyway maybe Khyber could have been influencing Victor down his path of evil. But as my example above points out, it's been done. Besides I want Victor's fall to be his own fault.
Flipping through my later Dungeon issues I spotted the Serpeants of Scuttlecove and Vanthus' transformation, and that gave me the idea.
Playing off his Swashbuckling nature, what if at the end of Hell's Heart Victor is either killed by the PCs or driven mad, eventually killing himself or being murdered by some criminal he locked up. Once in the abyss he is approached by Khyber (or whatever fills the Tharizdun void in the Styes maybe) with the chance for revenge. and is returned to the mortal realm as a Death Knight.
I don't see Victor as the clad in spiked armor Death Knight ala Karzoug, but nothing in the subtype would hurt for a swashbuckler. He would dress in leather armor with a black trenchcoat like the purple one he wore in life, looking something like the headless horseman, riding a nightmare with sword cane or rapier at the ready, assembling a new cadre of cats paws and an undead army to take Sharn, the city that he sees as responsible for his fate.
What do you guys think?
I don't see Victor as the clad in spiked armor Death Knight ala Karzoug, but nothing in the subtype would hurt for a swashbuckler. He would dress in leather armor with a black trenchcoat like the purple one he wore in life, looking something like the headless horseman, riding a nightmare with sword cane or rapier at the ready, assembling a new cadre of cats paws and an undead army to take Sharn, the city that he sees as responsible for his fate....
Reading your post, I was like "POOP!"...until I got to that sexy sexy last paragraph Rennick...now I smell exactly what you are cooking. Fan-f$+!ing-tastic. Trenchcoat wearing, nightmare riding, cane sword wielding badass death knight? Yes, please!
Reading your post, I was like "POOP!"...until I got to that sexy sexy last paragraph Rennick...now I smell exactly what you are cooking. Fan-f%##ing-tastic. Trenchcoat wearing, nightmare riding, cane sword wielding badass death knight? Yes, please!
Glad you like it Nic. I like the visual idea of Victor dressed in black and silver versions of his old clothes, standing in the rain as it soaks that few strands of matted hair while the rest of it splashes off of his litterally bare skull, checking the time on his pocket watch as he flourishes his sword cane.
I've been debating what DK-Victor's motivations would be and an interesting one that was inspired by an episode of Smallville is that Victor could be trying to "help" the players be heroes. He could feel that the world needs people to look up to after the War but people are to jaded to recoginize heroes. Victor's proof of this would be how he himself was unrecognized by the people of Sharn. A fate I think I could strike home further depending on how small the group that celebrates the PCs victories is.
Now that he is returned Victor is giving the players the evil that they need to stand against. He's helping them "Be the heroes that should be" by being the "villain they need"
Just a random thought so far, but I think I like it.
I've been debating what DK-Victor's motivations would be...
Since his life was mostly as a troubleshooter for the Man, perhaps you could carry that over into his unlife. Your evil Khyber-being could be on the receiving end of the PCs' do-gooding antics one time too many and start looking for someone to deal with them. That's when he comes across the dretch-like remains of Vinnie St. D, a person with almost as much hate for the PCs as he has and a lifetime of experience in finding people and dealing with them for his boss.
In any case, the idea of a death knight with the word "Saint" in his name is too tasty to pass up. This is an inspired idea.
This is the kind of thread I come to expect and love from the Paizo community... Victor is one of my all-time favorite villains from Eberron and now a death knight version of him that ISN'T all spiked black plate mail... Well that's just too good of an idea not to yoink! Consider it annexed into the greater horrors of my players. Thank you! :)
That indeed is a cool concept. I always liked Victor Saint Demain. He's a villian with style and it is always fun to roleplay such npcs. I have always wanted to see a npc ghostwalker (from the 3.0 Swords and Fist) return from the dead to stalk the pcs and they couldn't figure out who he was until the very end. If Saint Demain returns from the dead, he should target the relatives/family/friends of the pcs first, just to get them afraid of who they know will be the next target.
Cheers
CB