Zavanix

[Jeffrey Scott Nuttall]

Zavanix

Male Pixie Sorcerer 12 (aberrant bloodline)

Description:

The pixies of the Verduran Forest are generally benevolent, but sometimes they can be too curious for their own good. A few have delved into secrets better left alone, and tainted their bloodlines by contact with strange and alien realities. One pixie, Zavanix, in whom this taint ran particularly strong, decided to explore the possibilities offered by association with these realities, embracing and strengthening his ties to them. Over time, this uncanny influence twisted his very soul, turning him from his natural goodness toward chaos and evil.

At first glance, Zavanix looks like an ordinary pixie, with a snub nose and tousled red hair. But there’s something about him that seems somehow off. Maybe it’s that his body isn’t quite symmetrical, maybe it’s that his features seem to shift slightly when you’re not looking directly at him, but whatever it is, there’s something hard to put your finger on that's subtly wrong.

Motivations/Goals:
On the surface, Zavanix’s actions seem purposeless and nonsensical. One day he might slaughter an entire household and leave their corpses splayed in grotesque positions among symbols painted with their blood; another day he might break into a stronghold just to rearrange the furniture. It would be tempting to call him insane, but that’s not really accurate—there is a logic behind Zavanix’s actions, but it’s a kind of logic utterly foreign to normal minds. Everything he does fits into a design that only he understands. At times, Zavanix may do something that seems wholly altruistic, but it’s still a part of the incomprehensible pattern. Ultimately, Zavanix’s actions, as random and unconnected as they appear, are weaving an intricate incantation that’s forging a connection to another level of existence. Already it’s started to open gates and bring bizarre monsters into the world, many unlike any sages are familiar with. If Zavanix continues much longer, eventually all Golarion could be subsumed into an alien reality.

Zavanix isn’t working completely alone. He’s allied with cults of Lamashtu that approve of his goals. He’s also not above recruiting children to carry out some tasks—they’re easily persuaded to do what he wants, and to keep him a secret. Of course, the children are ignorant of his real goals—they just think their fey friend is asking them to play innocent tricks on adults.

Schemes/Plots/Adventure Hooks:
A young girl begs the PCs to rescue her father, who is being held captive in a nearby dungeon. She’s been put up to this lie by Zavanix, who’s setting a trap for the PCs for his own reasons.

A local charity turns out to be an unwitting part of Zavanix’s machination. Do the PCs shut down the charity despite the good it does, or let it continue and risk the apocalyptic consequences?

In the center of Carpenden, a dangerous portal has opened to a nameless world. Divination suggests that only Zavanix would know how to close the portal—but how could he be persuaded to help?

[Ed Greenwood]

Initial Impression: A gonzo “seems utterly insane” foe.

Concept: An old idea, rarely translated well into RPG terms (villain pursuing an elaborate long-term plan that seems inexplicable, random, or deranged to PCs).

Execution: The writing (as prose style) is just fine, but the content is lacking. To DM this character properly, I need to know the steps and direction of Zavanix’s “inexplicable” plan. “Reasons of his own” is the hooks are just not good enough. To bring him to life onstage, I need more, too (speech, mannerisms, and something specific re. what’s “subtly wrong” about him. Don’t Lovecraft me (“the horror was utterly, overwhelming beyond description”), give me juicy roleplaying tips.

Tilt: This is a useful longterm plot campaign idea, but undeveloped. Who are these “strange and alien realities”? How is working with them/getting closer to them changing (benefiting) Zavanix? The “opening ways between worlds/planes that let in monsters” is a cliché because it’s a good, deployable campaign (or fantasy novel) idea, but is this a byproduct? A deliberate aim? Helps Zavanix or his plan how?

Overall: A concept that desperately needs development. An idea to run with, but I see no running, and am uninspired to do so when reading this, not seeing any “boost” to get me started.

Recommendation: Sorry, but not recommended for advancement.

[Clark Peterson]

Initial Impression: Cool! A pixie bad guy that uses some Pathfinder rules! Color me interested...

Word Count: 500

Concept (name, title, is it actually a villain?, overall design choices, playability): C-
The Good: I like the initial design choice. And working in some Pathfinder-specific stuff (the bloodline stuff) is a great design choice. Plus, this is good: "If Zavanix continues much longer, eventually all Golarion could be subsumed into an alien reality." It is nice to see a villain that threatens the whole world! Now that is what villains do! I like the cult angle and the kid angle. Creepy and close to the edge, but not over it.
The Bad: The alien mind and the incomprehensible motives make this a bit problematic of a design choice. To some degree, you need to understand a villain's motives or at least be able to respond to them. Want to stop Darth Vader? Blow up the Death Star. You have a threat and an action by the heroes required to counter that threat. While I like the insane fey choice, it has a downside-and that downside is that it makes the villain hard from a playability standpoint. That's not to say insane villains, or even ones with warped mindsets (a la the Joker from Batman, for instance) can’t be great villains. But you can at least come to understand their mindset. I don't know that you even know what Zavanix's mindset is. That makes it hard for a DM. A good example of this problem comes from one of your adventure hooks: "She's been put up to this lie by Zavanix, who's setting a trap for the PCs for his own reasons." See, you can't even articulate the reasons. Frankly, I think the other two hooks show exactly the same problem. I really think this playability issue is fatal for you. Luckily, the good parts keep this grade from being a total disaster.

Execution (quality of writing, hook, theme, organization, use of proper format, quality of mandatory content-physical description, motivation/goal, scheme/plot, presence of any disqualification criteria): B
The Good: Relatively well written. Mandatory content is there.
The Bad: I think that the hooks and plots section is very, very light. And I think the reason stems from the same problem that the villain concept suffers from—the insanity of your villain. It’s hard to come up with good story plots and hooks when you don’t know what he is doing or why. It’s hard to plot and run adventures with antagonists like this because the solution to why he is kidnapping children may be because a cloud covered his favorite star last night. I mean, how in the world do the PCs ever figure that out.

Tilt (did it grab me?, is it unique and cool?, do I like it?, flavor and setting): B

The initial core concept did grab me. I wanted to like this submission. I think fey are an untapped resource, particularly evil fey.

Overall: C

An evil fey that is cool but just too insane to be a playable, workable villain.

Recommendation: I do not recommend this villain submission for advancement.

From the guy who brought us the twintone flute, which I loved! I wish you luck and hope the voters see it differently than I did!

[Sean K Reynolds]

A villain whose actions are random, almost whimsical sometimes. Don't call him insane, though, you just don't understand his master plan to destroy the world. In fact, not even the author knows the master plan, but the existence of the master plan means that anything he does, no matter how vile or petty or helpful or comical or outright stupid, is actually the work of an evil mastermind rather than someone who's insane.

If you take out the "evil master plan" aspect of this villain, what we have is "evil pixie that can do anything the GM wants and the GM can hand-wave it as a plot element." Look, your shoelaces are untied. Annoying prank? No, all part of the master plan. Killed your cohort in his sleep. Assassination conspiracy against your party? Warning from the crimelords you're messing with? No, just a crazed pixie with a master plan.

I am unexcited by this insane, world-destroying villain. Take away his "this is breaking the walls of reality" excuse and you just have a string of unrelated acts that the PCs aren't going to connect to each other as a campaign plot.

Rec: do not advance.

[Wolfgang Baur]

"Pixie gone wrong" is an AWESOME premise. Those little winged monstrosities should be revealed for all the world to know the depths of their evil!

Unfortunately, Zavanix isn't making a lot of sense to me. He's half-Cthulhu/half-chaotic and not very entertaining, because he's utterly unpredictable. That's ... not very helpful for a DM trying to roleplay him. And it's just arbitrary. I might even call it lazy design, because it ducks the hard work of explaining why, providing motivation, and charting a course of linked future actions.

And trying to up the ante with children and charities to show us how evil and insane he is sort of backfires; there's no meat on his motivations.

I wanted this villain premise to work. But the design dodges the tough decisions and weasels out of giving the reader answers that inform good, long-term arcs for a villain.

Recommendation Do not recommend, and it's a shame.

[Joshua J. Frost]

I can't stand pixies (at all) but this pixie made me think, "Oooh, I never thought to channel my irrational pixie hatred into making one into a villain!" Zavanix got my vote.

[Xaaon of Xen'Drik]

I was so hoping this was executed well. An pixie villain! YES!...but the insanity of the character...didn't work...

His opening the realms of chaos was done in norrebE, had that been his ultimate goal, that would have been better.

Good: Pixie villain
Bad: execution.

[Reckless]

Reckless Ratings

Concept4
(Is this villain villainous?)
Content3
(Grammar, Format,Spelling, Etc.)
Coolness4
(Would my players be impressed by this? Am I?)
Credibility3
(Does the villain’s motives make sense?)
Clarity4
(How good a sense of how to stat this villain do we get?)

Scores out of 5 and completely based on my opinion only.
Total Score18

[Winterwalker]

Pros:
We get 5 votes right? Because I'm probably going to save one for this entry, well done.

An OCD Pixie with power to blast away PCs if they get to comfortable. It's a twist and I like it.

Using children as tools for plot, joy! [evil]

Cons:
If he is so random, how do the PCs find him, track him, or get to confront him?

"In the center of Carpenden, a dangerous portal has opened to a nameless world. Divination suggests that only Zavanix would know how to close the portal—but how could he be persuaded to help?"

No, no, no, I don't want him to help the PCs in any fashion.

I want to be a PC and claim kill rights on this guy, get a tattoo of him on my arms after I run him through. Take his wings and use them as fletching on my arrows. I don't want to befriend him, or ask for help from this guy.

I want to hunt him because little Densor told me he was scared for his life because a little monster in his closet told him to push his parents down a well or he'd eat his eyes.

[Corrosive Rabbit]

So close -- one sentence to the effect that "Zavanix has discovered the existence of a long forgotten set of ley lines, and he is experimenting with various acts along those ley lines to see how best to release their power" and you would have had me.

As it stands, there's really no way for the PCs to predict his actions, which means that they're stuck rushing around blindly until he approaches them personally. At that point, they kill him, or he kills them. Either way it ends there. Good starting concept, and I like the idea of seemingly chaotic acts, but there doesn't seem to be anything there on which to hang an ongoing campaign.

CR

[Steven Helt]

Joshua J. Frost wrote:

I can't stand pixies (at all) but this pixie made me think, "Oooh, I never thought to channel my irrational pixie hatred into making one into a villain!" Zavanix got my vote.

This struck me as very funny, for some reason. Maybe because I hate pixies, too.

[Steven Helt]

So..what we've got here is Mxyzptlk, in the sense that he's random, and his activites defy description other than to say they amuse him. I know there's supposed to be something deeper he's trying to bring down with his uncharted random acts of chaos, but that isn't decipherable by PCs without finding his diary or such. He's a random crime spree in one irritating litle package.

Use of the pixie as a villain is unique, but this "unfathomably random is really just a method to his madness" thing is not clever or compelling. It feels like a copout. I sense that you were going for something more 'chaos theory' and more sinister but I don't think you quite made the transition from irritant to villain.

[Sue Flaherty]

I'm reading this guy and suddenly I think of "Faerie Meat" and am giggling too much. Yes, he's got potential, but as others have said, he's so random, that as a GM I have _no_ guidelines on where to go with him, or how to give the players hints to find and stop him ... sorry.

[Todd Stewart]

Conceptually I love this guy. However I keep falling back to the reservation of how I'd use him as a long-term villain. My take on this is mirroring some of the judges ideas here, but even so I'm still pondering this one for a vote.

[James Hunnicutt]

I ran a pixie villain once, and it worked great. I think the trouble with Zavanix is making him insane and unpredictable. What's more frightening and intimidating is a pixie in full control of its powers: constant flight, constant greater invis, DR, SR, spell-like abilities, huge Dex bonsu, and then stack on top of that some Sor or Rog levels and then BAM you have a killer combatant. Among other things, the constant invis means all ranged attacks within 30 ft are sneak attacks.

[Jason Nelson]

I like him as a monster, but it's been said already that his randomness is too random to make any sense as a real villain. A recurring character that your players hate with the burning fiery passion of a thousand exploding suns? Sure, I could see that, and that has some value. But they will hate him just because he irritates the crap out of them, not because they will ever (short of you as the DM dropping in gratuitous exposition) understand that they are supposed to be his adversaries and working against him.

Pixies are evil as the day is long, and the cheat long, loud, and hard, so big ups for using one as a villain (and I dig the aberrant sorcerer choice), but I don't think I'm buying the next round.

[Russ Taylor]

"Pixie aberrant sorcerer" has about 3/4 of the job of selling a vote done for me out of the gate. But it loses me with the random acts that aren't detailed, and the wrongness of appearance that isn't explained. It's been said here and elsewhere, but we're your DMs, we need to know. Play the cards face up for us.

I'm troubled as to how there would be cults that agree with his goals, since his goals are so inscrutable. I would have tweaked that in an editing pass, were it my submission. Maybe the Lamashtans just like his results? Especially if he uses pixie-love arrows to encourage highly inappropriate breeding?

I'm barely sitting on the fence with this one, leaning toward a no-vote. It might come back up after reflection.

[Maurice de Mare]

grab: no
useful: no

vote: no

[Zombieneighbours]

Mmm....villainous fae are wonderful, i love villainous fae.

Unfortunately, this guy just doesn't live up to the promise that his nature implies.

Fairy tales have a structure and logic to them that makes them fairy tales. It is those rules that make fairy tales interesting. This NPC lacks those rules.

[magdalena thiriet]

Jason Nelson wrote:

A recurring character that your players hate with the burning fiery passion of a thousand exploding suns? Sure, I could see that, and that has some value.

You know, I was wondering about this concept of villain, someone who is not really big on masterplan but someone unpleasant thrown in at unexpected times to cause unexpected havoc. Kind of like Janice in "Friends".

This is Janice. Nice addition to campaign but as a villain needs lots of work...

[Winterwalker]

For a villain contest, not plot right now, this guy is still making me come back and nod yes.

Plot has holes sure, but this is a villain round, not plot round. I'm pretty sure this is a solid vote for me.

[Chris Mortika]

On top of all that, sadly, "Zavanix" sounds like the brand name for some medication. "If you're experiencing muscle cramps or fatigue after killing a hydra, Zavanix may be for you. Zavanix is not for everyone. Do not use Zavanix if you are pregnant, nursing, or under 4th Level..."

[Winterwalker]

Vote cast, you made the list.

[Montalve]

thinking about it... michievous aberration fey trying to bring down the walls of reality really digs it for me... specially since I am a Lovecraft's fan

and I always change thestories sold to me :P

I am almost sure to vote foryou Nutall... I just have about 24 more submissions to read

[roguerouge]

Corrosive Rabbit wrote:

So close -- one sentence to the effect that "Zavanix has discovered the existence of a long forgotten set of ley lines, and he is experimenting with various acts along those ley lines to see how best to release their power" and you would have had me.

QFT. Although I would prefer that he's setting up a zany Unseelie Court party game that will wreak havoc with the Material Plane, but be the event of the season.

To be fair, alogical does describe the actions of the fey in many fairy tales.

[raincricket]

I like crazed pixies, and good fey gone bad in general. Though I found the severity of his actions in contrast with the hooks provided left me cold.
Plus, a Z a V and an X all in the same name make him sound like medication.

[Ernest Mueller]

1/10

A killer pixie. Like a generic serial killer but with more cliches sprinkled on him. No thanks.

[Charles Evans 25]

Jeffrey Scott Nuttall wrote:

...Everything he does fits into a design that only he understands. At times, Zavanix may do something that seems wholly altruistic, but it’s still a part of the incomprehensible pattern. Ultimately, Zavanix’s actions, as random and unconnected as they appear, are weaving an intricate incantation that’s forging a connection to another level of existence. Already it’s started to open gates and bring bizarre monsters into the world, many unlike any sages are familiar with. If Zavanix continues much longer, eventually all Golarion could be subsumed into an alien reality....

This pixie does seem villainous to me, but unfortunately, if I have a villain with a plan, I want the PCs and players to be able to work out what it is at some point so that they can actually attempt to stop it.

Most PCs aren't going to go beyond 'he's doing this because he's a fruitcake', seeing seemingly random acts time after time, and the players may well assume he serves some sort of Mxyzptlk role meant to do little more than irritate their PCs at the DM's whim.

Will this villain cause the PCs grief?
Yes. But the point of that grief being caused, if run as written, will almost certainly completely pass them by.

[Gillywibbers]

I'm really digging the old Irish fairy feeling from this villain. When pixies go bad, I get interested.

I vote for Zavanix and look forward to seeing some crunch in the next round!

[Joel Flank]

Love the chaotic aberrant pixie villain. Love the plot to let his little aberrant friends from beyond come to Golarion to play. Don't love the sparse details on his plan. It's fine if his plan SEEMS random at first, but there needs to be a way that it actually makes sense to someone other than Zavanix. However, this lack can be rectified in a more detailed writeup, so it's not a show stopper for me. Also, I think the name is great for a pixie. For that matter using prescription drug names for all pixies works for me.

This isn't a home run, but it's a solid triple. It's at the top of my maybe category.

[Jorrik the Fat]

This is a good character, and one I can easily see myself using as a villain. Plus, I must confess that I just want to see a pixie villain doing better than it seems to be! It's an original, and perhaps somewhat brave, decision, and I feel that it fully deserves my vote. Good luck!

[james knowles]

Evil pixies rock!
Having said that 'tho, this concept doesn't work for me in a pathfinder concept. Unless the DM and players are experienced with Call of Cthulu or paranoia, the madness for madness sake approach seldom works in more traditional games.
gotta say no on this one.

[Charles Evans 25]

Commiserations that you will go no further this time.