So, my group has a few recurring villains that they have come up with. I've got my ideas about when to spring these guys on the group, but I'm wondering what ideas other people have for them.
Thrax: Thrax survived his bought with the PCs, and actually has his reputation ruined in the city due to "Larazod" dethroning him as the master of the Hellcaller's Cup.
My thoughts on Thrax's revenge has to do with sending a Soul Eater against the PCs at some point in time when an encounter went fairly easily for them, and they aren't likely to have another one. Thrax will have the Soul Eater deliver a message in Infernal, and if anyone in the party is able to figure out what it is and the summoner's bond, they can keep the Soul Eater alive and set it back on Thrax for extra XP.
Shanwen: Shanwen also survived his early encounter with the PCs. I'm having him working "off the grid" from the Hellknights, having more or less gone a bit insane due to his shaming earlier in the AP (the PCs not only rescued Arael and didn't kill anyone, but they also stalled the outriders by hiring some "contacts" of Yakapoulio's to play "damsels in distress" when the PCs attacked the prisoner wagon.
We had a player that was gone for a while coming back to the campaign. I'm planning on having Shanwen send a note in the missing PC's hand, telling them to meet him at a warehouse where Shanwen has faceless stalkers posing as the PC and another NPC, as Shanwen has been torturing the missing PC to try and find the hideout of the Children of Westcrown.
I was originally going to go with dopplegangers, but I between the fact that dopplegangers can detect thoughts, and the fact that a priest of Asmodeus having to resort to chaotic evil allies makes Shanwen look a bit more desperate, I went with the stalkers.
Asmodean Inquisitor: One of the PCs is a Heaven's Oracle, naturally blessed by Desna. In order to boost their social standing, his parents basically sold him out to the Inquisitors, and the inquisitor got really close to the paladin of Iomedae in the party.
I'm trying to figure out a good time to spring the inquisitor on the party, and a good way to do this without derailing the campaign or making the identities of the Children of Westcrown too public too early.
The Oracle has a bit of a problem with intoxicants, getting high to avoid the pain of seeing all of the suffering in Cheliax when he naturally is attuned to goodness and freedom. I'm thinking of springing the Inquisitor on them when he visits his favorite dealer in the Dusk Market.
In general
The party is just about ready to look for the Wave Door before tackling Delvehaven, so I'm trying to pace all of the above to fit into the storyline.
The warehouse ambush essentially has to happen when that PC is ready to come back to the campaign.
I've got a fairly good handle on how I want to pull all of this off, but no good idea suffers from having a few extra set of eyes look at it and help to refine things. Refinements and suggestions are welcome.
Lose ends are always fun to tie up, my game has more than enough. Honestly, I just let Shanwen and Thrax fall by the wayside even though both survived in my game. The party didn't even learn Shanwen's name (as he isn't very important among the order) and he just became another hellknight embroiled in the dottari/hellknight politics. Thrax won and had no reason to further vex the PCs.
However, it does say Thrax can be a recurring villian. You'll find that later on in the AP there will be plenty of foes that it suggests coming back again to harrass the PCs if they live. For me, unless it specifically says this, the character will have no further role because otherwise I risk overwhelming myself with loose ends. This is especially true if your party makes sparing their defeated enemies a habit.
As for thoughts: the plans seem sound. However, unless Shanwen cut some desperate deals I don't know how a shamed low-level nobody cleric would get the resources. After botching an important prisoner transfer like that and having all of his sponsored armigers shamed I imagine he'd get busted down to desk duty. Since I don't know your party and the Asmodean inquisitor seems specific to your game, I would just suggest making sure of a few things. The party should be able to handle the encounter when it comes, the encounter shouldn't derail the game, and it should add to the experience and not cheapen it.
If those are all fine, go for it. You know your players better than I and I applaud any DM that makes the effort to truly make a game their own.
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my players are very combat-oriented, so by contrast, I have given them the horrid charismatic presence of Thesing blah-dee-blah to deal with. he is a true villain; they cannot stand the sight of him, but can't stab him to death due to political consequences. Whenever I announce a blonde male, they cringe in mock fear of yet another enounter with Thesing and his backstabbing ego. works like a charm spell.
I had Thesing send dead flowers to a half-orc barbarian - apparently half orcs see this as a great compliment (which Thesing, much to his chagrin, did not know) but the rest of the party saw the true meaning of the 'gift'.