So, I'm about to begin the Age of Worms adventure path for the first time here in a few weeks. I've read through the entire AP and it occurs to me that, while Kyuss is a wonderfully fun villain, there isn't much substance to him beyond "evil guy become evil deity and wants to do evil things." For secondary villains--Dragotha, Lashonna--the pursuit of power for power's sake is fine, but for the main antagonist I really want there to be an underlying story, a reason Kyuss became Kyuss. I find Raknian to be a truly compelling character because the despicable things he does, he does for a completely understandable reason: the fear of growing old and losing glory.
Now, naturally, as an evil deity, it is in Kyuss's best interest to do evilly things. But as a man, as a mortal, Kyuss had to have dreams and ambitions, goals and wishes, just like any of us. I hate to imagine he was just an evil guy. I like to think something made him that way. Kyuss used to have hope. And, like all of us, Kyuss at one time loved.
The module "Spire of the Long Shadows," aside from allegedly being a TPK nightmare, provides me a wonderful vehicle to show this hidden backstory to my players in the form of the visions of the past. I had intended on eschewing the "evil guy makes an evil sacrifice and becomes an evil deity because he is evil" visions to reveal something more intimate, and more secret. My preliminary idea is that Kyuss suffered a great amount of loss in his early life--the death of his parents, the loss of security and a home, and then making his way by fighting tooth and nail until one day falling in love with a beautiful young lady. Of course, fate decrees that this young woman must die in a terribly tragic way, which leads to an obsession for Kyuss to discover the secrets of death, turning him down the path of the worship of Nerull. He delves deeper and deeper into how to overcome and master death until he has unearthed the secrets and practices that ultimately lead to his ascension as a god of undeath. Perhaps Lashonna knows of this story, and chooses to appear as how Kyuss's lover once appeared.
I want this story to resonate with my characters who have either lost something valuable in their backstories or will lose something during the course of the campaign. They will be able to look at these memories haunting this dead city and say, "I, too, have lost something unfathomably valuable to me." And perhaps, even if only for a moment, they will sympathize with Kyuss, perhaps even understand why he became what he has become.
I guess the purpose of me posting this is to ask those that have finished the adventure path if they think this would make the campaign any more satisfactory or if it's just unneeded fluff that will fall flat. Bringing humanity and depth into the character, I feel, would make the ultimate battle more compelling, to know the creature they are fighting against was once human, who fell in love just as the players could fall in love, and made mistakes just as they could have done. I am eager to hear opinions and suggestions for improving this idea.
That sounds really interesting, especially if it makes the PC's think upon their own actions. So by becoming a God of Death he can return his lost love? Of course, you (the DM) would have to make it patently clear he cannot be saved.
That's the idea. Perhaps between the Harbinger's machinations and his increasing insanity he begins to believe the key to mastery over death lies in these strange worms. He could see controlling the undead as defying the natural order of life and death. It's all links in a chain that leads to him reclaiming what he lost.
And although I'm a sucker for happy endings, you're right in that Kyuss is well beyond redemption and that will be a point I reinforce for my group, especially the lawful goods amongst them. As much as everyone would like to see Kyuss's redeemed force ghost standing next to his lost love, no such happy ending can wait for someone who has committed such atrocity.
I'm glad you found it interesting! :)
That does sound like quite a neat idea. I'm just a couple of sessions into Whispering Cairn, so I'd be interested to see where you go with this! :)
Interesting.
I've started Age of Worms recently and its the second time I've run it. First time out, I ran it for about 15 months. The PCs got to the end of The Spire of Long Shadows in a cakewalk (yes, really). My first group of players never found Kyuss particularly compelling but that did not trouble them much. He's an evil god, after all. Pathos was not important to them when he's the campaign's Cthulhu-from-Beyond.
My trouble with the villains in Age of Worms was not Kyuss or Dragotha -- it's Lashonna. After all, she's the one who should be able to be redeemed; however, as presented, she seems like a cookie cutter villain to me. Near as I can tell, her motivations arise out of layering an impressive template on an already impressive stat block. Templated villains are not engaging to me without a deeper explanation.
In my Golarion based Age of Worms - Re-Rolled, I've recast a large number of NPCs and changed Kyuss into Groetus. I don't expect this to trouble my players at all. I don't see them wondering too much about the motivations of Dragotha, either (though I've changed him a little as well and made him the scion of Dahak).
The need for more insight to me is Raknian and Lashonna. Those are the two NPCs that seemed to me to require more fleshing out and being made "real" characters with a need for more subtle and explainable motives.
I'm curious as to why you see Kyuss as needing more, but don't appear to be troubled by a two dimensional Lashonna. While the AP is surrounding and about Kyuss, he really isn't the main antagonist. He's just the Foozle - the climactic fight at the end of the campaign. The PCs will never actually speak with him -- not even once. I think as you run it past Spire, you'll see that the villain who is the main antagonist and who the PCs actually interact with frequently and talk to is Lashonna. She's the one who needs to feel more "real", imo.
I guess I got this vibe that the party is following the trail of Kyuss, they're chasing his shadow and piecing together who he is and what he is. They're not doing this to learn about him or get to know him but to discover how he became what he is so that they may be better equipped to take him apart. I felt like it was important to show his ascension and that he, too, was once mortal like them. In order to defeat the monster that is they must first understand the man that was, so to speak. And when I first read the synopsis for Spire of Long Shadows, I thought, 'okay, great, the writers had the same idea I did and here they're going to show Kyuss as a tragic, flawed, almost sympathetic character before his ascension.' That ended up not being the direction they chose but that has not deterred me.
I think the reason I want Kyuss to have this compelling quality to him is in fact BECAUSE he is not the central antagonist. This is his story, however. I want his impact on the world to resonate in more than just an end-of-the-worldy, worms-writhing kind of way. I want to say, "Here is a man who was powerful and ambitious enough that, had he lived in this age and trod a different path, could have stood by your side as an ally and friend, heroes. Here is a man who could have been a hero, but lost it all, and in that, lost himself." I've played enough "unknowable evil" villains anyway. They're fun for what they are, but when you can look a man.. err.. entity.. in the face, and say, "I know what you are. I know why you did it. But I still have to put you down." That.. well, that says a lot more. There's a reason Baldur's Gate 2's Jon Irenicus is so well-loved, after all.
Concerning Lashonna, I hadn't put a lot of thought into her, but I'm sure she has a story to tell as well. She just seems so viciously ambitious in her desire for power that there wasn't a lot of room for growth at first glance, where I found a lot of wiggle room with Kyuss.
Dragotha, however, is just a jerk, and I will happily allow him to remain so. :)
Hi,
I agree with Steel Wind, Lashonna WAS good and lost much more than Kyuss as far as we know may be he was always a bad guy who wanted to rule the world and there's nothing to add.
Seems very difficult to make him "loveable" it was so long ago and there is no proof of his humanity or lost love unless you add this to the story but I think as said above that you see him only once in the campaign and after the initiative dice is rolled no one will think "ho poor old evil god you once were a not so bad human guy who loved a beautiful blond girl but she married that paladin and...you're engulfled you take 300hp damage and you begin to suffocate...no more Mr nice guy".
But...it's you're campaign, you make the story you want and if you think that's seems cool sure it is ;)
But Lashonna is very cool too....
If you want to see Kyuss as the fall guy, then check out the forgotten realms conversion notes wherein Kyuss is really just a tool for Jergal to become an overgod.
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