My group just finished book one, and they killed everyone in Thistletop except Tsuto who was to be brought to justice at the urging of Ameiko and the now dead Paladin. I fully intend on having Tsuto be released by Ironbriar and used again, but knowing that the PCs just caved her head in and left the body in Thistletop, could he then go back and get her Resurrected by Magnimarian Clerics? I don't want my PCs to feel like their efforts were for naught, but Nualia's too good of an enemy to only use the once. And having Xanesha with a half-Demon or Succubus Nualia reborn and put to the PCs with her Scarecrow? Can't pass that up!
Basically, is it too much to want to bring her back, or should I have her make a return in Book 2 for the last time?
Bring her back. Teach them to burn the bodies and hide the ashes! :)
So, you don't think it'd be too much to have her come back AND be a Half-Demon/Succubus/anything working WITH Tsuto during Book 2?
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I'd actually twist it a bit... follow me.
So Tsuto can't afford the resurrection and possibly can't find anyone willing to cast it. So, he looks to other means to bring her back to life. Other, more necromantic means. So now, Nualia has returned, but as a shadow of her former self, a mentally enslaved zombie (or even zombie lord) under the command of her mentally insane lover Tsuto. This would be interesting as the tables have turned in their relationship, with Tsuto being in charge and probably more powerful than Nualia with the Zombie Template. Imagine the players' shock when they bust through into his home and see him with his undead "wife" living an unsettling facade of a life. Dining on a feast of food and human for Nualia, or perhaps Tsuto dancing with his pallid bride in a ballroom full of an orchestra of zombies barely playing their musical instruments.
Yet he'd still be out of his gourd mad. I think it'd make an interesting, albeit tragic encounter, especially if the necromancer Tsuto pays is now using him and Nualia for his own nefarious purposes.
Be careful of the lessons you teach your players. If the bad guys regularly get resurrected, they'll always burn all of their enemies in a funeral pyre. Not that it's a bad thing (it's better than using animate dead on them), just keep in mind what they'll take away from that.
On the other hand, I would have loved to bring Nualia back as a recurring bad guy-- maybe have her show up from time to time. I would probably not have her show up in Skinsaw Murders, so that the focus can be on that module's bad guys. I think she'd be a good addition to Fortress of the Stone Giants as a military advisor to the giants raiding Sandpoint. If she's still kicking around, have her presence be noted earlier-- maybe the party heard rumors of her in Turtleback Ferry a week before the PCs had arrived. She went there to consult with Lucretia, and then to rendezvous with the giants.
Of course, recurring bad guys are tough to pull off in RPGs. Players tend to fixate on them and go to great lengths to kill them off.
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Or... Tsuto goes mad because his lover is gone. So... he starts dressing as her. He has a white wig (maybe even made out of her hair). He starts acting like her. Eventually he may even use transmutation magic to turn himself female to try and become her.
And he keeps her embalmed corpse around as well. Let the party find that. ;)
Or... Tsuto goes mad because his lover is gone. So... he starts dressing as her. He has a white wig (maybe even made out of her hair). He starts acting like her. Eventually he may even use transmutation magic to turn himself female to try and become her.
And he keeps her embalmed corpse around as well. Let the party find that. ;)