I’ve read a lot of talk on the boards here about foreshadowing Nyrissa in the earlier adventures. However, when I first picked up Sound of a Thousand Screams, I was more captivated by the other really cool, villainous NPCs in the adventure. This adventure was written by Richard Pett, known for the bizarre and unusual, and he really delivered in regards to the villains. Unfortunately, like Nyrissa herself, I feel that as written in the adventure that they get the short shrift- hanging around Nyrissa to be used as speed bumps for the PCs. I think they deserve more than that!
With that in mind, now that my players are late in book 4 and Nyrissa’s influence and machinations are slowly revealing themselves, I’ve been trying to foreshadow her book 6 henchmen so that way when the PCs finally encounter them at the end, they know more of the villain’s back story and, hopefully, the victory over the villain will be more satisfying. I’m hoping with this thread, people can share their ideas for how to interweave some of book 6’s villains early into the adventures. I know I’m still missing some gaps with some of the bad guys like the Horned Hunter, Frost Giant, Nightmare Roc, and Misbegotten Troll.
To get the ball rolling, here’s some of what I’m doing.
Gnurly Witch
One of players joined the campaign halfway through The Harrowing, appearing in Baba Yaga’s hut. He hasn’t really developed a back story yet, so I’ve been giving him some seeds- he may possibly be an agent of Baba Yaga, come to extract revenge on the Gnurly Witch for her treachery in return for a favor from Old Grandmother. The hags the PCs have encountered so far certainly seem to think so. So far, the PCs have learned of the Gnurly Witch, but not the full extent of her machinations. They will soon find a prototype bottle, so I’ll let them wonder about that for a bit.
As I build off this idea more, I’m hoping that it will be more of an exciting encounter when the PCs reach her in book 6.
Wriggling Man
The Wriggling Man is not yet as powerful as he is in book 6 (using the stats for a Worm that Walks in Bestiary 2). So far, he has tried to enact his vengeance twice. The first time was disguising himself as a mystic at a carnival held at Olegton. When the PCs arrived to find Oleg, the kingdom's treasurer who mysteriously vanished, the Wriggling Man sprang his trap, sending them to the Harrowed Realm with a deck of Harrow Cards. Recently (and only two months of in game time), the Wriggling Man helped the lizardfolk burn down the village of Thornhill (Raging Swan Press) in the Hooktongue Slough. When the PCs arrived, the Wriggling Man introduced them to his friend, the Mire Brute (Tome of Horrors Complete) and then escaped.
The Wriggling Man is very focused on revenge and will try to cheap shot the PCs here and there to keep them on their toes. This greatly amuses Nyrissa for now, who is not sure quite yet what to think of the PCs (they may in fact be just the people she’s looking for to unknowingly enact her plan!). Obviously, book 6 will the final showdown between the PCs and their old adventuring companion.
Ilthuliak
Those are just three of the many cool villains in book 6, so I still got a little ways to go. For the 4 armed frost giant guy (don’t have my book in front of so can’t remember his name), I might lead into that a little with Raging Swan’s Pirates of the Icy Heart NPC supplement. The PC duke, a fire focused cleric of Sarenrae, will likely marry a runaway Irriseni Jadwiga. Perhaps their wedding is crashed by the mercenary frost giant pirates that have some link to the 4 armed giant. Still working on this.
I haven’t decided if I want to do something special for every villain yet (leave a few surprises), but I would like to work in the Misbegotten Troll. A good opportunity would have been back in book 2, but I’m past that point. I find that as the adventure plays out, opportunities constantly arise to tie various things in, so I’m sure something will come along that sparks an idea.
Anyway, these are just some of my ideas. As you can see, they mostly revolve around how things have worked out so far in the campaign. I encourage others to share their ideas as well, so that we can steal them for our games. Because sometimes stealing is a good thing.
I ended up with a fair number of half-dragon encounters running around earlier books, all spawn of Iluthiak...
I ended up with a fair number of half-dragon encounters running around earlier books, all spawn of Iluthiak...
Thank you! That just reminded me of something. My players haven't explored much of book 3's area. One encounter I want to drop in is going to be pulled from Frog God Game's Slumbering Tsar megaadventure. It involved a cavern and a blue dracolisk suitable for the mountain hexes. If I run it, I'll have to remember to change the dracolisk to black.
Good stuff =)
I made the Misbegotten Troll the son of Nyrissa and Hargulka, aged quickly to adulthood by the magic of the faerie realm. In my game she's going to have a cadre of such half-blooded offspring, also including children gotten off the Stag Lord, the patsy who opened Vordakai's tomb in VV, Armagk, and a grandchild by way of Irovetti and Engelidis (who I changed from a spirit naga to a Half-Fey Yuan-Ti and made her Nyrissa's daughter and agent in Irovetti's realm).
I also ended up merging the Knurly Witch and Ilthuliak into one entity, making Ilth into a Maleficent analogue. (Blame the thorn hedges associated with the Witch.) Since it mentioned that she went to Thousandbreaths to learn the mysteries of the Linnorms, I also turned her into a Black Dragon/Tarn Linnorm hybrid, complete with two heads (and removed the encounter with "Runt"). I've been dropping hints that she once ruled a large portion of the Stolen Lands from her domain in the Hooktongue Slough, but she's been gone so long - studying and undergoing her transformation in Nyrissa's realm - that other dragons in the area have begun to move in on her terrain. The party just recently allied with Eranex to give themselves a representative in the area so they can hold their own in the potential draconic land-war to come.
Good stuff =)
I made the Misbegotten Troll the son of Nyrissa and Hargulka, aged quickly to adulthood by the magic of the faerie realm. In my game she's going to have a cadre of such half-blooded offspring, also including children gotten off the Stag Lord, the patsy who opened Vordakai's tomb in VV, Armagk, and a grandchild by way of Irovetti and Engelidis (who I changed from a spirit naga to a Half-Fey Yuan-Ti and made her Nyrissa's daughter and agent in Irovetti's realm).
I also ended up merging the Knurly Witch and Ilthuliak into one entity, making Ilth into a Maleficent analogue. (Blame the thorn hedges associated with the Witch.) Since it mentioned that she went to Thousandbreaths to learn the mysteries of the Linnorms, I also turned her into a Black Dragon/Tarn Linnorm hybrid, complete with two heads (and removed the encounter with "Runt"). I've been dropping hints that she once ruled a large portion of the Stolen Lands from her domain in the Hooktongue Slough, but she's been gone so long - studying and undergoing her transformation in Nyrissa's realm - that other dragons in the area have begun to move in on her terrain. The party just recently allied with Eranex to give themselves a representative in the area so they can hold their own in the potential draconic land-war to come.
Nice! I like that angle with Nyrissa and Hagrulka. I've been trying to introduce more of the war trolls from 3e but only managed to squeeze in one so far as a bodyguard to the Mother of Flies. Maybe I'll make the Misbegotten Troll Nyrissa's "general" and the war trolls his army.
Depending on what my player's want to do, I might run Kobold Press's Courts of the Shadow Fey adventure for their kingdom's "B team"- 7th level characters they created for a one shot. I like that adventure because it deals with fey living in the Shadow Realm which I can tie into Count Ranalc (his former court there before he disappeared). While those characters deal with that, the main PCs will meet Eranex as described in the campaign book and thwart Ranalc's followers. Then somehow tie that into Ilthuliak...maybe he's wants to immortal but not as a ravener but instead becoming some sort of fey, shadow dragon if he can just help Ranalc escape. Hmmm, things to ponder.
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I foreshadowed their involvement with the green hair rings early on. Then I went on full blown introduction of the problem by having the Wriggling Man finish his *bottling the green belt* spell and casting it while the pc's were in Varnhold.
The Wriggling man failed, *but* the players, for a brief few seconds to minutes, were all teleported somewhere in Nyrissa's land. One in the vault of objects (like the unicorn horn or stag lord's helmet) where he met Ilthuliak and was breathed on. Another at some random intelligent giant owlbear's house, another in the mandragora garden and the last face to face with the Wriggling man fuming over shattered bottles and an obviously failed spell.
Seconds before the Wriggling Man disintegrated the player (I had his clothes half disintegrated on his chest area, showing how close a call it was) the spell's after-effect faded and they all ported back somewhere in Varnhold's section of the map, separated for a week or two. Some huge mile-long chunks of land looked scooped out and dumped back were they were.
With this now they know something is up, somehow. But they lack critical details. When they get to the mid of book 4, and then 5, the same events will happen again as the Wriggling Man perfects his spell for the possible final casting in book 6.
STEALING that.
Next time they get warped to the Fae World I might have an encounter against one of the weaker elements there in chapter 6's random encounter book. One of the PC's stole some old book written in Sylvan from the black dragon's library (close to the vault of important items).
It will foreshadow an encounter with a daughter dragon in book 4 in the marsh. Then the 2 clerics working with the barbarian boss of book 4 will be apprentices of the cleric hag of Gyronna. Book 5 will mostly play out the same.
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I foreshadowed starting from the beginning. I used a home brewed "green creature" template on some of the wandering monsters. when the monster was killed, a green tentacle wandered away and returned to the first world out of sight. i also had the murderous hermit in ?book 2? make frequent mention of the " green lady" to point to Nyrissa. posting from work so i dont have alot of details handy.
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I like some of these ideas! I'll definitely use the idea to link the Misbegotten Troll to Hargulka.
Personally, I've set it up so that the players think that the area was the site of an ages-old conflict between 3 powerful beings:
1) Ilthuliak, ruling from the Hooktongue Slough
2) ?? Elven Woman, ruling from the Stolen Lands
3) Vordekai, ruling from Varnhold's area
I've foreshadowed Nyrissa by having her use Sendings to warn the PCs about Vordekai's minions when they were near, and also she has Charmed some cyclops and had them attack the PCs in books 3 and 4, claiming it was Vordekai's doing. Right now the PCs are very, very suspicious of her but aren't sure on her details.
I've also foreshadowed Ilthuliak very heavily, and he (changed to a male in my story) was the "power behind the throne" in Fort Drelev, masking himself as Ameon Trask, and carefully pulling the strings to push Drelev into war with the PCs, among other actions. I also had him take over a city north of the Slough in A5 that had been controlled by allies, where his children (4 adult black dragons) currently rule. I also made him into an enemy of the barbarian tribes, and so 1 of their motivations for seeking Arnag's blade is to be able to combat him.