Through unlucky dice rolls and the disgusting power of a snake style monk, the main villain of my campaign was killed a lot earlier than I originally anticipated. While I could pull some trick to have him alive, I am intrigued by the idea of having them deal with the power vaccum that killing this villain has created in addition to the issues his contingency plans may arouse. My problem is I have little idea of on how to work a power vaccum in a campaign.
The villian: A gnome who combined golemancy and dark magics to create a race of bioconstructs. He converted the area surrounding his lab into a hostile swampland, filled with rejected creations. His obsession with creating life (a feat virtually impossible in this setting) gave him conflict with an ancient order (whom the PCs are members of) tasked with guarding an eldritch pool capable of altering it.
The golems continue to create more golems in his abscence carrying on his will. Of which, a tiny portion was imbued into each and creature he created. Maybe, like a horcrux.
Obviously, one of his golems was actually intelligent and takes over his work. Perhaps he planned for his creator to die the whole time so he could take over. Maybe this golem is making the pool look undefended so that the members of this ancient order swoop in to retake it, but he springs an ambush on them, wiping them out, leaving the PCs as the only possible check for his growing power.
The enemy the party killed was not the Villain himself, but a nearly perfect golem-copy. The PCs find clues reach this determination, and it shows them just how close your villain is to perfecting his dastardly scheme. This is the GM's opportunity to bring the "real" villain back with a vengeance, having been able to study the PCs tactics and prepare his defenses against them.
This really depemds on the campaign world. Who is in position to move into the power vacuum? People on the other side of him? Someone who was also being hindered by the former villain's operations?
Any self-respecting villain has a contingency in case of death. Frankie had an experiment in stasis that was too dangerous to let loose. Say, a self-replicating golemification process. When he dies, this gets released in a nearby town, leading to a horrendous massacre. Worse, Frankie was an aesthete and actually euthanized a significant portion of his "children" who were ugly, too dangerous or suffered too much. Without him, they keep being created, but now there are more and they are worse. And, of course, his First Child, who was designed as an heir, now feels it is his duty to prove that Frankie's work is sound, now steps in to assume leadership. He is devoted and not necessarily a bad creature, but it is his reason to live now.
One of the PC's allies was actually a more dangerous villian in disguise, who was waiting to get their filthy hands on this very research.
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He let the PCs kill him as a show. He had already set up necromatic magics to tether his soul to a Golem creation of his; but realized after creating the swamp area that heroes would be sent to wipe him out, and so he staged an opportunity for some "green" PCs to kill him so everyone would know.
After the task, the PCs are regaled as heroes who stopped the terrible artificer. Send them off on unrelated quests; then start having hints that certain things are going wrong around the town. All signs point to the swamp he originally occupied, but the mayor refuses to admit that the gnome could possibly still be alive, and quashes all rumors to this affect...
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The gnome was in the employ of a powerful force of some kind, who wanted his construct army for their own nefarious purposes. The PCs must climb the ladder to deal with this newly emerged threat?
A rancid swamp? Sounds like prime Black dragon real estate.
The golems he had created were the only things keeping a local threat in check (hobgoblin tibe/Cadre of dark wizards from whom the gnome stole many of his necromantic secrets/Undead creature who was going to be using many of the raw materials of the biotech critters for food and/or progent)?
Thanks for all the wonderful ideas. Y'all have made this a lot easier to work with.
Obviously, one of his golems was actually intelligent
A Wax Golem could fit this bill.
He may very well have been working on transferring his intellect into a golem-like body. I don't think it should actually be him, but some kind of failed experiment that was actually smarter and more powerful than he was -- he managed to stop it before it replaced him. Or so he thought...
The ruling body of the kingdom (or the Ancient Order the PC's are part of) must confiscate his technology, knowing the value of repairable soldiers. Crossing over to most of the above suggestions, the Gnome's consciousness (or at least Intellect and Malice) had already been transferred into one or more of the Golems, which is now biding its time, waiting for the precise moment to topple the infrastructure of whichever group now has possession of his creations.
How did all of you list different ideas and hardly any of them actually improved the situation? The PCs seem to have made things worse for killing a man the DM was confident would survive the day.
Reward them, for god's sake. Letting the campaign continue doesn't have to mean terrible things happen, or innocents get drawn into a bloody massacre. What if this unexpected action they took actually makes things easier on them? Wouldn't that be a nice change of pace?
I like the idea of a self replicating golem released by the death of its master. The golem is like the replicators in star gate sg1 and eventually is able to make lifelike replicants of humans to infiltrate his enemies.
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How did all of you list different ideas and hardly any of them actually improved the situation? The PCs seem to have made things worse for killing a man the DM was confident would survive the day.
Reward them, for god's sake. Letting the campaign continue doesn't have to mean terrible things happen, or innocents get drawn into a bloody massacre. What if this unexpected action they took actually makes things easier on them? Wouldn't that be a nice change of pace?
Because story.
Story thrives on tension. Reward them, fine, but reward them too much and it feels like the story is over.
I think we all got the impression from the OP that he wasn't quite done yet.
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the best part of a power vacuum is that there are usually several agencies trying to claim that spot for themselves. I would emphasize this.
If this wizard was close to creating life, which is so difficult, then there will be others out there who want to continue his work. Whether that means stealing golems and reverse engineering them, or taking his notes, or simply completely moving into his laboratory.
If he was a high level wizard, there will also be lots of treasure seeking individuals looking to loot and scour his workshop. These guys will clearly be at odds with the first group.
Your PC's secret society probably wouldn't want either group to take anything of value away, so that your victory won't be for nothing. So they will also try to have a presence in the swamp.
These three factions competing for the scraps left behind by the wizard can bring up some interesting dynamics. What if a treasure seeker tries to bribe the PC's to let him in? What if one of the secret society is a druid, who thinks the best way to protect the swamp is to sumberge it at the bottom of a new lake? What if one of the secret society becomes tempted by the power, and is secretly trying to recreate the experiements for himself while deflecting any investigation?
You could also include another group of heroes who had wanted to kill the BBEG first... and now they're sore with the players about it.