I’m guessing every major city has something like this…?
Who would you put on this list for the city of Absalom?
I’m less interested in nation-breakers like The Whispering Tyrant & Nex than I am “normal” bad guys.
A- and B-list villains.
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I love an excuse to head to the pathfinder wiki and search a concept. I admit I don't know how these characters have been used- so I have no idea if they are currently alive and kicking, imprisoned or running wild.
I will note that the kind of criminals found in a region relate to the sorts of stories most associated with it. Varisia has a lot of bandits, Ustalav has a lot of serial killers. Based on my clicking around, it looks like Absalom is mostly plagued by smugglers, and criminals who can hide within "legitimate" organisations.
The Banshees are a group of drug smugglers and slavers based out of The Puddles District. Their mouthpiece and most well-known member is the half-orc Gedrak.
The Poisoned Lodge make money trading in whatever they can get their hands on. What sets them apart is that they are adventurers, and potentially members of the Pathfinder Society. The wiki says they "claim" to be members, so maybe the are lying about it, or maybe they are actual pathfinders and afforded some kind of protection (implicit or explicit)
Guaril Karela, similarly, is the leader of the Sczarni and may be connected the the merchant wing of the pathfinders. Interestingly enough despite being based in Absalom (and perhaps not even known to be associated with the criminals) most Sczarni activity doesn't take place in Absalom itself.
Mason Karbie is actually a criminal from Diobel, but since that is under Absalom's protection they might want to see him brought to justice as well. But how the Diobel citizens feel about agents of Absalom sticking their noses into their bussiness might complicate things...
Tarrant Akayn is an interesting one (and from a piece of fiction I haven't read) but he is a con artist and incredible ambitious, which can make a change of pace from violent criminals.
If you want to look at a conspiracy game you can some fun with some people that should be on that list but are not:
Worshipers of Norgorber
This is basically a set of connected cults of Norgorber that are outlawed almost everywhere in the world except for Absalom.
Now... who's skeletons are being kept in who's closets to keep those guy's out of jail?
This is where you can start putting together an 'organized crime meets evil cultists meets 'the nice politician that just built a dog park in my neighborhood' campaign.