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View Full Version : Making an Evil Artifact REALLY FREAKING SCARY



Leliel
2009-11-22, 10:15 PM
Well, in the Mecha In Eberron game I'm planning, the main BBEG's plot partially hinges on a Artifact of Doom called the Wing of Discord.

Basically, it's one of the few surviving bits of Ahaleth, the artificial god that destroyed his civilization remaining. It's a good thing too, as said artificial god had a personality that would make Asmodeus recoil in horror.

Now, he doesn't like using the Wing of Discord at all-besides bad memories, that thing carries with it a remaining sliver of Ahaleth's genocidal, sociopathic personality. Specifically, his megalomaniacal desire to control all life and destroy all sapients that he didn't create.

Now, that's pretty good "holy crap, we've got to destroy this thing" incentive right there, but I want to show exactly what kind of effects it has on people who use it as a weapon (the BBEG's plot will destroy it in the process of using it). Although, understandably, the last thing it does to it's wielder/patsy if she doesn't realize what's going on and get rid of it is to completely take over her personality and turn her into a metaphorical monster, but it seduces people before then, trying to make them more vulnerable to the inevitable takeover.

So how would you show it's effects in a suitably nightmare-inducing fashion on it's wielders?

Zaq
2009-11-22, 10:19 PM
Have you ever played Grandia II? Seeing what being inunder the control of one of the pieces of Valmar does to you would be a good start. Not a good finish, but a good start.

Lapak
2009-11-22, 10:29 PM
It's not totally clear from your post - will the PCs be seeing the artifact in action in the BBEG's hands? In someone else's hands? In their own? Or will they come across the aftermath of its use and have secondhand contact with it? That'll make a difference in how you want to present it. (I know the BBEG is planning to use it, but I wasn't sure whether or not he currently possesses it.)

Acanous
2009-11-22, 10:32 PM
Have the BBEG start off looking like an OK guy, just on the other side. He refuses to fight unarmed foes, won't kill if he doesn't have to, and will tactfully surrender a battle rather than have his minions killed off.
(IE give them a few combat encounters with him, and have all the rumours circulating about him be good ones)

Maybe toss in an NPC with one arm, an old farm owner who used to be one of this guy's guardsmen- who is now retired on a generous severance package.

As he starts being seduced; First have him turn on one of his neighbors, causing an uproar in the local courts.
Then have him start overworking/overtaxing his peasentry in preperation for getting this plan of his going faster. At first, the people are understanding and proud, but they get embittered as months drag on.

Then he starts acting like an ass in combat- attacking unarmed foes, using ambushes, maybe starting to use poison. One of his top men gets very scared and deserts, contacts the party.

In the end, he's become the very thing he used to stand against, totally consumed with his goals and adamantly believing that the ends justify the means. He's begun execuiting naysayers publicly as traitors, and uses fear to keep his people quiet.

This is about when the PCs should have a final showdown with him. Further, he'll be JUST about ready to use the doomweapon, so he's going to be full of zeal, desperate to see his means justified. Possibly imploring the party (If defeated) to use it anyway.

Leliel
2009-11-22, 10:37 PM
It's not totally clear from your post - will the PCs be seeing the artifact in action in the BBEG's hands? In someone else's hands? In their own? Or will they come across the aftermath of its use and have secondhand contact with it? That'll make a difference in how you want to present it. (I know the BBEG is planning to use it, but I wasn't sure whether or not he currently possesses it.)

At first, it's come into the hands of the PCs, who, of course, have no idea it's anything other than a brand-spanking new plot device.

So long as they are not complete munchkins they'll realize it's Evil with a capital E and RP getting the Concordance score low enough to get rid of it-the fact that it messes with the characters might help.

Once there, it comes into the possession of a secondary character, who, of course, chooses the hubristic course and eventually be taken over by it.

Either way, they become a boss, and after their defeat, the BBEG comes and steals the wing-although he leaves a salve to help heal the recently released character as a sort of exchange. He's pretty honorable.

Lapak
2009-11-22, 11:09 PM
At first, it's come into the hands of the PCs, who, of course, have no idea it's anything other than a brand-spanking new plot device.

So long as they are not complete munchkins they'll realize it's Evil with a capital E and RP getting the Concordance score low enough to get rid of it-the fact that it messes with the characters might help.

Once there, it comes into the possession of a secondary character, who, of course, chooses the hubristic course and eventually be taken over by it.

Either way, they become a boss, and after their defeat, the BBEG comes and steals the wing-although he leaves a salve to help heal the recently released character as a sort of exchange. He's pretty honorable.Very good. Well, I find that the thing that tends to scare players most is to mess with their perception of events, or at least show them that someone else's perceptions are being messed with.

So it depends on how powerful you want to make it, and how much you want to hit them directly. While it's in their possession, have at least one or two events where the PC need to make a set of Will saves. Those who fail see events happening one way; those who succeed will have to deal with their friends who are suddenly seeing allies as monsters and monsters as slavering demons. If they all fail, they're not going to know anything was wrong unless someone else tells them.

Or, if you want to play this a little easier, the second owner is going to fall for this full-on. He's going to perceive everything upside-down and backwards, and he's going to do some of the 'standard' horrific things to his enemies (torture of captives, murdering surrendered foes, that kind of thing.) Then he's going to start doing this to people he knows and likes, and he's going to forget that he cares about them. The people he gets set against are going to be painted as horrors in his memory, and he's going to lose the people he loves twice - once in his head, and then when he kills them. The artifact's top priority once it has a foot in the door should be to sever every connection that might be supportive or caring or in any way remind its bearer of his own humanity, and make them forget in the process that they ever had such things. So there's no recognizing that you're going down a dark path and recovering - every action you're taking seems as if it's against the worst and most dangerous sort of monsters.

In fact, I'd make that one of its major powers - using it to kill counts as voluntarily accepting a memory modification spell that twists your memory of whoever you just killed to justify your deed after the fact in your own head.

Prime32
2009-11-23, 06:53 AM
Take a look at the start of the first Fullmetal Alchemist series, when the priest's fake Philosopher's Stone shatters and his arm starts mutating into a mass of gears and tubes.

If the will of the Wing's user is not strong enough it will start to transform his body into Ahaleth, but no human can withstand the process. The result will be a corpse with random mechanical components sticking out, like a bloody, frayed metallic wing.

If the user's will is strong enough to control it he may still start transforming gradually - he keeps his right hand under his cloak to conceal the fact that it is transforming into an organic minigun.


Basically the BBEG has levels in renegade mastermaker.