Help with an idea

[j_spencer93]

Where in Faerun has enough freedom for a BBEG to create a "tournament" from his captives, without attracting attention from powerful NPCs that would put a stop to his evil doings? I am thinking it would have to be one of the eastern areas.
I have been working on this idea for awhile and simply do not want to shoe horn it into the story. Besides my players want it to work out good too.

[Tarvus]

Thay, in the midlands, has Slavery as the norm and Gladiatorial combat as almost the national sport. As long as your BBEG has the power and/or money to back up his ownership, the Red Wizards will leave well enough alone.

If thats not your style, there are lawless areas to the the far north, theres the Wildlands and the mostly-empty areas such as the Anauroch. Best might be places where Might Makes Right such as the Borderlands. Plenty of old castles and things to be cleared and claimed if you want a convenient lair for him as well.

EDIT: The threat in Thay is not them stopping him, but rather a Red Wizard taking interest in his captives and "arranging for the transfer of the property" so to speak. This could work to his advantage though, such as offering the winner as a slave to one the local Tharchion (Like a governor of a territory, serving under the 8 ruling Zulkirs). All this is assuming you're using the normal pre-spellplague 3.5 timeline of course.

[j_spencer93]

Thay, in the midlands, has Slavery as the norm and Gladiatorial combat as almost the national sport. As long as your BBEG has the power and/or money to back up his ownership, the Red Wizards will leave well enough alone.

If thats not your style, there are lawless areas to the the far north, theres the Wildlands and the mostly-empty areas such as the Anauroch. Best might be places where Might Makes Right such as the Borderlands. Plenty of old castles and things to be cleared and claimed if you want a convenient lair for him as well.

EDIT: The threat in Thay is not them stopping him, but rather a Red Wizard taking interest in his captives and "arranging for the transfer of the property" so to speak. This could work to his advantage though, such as offering the winner as a slave to one the local Tharchion (Like a governor of a territory, serving under the 8 ruling Zulkirs). All this is assuming you're using the normal pre-spellplague 3.5 timeline of course.

Hmm the Thay thing might work. Like maybe the Zulkir all put forth a slave (or team), and if their win they get to have ownership of anothers. However, a PC is a Zulkir now, well his old character, and thay is really really devastated in our game. Actually, i think Szass tom and he are the only ones left.

The hordelands seem out of the way enough, any info on anything there?

[Afgncaap5]

I don't have much Forgotten Realms experience, but I did read the first few Drizzt novels, and I read something about the Mind Flayers doing that with their charmed thralls in one of their underground cities. It didn't have a BBEG feel to it, but it might be engineered as such. (Or even as a midpoint scenario if the true BBEG wants to test his or her gladiatorial slaves against the charmed creatures in an underground Illithid city.)

[j_spencer93]

Wait a minute. I remember that, AND one BBEG in our world has taken over a illithid city (she is a very, very OP telepath with a long and evil story of gaining great power). She could enslave a bunch of them, or maybe have ilithid trap adventures to fight to earn some price from her.

[Phelix-Mu]

I don't have much Forgotten Realms experience, but I did read the first few Drizzt novels, and I read something about the Mind Flayers doing that with their charmed thralls in one of their underground cities. It didn't have a BBEG feel to it, but it might be engineered as such. (Or even as a midpoint scenario if the true BBEG wants to test his or her gladiatorial slaves against the charmed creatures in an underground Illithid city.)

Just to chime in, the Underdark in FR is huge beyond measure, inordinately large. Considering how difficult certain natural and unnatural features can make scrying or using magic in general (faerzess, natural lead deposits, etc), it is totally plausible to hide even a large city down there and no one might be the wiser. This is especially true if you are rolling with a high level setting where the high cap on magic that is present in FR can come into play. There are multiple parties (mind flayers, githyanki, yuan-ti, etc) that might have reasons for participating in this kind of thing (although it might have to be a rebel githyanki or some delegate of Gith herself to be high enough in level).

For something else a little less cliche, consider a branch of asura from Ysgard or similar. They seek champions of battle to fight in some coming conflict, and have decided to use a gladiatorial format on the Prime to select likely champions. Perhaps they use charms or heavy persuasion, but mostly they just rely on the types they want being eager to prove themselves in the first place, and thus participation is mostly voluntary.

But, of course, that is much too simple and benign. Behind the prophecy of the coming conflict is a clever deception by a shapechanging slaad lord who is looking to expand his holdings by breeding a new type of slaad mutant. But to do so he needs both talented (high-level) mortals and celestial energy, and thus he has set up this setting to encourage...let's say "congress" between mortal champions and celestials. Asura (CG) were the obvious choice as most likely to be up for this, but they have no idea they are being manipulated.

So, we have a dark, mad mastermind who wants bloodshed, glory, and sweet, sweet, celestial congress afterward, followed by liberal amounts of highly-magical Isle of Dr. Moreau. Sounds like an idea that I will be using in any case, lol.

Good luck with whatever you end up working with.

[j_spencer93]

Well certainly gave me some more ideas to work with lol

[j_spencer93]

How about the fey courts do it. I noticed the Bralani like to do similar stuff, and the seelie court compete against the unseelie court at times, not always in battle.
SO maybe the courts have gathered fighters to pit against each other.

Thinking of maybe changing the plot idea, and having my villain in the hordelands. Maybe enslaving a town and making them do as she wishes, and thanks to her bloodthirsty nature (being part demon), she constructs a yearly tournament to watch the heroes of her land and prisoners fight to the death.
A good plot might be the party trying to find out how this city just appeared in recent years, grown so large and powerful, and why their leader is never seen or heard of but all those who oppose her have been found dead.
Her "prize" for the tournament could be meeting her, which would mean you would then be enslaved if not already as part of her royal guard or maybe your mental power siphoned into her. Kinda like a crazy cult thing on a much larger scale.