Help for a DM

[RumoCrytuf]

Alright, so I am the DM for my playgroup, and I've hit a bit of a wall with a adventure I've made. THe characters are facing an otherworldy threat that can imitate any creature they may encounter. For all intents and purposes, these creatures (Who I have dubbed "Shadow Clones") are exact replicas of the creature they mimic, except they have twice as much health and dissolve into a black substance when they die. So far, the characters encounted a Holy Warrior who leads a resistance to stopping the Shadow Clones. The Holy Warrior has led them to their HQ and is seeking the characters aid in finding the source of the Shadow Clones. Any ideas as to what I should do next? I was thinking of a plot twist to where the Holy Warrior is secretly the Shadow Clones leader or some other such, but I'm open to anything.

[Sir_Leorik]

Alright, so I am the DM for my playgroup, and I've hit a bit of a wall with a adventure I've made. THe characters are facing an otherworldy threat that can imitate any creature they may encounter. For all intents and purposes, these creatures (Who I have dubbed "Shadow Clones") are exact replicas of the creature they mimic, except they have twice as much health and dissolve into a black substance when they die. So far, the characters encounted a Holy Warrior who leads a resistance to stopping the Shadow Clones. The Holy Warrior has led them to their HQ and is seeking the characters aid in finding the source of the Shadow Clones. Any ideas as to what I should do next? I was thinking of a plot twist to where the Holy Warrior is secretly the Shadow Clones leader or some other such, but I'm open to anything.

Where do the Shadow Clones come from? Are they from the Shadowfell, the Abyss, or are they monstrosities?

Have you considered having Shadow Clones replace a PC?

Do Shadow Clones have enemies?

What do the Shadow Clones want?

Answering these questions can help lead to more ideas.

[PeteNutButter]

Watch The Thing. (The one with Kurt Russell.)

The twist of having a good NPC be a baddy is a bit overdone, but tried and true.

If you can get away with separating (Can really slow a game down) players it can be a lot of fun to insinuate that one of them is actually an evil clone thing. If a player is not enjoying their character ask if they want to be a clone (it was you all along!), and then let the party play a bit of clue to figure out which player is the baddie. Classic doppelganger trick, and can be a lot of fun. If they do it right, the player that is bored with his/her character fights them at the end (ultimately losing hopefully) then rolls up a new one.

So maybe that player is the leader and it was all just a ploy to lead them into a trap etc. Even if you don't have a player as a baddie, it's fun to make them not trust each other.

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

An idea: 1) Isolate the party with a small number of NPCs (On a ship, in an isolated outpost, trapped in a dungeon, etc.)
2) Watch "The Thing", and steal ideas liberally.
3) Enjoy the paranoia.

Edit to add:
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/oglaf/images/b/ba/Kingshaped.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110831091102

[Ewhit]

Sounds like you can use shadowfell fiends or great old one. I would suggest using a warlock fiend or great old one with disguise invocations as leader. Is the paladin suppose to be the leader of rebellion. if you have paladin assist group keep him good have him seperated during adventure then decide keep him good or bad but keep group wondering

Personally I would have him and second in command go with group. Everyone will think the second in command is bad using fake suttee hints but at the end when they confront the leader you see the leader warlock and a chained paladin at the same time the paladin back stabs second in command and reveals as a shadow. Now you have to fight warlock leader shadow paladin rescue the real paladin abd shut down that portal to the shadow fell fiend or great old one far realm don't forget the invisible familiar that helps the warlock if it's to easy

[Ewhit]

Or you could give the warlock the blade pack with that special weapon which can be recovered after fight depending on what Lvl your playing the pact blade could be artifact

[gfishfunk]

Alright, so I am the DM for my playgroup, and I've hit a bit of a wall with a adventure I've made. THe characters are facing an otherworldy threat that can imitate any creature they may encounter. For all intents and purposes, these creatures (Who I have dubbed "Shadow Clones") are exact replicas of the creature they mimic, except they have twice as much health and dissolve into a black substance when they die. So far, the characters encounted a Holy Warrior who leads a resistance to stopping the Shadow Clones. The Holy Warrior has led them to their HQ and is seeking the characters aid in finding the source of the Shadow Clones. Any ideas as to what I should do next? I was thinking of a plot twist to where the Holy Warrior is secretly the Shadow Clones leader or some other such, but I'm open to anything.

Don't turn your NPC evil....instead: the shadow clones are fleeing from something else worse than them, and a group was trying to gain political power through grabbing important people to imitate. The rest are now defeated, but still need a place to stay. What's worse: the threat they were running from is now crossing over to THIS realm.

OR:

Your NPC is still good, but now there are two of him! One is probably a shadow clone.... but which one?

[Douche]

It turns out that the Shadow Clones were actually good guys all along, trying to prepare the world for a much greater threat! The sunlight monsters!

[RumoCrytuf]

Thanks so much for the ideas! :D This really helped!

[Falcon X]

Could be part of something bigger than any of them.

For example, in my game one of the character's backstories includes a "darkness" that destroyed her people, though she doesn't remember what it is. Long story short, a group of illithids have been harnessing the power of the Negative Energy plane and turning it into weapons. (Ex. A way to turn a part of a realm into permanent magical darkness so underdark creatures can live there. Anti-matter weaponry was another usage...)