FunSize
2016-06-28, 03:18 PM
So in my D&D 5E game I decided to challenge myself by having the "main" villain be threatening through political power, connections, and intelligence rather than combat prowess or magic. Think less General Zod and more Lex Luthor.
So enter Countess Alexandra Lathir.Here's what the PCs know about her:
She was of common birth and had a controversial marriage to a prominent head of one of the larger provinces (it's a homebrew setting if that matters)
Her husband recently died and she was elevated to the head of her House. She and the Count had no children.
She employed the PCs to investigate an assassin's guild she expected were behind her husband's murder. They discovered the involvement of a third party (another villain who goes by the pseudonym "The Black Fox").
She is well loved by her subjects, both for her beauty and charisma and by her good works for the poor. Like, Princess Diana level.
She is aggressively pursuing Drow incursions into her city, and has enlisted the help of the Temple of Ares and a representative of the largest mage guild in the nation. This proved to be a popular move.
What the PCs do NOT know...
She killed her husband in an attempt to usurp power.
She has her eyes set on the throne of the nation.
The Black Fox works for her (the Black Fox, is, in fact, a decoy villain and head of the Countess's Quirky Miniboss squad)
She has amassed a small fortune's worth of magic items.
She has agents in Dwarven cults aimed to strain relations with the Dwarven nations (primarily in the form of a secret cult the PCs have run afoul with).
She knows the secret history of the Kingdom, which involved the use of forbidden magic.
She plans to stage several attacks to the aim of making the populace believe that the kingdom is destabilizing, discrediting other nobles.
She's about to start a golem factory and the raw material is human souls.
So... any suggestions? It will probably be a while before the PCs get enough information to figure out she's the one behind everything, and confronting her directly will be difficult or costly and may be not even be a solution (she has the good will of the people and a high level Cleric on call).
Eventually -- as they gain power and information -- the most likely actions would be to try to counter her plans, or find some "smoking gun" evidence to publicly discredit her.
So enter Countess Alexandra Lathir.Here's what the PCs know about her:
She was of common birth and had a controversial marriage to a prominent head of one of the larger provinces (it's a homebrew setting if that matters)
Her husband recently died and she was elevated to the head of her House. She and the Count had no children.
She employed the PCs to investigate an assassin's guild she expected were behind her husband's murder. They discovered the involvement of a third party (another villain who goes by the pseudonym "The Black Fox").
She is well loved by her subjects, both for her beauty and charisma and by her good works for the poor. Like, Princess Diana level.
She is aggressively pursuing Drow incursions into her city, and has enlisted the help of the Temple of Ares and a representative of the largest mage guild in the nation. This proved to be a popular move.
What the PCs do NOT know...
She killed her husband in an attempt to usurp power.
She has her eyes set on the throne of the nation.
The Black Fox works for her (the Black Fox, is, in fact, a decoy villain and head of the Countess's Quirky Miniboss squad)
She has amassed a small fortune's worth of magic items.
She has agents in Dwarven cults aimed to strain relations with the Dwarven nations (primarily in the form of a secret cult the PCs have run afoul with).
She knows the secret history of the Kingdom, which involved the use of forbidden magic.
She plans to stage several attacks to the aim of making the populace believe that the kingdom is destabilizing, discrediting other nobles.
She's about to start a golem factory and the raw material is human souls.
So... any suggestions? It will probably be a while before the PCs get enough information to figure out she's the one behind everything, and confronting her directly will be difficult or costly and may be not even be a solution (she has the good will of the people and a high level Cleric on call).
Eventually -- as they gain power and information -- the most likely actions would be to try to counter her plans, or find some "smoking gun" evidence to publicly discredit her.