The mind of an evil queen

[Daishain]

Working on a one shot side adventure for a single player. Central plot figure is a Rusalka (sirenlike fey) that has managed to enthrall an entire town's worth of people as her personal toys. She calls herself queen and demands obeisance, but is also getting bored of the whole affair and is more and more willing to break her toys in the pursuit of personal amusement. She'll probably leave the place full of corpses and seek entertainment elsewhere fairly soon.

Towards evening, she sings to call the villagers to the central square, has them present gathered treasures to her, and perform for her pleasure. I intent for the player to have a chance to uncover what's wrong in this place before that event, but the gathering would be one heck of an eye opener if she does not.

But that's where I'm stuck. I guess I'm just not mentally in tune with psychotic despots (oh darn), but I simply can't think of what to have her demanding of her pets.

[Name1]

I'm not an expert on things evil either, but you could go the Mindflayer route, have her establish mental connections with them and have her hold orgies in some houses (children involved) and brutal fights in others while she takes in the sensation of pleasure and adrenaline provided by them.

[Bucky]

Might as well bring out the classic tropes. "Dance before me, puppets." "Hunters, they aren't dancing fast enough. Get out your crossbows"

[Daishain]

I'm not an expert on things evil either, but you could go the Mindflayer route, have her establish mental connections with them and have her hold orgies in some houses (children involved) and brutal fights in others while she takes in the sensation of pleasure and adrenaline provided by them.Nice ideas, but Rusalka are charmers, their abilities don't extend to telepathy or empathy. I am expanding on the basic entry as it stands and backing it up with some outside trickery to allow her this kind of lasting control of so many subjects, but I'd rather not introduce entirely foreign abilities.

[Zanos]

Dominated/Charmed individuals usually act a little off, so you could play that up when they interact with the townspeople.

[Daishain]

Dominated/Charmed individuals usually act a little off, so you could play that up when they interact with the townspeople.
Oh definitely, the creep factor is going way up just from talking to these folks. I've got that bit settled and am mostly concerned with the next part, though if someone thinks of particularly memorable tidbits for before the self proclaimed queen shows, I'm all ears. I want this run to be remembered for quite some time.

[Geddy2112]

The DC to detect mind control for sense motive is 25. Since the boss encounter of a solo quest is a CR12 monster, I would assume the player is probably going to not dump wis and have it as a skill. Or if they are playing more than 1 character, they will have it. Even just a little training in it will pop-considering you have an entire town dancing to the tune.

Also, the entire town acting funny is usually a pretty dead giveaway something is amiss. Rusalka are known for being cruel,so they will likely be having the town inflict cruelties towards one another.

They are also very bitter, so they will probably do everything in their power to break apart relationships, and take away any forms of happiness they see. Sudden divorces, affairs, and any cynical or pessimistic twist on recent events should be happening all over.

[Eisfalken]

You should have the rusalka put together a band of raiders loyal to her to go out and take slaves, plunder and other things for her amusement. Have her use her powers to drive people against each other. Get people sleeping with different people in the village to cause drama that results in sudden murder and other evil. Have her set up gladiatorial combat as a form of "justice" between aggrieved parties. Feed the real troublemakers to animals/beasts... while they are still alive, and the town has to watch so they know what the fate of traitors to her will be.

It just depends on how dark you wanna get, and how long you need to play this out. We can make this a whole campaign-long thing, and get nasty if you want...

[Crake]

Just a quick question... aren't rusalka tied to a pool much like a dryad is tied to a tree? How is she wandering about without drowning and dying? Perhaps you may want to use a different kind of fey to that end?

[Eisfalken]

Just a quick question... aren't rusalka tied to a pool much like a dryad is tied to a tree? How is she wandering about without drowning and dying? Perhaps you may want to use a different kind of fey to that end?

Well... it mentions bodies of water like "river", and I would presume bays, gulfs, or even seas are at least feasible.

I can easily imagine a rusalka Ice Queen who rules from the source of a river that runs a hundred miles, with a castle built over it to house various minions, who despoil the entire length of the river for her.

Would be a pretty neat adventure: PCs start in a port town near the mouth of the river, and have to hike in a few hundred miles to put a stop to the rusalka's misdeeds.

[Daishain]

Just a quick question... aren't rusalka tied to a pool much like a dryad is tied to a tree? How is she wandering about without drowning and dying? Perhaps you may want to use a different kind of fey to that end?
She's tied to a small and slow river passing right by the town. Nothing I've seen (specific to D&D lore at any rate, and the original legends disagree on this point) says she is entirely incapable of leaving it, so I've been assuming brief land visits are fine, much like a dryad can leave her tree, even if not by a great distance or for long.

If I'm wrong, I can just shift her "audiences" down to the dock.

[Darth Ultron]

Well, you might want to watch a couple episodes of Once Upon a Time for a really great Evil Queen. Or have you ever seen a Saw movie?


As what to do...well, kinda depends on how ''far'' you want to go.

She might have then kill each other. A simple ''The queen says 'off with his head' and points to Joz, and three guards grab him and cut his head off.''

Maybe a ''dagger dance'' where people throw real daggers at a person target.

Or things like, she has all the people lay down in a row so she can walk over them and not get her shoes muddy.

Those are some ''PG'' ones...

[TheifofZ]

Here's the important question:
Is she more of an Overlord or a Despot?

An overlord might have the villagers bowing and scraping and ready to go out and raid for more 'toys', all while convincing the town that really this is all for their own happiness.
A despot might have them torture their loved ones for imagined (or forced) insults, just so they can continue their twisted show.

[Calthropstu]

Have her select someone. You don't have to have a reason for the selection.

All the townsfolk line up, and then she releases her control of that person only.

Each of the townsfolk performs some sort of torture, leaving the victims loved ones for last.

By the time it gets to the family, several bones should be broken, but the victim should still be conscious.

The victim's family will perform the final and most brutal tortures. Clawing out the eyes and eating them, shoving hot coals into their ass, pouring salt or lemon juice into their wounds, skewering them through the kidneys...

All ending with a gruesome beheading. That's how I would handle it. Sexual evils wouldn't really satisfy a true sadist, they would want agony, not rape.