BBEG Idea: The Frostfell Queen

[dededo11]

I have an idea for a BBEG, tell me what you think

Long ago, there was an orphan girl who dabbled in the art of necromancy. She was taken in by the servants of a god of undeath who helped her expand her powers. She eventually became a mighty necromancer who conquered much of the northern realms. However, she grew to resent having to serve another being, desiring more power. Eventually, she turned against the god of uneath, slaying his high priests and cast a ritual that drained the divine energy from him, hoping to make herself a goddess. The god retaliated by sealing her in a prison made of black ice, but was so drained from the ritual that he eventually faded away. The girl, however, did not become a goddess as she desired, but due to having gained divinity in such an unnatural way, became an elder evil with power over ice and undeath.

The campaign would focus on her servants' efforts to free her as the players tried to stop them or, if that failed, find a way to defeat her

Basically, she's Kyuss the Worm that Walks meets the Lich King. An Elder evil with a focus on ice and undeath, what do you think?

[Son of A Lich!]

Some off the cuff suggestions.

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You might want to consider making her a Giant (Frost or Cloud seem to jump out to me, but I could see an undead Fire Giant with ghastly blue accents if you just want cool flavor). A young Giant sorcerer fostered by an ancient evil will help her stick out from any other number of "Children of the Damned" archtypes, gives her an imposing stature to use, and helps HER stick out as to why she was chosen instead of any number of human children. Northern realms is usually (But, not always) short hand for Norse Mythology, and much of WotLK was based in Nordic myth, so Giants seem like a great choice here.

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Necromancy means Master of Death (Although, I've been wrong before when translating things to English...), and I think that Necromancers as an archtype start to fade into a hazy category of "Not-quite-Race-Not-quite-Kind" problem. For instance, If I hear Orc Shaman or Elven Shaman, I have a clear idea of what to expect of them separately. Blood and viscera, with a heavy touch of Primativism from the Orc, while the Elf probably has incenses and wood whispering aesthetics. I expect both to deal with nature magics and a strong connection to divination. Necromancers are an aesthetic all of their own, but also have a pretty solid MO - Raise dead bodies to take what you want. It's easy to hear all about their halls, their laboratories, schools, tutors, etc and the players to walk away with "Yeah, a Necromancer". But breaking type just kind of feels dirty and misplaced.

How I handle this issue is by focusing not on what they are doing, but why they need to master death in the first place.

A cleric of Palor has a son whose is dying of a disease he can't cure. After the temple closes for the day, he goes out to the cemetery and raises dead bodies, trying to find a way to get them to contract this deadly disease, so he can find a harsher method of treatment that works, but won't kill his son in the process. The party finds zombies wandering just outside of town and they all have this strange sickness. Killing the zombies is problematic in and of itself, but now the disease is starting to spread through the townsfolk. Asking the Temple of Palor for aide, they find the head priest buckled in tears over the loss of his son, but muttering "I can... I can fix you... I promise I will... fix this, somehow"

This puts the PCs in a hard situation where they have to A) help someone cope with a loss the victim is not handling well, B) come to terms with the idea of death for themselves, and C) highlights a bit of narcissism in the idea of mastering death, without having the evil, mustache twirling "AND YOU, TOO, SHALL HAVE A PLACE IN Muh HORDES!!" cliche that has put us in this extremely well carved niche in the first place.

So, the Necromancer has to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what death means (I usually fall back on Fault, but this is a wide topic that you can delve into through the villain), that is destructive not only for the Villain themselves, but also those they care about. This misunderstanding needs to drive the core of their philosophy, and society has to try to reach out to them and they need to reject society's help. Then you just need to slowly amp it up to the extreme.

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I usually put undead BBEG (Including necromancers, even though they aren't undead) into four camps on two axis. Zombies, Mummies, Shadows, Ghost. The first axis is ["Mockery of what was" vs. "Preservation of what was"] and the second axis is ["Remains" vs. "Memory"]. Shadows are a mockery of a memory. Zombies are a Mockery of Remains. Mummies are preservation of Remains, and Ghosts are Preservation of Memory.

Don't cross the streams. If you have a mummy lord trying to raise an undead empire, he shouldn't raise the hero as a zombie as a way to mock the party. Undeath should be a gift he has given the party member. If a Lich is trying to torture a hero into giving him the information on his Phylactery, He should have no qualms about raising the Hero's child to twist the metaphorical knife.

This helps the party recognize what the ultimate goals of the Necromancer are and allow them to react accordingly. A Dwarven Death Knight taking a zombie legion into the halls of the underdark is a lot more reasonable if you know the Death Knight sees his fate as a curse and has hatred for Lloth and the Drow. He is a mockery of remains.

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Okay, off the cuff, but not brief. Hope this helps!

[JNAProductions]

So, let me just toot my own horn for a little bit, with an old boss of mine.

Argos, The Eternal Frost (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?558845-Argos-The-Eternal-Frost-Two-Stage-Boss)

Obviously that's not her, but I feel like he'd make a good lieutenant or other high-ranking member of her followers. Got the ice theme and everything!

As for your lady...

Give me an hour or so. I got work to do.

Alright, basics of the first form done.

The Frostfell Queen (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?580870-The-Frostfell-Queen&p=23704019#post23704019)

I'm not WHOLLY satisfied with it, so I'll probably tinker with her, but that's the basics.

[Corran]

The campaign would focus on her servants' efforts to free her as the players tried to stop them or, if that failed, find a way to defeat her

That sounds like a campaign I would be very eager to play. Uncovering mysteries regarding who are the cult members and what is their plan, followed by finding clues about where the mcguffins that the cultists need to collect in oder to awaken the ice queen, and all that in the form of a race, wooh, sign me in!

I suggest revealing the plot line a little at a time. That is, I would prefer it more if I didnt start the campaign knowing that we have to stop the cultists from awakening their ice queen. First we know that there are some bad people going around doing evil things, then we get to learn that they are after some items or sth for some unknown reason, then maybe we get misinformed on purpose by someone (a secret ally of the cultists) that their plan is to do sth completelly different, then we learn of the actual plan. Maybe expand the list of enemies. It might be that not all the cultists act in unison. That is, add more parties than just the cultists and the pc's that are after the ice queen's location. Perhaps a wizard that seeks out lost secrtets and knowledge and poses as a friend to the pc's and perhaps to the cultists as well, so he can get there before both the pc's and the cultists. Flesh out the world. If the world (or enogh people) know/find out what's in the works, it's only logical that there will be numerous factions and individuals that will want to be dealed into this race than just backing either the pc's or the cultists. The game world must be a big enough place and not just the stage of the showdown between the pc's and the cultists. It's not just the campaign idea that must be thrilling (which it is), the campaign world must be too.

[dededo11]

Well done JNA. I'd say that's a great stat block for an elder evil!

Also I lol'ed at Languages: Yes

[JNAProductions]

Well done JNA. I'd say that's a great stat block for an elder evil!

Also I lol'ed at Languages: Yes

You're welcome. Feel free to make any changes you want to to her, and let me know how it all goes, if she gets used.

[Quietus]

I usually put undead BBEG (Including necromancers, even though they aren't undead) into four camps on two axis. Zombies, Mummies, Shadows, Ghost. The first axis is ["Mockery of what was" vs. "Preservation of what was"] and the second axis is ["Remains" vs. "Memory"]. Shadows are a mockery of a memory. Zombies are a Mockery of Remains. Mummies are preservation of Remains, and Ghosts are Preservation of Memory.

Don't cross the streams. If you have a mummy lord trying to raise an undead empire, he shouldn't raise the hero as a zombie as a way to mock the party. Undeath should be a gift he has given the party member. If a Lich is trying to torture a hero into giving him the information on his Phylactery, He should have no qualms about raising the Hero's child to twist the metaphorical knife.

This helps the party recognize what the ultimate goals of the Necromancer are and allow them to react accordingly. A Dwarven Death Knight taking a zombie legion into the halls of the underdark is a lot more reasonable if you know the Death Knight sees his fate as a curse and has hatred for Lloth and the Drow. He is a mockery of remains.

If that is off the cuff, then I would very much like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Son of A Lich!]

If that is off the cuff, then I would very much like to subscribe to your newsletter.

It's funny you should say that, I was planning on starting up a YouTube channel with 2 main shows - "Lost in Adaptation" and "Dungeon Theory".

Lost in Adaptation would just be taking pop culture shows or premises (like The Walking Dead) and my thoughts on how you could play it as a table top game. What systems I would use and house rules to implement them by.

Dungeon Theory would cover topics from all across the spectrum of TTRPGs and give a new way to look at them to make it easier to understand what it is we, as dungeon masters, are doing to make games entertaining, mostly focusing on Literary Theory and Linguistics, but also Ludo-narrative design, some cultural anthropology and just history of gaming itself.

I'll let you know when I actually get a video up.

I suffer from Season Affective Disorder, so winter time tends to get me in a pretty hard down swing when I don't want to do anything and I get really hyper critical of myself. But I usually make my best work during these times. D&D and Mutants and Masterminds have taught me to just go and do SOMETHING and take the consequences to the chin. I've been DMing for a long LONG time, and I think I'm at that apotheosis stage of wanting to share what I've learned to help me cross the next plateau.

But thank you for the compliment!