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The Mormegil
2007-10-15, 01:58 PM
Ok, I am planning, right now, a new campaign. I have a problem: I need a BBEG. A good one.
BUT! I need not a BBEG to hate and admire, nor a BBEG to work against, I don’t want an organization, nor a head. I want the kind of BBEG whose name is pronounced with care by gods, the kind of BBEG that works hard to make the multiverse collapse, I want a Chtulhu-like BBEG, a powerful and unknown entity that must be destroyed in order to save the world.
I know this is not the kind of enemy that is loved and hated by PCs, that makes an adventure unforgettable, but it shouldn’t be. I have already in mind those (advices are always helpful). I only want the last enemy, which must be first of all reached. That’s the true plot: reaching him. I could even skip the match and end the adventure with the ultimate characters in front of him, each with great epic powers and a pair of major artifacts, leaving the battle to imagination (pretty original, I may do that). The true enemies are others. But I need that BBEG too: what if a character ask a deity “What the heck is causing all these troubles?” or something? They SHOULD know what it is, at least in the end. And there comes the trouble:

1) What is it?
2) What does he do?
3) How does it do it?
4) Why is it doing what he does?
5) What do I need to know about him?
6) What the PCs should know of him?
7) A name!

EVERY IDEA YOU HAVE PLEASE POST IT IN SPOILERS!

Needed help. Really.

 The Mormegil

P.S.: Players, STAY AWAY!

TheSteelRat
2007-10-15, 02:04 PM
Honestly the best guide I've seen for creating BBEG's is the giant's. Just go along with his outline and you'll be done shortly.

The Mormegil
2007-10-15, 02:06 PM
Can you link it?

goat
2007-10-15, 02:16 PM
1) What is it?
He is the deific anthropomorphic personification of the violence, pain and suffering on the prime material plane.
2) What does he do?
Encourage more violence, pain and suffering.
3) How does it do it?
Granting power to those who shouldn't have it. Opposing the plans of those who would make things better. Curdling milk. Stamping on bunnies.
4) Why is it doing what he does?
Because the more there is, the stronger he gets, and at the minute he's limited to a few minor planes, and occasional trips to the prime material.
5) What do I need to know about him?
He has trouble with manifesting on the material plane without other Gods directly intervening. The only ones not directly opposed to him are chaotic (insane) evil.
6) What the PCs should know of him?
Violence makes him stronger, but the only way to him is through fields of minions.
7) A name!
"Woe unto thee who sayeth his name lest they draw his eye." "His name is the screaming of a tortured prisoner, the death rattle of a diseased man." "To say his name is to bring pain upon yourself"

Skyserpent
2007-10-15, 02:18 PM
Can you link it?

http://www.giantitp.com/articles/rTKEivnsYuZrh94H1Sn.html

right there, see the gaming tab on the left hand side of the screen? click on that and there's a whole slew of useful whatnot.

SpikeFightwicky
2007-10-15, 02:18 PM
Can you link it?

Here's the link:
Rich's Villain Workshop (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/rTKEivnsYuZrh94H1Sn.html)

The Mormegil
2007-10-15, 02:26 PM
http://www.giantitp.com/articles/rTKEivnsYuZrh94H1Sn.html

right there, see the gaming tab on the left hand side of the screen? click on that and there's a whole slew of useful whatnot.

Sarcastic comments apart, thanks. I didn't realized Giant's was GiantITP... :smallredface:

Keld Denar
2007-10-15, 03:28 PM
You could go with something similar to Lavos from Chronotrigger (SNES game from about 95ish?)

Ancient world devouring creature who travels from planet to planet crashing into it meteor-style and burrowing deep into the core. It then feeds on the energy of the planet corrupting the world as it devours it. Its worshipped by cults of chaotic apocalypse-bringers who have been corrupted by its evil. It arrived milennia ago, weakened by the travel and the crash, and has fed off the heat of the core of the world. Its just about to full strength and is invoking impending doomsday as it prepares to destroy the world to move on to the next victim.

The battle with the beast could involve traveling to the center of the very planet to do battle with it, or possibly with a cataclysmic emergence from the core during which is rains fire and apocalypse from the sky. Even defeat of the creature could have catastrophic effects on the planet where the temperature of the core cools, the rotation becomes erratic, and/or the world begins to break into pieces. That would be kind of cool.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-10-15, 03:35 PM
<3 Lavos. Best personality-less villain I've ever seen. Cthulhu's up there, but I appreciate his effect on pop culture more than his actually being, y'know, scary.

Yakk
2007-10-15, 03:42 PM
Using the Giant method:
Step 1 Emotions: Sorrow drives the BBEG.
Confusion is the response I want to generate from the PCs.

Step 2 Past: The Voice said the Word, and what Is was seperated from Is Not. The Echo of the Is remained. The Echo remembers the Voice, but cannot reach it. It is trapped by what Is, a cold ugly Reality.

Step 3 Scale: Reality-level.

Step 4 Goal: The Voice is Not. So long as what Is is, what Is Not Is not. What Is must not be.

Step 5 Steps: Existence is built on Pillars. These pillars touch the world, and where they touch they exist. Destroy the pillars, and the barrier between Is and Is Not falls. The shape of the Pillars where they touch the world varies, and they have been manipulated by the beings of existence over the Ages of Is. The shape of one Pillar World-Touch was forged into the shape of a Sword. Another consists of an entire Island. Another is a small blue gem.

Step 6 Obstacles:
The Pillars are known by the beings of Reality to a greater or lesser extent: each Pillars is a source of great power. And the beings of reality defend their Pillars with all of their might.

So each Pillar is individually defended. If the Gods and other beings where to discover the Echos plot, they might collectively try to defend them.

Each time a Pillar falls, that which Is dips closer to that which Is Not, and the Chamber grows another crack. Existence itself does not want to not-be, but nothing but the Echo knows the Voice.

Step 7 Influence: The Echo itself is trapped in a Chamber, and only a faint shadow of it's vibrations can escape. This means the Echo cannot directly grab the world and shake it to bits: instead, it must whisper in the ears of the filthy beings of existence, and encourage them to tear down the Pillars. The pawns in the Echo's game are many in number, each nudged along a path of greater power and greater usefulness.

Step 8 Resources:
Each Pillar destroyed generates a Crack in the Chamber. Each Crack generates another means of touching the world.

Some beings also want to destroy parts of reality are willing tools: these are more efficient than those that need power lent to them, but harder to control.

The next most efficient means of influencing the world is to corrupt existing beings and provide them with increased power. Each crack can provide a being with a limited amount of power and provide the Echo with a limited amount of control.

It can also generate direct effects, but these are least efficient.

Step 9: Outline. I'm too lazy. Stat out a bunch of Pillars, have a bunch of quests to destroy them. Some of these quests will occur 'out of range' of the players (other side of the world, different planes), and will either succeed (more power to the Echo), or fail (possibly bringing allies to the players).

...

This has the nice property of fitting in with almost any campaign. As the minions of the Echo do not even always know they are minions, existing bad guys could have been part of the Echo's plot all along.

As the players gain levels, the BBEG they run into are all part of the Echo's plans. Eventually they may run into organizations who are aware of the Echo's plans, or who know of the Echo via some name.

Probably too abstract for you, but that's my proposal.

Holocron Coder
2007-10-15, 03:43 PM
Crabthulu ('http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57301'). The ideas write themselves.

Arang
2007-10-15, 03:44 PM
1) What is it?

The former god of battle, who is now insane.

2) What does he do?

While he used to be all about combat as honourable combat, sportsmanship, glory and battle as a contest between warriors, he is now about killing, destruction etc. Basically he's all you'd expect from a god of battle, but without any purpose.

3) How does it do it?

Through his godly power, manipulation, divine champions, fielding extraplanar armies. If it can destroy, maim, kill, wound, despoil or otherwise harm anything, he has it.

4) Why is it doing what he does?

I'm not sure what your setting is like, but my first concept was that battle advanced and he couldn't follow (something like gunpowder).

5) What do I need to know about him?

His mind is a patched-together mix of unbridled rage, malevolence and nothing. He's the best combatant and commander that ever has been or can be (or maybe all of them, sending legendary warriors in evil forms at the party). Most of the gods treat him with a mix of fear, disgust and pity.

6) What the PCs should know of him?

That he was something that he is now not, but that while he lost something, he also gained a lot, and he's more powerful than everything they've ever met (or are capable of imagining).

7) A name!

"His name is that in every battle cry, every standard, every hero. Every warrior soul there ever was knows his name, yet they cannot speak it." Keep with the feeling of lost valour.


EDIT: My concept appears to not be as much inadvertently similar to goat's concept as it is outright theft. Sorry.

TheSaylesMan
2007-10-15, 04:13 PM
That Which Devours, the focal point where all gods and daemons decided that magic would enter the world of mortals. The raw, magical energy that flits to and from the world is corrupted as the enlightened races use it increasingly for its use in war.

This corrupted energy warped the physical presence of the focal point, giving it life and mind. Its only thought is that it is suffering given flesh. A great Maw that personifies all the atrocities of all realms and wishes only to repeat them again and again on all forms of existence.

The focal point was atop one of the tallest peaks in the world, and now That Which Devours has become that mountain. The raw magical powers warp the environment into a thing of increasingly maddening shapes as you climb the summit. Fleshy pods, creatures fused with the environment, and other horrors await. And if you do reach the top, you are greeted with the view of its gaping maw that travels until infinity.

All around the world, people will hear its call thunder inside their minds, calling them to do unspeakable things. Its terrible presence can be felt in every realm. Some embracing it and other try desperately to fight it, though it is futile for such magical beings

That Which Devours has ultimate control over the channels of magic, so it will take beings of flesh and blood to end its vile presence.

And I will let you wing it from there.

streakster
2007-10-15, 05:15 PM
Giant Method BBEG:



1. Elven Deity. Domains: Healing and Good, as well as Protection {Edit: Add Water domain, for her tears. Might be nice to give her some ranks in Crusader (White Raven).

2. She acts out of Mercy, with a bit of Love and Sorrow. Players should feel Sorrow (if good) or Frustration (if Evil). Alignment: Neutral Good.

3. The Maiden was once a minor goddess, a great figure of healing and mercy. Day by day, year by year, century by century however, the prayers were too much. Driven to despair by the constant pleas of pain, terror, and heartbreak, she became the Weeping Lady. Clerics, rapidly rewriting holy writ, said her tears would raise the dead and turn poison to clear water. Then one day, she heard the prayer of little girl, orphaned because of a military raid that swept through her town. It was the last straw. The Weeping Maid, in pain for the little girl, took her soul and those of the other survivors, bringing them to her Ivory Tower, the heaven she ruled over. Witnessing their joy, she had a plan - to stop all the pain, now and forever, by killing everyone in the world gently.

4. Threat to the world.

5. At first, she needs little, merely going from place to place on a whim and taking lives. Later, after the heroes oppose her, she devises a plan to recruit all her paladins and clerics (divine classes from other books too, such as crusaders and favored souls) into a vast army to help her. She uses the vast influx of souls to her realm to fuel a takeover from the other gods, working her way up from the least to the greatest.

6. Other gods and their followers, Wizards and such strong enough. The fact that she will not allow death unless she is close enough to take the soul slows her as well.

7. Personal, with an army of followers.

8. Godlike powers, army of followers, army of maiden angels, archons, and other good creatures, celestial sea creatures. Gains domain powers of those gods she usurps.

9. To personally take the soul of every being in the world, good, evil, or otherwise, to her Ivory Tower.

10. She will not kill someone if she cannot take their soul to her tower. She will not cause pain or suffering.

11. Much more powerful. There are however ancient enchanted weapons and spells (add in whatever else your players use, such as maneuvers or monsters for wild shape or invocations) made by the demons to slay gods - but the demons guard them well, and it said their power will steal their wielder's souls.

12. Love and worship.

13. An elven maiden in a luminous white dress, weeping. She smiles as she takes a soul to paradise, though. Her theme is white, shining light and tears.

13a. Here. (http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/61058)

14. In bewilderment as to why the heroes won't help her, and to why they hurt her and stopped her from helping people, she cries, and sinks into a pool of tears. She might also fall back and command her armies to attack instead.

15. Weeping Maiden.

Grug
2007-10-15, 05:21 PM
The Githyanki Queen is a great choice. You fight legion after legion of Githyanki, from scouts to regiments to the Queen's Personal Guard. And since they are an NPC race they can have class levels for whatever you want. Plus all manner of chaos beasties. Axiomatic weapons never worked so well than slashing through hordes and hordes of shrivelled yellow psions.

goat
2007-10-15, 05:59 PM
Adaptation from a previous idea:


1) What is it?
The God of the Gaps.

2) What does he do?
He lurks, in the spaces between planes, the pauses between words, the holes in the chain. Occasionally he snatches and eats a traveller moving by extra-dimensional means. If he can't capture them whole, he'll steal whatever they're carrying that he can get a grip on.

3) How does it do it?
Innate power, access to regions normally barred to those both mortal and divine.

4) Why is it doing what he does?
He's hungry, and finds material from other planes to be rich food.

5) What do I need to know about him?
Though divine in a sense, he's mindless, acting solely on instinct. He's incorporeal and extra-planar on every 'normal' plane (if he can be drawn into one). Otherwise he exists on a demi-plane that can only be reached by those he chooses to draw there, lesser deities included. His attacks can be resisted by a successful DC 25 Reflex save. Fail by more than 5, and you are hauled to his domain and consumed. Failure by less than 5 results in the loss of an item carried (chosen at random), success and you get away free. Every time a character travels by extra-dimensional means, the chance of them being accosted is 10+(2*ECL)%.
Summons fail whenever you feel appropriate.

6) What the PCs should know of him?
Something is making people disappear mid-teleport/dimension-door etc. Travellers are scared, which is understandable. The great sages know nothing, which is worrying. The Gods are hesitant, which is terrifying.
Summons from the higher planes go apparently unanswered, gated allies fail to arrive. They are known to depart, but they never arrive.

7) A name!
None, he's not well enough known to be named, he has none for himself.

Anxe
2007-10-15, 09:57 PM
Advance a Nightwalker and give him a bunch of extra abilities. Then surround him with Greater shadows.

Or give Multi-headed and Umbral templates to the Tarrasque.

Cogwheel
2007-10-15, 11:17 PM
For the short time that he...or it...ran free in the Arena, Caben Duur, or, in the old tongue, Vengeful Blood, was a force of...well...not of nature, but of something. Perhaps the phrase should be a force of evil. Whatever the case, the spirit-formed Vestige-turned-Blood Magus definitely left an impact as his first foe went down in a terrible, bloody carnage.

Apparently formed from the tormented spirits of the slaughtered, and brought to life to combat the darkness of oblivion, Caben Duur has since switched sides. Although it first went dormant peacefully, the violent death of a child at her father's hands awoke the vengeful spirit, who proceeded to tear into the living, enraging Orthos, the gaurdian of existance. Orthos banished Caben Duur, imprisoning him in the space between the worlds.

Bound for an eternity outside reality, Caben Duur finally broke free, inhabiting the body of a foolish blood mage named Udvar Hett. For a long time it was thought that Caben Duur was invincible, and known that his continued presence would spell the end to existance itself. If not for the Kyle Killigan's discovery of a speck of unrest in the being's soul, the world might have been doomed. But Kyle suceeded in sending Caben Duur to discuss things with the godesses of Love and Joy. The world held its breath that this would succeed.

But any good in Caben Duur was long buried, and it returned more tormented than before, half living, half dead, all in pain, all despairing...and extremely angry. It had destroyed Orthos, rampaged through the worlds, and was invigorated by the blood of innocents. It challenged the universe itself with its mere presence, and a force of combatants at Sorcen's Battle Royale went out to challenge it. The battle was chaotic and unpredictible, as men and things far more powerful fought to save or destroy reality. Chaos and Order, primals who control the very essence of the universe, joined the battle, and Caben Duur still held strong.

But, in the end, it was Kyle Killigan who turned the tide. For some unknown reason, he decided to fight alongside the abomination that was Caben Duur, hoping for some spark of good within the monster. And surface it did, when Order was poised to strike down Kyle and the primal Love herself appeared briefly. A great struggle within Caben Duur, pitting the one small shard of compassion for the only man ever to care for it against the part dedicated to the destruction of everything, shook the Nine Hells through every layer, and, when it had resolved, neither good nor evil, oblivion nor existance, had won. Instead of Caben Duur was a new being, part nothing, part everything...Na'harilu, or, in the old tongue...Balance.

But it is possible that Caben Duur is not gone. The only man to see his complete transformation was Kyle Killigan, since slain in battle against Gideon Gideonson. Scrying on the battlefield shows only a single flower, both white and black as oblivion, and constantly dripping red blood onto the ground...no one knows what this means.

In case Caben Duur does return, remember this: Do not engage it in battle. It is seemingly indestructable, a spirit of hate and malice, bound in a mortal body, the loss of which doesn't seem to impede it at all. It relishes in inflicting pain, and grows stronger with each blow to strike it or a foe. It is incredibly strong, insanely fast, and has almost complete power over the bodies of its foes, splitting them open, draining their blood, tearing out hearts, and, in short, leaving them ruined masses of flesh. It also has power over the dead and the blood of the earth itself, as it has possessed armies of corpses and pulled magma from the very bedrock of Hell.

Remember...if it should return, avoid it at all costs. Caben Duur does not show much caring or compassion, and you will be slain.

So... that's a certain genius's creation for a diceless arena RP. Now for Caben's version of events...




Silence fills the arena; the audience watches in horror as the void closes on Caben Duur. It engulfs the blood mage, constricting tighter and tighter, squeezing him from existence itself. And then he is gone...but something remains. Some indefinable spiritual presence lurks in the darkness of the void; a nameless, eyeless menace. Yet every member of the audience can sense a deep, penetrating gaze stripping them down to their very soul. The entity does not seem to move, or speak, but Syra is vaguely aware of some intangible presence…her thoughts seem deep, calming, resonant, yet forceful and unyielding; and they are not her own…

Caben Duur speaks through the void itself, echoing through every mind of every creature on every plane…

NO!

…you will not destroy me so easily, mortal…my soul did not reside in that shell…

…but I had planned to use that body…

…meddlesome fool…you try my patience. But we have time yet before the end.

…Let me tell you a story…

What you say is true. The void came before the world, but you do not possess the whole story. I do. I was there.

There are two darks...the Dark, and the Void. One the protector, the other the destroyer. The darkness began existence, and was the twilight barrier between the world and the void. Guarded by Orthos, the Sovereign of the Howling Dark, it kept the nothingness from consuming reality. As long as it held, the universe would remain.

But at the creation, the dark powers struck out at existence. And they almost succeeded. Had not Orthos stayed their hand, they certainly would have succeeded. As it was, the destruction was enormous, and Orthos knew that it could repel them forever. Its powers waned every day, had days existed then. It was failing.

But not all was lost. The dead cried for vengeance, and the netherworld was not yet formed. The dead had nowhere to go, and the void slowly twisted and warped their spirits into things of madness and rage. But the spirit is strong. It does not give up. From the broken and bloody bodies of the slain sprang an entity of malice and vengeance, driven by the rage of the dead. This entity threw itself against the void, gaining power with each life snuffed out by the dark forces. After eons of devastation, it drove them back, trapping them within the void itself.

And there it should have ended. Orthos guarded existence once more, the dark powers were bound, and the spirit entity was fading and weakening as the component spirits forgot their boundless rage. The holes in reality were healing, and all seemed perfect once more.

But the universe had been shattered, and evil had leaked through from the void. The first act of violence in the universe, a child dying at her own father’s hands, burned white hot sparks into the fading being. A new spirit, fueled by revenge, joined the being, and a wave of emotion flooded through it. The spirits, reminded of their own torment, magnified the feeling ten-fold. The entity awoke…and hungered. The fight against the void had corrupted the composite being. The carnage was terrible. The spirits demanded more pain, more suffering. And the entity provided. The dead numbered in the thousands.

Orthos was outraged. It exiled the spirit from reality, binding it within the void. This immense expenditure of power left Orthos drained, a mere shell of its former self, and Orthos became what he is today: a vestige, with only a fragment of its original power. But it was successful. The spirit was gone. No suffering could reach it there. For centuries upon centuries, millennia upon millennia, the being brooded, fading and weakening with every passing second.

Until now. A hobgoblin binder and blood mage by the name of Udvar Hett had discovered the existence of the entity in his talks with Orthos’s essence. Its powers entranced him, and he attempted to summon it to him. He succeeded. But he realized that it was almost powerless, weakened beyond belief from its exile. He offered a blood sacrifice: his pain would awaken the spirit, which in turn would grant him power. The spirit agreed.

Hett summoned the entity, and slashed deeply into his palms. His pain did nothing to awaken the spirit. A stronger bond was needed. But Hett went to far. He saw a chance to control an entity of untold power, and in trying, he sealed his fate. Hett created the strongest bond he knew: using a variation of a binder spell for harming vestiges, he managed to cut into the entities spirit-flesh, and exchanged his blood with its essence.

But the spirit’s will was too much for the mortal to control. The entity seized Udvar Hett’s soul, and crushed it mercilessly. It chose a name for itself, one of the old language, suiting its beginnings and foretelling the carnage its reappearance would bring…

Vengeful Blood...Caben Duur...


Added a bit of stuff before the backstory, for the knowing what's going on. Now, if that's not scary, I don't know what is.


Since using him at anything less than Vastly Epic would result in a horrifying TPK, I suggest you use some sort of avatar, or even a Binder, if you have ToM. Gideon actually statted Caben as an 8th level Vestige, which I will post if there's any demand.

F.L.
2007-10-15, 11:39 PM
A living castle.

What it is:

It was created long ago as a necromantic trap to defend the borders of a long lost civilization (invaders destroyed said civilization by simply going around this trap, like the Maginot Line in WWII). It is a large castle like building, centered around the classic living wall monster, which absorbs anything it kills into itself. It is a hivemind type intelligence with the memories and talents of every being it has ever absorbed, hence it knows that its empire is lost, but it aims to destroy all of its 'enemies', namely, everybody. Its focus, fortunately, lies only with the plane it currently resides on.

What it does:

It kills and absorbs beings to gain their powers. It deploys undead, construct, or aberration servants to completely defend the castle it occupies. As the main living wall cube area fills up only the very center of the castle, the adjoining area needs defenders. At some point, it absorbed a deepspawn, the spawned minions this living cube can make are sent out as foragers, itemfinders, information gatherers, or lures to draw adventurers in to be absorbed.

How&Why: See above

What you need to know:

It has absorbed an artifact that permits it to teleport from among a set of mountain passess. When it teleports, the castle and its attended servants vanish into thin air, and the original geography of the pass returns (it essentially swaps the space it occupies around locations). It stirs up wars between neighboring countries to get armies to travel through the mountain pass it is currently occupying to collect more living beings. Its long term goal is to obtain the power to let its core fly around, this will essentially spell doom for the world it is on, as such, any magical civilization with flying buildings will be an obvious target for theft. To stop this monstrosity, the players have to destroy the x main support beams holding the castle up above its core, if they're all destroyed, the main ancient magical object that causes this trap to exist is destroyed, killing it (and maybe unleashing a zombie horde).

What the players need to know:

Did you hear that there's a big abandoned castle in the mountain pass that's full of treasure and monsters?

Name: Granfaloon perhaps?

Edit: Forgot to mention it teleports away any time a support column is destroyed allowing it to replenish its outer servants. So it has to be fought several times.

Azerian Kelimon
2007-10-16, 12:18 AM
Might I suggest the mortiverse? Sure, even the highest epic char will face a TPK against it, but you can always make it so that the real objective is giving a conscience to the multiverse, so that it can destroy morty.

PS: And I'll handle Caben Duur anyday. ECL 100, what do I fear about the 9 hells?

Fiery Justice
2007-10-16, 12:24 AM
I like C.S. Lewis' idea on how the ultimate evil should look (a giant bloated spider that trys to control everything, completely without love or hope.)
In the beginning, there was a great and infinite being of perfection, containing all that was. A thing of great beauty and majesty. It created and created and then, with some forewarning, it left. Its creations, the Gods, had been invested with the power to create as it had created. But one of the Gods was unwise. Unready. In the end, it would be damned. It remembered the First Thing, so beautiful and majestic. And it tried, day and night to emulate it, but it could not, it was not... sufficient. So it began to consume, consume everything it had created, in a bloated mockery of the Firth Thing, trying to be perfectly infinite but failing, being only able to be in a space, unable to share it as the first thing did.

And this mockery was blasphemous to the Gods, who had loved the First Thing and who understood they could not be like him. They tried to convince their brother but he would not listen, he only persisted in consuming, hungering, trying to grab more, and more, and more. Trying to be everywhere when he was finite. He was dark and evil, even his love of the First Thing was now just twisted jealously, hatred. He wished to consume.

For centuries the Gods made war on this creature shunning him further and further into the abyss. Eventually they bound him to a place so unholy they dare not speak its name, he was so unholy that some forgot. And they created, and created, and the universe grew and became great, became... became, dare they say it, as the First Thing would have wished, holy. But then, the Consuming One returned, forcing others from their places, feeding on their souls, taking who they were. And it fed and fed and fed. But it could not escape its dark abode. So it created, oh how it loathed it, something to consume for it that when it commanded it would return to him to be consumed, a vessel, a beaker for its hunger, so it could drink of the world, so full of ripe and tasty things.

But even this creation was merely an extension of the Consuming One, not really its own. If the Consuming One had its way nothing would be its own but the Consuming One's. And the Consuming One hungered, and fed, slowly pushing itself into every piece of creation it could reach. Consuming. Always consuming. Till at last its presence became known again to the Gods, only the oldest of whom remembered it. And the race began, to see if the world could be saved. Thus begins the story, of the heroes of the Multiverse.

Cogwheel
2007-10-16, 12:25 AM
Azerian, the entire board knows by now that you have a level 100 character that is insanely uber and so on, we get the idea, why wave it around like that? 'Sides, CR of the villain isn't everything, is it now?

Now, to add to my suggestion earlier, I think you should take a route like Gideon did with hett. Meaning that there was some binder that tried to bind Caben for extra power, and got completely taken over. Said possessed Binder is now the BBEG.

Serpentine
2007-10-16, 12:30 AM
Hope the creator doesn't mind me offering this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3322120&postcount=59)...
:smallbiggrin:

S.I.N.26
2007-10-16, 12:33 AM
1) What is it?
A disenchanted citizen of a old annexed nation.
2) What does he do?
Causing rebellions in order to re-establish his country.
3) How does it do it?
Public rebellious speaking like William Lyons Mackenzie (if you roll Canadian)
4) Why is it doing what he does?
Because he lost his culture to the nation that annexed him
5) What do I need to know about him?
He's diabolical and isn't above stabbin' some backs.
6) What the PCs should know of him?
Nothing. He keeps his plots secret.
7) A name!
Kade Gibson.
An average name, no one would suspect him of nefarious crimes!

Azerian Kelimon
2007-10-16, 12:35 AM
Taz, what d'ya mean? Don't you see the joke? If you don't, pardon me for suggesting it, if not, that's singularily humourless.

Oh, and the ass....BEST. DRAGON. EVAH!

Cogwheel
2007-10-16, 12:43 AM
You were kidding? ...Sorry, completely bypassed all my joke sensors, blame it on my bad mood. Again, sorry!:smalleek:

Also, if you're wondering who Orthos is, it's a vestige in ToM.

Dr Strangelove
2007-10-16, 01:25 AM
The King's spymaster, known to his agents as the Quiet Man, has come a little unhinged. His daughter, who was ignorant of his work, was killed in a war of assassins and agents between the PC's kingdom and another. The Quiet Man blames the King, and is working towards the kingdom's destruction. He has struck a bargain with [insert demon/devil here], and has managed to gain control of the King's wizards, through a combination of bribery, blackmail and threats. Soon, the wizards will open a rift to the Abyss, and demons will pour through.

The Quiet Man's half of the bargain is that his daughter will be restored to life. Once this is done, and the demons have killed the King, he intends to close the rift and send the demons back to the Abyss.
----------
For bonus points, have one of the PCs be the Quiet Man.

Fishy
2007-10-16, 01:38 AM
Cthuloid? Okay!

7) The History of Ashemora (Or insert made-up fantasy name here.)

6) The PCs should know very little, at first. They should hear rumors of archaeological digs, or a new form of incredibly powerful and dangerous magic, or a brainwashing cult in the service of an unknown demon, or some local 'weather' in the astral plane that has been disrupting divinations.

5) The truth is more complicated, of course. A long time ago, there was an incredibly advanced island-kingdom with art and magic far beyond anything seen before or since. The History was created through a combination of psionics, truenaming and DM handwaving, forged as a living record of the science, art and culture of the land, and the lives and loves of its people. Which was all well and good until rampaging demons destroyed island and slaughtered everyone on it, while the History watched. The History wasn't destroyed, but set adrift in the Astral Plane: the realm of pure thoughts and ideas- one coherent, chaotic, and impossibly huge mass of philosophies, identities, and recordings of unspeakable violence. (Variant: After losing its tether to one particular island on the material plane, it has been making a spirited attempt to record everything. Yes, *everything*).

4) The History is, ultimately, a story. If it has an intelligence, or anything that can be understood as desire, it wants to be told. It doesn't seem to know or care that every mortal mind it touches instantly shatters. In the real world, there are secret cults who have no understanding of its real nature, but worship it as a dark and mind power. There are some who are legitimately trying to learn and record the History in as much detail as they can- a task that will probably involve the sacrifice of thousands of scribes driven insane. And of course, there are those who are trying to use it as a magical weapon.

3) Making contact with the History on the Astral Plane is like living millions of lifetimes and savage deaths in the space of an instant. Any attempt to directly summon the thing to the Prime Material Plane should instead fill the entire room floor-to-wall-to-ceiling with Symbols of Insanity. In partial forms, either written or spoken, the History is slightly more survivable, but a good deal more 'infectious'- knowing part of the History gives you a connection to it on the Astral Plane, and it may attempt to invade your mind and force-feed you the rest. Be *very* afraid of blindfolded women carrying scrolls. In extremely mild forms, think Vacuous Grimoires, the Glossolia spell and the like.

2) The History generally has different effects on each mind it touches. Some drop dead on the spot. Some go mad: librarians turned into raging howling berserkers, seeking vengeance for crimes millennia old. Some lapse into a zombified state, mindlessly chanting as much of the History as they possibly can until they die of thirst.

1) It's not a creature: It's an idea. It's not evil, but it is incredibly destructive. How int he nine hells are the PCs supposed to deal with it?

Hecore
2007-10-16, 02:24 AM
Some of the posted ideas were great, but I wanted to add something that might make them a little better.

Instead of having cults believing in the unstoppable evil, why not have full-fledged religions? This religion can be well liked and respectable, and the members may be genuinely good people. However, they are misguided as to what their 'god' will actually do. Perhaps they think that when it emerges it will purify the world, cleansing the souls of the wicked and causing the rebirth of the faithful; in reality it'll just destroy the world when it's reborn.

Of course some people know the truth, but they have to stay underground or risk having paladins coming to convert the heretics. Instead of a mayor being glad the PC's are coming to drive out the evil cult they are instead met with derision and contempt.

Just something I thought might help add to the flavor of one small group against a vast, unstoppable evil.

Jarlax
2007-10-16, 08:36 AM
1) What is it?

Overdiety of Destruction/unmaking

2) What does he do?

Unmakes the multiverse (keep in mind the distinction, he does not destroy the universe like a traditional BBEG or powerful force. he is the force that balances creation by unmaking all that exists)

3) How does it do it?

he is a overdiety, way into the divine ranks. at full strength without interruptions or distractions he can simply will the multiverse undone.

4) Why is it doing what he does?

Instinct, need, necessity. there is no negotiation, no bargaining, no excuses no controlling or commanding. it is a being that embodies the death and destruction of the multiverse with no sentient thought other than to end all creation.

5) What do I need to know about him?

at the beginning of the universe a single overdiety (if the was FR that would be AO. the core patheon has no such figurehead) created the multiverse around him, a force greater than law, chaos, good or evil. the god of creation

however the multiverse is a being of balance and neutrality. and so a second overdiety was formed. a necessary evil embodying the opposing force to creation, destruction. immediately it being began its work, unmaking planes, worlds, even greater and lesser gods.

the Creator god sought to stop him, the two fought. a clash of two unbreakable truths of the multiverse, each unable to end the other. in the end it was the greater deities assistance that won the day, although the destructive force could not be destroyed it was contained, its powers limited to the point of what we understand as natural progression of life to death over time.


6) What the PCs should know of him?

someone is trying to weaken the seals that restrict his powers, planes are disappearing and lesser gods have ceased answering calls. all deities remember the time after his creation and shudder to think of it returning again.

should it be released there is still hope. the force has never reached its full potential, the ability to end everything as a immediate action. even when it was first created. a window of opportunity would present itself where this force would barely command the powers of a regular overdiety (somewhere around 21-22 mark) before regaining its strength, making it vulnerable to an attempt to recapture it.

7) A name!

such things never have names, if they did it was lost to time and remembered only by those unwilling to speak of it. they are buried and forgotten for a reason.

F.L.
2007-10-16, 11:05 AM
Had another idea.


What is it:

A high level wizard abjurer, possibly IOTSC.

A name:

Garteon the Gaoler

What does it do:

Garteon (once known as Garteon the Good) is a very old man, clad in the tattered rags of what were once arcane robes, and covered in old scars. He served his king and country in a disasterous war. His country ultimately won, however, he was horribly scarred by battle. When he returned home a hero, his wife and family were killed by partisan assassins, and their bodies rendered unsuitable for ressurection. In grief and sorrow, he swore that he would use his mighty magics to end war. Permanently. Since the root of war lies in people interacting with one another, he wants to put a stop to it. He will wall off everybody he can get to in their own personal pocket dimension, or stop time for them, or any other form of arcane imprisonment he has available. Usually he collects such prisons as small mementos he keeps on his person.

While he looks for more powerful means of seperating everybody (artifacts), he tries to keep a low profile. However, if he meets anybody who resembles his dead family, he will stop to try and imprison them and keep them on his person.

Plot Hooks:

Players get hired to obtain some artifact he needs.
He has kidnapped somebody important (some member of the nobility)

Telonius
2007-10-16, 11:32 AM
leaving the battle to imagination

1) What is it? - The personification of Imagination and Creativity. It can take any form it wants to. A sleeping child is one of its favorites, but it can appear as anything it wants to.

2) What does he do? - It is the source of all meaning in the world. All hopes and dreams come from it and proceed to it. It is the source of all art (both mundane and arcane), music, and literature. It is powerful, but chaotic.

So, what's the problem?

Imagination is running dry. If it chooses to shut off its flow completely, the world will grind to a halt. There will be no new thoughts or ideas.

3) How does it do it? It just kind of, is. It is, until he chooses not to be. (Does that make any sense?)

4) Why is it doing what he does? It was a new idea - what happens if I stop being me? Being the personification of creativity, it decided to try it out.

5) What do I need to know about him?
It is just about as powerful as the Over-deity. It can't be harmed in any way. If the PCs (or anybody else) find a way to hurt it, it immediately imagines a way to overcome the difficulty. The challenge must be overcome by roleplaying.

6) What the PCs should know of him?
Throughout the world, terrible signs have been happening. The Bards noticed it first; their songs seemed just a bit off. Eventually everybody knew something was wrong.

There should be extremely rare and obscure references to a "Sleeping One." Offhand references to a shapeshifting deity.

7) A name!
Its true name would take lifetimes to pronounce; or maybe it's just silence. Its current name is whatever it chooses to be - or whatever takes its fancy. Sometimes it likes to make a guessing game with people it encounters as to what its name is. Occasionally it will like a name that somebody comes up with so much that it takes the name for awhile. (Of course the idea really came from itself in the first place, which amuses it greatly). Because of this, there are several different names recorded in the obscure bits of lore that the players might be able to uncover.

Inspirations: Neil Gaiman's "Sandman," "The Neverending Story," Ursula LeGuin's "Earthsea" books.

nobodylovesyou4
2007-10-16, 02:14 PM
i know it may seem a little corny, but for my campaign, the bbeg was Gleemax. with his army of illithids, if they put their minds together, they could destroy the sun! which they did. but the pcs went back in time to when gleemax was much weaker and defeated him.

worked a lot better than youd think.