Hinting at the BBEG

[dededo11]

I have an idea for a campaign. It involves a cult dedicated to a dead god of Creativity and Light. The cult seeks to resurrect their dead god, guided by what appears to be a powerful angel sent to help them in their quest. But the truth is, the angel is actually Fraz-Urb'Luu and the ritual to revive their dead god is will actually open a portal to the Abyss, allowing Fraz-Urb-Luu's army of demons to come in a ravage the world.

What I want to know is, what are some subtle ways that I can hint at the true nature of the angel Fraz-Urb'Luu is pretending to be? Hoe can I hint that its not actually an angel, but a demon lord, in a subtle way?

[arnin77]

History and Lore? Maybe have the cultists preach that the angel had “Glorious Purpose” and remember its actions being pure and noble but as the PCs find out more and more they learn the opposite?

[Xervous]

Desperate cultists can be expected to try anything that might work. This can suspend some of the players’ disbelief if you include a few twisted features of the ritual. Seed these true ritual components in with decoy components and nebulous components. Viewed from the now, they could resurrect the god, but in hindsight one might feel the divergent details were a giveaway.

Example:
Fake: retrieve a relic of the god, which is actually an unrelated item of power that Fraz thinks will fit the god’s theme.

Real but nebulous: shatter the obelisks that are blocking extraplanar influence. Gotta be able to really reach out to the fragmented parts of the dead god.

Twisted component: gathering subjects for a ritual sacrifice. At face value they’re all being gathered for a mass demonstration of faith and pledging their eternal souls to the deity. Let’s be real here, players should smell a ritual sacrifice a mile away here.

Later on you can reveal the fake components to be fake. Provide details that swing the nebulous components into darker light. Lastly you can add the direct ties that point towards Fraz’s involvement for the twisted components.

Do try to get a feel in advance for how paranoid and trope aware your players are. Hints that one group might miss are enough for another group to mostly solve the mystery.

[Unoriginal]

How about: there is no record of that angel anywhere, and any attempt of divination or other ways to acquire information about them simply doesn't work.

However, there *are* records of people gathering what the angel is telling the cultists to gather (ex: "on the year XXXX, the Bronze Chalice was stolen by a mysterious intruder. It was found six months later by a group of adventurers, in the middle of burned ruins), and all of those items can be geographically and chronologically linked to significant calamities happening.