Evil Incarnate (Help Needed)

[Welknair]

The campaign that I run focuses around a coming Godswar. The last one ended with many gods dying, the world be broken apart, and the orcs getting driven back. In my game world, gods derive a large quantity of their power from their worshipers. Well, the evil gods have a plan. They're going to persuade as many of the evil mortal lords as they can to attack the good aligned nation at about the same time. This should hopefully cause mass death of generally good-aligned individuals, so the good-aligned gods will be weaker when the Godswar starts, thus improving the chances of the Evil Gods (Of course they all have plans of killing the other evil gods...). My world is founded upon the principal that there must always be balance. (If an evil god goes down and starts randomly smiting good mortals, a good god must come down and start smiting evil mortals, or bringing the good mortals back to life.)

Well, the evil gods have been pouring in extra malice. This is effectively their influence in the mortal world at the moment. It is what causes the problems in my plot and what my players are trying to fight. They need to help the cause of good to balance this circumstance out. BALANCE. Yeah, that again.

Sadly, my players are, how you say, less than good. I have to persuade them on a regular basis to not murder entire towns and steal the clothes off the backs of priests. So, I had the idea, how does this unbalance manifest itself? Pure, unadulterated evil. This idea was conceived mainly to show the players the error of their ways and hopefully push them towards the path of good.

So what is it that I'm going to do? I'm making EVIL. EVIL's power will grow as time goes on, but if the players lean more towards good, their influence reduces EVIL's power, eventually bringing it to the point where it ceases to manifest. So, EVIL is starting out small. Like a baby.

What is the most sick and twisted thing a baby can do? I'm thinking something along the lines of strangling it's mother... then grinning at the players, however I think you guys could probably come up with some better ideas.

Thoughts?

[Blackfang108]

If you're doing Incarnate, I'd suggest looking at the Necrocarnate class.

[Psyren]

I would have it strangle a pet instead. Like have the (thoroughly mind-controlled) mother invite the players in for a nice idyllic spot of tea, and then they spot the kid twist its puppy's head off or something similarly fiendish.

If you're doing Incarnate, I'd suggest looking at the Necrocarnate class.

I don't think you actually read the OP.

[Thurbane]

You might want to check out the Unholy Scion template in HoH - it makes a creature sentient and evil while still in the womb, as well as a bunch of other abilities...including mind-controlling it's mother.

[Vemynal]

while I like where your head is at I had another idea:

for whatever reason, an npc of stressed importance (but not actually important to the game. Really just someone they've met a lot) should become pregnant and give birth.

But not the regular 9 months gestation, I'm talking a couple hours. This child should also instead of being "born" into the world; tear itself out of her stomach while she still lives. Once born the babe should begin feasting on her flesh infront of the players, quickly comsuming her and reaching a "young child's age". Think like a 5 year old (nothing is scarier then creepy children)

For extra kicks, the "mother" doesn't have to be female =D

As for why the players arn't able to kill the little brat then and there- have a cult dedicated to this evil incarnet either capture them and force them to watch (intending them to be the next meals) or have the PC's watch from a distance.

At a later point in the campaign if your PC's arn't getting it you could capture one of them and have him torcher the character mercilessly. Maybe see how much of the PC he can skin before the PC dies (obviously don't kill the PC, have him rescued or something)

...and seeing how I managed to think all of this on the spot I'ma go see about finding myself a shrink xD

[Nanoblack]

There's a similar idea printed in the heroes of horror. The unholy scion template can be applied to babies which allows them to be intelligent at birth and also gives em some cool SLA's. In an earlier chapter I believe there's a similar scenario encounter story thingy that might give you some ideas for how set set things up.

[Welknair]

Ah, not bad ideas.

I feel it may be important to mention, that I originally intended the demon baby to age a bit as it grew in power, as opposed to it staying so young.

However, after reading your replies, I've decided keeping the child at around 5 would be the creepiest.

As for the introduction of the character, I had originally foreseen something along the lines of the players strolling down the street of an upcoming town when they randomly see the kid strangle the mother.

Again, after reading your posts, I am no longer sure this is best.

Though I plan for this to become plot-critical, at the moment the players have other things to worry about, namely an invading army and several nasty red dragons. So I can't do the whole cult kidnapping... at least not yet.

I do like the idea of the demon child and the whole ripping out of the womb thing. I do not intend to have set-in-stone stats for this being (Evil doesn't have HP), and thus I am not terribly interested in the stats given by the Unholy Scion as much as the idea behind it. And I must say, the idea is pretty darn creepy. Sadly, I do not possess a copy of HoH. Time to find a pdf or a copy of the template...

[WinWin]

Anyone can commit an act of violence. While that is horrible...it really does not emphasise evil.

You want evil? The child does nothing overt. The mother strangles herself while the child laughs in delight and claps it hands.

Real evil does not get it's own hands dirty unless it has to IMO. It is what people make others do, not their own actions which defines a really sick, evil incarnate.

Besides...Ins't some form of mind control required for an aspiring Overlord?

[dsmiles]

Watch The Omen. That should give you some good ideas for an evil child. (Both the original w/Gregory Peck and the 2006 version with Leiv Schreiber are excellent.)

[true_shinken]

If you can read Portuguese, the Tormenta trilogy has some good examples on how to portray this, specially in the last book (The Third God).

[hamishspence]

Anyone can commit an act of violence. While that is horrible...it really does not emphasise evil.

You want evil? The child does nothing overt. The mother strangles herself while the child laughs in delight and claps it hands.

Real evil does not get it's own hands dirty unless it has to IMO. It is what people make others do, not their own actions which defines a really sick, evil incarnate.

The villain in Agatha Christie's very last novel- Curtain, was a lot like this- they never commit murders- but they manipulate others into doing so, without ever overtly saying something like "Why not murder this person?"

[Psyren]

The villain in Agatha Christie's very last novel- Curtain, was a lot like this- they never commit murders- but they manipulate others into doing so, without ever overtly saying something like "Why not murder this person?"

Isn't that the one where

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Hercule Poirot dies?

[Starbuck_II]

Didn't they cover this in Xena: the Warrior Princess when Gabriele had a evil baby?

[true_shinken]

Didn't they cover this in Xena: the Warrior Princess when Gabriele had a evil baby?

Angel covered it as well... but YMMV on this one.

[hamishspence]

Isn't that the one where

Spoiler

Show

Hercule Poirot dies?

Indeed: and it's also the one where:

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Hercule Poirot commits murder- because he sees it as the only way to deal with this bad guy.

[Greenish]

So what is it that I'm going to do? I'm making EVIL. EVIL's power will grow as time goes on, but if the players lean more towards good, their influence reduces EVIL's power, eventually bringing it to the point where it ceases to manifest.

If the world runs on balance, shouldn't the Evil become stronger because the Good becomes stronger?

So, the more your players lean to Good, the stronger Evil would come, too.

[true_shinken]

If the world runs on balance, shouldn't the Evil become stronger because the Good becomes stronger?

So, the more your players lean to Good, the stronger Evil would come, too.

His world runs on balance, it does not balance itself alone.

[Welknair]

His world runs on balance, it does not balance itself alone.

Thank you, good sir. I recognize that given the set up, the self-balancing set up could be assumed, but does not work with what I am trying to accomplish. And thus, is not how things work. Evil must equal Good, but they do not do so automatically. What the Evil Gods have done is wrong, and unnatural. They have disrupted the balance and this disruption is the manifestation of which we speak.

And also, thank you for all the ideas. This is going to horrify my players...