Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 20 Mar 2005 to 28 Mar 2005 (#2005-62) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 29/03/2005, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 3 messages totalling 126 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Recurring Villains (3) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.mystaranet.jamm.com/vaults/default.aspx To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:06:50 -0400 From: Steven Carter Subject: Recurring Villains All my players know Iuz, and the Zhentarim. But they don't know about the Shadowlord, the Master of Hule, the Iron Ring or Alphaks. They laugh at the Black Eagle - they won't when I'm done though. I'm looking to re-build my campaign for another kick-at-the-can. Can anyone suggest canon-sourced villains and villainous organizations? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:26:54 -0500 From: Joe Mason Subject: Re: Recurring Villains On Mon, Mar 28, 2005 at 05:06:50PM -0400, Steven Carter wrote: > All my players know Iuz, and the Zhentarim. But they don't know about > the Shadowlord, the Master of Hule, the Iron Ring or Alphaks. They > laugh at the Black Eagle - they won't when I'm done though. > > I'm looking to re-build my campaign for another kick-at-the-can. > > Can anyone suggest canon-sourced villains and villainous organizations? Barimoor from GAZ2 (a wizard questing for Immortality who lives in a vast series of tunnels stretching all beneath Ylaruam. "Picture every evil wizard, sorceror, lich and other villian you've ever read about, all in one place and working for Barimoor.") GAZ3 has some beautiful Wizard-Princes, including Brannart MacGregor (ach, a lich!) and Prince Morphail (guess what he is). Those to are the big guns, but such scoundrels as Prince Innocenti di Malepietra, the poisoner, don't get as much respect as they deserve. Some of the others could be spun as good or evil depending on how the campaign goes (like Prince Jagger von Drachenfels, who's militaristic and agitating for an invasion of Ethangar. Although come to think of it, that might be justified - the Golden Khan of Ethangar is planning to conquer the world). The Orcs of Thar (GAZ10) - the Gazeteer is kind of humourous, but it doesn't have to be spun that way and it has a lot of ideas that could be really spooky if played straight. From the same gazeteer, Atzanteotl is one of my favourite evil gods. Way smarter than Alphaks. The Shadow Elves (GAZ13) are a neat twist on the Drow. Raphael turns out not to be evil, but his creed is incredibly cool, and if you set these guys up as the enemy and then the players find out they really aren't, that might be a nice campaign too. The Heldannic Knights (Champions of Mystara) make pretty good Nazis. The Kingdom of Herath, from the same book, is a deep forest ruled by wizards who turn out to be evil shapechanging spiders. There are a bunch of other cool ideas in that book too. Joe ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 08:27:44 +0200 From: Giampaolo Agosta Subject: Re: Recurring Villains Joe Mason wrote: > > The Kingdom of Herath, from the same book, is a deep forest ruled by > wizards who turn out to be evil shapechanging spiders. There are a > bunch of other cool ideas in that book too. Like the SE, these are not really evil -- just a bit heavy-handed when it comes to national security ;) Other villains: Pyre, the Crimson Dragon (from the Orc's Head region, an evil Red Dragon, the mastermind behind the Dark Jungle Orcs) The Wurmling of Eusdria (Jabba the Hutt, Mystaran version, from the SC MCA); note that Wurmlings need very large territories, so there is a single one in the Savage Coast (this is the only one canonic), but there must be at least a few others around (probably in Hule, Thyatis and Alphatia) The Iron Ring and/or the Veiled Society: mostly useful for Karameikan campaigns, but the Iron Ring can have allies and operatives in Ierendi, Darokin and even Sind. The Black Rajah of Jaibul: an evil Wizard, ruler of a small domain near Sind, controls much of the slave trade between KW and SC. Oran Meditor & friends: they may not be ``Evil'' as in the alignment, but the Thadders have a weird legal system and a scheming political environment, making them extremely dangerous for the average adventurers' party. The Dragon kings: there are several Dragon kings in KW, some of them are not that nice (see Bruce Heard's article). The Manscorpions: Nimmur is a corrupt, entropic kingdom; it is not that good as a recurring villain, though, unless your party is based in the Orc's Head. Most of the Entropic Immortal Candidates can be powerful and evil opponents (there are a few of them canonic, IIRC there's also a list on the Vaults). Anyway, the Master of Hule is definitely the most dangerous and well-known villain of Mystara -- few are as powerful, and none is so well known, or poses a direct threat to so many nations. Bye, GP ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 20 Mar 2005 to 28 Mar 2005 (#2005-62) ***************************************************************