Villains and NPCs biography #9

Name: Maze Lord

Species/race: semideific being

Gender: n/a

Class: astral maze lord, demigod

Role: guardian of the great maze

Introduction: mortals behold! The maze before You is endless and eternal. From here until Oblivion and beyond does it stretchand it's challenges become greater and greater through each level you descend. Reward waits for You but so does risk.

Role-playing mannerisms: fold hands as if praying when speaking to players. Use universal or general ideas when speaking.

Campaign setting notes: the maze Lord was modeled after the endless dungeon campaigns that so many of us ran in the early days. Typically I would give the players a summoning Stone that would allow them to return to a "save spot" at the end of the night session. It would also let the players summon the mace Lord to let them continue to the next level of the maze when they found the corridor of alters. This room acted as sort of a breathing area for them to be teleported into the next level.

Each level of the eternal maze was one challenge rating. I typically started out at half then on to one, then onward to Infinity. The maze was constantly shifting so there was no need to draw a map. I would typically plot out about 10 to 15 rooms ahead on each level using a randomized chart so I could prepare.

I had two random roll charts with me when running this campaign. The first was random monsters appropriate to each level including on what page of the books to find them. The second was descriptions and sizes of the room. This one helped the most as it prevented me from blanking out and making everything a gigantic square.

The maze Lord can be described as monochromatic. Their skin clothing and equipment is all black and white with shades of Gray as if off an early TV series.

This sort of campaign works really well for a fight club type feel or for a group that doesn't want to do a bunch of role playing.

Name: Exocull

Species/race: Elf, typically Moon sometimes drow

Gender: female

Class: spellcaster with focus on transmutation

Role: antagonist and changer of the world

Introduction: the world is changing as clay before the potter. As the blacksmith beats down his hammer upon heated metal so I too shall change the world how I see fit. I alone shall do this and I alone shall overcome the problems before us.

Role-playing mannerisms: speak a loosely about distant goals when directly spoken to.

Campaign setting notes: Exocull served as a primary antagonist I had around the 15th level. Her primary purpose was to change the world how she saw fit namely through creating and destroying landscapes. Raise and lower land and changing entire landscapes was one of her primary methods to do so. Move Earth was one of her signature spells that could change the entire courses of rivers or mountains and caused enormous problems in the campaign.

Her other big go-to spells were walls. Wall of stone and Wall of ice for the ones that she used with great frequency even in combat. Using the half sphere option or dome she would simply encapsulate party numbers without killing them.

Druid is the seemingly good choice here but it doesn't quite fit her anger at the world. I like to use cleric or wizard a lot for the access to the spells that became part of her repertoire. Under 5th edition I'm sure there is some really great options for druid that I have not explored for this character.

One of the key features of her character is she does not directly kill. They may be drowned or die in an earthquake but rarely did she ever cast a fireball into the middle of the party.

Name: Firebrand, protector of eggs

Species/race: Kobold

Gender: male

Class: paladin

Role: provide combat training to players

Introduction: work together to overcome your enemies! Now leave me alone and go away.

Role-playing mannerisms: when speaking act as if disgruntled an elderly teaching children

Campaign setting notes: firebrand was a part of the campaign for new players featuring only kobolds. He would go with players out into the field occasionally and provide support for them. Primarily he existed to teach players about how to bullrush, charge, and other special maneuvers.

Name: challah Nii'gal

Species/race: Dragonkin

Gender: male

Class: dragonblood sorcerer

Role: protagonist and spokesperson in dragon campaign

Introduction: together we are gathered here as one, both scale and skin United for the greater good. The evil of this world seeks to destroy us but together we are stronger.

Role-playing mannerisms: when speaking make inclusive motions with your hands like gathering and use pronouns like us and we often.

Campaign setting notes: challa was from the dragon war campaign I ran. He represented all dragons but was of the copper background. During the great councils he was the voice for those who were either too big or difficult to speak for. As such he was able to show up and locations where a dragon typically wouldn't be welcomed or helpful. Typically he would aid and provide counsel for players but occasionally would give out quest or mission as needed.

His real purpose was to keep the players from getting too far off the rails and keep them in the sandbox without blowing up the world.

Name: Argo, guardian of the eternal forge

Species/race: warforge

Gender: non gender

Class: artificer

Role: quest goal and information source

Introduction: so your quest brings you to kill a god? Then gather around so that I may instruct you.

Role-playing mannerisms: act dry and humorless like a bored British spokesperson describing soap

Campaign setting notes: Argo served as the end of a quest guardian of a temple where a rare artifact could be forged from the pieces that the players had collected over the campaign. He was more or less eternal by pulling an Ultron style body switch.

The other fun part about this was that Argo was visited again and again and again throughout the entirety of the campaign to kill this evil God. Players always had a source to craft their magical weapons or study a new spell so it became something of a second home for them. Despite the campaign starting at level 10 and going to 18th we still had a lot of fun.

Name: Noah Joad

Species/race: human

Gender: male

Class: commoner

Role: damsel in distress syndrome

Introduction: "I like cats. Cats are friendly and nice. They like it when I scratch them behind the ears. I followed the cat out here and stayed to pet it but it ran away when the bad things came."

Role-playing mannerisms: talk about dislikes and likes frequently, but slowly.

Campaign setting notes: Noah almost always shows up at first level lost somewhere. And yes I do know that this is blatant character theft but many of the players I've had over the years don't realize who it is. His family is however very well connected the campaign and opens up context for the players to draw upon for further missions.

If a character shares any form of being cat or dog like or even has an animal companion he will gravitate towards that person and protect them by whatever means necessary. His strength is always treated as having powerful build.

Name: Braxton Underheart

Species/race: human lich

Gender: male

Class: cleric featuring necromancy focus

Role: antagonist

Introduction: sitting upon a throne made of the bones of the fallen sits a charred character who's eyes burn with the light of the Damned. Raising his hands the walls issue forth skeletal servants who rush to defend him from your advances.

Role-playing mannerisms: shake your fist in frustration at players when speaking to them

Campaign setting notes: Braxton was part of a interesting undead campaign that I ran. The primary premise was that a necromancer was raising an army of the undead to conquer the great lands. Pretty cliche but it was still a lot of fun.

Braxton was the center character at the heart of the problem of the undead. He was the murdered brother of the king of the humans and so gained his revenge upon his brother by raising the army.

There's a very evil terrible creature called a rust wight that I found. It featured the rusting capabilities of a rust monster plus the level training of a wight. It's one of the worst creatures I have ever seen in the books. Please do not use it ever. ::Wink, wink::

Name: Jhørad of Greensport

Species/race: dwarf

Gender:male

Class: barbarian

Role: quest giver

Introduction: the icy chill coming down from the mountains was not nearly as breathtaking as the lights in the sky: greens and blues snaked their way as though a giant ribbon was being drawn upon by the gods. Sitting in the center of the glacier alone was Jhørad. He did not care for the halls of mithril or the warmth of the forge. Instead his quest for the sky let him here to these desolate lands. No prouder dwarf was there in the land then he for he alone had finished this quest and had been blessed by the gods for doing so.

Role-playing mannerisms: unusually cheerful for a dwarf

Campaign setting notes: in one of the novels there is mention of the quest for sky as being present through one of the generations of the dwarves in which they emerged from the underdark to the surface world. Running with this I stuck him in a port far from any other dwarf on the land. He will frequently give out quest based on location and a travelers through the area, which typically is Arctic or subarctic environments. He also has a wild boar mount that he calls Mr. Oinkers.

Name: Pala the forgotten

Species/race: elf

Gender: female

Class: vampire and psionic

Role: antagonist

Introduction: there is no hope for you. Forever is the darkness in front of you for the light is but brief and limited. Resist no longer and ease yourself into my service.

Role-playing mannerisms: no matter the insults or hatred always use pleasant conversation towards characters

Campaign setting notes: Pala was a difficult enemy to play. I have never really got a true grasp of the psionics throughout the different versions of D&D and so that is one of my greater weaknesses. However a mind controlling specialist was needed as part of the storyline was her ability to body hop between targets while she rested in a secure location.

My players had a lot of problems in that I put civilians under her control in harm's way quite often. She would take over their body and do terrible things with them but then retreat whenever combat would be near.

Overall her tactics were hated by the players. I only used her for part of one campaign and there she remained.

Villains and NPC biographies #1: http://imgur.com/gallery/ub8pjvY

Villains and NPC biographies #2: http://imgur.com/gallery/B4ZOKQ2

Villains and NPC biographies #3: http://imgur.com/gallery/dJBiFek

Villains and NPC biographies #4: http://imgur.com/gallery/wSPDPsY

Villains and NPC biographies #5: http://imgur.com/gallery/o66eNvt

Villains and NPC biographies #6: http://imgur.com/gallery/twhjbmN

Villains and NPCs biography #7: http://imgur.com/gallery/jbIYDHJ

Villains and NPCs biography #8: http://imgur.com/gallery/USBXPCa

Thank you again to all those who are reading through those. I've really enjoyed bringing some of my characters out of their binders for new people to look at and experience despite not having a group at the moment.