While investigating supposed animal attacks, my players find a lich performing research on some ancient ruins.
also in a coc game, I intend to have them discover evidence that a mythos profiteer has had a hand (or tried to) in many of the eldritch events they've encountered
>as the players search the Orc encampment, they encounter an Orcish chieftain busy raping a young Elvish slave girl
My players end up getting raped too
That 3 means there's a 1 and 2...
My campaign's main villain first introduced herself as a new employee in a brothel where the PCs were also posing as new cocottes. She supernaturally charmed all of the prostitutes (including the PCs, who were supposed to be merely pretending to be whores), took them all on a wild ride, and then hurled them into a paradisiac mindscape.
This had set off a wild and wacky series of plane-hopping adventures. We have run over two dozen sessions to date, and the mousegirl has yet to be stopped.
THE KING HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED BY THE DRAGON LORD.
ARE YOU A BAD ENOUGH DUDE TO RESCUE THE KING?
What does that mean?
One of the party members used a macguffan they got from the last adventure to steal something cool during a tournament. He cornered the player in the forest and offered him (and the rest of the group who decided to show up) 40K gold in exchange for it.
He wasn't even originally going to be the main villain, just some collector dude. After enough suspicion from the players I decided to just roll with it and start writing in reasons to make the guy a prick. Though the party ended up being bigger villains in the long run
The party was stuck on a windless sea on a merchant ship for a week with the villains, who were posing as merchants.
Once the ship got moving again, a ship approached them under the guise of a fellow merchant ship, attacked them, and stole a magical item from one of the MCs. Then they blew up the ship, leaving the party adrift at sea.
They don't really know what the villains want to do yet but they are getting an idea bit by bit.
based death album
>STARE INTO HIS EYES
>NOW IN HIS SPELL
>KISS THE ROTTING FLESH
>NOW YOU'RE IN HELL
I have long term plans for the campaign, so they've met three major villains so far.
>After a few quests to get used to the setting, they go into a cultist temple in the city only to find themselves trapped in hell, and on the way out they unleash the goddess of undeath from her prison, and plagues sweep across the land
>One of the PC's is a vampire looking for a cure, while at a party in their home citiy's rich people district, the famous Lord Dio Brando makes an appearance, the vampire lord who made the PC a vampire. When they come back from their current quest they will discover Lord Dio's army has destroyed their home base and taken the town under his control, and their best bet at revenge is a complex assassination plan.
>One of the pc's soul has become linked with an ancient white dragon's soul,
and so far it has only meant great buffs for that PC, but eventually I will reveal that the dragon has been gaining power to escape its prison by using the PC as a proxy, and will attempt to destroy the world
I have way too much going on in the campaign, I know.
By the elf?
He's the PCs' employer. He's not making them do anything to further his goals, but he is keeping them busy as his people further their plans. He will soon be revealed as the main villain behind it all (the PCs have not found their enemy's leader yet) and they have no fucking clue, it should be awesome.
the image name has a 3 on it, meaning the dude has more pics of orcs forcing elves
The entire campaign centers around the manhunt for this guy, with the party being part of the law enforcement hunting for him. The party first met him when the guy ambushed and grabbed who they thought was a lead.
Party sneaking into a stronghold of bandit lord terrorizing the area and enslaving people en masse. When they reached the final room, they heard some voices and sneaked to observe. Bandit lord was groveling before a masked wizard with an elite bodyguard unit. The wizard said the bandit's recent results were not satisfying and that he would not accept another disappointment. Then he teleported out. Then the players jumped and attacked the bandit lord while he was busy collecting his dropped spaghetti.
Dropped PCs into an open world sandbox with a few hooks scattered around, first session would determine the rest of the campaign. Players ended up with 2 plot lines. First they all got black out drunk and pulled a Dude Where's My Car with a teleporting wizard, making enemies all across the continent. Then when they sobered up they stumbled into some ruins and got themselves cursed.
Villain 1 - Extra dimensional entity looking to weaken the wards that protect the world. The empty entryway to the room the players are in cracks like glass, then shatters. Behind it is still the entryway, but parts now hold a reflection of the room they're in, like a broken mirror. However the viewer's reflection is replaced by a reflection of their species that looks like an invisible entity dripping in a red, viscous fluid. Once noticed, it says, in an exuberant voice "Ah! Mortals! That's hilarious. I was just looking for peons to do my bidding."
Villain 2 - Dude they sold a party member into sexual slavery
Intro - Party fails their observation checks and think inn is safe. They all wake up with knives to their throats held by a gaggle of assassins. Lead assassin says "I'm terribly sorry to introduce myself like this. It is horribly unprofessional. However my employer has given me very strict orders and he wants what you sold to him returned without damage. I'm afraid this was the only way to handle things... professionally." and then adds to the player who joined a session late. "As for you, my employer has no concerns. However it simply letting you go would be highly unprofessional. Wouldn't want you planning a daring rescue or anything, you understand. So as a courtesy I'll give you the choice; either come with the rest of your companions to my employer, who will likely torture then execute you with the rest of your companions, or I can kill you painlessly here."
There was also a necromancer, a nobleman, a horde of barbarian raiders, and a duke with an army.
I started chanting TEE HEE MACCARONI louder and louder until I was screaming it at the top of my lungs.
After going deep into the Underdark the party met with mind-controlled dwarves that used a illithid shield to talk with their master, a magically trapped illithilich. He convinced them to aid him in return for resurrecting one person for them. They did and now the guy is free to be a lich and ruin everything.
They were sent as couriers to deliver a rare creature to his menagerie, which turned out to be an Aboleth that mind-controlled the zookeeper to open the rest of the cages while his Chuul army assaulted the compound. The party had to get to the roof of the tower to escape on Hippogriffs, and snatched a McGuffin on the way up. The BBEG is now out for revenge and to recover the key to his plans.
My game doesn't have one, main, villain.
Sure, it has factions that the party opposes. It has antagonists. Some show up early, others show up late, mostly they show up when they're relevant, doing whatever it is they're doing that causes the party to oppose them. But really, it's about a system that exists above the level of individuals. It's easy as fuck to point at some random villain and say killing him will instantly fix all the world's problems; it's harder to fix things with a nice climactic murder when the thing you're fixing is a flawed but functioning society.
>Though the party ended up being bigger villains in the long run
How do you mean?