Day 21 – Have you ever used or encountered recurring villains in your campaigns?

Oh yeah. My players love this and so do I.

The first game we played when we resurrected our interest in D&D was meant to be a one-shot set in the coastal town of Ichthus, a fishing port on the south coast of Post-Roman Britannia. We were using 4e and I lifted the setting from a sample adventure in the Starter Set box. The adventure started off with the walls of the town being breached by an explosion as the party was milling about the market square. Pouring through the walls came a war-band of goblins. The players made quick work of them and in the process, learned that the goblins were after a sacred knife that was in the possession of a merchant selling curios.

The plan was to get the players to backtrack the goblin band, learn their true intentions about the knife, and neutralise the threat. So naturally they decided hang around town and explore instead (mostly the inside of a tavern). Thankfully, I had backup plans and their night of carousing lead them to discover a protection racket operating from the dockside granaries and warehouses.

So off they went, tracking down the bandits and dispatching them fairly quickly.

But the leader of the bandits got away, by escaping down into the cellar below the storehouse and through the labyrinthine tunnels that connected to the towns sewer network.

This wasn’t an intentional outcome on my part, it just played out that way. What came out of the night’s session were two peeved adversaries – the first was the Goblin captain that seeks the sacred knife (now in the possession of the players) for an arcane ritual, and second was the female Vampire Spawn that was building a cell within the township. She managed to escape and now holds a grudge against the players.

Tons of opportunities for story telling there and we’ll definitely see both of these NPCs back again.

Back to the list
Prev: Day 20
Next: Day 22