Runaway Recurring Villian

[Guest]

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Has anyone ever used a recurring villian who simply runs away at the
first sign of trouble? As soon as the good guys show up, he just flat
out books?

I have an NPC, a rogue, with good dex and str, and the run and
endurance feats. Lots of ranks in climb, jump, hide...

The first time he scammed the PCs, the half-orc barbarian chased him
through the streets of Hardby(Greyhawk), and ended up almost getting
arrested for breaking into the wrong house.

The second time, he leapt out the window of a burning warehouse and ran
off into the night, leaving both the PC's and his minions.

The PC's have a Hold Person scroll ready now whenever they go to
Hardby, just in case they bump into him.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

decalod85 wrote:
> Has anyone ever used a recurring villian who simply runs away at the
> first sign of trouble? As soon as the good guys show up, he just flat
> out books?
>
> I have an NPC, a rogue, with good dex and str, and the run and
> endurance feats. Lots of ranks in climb, jump, hide...
>
> The first time he scammed the PCs, the half-orc barbarian chased him
> through the streets of Hardby(Greyhawk), and ended up almost getting
> arrested for breaking into the wrong house.
>
> The second time, he leapt out the window of a burning warehouse and ran
> off into the night, leaving both the PC's and his minions.
>
> The PC's have a Hold Person scroll ready now whenever they go to
> Hardby, just in case they bump into him.
>

It's also a great way to lure PCs into traps. Whenever they see an NPC
flee, they're
going to give chase, and a smart NPC can get them into trouble faster
before they
realize what's happening.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Keith Davies wrote:
> Jasin Zujovic <jzujovic@inet.hr> wrote:
> > decalod85@comcast.net wrote:
> >
> >> Has anyone ever used a recurring villian who simply runs away at
the
> >> first sign of trouble? As soon as the good guys show up, he just
flat
> >> out books?
> >
> > We're currently playing Whispers of the Vampire's Blade in Eberron,
and
> > we've faced the main villain three times now, only to have him run
away
> > each time.
>
> I had a session with the lead villain run away. He'd captured two of
> the PCs and had been torturing them when the rest showed up to rescue
> them. The mooks went down quickly enough, the villain managed to
escape
> (teleport).

I did this to my players multiple times with an Anti-Paladin ("Best of
Dragon" version) back in the 1e years. He enjoyed sneaking up,
backstabbing with his two-handed Unholy Reaver (poisoned of course),
and 'porting away. They *hated* that guy.

There was also this cold-iron bitch of a Talona priestess in a
spelljamming/planehopping campaign who was infamous for her hit-and-run
tactics. The party was responsible for reclaiming several magic swords
from hiding places across the planes, and to keep safe the ones they
had found. On multiple occaisions she managed to steal a sword from the
party, leave a fair bit of destruction (and in one case,
/Destruction/), and make good her escape.

--
Jay Knioum
The Mad Afro

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Between saving the world and having a spot of tea decalod85 said

> Has anyone ever used a recurring villian who simply runs away at the
> first sign of trouble? As soon as the good guys show up, he just flat
> out books?

Yes. I drove the party nuts, and I meant I could pretty much lead them
from town to town chasing her.

--
Rob Singers
"All your Ron are belong to us"
Credo Elvem ipsum etiam vivere

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

decalod85@comcast.net wrote:

> Has anyone ever used a recurring villian who simply runs away at the
> first sign of trouble? As soon as the good guys show up, he just flat
> out books?

We're currently playing Whispers of the Vampire's Blade in Eberron, and
we've faced the main villain three times now, only to have him run away
each time.


--
Jasin Zujovic
jzujovic@inet.hr

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

decalod85 wrote:
> Has anyone ever used a recurring villian who simply runs away at the
> first sign of trouble? As soon as the good guys show up, he just
flat
> out books?

Kind of - I had a rival wizard plus minions, all of
'em had these amulets with a Recall effect on them.
As soon as one went down, his unconcious form would
vanish, only to show up again later. It took several
frustrating encounters - these NPC's were the PC's
main rivals in a "collect the plot tokens" style
quest - before the party rogue decided to sneak up
on 'em and pick pockets until he found out which
item made them vanish.

Funny bit - the amulets either activated when the
bearer went unconcious, or when a secret password
was spoken. The Wizard's right-hand man - a mutant
six-armed human monk - found himself outmatched,
and whispered the command word. The PC party's
*rogue* disappeared! ;-)

Walt Smith
Firelock on DALNet