“Master! Look what I’ve found in the dungeon.”

“Ah, my old adventurer’s tent. How much I miss the days of my youth when I’d gad about the countryside, chasing this purple temple or that magenta stronghold. How my young limbs used to love a stop in the dangerous wilderness and break my fast with spring water and berries.”

“Whereas now your regal buttocks become inflamed unless they are warm and cozy on your mighty mattress.”

“True, slug-mother, true. Now get my warming pan ready and boil me some frothy milk for my supper or I’ll have you lashed.”

The overnight stop in the wilderness, the night’s rest of some band of orcs being chased across the hills, the odd curiosity by the trailside. Sometimes these places can be nothing more than a brief mention on the journey, but sometimes a group’s stopping point can be a staging point for an encounter, and then, the choice of a place with walls and cover becomes more crucial.

The tables below offer a little more meat to the overnight stop. The first list is the shelter found with a successful Survival check (DC 10), the other is for fails. Characters can push on if they find a camp not to their liking, but these tables provide stops at random when the player characters have almost concluded a day walking. If they push on into the dark, might they get lost, might their torches bring foes, or might the next place be even worse?

Check Succeeds

1. A tumbled-down chapel, one wall remains standing and a weathered angel stands guard
2. A collapsed hay barn with enough space inside for camping
3. An old pigpen
4. A sheepfold with intact walls
5. An abandoned cottage
6. An old carriage turned upside down
7. A stout barn
8. A roadside chapel with room inside for plenty to sleep and a big fireplace stocked with wood
9. A ruined manse with one wing still standing
10. The shell of a windmill with a makeshift roof of cloth from previous visitors
11. A ruined keep
12.  A recently abandoned inn
13. A stout, dry cave with carvings of a saint
14. A trio of recently felled trees that form a perfect grove
15. An old boathouse whose walls, though falling, are stout and weatherproof
16. An old ruined mill
17. A mouldering gypsy caravan
18. A landlocked bridge whose arches offer shelter
19. A sheep pen
20. A ruin made of huge stones
21. An old church surrounded by weathered graves
22. A small hill commanding fine views and with a dozen rabbit holes
23. A hilltop with a small hermit’s cave cut in
24. A hillock with three huge trees
25. A south-facing grove by a stream that is a favorite for local game
26. A boarded-shut woodcutter’s hut
27. An abandoned walled garden
28. A tumbled-down cottage with a garden brimming with seasonal vegetables
29. A ruined cottage with a functional well
30. A lean-to made of stout trees
31. A ruined church tower with a rusty bell inside
32. A fine tor of large stones that commands excellent views of the surroundings
33. An old quarry with caves
34. A ruined farm with wild mushrooms and berries
35. A hunter’s wood shelter by a loch brimming with pike
36. A lochan teeming with eels
37. A small abandoned dungeon complex
38. A large abandoned dungeon complex
39. A huge hay barn
40. A small bothy
41. A roadside temple with a wooden shed
42. A natural rock bowl with a fire pit in its center
43. A hillside with good cover and plenty of hares
44. A small cave by a natural pond
45. A very high wall with a trough
46. A sheltered cairn
47. A small lochan with an island in the middle that can easily be waded to
48. A chapel on a small island in a loch
49. An abandoned tower
50. A wattle and daub hut

Check Fails

1. A small glade that overnight begins to run with spring water
2. A ruined cottage infested with ants
3. A gatepost on a hillock
4. A wet valley
5. A moldering gypsy caravan that falls to pieces when entered
6. A damp grove in a damper copse
7. A frequently used trail with giant footprints
8. A stone circle on a hill covered in gorse
9. A cairn on a windy hillock
10. A very damp shallow cave
11.  A heathery hillock infested with vermin
12. A small grassed area filled with thistles at the side of a stream
13. A completely collapsed old inn on a very windy hillside
14. An old quarry with half a dozen hornet’s nests
15. A low bowl of grass by a stream that is infamous for midges
16. A sheltered hill infamous for midges
17. A shelter by a small loch infamous for midges
18. A ruined village infested with brambles
19. A foul spot for flies
20. A pleasant ruined farmhouse overrun with mice
21. A pleasant ruined cottage overrun with rats
22. A ruined barn that is a favorite hangout for skunks
23. An old hay barn infested with spiders
24. A mile post on a moist grassy knoll
25. A horribly exposed hillside
26. A toadstool-infested glade
27. A ruined house with numerous stinkhorns and other foul-smelling fungi in its damp rooms
28. A spot uncannily visible for many miles
29. A ruined castle in danger of imminent collapse
30. A barn in danger of imminent collapse
31. A foul-smelling hovel
32. A damp spot infested with big slugs
33. A cave occupied by something aggressive
34. A ruin occupied with something aggressive
35. A ruin containing several poisonous snakes
36. A terrible spot for poisonous ivy
37. A very damp spot beneath some trees
38. A ruin with an untraceable foul-smelling object buried somewhere in it
39. A tree that makes an unsettling groaning and creaking noise at night
40. A barn that has been used by some large creature that has recently died
41. A windy cave
42. An old graveyard
43. A barrow on a windy spot
44. A nettle-infested field
45. A well with bad water
46. A weed-choked mill with rotten floors
47. A pool overrun with noisy frogs
48. An abandoned plague village
49. A remote farmstead with the dead owner still in bed upstairs
50. A cottage with the last occupant hanging from a rafter

Let us continue with our look at twelve obsessive collectors. If you missed our first six delightful characters, you can read about them in part 1.

7. Sir Rankwen Frien, the Mummy Collector

Although his collection raises alarm bells everywhere nearby, Frien is merely interested in the acquisition of mummies with a view to firstly enhancing his innocent curiosity of genuinely dead mummies. Then there’s the potential to question the more intelligent mummies and learn the secrets of their formation, as well as any other secrets they may have to allude to the location of lost burial sites, ancient temples, and other—potentially vastly lucrative—archaeological sites. That Frien has to occasionally dismember or reduce a mummy to a head and chest through his questioning is merely a fact that assists him in his work; they are undead and have no feelings, therefore threatening their extinguishment of unlife is merely a valid way of questioning them.

8. Tarramor and the Faces

Masks can be troubling, and Tarramor has lots of troubling masks. She’s a troubling person—an overtly artistic lady with a shocking edge and an unpredictable and twisted sense of humor. She wears the masks for special occasions, and when she does, she takes on the personality of the mask as she sees it.

The troubling thing is that Tarrramor rules this shire and its countless terrified subjects of the land of Fotherly: acres of moorland and mountains on the edges of civilization. She loves to have visitors to her manse, where she regales them with her clever acting as the masks. Some visitors she likes, some she doesn’t. Those she doesn’t like she lets go, then sends the hunt after them—hounds and men riding swift horses who wear masks of men and dogs eating people alive.

In truth, a worse fate is in store for those she likes, for she dons seductive masks of passion, and if these are rebuffed, she takes upon the mask of the spurned woman.

9. The Ghoul Collector

Pickled ghouls in armored glass jars may seem an odd obsession, but Parran Robin thinks it is perfectly normal. He uses the ghouls to conduct his own fascinating trials into the extent to which ghoul fever can be passed to other creatures. He has to live alone, of course, and although he’d love a wife, whenever they get close and find out about the ghouls, they seem to leave. Or stay, if he makes them.

His obsession doesn’t end at mere experimentation, however, for he also likes to hunt, and when he releases his experiments from his isolated hunting tower deep in the pine forest, he heads out with his faithful hound and horse to savor the thrill of the hunt.

There is nothing like a human ghoul for prey, however, and Parran has found that, just occasionally as a treat, he has to bulk up his collection with fresh meat to infect. The most choice morsels, he’s found, are adventurers; so cunning, so clever, so resourceful. And, of course there are always two such hunts—the first to capture, the second to kill the infected meat.

10. The Great Cartographer and Historian Edwin Mabe

Although its owner is rarely at home, the mansion of Mabe is a treasure trove of maps and objects, parts of temples, whole statues, and even an entire pyramid, semi-reconstructed in the grounds of his lodge.

Edwin keeps a staff of strange foreign people at his mansion, and curious music can be heard at all hours wafting through the downs and along the river. Some people claim that Edwin died decades ago and that the staff actually runs the mansion as a lure for those whose knowledge they wish to acquire.

11. The Hoarding Women

You smell the mansion long before you see it. She’s never thrown anything out that could be vaguely useful—neither her nor her twin sister—and that includes rags, bones, broken objects, rusted objects they’ve dug up, and any manner of crap. The mansion groans under the collected weight of two long lifetimes of unhinged hoarding and bristles with room after room of flotsam, rubbish, and, sometimes, treasures.

The Hoarding Women—they forgot their true names long ago—love visitors; they get so few these days. They like to invite visitors to stay, but sometimes these visitors get lost in the confusing mass of chambers, and they eventually end up in the east wing where their poor demented brother lives.

12. The Museum of Lilith Grenk

She is ridiculously, outrageously beautiful, but she is, sadly, quite demented. Lilith loves beauty—covets it and smothers herself in it. Beautiful paintings, beautiful sculptures, beautiful people—all must be hers. She always pays the highest price for beauty, and she is well known by fences and rogues, adventurers and antiquarians.

There are always rumors about such collectors. Some people say that Lilith’s collection is too complete and spans too many centuries. These folk claim she is undead—a vampire or a lich, perhaps. They say that she takes lovers who are never seen again save as statues: statues beneath clay, statues that were smothered alive as people by her desperate admiration of their beauty and a desire to keep it the same forever.

“Master!”

“Do not raise your voice on Starling Thursday, Imp, or I’ll have your mouth sewn shut.”

“But master, the Noxious Underwizard Archwell is at the door. He’s located a specimen of the rare paradise stirge and wishes to sell it!”

“Paradise Stirge! At last! At last my collection is complete! Bring him in immediately, whilst I open my chest of platinum!”

Obsession is a wonderful thing in roleplaying games, and few are as obsessive as true collectors. Collectors can give you so many options in your game: the helpfully obsessed collector who pays over the odds for rare goods, the demented madman who kidnaps and takes whenever he can, the curious expert who has a benevolent role to play in an adventure. These NPCs and their collections stand out from standard nonplayer characters, and the obsession they have can be used to make them seem real, mad, or sad.

Here are twelve such collectors for you to use in your adventures, some have obvious motives, others less so. They are, as always, given to you to use as you wish, perhaps to inspire other NPCs or plots, or maybe to use as permanent NPC friends who are always interested in what the PCs have to sell. One use you could put them to in particular is the lure: an NPC who pays the greatest prices, perhaps through an intermediary at first, but then slowly establishing a relationship with the PCs; a relationship that slowly but surely corrodes as the NPC’s true motives become apparent.

1. Dorcas Threb, the Thing about Finger-Bones…

The oddness starts at his front door, which has a knocker made of finger-bones jointed on wire. In the lobby, a spiral stair made of giant finger-bones rises to his attic—the spiral stair is Threb’s pride and joy. He made it himself over the course of eleven summers after collecting enough giant finger-bones to realize one of his many ambitions.

The strangeness continues in the other rooms; he’s made cup-handles from finger-bones fused by magic, pokes his fire with a poker made of the finger-bones of a bone devil, and reads his books or makes more objects beneath a chandelier made of the finger-bones of sahuagin.

Threb is curiously handsome but has an odd air. He glances over people’s shoulders, examines their fingers with admiration, and asks if—perhaps—they would donate a hand to his collection after their death.

2. Havanri Habb, the Butterfly Collector

Habb’s home is a narrow (some would say claustrophobic) tower by the banks of a river. The tower is built upon four levels, with a tiled rooftop. Within, Habb has been taken over by his collection of butterflies and moths. Every inch of space is some form of display cabinet or display drawer; level after level of cases, some deep, some tiny, some gilded, some plain.

Habb couldn’t properly tell you exactly how many butterflies he has, since it changes almost daily, but, at the last great audit he held, it was 11,208. He has developed a bookish demeanour, and his thin hair is swept comically over his pate. He has a weatherworn look about him.

His collection contains some huge specimens, including the rare goliath moth, the great evening paradise butterfly, and the huge batmoth of the jungle. His collection is crowned by two exhibits: a vermilion gloomwing and a mothman pickled in brine and vinegar.

3. Janwen and His Knives

It’s true Janwen is a butcher, so that’s where he may have got the fascination, but now it’s gone beyond a joke. His wife left him just over a year ago, taking their baby with her and claiming Janwen was barking mad. He has a thing about knives, you see. More than a thing actually—it’s a consuming passion or even a need. There are curved knives, short knives, long knives, heavy knives, long pointy knives, serrated knives, pocket knives, giant knives, obscure strange-handled knives, knives with filigree work, knives with names carved on them, knives with scrimshaw handles, knives with pearl handles, knives without handles, and broken knives that need fixing.

Janwen spends his idle hours sharpening his collection, using a variety of techniques, whetstones, and knife-sharpening machines. He’s always looking for the perfect knife for his collection, and he becomes greatly agitated if someone shows him a knife that is lovely, but then tells him he can’t have it.

He’s as close to the edge as he can get, and one day soon he’ll snap and put his knives to better uses than displaying.

4. Marquis Elman, the Tormentor of Lycanthropes

He had to kill his son after the werewolf bit him. They were far away from help—on a great exploration of the peaks—when he contracted lycanthropy. Killed him with his own hands, using a silver blade he always carried for luck.

Since that day Elman has become obsessed. If only he had a cure—if only he could cure all lycanthropy. He studied, he learned, and he became obsessed with his enemy: the disease, the terrible wicked disease. Now Elman works on subjects, tries out methods and techniques, cures and preparations, in an attempt to cleanse them of the sickness.

The marquis has taken a residence far from prying neighbors: a secluded old church he now uses as his laboratory. And within, he collects specimens of sickness—wererats and werewolves, werebears and wereboars, anything that is afflicted. He pays handsomely for live subjects, but does not want any questions asked. He has plenty of ready cash from his title and estate, and a small group of trustworthy souls has let it be known that the marquis is engaged in vital studies to advance the art of physicians everywhere. He pays 500 gp per Hit Dice for live lycanthropes, double that for rarer subjects. But once paid, he wants no one to learn of his collection nor interfere in the great work ahead.

5. Moinman’s Silent Menagerie

Stuffed animals of all sizes stare from the chambers of Moinman’s crooked townhouse at the end of a curious street in the city. His fascination began when he was a child and saw a stitched and fake mermaid in a museum in his home city. He stole the object, and that began his collection. Some find the curiously tall Moinman unsettling, there is a little sadness in his eyes, and the stories about him singing hymns to his animals at night just refuse to go away.

He pays handsomely, however, for the unblemished new curio, the strange beast, and the oddest aberration. His collection has grown large, and he’s recently bought the house next door to house more of his exhibits, including a huge number of stuffed swans and birds of paradise he purchased recently.

6. Necrus Twill, the Spider Collector

Twill has to live just outside of town now; his exhibits kept on escaping, and one day a child was taken. They said Twill’s Tarantulus Gargantua did it, but never proved it. Twill was very careful to hide the evidence, but after it had a taste, and he saw the effect it had upon the spider’s size, he knew he must keep feeding it such prime meat.

Twill, a nervous slight man, keeps himself to himself and makes light of the thousands of spiders he keeps in his claustrophobically hot chambers. If visitors get too pushy, he shows them the Great Jungle Dog-Eating Spider, the deadly Widow’s Cause, or the revolting webs of the great Cluster Swarm Spiders, who allegedly eat horses.

Because, in truth, Twill just wants to be left alone to see what effect the feeding of fresh flesh has upon his Gargantua Spider.

“Master!”

“Again, slimesides, what now?”

“There is a woman at the door.”

“A woman? But it’s not Thursday.”

“No, no, master, another woman. This one is selling something.”

“Tell her to go away. I tire of interruptions.”

“But master, she claims to be the only black pudding-rearer this side of Glacierland!”

Let’s face it, some people have some pretty unusual jobs, and sometimes it’s hard not to be jealous of someone who seems to have an easy life or who is good at something no one else is. Conversely, it’s hard not to feel sorry that some have achieved their somewhat strange station in life in a job perhaps few would wish for.

Fantasy cities work in exactly the same way; there are people trading there who have few rivals, if any, and some misguided individuals who believe fame and fortune is only just around the corner for their obscure trade. There are also those who do jobs no one else would.

On the back of the earlier YWH One-Hundred Curious Emporiums, here then are One-Hundred Obscure Professionals to use as background color, as NPCs with a tale, or for amusement.

1. Lendrip Oswik, the World’s Greatest Aboleth Scholar
2. Bid Lechry, Bleacher
3. Sidney Ropwell, Carriage Lamp-Fitter
4. Sage Gentry Horace Queld Marrimen—Cathedral Architect
5. Dwarf Sheggly Mocrund, Master Chitin Crafter
6. Lazarus Hulld, Component Sourcer to the Royal Wizardry
7. Meg Mimply—Embalmer
8. Jacob Strange—Executioner
9. Matt the Fuller
10. The Great Oldwind, Garden Designer
11. Gnome Malldwick Shortsone, Gelatinous Cube Merchant
12. Sankl the Glassblower
13. Ulwin Beetleslayer, no Infestation too Great
14. Archibald Crudd, Royal Glue Merchant
15. Sparraw Turtlegraw—Gnome Taunter Extraordinaire!
16. Bot the Spade Merchant
17. Dot, son of Bot, Shovel Merchant
18. Hemlin, Master Sledge Maker
19. Freelinquin Ladysgrub, Masterwork Harpsichord Maker
20. Torren the Ship Designer
21. Mistress Jubb, Griffon Dealer of Countless Continents
22. Master Jubb, Hippogriff Trainer Extraordinaire!
23. Hazlet the Lime Burner
24. Lime the Hazlet Maker
25. Juppy Mudlark
26. Dabb Clogger
27. The Honorary Jacob Garb, the Cheese Monger
28. The Great Quondrian, Naga Sage and Master of Snakes
29. Mullins, Grubb and Tulin, Paste Gem Makers
30. The Enigmatic Gratter, Professional Cloaker Hunter
31. Tar the Fearless, Professional Owlbear Tamer
32. His Holiness Zeluder Trudge, Pudding-Rearer and Ooze Sage
33. Tailor Frin, Rag and Bone Man
34. Young Festus, Royal Riding Dog Trainer
35. Kalun the Ruff Merchant
36. Jagreb the Cony Catcher
37. Farrin the Tikka Grinder
38. Joob Skinner
39. Jacob the Peatcutter
40. Lawrin Arkwright, Manufacturer of Masterwork Sealing Wax
41. Watwell’s Amazing Wall Shield Mart
42. The Amazing Lady Fress, Snake Charmer and Hypnotist
43. Barrin the Soap Merchant
44. Happy Abe Klepwright, Master Spoon Carver
45. J B Griullitt and Son, Torture Chamber Fitter
46. Mabb the Woad Dyer
47. Physician Altreeb Nector—Leech Collector
48. Vof the Gravedigger
49. Captain Hubbard Tryst—Vampire Hunter
50. Petal the Eel Fisher
51. Calwin Cob, Master Cutler
52. Chubb the Mousetrap Maker
53. Netwin Jon the Distiller
54. Jogg Twine, Featherman by Royal Appointment
55. Patterdon the Fell Monger
56. Twill Bentram, Master Muffin Maker
57. Bog Gelder
58. Elizbeth the Horner
59. Canner’s Clockery and Water Clock Workhouse
60. Sadge the Ratcatcher—Wererats a Speciality
61. Podge the Jagger
62. Tarpull the Knoller
63. Tarquin the Ewer
64. Hazzard Cavail, Freakshow Exhibit Recruiter
65. Brother Mantrim the Beekeeper
66. Nadge Natman, the World’s Only Bat Milker
67. The Singular Twerb, Silkworm Merchant to Kings and Queens
68. Antry Guess, Nailmaker
69. Elmin the Spider Gatherer
70. Ankrem the Malster
71. Tol the Dry Stone Waller
72. The Great Puddrin, Sap Merchant
73. Barnabus Quart, the Greatest Living Wax Fruit Maker
74. Gollin the Cloakseller
75. Ned the Ostler
76. Nadge Quarryman
77. Elis the Rag Cutter
78. Zolwin Zolwell, the Legend of Mandolin Making
79. Kuppy the Dowser
80. Jog Shambler
81. Karl the Wabster
82. Drebblin Marg, Mole Trapper
83. Mellenia Qurade, Lace Merchant
84. Toll the Bagman
85. Sarf the Shark-meat Pickler
86. Jacob Nodge, Nose-flute Carver Extraordinaire!
87. Tetchy Festus, the Master of all things of Wire
88. Hanris Slopseller
89. Anrus Crole the Plowman
90. Mistress Pickle, the Pickler who Pickles for Pickle-Loving Royals
91. Potwin the Brave, Milker of Centipede Poison
92. Jonjus and His Amazingly Curious Fish Mart
93. Magg the Helm Chinstrap Making Mistress
94. Dolg the Pigment Merchant
95. Gubb the Plucker
96. Rodgly Rugs
97. Jastwin the Masterwork Framemaker
98. Olwin Crab, Magnifying Lenses to the World
99. Tarquin Fimlake, the Stage Set Painter
100. Small Sleds by Thrab

“Master.”

“Yes, Maggotlooks.”

“That jar next to the pickled dwarf eyes—”

“The one adjacent to the bladders?”

“Yes, master. What is that curious collection of distended and dislocated limbs pierced by shards of bones?”

“My last homunculus. He asked too many questions of the demon prince Sprathcrorsche, Prince of Dislocating Death. Now, lance this boil, and hurry up about it.”

Making deals with demons and devils is a risky business, and those who play with the emotions and tempers of such creatures risk a sticky end.

One of the many satisfying aspects of fantasy roleplaying is ensuring that the bad guys eventually get their comeuppance, and those who strike deals with such risky associates make great fall-guys.

The chart below gives you a few ideas for the way the leaders of such villains, or those who dare to strike bargains with the infernal, meet their final end. These effects occur only to the person or creature who has made the pact and should occur once they die, or when they reach a point where death is inevitable.

As always, do not overuse these ideas; seeing a coven-leading witch suffer at the hands of her former master is cool once, and it might be good if it affects certain villains tied by some thread, but use this end sparingly at other times so that its effect is maximized.

Obviously minor tinkering may be required to change some small details in these endings to better suit your own master villains or villainesses. Do not use the suffering of your master villains as a way to deprive your PCs of treasure such enemies may have on them; swords are dropped, flesh may change and corrode or fall away, leaving clothing, rings, boots, and other objects. Make it realistic, but make sure they get the reward they deserve.

1. He glances at the fatal blow and grins broadly in disbelief, his grin suddenly draining from his face as he sees something between the two of you that only he can see. A colossal maw suddenly hurtles from the space between you, taking off his head. As the maw vanishes his screams continue.
2. A shadow falls across her, and suddenly her body erupts in all directions, leaving nothing but the whiff of broken bones, blood, and a terrible infernal stench.
3. She stares at you pitifully as she falls. “Save me from it! I beg you!” Her pleading eyes stare at the mortal wound you have inflicted upon her, and she suddenly stares down up in terror. “No!” she screams. “Stay away, stay away!” A warped tentacle lashes at her from the ground and she is gone, except for her pleading voice as she is taken away to gods’ know where.
4. He stares at you as he falls, and a moment later, a great pit rips before him, screaming with the cacophonous miseries of the fallen. He drops into the pit sobbing, the hole vanishing with a resounding clang. He is gone.
5. “No!” he screams. “Let me die, let me die!” You see your fallen foe’s soul torn from him, his body following as he is torn inside out by a limb that appears only as a scaly shadow taking what is rightfully its.
6. As she falls, a bellowing voice screams, its anger tolling like a bell. “Failure!” it yells. “Failure. You will be punished.” As the broken body of your foe is sucked into the shadows, she suddenly awakens, glances at you pleadingly and is gone.
7. He smiles at the final blow, laughing as though it cannot harm him. Then, with an agonized scream, his body sloughs away to nothingness, melting like snow in the sunlight.
8. Her body falls, becoming a mass of writhing maggots as it does. Suddenly, a trio of mouths greedily snap the air, appearing from nowhere. They devour the maggots and vanish, with a lick of their infernal lips.
9. He stares at the wound and then you, his haughty look suddenly vanishing into terror. “No!” he screams, his body decaying into a swarm of black flies and vanishing with a cry. “Pity!”
10. A gargantuan black hand appears, grips your enemy and squeezes, breaking bones and flesh before taking him away.
11. As she drops she stares upward. “No, we had a bargain!” she yells into the heavens. “You promised, you promised!” A voice of horror breaks from above, like shattering glass. “I lied” it says, as she is drawn away in pieces into the heavens above, screaming as she is taken apart in a bloody mist.
12. His body erupts into writhing maggots with huge mouths, which feast upon each other until there is only one maggot left, which devours itself and vanishes with a childlike cry.
13. As she falls, the sound of a screaming woman giving birth fills the air. There is slap and a babies’ cry. “No!” she screams, “not again, not again master!” Then she is gone.
14. His blood boils before you, and as it does, a coiling tentacle grasps around him, caressing him. “Now you are mine forever!” says a voice. There is a whiff of brimstone and he vanishes, his screams clearly only just beginning.
15. Her body suddenly crumples, compacting with terrible ferocity. Her bones splinter and her muscles tear. The body crushes into itself, leaving nothing but a fat, wan worm. A clawed finger thrusts from the ground, pierces the worm and what is left of her is taken, screaming with her dying voice.
16. A boiling mist surrounds his fallen body, and you catch glimpses of his skin blistering. The sound of an infernal choir ring out, and then a chilling voice joins it. “Welcome,” it says. The last thing you hear of your enemy are his screams as his flesh, bones, and soul are taken to eternity.
17. The unmaking of your foe goes on for several minutes as he is taken apart by shadowy forms that caress him, removing his flesh, his bones, and his soul to take with them.
18. “Help me, I beg you!” he screams, his hands reaching pleading to yours. “It’s coming for me!” A shadow falls across him as he yells “It. Is—” and then he is gone, forever.
19. Bones grind on bones as your enemy suddenly erupts from within. You glimpse devouring faces within his body, feasting, until only the husk is left. Seconds later, it falls to the ground like lace.
20. As your enemy falls, there is a howl, and then more howls, as an infernal pack of unseen hounds come for him. His broken soul rises, seeking escape, but there is none. Somewhere very far away, the pack descends upon him and begins to feed.

The complete Whispering Homunculus series is available in PDF or print+PDF from the Kobold Store. Horrify yourself, and your players, with the fevered inventions found within!

“Master, someone just knocked at the door.”

“And…”

“Sorry, master, I forgot myself. One moment, and I’ll go and see who it is.”

“Who is it, squidling?”

“My lord, it is Arch-Queen Xera, the Dark Princess of Dead-Wood, your nemesis.”

“Then show her in. This time, she shall not escape me.”

Many a memorable campaign has had at least one master villain who appears in more than just a single adventure. The main bad guy who comes back for more adds something to a long-running adventure path. A recurring villain gives your campaign, or a part of your campaign, a focus and a hate figure—someone on which you can hang whatever badness you wish, whether that is a feudal lord who takes land, a twisted warlock, or a serial killer who steals babies.

The problem is how do you pull off the recurrence without it seeming far-fetched, or worse, annoying.

A truly great recurring villain can add another dimension to your adventures: the jilted vampire lover, the childhood memory come back to haunt the adult, the enemy from beyond the grave. There’s a fine line, however, between running a good recurring villain and running a boring one. The villain that is one step ahead once or twice is good, and the dark spidery NPC in the untouchable heart of a black web is cool, but the villain who doffs his proverbial hat and laughs as he escapes for the fifth time just becomes irritating.

Here are a few ideas to use as a springboard to a recurring villain or to give you an option for an enemy that is not so easy to defeat in a single adventure.

The simple trick I’ve found is to give your enemy a good chance of escape, but don’t make it certain, or a key part of your future adventures. Once you decide beforehand that your villain is going to escape, it waters down the effect and leads to a dangerous precedent in your campaign—prejudging any event is a tricky line to cross. Keeping that simple piece of advice in mind, here are some ideas to help bring that villain back.

Briefly, then.

The Grow with the PCs Lower-Level Villains

With limited powers, pulling an escape is superficially far easier at lower level than at higher ones. A gaseous form potion quickly swallowed can lead to instant escape, while an obscuring mist gives great cover to flee. An invisibility spell always provides a reasonable escape route while a fly spell is also a good way away from an encounter.

If you think a little more out of the box, a jump spell on a city rooftop or narrow valley offers a dramatic escape, while a low-level druid encountered in thick briars can effect escape using woodland stride.

More mechanical means, such as secret doors with locks on the escaping side, trapped escape routes, and even a simple swim by an NPC with a high skill rating over a waterfall, down a swift flowing mill race, or through an underground stream offer other potential escapes. Mechanical and skill means may be more memorable as the PCs actually see the NPC flee, and an understanding of the escape makes it all the more plausible.

Finally don’t be afraid to use monsters as part of the escape route; a character who can balance well might think nothing of fitting his escape room with an owlbear in it and a narrow beam above, while a creature on a short chain soon becomes a menace if, just beyond the creature, is a lever to lengthen the chain for anyone chasing.

Now that your villain has met the PCs and seen their relative strengths, he or she will be better prepared next time.

Using Magic Items

Items such as the cape of the mountebank, ring of feather falling (where the final battle takes place on a mountain or high building), or a carpet of flying all offer plausible escape means that still offer pursuit or attack. You may decide that a villain has a magic portal that allows escape into somewhere not dangerous to him or her but dangerous to the PCs. A salamander with such a door for example could easily exit into a volcano.

The Undead Villain

Roleplaying games offer a second chance to you, with the opportunity for a villain who is so outraged by his or her death that the villain ignores it and becomes undead. Undead villains can be a fantastic way to continue a villain against your players because the very nature of the villain’s death creates an intimacy between foes and makes the anger all the more palpable for those PCs who played a big role in dispatching the enemy the first time. Perhaps this time the creature is back for vengeance?

You can also use followers and cultists to return your enemy if you want to use him or her a second time. Perhaps the ceremony requires certain elements that are brought to the PCs’ attention, and maybe a whole adventure could revolve around such a plot, with the PCs preventing their enemy’s return from death.

We’ll deal with this subject again in the monograph on undead master villains from beyond the grave in Beyond the Realm of Sleep in a future YWH.

Resurrection and the Villain

Think carefully when using a raise dead or resurrection spell—does your villain warrant such an act—is it even possible?

If your campaign uses such spells commonly, then there is no reason the enemy cannot use them too, but have a close look at the costs and requirements of such spells before using them.

If in doubt, avoid this option.

The Group as an Enemy

A slight variation is to have associates of the foe appear from the shadows; is the group really a national-spanning cult that the dead NPC was merely a part of, and does that cult swear the death of those who slay their friends or steal from their bodies?

These cultists could have an identifying mark—perhaps a tattoo or mask or mutilation that shows what they are. Having killed a man wearing a mask shaped like a stylized open-mawed deep-sea angler torn by wire, a second figure wearing an identical mask is seen, whispering to messengers that he has returned to kill the PCs.

The Enemy at Hand

Perhaps the trickiest master villain to pull off is the enemy that walks boldly up to your PCs, states exactly what he or she intends to do, and yet is untouchable. Such a villain can generally exist only in a civilized locale, a place where, like our own world, the laws are tough, or through the use of spells such as prismatic wall.

Your toolbox here is not limited to law and spells, however. Loved ones can be taken and used as hostages, and spells such as dream can be used to send messages. Your main villain could be something incorporeal, and creatures such as a ghost can delivers its threats through innocents makes a great potential master villain for you to use.

Other monsters that have a quick escape, such as vampires and their gaseous form ability, give you another option. With all these villains, though, you need to keep it realistic and stay within the rules. A vampire queen, appearing on a balcony above the PCs in the moonlit streets of a decayed city gives you a chance for her to profess her love for a PC, or threaten one with oblivion. Keep in mind that if such a date occurs every evening, you might that find your players become bored or focus solely on how they are going to trap and kill the vampire queen.

Be wary—if you truly make your players loathe such a villain, any risk may be worth his or her death. Would a holy cleric really carry out a conversation with an evil cultist he hates and do nothing? No.

More Macabre Ways to Return

In one campaign, the cult the PCs were seeking had a dreadful pact that enabled the dead clerics of the cult to immediately rise after death as some revolting creature. Occasionally, such creatures came back with wings and fled the carnage, licked their wounds, and began to plot vengeance. After the cleric died a second time, however, that was that. The tougher the cleric, the tougher the thing it became, giving the PCs the dilemma of what to use their best spells on first—the foe or what their foe would become after death.

Such plots are good to use on occasion to keep your players on their toes, but as ever, keep such plots for the tougher villains you wish to impress upon your players.

“Snow.”

“Lordling?”

“Slush, ice, hail, blizzard. How lovely it all appears from in here, behind thick glass, whilst we sit by the roaring fire eating honey-roasted pig trotter.”

“Whilst you sit by the fire eating, great one. I have to content myself with blocking the gap in the window-frame with my posterior.”

“And so you should, maggot-sired, so you should. How lucky you are to be inside, however. Imagine if I decided suddenly on a whim to command you to sit outside…”

It all looks lovely from inside, but out in the cold, horrors lurk. Is that snowman really a caryatid column, is that blizzard hiding an unseen terror in its wake, is that enormous tureen nothing more than a lurking mimic? Here are some serious, and some not too serious, horrors to throw at your players over the Yule period. These wolves-in-sheep’s-clothing scenarios promise to be more than they appear.

Innocuous Snowmen

Snow conceals many things: tracks, frozen rivers, and perhaps even whole houses. Use snow as a cover to spice up your encounters, or, if you wish, conceal the foe right before a PC’s eyes by having creatures covered in snow or resembling snowmen. Remember, it’s not just creatures like golems, constructs, and animated objects that can remain totally still; gargoyles, for example, can remain motionless, an ooze can squat frigid beneath a thin later of snow, and even a sleeping giant can slumber beneath a thick fur that has become covered overnight by a blizzard. Each of these can, essentially, hide in plain sight due to snow.

The Field of Twisted Snowmen is an outer defense for a particularly cruel enemy. Outside, throughout the long winter, the ruler of the dungeon complex beyond leaves gargoyles guarding the entrance. These creatures sit throughout the day among numerous carved stone and wood gargoyle statues that grip prisoners, who remain bound and gagged in the statue’s grasp until death greets them. What PCs see is a group of deformed snowmen. What they don’t see are the prisoners who still live among the snow’s icy grip.

Father Yule

Whatever he is called, every land has a spirit of winter. This figure may be one of joy, a herald of the coming spring, or a figure of terror—master of the longest night. Cunning enemies may take advantage of this appearance by disguising themselves as the spirit. Does the cruel devil wander the rooftops at night as Father Yule, the laughing figure who distributes presents to children, only to take the babes away to be eaten? Do petty criminals disguise the Thieves’ Guild activities by donning disguises of Father Long Dark, who wields his scythe and beheads anyone who dares leave home after dark?

Seasonal disguises, be they Father Yule or carnival costumes, offer nonhumans a chance to walk within a town, possibly to learn secrets or to take things.

Macabre Decorations

Ice sculptures depicting acts of horror and encasing terrified dismembered victims adorn the outer woods belonging to a tribe of demented inbred trolls. A tribe of giants delights in making huge men of snow that encase the crushed and pulped bodies of their enemies. The village of the goblins is decorated in mites bound in thorny briars and holly.

Monsters with any amount of intelligence may use the snow and ice as seasonal deterrents; with them they can hide entrances, leave enemies outside to freeze to death bound to ancient trees, or partially submerge foes in freezing streams to leave icy sentinels rising from frozen waters.

Horrors Behind the Glaze

What better way to disguise the smell of poison than beneath the glaze of honey, what finer time to attack the settlement than when all its guards are drunk, what better way to dupe someone than to give them a gift disguising vengeance in bright colors and fancy wrappings? Furthermore, paranoia can be a wonderful tool if your players know someone is out to get them, and it allows you to create a good atmosphere for an adventure with very little work; simply run through a few menus, games, and innocent conversations in the festive spirit and watch what transpires.

The Wolf-Jester hides in the open at the royal court, his werewolf blood boiling beneath the disguise of a fool. As the winter celebrations pick up, the lord’s hated foes arrive to sue for peace, and, unless the festivities pass well, war is coming. What part does the Wolf-Jester play in the coming carnage, and can the PCs unmask the true wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Ghostly Singing

The sweet sound of singing and hymns keep enemies from the door, but do they also herald the return of damned spirits or spectres of the brutally slain looking to avenge themselves upon the living?

Of late, villagers have been terrorized by the singing of a ghostly choir, which echoes at the entrance of homes in the dead of night. The singers are actually wraith-spawned children, taken one winter night by an evil wraith who devoured their souls in a nearby, long-abandoned chapel. Outside in the night, the wraith awaits victims who are foolish enough to venture into the dark. In the meantime, others use the wraith’s foul activities for their own devices.

Hibernating Foes

For many, the long winters are too dangerous to be abroad in, and doors are locked against the cold outside. During this period, such communities are cut off and become prey to whatever horrors they have sealed in with them. Do the PCs get embroiled in such adventures? Do the creatures rise from the caverns beneath, or are they mixing freely with the locals?

Using this technique to oppress and imprison gives an adventure that can bring feelings of claustrophobia and isolation. You could set it up so that only the PCs become so trapped in a fortunate refuge against a terrible winter storm, only to find they are not alone.

Knock, Knock

What person would wish to be abroad on so foul a night? Sometimes, even the vilest creature may be drawn toward hearth and home. So, with all this in mind, what knocks at the door in the dead of night?

Perhaps the PCs find lodging in a ruinous inn one wintry night. As midnight approaches, the innkeeper and his sullen wife become more agitated and often stare at the front door. Suddenly there is a pounding knock at the door, but as the PCs move to open it, the innkeeper and his wife beg the PCs to leave the door shut, for it is the devil that visits the tavern at midnight on this day…

The Center of Attention

The PCs may be in the wrong place at the wrong time when they arrive at a settlement whose locals delight in the taste of human flesh. Such locals ply the PCs with as much food and ale as they can consume over a three-day festival before introducing their guests to the belly of the Hungry One, an iron statue of a troll that has a great oven in its belly.

Cloying Poison Ochre Jelly (CR 7)

This ochre jelly is almost certainly one of many that have been deliberately created by alchemists and poisoners. The cloying poison ochre jelly exudes a contact poison that is difficult to remove. The jelly poison affects not only those slammed by the creature, but also those who touch it.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Cloying Poison (Ex) Contact; save Fort DC 16; frequency 1/round until washed off*; effect 1d3 Con; cure 2 saves.

*Generally, the cloying poison of the creature must be washed away, usually by a pint of water, but each jelly is different. Various liquids are used against individual jelly cloying poisons, including salt, strong alcohol, and even urine.

Rumours abound of a spitting cloying poison ochre jelly allegedly created by a group of cleric assassins called the Foaming Sisterhood.

Rotting Forest Ochre Jelly (CR 7)

This ochre jelly strain is found in the carpet of dead leaves and rot in forests, almost always around the edges of marshes and damp regions. It has a deep orange hue to its ochre, resembling decaying leaves. In addition to its standard powers, this jelly can animate plants in the vicinity.
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Entangle (Su) A rotting forest ochre jelly can, as a free action, cause plants within 30 ft. of it to animate and grasp at its foes, holding them for the jelly to devour at leisure. This ability is identical to an entangle spell (CL 6th, DC 13). The save DC is Wisdom-based.

Travis’s Horrid Enveloping Ochre Jelly (CR 8 )

This repulsive mound of fleshy ochre rot is similar to the suffocating ochre jelly but is more elastic and deadly. It has replaced its suffocating attack with a more dangerous engulf ability.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Engulf (Ex) If a Travis’s horrid enveloping ochre jelly begins its turn with an opponent of the same size as itself or lower constricted, it can envelop the foe completely by making a new combat maneuver check (as though attempting to pin the foe). If it succeeds, it engulfs the prey, its tendrils and tentacles suffocating its prey as they enter its orifices. The opponent takes 2d4+6 plus 2d4 acid damage as the fluid the jelly is made of enters lungs, throat, and ears. The seal formed is airtight, and the foe risks suffocation from the attack. The opponent can attempt to escape the attack as though escaping a pin, but the victim cannot be targeted by effects that require a line of sight.

The jelly can continue to attack with its slam but cannot constrict more than one opponent since its interior muscles are absorbed in suffocating its prey.

Travis’s horrid enveloping ochre jellies are said to regularly reach Gargantuan size and are used by certain subterranean races (in particular troglodytes) as holy punishments to those who transgress their religious doctrine. Chambers and whole mazes full of such creatures are rumoured to exist; the great gnome explorer Travis Shoggwhelpt encountered the first such creature in his legendary Subterranean Quests.

Mortician’s Ochre Jelly (CR Variable)

In certain cults, the practice of burying a deceased person with an ochre jelly to protect the goods and soul of the fallen is commonplace. More distinguished corpses are often buried with an ochre jelly that is used as a special receptacle for their souls. After a time, the soul is fully absorbed into the ochre jelly and is born as a ghost. The ghost is bound to the ochre jelly body in the same way that a lich is bound to its phylactery; as long as the soul receptacle lives, the ghost cannot be destroyed.

Some unfortunate adventurers have encountered these receptacles, thinking they are mere common ochre jellies and despatched them with relish, only to find the comrades of the fallen looking for them.