However, I have some ideas that I'm trying to flesh out for some of the more potent adventures coming down the pipe some time in the future.
The setting of this campaign is in a very large, extensive island chain, and has a fair bit of sailing and sea-fairing involved. However, the introductory adventure actually had the players repelling a large force of devils on a frigid, icy island in the chain and rescuing quite a few of its inhabitants. Villagers were being sacrificed in droves by the leader of this nefarious plot, a half-devil named Alecto. She was a Favoured Soul in addition to being half-fiend, so by slaying her, the party has naturally angered the devil she served.
What I'm planning for the main driving story of the campaign is for this devil to try and get back at the party in the most spiteful ways she can. The devil is actually a Pleasure Devil with levels in the Fiend of Corruption prestige class. She's also the mother of the half-devil that was slain. She's loosely based off of one of the Furies, and as I said, she's going to be as spiteful as possible.
So, the question is how can I make her truly cunning and devious? I already have three characters in the party that I plan on messing with, but I still need to figure things out for maximum impact.
One character is Rothgar, our half-orc barbarian and a viking-like character. He's already going to be in big trouble at the next big seasonal orcish gathering for surviving the sinking of his ship by the devils in the first adventure, while the rest of his crew did not. It's already been discussed between the player and I that his jealous older half-brother, Krug, had made a pact with a devil to have the ship sunk and Rothgar slain. Furthermore, I was intending to have Krug slay their father and take his place as clan chief during Rothgar's abscense (since he was supposed to be dead anyway). It should also be known that Rothgar has a girlfriend/lover/wife of sorts back on the island, named Gronka, who is being groomed to one day be matriarch of her household (since males are off raiding for half the year, female orcs are the landholders in this culture). She also has a jealous sister, who has been working with Krug and the devils to get rid of Gronka. However, Gronka is shrewd and quite intelligent, and would know something's up. So how exactly should I mess with her?
The two other characters are a little more complicated. One is a disgraced and fugitive sixteen-year-old princess from a Greek-like city-state. She's a pact mage, and loathes devils and demons because everyone thinks she makes evil pacts with them for power (which is false, because vestiges are something else entirely). She goes by the name of Iphegenia, although naturally it's not her real name. The other character is a strange, hybrid creature from the outer planes. By game terminology, he's a Sanctified Half-Fiend Shifter. What that essentially looks like is a mix of werewolf, angel, and demon, such that he has canine ears and a tail, fangs, claws, and dark grey feathered wings. Anyway, hundreds of years ago, he was sanctified by an angel, but then imprisoned by demons/devils, tortured, and blinded. When he escaped, he accidentally tore a rift between planes and wound up on the icy island where the campaign began, and he stayed there for even longer to keep stuff from coming out of the rift. He succeeded for quite a while, but eventually was bested by the half-devil Alecto and was unable to stop her from her diabolical doings. However, because of his long centuries of relative isolation, he's convinced himself that since he was sanctified, he is no longer a demon. This is a point of contention between him and Iphegenia. He's been named Dante, but it's not his true name either. Anyway, Dante and Iphegenia, even though they have a like cause and similarities in motives, are too suspicious of each other to tell each other the truth about their personal history and have kept pretty much everything about themselves a secret from the rest of the adventuring party and their ship's crew. It stands though, that Iphegenia regularly accuses him of being a fiend, and he denies it. He's trying desperately to prove her wrong and convince her he's not, while at the same time is trying to reassure himself that he is not the demon Iphegenia claims he is. In a weird way, over time, this relationship is meant to blossom into a complicated, convoluted romance, but not until they come clean with each other and their companions.
Of course, their pasts are going to come back to haunt them. Eventually, I'd like some witch hunters to finally catch up witch Iphegenia (fugitive, after all) and accuse her of having summoned devils to kill the king's mistress (AKA her father's other woman). This is meant to draw the party back to Iphegenia's city-state and get caught up in a lot of intrigue as they investigate these accusations and attempt to prove her innocent. At some point, I'd like the villainess, our hateful she-devil, to reveal herself (after she's already been caught) and gloat at the party (because gloating is essential in diabolic villains). As she gloats, I'd like for her to expose Dante before the party in an attempt to cause enough strife that she can plane-shift away and live to torment them another day, and naturally the repercussions from this revelation dredge through the party. However, I need to flesh this adventure out more.
How can I include tricky political intrigue with a sexy, shapeshifting, super-powerful devil that is interesting and entertaining to the players while making an appropriate emotional impact to get the best response?
The next thing for emotional impact is related but slightly different: Giveth and taketh away. Allow the party to get attached to NPCs, have them save these NPCs a few times and develop relationships with them. Then have them betray the party, either seduced by the devil or her promises. Or have them be killed because of a failing of the party. See no-win situations above!
I also really like the idea of the party turning itself inside out and destroying itself. Dante is actually my own character (because we rotate DMs on a semi-regular basis, I have a character so that I can participate as well). I was planning on using the mistrust between him and Iphegenia for precisely this effect. The idea I have is this: when Iphegenia returns home, she and the party will be taken into custody and brought before her father. He would want Iphegenia imprisoned until she can be tried for murder. However, a lady of the court (the devil in disguise) will protest that it's unjust for the girl to not be given a chance to prepare a defense and prove her innocence. Instead of incarcerating Iphegenia, one of her friends could take her place as a hostage. She'll be given X number of days to gather what evidence she can to prove her innocence, and if she does not present herself to be tried on time, that friend will be executed. Of course, Dante will volunteer to be the one imprisoned. He would reason that he's been imprisoned before, and that such a brief stint should not cause him too much harm. Also, he'd hope that maybe this would finally earn Iphegenia's trust.
If everything plays as I hope, I'll try and slow the party down as much as possible, and hopefully have the agreed upon time elapse. They'd get back to see what appears to be Dante being beheaded, but it's actually an illusion. The next little while would have the party trying to prevent Iphegenia from being arrested while also investigating where Dante is. At this point, they definitely would know they're dealing with a devil, but I'd like Iphegenia at least to fall for the devil's trickery and believe Dante has betrayed them in order to secure his own freedom. The truth is that the devil has abducted him, but Iphegenia's father fully believes that he was executed. The devil herself would shapeshift to look like Dante and tell Iphegenia to meet him some place at some time. The real Dante will be dragged out to the meeting place and the devil would rat him out to the party for what he really is, attempting to cause a rift amongst them and start a battle of divided loyalties amongst the members of the party.
I find it unlikely that the party will actually destroy itself, but I still think it could be a fun adventure. And there will be other things to try and mess them up in addition to the ideas I've already collected, of course.
I suppose the best way for the players to follow what I want them to do is to not necessarily plan out how these events are brought about, but keep an eye open for the opportunity to trigger the next event in the sequence? I mean, obviously I should have some plan, but I should try and make it as squishly and fluid as possible I guess.
I also like the idea of having the player characters turn on each other. That could make you less of a DM and more of a ring master, but could really advance the character's and their individual involvment in the story. Keep us updated on how things turn out!
I'll be sure to update as things happen. However, my friend Ted (who plays Rothgar) is running an interesting adventure about an island keep that has been corrupted by the influence of the demon lord Dagon, and the ghostly priest that dwells there is trying to help us to lift the curse and purge the aspect of Dagon from that place. After that, Andrew (who plays Iphegenia) will be running another adventure about a small island with a village populated by werewolves. Want to give some time between the initial devil adventure and when the vengeful plot against them starts to blossom. Plotting and scheming takes time.