The Problems of Absentee Villains

I ran the entirety of Wizard of the Coast's Storm King's Thunder and there was one aspect that really stood out to me. Ok, not entirely true; there were a lot of aspects that stood out to me but this isn't a review. Oh and in case this is not obvious, spoilers. Like, most of them. Doing all of them would take too long. (p.s. If any members of my new DnD group read this please note this includes concepts and ideas for the game I will be running for you all. So please... stop now. Looking at you Beckett)

The villain and climax of the Storm King's Thunder campaign is the fight against the vile Blue Dragon Lymrith; a creature who spends the whole campaign manipulating various events in the storm giant court while in the guise of one such creature. The result of her manipulations? Well... stuff whose effects are only felt overtly if you are a storm giant. Which you aren't because you're a player character. Please note, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, from a storytelling perspective at least, but it does mean your PCs spend almost the whole campaign never realizing her influence and or even her very existence. The PCs only learn that the Ordning has been broken because of reasons and the giants are causing chaos.

Lymrith in her storm giant form. If you like being a wise but bitchy adviser, she's your gal

So what is the state of the world? You have hill giants eating everything because that is how you become the boss apparently. By eating everything else and anything that could possibly count as food. That is a very odd cultural touchstone but oh well. On the other hand you got every other scheming giant group who, in some way or another, are wider in scope and danger than anything Lymrith seems to have planned. Awakening the Tarasque to destroy the surface world is just more interesting and impactful than finding this disguised dragon who is trying to prevent the ordning returning. Yes she manipulating the old leaders (the storm giants) to become ineffectual but only the DM really knows that. And, to make matters worse, there are little points where the PCs are given reason to question the state of things. Unless the party specifically asks the oracle spirit they will meet about the storm giant court, they have no reason to believe anything is wrong. The party just wants the giants to stop destroying everything and restoring the Ordning via the storm giants is the best way to do that. This intrigue is beyond them power wise (ancient dragon can easily kill them) and also beyond them in terms of what they can see.

After finishing Storm King's Thunder,  I ran Curse of Strahd. Strahd showed up and faced the party by level 5. The party barely escaped with their lives. They only survived because they shut the gate that prevented the werewolves from chasing them into Valaki itself and then hid/broke into a house where they cowered as Strahd bombarded it with fireballs.

The Curse of Strahd cover featuring the world's biggest ass, Strahd Von Zarovich 

DMs are encouraged to have Strahd constantly show up in the campaign. This is what I did. The first time he approached was overt with him riding in on his hellish nightmare horse. Another time disguised as just another cultist at a cult gathering . He would impersonate allies, give quests, betray the party, and so much more. Strahd is the polar opposite of Lymrith. Strahd is always there and always involved in everything the party does. Everywhere the party goes, they know he is somewhere starring down at them disapprovingly; working to build them up so he can knock them down again. Lymrith and the party only start to care about one another when they meet at the oracle. At this point about 75% of the campaign has already been completed. I will admit, it is one heck of an entrance as Harshnag, the Frost giant ally of the party, bellows for the party to run away while he faces the brute attempting to collapse the temple atop them. But... that is all she is. A faceless and without motivation brute. A strength, or power, personified but with little else to her beyond that. The character want to stop her less because they have a connection with this villain as much as she just has a giant sign that says "giant evil dragon, better kill me." 

It is my belief that a fun campaign villain is one that builds a rapport with the party. Well, the opposite of rapport which, at least according to my short internet search, is lacking an appropriate antonym. This makes me sad. Lymrith, the villain, isn't personal. She is just the villain of this last 25% of the module whose true reasoning and effects on the narrative are only be realized by a few. She is too well known to be a looming threat and too mysterious to be a personal enemy. There is power in being unknowable. Large, powerful, and mysterious beings make for good villains if done right. The entirety of the Call of Cthulhu is formed around this basis. The big unknowable and virtually all powerful enemy. But Lymrith is mortal and the adventure goes out of its way to make sure the PCs know this. The storm giants bestows a potion which triples weapon damage, doubles hp, and gives you 25 strength in addition to growing you to the size of a giant right before the final fight. This makes the final encounter with her... well easy for my small party of four. To make matters worse, Lymrith is supposed to refuse to leave her lair due to a false prediction of victory made by this mysterious yuan ti god (no I don't know why yuan ti are there either). My party obliterated her making the experience epic only in how easily she was taken down. An oddly fitting end fir a villain who is both introduced fast is dispatched just as fast. Lets compare this to Curse of Strahd.

Everything in Curse of Strahd is about taking Strahd down. It is about escaping from his land and removing his curse from it. By the end, players have a personal stake in taking this guy down who has been making their lives miserable. Lymrith is more of an incidental villain whose purpose, preventing Giant-kind from reforming under the Ordning, casts too small a net to ever catch the party up in it. Her puppet strings are too focused on the Storm Giants and so there is buildup and desire to take her down throughout the campaign. 

The Symbol of the Lord's Alliance. the perfect group to manipulate

Ok, so what can we do with this? How can we make a Lymrith an interesting villain? First, Lymrith is SMART. She ingratiated herself into the Storm Giant royal family and became a sort of mother figure to the King and Queen's children. So why isn't she doing more? There is a Cult of the Dragon. Lets throw some of them in there as her servants and place them in various governmental position. Now they are going around with the goal of infuriating the various factions in the Sword Coast, such as the Lord's Alliance, into starting a war with the giants. The Lord's Alliance is the easiest to manipulate because they are an alliance of various political entities as opposed to a covert group of spies like the Harpers or the Zhentarim. These groups are the problem groups for Lymrith. Let us assume the parties align with the harpers as they are kind the default heroic group to align with. They are problematic for Lymrith because of their network of teleportation sigils in the various cities. Their existence results in the meddling party getting around the world much faster than they could possibly do otherwise. Lymrith would notice this and would respond when her agents of discords were constantly being targeted across various geographies. Especially when she realized it was all done by the same party. Her answer would be to find and reveal these teleportation sigils, otherwise known as major security weaknesses, and lump the Harpers with the giants. After all, it could be used by an invading army to conquer the Sword Coast easily.  When the Harpers are the perceived enemy of the Lord's alliance and all their citizenry, Lymrith has gone from an up and afar villain to a malevolent threat and constant threat. 

Furthermore, Lymrith could start working to "restore the Ordning" as an ambassador to various other giant groups. She could encourage their destructive plans claiming she brings the support of the storm giants. Perhaps the wise seers of the storm giants have claimed that the (insert current giant group of manipulation here) are to be the new leaders in the Ordning. 

At this point, the adventure has changed from "destroy Lymrith because she murdered the queen of the Storm Giants" to "we must unravel the web this dragon has created." It is not so simple as just mounting an assault on her lair and flushing her out of the storm giant court. Now the party has to re-establish the status quo lest the new Ordning result in a war between the giants and the "little folk." And if all else fails, get personal. Lymrith has shown she will kill the family of those she ingratiates herself to in order to get what she wants. The primary limit here is your players. Remember to always ask your players before you make it some super dark adventure about an ancient dragon hunting down their PC's family and friends. 

I do want to note that not all villains need to be be a helicopter villain like Strahd but it is important that a villain have a presence in the campaign. Otherwise, there is no urgency to take them down. It is my personal belief that urgency is the lifeblood of villains. It makes them feel real. It makes it feel like there is some true malevolent presence facing off against your party. Plus, it is fun to be the abyss that stares back.

Now go forth and spread your bright blue wings! Let the world know of the horrors the giants are going to unleash upon the world and take your rightful place as its draconic tyrant!

This message has been approved by the Barovian Forien Advisement Agency. 
He is Ancient. He is the Land. 

Your Cross DM, Maia