Once I realized that the Sanctum of the Serpent Vaults was going to be a trilogy of adventures, I realized that the Citadel was going to be my Castle Ravenloft. It was inevitable. I had already established the Tyrant as a potential villain and this would be a sort of payout for that.
The trick was I didn't want to make the same mistakes that the various incarnations of the Ravenloft adventures made. All try to force the party into the villains story and agenda in various ways.
While their agenda might be interesting, save that shit for your unfinished novel...
A gaming adventure is about the people at the table and their agenda.
But a good villain needs to have motivations and hooks. I needed to think of a new method to do that without creating a set path. I had also set up the possibility that the party might even be on the Tyrant's side through the faction system.
They might be a sympathetic character by the time the party reached this point and the Necrolord, Hierophant, and Chancellor could be the real problems they need to solve.
Means I need to be flexible. So what was the answer?
Doom of course. My all time favorite tragic villain. The one whom, when well written, like by Johnathan Hickman, carries weight. He is driven. He will do evil. He will do the right thing and be honorable. His word will not be broken. He loves and is fragile because of it.
Honestly, he is an awesome gothic villain and a way better template than Strahd. He also does one, very important thing that makes all this possible.
He monologues.
What if my adventure text was filled with the villain's monologues? Each room a flickering, brief hologram of him speaking something relevant about that room and about them. Dropping a detail about the complexity of their character the party and GM can choose to use how they want...
What if that is coupled with a random encounter engine designed to illustrate the chaos of the many-sided civil war that is happening in the halls of the Citadel?
Well, what happened is I wrote a first draft really quickly. Now I am refining each chamber before turning my eye to finishing up the art and the stats for the various potential challenges along the way.
In the meantime, here is the unedited draft of the opening monologue of the Tyrant. I hope you like it as much as I liked writing it.
Do you want to hear a story?
It is a true story, so like all true stories it does not end well. Good does not triumph. A lesson is not learned. Hope is not restored.
It simply ends.
But it is a good story. And it is my story. And it is the story of this place. Of how the war ended. Of how we got here.
And it is true. Not the myths you may have heard on your way to slay or seduce me. Not the tall tales told to give hope to the hopeless.
It is a good story. Do you want to hear it?
Good.
You see, the war. Yes, that war. The only war. The one waged by God on Yggdrasil. It was long and awful, and I was tired. It was as much my war as God’s and I had enough.
I wanted it over. I wanted it done. So I called him and he answered. And that is why at the end we, two enemies stood together.
Yes. Sanhet and I. Together. Surprised? Most would be, but like I said, I was tired…
And so, we stood before the door. The door that Sanhet had built so that we might go stand before God. The door that leads to the hall and the stairs down into the dark.
So we opened the door and walked. In silence and darkness. Together. We walked and walked.
Down and back. Back through time. Back to the beginning. Back to where the end of all things began.
Back to when God first came through The Black Gate.
Until we stopped and there was nowhere else to go. No more time left to walk past. We had reached the beginning.
Somehow. Someway. Floating in space. Floating before that horrible gateway. We saw it open for the first time.
I don’t know how to describe it. A flash of chaotic darkness that blinds you? Like the way that the cold burns you. It was all contradictions and paradoxes at once. The godhead roared in our ears. That which should never have been, came through and demanded unwilling obedience. In silence it demanded everything.
There was my God. The Unasked Question.
That which is beyond me. Beyond us.
The nightmare made manifest.
"I am Bheh," I whispered and all went still. Light coalesced in the darkness. We could see a shape within a doorway.
Confident, I shouted, "I AM BHEH!"
AND WHAT IS ORDER? SOME PALTRY ILLUSION PLAYING AT BEING SOMETHING IT IS NOT?
I… I can still feel the pain of those words that were not words. They stain me still. I feel them etched in my being. Like an open wound. They are thing I can never wash away. Never undo…
In the face of such hate. Such disdain…
What could we do? What would you have done? Any of you? You lesser things?
You would have fallen, but we… We could not. We had to succeed. We had to find a way to bring this all… All to an end…
Desperate to ground ourselves in something real and true, we clasped hands… Like desperate lovers… Anchoring each other to our need… Our need to save all we left behind... In the now…
In the future…
Anchored to Sanhet, I reached forth with my will… We agreed it must be me that does this deed… And I… Pushed.
It seems a little thing. Telling a god to go away. Telling it that it is unwanted. It is like a fly worrying a long neck. Will it even notice?
But I am Bheh. The people call me Tyrant, but my name is my purpose. I am he who brings order…
And hand in hand with truth, order held back chaos that day.
But there was a cost. A shock of light and thunder. Fire and destruction.
I found myself alone in the dark. Floating amidst burning specks of raw creation. The refuse of the fight…
From it I saved what I could. I built this place from what fragments were left. I created light and life where there was none. I sacrificed of myself for them… For you…
I sacrifice still…
I let them have this farce. I let their drama play out. I let it cycle through and let it lead inevitably to you.
Oh yes. I knew that the final act had begun the second you entered these sanctums. Don’t you see? You are not the first to be a part of this story and I doubt you will be the last…
We will see what you are made of. Come. Test yourself against me and see if you are wanting.
And with a flicker, the recording suddenly comes to an end. The figure you saw speaking was difficult to make out clearly, but that third eye was distinctive. That was the Tyrant. There can be no doubt.
The portal to the Citadel beckons you with blue light, calling you to go and face him. Will you seek his destruction or do his words give you pause and change the game?
