Hi,
I'm working on for my game on a plot involving a twisted combination of Jekyll and Hide and the Evil Twin plots. Basically, in the game world there is an almost monolithic henotheistic religion that is governed in a monotheistic way. The dominant aspect of this church is lawful neutral and has gathered a large bureaucracy. One would-be fire-brand reformer, Robert Subrih seeks to revolutionize the church and bring into it a fiery new life. Although he is genuine in his speeches, he is prideful and has been led astray by some of the daemon servants of pride from Green Ronin's Book of Fiends. He advocates a doctrine of overwhelming pride and dominance in the religion. Subrih espouses that a person can become a walking reflection/testament to the Great Deity and become free of sin by going through rituals and believing. Through belief, a worshipper can be totally reborn, a being totally without sin and wrong-doing. By doing so, it is said reborn person becomes better than everyone else.
The thing he has unwittingly unleashed is a twisted version of what he wishes to accomplish. Indeed, his followers are giving birth to new selves and freeing themselves of sin. In the Book of Fiends, there details an idea when a person who arrogantly believes they are absolutely above everyone else or who ignores their own wrong-doings, might cultivate inside of themselves a secret, evil twin of himself. When this arrogance reaches a climax, the evil twin literally rips itself from the arrogant character, becoming the embodiment of his evil and stealing half the XP of the mortal. It then does its best to ruin the arrogant person and all that he holds dear. The evil twin is in fact, a native, evil daemon (NE) outsider.
Normally this would happen in isolated individuals or small groups, this plot allows for a systematized occurrence with dozens or hundreds of people producing evil twins. What I need is further plot developments. An order of holy knights seems to have been affected by this plague, and one haughty leading (perhaps ex-) paladin, named Sir William has a corresponding powerful twin.
One church inquisitor/judge has sided with the PCs to find out what is going on. The PCs for the most part, are all CG. We have one elf cleric1/half-celestial2 in training who hails from Arborea, coming to the Prime on direct orders from her father a tulani eladrin. There's also a psionic elven nomad3 and a human Brd2/Paladin of Freedom 1. The bard/paladin was recently knighted by the said tulani eladrin; he has a grudge against Sir William for being framed for arson and murder by Sir William's evil twin. Right now the characters just got through an ambush set by 3 evil twins of some holy knights. The evil twins have allied themselves with a local tribe of kobolds.
I'm wondering where to take this. I'm not sure what type of fiend I want behind this plot. It would preferably be one of the sin daemons from the Green Ronin book, like the glomeray, a buzzing, insectile daemon of pride with charm and illusionary abilities. These creatures seek to seduce mortals into thinking of themselves as gods. I might also use some sort of succubus or erinyes who seduces with promises of religious glory. These latter two creatures, however, would be out of the power range of a 3rd level party. What I need help with is the type of a suitable fiend for the mastermind and its motivation beyond the usual sow discord and evil.
A confrontation (preferably nonviolent) between confrontation between the party and Robert Subrih's followers would make for a great climax. Allowing the PCs to expose what is going on and defeating the ideology would also probably be fun. Any ideas here?
Sounds like this fiend likes to work behind the scenes and manipulate others into doing evil. The actual mastermind can be beyond the party's ability to fight directly, until they level up some or maybe they never directly confront it. That, I think, would be more in line with Planescape and encourage some creative solutions to the problem.