The Most Dangerous Game

[Fido]

The very idea behind Zarov's island was that it was designed to take in boats, but not let them escape. I like Scs' idea of him closing his boarders keeping things in, but not keeping things out. How would the border closure look? Sharp rocks at sea maybe?

I'd say maelstroms or whirlwinds. Sharp rocks that just all of a sudden protrude from the sea seems a little too strange to me.

[Undead Cabbage]

Thank you for your input everyone.

Another question, how powerful should our Zarov be? I kind of pictured him as being powerful enough to take down most of the creatures in denizens of darkness. This is because the litterary Zarov exhausted what ever creatures his world had to offer, and therefore wanted to hunt hunters. Fellow hunters such as him understand his own tactics, and therefore give him a challenge. Would making Zarov's island a CR of 10-15 or so be a bit too much?

[Boccaccio Barbarossa]

Another idea - why not have him have to life half his life as prey, and only the other as hunter?

If you want him to be recurring, you might consider loosing him on the demiplane at large - maybe he's a ghost/incorporeal undead. So, he brings with each possession, say, a new body, but all of his hunter's knowledge. And then he uises this body to hunt some worthy foe. It a wierd way, he may believe himself to be some instrument of divine vengeance, able to strike at the powerful and canny on behalf of the powerless? (of course, that fact that the bodies are often destoryed or abandonned once the quest is done?...)

Or, a form of Ancient Dead which just regenerates when killed...

There are a lot of things you could do. If you want a GREAT one-use adv, I might go with the island. If you want something long-term, I would let him roam.

Let's say the PCs come after him, confront him and he escpaes? Then the hunter becomes the hunted... or does he? Maybe he evades the PCs, sets them on a false track...l only to come up behind them and start trailing them while they "hunt" a non-existant "prey just around the corner"? Once they finally reaize what's happened, he pounces, kills ONE of the PCs (or maybe a fellow NPC) then dissapears. he leaves them alone for a whilem, so they think he's gone and they're looking for his cent... only to realize he's behind them again... repeat until the PCs are living in constant fear!

the best part about this approach: you have the 1st attack at low-level PCs. So, they know the guy is out there, being to hunt him, then the scenario plays out. When they finally conrner him, they CAN"T KILL HIM! he's too tough! So they run away... a and are basicaly forced to become monster hunters to grow in power to fight him!... all the while watching over their shoulders...

(One of the ideas I don't like the hunter domain lord on an island - how hard is it to kill a creature in a cage? That's essentially what that is if the characters are trapped in his realm... I guess that could be his curse - maybe he can't OPEN the borders to allow the characters to escape, to make it a REAL challenge?... So the border is always open one way, and always closed the other?... Just an idea...)

[ScS of the Fraternity]

Thank you for your input everyone.

Another question, how powerful should our Zarov be? I kind of pictured him as being powerful enough to take down most of the creatures in denizens of darkness. This is because the litterary Zarov exhausted what ever creatures his world had to offer, and therefore wanted to hunt hunters. Fellow hunters such as him understand his own tactics, and therefore give him a challenge. Would making Zarov's island a CR of 10-15 or so be a bit too much?

A smart person doesn't need a lot of power to outwit animals - if he has his brains.
If he has access to repeating rifles and elephant guns, he doesn't need to be very powerful - just so long as his stats are high enough to give him something around +12-15 to Tracking checks.
I'd say make him a ranger around 10th level.
For ranger spells, I would either try to make them look non-magical, or replace his ranger-spells with some realistic abilties - such as build trap (like the machete-on-a-vine from the book, or the malayan man-trap).

[Grigg_Deadbreaker]

Just a couple of quick ideas.

Perhaps Zaroff's "Game Preserve" has been throuroughly tamed. The predators have all been wiped out, but the prey animals live in abundance, and have no fear of man. Normally skittish animals such as deer will even approach PCs looking for hand outs or scratches behind the ear.

As for a curse, how about this. Whenever Zaroff does bring down a worthy trophy, he never gets to claim it. One creature in all of his domain is beyond his power to kill, and this sole remaining predator/scavenger always seems to claim the Great Hunter's prize before Zaroff can claim it himself. The first encounter Zaroff had with this creature left the hunter scarred and nearly dead, so now he has become obsessed with bringing down this beast, but he never encounters it until near the conclusion of a successful hunt. Individual DMs should decide for themselves the particular nature of the Beast, but some ideas could include a dire wolf or tiger of some kind, a powerful werebeast (perhaps a neutral or good aligned werebear), or something even more fantastic like a shadow unicorn.

As far as the borders are concerned, I'm of the opinion that Zaroff should be unable to close them, and they should be kept open, but the terrain at the borders should be difficult to cross. Ravines, rapids, sheer cliffs that are nearly impossible to scale without magic assistance, etc.

[Neggarroth]

I think the island / Hunter darklord works, some great ideas there..

I particully like the idea anyone staying long enough on the island turns into animals, for the next hunt.

I'd like to see Zaroff host a great annual hunt inviting all the great lords and lady's from near by mainland domains. which lasts long enough for them to have a day or two hunting and a great dinner eatting there catch !!! (previously people), and they would leave before the change starts.

invite the pc's to the hunt, seeing that they partake of the killing and eating of the once innocent.

Maybe someone the pc's knew went missing and was last seen heading toward the island.

maybe when there are eating there catch they bit on a ring /earring ect that belonged to the missing friend/family member.

PC's would stay to investigate and then they would start to change..

If they haven't already worked out that they have killed and eatten a (innocent) person, potentially the person they were looking for, this should be a give away. And now they have to stay alive long enough as animals to escape with crazed hunter with a legendary reputation after them.

[Samael Hands of Stone]

I was going to suggest a similar idea actually. The whole hunter-hunted thing reminded me of a couple of movies that have played on those themes that I liked very much as a kid.

Running Man comes to mind. It threw a bit of a different twist on things as not only were the hunted framed and tossed unto the playing field with a bunch of murderers, but they were actually contributing to a form of entertainment for the denizens of the land. In this style of hunter-hunted scenario, the players would be abducted or lured to a party only to discover that their drinks were drugged, and now they've woken up in some kind of arena or maze that they have to try to survive. I can picture the esteemed guests sitting in their grand dinning hall with their glasses and cigars while watching the whole debacle on a scrying device of some sort.

Another approach is the Surviving the Game (with Ice T/Rutger Hauer) angle, where they invite the players in and shower them with gifts only to throw them out and force them to run from the hunting party. The idea of running from a cast of deadly NPC's as opposed to a single one raises many additional possibilities if you ask me.

Like the post above this one mentioned, having the party be tricked into becoming the actual hunting party is a wicked way to bring on the gothic horror feel. Imagine if you will, that the pc's are convinced by Zarov (or whatever) to hunt down this list of dangerous creatures, only to find out that they are in fact hunting animal-duplicate-avatars of themselves. Therefore, by successfully killing your "target animal", you have doomed yourself (or perhaps a fellow party member). I can imagine the surviving pc's making it back to the castle and discovering the "trophy room" where their best friends' heads now sit on wall-mounted displays.

rawkin...

[Undead Cabbage]

invite the pc's to the hunt, seeing that they partake of the killing and eating of the once innocent.

Also, on this note (a grand idea indeed). Naturally, Zaroff needs to test the pcs to see how good they are at hunting. There's no point in hunting them if they aren't professionals. Otherwise, they wouldn't challenge him.

A couple more ideas I've had in the mean time:

- Zaroff is obsessed with the perfect hunt, and therefore seeks a way to find it. One way of doing this is by hunting intelligent PCs and NPCs on his island. Another (and this goes hand-in-hand with the lands of steam) is by searching for the famed 'Crocodile God' of legend. Now, once again Zaroff is doomed to agony, since the Croc God is a darklord himself, and therefore the two will never meet. This further frustrates him, since he KNOWS that the crocodile god would be a perfect match for him on the hunt (if an overwhelming one).

- This idea is inspired from an old German folktale (not to mention, a cool character from the manga Hellsing). Zaroff's fire arm is the finest of its kind. It's known for its 'unreal' precision and accuracy. The truth behind this is that Zaroff was given the Fire-arm of a fiendish hunter from the abyss. Upon recieving the rifle, Zaroff was warned that one day that fiend would come to reclaim its prized weapon. So far, Zaroff has shown no consideration towards this 'unreasonable assumption' that the owner of the rifle will one day hunt him down. Ironically, the fiend would give him a perverted, twisted, corrupt version of what Zaroff always wanted.