Dinosaurs of Dread, warning Spoilers for X 1

[ewancummins]

Sounds good.

A Voodan tie in makes sense, and I wanted to connect them to the Isoebin any case.

[ewancummins]

Note: I'm not ignoring alternate advice about the darklord, by the way. I just have not processed it all yet. But if anybody wants to suggest specifics for a pterraman or a Saurial, I am very interested in seeing it.

[Lord_Pruitt]

Just going to throw this out there - a dire ape, ala King Kong. Cross it with Gorilla Grodd from the DC Universe, and you have a great base for a darklord. Maybe not psionics, but at least of genius level intelligence. Low-level - Wizard? Sorcerer? Warlock?

Perhaps it was experimented on by the korpu....
Perhaps he is offered a bride every so often by the villagers, so he won't attack their villages ....

[ewancummins]

Just going to throw this out there - a dire ape, ala King Kong. Cross it with Gorilla Grodd from the DC Universe, and you have a great base for a darklord. Maybe not psionics, but at least of genius level intelligence. Low-level - Wizard? Sorcerer? Warlock?

Perhaps it was experimented on by the korpu....
Perhaps he is offered a bride every so often by the villagers, so he won't attack their villages ....

Good is cool!
And I seem to recall Giganta (name?) is sometimes his squeeze.
I like the kopru tie-in.

[steveflam]

Yes Giganta is his squeeze.

[ewancummins]

Yes Giganta is his squeeze.

She was too much woman for Steve Trevor.

[The Lesser Evil]

If we're going for King Kong inspiration, I always though the film director guy responsible for bringing King Kong back to America (Carl Denham?). I saw the most recent (2005) remake with Jack Black on TV recently. His rampant hypocrisy and pretension at doing "the right thing" (There is still some mystery left in this world, and we can all have a piece of it for the price of an admission ticket. and And We'll donate the proceeds to his wife and kids. ) seems like it would be quite fitting. But that would depend on outsider powers already having a presence there (or at least having been there before). If the players are the first characters to be there (which I seem to recall that is the case with X1) It would also give the domain a colonialist/neocolonialist flavor, which you may or may not want.

[ewancummins]

19th Century style colonialism seems like a poor fit. Ymmv


But the Isle does have pirates.

Perhaps, "Lurch" should return.

He has a hulking fighter who resembled Lurch from the Addams Family. A buddy played this guy, waaaaay back. Failed a powers check or two. It's been a little more than twenty years , and I cannot much. But I recall that " Lurch "eventually captured some dinosaurs on the prime plane and built a dungeon -arena for them.
He really liked dinos.
And he was evil. Or became so.

[ewancummins]

Tarvish Lorca
"Lurch"

Fighter 9

Neutral Evil


Skills of note:
Animal training (white apes)
Hunting
Masonry?


A hulking man with a malformed skull. Splotchy skin suggestive of some exotic leprosy. Walks with a lumbering gait ( source of his nickname).

When he greets newcomers to the Isle, he hides his deformed crown under a straw sunhat.


The Natives call him the Zombi Ape, because of his appearance and the pair of trained ape slaves that follow him everywhere.
(He is not undead. But the epithet may mislead foreign adventures into thinking this is the case.)

The Pirates fear him.


More later...

(inspired by Lurch, not a close copy)

Note: If he is from Oerth, I think an Amedian Suel makes sense. Tightly curled hair, brown and heavily freckled skin where his leprous patches do not discolor him.

If from The Known Wolrd/Mystara (original setting for the Isle) he can have a similar appearance and hail from Ierendi or maybe the Pearl Islands. Possibly Minaea.

[ewancummins]

More:


To make him darklord material, or even just a decent villain, he really needs strong goals, traits, and a history. I still need to work that out, and I am very much open to further suggestions.

I could go with any of several possibilities.

I like the idea that he was a strongman/beast trainer who became , or wanted to become, and impresario. That might mesh with Kristthomas 's ideas about Carl Denham.

Maybe he heard stories of exotic beasts on the Isle?

He is not a " colonizer" in the sense of a civilized man bringing order to the wilderness and changing the customs of the natives in the name of "progress." Nor is he a civilized man gone wild.
He was already a violent and savage person before he landed on the island. What he did there completed his fall into evil, but did not begin it.

I see him as an cruel showman who feeds people to chained terror-lizards in his stockade circus.
He rules over apes and degenerate Native cannibals.

At least, that is my current conception. It's all still quite vague.

And maybe I will go with the Saurial or the kopru mummy instead.

I dunno.

[The Lesser Evil]

There's no reason you couldn't have some combination of the above be co-darklords like the three hags or Ivana Boritsi and Ivan Dilisnya. Or you could have one be darklord and the others just "regular" villains for the time being, and maybe they could become darklords later if the original darklord is knocked off.

[Boneguard]

I really like the ideas that are being bounced here and there in this thread. I especially like the Idea of the Korpu cryatal mummy.

If you want to go with a more king Kong feel to it. Not that you should, but may I recommanded Isle of the Ape It's a first ed adventure, but I'm sure you could harvest some good element to help you.