So Ive been playing Blades for 3 seasons with the same group, but I am having trouble introducing the main villain of the series. Here’s a background of her time in season 3 so far:
The Spider comes home to his Girlfriend, Salia, an information broker. Her house is torn to shreads, her clothes are ripped, and graffiti across the wall reads something along the lines of “DON’T STICK YOUR NOSE WHERE IT DOESN’T BELONG. G SENDS HER REGARDS”. Salia had been looking into an extortionist who seems to have dirt on almost everyone, and the men who attacked her didnt want to hurt her, it was just “business” and they were in deep shit if they didnt. The Spider vows to find “G” and get revenge, this just got personal.
“G” (later revealed to be called Grace) strikes a deal with Tarvul’s (leader of the Billhooks) wife, letting her take control of the Billhooks, userping Tarvul. She takes advantage of the PCs crew being down a leader (the Spider was on holiday at the time, and she thinks the docks rightfully belong to her not them, whilst Tarvul was trying to make peace). She encroaches on their turf as if it were her own, one thing leads to another and they end up at war. (They have yet to find out that this was because of Grace and they will find out once the war ends probably).
Grace has also pulled several strings to mobilise and have the Bluecoats/Spirit Wardens breathing down the murderous crew’s necks by giving them evidence against them. We have also established that she wants the pieces of Kotar for some reason, and has blackmailed the group’s Whisper into getting a piece for her (Scurlock has tasked the Spider to get one for him too; crew conflicts, yay!)
So who is Grace? Grace is a ghost who has managed to remain sane even without draining life energy. She is powerful and the ghost field gives her visions of events before they happen, allowing her to plan ahead and know details of events despite never being there (perfect for use in extorting favours from people). She was separated from her body decades ago by the powerful Lord Scurlock, and wants revenge on him for this. The only problem is that ghosts cant see Scurlock due to his supernatural powers. She knows he wants the Kotar pieces and so she wants them for herself, to wish for her body back (collecting all the pieces allegedly grants the user 1 wish), and take revenge.
So how do I get the crew into a position where they find out shes this ghost? The Spider wants to confront her and “kill her” for what shes dont to Salia, and theres going to be an interesting conflict due to the whispers misplaced loyalties. I just cant bring the pieces together!
When they know her face, they could spot this face in an old book along with some information that she died (like victim of a gang war, fire, disease, cover story for her death by Scurlock). That would make the info that she’s a ghost available.
Too make it hard to kill her (for Scurlock, too, if he should care) you could add an horkrux (sp?) hidden somewhere.
Stefan Struck a “horkrux” is a really nice idea! I wonder what itd be? Maybe her journal of blackmail? Maybe the item that killed her? Something more personal? Theres a lot of possibilities here; id probably play to find out xD thanks for that idea, its great!
I need to find a way to reveal her face… maybe Salia keeps digging despite her best interests and finds a picture?
Are some imprint at the place where she died (burned into the wall) with some distinguished feature
If you didn’t want to use the Harry Potter word horcrux, you could use phylactery (in fantasy, an object where someone’s soul is kept to keep them safe from death) or deodand (an object that caused the death of a person).
I have thoughts on this, so I’ll stick this note here to remind me to return when I’ve some leisure to ramble.
Some ideas:
A henchperson working for Grace double-crosses her and runs to her formidable enemies (the PC crew) eager to trade information for protection. Or is it another deception?
A rival gets screwed by Grace, backed into a corner and unable/unwilling to pay, and begs the crew for help to take her down; all the rival knows is where she’ll be. If they don’t help, the rival dies but first sends a trusted henchperson to the PC crew to tell them that the rival discovered she was a ghost, that was the trick that let her kill the rival.
She has a deal with the Spirit Wardens to look the other way, which pisses off an Inspector who stumbled across her secret. The Inspector cannot move against her without crossing the Spirit Wardens–but the crew can.
A Bluecoat under Grace’s thumb has a terminal disease and decides to go to the PC crew and tell them that Grace is after the pieces of Kotar mainly to get leverage over Scurlock, and he gives them the name of the other five Bluecoats that he knows are under her thumb. The Bluecoats are about to stage a raid to follow up on a rumor about where one of the pieces is, on Grace’s intel, and this guy is tired of her pushing him around so he is willing to give the PC crew the intel so they can get the jump, if they’ll kill him painless and peaceful and right.
Grace’s pet adept has been using forbidden magic to try to keep tabs on the crew by scrying on them, and she accidentally botches it and ends up tied to the Whisper’s dreams; the Whisper might be able to free her, since the Whisper is powerful, but the adept is reluctant to share more about why she’s doing this unless coerced.
Grace goes too far raiding a museum for a Kotarian artifact, and the Inspectors “recruit” the crew (as known enemies who have some spine) to assist them in bringing her down. (Threaten them with prison, with hampered operations as they are spied upon, promises of help with Heat, etc.) The Inspectors know too many in the infrastructure are vulnerable to Grace, so a rogue “Untouchable” inspector forms his own task force to handle it, and the crew is part of it.
Grace swaps bodies with a pissed off meat-riding specter and the crew goes all-out in a boss fight and kill the crap out of “Grace” in front of a joint task force of law enforcement, who let them get the kill then grab them and have a brief trial then throw them in Ironhook, where Grace visits them to taunt them.
Those are a few ideas to start you off. Enjoy! =)