Friday Encounter: Vengeance!

Across the Spider-Verse

This is a simple encounter, but one designed to play off of pre-established events in the campaign. As such, I've deliberately left things vague in order for the DM to fill in whatever details are necessary to ground it in the proper context. It could work in any setting, be it the wilderness, a town, or a dungeon - anywhere the party could be accosted.

The PCs should be approached by someone who seeks vengeance against them for some perceived wrongdoing against them or their family. This would work best if it is an NPC they've met before, and that wrongdoing is something the PCs themselves have caused (this is a great way to punish murderhobo behavior). This character wouldn't even need to be a preestablished villain necessarily - it can be just as fun for the PCs to create a recurring villain out of someone they antagonized before. For instance, if the PCs broke into a wizard's tower to steal some magical artifact, have that wizard show up down the line looking to get it back by force - or, failing that, to satisfy their righteous indignation by settling things head to head!

Naturally, this will likely lead to combat, so you'll want to have a statblock on hand that would make for a good opponent. These will likely have to be tailored to the scenario, as a wizard would fight quite differently than a warrior. But they can still use different maneuvers, bring allies along to engage the party, and engage them in an exploitable setting to try and gain the upper hand. Consider tactics, interesting environments, and other factors I discuss here to make the session an interesting one.

Of course, it can also be interest to have the vengeful NPC engage the PCs in a less straightforward confrontation. Maybe they're too powerful to deal with head-on, and the PCs have to run and/or hide from them in a tense chase or stakeout. Maybe they start targeting the party from behind the scenes with assassins or ambushes, creating a mystery that the players will have to solve in order to determine who it is that's bothering them, and why.

It doesn't have to be the same person as a character they've met before. Say, for example, the PCs killed a particular NPC. You could have their brother show up, looking to avenge their death, or a bounty hunter sent by their associates. Consider how worldbuilding can play into this - in cultures that have a system similar to the Norse weregild, for instance, there may be societal motivations to seek revenge in order to right a wrong. This can be a good way to immerse the players in an unfamiliar way of thinking by confronting them with the consequences of their actions in a way that has implications in the setting.

Lastly, although it's the most fun to have this encounter follow on from something the PCs did before, an alternative option is for the PCs to be accused of something they didn't do. Here, the pursuer might be someone known to the PCs, or it could even be a complete stranger! Now, not only do the PCs have the immediate threat to deal with, they also need to investigate how this mistake happened before it gets out of hand. Is it a simple case of mistaken identity, or are they being framed?