Obsidian - A criminal organization
Obsidian is a group of adventurers, mainly consisting of mages and sorcerers, but the group also consists of other personalities capable of using magic, like eldritch knights, elemental monks or arcane tricksters. This combination of talents makes Obsidian a very dangerous group. They operate strictly outside the usual system of law enforcement. They can’t be easily found in cities, only through hidden codes or special NPCs in cities. The organization tends to have multiple lairs across the world, inaccessible for the outside either due to their remoteness or due to the various security measures that protect the lairs. All of the members have usual stats that can be adjusted to the current APL. However, each of them has some special abilities that can easily lead to a TPK, if the PCs are not careful enough. To defeat this group, good intel and research is key.
Symbols & Icons
The main symbol Obsidian can be recognized by is a deep colored, obsidian form of jewelry. The easiest form of this would be a ring on one of the fingers of the members. However, group members tend to wear the rings as a necklace as well. Some of them spice up their armor with obsidian colored stones or insert obsidian jewels into their skin, giving the skin an obsidian shimmering look.
Criminal activities
As they consist mainly of power and knowledge hungry magic users, Obsidian has one ultimate goal, which is magical prowess and superiority of their magical capabilities. To achieve this, they advance their plot through different phases. In phase one, they try to obtain enough money to support their organization. They provide mercenary services well under the competitive rate, using the money gathered in the first step to offset costs. They plan to put all of other mercenaries and/or adventuring parties out of business, because they can't compete with Obsidian’s combination of prices and talent.
During the second phase, they shift to kidnapping.
By capturing and strategically kidnapping mages, enchantresses, sorcerers and other magic users, Obsidian finally tries to extract their magical powers and feed on the arcane energy to enhance and manipulate their own form of magical use.
Obsidian operates in groups of 2-3.
Hierarchy
There is not a lot of hierarchy inside Obsidian. The group consists of about 10-12 members and they elect one among them to be the main decision maker. However, the leader can easily be overthrown, if the majority believes, he/she is not capable of leading them anymore. Right now, the organization is led by Claire. A young, but powerful female wizard who has become the avatar of death with special magical abilities.
Codes of conduct
Over the course of several decades, Obsidian took different forms and was led by different individuals. Though each iteration is viewed as either subversives or criminals, all seek to make the world a better place through their own means. What Obsidian truly desires is up to the DM, but there are some examples further down.
Roles in your campaign
Obsidian can take many different forms and can serve any purpose the DM sees fit. Below are some ideas to make use of this group.
BBEG
Obsidian can serve as a Big Bad Evil Group for your endgame. Perhaps, Obsidian has another, ultimate goal, e. g. resurrect or unleash an evil, godlike entity that is imprisoned somewhere. They think, they can control this entity and rule/destroy whatever they want. Perhaps they want to fuel a large arcane bomb to blackmail rich kingdoms? PCs can track Obsidian throughout their lairs (potential dungeons) with traps and bosses, only to find that the group is one step ahead of them. During the final confrontation, the PCs have to fight their way through several combinations of group members, before the resurrection ritual is completed.
Advantages
- reoccurring bad guys
- group members usable as mini bosses in between other story arcs
- PCs have to search Obsidian's lairs (dungeons) and uncover clues throughout your main campaign (mystery)
- big finale for your campaign (Boss Tower)
Rivals
Obsidian can serve as a group of bounty hunters that is not evil to the core, but rather wants to enhance their powers. If the DM has a mercenary or bounty hunter subplot in their campaign, Obsidian can function as competitive rivals who occur from time to time to keep the PCs in check. Perhaps they already have raided a dungeon when the PCs arrive? They may already have collected the bounty the PCs were after or they interrupt the PCs and kill the bounty right at the end of an exhausting fight, just to ruin their day? Perhaps they steal a magic item from the PCs, if the DM has problems balancing the game?
Advantages
- reoccurring bad guys
- a playful way to anger your players, without the imminent danger of death
- lots of opportunities for roleplaying and interaction
- great balancing tool for your campaign
Secret Heroes of the Realm
Obsidian could be onto something big that is unknown to the PCs when they first encounter this group. Obsidian's final goal is noble, but their means are not necessarily the best way to achieve it. Perhaps they are just misunderstood? Perhaps another big evil is the real threat behind your campaign and Obsidian has to collect the arcane essences of other wizards to defeat the big evil? Perhaps they want to save the world, but the rulers of the kingdom are too ignorant to see the real threat that is lurking beneath the ground? PCs could easily discover clues throughout your main campaign and have to make a decision at some point: Do they stop Obsidian and let the big evil devour the world? Or do they let Obsidian kidnap and kill other innocent magic users, because it benefits the greater good (saving the world)? Perhaps the PCs even start helping Obsidian?
Advantages
- a neat plot twist during or at the end of your campaign
- a moral conundrum for your party
- great opportunities for roleplaying
- a mystery to uncover
Questgiver
Obsidian could serve as questgiver for your group. They can be a thieve's guild for any rogue with magic powers. Alternatively, Obsidian can occur as an order of monks or wizards that demands something from your party members in exchange for more power. But where does the power that fuels your PCs come from? During the campaign and after completing a quest, the PCs uncover Obsidians real plans step by step – whatever theses goals may be.
Advantages
- a neat plot twist during or at the end of your campaign
- a great way to introduce subplots and quests for rogues, monks and wizards
- a mystery to uncover
- many opportunities for roleplaying
All of the above
You can easily use a combination or all of the suggested uses and adjust the criminal organization as you see fit. Just listen carefully to your players at your table and listen what they think is the real purpose of Obsidian. The reveal will be even more satisfying for your gaming experience, if the players discuss this group back and forth before the big reveal. This could easily lead to situations in which the players cheer with sentences like "I told you they weren't evil!" or "I told you, they are a threat, let's stop them!" or "Oh no, I really hate those guys!"
It could start as a questgiving group (levels 1-4), can easily turn into rivals (levels 5-10), be the BBEG (levels 11-15), just to be revealed as secret heroes of the realm (levels 15-20).
Introducing Obsidian
The DM can – of course – introduce this group any way they see fit and it depends on which role Obsidan plays in your world. I will give you an example of how I introduced them.
In my campaign, the PCs were level 3 and on a quest to investigate some ruins. They ran into a female wizard who was shaken in fear and was badly hurt. Her clothing was burned, she had many wounds and was heavily breathing. She looked nervously at the PCs and used her magic to teleport to safety and vanished.
Enter A'va and Dessimach Serval.
Another person steps beside him. It is a female tiefling with pink hair that is tied to a braid. She has a dark skin color. Where her right arm and leg should be, she wears strange constructions of cables and metal. You can see two shimmering blue spots at the joints. She says: "Be gentle with him." She kicks the half-elf laying on the ground. The dragonborn snorts and says: "She's gone." The tiefling giggles and says: "For now."
The dragonborn gazes around and lays eyes on your group. He says "A'va", nods his head towards the magic users of your group and whispers something to the tiefling. The tiefling looks at you disparagingly and judgingly, smiles, shakes her head and says: "Too weak".
If the PCs decide to keep watching, A'va summons a teleportation circle from her arm and both of them vanish with the half-elf. My group charged at the two, foolish as they were. After the first round of combat, A'va used her 6th level spell "cirlce of death" (24 damage on a failed saving throw) against the 4 PCs of level 3 and three of the four party members were knocked unconscious in an instant. A'va repeated: "Told you: Too weak". After that, the two vanished by using the teleportation circle. Warning: Be extremely careful when using this method as it can lead to a TPK!
Although the encounter is way too difficult for a group of 3rd level PCs and can be frustrating, it serves three purposes narratively: First, the players will definitely remember these guys. Secondly, they want to find out who these people are (plot hook) and thirdly, it will be all the more satisfying for the players, when they finally defeat them.
Members
Instead of providing you with different statblocks, I would recommend to use an NPC generator to fit the APL of your group. All of the members are magic users of a very high level. Some of them have access to 6th or 7th level spells, some of them even higher.
The following descriptions are examples of their special abilities, which can easily be adjusted to the wish of the DM. Feel free to do so. The goal of this organization is to challenge your players and to serve as a considerable threat.
Claire
A young woman who has become the avatar of death.
She carries a miasma around her that does damage if enemies enter her space. If a PC inhales the miasma longer than two rounds, they fall unconscious to the ground. If she stops next to an unconscious body, the PC automatically fails two death saving throws, because of the miasma. When Clare dies, she becomes the Avatar of Death, a big, misty horror that cuts a strong blow and marks someone for death. If the marked person drops to 0 hitpoints, they die automatically.
Nakul
A human gunslinger, who has a very high AC when standing still, but a low AC when running around (or vice versa, if the DM so desires). If an attack of a PC misses him, he automatically gains a reaction and is allowed to shoot a free shot with his gun against a PC. His magic googles let him see very well. He has an ultimate special ability called "Curtain Call", which can recharge. Curtain Call marks three PCs for death and unleashes three extremely potent shots, which require different saving throws and have different consequences.
Salamar Yekta
A female halfling monk, capable of hitting different points inside the body of an opponent. While doing so, she can inflict interior damage to organs (double damage taken) or can give her opponents disadvantage on saving throws, attack rolls or ability checks (her choice, depending of ki-points spent). Her fists can reach out to opponents who try to stay away from her and can reach up to 20 feet.
A’va
A'va is a female tiefling with an artificial magically infused arm and an artificial leg. She is able to suck the life energy out of the opponent she is fighting. When she dies, her arm and leg are left behind and she reassembles as an eldritch abomination angel and deals a ton of damage. After 5 rounds, she explodes in a massive arcane fireball due to the energy she extracted from her opponents, leaving nothing but death and destruction behind. Her body and consciousness are reshaped by her arm and her leg after 24 hours.
Dessimach Serval
A dragonborn with the power of Tiamat. He is wearing a heavy plate armor which gives him a very high AC. He is able to change the color of his skin as desired. By doing so, he has access to one special chromatic dragon ability while wearing the respective color. He can combine multiple breath attacks with different movements, and has immunities to all elements.
Lydia
Lydia is a female human bard, who uses her music to create illusions for her opponents and support her allies. These strong illusions are able to distract opponents and make them turn against each other. Sometimes, the illusion is so strong, an opponent is transferred onto another plane and has to endure severe horrors while taking psychic damage. She is very difficult to deal with, because of hear manipulation of sound. Sometimes, opponents are already trapped inside her illusion, before they realize it, just because they listened to her music from a distance.
Poppy Primrose
A minotaur who begins any fight with his armor intact. However, with every attack made against Poppy, he loses some of his armor, which magically raises his AC and improves his movement speed. His hammer has a very high damage output and he can shatter the ground, creating an earthquake in an area he desires.
Kaiser
A tiefling blood magician who uses blood tentacles to create dolls out of corpses lying on the ground around him. He always carries two bodies with him to have them ready for any battle. One of these bodies belongs to his dead wife, the other to his dead son. The blood dolls have got the abilities of the person they are created from. His wife has been a sorceress in her former life and his son has been a rogue.
Vetch Needletooth
A goblin capable of creating highly potent poisons and other potions. He experimented a lot with different ingredients, is a master poisoner and uses his potions to adapt to any situation during battle. He uses the potions to damage opponents, to gain a breath weapon attack, to buff his allies or to buff himself.
Acqua Lunaris
A deadly woman dressed like a shadowdancer. She is an arcane trickster and is constantly surrounded by floating blades. They are the size of big swords and move with Acqua every step she takes. They hurt anyone who comes too close to her automatically, without an attack roll; the opponent is allowed a dexterity saving throw, however. Any melee weapon used in her vicinity by an opponent will turn against the opponent and attack them.
Credits
The inspiration for this criminal organization comes from many different sources.
I want to thank SilkyNoire for providing me with these awesome character art: SilkyNoire; /u/Noferini
The Introduction of Obsidian was inspired by Matt Colville and his "Running The Game" series.
The criminal organization draws inspiration from Akatsuki from Naruto. The special abilities of the members are partly my own creation, party derived from posts on reddit: here, thanks to /u/Mekeji
This project was the result of a monthly event on reddit.com/r/DnDBehindTheScreen.
Notes
Remember that anything in my work is subject to change and can be adjusted as the DM sees fit. Remember that as a DM, your job is to provide an entertaining experience for you and your players and that you are working with your players to enrich the story. The goal of playing D&D is to have fun at the table.