♣ Target: Zalah Mystof

[Head Moderator]

[For Evil Chars]

Navahla, home of the Flyeal Gang, is a city known for thieves and scoundrels. Runik used to hold uncontested sway over the city's illegal activities, but with the "disappearance" of Runik, smaller guilds began to crop up. These guilds are pursued relentlessly by local heroes and law enforcement, because they are easier to remove than the Flyeal Gang

Then reports filter through the taverns that the heroic paladin Zalah Mystof, who was known for tracking and arresting thieves, has begun killing them off instead. They are just rumors, but the killings become more frequent and witnesses say they saw Zalah in the area or even witnessed him slaughtering thieves that had surrendered.

Needless to say, the smaller guilds that are the target of Zalah's zeal are very nervous, and they look for mercenaries to kill the paladin as quickly as possible. The PCs could be hired by several different guilds and collect money for the same job from all these patrons -- if they can find and kill the paladin.

Ideas for Complications

The Zalah that is killing the thieves is an evil duplicate of the real Zalah, who was slain by the duplicate. Zalah ran into a mirror of opposition trap when pursuing a group of thieves, and the mirror's duplicate slew him. Then it began slaying thieves, because it is still Zalah (just evil).

Zalah is under the mental control of the new leader of the Maul Rats (called "Big Cheese" and rumored to be female), and he is being used to clear out the smaller gangs permanently. Should the PCs break the mental control, they can get Zalah to lead them back to at least some members of the Maul Rats.

The evil Zalah has created himself a lair in the sewers under Navahla. He has not placed any guardian creatures himself, but some nasty water-dwelling monsters have moved in.

Zalah is not evil at all; he slew the evil duplicate because it was deadlier than himself. He gave up arresting thieves because it did no good. Now he is adamant about killing thieves.