What makes a villain? It is not merely the lurking desire to do wrong, spawning criminal acts and stygian sins. If it were, we would all be villains on account. No, a villain has more than evil desire propelling them forward on their miscreant trail. A villain is a man, woman or creature who seeks out the deviant streak inside themselves, capturing it in their thoughts like a child catching the moon in a looking-glass...
A villain takes the reversals of fortune that we all suffer, but rather than shrugging off the bad times, the villain embraces them, lovingly polishes them like gems: they become the creed by which the villain lives, the excuse for every evil act that they themselves carry out.
The villains the Silver Knot face range from the godlike monster-daemons from the Planes to petty street thugs and deranged fellow adventurers; all that the members of the Silver Knot's rogues' gallery have in common is their desire to do evil...
Azal
Azal is an extremely powerful mummy with spirit medium powers.
He heads fake cults, rogues' guilds, his own organisation of horrific daemonic monsters and a hierarchy of undead.
He has based himself in the benighted city of Secomber since his most recent return from the dead, and has riddled the undercity with lairs and entrances to his dungeon, which recreates in the mortal realm a reflection of the varied themes of his true home in The Nine Hells.
As part of the quests involved in The War of the Elements, the Silver Knot explored his undercity complex, with mixed results.
Azal is without doubt one of the most dangerous individuals the team has yet faced, and it is possible that as they battle him and his schemes for the the team will suffer largescale casualties in one of its adventures.
Azal has now given up his arcade dungeon, and installed himself in the Temple of the Elements, south of the Empire of Orc in the Shattered Lands. He is working mischief on behalf of some new dark power now...
Blue Anvil
Blue Anvil was a colossally strong and extremely well trained and magically adept Blue Dragon, youngest son of the scion of evil Blues in the East, "Eragon Spyral".
Blue Anvil fought the "big four" of the current Silver Knot -- Rocco, Ironthorn, 'Dog and Delilah -- to a standstill, nearly killing all of them save Delilah. Also in the battle were the current companions of the Silver Knot, River McPlacid the Brute-Man Barbarian and Mary the Wanderer as well as team stalwart Cardinal the Air-Lord.
Blue Anvil had an unearthly capacity to shrug off damage and spell attacks, as well as wielding Wild Magic and a devastating electrical breath attack. All in all, he was one of the single toughest opponents the team has ever faced.
Damage Machine
Damage Machine was a scion of some unknown bloodline, a product of Skaggra's breeding pits.
Bred from Carnivorous Ape, Girallon and bestial Human stock, Damage Machine was much stronger, more savage and more dangerous than a typical burly human would have been. Fortunately he was also predictable in combat and none too intelligent.
Branded on to his bald head on his upper forehead was the Strife Rune, a fitting warning to whomever saw him.
Damage Machine is currently imprisoned in the royal Bitterstone Prison in Mythtropolis.
The ELEMENTS OF SURPRISE
Like earlier incarnations of the team originally founded by the neutral Neoghi, Vulgron, the current Elements of Surprise (EoS) team is composed of members of the starfaring races and their kin. Each team member is a super-villain, with special powers and abilities. Some serve out of fear for what will be done to their family or kin if they do not obey their alien overlords; most of the EoS are out-and-out villains, little more than evil mercenaries.
The current EoS are used for infiltration by the Neoghi Third Trade Consortium. This vast trade fleet relies on the EoS to infiltrate planets ripe for conquest so the current team members each have the ability to shapeshift, either as an innate power or conferred by a magical item.
The current team is comprised of trainee members plus:
DASOON, a Human Botanist (Specialist Wizard) and potion maker;
GOBLIN KING, a Vr�Doxian Space Taltos;
SHAGREEN, Shark-man High Sorceror;
STEEL SHIV, a renegade female Steel Dragon Assassin.
This team was comprehensively beaten after stiff battle by an understrength Silver Knot, once again emphasizing the power of the 'Knot compared to most adventurer companies and other groups of metahuman freeswords. Since the EoS has trainees based on Third Consortium worlds elsewhere in wildspace, the Elements of Surprise will undoubtedly return, in one form or another.DASOON, GOBLIN KING and STEEL SHIV are imprisoned in the Bitterston Prison under the Royal Castle in Mythtropolis, awaiting capital trial for murder in the first degree. SHAGREEN perished after being struck by White Owl's owl screech kiai attach.
Evil Elemental Cults (Fetor, Cinders, Pollution, Stench)
The Evil Elemental Cults serve the Evil Elemental Rulers - Yan-C-Bin of the Fumes, Imix of the Flames, Ogremoch of the Soils and Ollhydra of the Waters.
Each cult wears muted thematic colours of their element and are fanatical clerical spellcasters and dedicated thugs in the service of their dread rulers. Based mainly at the Evil Temple of the Elements in the Shattered Lands, the cults have a small presence elsewhere, but are usually punished and then wiped out by other better organised and more powerful evil groups such as The Skullguard, Ape-X's Yellow Sail Slavers and the Iron Network.
The Evil Elemental Cults prowl in groups of forty-two; thirteen fanatical priests each of the first to third ranks, plus a Crusader, an Assassin, and a High Cleric of rank ten. In wilderness areas this small force behaves like raiders or an army of occupation; if in civilised areas, the cults either disguise their true natures or run rampant in areas already rife with crime before fleeing.
Haunted House Gang
The haunted House Gang are a group of fairly clever, if low-powered, rogues who have inherited the traditions of the Siltmarsh Mummers.
Like the 'Mummers in the 1020s YAC, the Haunted House Gang members pretend to be undead or evil spirits from the ether, usually within a building that the rogues wish to rob or use as a lair for some purpose.
Highly expert in the setting of complex traps, these rogues trade on the common assumptions adventurers and law enforcers make about undead to obtain advantages in hand-to-hand combat.
The Haunted House Gang were comprehensively beaten and many of them killed or injured during a vicious and complex battle between the Silver Knot and the demon-worshipping witches and necromancers that the Haunted House Gang were working for. Despite this defeat, it has been discovered by the Commissioner of Militia in Mythtropolis that the Haunted House Gang has reformed.
Jackanapes
Jackanapes is an evil Jester.
Passed over for promotion as royal Jester due to the popularity of FURIOSO, and unable to obtain gainful employment as a sage or rogue, Jackanapes has become a would-be crime lord, planning and carrying out dangerous and extremely violent crimes to not only raise funds but also hurt the realm he now hates and increase his own standing amongst monsters and evil-doers.
Ironically, although the Silver Knot has gained praise for bringing Jackanapes in, it was actually a short-lived heroic Magen that defeated him in a mysterious battle within a third villain's lair.
Jackanapes was imprisoned in the royal Bitterstone Prison in Mythtropolis but managed to escape his cell and sneak his way out, killing two guards in the process. As a fugitive, he was under sentence of death anywhere in the Wild Lands with the exception of the Dedite Lands.
Most recently, Jackanapes was identified as working as a terribly poor standup comedian at the Crimson Emporium variety theatre. During the cleaning up operation carried out at that location to defeat a blood cult of evil, Jackanapes was also defeated and captured. He is now back in the Bitterstone Prison, awaiting several trials and an undoubted multiple death sentence penalty.
Kakatal
Kakatal is a chaotic creature of pure flame.
If left unchecked and unbanished, its only real goal is to reduce the whole of the Prime to a fiery ashen wilderness.
Kakatal had an as-yet unrevealed role in the creation of the evil super-monster called Ragnarok. Because of this, Ragnarok figures in Kakatal's plans to completely destroy the Prime.
Lord OGRE
Lord OGRE originally claimed to have awoken from an icy slumber crossing decades, and subsequently became a millionaire trader. He bought the company that some of the Silver Knot had previously had dealings with and was their financial supporter in the first two weeks of their existence as a team. To read more about him in this period click here.
On the 10th of 8month 1101YAC a section of street collapsed quite close to Urtaan's tower in the Cutpurse Quarter, where new warehouses were being built. The street collapse fortuitously occurred when militia were in the immediate area, leading to the militia discovering that slaves were being kept in an understreet hideout. A swift investigation followed, resulting in the arrest of Lord OGRE for slave trading. This also resulted in the Crown seizing his assets, so that the Ogre Shipping and Trading Emporium became the Royal Dreadsea Company, with the Crown as the managing partner of the firm.
Malviacci the Fencing Master
Benefenestre Malviacci was an elder Vampire, who ran a vampire circus for several centuries.
In addition to the vampires and vriks of the circus there were many living performers, who provided both snack food and an effective cover for the bloodsuckers. Eventually, heroes including the Silver Knot and the Knights Below disrupted his plans and his circus trade to the extent that he left the known realms altogether, setting up as vampire lord of the city of Melamper when it was overrun by monsters and largely destroyed. Feeding the Blood Node magic point under the city with a continual stream of victims, he and his monster cohorts were destroyed when the Silver Knot destroyed the Blood Node and turned the ruined city into the geothermal settlement netted with lava canals known as Magmopolis.
The Vampire Circus has recently been detected near the Dedite town of Sandcastle. It is only a matter of time before it crosses the path of the Silver Knot.
Mister Snow
Mister Snow was a barbarian ice sorceror, a channeller of elemental ice powers as well as an extremely strong human, with rock-shattering strength and muscular toughness.
Although he was initially successful, with the aid of the mysterious villain Arctus, in inflitrating Ogre's Company and replacing everyone there with simulacrum duplicates, his operation was destroyed by the militia and he himself was simultaneously killed in a duel by Rocco "Captain Rock" Deparle.
Mordwraith of the Hell of the Icy Fingers
The Mordwraith of the Hell of the Icy Fingers was an incredibly powerful undead monster lurking within a very disturbing pile of skulls in part of the grand arcade dungeon of Azal.
The Silver Knot more or less blundered into its lair and then had no option but to destroy the creature and its followers.
Parafina
Parafina DiCarenza is the grand-daughter of the supervillain Parafino, and has inherited the family spellbooks. She has become therefore the premiere Wax Elementalist wizard of the Prime. She can create waxworks elemental duplicates of any creature ranging in size from that of a rat to that of a horse. Usually, she creates detailed, if short-lived, duplicates of people. The duplicates have all of the nonmagical skills -and powers- of any humanoid she chooses. The limit of the unearthly power of the waxworks creatures is limited to the skills, powers and abilities of up to a level nine character or nine hit dice monster.
Parafina recently apparently perished in an all-consuming fire during a battle with the militia of Braejr City, the River Wardens. Since then she battled some of the Silver Knot in Mythtropolis, indicating that she is now a disembodied ghost or similar spirit, currently only able to animate waxworks...
Shasta the Gargoyle Queen
Shasta is a High Sorceress with incredible expertise with respect to summoning, conjuring, breeding and controlling gargoyles of all kinds.
Shasta attempted to stop the Silver Knot from completing their quest to end the War of the Elements, and apparently met her fate when she opened a gateway into the Realm of the Fear-Lords. Although the heroes evaded the dimensional gateway resembling a huge fanged maw that led to the Fear-Lords, but Shasta was not so lucky - plunging headlong into the hellish realm of the Lords of Fear...
Skaggra was an ageing necromancer and cleric of Entropy who discovered the notes left by another villain, Inseer. Inseer's notes described a process whereby a mortal could Ascend the Throne of the Dragon, becoming a daemonic dragon-like entity the size of a castle.
Embarking on this plan, Skaggra gathered around him lackeys and henchmen from many other evil organisations, banking on the fact that with so many disparate elements acting in concert the heroes would not be able to discern his true intent.
This plot was working well until, in a moment of blinding insight, Silver Knot team member BLACKFOOT worked out Skaggra's plan and location.
The team fought valiantly to obtain sufficient magical power to negate Skaggra's powers, and Nature's Paladin, IRONTHORN, rushed to Skaggra's location, defeating the villain in a brutal -and brutally swift- display of martial prowess.
Skullguard
The Skullguard are a criminal rogues' guild of highly trained soldier thieves.
All Skullguard are trained and hypnotised into total obedience to their powerful master, the mysterious Snake Number One.
Although none of the Silver Knot have knowingly fought Snake Number One to date they have all frustrated some of his plans by defeating so many of his lackeys.
Skullguard are also loaned or hired out to other criminals, villains and intelligent monsters, to bolster cooperation between the forces of darkness and raise funds for the organisation.
Tarrasco Gamlir, aka Liontooth, was an inventive master of shadow magic and a gifted elemental magician.
He was an all-round villain, serving as a henchman to Skaggra as well as serving his true master, a mysterious Shadow Mage of far greater power than Tarrasco himself.
Tarrasco met his maker during the early part of the War of the Elements, during an epic series of battles flipping back and forth between the Prime Material Plane and the Elemental Planes.
The Dread Sisters
Many centuries ago as humans measure time, a group of powerful witches arose amongst the daemonic, giantish and elemental races.
Rather than continue the endless battles of their species, the witches decided to form a super-coven, to adjudicate affairs and keep the peace.
For many decades this effort succeeded, until the new members of the coven, which had become known as The Sisters, were elected by the existing evil members, tipping the alignment of the whole alignment towards the dark side. With this shift in alignment came a new name for the coven - they became the Dread Sisters, the nine most powerful evil witches in the world.
Recently the Silver Knot began to battle the Dread Sisters and their servitors, after the Sisters attacked the realm of Haranlarche as part of a cooperative scheme with Skaggra. So far, most of the plots of the Dread Sisters have been defeated, and several of the current Dread Sisters have been destroyed. The death of some of the evil Sisters has left open the possibility that the sisterhood can be switched back to being an all-alignment organisation once more...
Slayer Serpents
Slayer Serpents are the most evil and devastatingly powerful of the twisted serpent people -- humanoid snakes -- of the Wild Lands.
The Slayer Serpents are trained from just after hatching to be assassins, slayers of humankind and their allies.
The Slayer Serpents are still active under Secomber where they lair, and although they battled the heroes of the Silver Knot during the War of the Elements, very few were killed by the heroes...
The Sweaty Man
The Sweaty Man is a psychopath, unable to comprehend the world as it is and instead basing his actions on his delusional world view. Through luck more than skill, he stumbled over a code that the underdark race of Thaluud could understand and used the code to mislead the heroic Thaluud KING OF DIAMONDS into serving as his highly destructive ally.
The Sweaty Man is currently imprisoned in the royal Bitterstone Prison in Mythtropolis.
Ursine
Ursine was the barbaric champion of Entropy, sent to serve Skaggra during Skaggra's ascension to the Throne of the Dragon.
Even after Skaggra's defeat by the Silver Knot, Ursine remained as an agitator on behalf of chaos during the War of the Elements.
Ursine died in battle against the Silver Knot whilst the team and Ursine were wandering the pandemonic interdimensional city of Telechopolis.
Xoanon
Xoanon was a powerful warlock who, during the Dread Sister's cursing of the realm of Haranlarche, bedevilled the first Silver Knot team until they confronted and defeated him.
Xoanon was defeated by Furioso of all people, who forced Xoanon to suffer a pratfall that disrupted Xoanon's magics long enough for him to be slain.
Zorin, Savage Sorceror and Herald of Chaos
Zorin is a madman. He is a willing worshipper of, and slave to, Primal Chaos, the spheres of Strife and Ignorance, and evil forces everywhere. After being psychically contacted by the power served by Azal, Zorin engaged the Silver Knot in combat to try and stop them completing the quest to end the War of the Elements.
Zorin wore scarlet armour, now in the keeping of the Queen of the Marids, and wielded a magical prayer wheel which greatly enhanced his ability to use High Sorcery and the poetical incantations which are the central feature of such magicks.
Zorin was comprehensively defeated by Cardinal the Air-Lord. Zorin is currently imprisoned at the King's pleasure in the royal Bitterstone Prison in Mythtropolis.
