Story hook: A mother with evil in her heart

Some time ago I found an image which inspired me to create a very interesting villain. In my belief, the best stories consist of at least one difficult choice for players to make. I do not like worlds where it is obvious which side is good and which is bad - I like when players have to choose between two bad decisions, previously having predict the consequences of every option.

A mother with evil in her heart

Possible introduction

There are plenty of ways in which you can introduce this story to your players but I think the easiest way is just a simple quest from a local governor for killing a bandit who terrorises the vicinity. In my opinion the beginning of any quest should be simple - players should be able to contain their task in one sentence. In this way they are able to fully focus on the story progression without feeling lost from the very start.

The mother

Her name is Malena and she is vicious and merciless bandit. She not only lives stealing and killing people - she also loves what she does and she is proud of that. She often prepares traps on main roads where she can meet many caravans and rich noblemen and since she is a great assassin too, she kills people in cities for politicians or just for her own - for fun or for revenge.

Apart from all of that she has her second side: she has two babies and she loves them more that anything else. One very important facet of using this story hook is that her two faces cannot be connected. She cannot be someone who steals and kills to provide for a living for her babies - she loves to be a rascal but her children are the most important for her.

The confrontation

When players finally confront the mother, they should be put in a situation when they have only two options to choose: To kill the mother and to orphan two little babies or to let her go and do what she has been doing before. Each of these choices brings evil and good simultaneously and players should know that from previous experiences with the mother's activities.

What is next?

After some time, you can bring back this story in some way depending on their choice: If they decided to let the mother go, they can hear about someone famous and important killed by her and if their choice was different and you played long enough to let her children grow up a little, they can seek for revenge. In any case make it hurt.