Mortal enemies

[The_Usernameless_Horror]

I am our group's Keeper, and I have a character (an evil scientist) who I want to keep alive as a recurring villain in the campaign, which is basically a modern-day adventure set in and around a police department (all the characters are police or otherwise employed there).

However, my group may end up blowing him to pieces far too quickly. What would u suggest as a way of keeping him alive and yet neutralising him for some time (so that the PCs feel they have achieved the scenario objective).

[ossadagowah]

The simplest solution would be for him to
use Vanish, but with a twist. When it transports
him miles away from the investigators, it drops behind
a badly damaged corpse in his place.

The investigators open fire, the spell kicks in, he
rematerializes far away from them and leaves
behind a proxy for them to feel victorious over.

[AcesandEights]

Okay, give the Investigator's the option to expose him or, better yet, expose him and then "go in and get him." This means, let the Mad Scientist realize his cover has been blown and hold up somewhere. Allow the PCs to get a hold of riot and breaching gear so they can go in and get him and provide them with a reason to want to take him in.

If the PCs overplay their hand in regards to wanting to do away with the Scientist because he's too dangerous, involve a higher up, more authorities or perhaps the Feds, or even (Gasp!) Internal Affairs to give them a speach about how they better not screw around or there'll be consequences.

I mean, you know your PCs, so are they the type to come up with serviceable evidence that will allow an indictment?

[fantomas]

Have the mad scientist have a hostage, someone such as a tv or news reporter. Or a judge or something. Someone who would expose them if they were to be so blatant as to disregard the law they are trying to uphold by killing him. (Especially if the scientist surrenders)

If the scientist surrenders, he can be freed by a couple of minions that weren't taken down

[zomben]

What if the scientist was killed years ago, and ressurected by use of the Ressurection spell? This would set up a precedent for bringing him back if they blow him up. He could have an assistant, or something... perhaps in his will, he spells out the lyrics to the Ressurection spell, and specifies that his lawyer or somebody read it over his ashes before they're scattered...

[Ottomancer]

I'm a great believer in having no bad guy's death being 100% confirmed, unless it is dramatically correct (end of campaign for example).

I ran a CoC Modern campaign once that involved a recurring nemesis of the party, the nefarious Reverend Arvin Ubel.

After he seemingly died onboard a stricken ship that sank in the Pacific, the Investigators encountered him again, several adventures later. This time, he was again apparantly killed when the cultist compound he ran was stormed by the Feds, and burnt down. Fragments of DNA were found, but my conspiracy-theory loving players were never sure if he had really died...

[Lingering_Dark]

There realkly is somethinmg to be said about a bad guy that keeps coming back and is even more evil and vile each time....what could be more fun than that?

[cjbowser]

If all the investigators are associated with a police department, have them arrest him. Maybe they're even given the opportunity to kill him, but there are too many witnesses or a tv camera or something that makes anything other than cuffing him a bad idea. When the time's right for him to revive his role as dastardly nemesis #1, have some minions bust him out of jail. The investigators will have a couple reasons. One is to save the world. The other is revenge for having escaped their jail.

[Faceless_One]

What about if the scientist is simply an evil mortal, until the actions of the investigators cause his death and return in a more terrible form than before? That way all later encounters with him, all the deeds he perpetrates, etc. are the fault of the players - they have recreated this mere mortal scientist (albeit an evil mortal scientist) as an unstoppable monster of some kind able to continue his plans beyond the grave. Each time he is defeated, he only comes back worse than before.

[GBSteve]

If your bad guy is an avatar of Nyarlathotep then he can't really be killed and can come back as often as you like. The PCs don't even have to know that it is Nyarly, until the end of the campaign when he reveals himself and his final infernal plan - which could be something along the lines of egging them on until they are forced to do something really gruesome to thwart him, but his plan all along was to have them make that decision and to show them that evil will always triumph in some way.

[ignem]

Well, one of your players has gone to Holland to live, so his old character is here and I plan to use him. His sanity had dropped from 80 to about 35, so I'm going to use him and draft him as a fringe member of The Evil Coven in Arkham, leading the investigators into their dealings due to his 'disappearance'.
I plan to make him gradually become an evil, twisted bastard. Should be quite fun, considering one of the other investigators is his nephew

[CAThompson]

For the average group of players (or mine, the below average) the life span of a villan within gun range is measured by his protection spells. To keep a villan alive then you need to either have a non scortched-earth group or keep him in the background/hidden/like Dr. Claw (you know a chair with a bomb and fake hand.)

Though the Ressurection spell in the will is a really cool idea. Otherwise there could be some kind of duplication spell, maybe this isn't even the original Dr but a duplicate or even a later clone (like Paranoia)?