So first of all I'm new and saw this awesome subreddit, and I thought I'd attempt my first post! I hope I do this right! But I wanted advice for a villain I made, as I want outside opinions on what their goals would be and the best ways to hint at them, foreshadow them.

The character is known as Exidia Bisparella (both fungal names), she is a druid of the spores from 5th edition. She is the evil character of my campaign, that the characters accidentally released from a sacred tree that is the storage place of secrets from a place called the Transpiring Woods in which one of the main characters druids comes from. This tree in its history was the place in which a famouse ranger known as the Wild Huntress, one of the followers of the Stormlord, slayed a demon lord, in the God wars. The tree was forever seen as sacred ever since, as the Ranger blessed the tree to make sure that the Demon Lords blood never ruined the beautiful area. The tree has been alive since then. This was later where Exidia a follower of the Fungal Queen was sealed away.

Exidia has been a nuisance to the party ever since, she has an altered version of simulacrum which allows her to create multiples. She makes another one every few days, and her "army" of selves grows. She knows the weakness of these simulacrum made of fungi is to simply dispel them, so she looks for ways to bring back her demon lord, the Fungal Queen (Zuggtmoy).

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Personality: Exidia talks about herself in the third person, this is a form of madness caused by making too many duplicate simulacrums, she speaks about herself as a collective, much like a myconnid refers to its "meld" I believe its called. Exidia also sees the characters (despite them being enemies) as "friends" for releasing her. So she calls them as such. She wishes not to harm them unless they get in her way. Which they eventually will.

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History: So far in our campaign, they have run into Exidia threee times.

The first was where they freed her, the druid and the ranger went in alone, with the druid leader, who was to shown the druid this place as she believed it would become part of her destiny.

The second was a clone (they didn't realise this till later.) She asked a "favour" to her "friends" to go seek out the Lycan Forest which had been corrupted by madness, and find out what was riling them up, this was originally a ploy to get rid of any problems she may encounter then appear once everything was gone to try and seek out what her fellow demon lords were planning. Baphomet (the Horned King) was planning to corrupt the lycans minds to break into an ancient temple underneath the Lycan Forest, where an angel resided protecting the ancient weapon Heartcleaver, which once belonged to the Horned King, the weapon known to be so sharp it could cut through the very planes themselves. (Use the Gate spell). In which the Lycans he had corrupted, would attempt to bring him back to the material plane. The party actually stopped this and even allowed the angel to move elsewhere to protect this weapon as here was no longer safe. With Exidia not knowing the whereabouts of the Angel, hope to get Heartcleaver was lost.

The third was actually in a jail cell in a place known as Glowmold Library, a mordekainen's mansion style spell which created a library and a whole abode, that was the home of the Prince of Deception Fraz Urb'luu, who in my campaign isn't as evil as suggested, he was one of the only demon lords not to be sealed away as he went "missing" during the god wars. The party found out this individual was actually in their party all long, he had posed himself as a lizardfolk fighter who had accompanied them from the start (the player agreed and played it really well for 2 years). The reveal was huge, but unfortunately badly timed, Exidia's clone was in the jail cell (hinting that Exidia was in the library searching for Fraz himself. He was in possession of a book taken from the Prince of Undeath (Orcus). This book, a book of Vile Darkness. Which holds the secrets of all the dark and evil things in the world. Exidia found a bargaining chip for this, she'd found a large room with a brain in the middle, this was Fraz' network, an elder brain he'd converted into his own mind, to allow him immortality (which he'd got from the book), should his body die, his mind could just be "put into" another host body. Exidia threatened to destroy this (with her numerous clones) if Fraz did not trade the book. The party fought but had to run and in the end Fraz traded the book for her to leave him be. She took this offer but was never planning to uphold it. Fraz dissapeared with his mansion and wasn't seen again, unknown to the party if he survived or not. But the prince of deception had tricks of his own, ofcourse he survived.

So now I ask all of you, what are her next goals? What would she search for from the Book of Vile Darkness. All I have so far is;

• An Assassin Vine (A reflavoured Spirit Naga) that was Zuggtmoy's pet during the godwars. Which resides in a corrupted blight forest.
• The blood of the original Gulthias tree, which can be used with a blood stone to track down the sealed away original vampire Gulthias himself.
• A spirit who became corrupt and betrayed the Raven Queen a (Soul Monger) (banshee) mix that haunts the Shadowfell.
• The ritual to become a lich which she will partake to become stronger for her Queen.
• The ancient weapon Soul Harvester, a Scythe weapon once used by Zuggtmoy to harvest souls.

Are there any others you can think of, and how should these play out?

Many thanks, and hopefully I've done this right!

Chains