Zakos in (non-computer) RPGs (1 Viewer)

[wj1905]

So I did not see a thread for this, but plenty of modern and old Role-playing Games, especially adventures, have a lot of female enemies. Modern ones moreso due to the whole equal rights thing gaining ground, and some of these books have nice artwork of these various villains and henchwomen too. :)
I'm gonna be mostly posting from Pathfinder books here - and yeah, I know, some of them would not be considered zakos as they are named and have some plots and plans, or are sub-bosses or main villains of an adventure. But in the long term, all of these girls are just disposable enemies your characters meet and overcome. I do like that Pathfinder books are mostly pretty flexible about player alignment and behaviour, so most zakos have details in their entry about morale (some fight to the death, others try to flee if severely wounded, or might betray their employer or surrender) - and it depends on the player's what their ultimate fate is.

Here are some of the human or humanoid (elf, dwarf, halfling) ones. If you see a few that look like good guys, then yeah, you aren't mistaken - the various Reclamation Army grunts and paladins are from an adventure specifically written for evil player characters.




Here are some non-human ones, of which are many types - orcs, hobgoblins, various demonesses (especially succubi, erinyes, pairaka divs, mariliths and erodaemons), medusae, harpies, merfolk, vampires, lamiae and the like.
If you are interested in a character, ask me - I am likely to know the backstory or the type of creature she is.

 

[wj1905]

Added some more characters to the first post.

Also, I think these girls deserve a bit more attention and backstory... and I wish someone would draw R34 of them! I am talking about Korvosa's Gray Maidens.
They appear in the second ever adventure, Curse of the Crimson Throne - it was re-released with new art, and the Maidens were popular enough to appear in other adventures too. Basically, they are the troops of the new evil ruler of Korvosa, Queen Ileosa who poisoned her husband and got the power of an ancient dragon demigod. She is super vain and selfish, and hence, recruited strong and beautiful female fighters and cavaliers, who are initated into the service by a cruel training that subdues their personalities and impresses the Queen's superiority on them - they are also ritually scarred on their faces ('cause she can be the only pretty one). Regardless they are very loyal to her as afterwards they get to pretty much run the city and abuse the citizens as they like - so most of them are Lawful Evil, some just Lawful Neutral.
They all wear form-fitting and sexy, yet not revealing and really practical full plate armor with helmets that cover all their faces. I am not kidding when I say this is one of my favorite female armor types - sexy and shows off their shapely forms, but also not anime-style stupidly revealing metal bikini or "boob-sock" armor.
There are plenty of these girls as enemies during the campaign, some named, most nameless and faceless. When we are shown some of them helmetless, they usually have scarred faces or missing ears. Some of them can be redeemed, especially Sabina Merrin the Queen's right hand who slowly sees how she serves a monster and decides to help you.


Plenty of battle scenes too, with them fighting and dying.

 

[Deleted member 687]

Added some more characters to the first post.

Also, I think these girls deserve a bit more attention and backstory... and I wish someone would draw R34 of them! I am talking about Korvosa's Gray Maidens.
They appear in the second ever adventure, Curse of the Crimson Throne - it was re-released with new art, and the Maidens were popular enough to appear in other adventures too. Basically, they are the troops of the new evil ruler of Korvosa, Queen Ileosa who poisoned her husband and got the power of an ancient dragon demigod. She is super vain and selfish, and hence, recruited strong and beautiful female fighters and cavaliers, who are initated into the service by a cruel training that subdues their personalities and impresses the Queen's superiority on them - they are also ritually scarred on their faces ('cause she can be the only pretty one). Regardless they are very loyal to her as afterwards they get to pretty much run the city and abuse the citizens as they like - so most of them are Lawful Evil, some just Lawful Neutral.
They all wear form-fitting and sexy, yet not revealing and really practical full plate armor with helmets that cover all their faces. I am not kidding when I say this is one of my favorite female armor types - sexy and shows off their shapely forms, but also not anime-style stupidly revealing metal bikini or "boob-sock" armor.
There are plenty of these girls as enemies during the campaign, some named, most nameless and faceless. When we are shown some of them helmetless, they usually have scarred faces or missing ears. Some of them can be redeemed, especially Sabina Merrin the Queen's right hand who slowly sees how she serves a monster and decides to help you.

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Plenty of battle scenes too, with them fighting and dying.
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Honestly, heavy boob armour like that is worse than bikini armour. If you fall forward, you will more than likely crack your sternum.

 

[wj1905]

Honestly, heavy boob armour like that is worse than bikini armour. If you fall forward, you will more than likely crack your sternum.

Well, I am no woman, but I assume not having room for boobs under the armor and flattening them under it must be rather painful as well. :P

 

[Weoooo]

There's a bunch of old modules that I think I remember there being some good henchwomen in. There's a 2nd ed one where a group of 4 succubi are disguised as adventurers, and it was always left up in the air as to how the encounter would go. The got a whole page to show off what they looked like, too.
I'm sure that stuff is still hiding out, somewhere.
For some reason Pathfinder thought the best thing to put on their cover about angels was one killing a bunch of unarmed basically naked succubi, cause that looks heroic? Well, whatever

 

[Deleted member 687]

Well, I am no woman, but I assume not having room for boobs under the armor and flattening them under it must be rather painful as well. :P

You should have something like a bubble over them and have something like a bra in there keeping them still. Basically a real life armour carapace

 

[wj1905]

There's a bunch of old modules that I think I remember there being some good henchwomen in. There's a 2nd ed one where a group of 4 succubi are disguised as adventurers, and it was always left up in the air as to how the encounter would go. The got a whole page to show off what they looked like, too.
I'm sure that stuff is still hiding out, somewhere.
For some reason Pathfinder thought the best thing to put on their cover about angels was one killing a bunch of unarmed basically naked succubi, cause that looks heroic? Well, whatever
View attachment 75732

Yeah, I too find that rather unheroic...
I gotta do the Wrath of the Righteous adventure path too, lot of sexy female demons - succubi, mariliths, shadow demons, etc in that.

 

[Drizzt78]

Something that impressed me back in the day - in the 3d edition module "Shackled City" (which generally has a good mix of random male and female enemies) the PCs are attacking a bandit lair, and male+female bandit couple join the fight late, still half-naked, having been caught while otherwise engaged. Some AAR I can't find at the moment stated the groups archer specifically aimed at the female bandits bare breasts.

Not quite Zako, but one of the major bad girls of that adventure, Triel Eldurast, might be met by the PCs while lounging naked in her bath, and try to drown them or be drowned in turn.

 

[wj1905]

Some more female enemies from the newest Pathfinder Adventure path. Names/classes in the file name.

 

[Tigey]

Drizzt78 said:

Something that impressed me back in the day - in the 3d edition module "Shackled City" (which generally has a good mix of random male and female enemies) the PCs are attacking a bandit lair, and male+female bandit couple join the fight late, still half-naked, having been caught while otherwise engaged. Some AAR I can't find at the moment stated the groups archer specifically aimed at the female bandits bare breasts.

Not quite Zako, but one of the major bad girls of that adventure, Triel Eldurast, might be met by the PCs while lounging naked in her bath, and try to drown them or be drowned in turn.

I remember stumbling upon this a couple of years ago. It was a pretty cool scene that a couple of people noticed and wrote about.

I think the story you are thinking of is at page 132 here:
http://lazybones18.tripod.com/shackledcity.pdf

This link also has a pretty cool depiction of the couple in question. It doesn't start until a fair way down, try searching for either 'Msg #36' or 'Bria':
View RPoL: Shackled City - Durantis of Welstar - CHAPTER 3: Flood Season by DM (group 0)

 

[wj1905]

The latest Pathfinder adventure path, Return of the Runelords, has quite a few sexy female enemies...

Lullaby Vancaskerkin - a bard sub-commander of the local "forest tax collectors" aka bandits. She is cheerful and isn't evil, has some backstory about an disgraced family, you gotta wonder why someone with such a pretty face and quite the charm (she is a bard after all) ended up a bandit.

Corstela Rostrata - she is a mage with epic cleavage who runs a local secret society trying to unearth some ancient (and dangerous) lore. Evil, but not fully a bad sort, she is under the influence of a magic sword.

Order Philosopher - monk ladies (and guys) learning from and protecting Corstela, they fight to the death in her defense.

Jana "Gold" Gildersleeves - daughter of the banished ex-governor, she founded a local gang to eventually prove her innocence (quite a strange idea) but it was taken from her by a monster. Not necessarily an enemy, also not evil but chaotic neutral.

I saved the best for last - Horned Fang Bruiser gals, parts of the Jana's gang. Amazing look, love the sexy yet practical leather armor, and the scarred muscled limbs revealed.

 

[wj1905]

So I read some Starfinder adventures, and maaaan, these sci-fi Pathfinder stories are full of some great zako material.
Particularly the Azlanti Empire. Basically imagine a haughty, xenophobic empire which is severely speciesist, holding humans as the most advanced race in the universe. Or rather Azlanti, as they were basically descended from the humans of the ancient Azlanti empire from Pathfinder who teleported to another planet and conquered a mighty empire from there. All of the azlanti you meet in these adventures are utterly convinced of their superiority and even their novice cadets are lawful evil and abuse conquered races, even other humans whom they hold impure.
And funniest, their uniforms are literally based on Zakos, that is, those green one eyed mechs from Gundam - they are form-fitting green techno armor with faceless helmets and one eye. Technomancers and leaders do wear more formal wear though.
Here are some azlanti gals!



The second adventure is more something like a cross of Hellraiser and Evil Dead, and you will mostly be fighting unfortunate guards, workers and guests at a resort corrupted by shadowy powers (though they seem to be incurably evil-ified). Also you will later be fighting some corporate assassins (one of whom disguised herself as a singer), many of whom female, and the shadowy fiends behind the plot heavily based on cenobites, the velstracs. Must say I love the uniform and the close-cropped hair of the resort guards, remind me of delmos. :)

 

[osw]

I remember stumbling upon this a couple of years ago. It was a pretty cool scene that a couple of people noticed and wrote about.

I think the story you are thinking of is at page 132 here:
http://lazybones18.tripod.com/shackledcity.pdf

This link also has a pretty cool depiction of the couple in question. It doesn't start until a fair way down, try searching for either 'Msg #36' or 'Bria':
View RPoL: Shackled City - Durantis of Welstar - CHAPTER 3: Flood Season by DM (group 0)

Mole saw the dwarf’s situation, and was already rushing to his aid. She tumbled around the edge of the battle behind one of the rogues, flanking her as she came smoothly back to her feet. The woman saw her coming and tried to adjust, bringing her rapier around into a defensive stance. But Mole was faster, using the momentum of her roll to power her thrust as she stabbed her sword deep into the woman’s leg. She screamed and fell backward, barely keeping her feet as she staggered back from the melee. Mole let her go, instead turning toward the second rogue, who had spun back from Arun and shifted to face her. “You won’t find me such easy prey, little one,” he said, spinning the tip of his rapier through the air before lunging forward toward her. The injured woman rogue fell against a nearby table, using it to support her weight as she hurriedly wrapped her sash around the bloody wound. Instead of fleeing the battle, she unslung her bow—a mistake, as it turned out, as Zenna’s crossbow bolt sank into her chest, dropping her.

Arun faced off against the two remaining fighters, holding them at bay with sweeps of his hammer, defecting their attacks with his shield. The seriousness of their situation was beginning to set in through the haze of alcohol, but they also knew that their foe was grievously hurt, each step the dwarf made leaving a patter of blood in his wake. Near the double doors, another curtain fronting another of the private dining alcoves was flung open, and another pair of bandits lurched into the common room. The reason for the delay seemed pretty obvious as the man was still fastening the draws of his trousers as he entered the room, and the woman’s shirt was half-open, revealing a single white breast. Neither was armored, but their weapons were out, the man with a longsword and the woman with a rapier, and they quickly rushed toward the fray.

“Bria!” shouted the rogue facing Mole. “Get Tongueater!” In response, the open-shirted woman veered away from the melee, making for one of the doors that exited the common room for other parts of the roadhouse. She only made a few steps, however, before a shaft streaked across the room, catching her hard in the side. Without armor to stop it, Dannel’s arrow bit deep, throwing her against the bar. She gritted her teeth and actually started to move forward again before a second arrow hit her squarely in the throat, ending the matter quite decisively.

The alchemical substance poured through the crevices in her armor, searing the evil woman’s flesh mercilessly. Triel screamed, twisting her body in a vain attempt to avoid the clinging flames. She dropped her flail, but clutched onto the wand in her hand like a lifeline. The wooden shaft began to glow with a soft blue light, offering the reassuring power of healing energy. “No, I don’t think so,” Dannel said, ramming his sword into her body. Triel stiffened. The wand and its promise of life fell from her hand. She reached up and managed to pull her helmet from her head; the heavy metal fell to the ground with a clatter, revealing her once-beautiful features scorched and ruined by the flames. With her other hand she reached out and clasped the elf on the shoulder, using him to hold her standing even as blood poured out over the elf’s blade embedded in her gut. “Go... to... hell...” she muttered, and fell, lifeless, to the ground.