Harkon Lukas is Ravenloft's prominent werewolf (well, more Loup-Garou, but that's just a souped-up Werewolf) Darklord. Among the classic Universal horror monsters, werewolves have less of an iconic exemplar than, say, vampires with Dracula or even mummies with Imhotep. I can tell you that Lon Chaney played The Wolfman, but I could not tell you the character's name.
But werewolves are cool, and perhaps the most straightforward expression of the central idea of Gothic Horror - the idea of a monster lurking beneath the surface of humanity.
In the case of Harkon Lukas, that hidden monster is tied to the expression of art. A famed musician, Lukas seeks out recognition and adulation, and in the act that got the Dark Powers to take him, he enacted a political coup with the help of his devoted fans (remember that fan is short for fanatic!)
In his domain of Kartakass, though, he's cursed to perpetual obscurity, known at best as someone who used to be great, but isn't considered so now. To pursue his ambitions, Lukas preys upon others with talent and presence, seeking to insinuate himself into their success as a springboard to his own, but underneath this slick and manipulative behavior lies jealousy, resentment, and enraged frustration.
Sadly, the world of art and entertainment can be filled with abusers and exploiters. Humans love to express ourselves through art, and few things are as attractive (at least in theory) as being a famed artist who has inspired and dazzled their audiences. Not only does this draw a lot of people seeking credit for others' work, but it also allows abusers who can take advantage of the people who want so desperately to be in that world. We have, in the past decade, seen numerous famed people in the entertainment world revealed as quite monstrous individuals - I know a couple of artists I considered myself a fan of were unmasked in this way, forcing one to reckon with the positive emotions and nostalgia for their work and even the respect we had for them.
It's generally a good idea for any Darklord to have them start playing an active role in the story early on. For none is this more true than Harkon Lukas. But also more than any, he should initially appear as a friend to the party.
Now, a knowledgable group of players might just know him through meta-knowledge, and perhaps even in-universe knowledge. But I think that Lukas is going to roll out all of the charms he has available to him. For one thing, I don't think he sees himself as an abuser. If the party has someone who interests him (naturally a Bard would be a prime target, but it could be anyone else who seems particularly full of life, and probably younger and more naive) he'll do everything to earn their trust.
But (frankly like a lot of Darklords,) he's ultimately narcissistic. He will genuinely think that he likes the members of the party as long as he feels that they can do something for him, and offer real assistance without any explicit strings attached.
However, once the party, and particularly if there's a particular PC he's fixated on, starts to defy him (maybe they refuse to take his gifted necklace,) there will be a sudden change. I think that he will start off just by shutting the person out, disappearing and giving the silent treatment, playing the victim. If this strategy doesn't bring them back, it starts to get a bit more aggressive.
Indeed, I think that he might go out of his way to target other members of the party with violence, claiming that they're poisoning his fixation's mind, stopping them from fulfilling their full potential.
Now, at CR 14, Lukas can be a formidable threat even to a high-tier-2 party on his own. And I think that the real horror-turn here is when his possessiveness turns violent.
While part of his torment is his loneliness and obscurity, he would also have a pack of werewolves at his command. (I'd also suggest reskinning other lycanthropes if you wanted to vary their CR). I imagine that the people he curses with lycanthropy might share in his torment - perhaps promised with elevation to heights of fame, by hitching their wagon to Lukas', those he has turned are also struggling with their creative process and fame. The result is a pack of frustrated artists who resent others more than they engage with their own craft.
The prevalence of music in Kartakass, as well as Harkon's artistic design in the book, suggests to me that the whole vibe of Kartakass could take on a lot of Southern Gothic vibes - loud music, alcohol, and humid summer nights feel fitting for the setting. Like Strahd (though I only rarely see people actually play him this way,) the temptation should always be to empathize with Harkon Lukas, to feel like the pain and self-loathing suggests some inner moral core. But whatever truth of that inner life there might be, it's also being used as a performance to get people to let their guards down. As a born Northerner, I've got a deeply-ingrained distrust for Southern so-called Hospitality, and Lukas embodies more than anything a friendly smile shrouding a ravenous, murderous hunger.
Werewolves in 5.5E have had a bit of a redesign - the curse they inflict isn't necessarily going to turn you into a werewolf, but it makes you susceptible to this happening. I'd check in with players to make sure they're ok with this kind of threat to them - rules as written, getting turned puts you permanently under the DM's control and thus effectively perma-kills your character, though you could treat this instead as the reason to take on a Dark Gift (or perhaps the Lycanthrope Transformation from Grim Hollow Player's Guide) to represent this change, and perhaps add in some kind of compulsion to obey Lukas that might need to be removed somehow.
You could actually take some inspiration from a pretty great bit of Southern Gothic media from last year that also won Best Picture at the Oscars - Sinners has a music club besieged by vampires who wish to possess a young musician with magical powers (honestly, the character is almost exactly a College of Spirits Bard). In a similar manner, Lukas could wind up leading a siege of werewolves on a club in a very similar way - even the way that werewolves work now would re-create the manner in which the vampires in that movie turn the club's guests.
If you really want to amp up the terror of that siege, having a bunch of low-CR NPCs there to serve as lycanthropic converts if the party fails to protect them would really up the challenge.
But while that is an encounter I might even save for tier 3 (making individual werewolves pretty small threats, but numbers being a real challenge,) having the party face him on his own would still be pretty scary at levels 8-10. He has health regeneration as long as he doesn't take radiant damage (which might not be obvious to the players given that other werewolves and even the standard Loup Garou now don't have that) and he also gets advantage on attacks if the target has taken any damage.
Lukas is also built to shift between his forms frequently during combat, giving him a mix of charm abilities and raw damage. Lean into the surrealness and horror of these sudden transformations. You can also have him menace the party in beast form while he's friendly to them in his humanoid form to up the paranoia. Maybe he's stalking them as they travel across his domain, but not necessarily going in to attack - instead, his motivation for following them is to ensure that he's in the right place to offer them help and ingratiate himself.
This is a Darklord that I think would be a real challenge to play - but it might be a really fun challenge for your acting skills to play the different subtle layers of his persona. He's also beefy enough and powerful enough that you can back up the menace hiding underneath the surface with stats that make him nearly as powerful a combatant as Strahd.
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