I could use some help brainstorming (quest building)...

Jay, James, Dylan, Jon, and Zach, if you happen upon this thread, back out now!














With that out of the way, I could use some help brainstorming some ideas. In my home brew setting, my group is about to come into possession of a deck of many things. This deck will be a modified artifact level object. The magic item isn’t only the deck, but is actually a lock keeping ancient gates to the abyss that were once opened on this setting’s prime world closed. Certain villainous groups, however, will try and mislead the players into thinking that the deck is suffused with demonic energy that will cause an abyssal infection if the group does not destroy the deck.

This, then, is my question: what are some interesting ways in which a group could be sent on a quest to destroy an artifact? Obviously, questing to a volcano to throw the deck into the lava pits is out.

Most important question: what is the villains goal:

1: mess with the PCs
2: have the artefact be destroyed?

The villain wants the Deck destroyed in order to creat an Abysall incursion into the prime. The villain thinks that, by doing so, he will be able to galvenize the fractured factions of the world’s monotheistic religion into a single whole in order to beat back the incursion (with a little help from Asmodeus).

The villain is actually being corrupted and mislead by Asmodeus, who plans to use the incursion into the prime to either a) get the angelic host to finally intercede in the Blood War, aiding the devils, or b) convince a desperate prime to make a deal with him that would cause the whole prime to slide into Hell as a new layer, with all of its souls being fed into Hell’s war machine, if the Angels refuse to intercede.

Heh, starting with the obvious.
• Devils are unable to destroy the deck (thus Asmodeus must resort to misleading material creatures).
• Demons are unable to destroy the deck (or else they would already have done so, to enter into the material plane).

Why? What prevents the fiendish planes from destroying the deck?

Perhaps only celestials can destroy this deck? But the celestials refuse to do so.

If so. The ‘con’ is to get the adventuring party to wield some kind of celestial power − some kind of celestial artifact − that is capable of destroying this Deck of Many Things.

Ok. I like that basic ideal. I think that the way I want the Deck to ultimately be destroyed is some sort of celestial force that can teleport the cards into countless other planes (thus breaking the magical connection between the cards which were to have sealed the Abyssal tear in this particular prime world's cosmology). Any ideas as to what sort of celestial force could do something like that?

In order to destroy the artifact, one must cut the deck.

But this requires oversize novelty scissors crafted in the Mithral Forge of Flandal Steelskin, the Master of Metal, a gnomish deity and one of the finest and strongest smiths in creation. The PCs must travel to the Twin Paradises of Bytopia, cross the rolling terrain of Dothion to reach the Golden Hills, and delve the depths of the Mithral Forge to beseech the proxies of Flandal for their deity's aid. All the while, The Meddler Nebelun, gnomish god of luck tries to trick the PCs into handing over the deck to his proxies so that it won't be destroyed. As it turns out, while Nebelun has his own reasons for wanting the deck in circulation, his agenda will actually thwart the villain if the PCs give over the deck to him, though the PCs don't know that (yet).