The God, the Sword and My Empty Head (Help)

Well, I'll be DM next Sunday and I have no storyline yet.

So, please, help me with your storyline, puzzles, enviromental-dressing ideas.

Obligatory Presumptions:

1. The God, evil, chaotic... call him Azrai for convenience. He wants to kill Corellon Larethian. He wants the followers of Corellon (elves) believe their god was killed by humans or humans' god.

2. The Sword. Azrai needs special sword to kill Corellon. How he can achieve/create it? I want my PCs take away The Sword from Azrai. But how? Where?

3. Plane of Shadow. Azrai lives in the plane of shadow - dark reflection of real world. No one can reach it... besides Azrai and the ones with his bloodline (among them my PCs). How Azrai's stronghold look like?

4. Climax. Everything ends in the great battle at first material, where Corellon should be saved, and Azrai destroyed (if the PCs do everything fine).

What are gods? Are we presupposing that Azrai is statted up per a dread wraith, so the PCs can win just by playing smush the shadow, or that he's a GOD, and thus the PCs had better spend their attention trying to find/break the sword? (you mentioned Azrai should be slain in the climax -- maybe just set back?)

One idea is that the sword is not actually a sword, but a metaphorical one, which Azrai seeks to control. Seed the adventure constantly with references to the Sword (I'll call it Aeshatter, 'cause I'm a Phillip Pullman phanboy); they know that he seeks the Godslaying Sword to end the god of the elves.
Only, in the end, it's not swords they should fear, but words; Aeshatter is a scroll of wish tuned to 'commit genocide', killing off all the elves at once (and thus mortally wounding their god), or a gate spell which Corellon can't avoid, or Corellon's truename, or something similar.

One idea is that the sword he seeks doesn't exist, so the party is relatively safe.


Dressing on the plane of shadow:
It's obvious that everything is evil and twisted. The guardians of Aeshatter should be Shadar-Kai, or Drow, or Driders; something which evokes elves and-or fey, but is also shadowy and corrupt.

Use lots of environmental effects, esp. fog (night so black even light can't completely erase it), prolonged exposure to cold, and uneven surfaces (night so thick it clutches at your limbs).
It might be fun to have areas that are suffocating in shadows, which one has to hold ones breath to cross, or to have Aeshatter act as a lighthouse, causing the darkness to stream away from it (acting as very high force winds!).

Packs of shadow mastiffs or Yeth hounds *in the distance*, unrelated to the party, howling.
Endless flocks of ravens wheeling in bleak skies above.

Trees, of course, wave in a wind the players cannot feel, their dry branches clinging to the players as they pass.
The landscape as a whole, actually, shifts and flows in relation to some force the players cannot perceive.

Actually, it might be fun to have some area warded by a bunch of the really classic riddles with negative answers -- maybe even with the puzzle already disarmed and the answer obvious, like
Riddle: It cannot be seen, cannot be felt
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.

Answer: Darkness.

Riddle: I'm that which is seen only in darkness,
Swiftest of all, and near as old as time;
Day's distant brother; fire and faintness,
I light without shadow — can you solve this rhyme?

Answer: Starlight. (this is especially good as a ward over the sword itself, if it's a single point of light on the sea of shadow)

I exist but sometimes ignored.
I am forced to live on the floor.
I cast an image, though dark,
and follow my owner and leave no mark.
I disappear when the sun sets
And never be caught in any nets.
I will always forever lie,
Can you tell me what am I?

Answer - Shadow


Only one color, but not one size; stuck to the ground, yet easily flies. Present in sun, but not in rain; doing no harm, and feeling no pain. What is it?

(Shadow, of course)

And so forth.

What level are the PCs?

I like Lackhand's proposal of a metaphorical sword. Another alternative: Azrai needs to trick the PCs into forging a real magical sword, possibly by having his agents plant clues that this sword is the only way to destroy Azrai himself. Send the PCs on adventures to collect power components (a dragon's tooth, deepearth ore, efreet blood, that sort of thing). Once they've got everything together, Azrai's agents try and trick them into handing the sword over to their "champion of Good"; if this fails, they try to steal it. As a last resort, they'll bring out their big guns and try to take it by force.

Yeah, what level? I'll stat up a nasty monster if you want!

I like the idea of the McGuffin being Corellon's truename. Of course, I like it because it would give me a fun way of introducing Truenamers from ToM into my campaign...for only they truly understand what Mr. Bad God is trying to accomplish.

My PCs are 6th level.

Plane of shadow?

I used this some time ago:

in a building (tavern, hamlet, temple, inn, whatever) if they knock, a man comes, a normal human, just with somehow greyish skin... and black eyes sunken an inch into his sockets...

If they are actually interacting with the place:
other creatures (Cha 15+) actually have a shadow: their own, which acts as tough it was an unseen servant.

Twisted trees oozing whitish sap and which's bark comes off everyso often revealing some liquid akin to tar. Oh, and twisted plant-creatures come from inside some of these, shattering the trunk in the process.

The Sword. Forged by servants of Gruumsh to help him gain his vengence, this simple and aged looking weapon (it's been beaten about and nicked but is still a solid looking weapon) is an extremely powerful artifact of evil (+X Elfdread, Acidic Blast longsword). Gruumsh got upset with that particular branch of followers (no one remembers why, exactly) and smashed the mountain they were working under.
Unfortunately for Azrai, the sword is a) currently under a mountain and b) the sword isn't actually finished yet. It needs to go through a major ritual (dipped in lots of elf blood?) before it will be ready to slay the elf god.

The Set-Up. Azrai has a few powerful and influential servants that will overtake the divine communication routes, spreading the lie that Corellean was killed by {insert human diety or champion}.

The Heroes. They should be involved, at least tangentially, in all phases of the deity's quest. Either they are hired to ransack and raid the remains of the evil shrine or they run into the the groups that are hired for that task (friends or foes).
They should be connected with the ritual. Arrive too late, have a chance to head it off or something else; maybe all of the above. Maybe it takes place on the Plane of Shadow so that the sword can be attuned to Azrai and become even more potent in his hands.
Bam, you're now on the plane of shadow. There are some guidelines in the DMG for this plane (pg 152), which could help quite a bit.

Good luck. Sounds like quite the epic challenge. Especially for a level 6 party.

Where are the PCs in all of this?