Crossing into the Shadowfel

[Ambershanks]

So I've got DMs block....
For the life of me, I'm stuck on the next leg of my adventure. So I'm hoping maybe you guys can help get the creative juices flowing.

My players are in a desert world. They have crossed over into the Feywild, because they have found out that the veil between the feywild and shadowfell has cracked/broken, and all sorts of natiesthat aren't supposed to be here, are.
They have learned of the location of the problem. A town where 100 years ago a explosion of magical power opened a rift and let all sorts of chaos beasties in. they have been given three canopic jars which hold the spirts of very powerful mages, who can seal the rift, as long as the party can keep them safe.

And...that's what I've got.

I've got my adventures set up to get them to the town, which is a small port town on the river. I'm thinking of maybe having the jars stolen or broken, or what I'd like to do is somehow have the characters step over to the shadowfel.

Eventually, I want this all to tie in to the creature behind all of this being a nasty dracolich hidden at the lost city, south of the caracters.

I know this is pretty rambling, but like I said, I'm just beating my head aginst the wall for ideas. Any suggestions, ideas or anything would be really awesome!

 

[Quickleaf]

How about one of the mages cut a deal with the dracolich for more power (i.e. tapping the shadow power source), but when the haughty mage tried to renege on his end of the deal, the dracolich killed him and trapped his spirit in a jar.

This would be the least trustworthy of the spirits, but the mage's old sanctum (perhaps now in the Shadowfell) holds the secret to a great weakness of the dracolich?

 

[Infiniti2000]

- Maybe the characters HAVE to go to the Shadowfell to close the rift? That seems cliche, though.

- I don't like having the jars stolen or broken. Stolen is hard to do properly in D&D and it seems like a railroad almost (from a players perspective). Maybe you can do it well, though, just be careful. Broken pretty much screws the PCs doesn't it? I wouldn't break them unless the PCs themselves did something to cause it.

- Quickleaf has a good point on the PCs being double-crossed (essentially) by the spirits. Can the spirits communicate somehow? Maybe one of them can and encourages the PCs to get into the Shadowfell. Maybe he says it's the only way, though it really isn't, but once there the one bad spirit knows a ritual where it can take over a physical body. Finally, he can live again, thanks to one of the PCs! Lots of material here if this strikes your fancy.

 

[saethone]

the best way to handle it is to rewind a bit,

Why was the city destroyed 100 years ago? What caused it?

why did it take so long for the rift to tear?

who gave the pcs the canopic jars? what are their motivations

how did the wizards souls end up in the jar?


fill in all the holes, and it will make it much easier to figure out what to do next