Immortality thru evil pact (Help needed)

[Winternight]

HI,
I have a more or less cool idea:
A guy made a pact with an evil entity. He gets immortality but has to sacrifiece his first born male.
To do this. He slips into the body of the son and let the sun occupy his body then he slains the son (his old body) and lives another 30 or so years until he aggain slay his son.
(THere are wonderful sideplot where his sun did alread sire a son and he has to find his true heir or he just sire daughters... - evil beeings beeing nasty)
But my problem is how can I put this into a adventure.
THe players already know, that the father of the baron was slain.
maybe he gets cocky and wmploy the PC as investigators for the murder of his father.
How can the PC find out the hideous truth?
Thanx

 

[arwink]

Okay, assuming I've read that right, heres some ideas:

Someone else already knows that this transfer is going on, so he shows up Van Helsing style and hunts the possessor in every incarnation.

Transforming bodies doesn't necessarily mean that he changes personality. A quick search of the families timeline reveals that all the Barons have turned strangely crazed and senile before their deaths, while thier sons have become suddenly worldwise and serious within days of taking the throne.

Depending on the age of the son when the transfer takes place (I'm assumintg at least early teens, if not later), then the PC's may already have met and befriended the son. When they go to visit, and he's vague or acts differently, Pc's are naturally going to be suspicious and investigate.

If the process requires a ritual, they may well stumble accross the ritual chamber or some other record of the events. You might also include the ghosts of infant children here, if that's the age at which this happens. A room with dozens of murdered babies, all floating around in ghost form, should freak out anyone.

The baron and the son are doing this, but I'm assuming that there are still mothers for all of these children. Assuming one of them survives after learning about the process, they may object and help PC's put a stop to it.

Divine intervention - either an angel, or a demon who feels that the deal is no longer worth maintaining, lest something slip so the PC's go headhunting.

 

[Sharack Bladestorm]

PC's meet the son prior to the event?

Heya,

Perhap the mother (or a grandmother, having seen this happen once or twice) begins to sense what the villian is up to. She finds a way to warn the first son to flee prior to the Baron doing the transfer itself. The son runs to the PCs for help. To all outward appearances (that is, to the public at large) the Baron is sane and everything is normal. The son and the players have to find a way to unearth the past transfers and bring them to light before the Baron and his troops/followers/helpers get to them....

Ciao,
Sharack

 

[oliverhenshaw]

The baron has been doing this for quite a few years, right? So maybe he's unlikely to do anything that will obviously incriminate him and has got quite good at fooling his wives/mothers.

But the complication that undoes him this time could be, like you said, the former Baron could already have a child of his own, before his possession by tha villian. And the villian is dying, either from a poison he administered to himself before trying to make the switch (and failing!) or because he did make the switch to his son, but it won't last much longer.)

One possibility is that he was conceived somewhere far away, during the travels of the original occupant (or even during the villains occupancy).

A better idea may be that the Baron may have a son in the town he does not know about. And after trying to make the switch with his legitimate son, realises he only has a limited amount of time to find his real first-born (for the reason above).

So his panic may give the PCs the lead-in to the adventure. The baron calls a census (and what's the reaction gonna be amongst the poor and dispossessed)? The baron starts paying visits to his former mistresses? The real first-born is/knows one of the PCs?

For extra complications, this could all be at the instigaton of the demon who made the original pact. He could be (directly or indirectly) be protecting the first-born or could have put him into a situation that would be difficult for the villian.

Hope this sparks some ideas, anyway.