McGuffin Help

[Baileyborough]

I'm really liking some of these suggestions guys, so far, I'm honing this campaign arc some more. Here's where I'm at.

- The stone is the cause of the first murder, when one brother (for now let's call him Cain) killed is brother.
- The stone wasn't the cause, per se, the cause was a girl. "Abel" fell in love with this dark haired beauty and in a fit of jealousy, his brother killed him.
- This beauty was overcome with sorrow and fled the material plane, eventually ending up to be The Raven Queen.
- The stone is wanted by Shivers because he is a collecter of Bael Turath memorabilia and believes the stone to be Tiefling in its history.
- The PCs are sent on a heist mission (Side Note: How do you guys run heists in 4e?) to steal the stone from some other NPC.
- During the heist, the stone becomes public (ish) knowledge and other people want it for other reasons.
- The peeps include: Shivers, who wants to use it to rebuild Bael Turath/destroy the remaining Dragonborn via ritual. Followers of Orcus want it to kill the Raven queen. Followers of Bahamut want to destroy it, and, by extension any people carrying it that they see as being corrupted by said stone.
- I'm actually still wondering if I'll give the stone any actual abilities, or what. I'm also wondering if I'll make the stone somehow incomplete, as completing the stone will give them reason to travel farther afield.

Let me know what you think or if you see any gaping holes. This is really helping!

 

[Unwise]

Sounds solid and fun. I would suggest against making the item incomplete though. I would just give it very specific powers and uses that take effort to use.

For example it could have a power of giving life when combined with the tears of an angel. It can reunite lost lovers that are unwillingly seperated, but only if you do a certain ritual that is forgotten. It can give you permenant necrotic resistence if placed on the high alter in X or in a ritual with the heart of a greater plague demon. It can let you trade your life for the life of another. Things like that.

The idea is that the PCs are the guys deciding waht they want to do with it and assigning themselevs the quests to make it happen. The power of the item is massive from the get-go, they just can't tap it. I feel that having broken artifacts is overdone and anti-climactic. I also prefer PC assigned quests to more railroaded ones.

The other thing about a suite of unusual powers is that it gives both good and bad guys many cool reasons to hunt for it. Lord Soth the lich-knight wants it so he can finally die and give his life to bring his wife back. A paladin of Bahumut wants it because it can track any murder and he needs to being a guy to justice. The Orcus cultists want it because it will distract the Raven Queen while they launch an assault, it might even kill her.

Excuse my spelling etc, I'm typing this on a mobile.

 

[buddhafrog]

Sounds solid and fun. I would suggest against making the item incomplete though. I would just give it very specific powers and uses that take effort to use.

For example it could have a power of giving life when combined with the tears of an angel. It can reunite lost lovers that are unwillingly seperated, but only if you do a certain ritual that is forgotten. It can give you permenant necrotic resistence if placed on the high alter in X or in a ritual with the heart of a greater plague demon. It can let you trade your life for the life of another. Things like that.

The idea is that the PCs are the guys deciding waht they want to do with it and assigning themselevs the quests to make it happen. The power of the item is massive from the get-go, they just can't tap it. I feel that having broken artifacts is overdone and anti-climactic. I also prefer PC assigned quests to more railroaded ones.

The other thing about a suite of unusual powers is that it gives both good and bad guys many cool reasons to hunt for it. Lord Soth the lich-knight wants it so he can finally die and give his life to bring his wife back. A paladin of Bahumut wants it because it can track any murder and he needs to being a guy to justice. The Orcus cultists want it because it will distract the Raven Queen while they launch an assault, it might even kill her.

Excuse my spelling etc, I'm typing this on a mobile.

Your forum name does you no justice. (must spread XP before giving to you again)

I agree about having only one item - shards are overdone and I think takes away from possibly a tight story. With shards, the story will be obtaining the shards. If you have only one item, the story will revolve around how the PC's defend the item, come to learn it's back story, and resolving it. I think it has more potential to make the players the center of the story.

QUESTION: particularly of the single item, how would you all suggest the PC's learn about the multiple powers of the item? Making it simply general knowledge from the start seems quite non-dramatic. Some knowledge could be learned through consultation with temples/historians, etc; some knowledge learned from enemies coming to steal the item.

Other ideas?

 

[Unwise]

Hmm good question, I think they could come from a variety of sources:
- Interrogated enemies (I liked that idea a lot)
- Epic sagas that everyone knows, but are rather poetic and useless. A little research is required to track down earlier versions of the poems/songs. Does the party have a bard? If so that works very well.
- Imagine the tale of Beowulf. Everyone knows it a little and it is easy to get a hold of. What if you found it was based on a true story? How would you go about tracking down the oral traditions and writings to try to get to the core of the truth behind the tale.
- History rolls, have them fail, but tell them that they can get bonuses from researching in a great library, like the one at *****.
- Wierd dreams that any Raven Queen followers get while near the stone.
- Occassionally the powers just manifest without the PCs doing anything at all. For instance, they find a murdered merchant. The dead guy suddenly speaks to them, telling them who killed him, then de-animates. With arcana/religion skill they can learn more about this power once seeing it in action.
- I just thought of another cool manifestation, if somebody touches the stone and they have innocent blood on their hands, their hands come away stained red. It never washes clean, no matter what they do. "out damn spot out!" It could drive them mad Lady MacBeth style eventually. Don't have this happen all the time, just once unexpectedly, so that they research that power.
- Maybe the stone holds within it the grief of a god? Maybe being near that gives people real palpable grief. The stone itself gives a vague impression of what must be done to set things right.
- Stories of Hercules using a special rock to smite the unkillable beast of XYZ, these stories all come up so often that the PCs wonder if their is a grain of truth to them.
- As the campaign progresses, it is a good way to get people to the Shadowfell to research with the locals there. Also Eladrin have the oldest libraries, so a trip to Mithredain is on the cards too.
- They should find out that the item is very sacred to Gruumsh followers. A bit of interrogation reveals that it might not be a bad idea to go talk to the orcs, they seem to know a lot about it. This can be great roleplaying, walking into a town of traditional enemies, earning their respect and convincing their shaman to share knowledge.

Oooh just side tracked myself with an idea. As you said, the stone is the focal point of the first murder and the symbol of the Raven Queens greif and loss. It is a great burden and empathically cries out for release/closure. Upon investigation, the PCs find that the Raven Queen did not just go away idly and become the godess of death. She became the godess so that she could be with her beloved. She has trapped what little remains of him and stopped him passing on to the great beyond.

She cannot bare to let go. It is however against the natural order of things, even for a godess to do this. It is against her appointed duties. If you play in a campaign where gods have contracts/duties that must be obeyed and fullfilled, this is a good opening for somebody to push for the Raven Queen to lose her power. It can also be used to blackmail her, as it has the power to release her love to the great beyond.

Also, if they have been hired to retrieve this item, how do they end up keeping it for themselves? I would likely have them succeed and give it to the tiefling, then go on about their lives, one or two adventures later, they come across him as the bad guy behind a plot, using the stone as a focas for somethign naughty. They kill him and retrieve it, having become curious about what it really is.

 

[Baileyborough]

Right, this is really picking up speed now...

So Shivers sends him to some other "collecters" manor to steal the stone. I figure I'll run this like a heist with various PCs in various roles, ie Bard is playing, rogue is doing some MI style stuff, etc.
So they steal this and it gets back to shivers. 2 quests later, Shivers is trying to do...something...(what?) with it.

I like the idea of random stuff happening. Any more suggestions for these occurrences?

I think that researching various sources, and the stone having various abilities depending on when, where, etc (Any more ideas?). My question now (answer 1 and 3 more pop up!) is how do you make something of the research, so it's more than 1 or 2 skill checks? (I have one or two min-maxers and a bard, so they'd make quick work of a skill chek or two).

 

[buddhafrog]

fantastic thoughts here. I was struggling with the best way to have the PC's acquire the stone. I think it must be something quite unexceptional at first - that will enhance the twists later. I like the idea of them giving it to the tiefling - only to find that he is the evil behind the next adventure or so. You could set it up early with the interactions with the tiefling about his purpose (grief of loosing his loved one, or one of the other attributes of the stone).

Any other suggestions on how the stone comes into the hands of the PC's besides this route?