Bastion of Broken Souls Follow up and the Magic of Incarnum

[the Lorax]

A while ago I ran the Bastion of Broken Souls. Now I didn't care for the adventure as it was a high level adventure designed in a very linear way, and the resolution to every question that the party had was combat, but the end of the adventure is memorable.

Anyway.
At the end the characters receive something called 'the Spark of Life', which grants fast healing and a 1 time freebie ressurection.

Now, for these epic characters, I am planning adventures around multiple BBEGs (such as Orcus, Demogorgon, Graz'zt, among others) looking for people with this 'Spark' in order to use it to further their own evil plans.

Now what I need help with is some ideas for alternate uses for 'the Spark of Life', and evil plans that bad guys will use.

 

[Horizon]

I don't know exactly what this 'Spark of Life' is, as I don't know the adventure in question, but there seems one obvious possibility to me:

Your favorite bad guy is collecting these sparks in order to bring someone or something to life. It might be he's trying to resurrect a dead god (done before, I guess) or grant life to something that's not alive, a construct? Maybe your bad guy himself is a construct (think an evil pinocchio) who wants badly to be alive. I don't know if there are many others (besides your players) with this Spark, because then you could allow them to discover that they are going missing etc.

NB I like your username and avatar! That's a book I've got fond memories of.

 

[DarrenGMiller]

This gives me an idea. Since Orcus is one of my campaign's prime BBEG's, maybe he would use the spark of life to beef his armies of undead. It would not bring them back to life, but it would grant the a greater hunger for the living, some increase in intelligence, maybe some DR/SR or some such thing, and and perhaps some power or addition to power to drain life from the living to add to their "spark." However, maybe this decreases their undead immunities. Using the "spark" to empower the undead, many minor undead could be affected without depleting the spark, but some of his favored liches could be granted whole sparks that could alter the way their phylactery works and make them even harder to kill. I will have to think on this...

DM

 

[Mercule]

I don't know exactly what this 'Spark of Life' is, as I don't know the adventure in question, but there seems one obvious possibility to me:

Your favorite bad guy is collecting these sparks in order to bring someone or something to life. It might be he's trying to resurrect a dead god (done before, I guess) or grant life to something that's not alive, a construct? Maybe your bad guy himself is a construct (think an evil pinocchio) who wants badly to be alive. I don't know if there are many others (besides your players) with this Spark, because then you could allow them to discover that they are going missing etc.

Wow! Talk about an interesting way to add warforged to an existing campaign.

 

[Morrow]

Tangent #1- I wonder if Bastion of Broken Souls would mesh in interesting ways with the upcoming Magic of Incarnum book.

Tanget #2- I might use BoBS someday. If I do the party might very well include an undead PC. Assuming said undead PC found a way to survive the Bastion (positive energy and all) and the party succeeded in their mission, what would happen? I can't imagine that a "Spark of Life" would be good for someone of the undead persuasion. I'm not sure I'm cruel enough to just say, "You're undead, no reward for you."

And now back to our regularly scheduled programing.

Morrow

 

[Horizon]

Wow! Talk about an interesting way to add warforged to an existing campaign.

Hehe, you hit the nail right on the head. That was exactly where I was coming from, though I didn't realise it at the moment I posted. I've been looking into Eberron and especially Warforged for a couple days and I really like the concept!

 

[the Lorax]

I don't know exactly what this 'Spark of Life' is, as I don't know the adventure in question

There is a review of the Bastion of Broken Souls here. 'The Spark of Life' is a reward that the characters get at the end of the adventure - basically the equivient of being in a minor positive charged environment such as being in Asgard.

Your favorite bad guy is collecting these sparks in order to bring someone or something to life. It might be he's trying to resurrect a dead god (done before, I guess) or grant life to something that's not alive, a construct? Maybe your bad guy himself is a construct (think an evil pinocchio) who wants badly to be alive. I don't know if there are many others (besides your players) with this Spark, because then you could allow them to discover that they are going missing etc.

NB I like your username and avatar! That's a book I've got fond memories of.

Thanks.

Resurrect a dead god has been done (and done again and again) so I'm staying away from that one.

A construct or the creation of perhaps something like a WarForge that cranks out Warforged could be an interesting idea, something like the gnome Colmarr in the original Neverwinter Nights campaign who made a potion making machine.

Orcus is one of my campaign's prime BBEG's, maybe he would use the spark of life to beef his armies of undead.

Not bad, and workable is this instance. In fact this is one plot that is already more or less in motion.

Tangent #1- I wonder if Bastion of Broken Souls would mesh in interesting ways with the upcoming Magic of Incarnum book.

Yeah, I noticed that too.

Tanget #2- I might use BoBS someday. If I do the party might very well include an undead PC. Assuming said undead PC found a way to survive the Bastion (positive energy and all) and the party succeeded in their mission, what would happen? I can't imagine that a "Spark of Life" would be good for someone of the undead persuasion.

This may well be the end result of the Orcus expermentation - ie 'Spark of Life' is bad for undead. (Vampires wont like the taste of their blood, and level drainers will be drawn to them like moths to the flame).

Thanks for the help so far, keep it comming!

 

[the Lorax]

I don't know if there are many others (besides your players) with this Spark, because then you could allow them to discover that they are going missing etc.

Doh! Missed this part the first time.

Yeah, there are quite a number of characters who were there. The kidnappings have begun and one NPC has been captured, one simulacrum of a PC has been captured and one PC has been captured. Another PC has been attacked, but escaped. I have LOTS of room for all sorts of off the wall stuff in this, as there are a good number of PC's who got and still have 'the Spark of Life' (some of them have lost it already).

 

[the Lorax]

Currently:

Graz'zt has one character. He's looking to siphon off the 'Spark' to try to transfer it off to his daughter. (a sort of For Duty and Deity plot redux)

An ancient powerful red dragon has one character. She wants the spark for herself - mainly because the character she has captured belongs to a family that she is feuding with.

Minions of Orcus have caputred a simulacrum of one character - they will quickly discover that it does not have the 'Spark', but the archmage who they are looking for is no longer in the current time, and he has left behind several duplicates to carry out his work.

Another character has been attacked by Drow. They want to make a magic item which would radiate the positive trait to aid their troops in battle.

Both of Demogorgon's agents survived the original adventure, and may make a return showing in order to appease their masters wrath at their failure.

Still, I'd like more...

 

[Turanil]

<...> (think an evil pinocchio) <...>

The great concept! Now this is something to think about! I am tempted to open a thread on that sole subject (but will restrain myself however)!