DM needs some creative help with a player's "soul"

[krupintupple]

a player needed a new PC, and chose to be a human rogue, but wanted a tad more flair to her backstory. i suggested that the heroes find her in a long forgotten temple of Shar (FR), except that she's been there far longer than she thinks - in fact, she's dead, but has no idea. essentially, the PC is a necropolitan, from Librus Mortis, which is an LA+0 undead race. except, instead of a willing participant, she was caught while attempting to steal from the temple and then cursed into her current state. that's all well and good, and she's adjusting to unlife on the "outside" (the group estimates that she's been there for at least a decade), but she would like her mortality back.

now, here's the rub: i was wondering if i could stage a campaign arc involving getting the "soul" back, and tried to think about ways that it could be used. my first thought was that her soul was now powering some manner of terrible undead or construct near the temple, and they have to slay the beast to reclaim it, and then do some ritual, but i'm kinda murky anything beyond that. here's where i'm requesting your creative energies enworld. i'd consider anything and everything, but i'd just like to get a wide scope of what i could - or should - be doing before i decide on what ultimately will be happening to the PCs in such a quest.

 

[Empirate]

Since you're playing FR, the PC's soul will usually be located either on the Fugue Plane, or in Kelemvor's domain, or in her patron's domain. This alone sets up three possible adventure paths, as the sould would have become a petitioner. The PC in question could actually talk to her petitioner self this way! Maybe the soul doesn't want back?

Or if you want her soul not to have passed on, it's possible the soul has been used as cosmic currency in a shady deal by some fiend; or it's bound in a Soul Gem (with a Trap the Soul spell), dangling on the necklace of a powerful necromancer; or it has been 'used up' in magic item creation or similar (see Book of Vile Darkness); or it has become a vestige (see Tome of Magic); or it has been reborn in a new body; or it has been stolen from the Fugue Plane by outsiders, but has been rescued by a plane-hopping adventurer, and is now hiding in Sigil until its owner shows up; or it has followed the PC in question the whole time - but fusing body and soul together again is really difficult; or it has been captured by an advanced Devourer and is already almost gone; or it is in stock for sale at a planar trading hub's basest shop; or whatever.

It's more a question of 'what do I want that part of the campaign to be about' than one of 'what happened to the soul'. Anything can have happened to the soul - it's now a McGuffin you can use to move the party around the multiverse.

 

[krupintupple]

man, things just got more complicated...thanks for the deluge of ideas!

but yeah, my thoughts were along the lines of, her soul (mortality) has been corrupted into an undead monster, upon destroying, it would be relinquished, and she could try to reclaim it. however, perhaps as a twist, i was thinking that her former "life" as it were, could've been one of a very different person than she's starting to become. maybe in her past, she was a cold-blooded assassin, or something of the like? put another way, she's lost her memories and soul, but if she reclaims them, may they be a radically different persona and person than she currently is attempting to be?

 

[Rakusia]

well it would be cool if the soul is actually in the body but her memories have been tampered with so she could be an unwitting accomplice against the party?

 

[Noctos]

how long do you want this to take. i often sent the party or a couple members of the party on long side quests just because i could.

i like the returning to temple and having to deul with a battle to regain the soul. personally i would lock it away in some magical item and hand it to a powerful lich that he uses to improve his necromancer abilities. thus making he extramly difficult to kill.

afterwards i make the party seek out and locate a powerfull mage or cleric depending on what you decide the would be more likly to help. upon meeting the powerful npc he sends them on severall missions. both for things he requires to perform the ritual and as a way of getting him to agree to it in the first place he might want to to seek out and return to him some crazy spell book or magical staff.
after the group fights monsters combs mountian sides for the flower, gem, glove of ???, mystical water guarded by a silver dragon, exe......
you could have the mage/cleric perform the task and return her soul. or (if it was me) depending on powerful or how deep the evil liches hands were in the world have it not be a helpful mage at all but either a servent or maybe lord of the lich you origanally killed who wanted you to gather all this stuff for his own vial plan. at which point you either have him battle the adventures right then and there or bounce out and make them track his ass down.


as i say i could run with that plot device for months in a game or finish it up in like 2 hours.

 

[Pergentile]

The soul is trapped in a Soul Gem, and had been stashed away on another plane by a powerful enemy, who also leads the temple in its rituals. The players must go back to the temple and access a secret Gate to this other plane, where they then must defeat this opponent, only to learn the whole thing was just to lure a group of strong-souled adventurers to that realm to make it easier to steal THEIR souls.... They then learn after winning that the lord of this realm is planning something big. Epic Quest to stop world domination ensues?