Need ideas for new campaign in 17th c.france/savage solomon kane like setting

[Talonz]

If you live in victoria bc and recognize my nick, stop reading.

Otherwise, continue. Heres the pitch I just gave my old group, using savage worlds of solomon kane as the partial setting/rules system. However I have alot of my own pseudohistorical/supernatural ideas to spin into it. Im looking for more though!

The Pitch
Baroque France, mid 1600. Louis XIV is but a child, and his mother Queen Anne reigns as Regent in his place, assisted by the Cardinal Mazarin. It is a time of religious war in Europe, as Germany is torn apart and France and Austria use its lands as a theological and military playground. Meanwhile the Italian city states continue to claw at each other in bloody glory and Philip IV of Spain and his Inquisitors watch it all. And England, well....Lord Protector of the Realm Cromwell rules there with an iron fist. Beyond such realms always the Ottoman Empire threatens, a large and foreign threat.
But this is not our history...the Avignon papacy still exists, and rules the catholic world from its french courts and palaces. Rome and the Vatican is but a feeble and corrupt shell of its former self. It is not only a time of divided loyalties and faiths, war and strife, for even darker forces threaten man from corners of the globe best forgotten. The supernatural is quite real, and one must be prepared to fight back against all kinds of horrors, man made or otherwise, lest the world of christian man fall altogether.

Character
Your character is human, should be pro christian if not pro catholic, and needs a reason to be in or travelling to Marseille, a large port on the Mediterranean sea in southern France. You should build the character to be able to interact with one of four realms; military, street, nobility or academic.

So there will be things like vampires, undead, pirates (or both!) and lots of historical bits and swashbuckling I hope, but other than a possible big man in the iron mask bit towards the end Im stuck for ideas. I want the campaign to start with some characters on a merchan ship that gets blown to bits by a pirates cannons, but not sure why, it just sounds cool. I guess they were hired to do this or take something off the ship, so perhaps a boarding action? I cant have the characters win the day though, so perhaps the merchant captain convinces them to surender?

Anyways, comments and ideas on fleshing the start out and any other ideas for intriguing plot pieces are welcome!

Wonder if I should replace the christian references with 'western civilization' or something....although the religious strife at this time is ripe with plot possibilities too.

 

[Nagol]

You could take a look at The Shaman's campaign wiki.

Le Ballet de l'Acier | Obsidian Portal

He's doing a swashbuckling campaign using Flashing Blades set in a similar area in about the same timeframe.

 

[BluSponge]

hAve you looked at this? This could be just the thing you are looking for.

Alternatively, there is a guy running a Flashing Blades campaign hosting a solid chunk of his campaign on Obsidean Portal. Just do a search for FB and it should come right up.

Tom