Need Some Help Here

[Samnell]

First off, if you're one of my Tomb_Game players, or a prospective player for the same, DO NOT READ THIS.
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Alright, I'm starting up with a new group of PCs and for the first time in years I'm trying to do a completely original adventure for them. Original in the sense that it's not from some publisher, anyway. This relies upon some FR villains and such, btw.

Basically, I want to hire the PCs to retrieve a valuable book from its current owner. If necessary their employer will tell them it's stolen. He can't appeal to the local authorities because the book's current owner is a resident of the city's extraterritorial Red Wizard enclave.

The party's employer wants the book back because he's been instructed to retrieve it for his own employers, who the employer thinks are Zhentarim or Cult of the Dragon agents. In reality he's working for the Shades. The book dates back to their original stint on Faerun and holds some secrets of the Shadow Weave they don't want getting out.

I intend to get the party hired initially on the premise of just finding out who the book got sold to. Once they have that information, the employer would up the ante and for a reasonable reward would ask them to sneak into the enclave and steal the book back without getting caught. Once he had it back he would return it to his masters.

Where I hit the snag is that I want the PCs to eventually find out that the guy they're working for isn't one of the good guys after all. He's an agent of one of those nasty evil power groups. Then they can go after their employer and find out from him about the red herring that they did work for the Cult or Zhentarim.

Ideally they could pursue that thread for a while until they find out who was really using them.

But how do I let them know they're working for the bad guys (albeit to steal stuff from other bad guys) without having their employer (or his employers) totally tip their hands?

Maybe I should have them work for their employer over the course of several adventures before revealing things instead? I'm undecided.

Basically, I want to have the PCs (arguably good guys) think they're doing a good thing (restoring a lost family heirloom or something like that) that might just inconvenience the Red Wizards (arguably bad guys) and have them later find out that instead they were tools for another group of bad guys. I've figured out how I want them to be duped, but not how I want them to figure out about being duped.

 

[Psychotic Jim]

Whenever I need to present certain information to players but make them earn it, I always throw a (initially) hostile third party into the mix to complicate matters. Perhaps some human clerics of Shar show up to make the book theirs, sseing as they believe their goddess to be the source of the Shadow Weave. After a few skirmishes with the PCs, their employers, and the Red Wizards, the Shar cultists find out the true nature of the PC's employer's bosses, and try to strike an (albeit risky if not totally suicidal for the PCs) truce with the PCs to make sure the book does not fall into the hands of the Shades, who want to kill everyone, even human worshippers of Shar. Or after killing a band of the Shar cultists, they could find a diary that spills the beans on who is really calling the shots for the PCs. Initially most PCs would react to fighting the cultists as doing a good thing, but later they find out that their true bosses are just as evil (if not more so) than the Red Wizards or the Shar clergy.

 

[Samnell]

Interesting... I'm not sure Sharite clerics will work since the Shades are big Shar-worshippers themselves. They do have a cellular structure, though. That makes it possible that they don't know it's the Shades after the book, and/or they don't know the Shades are Shar-worshippers.

Wheels within wheels...