RB idea wanted.

[Cecil]

IMC there is a historical figure known as the Sarat. He unified a major portion of the campaign area, but received a message in the dead of night. He ordered his primary lieutenants to be ready to ride with him the next morning, told his barons to rule wisely in his absence, and informed them that he would return shortly.

The next morning he and his lieutenants rode off. Over the next thirty years, the regions obviously fell apart and vied with eachother for power/territory.

There exists a cult that still expects the Sarat to return--even though more than 200 years have passed.

Perhaps, with your character, he has. In any case, sprinkle a few "history" lessons like this around. Powerful characters who have dissappeared rather than obviously died. It will keep the player guessing.

 

[MarauderX]

Perhaps he has been polymorphed from something else when he was a child... like a fey or dragon or whatnot to keep him safe as well as pay back the church. Or perhaps just his sex has been reversed and everyone at the church is too embarrassed to talk about it.

 

[LostSoul]

Yeah, it's much easier if you play it by ear and then try and work everything in together. I had a PC who was a half-vampire type thing and he had no idea for a very long time - except that he didn't die when he bled to death, dreams about death and being awash on a river of blood, and every morning he would heal a hit point or two extra.

It was those little things that made the PCs wonder what was going on but didn't really change the mechanics.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Random suggestions

So the player is not what he thinks? Here are some suggestions on what he could be.

As one who would fulfil a prophecy

He is the mortal child of an evil god.
He is the living child born of an undead mother.
He is the human child born of a beast.
He fell from the heavans and was found in a crater.
He is the father of Death (kills any woman he mates with except the mother of death)
He is the human heir to the dwarven throne.

As one who is simply not as human as he thinks:

He hatched from an egg
He is made of wood
He was assembled from the parts of other babies.
He is a mighty wizards spell with a duration of 40 years.
He is an inteligent sword made flesh.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[Nifft]

Another Twin Idea: he's been in Faerie Land for the past 90 years (10 years to him). His evil twin has become the Lich-King of a powerful evil nation. They each hold half of a demi-god's soul.

Here's the kicker, and why the Fey saved the twin: for the purpose of magic (including magic traps), the twins are the same "soul" -- so only the twin can bypass the Lich's strongest self-protections.

Whichever kills the other can ascend to demi-god-hood.

-- N

 

[Ashy]

He's a she.

Seriously, I think that you should make him the unknowing carrier of some horrible plague. He is nigh incurable, but highly contagious.

You *DID* say a RB idea, right?

 

[WizarDru]

Hmmm, let me think now. There are several options here.

Let start with this one:

The character is an Eidolon, as per the Epic Spell of it's name. The spell, if you're unfamiliar with it, allows an arcanist of great power to create a simulacrum of themselves, but at reduced power. The act creates a temporary being that normally is basically an extension of himself. Now take it a step further...normally eidolons are closer in power to the epic caster. What if he's actually an Eidolon of a powerful ally of the church who's been imprisoned (such as the Imprisonment spell, or trapped in an anti-magic zone) by an evil force (such as, say, a Balor or duke of Hell) and the spell severed or disrupted. He's actually a fragment of a more powerful being, but is completely unaware of the fact, as their link has been severed. He may end up helping the church to rescue...himself. The church knows it, and protects him, but the 'adoption' is a carefully fabricated lie to keep him safe, in case his original is slain.

What else? Hmmm.

He could be the inheritor of some important or expensive legacy...in Sigil, one of the few places that powerful dieties have no touch. The church adopted him, but is powerless to send him to the City of Doors, due to the Lady of Pain's restriction on divine powers. Perhaps he holds the key to an ancient mystery there, the one Door the Lady cannot open....

He's a damaged Inevitable, who'se had his memories altered or erased by the church, to use as a sleeper agent. His spells are actually innate abilities, and labelling him as a sorceror was the easiest way to disguise them. His mission? To find an oath-breaker or some violator of church law.

I could go on. I got a million of 'em.

 

[der_kluge]

That Eidolon idea is an interesting one. I'll have to borrow my friends ELH and get some more details on that.

The Inevitable one is interesting, but this character is human, and inevitables are constructs, so that would be a bit of a stretch, I'm afraid.

I'm leaning on the Yuan-ti idea expressed above. Weird enough to work, but still within the rules, and just plain bizarre to boot.

My story, that I have thus far, is that some faeries imposed some magic on a Yuan-ti king to prevent him from producing a male heir. This magic worked, and the faeries watched secretly as daughter after daughter was born to the Yuan-ti king. But, because this particular offpsring was purebred, i.e., almost nearly human, the magic was not strong enough to contain him, and he was born despite their effort. So, the faeries stole the child and sent him away to a foreign land, where the church got ahold of it.

Why the Faeries did that exactly, I'm still toying with it. My working theory is that if they just killed the child, the Yuan-ti king would simply resurrect him, and if they imprisoned him, then he would just free him. So, they hid the child, believing that if he was neither dead, nor imprisoned that they would be safe.

But now the child is grown, and has just landed on the lost continent that he was removed from some 30 years prior. Oh, how the faeries will be in a panic once they realize the Yuan-ti prince has come back of his own free will.

Anyone can feel free to modify this in any way. Like I said, I'm still working out those details.

 

[Nifft]

The fey imposed the "no male heir" thing and stole the child because of the Ancient Prophecy, that spoke of the son of the snake being able to claim the Blade of Fate, a powerful artifact (or Staff of Fate, or whatever).

The fey want to turn him agains the yuan-ti, who will want to reclaim him (if they find out who he is).

He wears an invisible arcane mark (visible only to faeries in moonlight, or True Sight).

-- N

 

[Tonguez]

IN a campaign one NPC was a 13 yr old Ward of the Church who had been found as an infant. This child was also the vessel in which dwelt the warring spirits of a great Paladin and a Blackguard Lich who had clashed and aparrently 'destroyed each other'. The child had vivid nightmares in which the Paladin and Blackguard continued there nightmares and occasionally they manifested there own abilities (and skill at arms) through him.

The child was going insane and the PC had the task of 'saving' the child and determining whether he would become one or the other of the two possessing spirts or free himself of both spirits and become himself...