Should I, or should I not (you be the DM)

[weem]

...Each one directs you to the next piece, and gets more powerful as each is put together. Add Weem's bit about the shards corrupting the current wielders and you have a pretty epic story on its own.

Thanks

There are a number of great ideas here to work from, and even some that have triggered ideas for me in my current game (not so much about the artifact, but some beastie ideas for sure) - looks like you have a good start!

 

[Thanael]

See the Planescape adventure Dead Gods page 69, second column, first full paragraph. “The weapon is the Orcusword, an ancient blade wielded by Orcus long before he created his infamous wand. Chant is he used the sword eons ago when he was still just a balor, and that he let his greatest servant – greatest proxy once Orcus achieved godhood – use it temporarily.”

After Orcus’s death (and partial resurrection as Tenebrous) the powers of the Orcusword are as follows: It is a longsword +3 (forged in the Abyss), and causes double damage on a natural attack roll of 20. On a natural attack roll of 1, the sword breaks. Note that Orcus has a link to his sword. The details of the link are unknown, but he feels pain if it is broken, enough to delay him for 1d3 hours from whatever it is he is doing at the time. See pages 69 and 115 of the Planescape adventure Dead Gods for more details.

from http://www.necromancergames.com/pdf/HistoryOfOrcus.pdf

So Orcus has definately become aware that the Orcusword has been broken. Maybe he set a few underlings upon it's trail which could perhaps beat the PCs to recovering it. Which later sets the PCs on their trail, whichin the end leads to Orcus/Tenebrous himself.

 

[Thanael]

BTW the Orcusword was apparently updated to 3E in the article "1d20 Villains" in Dragon #359.