[Sorta FR] Does this idea sound any good? (All please read and comment)

[SurfMonkey01]

I've been tossing around ideas for a new campaign I'm kicking off pretty soon... the 3 PCs are starting at 6th level, and I wanna dive right into a huge epic event, but I'm still hammering out the details... here's what I've got so far, any comments or ideas would be greatly appreciated...

* Start off with a pulpy Indiana Jones-inspired dungeon dive through the lands beneath the Al-Quadim deserts, complete with a plethora of monsters and traps, of course
* In an underground temple, they'll meet the man who would be the Big Bad
* The BB is finishing a mega-ritual that is supposed to make him into a god, taking the place of Talos
* Something goes wrong, and instead of replacing Talos, the god vanishes and the BB gains massive amounts of power, making him apparently invincible and less than mentally stable
* There's a big empty space where Talos should be, leading both gods and mortals to attempt to claim his spot
* The PCs learn of some major artifact-thingy that must be assembled to locate Talos -- if he can be returned to his place in the pantheon, then the BB will no longer be invincible and can be slain

This is all still open to interpretation, but I would like to leave the Big Bad himself as I envision him at least... as I said above, any comments or additions would be great....

 

[gpetruc]

Interesting

Some suggestions: when the ritual goes wrong the temple begin to collapse. The players have a very limited time to get out of it before begin buried alive.

The BB remains stunned for a little time (let's say one session or two): the players think he's dead and are starting on some new adventure ... when they find out the truth (maybe give some hints on the way, such as a:
- an old, sick man approaches the PCs on their way to ... (the new adventuring spot): he talks about "smoke, noise and light coming from the buried ruins of the temple in the desert" he's got some strange magical disease (a side-effect of the magic gone mad in the temple) and dies before telling anything more.
- a cleric of Thalos two nights later has a vision, and sees the BB exiting from the temple
- they meet some horsmen fleeing from a village on the borders of the desert has been razed by a powerful man (it's the BB, but they can't describe him beacuse he was surrounded by a stong magic radiance)

Maybe the area around the temple is now wild-magic
And the characters might have to go back there to find something that is needed to revert the spell (a broken seal ? )

Also, you could find some reason for which the spell has gone wrong.

 

[SurfMonkey01]

Something else I just thought of

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I just thought of something else interesting, something that would give the players a lot to play around with... when the ritual goes bad, the Big Bad gets a massive power boost and Talos goes "poof"... who's to say that he vanished into the BB? Maybe he chose to hide fragments of himself inside whoever else might be there at the time, especially if they were against the guy trying to replace him... (this could also function as the disease that gpetruc mentioned)...

Then I could play around with the PCs being hunted by both good and evil factions, each for their own individual reasons

 

[Sagan Darkside]

Re: Something else I just thought of

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Maybe he chose to hide fragments of himself inside whoever else might be there at the time, especially if they were against the guy trying to replace him

I am not familiar with FR, but this sounds pretty cool.

What is Talos the god of?

Here is what I would do with the "fragment"- there was an article in Dragon some issues back about pc's making magic items by investing xp into a masterwork item. No spellcasting required.

Perhaps- having part of the god in them, they are capable of doing this.

The items would only work in the hands of the person who made them, but as word got out about this ability- many would be hunting them down to gain the power for themselves.

Plus- perhaps they learn if they establish Talos back to the heavens, them their items might not survive the transition. Do they begin to question their goal?

SD

Edit: Another idea is that anyone with a fragment, with a concentration check, can detect another fragmented person within 30'. This could be cool as the BB would be hunting them down to get their fragments, and could be either an illusionist/master of disguise.

SD

 

[gpetruc]

aybe he chose to hide fragments of himself inside whoever else might be there at the time

A bit like mystra hid part of his power inside midnight during the Times of Troubles (in the FR books)

Mixing all together:
two weeks later the PCs meet again the old sick man (that they have buried): he is now stronger, no longer sick, and has gained much power: actually part of Thalos spirit has entered in him at the magical catastrophe, and while at first his body and mind wasn't able to accept it (and thus he seemed to die) after some time the power settled down and slowly he became conscious again and started to find out that he had greater powers (that also allowed him to survive after staying some days buried below the ground)

Actually if you could post a brief description of Thalos (I don't have the FRCS manual here, I left it at home; I'll have it back two weeks later) I can try some other suggestions.