Here are the following important plot points I can think of, that I might work in somehow. Key names are highlighted. First, the short version, then the expanded explanation.
Names of key PCs: Rivereye (dead psion, killed by Shaaladel, back alive after an epiphany). Fayne (Elvish ranger, hates Shaaladel). Rantle (human fighter, wants to marry Shaaladel's daughter Shalosha). Whim (friend of Rivereye's, tried to kill Shaaladel, was himself killed).
Names of key NPCs: Shaaladel (Elvish Emperor, doing of Bad Things, racist, opposed to Rantle marrying his daughter). Shalosha (Shaaladel's daughter, loves Rantle). 41 (EVIL immortal psion, trapped in an extradimensional space). The Mother of Dreams (psionic dragon, sleeping, her dreams are monsters).
Short synopsis: There's strange psionic energy afoot, enough to let me run a session that's sort of a subconscious reflection of the state of affairs. 41 could be messing with the party's heads, even from a different dimension. I want the basic plot to involve the wedding of Rantle and Shalosha, and I also want it to reveal all the secrets of Fayne's backstory, to make the rest of the PCs join with her to try to stop Shaaladel. Once they wake up, of course.
- Unstable Mindscapes: One PC, Rivereye Badgerface, a blue goblin psion, recently returned from the dead. He'd been killed off by a rival of the party, Elvish Emperor Shaaladel, and his soul was placed in a gem for later use. The gem was lost, and over several months, the psion's soul regathered his power and reformed his body, now out of crystal. He's a metacreative psion, so I'm thinking that the events of the next session could be partially dream-sequence, partially real, manifested matter. Plus, I recently cracked open my copy of Mindscapes again.
- The Temple of Echoed Souls: There are two other biggie psionic plot points. The first is The Temple of Echoed Souls, where a properly trained psion can tap the souls of anyone on the planet, granting great access to knowledge. This is very draining, though. The former master of the Temple was simply known as 41, and he figured out how to use the Temple to channel his powers outward, basically letting him screw with the minds of people anywhere in the world. The big catch was that 41 was immortal. He could be hacked to pieces, but he'd just come back to life eventually.
After Rivereye died the first time, the player's next character was a gnome ranger named Whim Wanderleaf. His oddest magic item was a bag of holding in the form of a tattoo on his chest; a tattoo of a treasure chest (*small note; in my game, you don't cause a rift in spacetime when you put a bag of holding inside another bag of holding). The party fought 41 not long after Whim joined the group, and after narrowly managing to defeat the evil psion, the only way they could come up with on short notice to stop him from regenerating was to toss a flaming dagger into the Chest of Holding, along with all the pieces of 41. Immortal 41 would be a huge threat if the gnome ever died and someone opened the chest, or if, heaven forbid, someone dispelled the tattoo, so they made sure to watch after the gnome.
- The Mother of Dreams: The other biggie psionic plot point is The Mother of Dreams, a sleeping psionic dragon whose dreams become tangible creatures that live on after she wakes. Long ago she fled underground to try to keep the dreams from threatening the surface, but eventually their numbers overwhelmed her, and they forced her to sleep forever, allowing the dreams to seek the surface, and freedom.
The party encountered their first dream in the second session, the psychic incarnation of Indomitability. They have since run into a bevy of other dream entities, some of which have been friends, others enemies. One PC, an Elf ranger named Fayne Rawnbeck is from a clan of Elves that once were charged with protecting the family of dragons that the Mother of Dreams was from, so Fayne wants the party to follow up on the clues they have and head underground, but the party's been busy with other concerns. Plus, frankly, Fayne's too secretive about some other events that have to do with this psionic dragon, so the party's not too trustful of her.
- Tragic Love: A few sessions ago, the party traveled to the battle lines between two empires, and spoke with the commander of the Elves, Emperor Shaaladel, whom they'd met before (he was the one who killed Rivereye). Also, Fayne hates Shaaladel because a few centuries ago he was responsible for driving off the Mother of Dreams. Rantle, a PC human fighter who's been with the group since the beginning, wants to marry Shalosha, daughter of Emperor Shaaladel. Shaaladel was at first opposed, because he's a racist and generally hates non-humans.
This was compounded by the fact that Rivereye tried to avenge the death of Whim, attempting to assassinate the Elvish Emperor. He made a very foolish mistake and was caught, but in a last ditch effort, Whim yanked open his chest tattoo, dumped out the bits of 41, and hoped that the evil immortal psion would kill off Shaaladel and give him a chance to escape. Instead, Shaaladel's wizard bodyguard power word stunned the gnome, and tossed him and the bits of regrowing flesh into a new extradimensional space. Sure, the gnome had tried to assassinate the Emperor, but it was a tenuous political situation, and Shaaladel didn't want to offend his guests, so he just planned to keep the gnome prisoner. Unfortunately, in this new extradimensional prison, 41 regrew and killed Whim.
The Elves figured this out and kept the extradimensional space sealed, not knowing what to do with the immortal psion. Shaaladel was quite pissed at the PCs, but when Rantle showed that he'd be able to help Shaaladel's forces stop a different, bigger threat, Shaaladel grudgingly agreed to join sides. He still doesn't approve of the engagement between his daughter and a human.
- The Current Situation: Unfortunately, Rantle and the rest of the party did not involve Shaaladel in the efforts to stop the aforementioned huge threat. In the process, Rantle got ahold of a powerful artifact that could help someone create an Empire if they wanted (* The artifact lets you teleport armies). Shaaladel, afraid Rantle would prove a threat, moved to ally with the other nation he'd previously been attacking.
When Rantle and company arrived back at Shaaladel's camp to deliver the good news that the bad guy had been defeated, Shaaladel wasn't there, and signs pointed toward Shaaladel being on the verge of turning against them. Shaaladel and his bodyguards (including the one with the extradimensional prison that held 41) have teleported to meet with a different army, which is poised to attack Fayne's people. And they also happen to be only a few dozen miles from the Temple of Echoed Souls.
Got that?
I want something comic, in that it turns the above situation on its ear and makes things silly. I'm thinking that the group, as they recover from the last session's big fights, will rest and sleep, and we'll just start off the next session with them already in these weird situations. For each key character or plot point, I want to do something weird, with the funnier ones being saved for the most serious characters. My group's pretty flexible, so I think they'll enjoy it.
What's the threat, though? I want it to be about the events leading up to the wedding, and I think the ceremony ought to take place at the Temple of Echoed Souls (not really, but it will in this dream sequence). The events should at first be rather inane, like preparing for the wedding rehearsal, and having the rehearsal dinner, and so on. Maybe the ring gets lost, or someone steals all the wine, or something.
The only people whose minds are really in this situation will be the PCs and two NPCs (Shalosha, and Rantle's sister, both of whom are with the party). Everyone else is just a figment of the dreamscape, and even the people who are really there will be acting on DreamLogic(tm), meaning I'll give each player some sort of note on how they should act differently.
As for the actual threat, though . . . I'm blanking. I know 41 should be involved somehow, but I can't think of the specifics. Just having the wedding reception attack the party seems kinda silly.
Whim the psion will have the biggest influence on being able to alter the world, because he's an 11th-level psion. Meanwhile, Shara, another PC, is a monk/psychic warrior, and she's focused very strongly on keeping her mind balanced (because she has an insane elder god living inside her), so she'll be the first one to see through the illusion. The other PCs get to feel cool by having either parts of their backstory revealed, or by having aspects of their character altered for comic effect.
Please, any suggestions would be great. I know this is a lot to read, but you guys are a great source of ideas. You really help me brainstorm.
