Touring The Great Wheel <My players stay out!>

[Ace32]

So as part of my current campaign, I plan to have the major villain attempt to rebuild a lost artifact from ancient Netheril out of component pieces. These pieces are assumed to have been scattered long ago and form some (yet unknown) powerful artifact usable to recreate a new magical empire, ya da ya da. Each piece could be a magic item on its own right, whether or not its current owner knows it. I was thinking the pieces would be disguised as gemstones of some kind. I am not entirely sold on this yet.

Anyways, I have always enjoyed the old concept of linked campaign worlds. So, I want to spread the remaining pieces (6 of them) across the old official worlds.

The question to you is, what are some really awesome characters and settings to possess these 6 pieces? Feel free to pick from any of the old TSR settings that were assumed to be accessible from the Forgotten Realms (where the campaign began) via the planes or spelljamming.

Some ideas I've considered are:

An amulet passed down through the centuries by corrupt nobles living in Ravenloft.

The false eye of a fiend warlord taking part in the Blood War.

A decoration on an hourglass sitting on a clerk's desk in Sigil.

etc.

 

[Shemeska]

An object embedded within a corrupted Rhulisti lifeshaped artifact, much like the grain of sand in the center of a pearl [Darksun]

A ring buried in a massive tomb on the prime material world of Ortho with the corpse of one of the original founders of the Harmonium

An ioun stone lying abandoned within the desolate Maze that contains the last (and most powerful) members of the Incanterium present in the Tower Sorcerous when their faction's leadership was mazed by the Lady of Pain.

A ornate clasp once worn by Shekelor prior to his descent into Pandemonium to search for the Labyrinth Stone, apparently lost prior to his return to Sigil and subsequent public immolation (roughly 5k years ago IIRC, this may or may not jive with Netheril's timescale).

A knife sealed within one of the unmarked stone caskets aboard the ghostly Ship of One Hundred that slowly sails the acid shallows of Carceri's layer of Porphatys.

A rod currently in the possession of 7th of the Karsite Hubris, a Keeper sorcerer and loremaster of extremely advanced age and power whose particular cabal of Keepers is searching for the remainder of the artifacts as well...

An orb held in stasis within a hidden trove of assorted magical items on Gehenna's 4th Furnace, deposited there by the now dead or imprisoned former Keeper of the Tower Arcane, Larsdana Ap Neut. The orb was originally given into the possession of one of her subordinates by a Netherese archwizard in exchange for the services of the trio of advanced nycaloths who in later years would become known as the Trio Nefarious when they led the seige of Myth Drannor.

 

[Ace32]

Those are some pretty exciting ideas!

The one with Dark Sun gives me plenty of evil ideas for ways to torment my loot-hungry adventurers. I imagine I might suggest kindly that they 'leave behind' their metal gear before they go after anything there...