BTW, Black Heart players keep out! :P
In my years of DM'ing I've generally had trouble getting a group to meet regularly (as it took several years just to reach level 12), so as a result I never worried too much about an ongoing story arc since so much time would be spent rehashing anyway. Now though, I finally have a group that looks as though it will be meeting regularly so I am working on a story arc.
My thought is that the Heart of Haemnaethuun (powerful primordial discussed in Manual of the Planes) was buried in the world after the gods slew him. The gods then constructed a prison for his Heart so that nobody could release it and thus possibly resurrect him. As the campaign starts though, the Heart is starting to stir as its prison is being weakened.
The idea I'm struggling with is that I'm thinking the gods created a key to the prison which they then broke off into several pieces (one given to each god) who then hid their piece. My idea is to have the Paragon tier be spent largely tracking down these pieces so that they can then (in theory) fortify the seal to the prison -- the idea is that the Heart can be used as a weapon in and of itself. My concern though is that if I have them tracking down 4 or maybe even 5 pieces during the paragon tier it might start to seem redundant. Obviously I would be sending them to different locations with different monsters, and challenges, etc. But I'm afraid that this might end up as too much of the same.
To help mitigate this, I do have several different groups trying to accomplish the same thing and/or prevent anyone else from doing so -- including Vecna himself. So there would be the obvious issues of conflicts with other groups and what not, but in the end it still sounds like there's a certain amount of redundancy.
So, to make a long post only somewhat long, how can I alleviate this? Any ideas to keep it exciting/interesting? Or am I on a good track here? The party is only level 2, so I have plenty of time to worry about this, but would obviously like to start laying the hints in the road.
Thanks in advance for any ideas and help!
You can shamelessly steal the story from "The Fifth Element", starring Bruce Willis and the cute redhead. The "weapon" there is a key requiring an elemental representation of five elements (fire, water, earth, wind, and love - which is probably like the spirit element of the japanese). In any case, if you don't know the movie, I can recommend it for it's entertainment value 
The key element here is, that the group doesn't have to hunt for five individual keys, but for a box containing them. As it turns out, the four stones in the box are only 4/5ths of the whole thing, and that one of the party will become the fifth key in due time. The box changes hands at least once, there is a dummy case, and the stones themselves are part of a riddle. The major problem is to translate a fast-paced action movie into a long campaign.
I started less ambitious (I don't like the "Return of the big ultimate evil one" stories anyway), and wrote a story about merchants waging a secret war among themselves over a government contract for supplying the border castles. This turns out to be the first step in the uprising of a noble who wants to topple the ruler, and the campaign ends in early paragon levels. The shape of the first endgame is determined by the players - there may be open civil war, a diplomatic solution, or they assassinate or coerce the rebels into submission with some ploy of their own.
This scenario gives me many opportunities for linked adventures, ranging from intrigue, dungeon crawls and detective scenarios to war games, with many varied opponents.
Hey thanks for the reply. The 5th Element idea actually works fairly well for this. The different elemental types could correlate to different domains of the gods as well, thereby tying them in together. I like the idea too of making a PC (or even several of them) integral to reinforcing the seal and I think the players would definitely go for that as well.
I hear what you are saying about the return of the great evil one. That is a concern of mine as well as it certainly is a bit of a cliche. That was why I was planning on introducing several factions all with different interests. One faction reveres the primordials and wants to resurrect Haemnaethuun (perhaps at the bidding of another primordial), another faction is looking to steal the Heart to use it as an artifact of power (this seems right up Vecna's line), a third faction could be looking to keep the Heart a secret (ala Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), etc. The hope is to create a set up where depending on what the players choose to do, any number of different stories could emerge.
I'm also hoping that this could work since the characters themselves revere a variety of different gods, so hopefully placing threats to the churches of those different gods at the same time will make for some interesting interactions as well.
Sounds like it might be fun to put the players "in the middle". You have different factions, each with parts of the key and the players will have to decide whom to form an alliance with and whom to steal/find pieces for.
Bear in mind that some charlatan is selling keys too, so not everyone who says they have a key is to be believed and they mind not know they have been deceived.
Maybe the god has an input here too. He probably wants his heart back and him mind will be communicating telepathicaly at least with one group/player. Of course the players could be employed to stop people from messing about wiith the cage and so the adventure gets turned on its head. How do you stop a bunch of crusading LG paladins and clerics who are convinved they are going to make the world a better place by offing this god?
There are different ways of hiding keys, so I'm sure you could come up with different scenarios. A dungeon bashing would be an obvious one, but others might include entering a competition -(gladiatoral, a 12 tasks challenge or olympics) where the key (unbknownst to the owners) forms part of the prize.
Another part may have become incorporated into a royal crown/sceptre and the players will have to come up with a means of persuading the King to give up the sceptre for a new one. "...but Ademaentine is so out of fashion your majestry, try this shiny new one made from green - yes that's right, its from the outer planes..."
Going to go with what the first replier said - use the keys as a MacGuffin and just have lots of secret competitors seeking the keys, people trying to stop the characters (well intentioned good guys who use brutal methods (paladins gone wild!)), bad guys who want the item, and etc.
But if the characters manage to find all the keys or even a few of them this will make them a HUGE target. Those keys are meant to be hidden, if they are all recovered then that prison can be opened and the heart released - this would be very bad. You don't use the keys meant to open a cage to strengthen the cage.
As a character in this game I would immediately suspect foul play and dubious quest givers if I was asked to find keys to such a prison. All the bad guy has to do is keep an eye on me while I lead him right to where the keys are - I didn't survive to where I am today by being a fool.
But seriously, you find keys to get into something or release something - you'll have think real hard about just how having the keys would allow the PC's to strengthen and renew the barrier of the cage.
But if the characters manage to find all the keys or even a few of them this will make them a HUGE target. Those keys are meant to be hidden, if they are all recovered then that prison can be opened and the heart released - this would be very bad. You don't use the keys meant to open a cage to strengthen the cage.
As a character in this game I would immediately suspect foul play and dubious quest givers if I was asked to find keys to such a prison. All the bad guy has to do is keep an eye on me while I lead him right to where the keys are - I didn't survive to where I am today by being a fool.
But seriously, you find keys to get into something or release something - you'll have think real hard about just how having the keys would allow the PC's to strengthen and renew the barrier of the cage.
Hmmm, good point. I was more thinking about having the items be seals rather than a key per se, though I realize that's not what I posted. I think the problem is I'm still wrapping my head around it myself. Perhaps they are just looking for the items needed to repair the seal while the bad guys are trying to stop them and/or find what they need to finish breaking it. Perhaps the seal can only be reinforced through the use of powerful artifacts because the seal itself is so powerful (i.e. no ordinary mortal is capable of creating the seal).
Thanks for all the replies, these are a great help, keep 'em coming.
Alright, I think I have my head mostly wrapped around this idea now. The "keys" as I poorly worded them earlier are actually parts of an artifact (similar to the Rod of Seven Parts) that are each an artifact unto themselves but which combine to make a stronger artifact (i.e. like the Rod, this artifact will be usuable from Heroic through Epic tier).
The artifact was the weapon that was ultimate used to defeat Haemnaethuun, and is what is needed to reinforce his prison and/or defeat him again should he be resurrected. It cannot though be used to free him since its not a key per se. The artifact though is sufficiently powerful that after defeating the primordial, the gods broke it and scattered its pieces and the artifact itself strove to remain largely hidden. Most of the pieces will be hidden in such places where locating the piece is the easy part, acquiring it though is another matter altogether. (i.e. the King's Scepter, etc.)
Now my problem is conceiving how these pieces fit together (i.e. what does the artifact look like when fully assembled?) Additionally, I am horrible at names.
My initial inkling is to call it the Godstar and have the pieces fit together to form a star. This could work nicely as I was thinking of 6 pieces (I have 6 PCs for symmetry) so the 5 outer pieces slide into the center piece to form a star. It would essentially be a wondrous item. None of my PCs really use an implement (except for the bard) so I'm a little hesitant to make it a Rod or other implement and making it a weapon seems to pose problems in terms of fitting them together. Though I suppose the first piece could be the weapon with each remaining piece being an adornment (jewel for the pommel, hilt, etc.)
Hmmm, though now that I think about it, perhaps having it be a weapon that changes form (i.e. from a longsword to a greataxe, etc.) as each piece is added could be a neat way of having the artifact travel from player to player in the party so that each of them gets to use it (albeit at differing power levels). The problem I suppose comes when the last piece is found and then presumably one character gets to "keep" it at the max power. I suppose there could be a 7th piece which is essentially the wielder who must then become part of the seal (ala the 5th Element). When the time comes for the final battle, etc. the party must then choose who will be the wielder, knowing that it will be that character's last fight so to speak.
Anyhoo, sorry for the rambling, but I would appreciate any input on the idea. Is this too cheesy? (Godstar is fairly weak I realize, but I can easily come up with something else if I go the weapon route). Do you see any holes with the plot? Problems? I'd like to drop the first piece of the artifact soon, but want to make sure I have it thought out before I do.
As always, any input will be greatly appreciated.