Adventure idea: the self-made man

I'm currently working on the following scenario:

The PCs are approached by a Hound Archon from Goldfire, who asks them to track down some petitioners that went missing. The party travels to Goldfire and learns the the petitioners were all supposed to come from the same conduit (in my campaign, conduits are the way souls travel to their respective planes). The party traces the conduit and finds out there are no petitioners actually coming out of it, which logically means the problem is at the other end. Or so they think: if they travel the conduit, they are forcefully removed from it and thrown into the Astral plane, where they are immediately attacked by a group of Githyanki who apparently guard this conduit. After (hopefully) defeating them, the PCs go to their base and find empty prisons and well-made leather suits coming from a certain tanner in Sigil. They go back to Sigil and confront the tanner. It is revealed he is also a slaver, who sold the petitioners to another slaver on the Abyss.

The PCs travel to the Abyss and track down the slave trader, who lives on a particularly unpleasant layer called Sanguiritâr, a place where everything bleeds and is wounded - "criticals from edged weapons always result in limbs removed" will be one of the special rules here. The slaver admits he sold the petitioners to a Tanar'ri general called Gaurus, who lives in a fortress on the plane. The fortress, Dolus, used to be a garrison for troops, but since the Baatezu have no longer tried to attack this layer, it is hardly used anymore, which has also lessened the influence of Gaurus.

Dolus, a large, sprawling complex, is indeed for a large part deserted and for a part inhabited by various abyssal creatures who need a place to hide. The PC's find a petitioner, a young girl, who claims she knows where Gaurus lives. He killed and devoured her parents but let her live to, as she says, 'savour the memory'. Arriving at the central room of the castle, Gaurus reveals himself, as he is a Maurezhi who took on the girl's appearance. He traps the PCs and confesses his plan.

Long ago, Gaurus used to be a general on a prime world. He had, by proving himself in battle and by clever political maneuvering, risen to the top even though he was born in poverty. His downfall came when a conspiracy made sure he was banished from his country. He turned evil and became a bandit. A succesful one too, as he managed to turn several groups of bandits into an efficient army, eventually reclaiming his former home country by force. After a few years as a cruel despot, the man that was to become Gaurus died.

He became a Rutterkin on the Abyss. But again, through his own cleverness, he was able to rise and rise above his station. Quickly, especially for a Tanar'ri, he eventually incarnated as a Maurezhi. And even though at the moment it looked like he had no power (when the fortress Dolus was no longer used), he could see a path to more power.

At that moment, he discovered the story of his former life, and concluded, probably correctly, that he was someone who could turn his ambitions into reality, no mater what position he started from. This made Gaurus think - what is the thing he wanted to achieve most?

Gaurus admits to the PCs that he actually hates the Abyss. There is a reason, he says, the inhabitants of the lower planes seek to destroy the upper planes - it's because of jealousy. If you compare Elysium to the Abyss, which would you prefer? The Maurezhi actually wants to become an upper planar creature, one who can rise in the hierarchy. His confidence assures him he will reach the highest levels of power. Feeling no particular loyalty towards evil, Gaurus sees no problem in changing his alignment.

In short, he wants to become a lantern archon.

Which is quite a difficult task. Rather than becoming mortal again and going through the usual steps, Gaurus has found a shortcut. The crucible of light in Goldfire (the concept of which I changed somewhat to accomodate the story) turns worthy petitioners into lantern archons. To get there, he needed the soul of a petitioner who had reached enlightenment, the only thing that can help him through the maze that leads to the crucible. Under the guise of that soul, Gaurus believes he can enter the crucible and be transformed into a lantern, which is, in fact true - in my campaign at least.

Gaurus leaves the PC's to die in his trap - I'm thinking about setting them up against a Goristro. They should escape, and immediately make for Goldfire, where they follow Gaurus into the maze around the crucible. When they find him, they can reveal him before he enters the crucible. An alarm rings in Goldfire, and Gaurus is held.

At that point, he sets a back-up plan in motion and claims he wants to be converted to good. Astonishingly, his wish is granted and he is taken to Uroboros by an avatar of Jazirian. This avatar reveals that Gaurus' must first be punished for his crimes, which in this case means spending a thousand times a thousand lifetimes contemplating what he has done, after which it will be evaluated if his wish to become a servant of good might be granted.

The PCs have earned the gratitude of the powers of the Mount for making sure that in the end, justice prevails.

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Interesting scenes:

I like exciting, cinematic scenes in my scenarios (who doesn't?) and sometimes build entire stories just to get to such juicy parts. In this scenario, I'm particularly looking forward to:

- The battle with the Githyanki, which should be fast and confusing as the PCs need to adapt quickly to the Astral.

- The tanner's workshop in Sigil is a large, dirty manor where stinking hides are hanging to dry in a huge hall. The tanner is a clever rogue who runs from room to room, harassing the PC's.

- The Fortress Dolus will be a classic dungeon crawl, with different types of Tanar'ri, perhaps a Bodak, some Abyssal Ants and any lower-planar creature that can be found in deserted places of the Abyss. Almost everyone on the layer is scarred or missing something from his/her/its body, and Rutterkin are particularly plentiful. Many small lairs are found in the fortress.

- The finale, before the crucible, should be smashing, with light, colors and a despairing tanar'ri when he realizes his plan will fail. The avatar entering the scene should be a grand moment.

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Difficult parts:
- The scenario requires Gaurus to hold a classic villain's monologue, or the PC's won't know what he's up to. As a calculating being, there is no particular reason for him to do so. I think the PC's should discover part of the background in the fortress, like documents describing Gaurus' former life.

- In the same vein, the scene where Gaurus leaves the PC's to die is a bit too batman-like. Still, it is logical for him to do so: the PCs are probably too powerful for him to fight himself. A goristro might be too challenging though. I need something that looks dramatic, spells certain doom, but still allows the party to escape.

- I'm taking a lot of liberties with the Planescape background here, but that's ok, it's my campaign. There are some problems with the way i portray vedic petitioners, sorry about that. The players don't know much about realms, pantheons and petitioners so I think I'll get away with it.

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Ideas:

- I was thinking about the Abyss: do the Tanar'ri really like it? Do they want to be evil? Do they care? What if one Tanar'ri didn't? It should be uncommon for a demon to behave like this, but as a thought experiment this should set the PCs thinking about what evil actually is and why they would want to stop Gaurus.

- The Abyss isn't supposed to be a punishment, but it sure looks like it. It's very difficult to be happy there - naturally the inhabitants strive for something better. But it's exactly that drive that confines them to the place. Perhaps Gaurus has figured this out and he seeks an easy way out of this circular prison. His answer is to betray evil itself, but is that possible?
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Hm, that was a rather long piece. I hope some have enjoyed reading this and I'm looking forward to reactions!