Dear Readers,
planning ahead has always been something I've tried and sometimes it worked good and at other times it was just waste of time.
With the first layers of snow coming down to our houses it should be the time for a new adventure for our little group of clueless. Just for the details, currently I'm player in a group of (forced, yes I did that *smiles*) Forgotten Realms enthusiasts - since we change the Dungeon Master position on a regular base to avoid burnouts and similiar syndromes - I've plenty of time to prepare the game, still I feel more like - not enough time to prepare what I really want to do.
Step one will be the transfer of the campaign-setting from FR to Planescape -
currently I only know I would like to start in Sigil, the City of Doors - we (the current DM and me) thought about sending his character (currently inactive, Tiefling Spellblade) for the time of the current adventure to Sigil, so he will have a basic understanding of things there - knowing what Factions are lurking around, how to take care and what to watch out for.
If you have any nice ideas how to move the campaign to Planescape - anything creative I would appreciate ideas really very much and thank you beforehand.
Step two I'm currently planning is the adventure itself - it should be challenging and diversified.
I'll try to introduce various plots in Sigil in the first session, try to show them the various parts of the city and even more important imho make sure they know how dangerous a place it can be. Once I've found a nice flavor for the game I'll proceed to step three.
Here I'll try to introduce them to an npc (not sure yet) who will try to win them for his cause. I'm planning to use one of the Yugoloth' here - perhaps I'll change that to one of the more angelic npc's but I though the cunning and general demeanor of Yugoloths would fit in. This soon-to-be employer should motivate them to search for an ancient artifact - known as the .______. - no idea yet. I was thinking of a multi-part body part - like a skull - here I would let them search for the rubies of dawn (eyeballs) - the fortune bones of dawn (in truth all teeth), the scepter of dawn (a part of the spine's upper vertebrae in its socket) and the skull of dawn itself (no idea how to describe the later). I like this idea because I can send them to various places to search for informations, they have a lot of ways to manage these sub-quests and since they have a lot to learn - it would be a learning by doing session.
Step four to seven I would send them to various places, let them gather lore, speak to various people and make sure they are on the (right?, nah 
) track - just on some tracks. The main adventure sending them to inner and outer planes. Leading directly to step eight
as soon as they gathered all parts their employer appears, sensing the growing might of the item and (he's been scrying on them earlier) making sure they will hand over the item. So far I'm very sure that I personally like this dive into the planescape world -
still I would appreciate any comment you have -
give me hints - ideas - locations - persons -
anything is appreciated -
I would outline the adventure in short as follows:
Introduction Sigil (any special locations you would show them? (perhaps a maze? *eg*) )
The Yugoloth (employer, special notes on his behaviour - any ideas for his plans?)
Rubies of Dawn (where are they, who knows this...)
Fortune Bones (who uses them, what powers do they inherit)
Scepter of Dawn (which is king is perverted by its powers?)
The Skull (is this one found in the ancient throne of the skulllord himself?, ...)
Final Transfer (any ideas here?)
usually I prepare my adventures a little here and there - but this is different, I like the concept and I hope a few readers here, too. I honestly appreciate any feedback and am looking forward to your replies, comments and critique.
P.S. I apologize for Crossposting this on the Realms of Evil Boards - but I'm honestly searching for some good input and did not want to miss any feedback that could be helpful
Hmmm, an idea comes to mind. What if, rather then it having be a skull (or it can still be skull shaped, I don't know. Up to you) You have the PC's sent off to recover small peices of an odd, silvery looking material that when put together form... something. It looks like an object of no real value.
The truth? It's a Mimer. That once belonged to a mage who stuck his nose in the plans of the Yugoloths and got caught. He stored alot of this information in the mimer, and to prevent it from being destroyed he cast some pretty hefty protection magics on it. If he had done the same to himself, he might still be alive.
Anyway, the Yugoloths who wanted the information destroyed could only break the item into smaller peices, they couldn't actually destroy it. This pissed them off to no end and they scattered its peices throughout the planes, and killed any none yugoloths who knew of it, therefore making the chances of any adventuring party finding all the peices and rejoining it so small as to be insignificant.
But the Yugoloth the PC's are working for is a fairly low ranking Arcanaloth who found reference to the incident. He doesn't know exactly what information is in there, but he knows it was important enough to warrent such action. And that maybe, in the right hands (which is to say, his hands) he could use this information to his advantage, raising himself significantly in the yugoloth hierarchy.
Just a thought.