Campaign : Bad Company (need advice)

Well, hi there. I've been lurking on Planewalker for some time now, and I finally got myself to sign on and open my first topic. Is there a place where clueless are supposed to show up and present themselves ? Anyway, I'm about to start my first Planescape campaign and I'd appreciate any review or criticism about it. On to the subject, then. Oh, by the way : since I'm not a native English speaker, I hope you'll forgive the mistakes you are likely to find here and there.

I build the Bad Company campaign around two stories with little more connections between them than having the PC involved in both. From one game to another, the focus will shift from one story arc to the other, and I'm not sure for now which story arc will end first.

Story arc 1 : soul shards

The first story revolves mostly around the PC and originates from about twenty years ago (that is, the age of the PC, how surprising...). A great planar mage called X (I still have to find a name that satisfies me) was facing a baaad perspective : the end of the one thousand years contract he got from a baatezu (let's call him Grüt). In exchange for a huge lifetime in which to achieve great power, the mage surrendered (as always) his soul and power to Baator. Still, X was barmy enough to figure he could get himself out of a baatezu contract - and smart enough to find out a way to do so.

He traveled to Ilsensine's realm where he learnt the way to split his soul in pieces, in exchange for a good part of his memory. As the contract was worded, it would only apply to X's soul in its current and normal state. X then devised a ritual to pull his soul shards together and reunite them in a new soul identical to the original one, on which he would imprint his personality. However, the new soul being technically different, it would be free from any obligation to the baatezus. He could then live a little longer, finding a new way to cheat death. There is however one major drawback to this plan, for which he tried to prepare. His soul shards, reborn into the planes as the PCs, would have their own persona and most certainly no desire to surrender to him.

The ritual he devised is quite complex. It involves getting his soul shards to act more and more like one person, to the point where some powerful magic could achieve the process. As the mage needed the PCs to be working together, he decided to provide them with a common objectives - a common ennemy, actually. One of his agent (called Sable) would therefore work to make himself an archenemy of the PCs, faking to be afraid of them if they would unite against him. The one thing X did forget, however, is how cunning baatezus could get, and how willing they would be to get back to him.

Grüt will therefore make contact with the PC at some point in the campaign, revealing most of the plot and coming with a solution. For a soul, to be split into shards is not a natural state, and it strives to be one again (thus explaining the dreams the PCs kept having of each other during all their life). There is a demi-plane which used to be the wizard's home, where a magic crystal is the focus of the spell used to keep the soul in its current state. The baatezu can not go there, as it is well defended, especially against his kind. The PCs, however, could be mistaken for the wizard by most of the powerful but non-thinking defense systems. Therefore, they can succeed where the baatezu would fail, and destroy the crystal.

There comes the trap (I do hope one of my PC will think about it, because Grüt will certainly not point it to them) : if they do so, the wizard's soul will reunite and the PCs will cease to exist. However, the baatezu will be willing to give advice on this point (he'll try to get something out of it, but he's ready to give it freely - he really looks forward to collecting his fare). He suggests to the PCs that only a Power could make them be "real" and not the fragments of someone else. He points to Yen-Wang-Yeh : a Power with such a strong commitment to justice could certainly agree that the annihilation of their persona would be an incredibly harsh punishment with no crime that deserved it. In the Palace of Judgment, they could find a proxy willing to help - though, again, perhaps for a price.

After that, well, the end of the story's open. Most probably, with their baatezu ally the PCs will go to X's demi-plane, fight his agents (perhaps I'll make the main one survive, turning him from fake archenemy to real archenemy) and destroy the crystal, getting access to some of the strong magic stored here. X's soul will be one again and instantly dragged to Baator where Grüt will be delighted - not only does he have his fare, but there's now a bunch of mortal engaged on the slippery slope of cooperating with baatezus.

Story arc 2 : blessed are the poor in spirit

The second story arc is "exterior" to the PCs but will represent their way of living for a time - even PCs have to eat and drink. There is in Torch (gate-town to Gehenna) a strange place called the Orphanage. Bastion of good in a town mostly devoted to evil, the Orphanage is lead by a guy called Y (yup, haven't found a name for him either). Y takes onto himself to care from street children of Torch, teaching them the ways of goodness as they grow up and then letting them go. Quite a good man, you would say. The problem is, Y is a bit... excessive in his dedication to good.

Unlike the Harmonium or a number of other do-gooders, Y believes the true goodness can not come with any kind of violence (even fighting evil). Neither can it come with any kind of rebellion against one's life (even if one's a slave and a most miserable one, to boot). As he teaches this to the children under his care, most of them ends up being thoroughly exploited by Torch's high-ups as skillful and highly docile work force. Actually, more than just a few rulers in Torch secretly sponsor the Orphanage so as to benefit from its inmates while anchoring durably Torch on the Outlands. Meanwhile, the Orphans live miserable lives, believing with all their heart that by showing the right example, they will get the people of Torch to change.

Of course, the great question is : is Y right ? The answer is, of course, yes and no. Yes, the Orphans are paragons of goodness. No, they will not get Torch to change this way, no matter how hard they want to. Torch is far too engulfed in evil for that. Now, the PC won't get to this for some time. At first, they'll just do a few jobs for the Orphanage : escorting food transports, organizing the logistics, perhaps even looking for more sponsors. But now and then they'll met a ex-Orphan not too happy with his life, they'll find out about that evil sponsors thing, and perhaps have some (wrong) suspicions about the true motives of Y.

On the end of the campaign, when they'll be getting more and more skeptical about the whole thing, they'll be contacted by the Harmonium. The Hardheads are not skeptical at all, they're even quite positive about it : the Orphanage shall be destroyed. They'd like the PCs' help, but they will do it with or without (or even against) them. Now the PCs will have to side up with one side or the other. The Hardheads will promise to free all the Orphans who would want it, but they'll try to get as many as possible of them into the Harmonium. Y on the other side, will not be willing to make any concession - almost barmy with his messianic complex. Did I mention he was quite a good wizard himself, and not so pacifist as he teaches his students to be ?

Here it is, then. Any thoughts ?

By the way, I know there are some similarities with the Broken Names campaign on this forum, but it is as far as I know coincidental. The first story arc comes mainly from a French site which is anterior to the first Broken Names post.

EDIT : I tried to clear up the layout. My english teachers would say my sentences still shout "French" as they're much too long for most english speakers, though. It's late here, I'll try and rewrite it tomorrow evening.

EDIT 2 : rewrote a few sentences. Should be better.