im a veteran player od AD&D and recently (within the last 3 years) have begrudgingly made the switch to 3.0-3.5 to stay with the times. ive recently picked up my old planescape boks and started reading again, and a few friends asked me to DM up a planescape capmpaign.
i have major plots worked out, here is the rundown.
1. a trapped demon prince is imprisoned in a demiplane by a group of powerful clerics and such.
2. siad prince plots and schemes escape for more than 300 years, finally being able to release a gem through the demiplane prison to land randomly somehwere on the planes
3. a bard finds the store while wondering the outerplanes. the gem siezes control of the bard and is under semi-control of the trapped demon prince. the prince is having average luck using the bard as his eyes and ears, trying to find any remnants of his old cult.
this is what i have so far.
my party consists of:
1st level cleric, aspiring to be a true necromancer, human
1st level rogue, very mouthy, half elf
1st level warrior, warforged
right now they are on a side adventure from A'kin from the friendly fiend to find a vial of aeskor blood for gupgrass, the potion drinking bariur. the just left the friendly fiend after being loaded up with all sorts of magical gems and jewelry, none of them bothered to get them identified yet, even though they know a'kin is a fiend of some sort.
they are now in the clerk's ward looking for cupgrass.
any suggestions?
Studderingdave,
Well, here are some suggestions/comments which may spur you to find what you are looking for:
Your main "villian" -I presume is the imprisoned Demon Prince. Perhaps in order to flesh out the campaign, I would first start with what kind of Demon this is.
Perhaps this Demon is actually Lamatsu -supposedly the first of all Vampires. Lamatsu was once in ancient times, a worshipper and daughter of Lilith, whose legend and origins are even more ancient. Though the myths vary as to the reasons and the degree of willingness, Lamatsu became corrupted by Orcus, who desired after her and her power, as well as seeing in her an opportunity to advance the powers of Undeath.
Lamatsu had been once a powerful druidess of Lilith, one who sought to corrupt nature and bring desolation to the natural order and cycle of life. Her transformation into the Mother of All Vampires did little to change this -if anything, it only intensified this drive, making it a rage and bloodlust uncontained by reason.
Regardless, Lamatsu did not willing submit to Orcus' power and rule, and she fought against the Foul Goat.
Her tainting of Naure and the corruption of Life that she sowed would not go unresisted. In time, a group of powerful servants of Nature (druids mostly) joined together with servants of Life (clerics who strove against undeath and the protection of creation of life and children), and fought against Lamatsu and her vile progeny and cultists (which were not only vampires , but also despoilers of nature and anti-druids -blighters).
Though the wars lasted long and over many lands, eventually the Forces of Nature and Light were triumphant in sealing away Lamatsu, and with the Queen of Vampires and the Forest of Blood was sealed away in a demiplane, her followers and cultists scattered across the planes and dwindled in power.
However, unknown to most was the part that Orcus played in her imprisonment, for he had secretly given Her True Name to the clerics and provided them with other lore to be able to bind a Demoness as strong as Lamatsu. For when she was imprisoned, it was now easy for Orcus to bring the vampires under his control and expand his influence over undeath.
Lamatsu was trapped in a demiplane made from the heart of the Druidic circle that was battling her. In desperation, they had sacrificed their precious grove, ripping it out of the Material Plane, and secreting it away as a demiplane, only partially connected with the planes. What was once a beautiful Forest, became corrupted as Lamatsu was forced to dig beneath the ground of her prison -for the Clerics of Light had made sure that her demiprison would remain everfilled with the Searing Light of the Sun -no Night would come to the place. Thus, Lamatsu was twice-imprisoned, and as she was forced to dwell underneath the soil, the once verdant Forest was drained of its life, and all the owwds died, till now, hundreds of years later, the realm is a wasteland, with blood red, earth-scorched soil and rock, under the unrelenting radiance of a vengeful sun. And beneath the soul and rock, in an unliving tomb was Lamatsu, driven by rage and lust and fury. Centuries passed, and as she had corrupted all the realm and devoured its life, she discovered a gemstone in her stony prison, beneath the sun -a Ruby without compare, its gleam a scarlet as bright as fresh blood. Into its facets, Lamatsu poured her power, and drawing upon her powers, she found that she was able to free the stone -she called it the Bloodstar, and it soon appeared in the Planes, waiting to be discovered. Through the Bloodstar, Lamatsu is able to use her domination power, and through this, she is able to percieve and interact with the cosmos once more, desiring freedom and revenge...
As you said, the Bloodstar was discovered by a Bard. This was taken as a perverse sign, for long ago, Lamatsu as a mortal had a lover -a noble bard named Kanchelsis, and though her was destroyed by Orcus, and was part of her fall into Undeath, she thought it fitting that the Bard should be her instrument to freedom.
Cut off from the cosmos and having no sense of the time and events that have passed since her imprisonment, Lamatsu sent the spellgem-dominated Bard to search for her old sites of power and cultists. To her dismay and fury, she found that nearly all had been eradicated, with those who survived having since passed away or falling under the sway of Orcus.
Grimly, she has now gone about trying to build a new power base, at least srong enough for her to escape, and yet subtle enough to avoid detection from her ancient enemies and rivals.
Thus, the campaign will be the PCs becoming involved with stopping Lamatsu from escaping , or barring that from defeating her once and for all -unless they actually side with her against the might of Orcus's grasp.
Over the campaign, the PCs will have to face her living cultists, the Despoilers of Nature. As part of their return for power, they go about kidnapping infants -intended as part of a mass, blood sacrifice which will allow her to more powerfully communicate through the Bloodstar. In the process, they will also search out several vampires of her bloodline that have not submitted to Orcus' thralldom. She will then go about send her servants to hunt the descendants of the high priests who imprisoned her.
As the PCs try to discover the causes of these attacks and the true power, they might not only have to face minions of Orcus, but also eventually search out for the remnant Druidic circle that sacrificed their grove. As the years paased, a select few (perhaps tainted by Orcus' secrets) chose undeath as a means of guarding the secret location of Lamatsu's imprisonment and demiplane (most probably guarding a secret portal at the ruins of the site where their grove was ripped from the planes).
PCs who go in search, could either do so unwittingly in an attempt to destroy her, or becuase the clerics realize that the prison is weakening, and soon she will be freed unless something is done.
In the Desolate Deimiplane, the PCs might face horrible vampires, the cursed remnants of the high clerics of light that sacrificed themselves in order to imprison her, and were later turned to her servitors in mockery and revenge.
Lamatsu is able to -through her minions outside her prison (inlcuding a now arisen Bard as a Vampire Lord and supported by Bloodfiends- cause an eclipse to the sun, which causes the Demiplane to fall into the Abyss, her new realm and layer.
PCs might have to then travel to Orcus's domain and find out the secrets of her origins and first binding in order to truely defeat her once and for all.
Ok, realize that was a lot of blathering and may not be anything what you were looking for.