The Pits of Evil: The Realms of Evil Community

This thread will be exactly 101 posts in size, with each post containing a free adventure hook related to the Forgotten Realms. These can either be prior to the Spell Plague or after the plague has ravaged the realms and changed them forever. I will start off with the first one! ^_^

An Old Friend, A New Problem Prior Spell Plague
Halaster, in his madness, has stolen a hair from his friend Elminster in an attempt to provide himself with a boon companion for when the real Elminster is not around. Over the years, the Sage of Shadowdale has been coming by less and less, and the Mad Mage of Undermountain has been getting restless and lonely as a result.

The creation of this clone has had some issues. For one, the clone is extremely independent, prone to wandering off on its own and even escaping Undermountain several times (forcing Halaster to actually LEAVE his demesne to retrieve his newly made friend). On top of it, the clone has many of the abilities of Elminster, but for some reason has the mind of a willful child rebelling against a parent. Add the fact that it was creating using necromantic magic, it is more than a little unstable mentally.

All over the realms the news of Elminster razing towns, attacking roadside travelers and stealing candy has spread, and many organizations (including the Harpers) are looking for information on whether the Sage of Shadowdale has truly lost his mind. Unfortunately, the real Elminster is away planewalking, attending a grand wizard's convention in Dweomerheart. As a result, he is cut off from the Realms both mentally and spiritually and has no idea what is going on in Faerun concerning his clone.

Many people are calling for Elminster's head when the PCs are approached by the Halaster in disguise while wandering the streets of Waterdeep. He offers them a fortune in gold and magical items if they would only find his 'friend' and bring him back to the Yawning Portal. What the PCs don't understand is that Halaster, in an attempt to cover up what he has done, plans on taking them down with him and stranding them inside the massive dungeon beneath the streets of Undermountain. He is, after all, still evil at this time.

FInding the clone will not be easy, as he has taken up unwilling residence in a Temple of Mystra near Shadowdale. The clerics there are harboring and protecting him until they can find out why he has seemingly lost his mind. At the moment, he is actually being held against his will deep within the temple's inner most chambers in a room he cannot use magic to escape from. Here he flings himself against the heavy wooden door, screaming curses at the top of his lungs and generally scaring the hell out of the clerics and their servants in the temple.

Hooks
The PCs may hear within idle conversation about where the clone is being held, especially if one of them happens to be a cleric of Mystra or Azuth. Many information dealers within Waterdeep may also have this information, for a bit of coin. However, many evil organizations are also looking to recruit the clone to their side, as they believe that Elminster has turned away from Mystra and is now prime for being led down the wrong path. The PCs may run into these problems on their way back, in addition to trying to keep an insane sub-arch wizard from blasting them to pieces at the drop of his pointy leather hat.

Halaster also has an idea where the clone is being held, but want to avoid the Mystran backlash from creating the clone. He may send the PCs in the right direction, but will avoid telling them exactly where the clone is being held as a means of plausible deniability. He will rely on an adventurer's normal curiosity and sense of victory to locate the clone.

Evil PCs may work for one of the various organizations also looking for the Clone (Church of Cyric, Church of Bane, The Twisted Rune, to name a few). If so, they will work with Halaster only up to the point of finding the clone. However, they will also have to deal with the angry double-crossed archmage of undermountain at the point they hand the clone over to their superiors.

This sounds like fun! Ok, here goes.

Hear No Evil Prior Spell Plague
In the realm of Sembia, Mask's Second, Riven, has organised the clearance of the tower of the Sojourner, to make way for the new Temple of Mask. Whilst some relics and other artifacts have been uncovered, including a number of Cyricite artifacts, one item, known as the Whisper of Mask has been found. This long-believed lost artifact is one of the Shadowlord's most sacred relics, and has the ability to make those who don the hood completely undetectable by magic or normal means. Neither smell, sight or hearing can pickup the wearer of this artifact.

The recovery of this artifact is known only to Riven and his inner circle of Mask worshippers, although word has also reached Mask's First, Erevis Cale. However someone has entered the Temple of Mask and stolen the "Whisper" from under the very nose of the God of Thieves and his worshippers. Erevis and Riven have used their considerable powers and influence across Sembia to find what thief would dare steal from Mask's Temple and have turned up nothing. The thief has clearly borne the Whisper themselves and become undetectable. This in itself is an embarrassing situation, except that a series of thefts in other temples have started to occur and signs of Mask left behind at the scene. The perpetrator is clearly trying to bring about the downfall of the revived worship of Mask.

Erevis Cale has contacted the PCs, who themselves are linked to the Temple of Mask, and asked them to look further afield for the thief. In return they will receive a considerable monetary reward, as well as the favor of Mask, if they can bring back the thief and the Whisper of Mask. Riven, however, has also contacted a rival group of adventurers and rogues to find the thief and the Whisper. This rival party have no compunctions about taking down the PCs if they get in their way.

A case of the Right Hand of Mask not talking to the Left Hand....

Hooks
The PCs have researched the previous temple break-ins by the thief and have detected a certain pattern to the thefts. They believe the next strike will be against the Temple of Shar. The rival investigators have also discovered this pattern, and have hired a number of false informants and several groups of thugs to either steer the PCs in the wrong direction or outright attack them in they continue on the correct path.

Assuming the PCs do continue on their course to the Temple of Shar, they will potentially have a group of hostile worshippers of Shar to face, a rogue group of investigators willing to shed their blood, and a wily and skilled thief to uncover.

Picking up the Ashes

One would think that the death of Mystra and resulting spell plague would affect anyone and thing that was capable of using magic, and you'd be right. Not many knew of the Twisted Rune before the advent of spellplague, and thanks to the virus, many fewer now know of it. Ironically, the threat they posed is now greatly diluted. Unbeknownst to most, the majority of the leadership of the twisted rune has been destroyed due to spellplague. Madness has always been a risk those who would attain lichdom take, and the spellplague has curiously affected the minds of these long dead beings. The only known leader to have survived is Sapphiraktar, who was said to be saved due to the intervention of a draconic deity. Whether or not this is true, it has been confirmed that he still exists and seems to be his old self, though whatever measure of sanity he had even then could be suspect, or just an aspect of his draconic nature.

As the structure of the Rune has been severely displaced by the catastrophe brought by Mystra's death, the few surviving Runemasters are short on people, but being the opportunists they are, this also means that there are at least five veritable hoards of their erstwhile comrades to loot. And you'd be a fool to believe they're not going to jockey for the best possible items in those hoards.

This may have far reaching consequences for both the organization or the Realms themselves. The surviving Runemasters, greedy by nature, may be unwilling to share their newfound power, and consolidate the organization. This would increase its power relative to its fewer numbers. On the other hand, the race for the possessions of former Runemasters will almost certainly lead to violence between their factions. This could lead to the organization splitting up, or one of the remaining Lords gaining dominance, thus destroying the others and ending several threats to peace in the Realms in one stroke. But whatever the case may be, someone will surely reap huge profits from it.

Hooks

The PC's could simply be approached by agents of one of the surviving Runemasters. While the Rune had a reputation for secrecy, because of the recent reorganization, things are running sloppily now. The PC's will be approached because they have shown some strength in recent travails, such as defeating mighty foes, successfully navigating famous dungeons, successfully navigating political intrigue, winning wars either through strength, valor, or cunning strategy, to name a few things. Of course the Runemasters themselves would never deign to approach the PC's though this is due more to their contempt of all mortal beings than it is for their need for secrecy. However, there are now much fewer levels of bureaucracy, and the PC's are already only within two or three degrees of separation from knowing the Runemasters.

The PC's will probably find out about the Rune when one of the Runemasters decides that they've served their purpose or know too much, and order them killed. Of course the attempt will fail, and the PC's will be left to figure out why their employer would want them dead. However, one must remember that the Twisted Rune was perhaps the most successful secret group in all the realms, so even if the PC's manage to confront their employer, they may never know what organization he was working for. They may also never know that another Runemaster may have helped them.