Need help with my plot

[deathbymanga]

So, I have a group of players in my space-themed campaign. Setting-wise, it's close to Spell-Jammers, only a lot more focus is on the science side. I'm actually a little iffy on how Religion works in the setting still, but that's neither here nor there right now.

The players are working alongside a Dwarven mafia family called the Ironbeards, who noticed one of their Gemstone craftsmen has been doing business elsewhere. the party had recently broken out of prison and was doing work for the Ironbeards to thank them for helping them out, so they broke into the gemstone guy's house while he was working and found business forms between him and a Wells International company, this same company that later was found to have facilitated in a warforged being shipped to the Dwarven city and left in wait before robots came to steal the warforged away (the existence of the warforged was kept a secret because Warforged are like the Geth of this universe and all sentient free-willed robots are treated as illegal and a galactic crime).

So the mafia tracked down the papers to a planet known as Fermere, run by Tieflings.

Now, my plan so far is that Wells is using the Gemstones as drill teeth for carving into the planet for even more valuable resources, and they are working alongside the robots, who are followers of a cult dedicated to finding their lost god that vanished a millennium ago. But I don't exactly know what the players themselves should find or encounter. any ideas?

[quixotecoyote]

Depends on two things.


Does the mafia care enough to investigate his dealings further, or are they happy knowing and possibly smacking down the gemseller?
Is the party a good choice to send to investigate leve/class wise?



If yes, there you go. They get sent in to Fermere to nail down the details, through all the normal investigative steps you'd expect. You'd have to have a reason WHY the mafia cared that much though. Maybe gemstone-guy is really valuable and has gone missing, and they want him returned.

If no, then this becomes your background plot. Hook them into some other quests, and add a small side element of the background plot (robots, cultists, etc) as window dressing until you find a spot for them to jump back in.

[deathbymanga]

Maybe I didn't explain this properly, they already got to the gemstone guy and figured out what was up with him. The Ironbeards wanted to know what was going on because they own the monopoly of the gem and ore industry. as well as waste-disposal, though that's more their cover.

The reason they're going to Fermere is to figure out what Wells International wanted with those gemstones.

And the reason they were picked to figure this out was they were already being forced to flee due to the fact that they got a Warforged in their party and Warforged are illegal. So, since they were already fleeing the kingdom, the Ironbeards sent them to Fermere to figure out what's going on.

the Ironbeards aren't stupid. If something like this is going on, where a corporation is doing business with machines, that's not good. and its important to figure everything out.


However, the problem I'm asking for help is, I don't know what the party will find there. what might the end goal of Wells International be on fermere.

[ogrebandaids]

Well, interesting plot with a nice hook. You could work in that the corporation has begun trying to create more warforged/android workers and soldiers. Unfortunately the process consumes a great deal of these gemstones which can act as soul conduits or something akin to that. Maybe even make that head of that corporation a warforged caster using alter self to appear different. Lots of options for robot rebellion plot line.
Another way could be that warforged are more a by product of an evil mythos worshipping cult. Human/Tiefling sacrifices could be the spirits animated long forgotten robots/warforged which ultimately are rising up to stop the planet from turning into the mythos thing-that is a planet that eats other planets with the gemstones being its mineralized veins.
Hope this helps, or that you've already nailed down your story.

[Tallis]

Maybe they're drilling to find an ancient robot factory? The origin of their race? Could be they find it and now have access to practically unlimited new robots if they can restart the power. Maybe they are in the right spot but the planets crust is unstable (which is why the factory was abandoned to begin with) and their drilling is causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions drawing elemental creatures from other planes.

Maybe they're looking for a lost robot demigod rumored to be here. He's not the creator but he would make a vastly powerful ally and maybe he knows where to find the creator (Mechanus?)

Maybe they're in the wrong spot but they drill too deep releasing monsters that have been imprisoned there: dragons? Demons? Elementals? Tarrasque? Whatever is an appropriate challenge for your players or maybe something overwhelming that just wants to escape right now but will be a menace that has to be dealt with in the future.

Could be they dig up a stargate to distant worlds. Whoever controls it has a path to the untold riches and resources of these new worlds but who knows what danger is on the other side.