Need some plot development ideas

[TheIceborn]

So, I am about to start another 3.5 campaign with my friends and I am using a Croatoan virus legend as an inspiration: they players come into the village and overnight all off the citizens are gone.
I have this idea that one of the players has an amnesia without knowing he has some lost memories, and is possessed by a very powerful dormant being[didn't decide which one yet] which is slowly starting to wake up, giving to that player some flashbacks of his memory, as well as new abilities that will correspond with that. The player would be unable to conclude why is he getting so powerful all of a sudden and, knowing my friends, he will probably keep it secret from the rest of the group.
Now, to get to the point: I need an idea what kind of creature could cause such a sudden dissapearance and a reason why would it spare the players. Also, if you could add some ideas for further plot development or improving this one, please tell me :]
Thank you for your time :]

[Honest Tiefling]

Why not make it all of them? They think they're the only one getting these powers and they all try to hide it from each other, not realizing that everyone who comes to this place can be affected. It also solves concerns about one player getting more powerful and would be downright hilarious.

Add in some sort of setting mythos about how the people with such powers are evil demons who MUST be purged. And then add in that drinking the blood or consuming the flesh of such a 'creature' will result in immortality and power. Yeah, that should help them not tell the rest of the party if they are worried they might become a buffet for their power hungry comrades.

As for the beastie...I'm leaning to demon. Why? Because you don't have a motive for it. It's just doing what it does, and some demons are more human like, others are just incomprehensible. Obviously, we're going for the later category, with the idea that the players may never know why these things are occuring. Many aberrations can also fulfill the same role of a mysterious force of destruction with added unnatural flavor! Or...What if this thing is both?

And I feel I would be doing you a disservice if I did not remind you of the Book of Elder Evils. Great stuff! You should totally sign some of the Signs of the Apocolypse, as the world slowly turns more and more unnatural due to the mystery and the presence of the Demon or Aberration.

[Waker]

As a general rule, I don't care for granting specific players plot powers. You might grant the players access to information via nightmares, psychometry (object reading) or just plain creepy stuff like disembodied voices or the scrawlings of a madman.
Reasons the party might be spared could be that the creature in question has been priming the location and it's inhabitants for awhile. Maybe in the distant past it got freaky deaky with the towns founders and by this point, everyone has a little bit of demon blood or whatever in them. The party shows up just as the monster finishes preparations, but since they lack that common ancestor, they are unaffected.

[Gildedragon]

So, I am about to start another 3.5 campaign with my friends and I am using a Croatoan virus legend as an inspiration: they players come into the village and overnight all off the citizens are gone.
I have this idea that one of the players has an amnesia without knowing he has some lost memories, and is possessed by a very powerful dormant being[didn't decide which one yet] which is slowly starting to wake up, giving to that player some flashbacks of his memory, as well as new abilities that will correspond with that. The player would be unable to conclude why is he getting so powerful all of a sudden and, knowing my friends, he will probably keep it secret from the rest of the group.
Now, to get to the point: I need an idea what kind of creature could cause such a sudden dissapearance and a reason why would it spare the players. Also, if you could add some ideas for further plot development or improving this one, please tell me :]
Thank you for your time :]

Creature: sounds like an aboleth
Motive: worshipers, spares the PCs because the PCs aren't in thrall of it and can't affect them that much.

[Kyberwulf]

Depends on what kind of monsters you want. I would go with ghosts. That kind of stuff. The village was built over the ruins of a long lost kingdom.

The Kingdom was destroyed by the powers of a cult. The cult to some death god. Before they could take over completely, A group of adventurers stopped them. Banishing them to remain down below for all time. This group however, said the words wrong and left them an out. Over the course of time, the kingdom fell out of knowledge.

The leader of the cult, has taken control of the Village above and used them to unearth his buried city. He used his necromatic powers to break most of the banishment spell. He has normal ghosts, and then he has awakened ghost. Those that served him in life, now serve him in death. He hasn't had time to amass power yet, because his long lost god has been .. well.. gone. So he has to start worshiping him to get his mojo back.

[Necromancy]

Sounds like an episode of Haven

[nedz]

I have players with amnesia all of the time - wait, you mean PCs.

Making one PC plot centric by DM fiat is not a good idea for several reasons.

The player may not care for it and just ignore the plot token.
The player may miss the clue, or just not share it.
The PC may die.


I have done it - a long time ago - and it was a mediocre method.

Much better to have something any PC can interact with to acquire the information. You may have to force this via an encounter, clues are an unreliable method also - for pretty much the same reasons as above.

[daremetoidareyo]

Grab your tome of magic, choose a vestige, and make that guy your big powerful spirit.

Listen to the advice about not giving a single PC plot relevant abilities. With a vestige, all you need is the mystical symbol to get access. So why not have the group encounter a symbol, and be mentally accessed by the vestige?

Then give all the players a slowly scaling version of improved binding feat, including the manifestation rules, and go from there.

Homebrew a vestige named croatan, steal some of the fluff of other vestiges and rock on. In effect, you make the entire PC group pseudo gestalted with the binder class. While under the influence of the vestige you can give different PCs pieces of info.

This way, your campaign has no favoritism, any one PC can miss a session, and you can set up vestige politics as a backdrop against fragile mortals as pawns, food, whathaveyou.