DM - Need help with player's backstory and future plans

[Sirion8288]

Hey all,

Looking for any ideas / assistance with one of my player's backstories.

The player is an artificer (steel defender). As a child, he learned that his parents were evil as F and were going to sacrifice his younger brother for some evil ritualistic stuff. He interfered with the ritual, resulting in a large explosion that killed his parents and brother. He prayed and prayed and a random figure cloaked figure arrived from the darkness of the woods. The figure was able to bring his brother's soul back and place the soul into a gem. The gem now powers the steel defender (imagine something like Full Metal Alchemist).

Alright, so the campaign is going back to the origin of this character's horrible backstory and I am trying to figure out what path best to take.

A) Maybe the random figure is now ready to receive payment (e.g., bring me more souls!) and if he doesn't, then his brother's gem starts to weaken and the steel defender will slowly collapse / fail over time.

B) Maybe the entity is a "conduit" for the gods, and some random god simply had compassion for the situation and wanted to help save the boy through this conduit / vessel. I am kind of leaning towards this path (very god oriented universe / campaign), but it also just seems too safe / lazy. I would also need to flush out which god and why the god wanted to help and etc.

C) Maybe this cloaked figure is very much like that hag in Critical Role season two (the person Jester owned). The figure is someone who loves granting wishes but at a terrible price. Sure, I'll save your brother, but his soul is now trapped / damned in this gem. He will forever be stuck in a state of limbo within this machine, neither alive nor dead.

D) Something completely different?

I don't know what to do. Particularly since (through the character's backstory), the childhood event occurred many years ago (~20 years), why has the entity done nothing all this time and only now wants to interact with the character.

Any fun ideas to throw back to my player would be more than appreciated.

Thank you!

[Azures_Finest]

First off, I really like the overall premise. It's a fantastic backstory.

As for the new and now, option A the most. You could, technically, combine it with option B. Not necessarily a god but as the player exacts his pennance and brings the bad guy more souls, some force of good intervenes. Whatever the motivations are of this new protagonist can be SO varied.

As for they the BBEG waited 20 years? Well, kids (into teenagers) tend not to be pretty useful for pretty much anything except eating and hogging up bandwidth (believe me .. I have two lol). The big bad was biding his time until his 'prey' was at their most useful?

:)



Hey all,

Looking for any ideas / assistance with one of my player's backstories.

The player is an artificer (steel defender). As a child, he learned that his parents were evil as F and were going to sacrifice his younger brother for some evil ritualistic stuff. He interfered with the ritual, resulting in a large explosion that killed his parents and brother. He prayed and prayed and a random figure cloaked figure arrived from the darkness of the woods. The figure was able to bring his brother's soul back and place the soul into a gem. The gem now powers the steel defender (imagine something like Full Metal Alchemist).

Alright, so the campaign is going back to the origin of this character's horrible backstory and I am trying to figure out what path best to take.

A) Maybe the random figure is now ready to receive payment (e.g., bring me more souls!) and if he doesn't, then his brother's gem starts to weaken and the steel defender will slowly collapse / fail over time.

B) Maybe the entity is a "conduit" for the gods, and some random god simply had compassion for the situation and wanted to help save the boy through this conduit / vessel. I am kind of leaning towards this path (very god oriented universe / campaign), but it also just seems too safe / lazy. I would also need to flush out which god and why the god wanted to help and etc.

C) Maybe this cloaked figure is very much like that hag in Critical Role season two (the person Jester owned). The figure is someone who loves granting wishes but at a terrible price. Sure, I'll save your brother, but his soul is now trapped / damned in this gem. He will forever be stuck in a state of limbo within this machine, neither alive nor dead.

D) Something completely different?

I don't know what to do. Particularly since (through the character's backstory), the childhood event occurred many years ago (~20 years), why has the entity done nothing all this time and only now wants to interact with the character.

Any fun ideas to throw back to my player would be more than appreciated.

Thank you!

[Mastikator]

Some random ideas.

1) The parents were a part of a cult, the cult want that soul gem.

2) the hooded figure is actually the uncle who was a part of the same cult as the parents, the soul gem was a part of the original ritual but not finished, the hooded figure has been recruiting more people so he can finish the ritual

3) the hooded figure is an enemy of the cult that the parents were a part of, the player gets caught up in the cold war of two secret societies

4) when the hooded figure summoned the soul he also summoned something else into the soul gem

5) the parents are still around as undead creatures who want to finish the ritual

6) the brother was actually a willing sacrifice all along and wants revenge on his brother

[Kurt Kurageous]

Looks, sounds, smells like warlock dip.

[King of Nowhere]

one important question to ask is how grimdark you want your campaign to be. because some of those options (bring me more souls/ it was all part of the plan) can lead very dark places. The safe option (a good god did it, and he's asking for a favor back) is bland.

a non-dark, non-bland option is that the sect is still around, though the original ritual failed. so the party has to track other members... wait, it seems rather bland too.

[Sirion8288]

These are great ideas guys. Thank you.

I think I know how to proceed, pending on the player's actions.

Thanks!