After spending some time in the lab, I think an urban adventure is in order.
One of the monestaries in northern Iberia that was raided by Almanzor 250 years ago has found (rumors of) the whereabouts of some of it's treasures, and wants them back. The character's underground contacts have heard about a ransom to be paid for the safe return of some objects.
This takes the character to either an Andalusian mosque or the residence of a muslim noble. The stealing is the easy part. What's the complication that adds interest to the story?
Again, any help here is most welcome, and I appreciate it.
eric
The relics contain several pre-christian artifacts that had been taken in prior crusades. Amoung them a gold bottle, heavily enchanted that contains/imprisons an ancient malevolent spirit.
Or, the rumors were planted by a demon seeking to tempt people into greed. The Demon, having weighted down the souls of those whoo "recovered" the artifacts, with the sin of theft, leaks rumors concerning the character's location....thereby tempting souls togreed.
Among the items might be an infernal relic, using the item to enter the monastery grounds. This only works if youconsider the limit of the monastery grounds to have an aegis-like effect instead of a carpet bombing (ie: affect them whenever they are on the monastery grounds) effect on demons.
Maybe the prior is something more than a saintly man and wants the relics for other stuff? Maybe he is a natural magician? A spirit master? A diabolist?
What if the noble ends up being an ex miscellanea OoH dude living incognito among mundanes (gentle gift) that you are stealing from without knowledge? Deprivation of magical power is a fairly possible accusation in that case.
Besides, he can encounter loads of problems in his way there and returning. it is quite far away for what you are saying
Xavi, I'm not sure what you mean here. Could you clarify? Are you saying that demons use the relic to enter the grounds?
.... if it's an infernal relic that allows demons to enter a holy aura, then a demon "attaches" itself to the character, then causes havoc on the inside. The character helps the monks out. Or did the abbot have ultierior motives.... Hmmmmm.......
Conceivably, the character could enter the home of the noble, then find a huge collection of artifacts. (the noble is a natural magician, as previously mentioned?) The infernal artifact could be from somewhere else, not the monastery originally. It could place a geas on him to transport the object to the nasty crypt of a necromancer, or something. There could be other objects there that could lead to some further quests or research.
Thanks for the thoughts guys. Please keep 'em coming!
While raiding the Muslim noble's house, he is caught. Not that big a deal, right? He is after all a fully trained Hermetic magi. Unless one of the guard's has true faith or the noble practices magical arts of his own, etc.
What might be truly enjoyable is if the character gets caught. I did a set of stories for a player once who was a thief in another gaming system. He got caught and lost his hand. I then stated that a dark and strange wizard bought the hand and took it away. Hijinxs ensued.
If you want a longer story arc to use for this player, I would suggest this variant: Cause your player to be captured thieving in a Muslim land. He looses his hand but manages to escape. His hand comes into the possession of a Islamic mage of some variety. The character is now under the knife because a hedge wizard has an arcane connection to him.
Plus, your player will have to deal with the disadvantage of being one handed, at least for part of the story.
I think I'll let the player have some success at first... and get cocky. But then up the stakes, and if the player does botch, or otherwise fail, this is a great setup.
