I'm going to assume that those reading this post (maybe two of you?) have been following along in my campaign journal, so I'll skip past the introductory info and jump into the thick of it.
I've been hounding my players to come up with background stories for their characters; so far, only half of them have completed their homework assignments. The two semi-veteran players (correctly) believe I'm going to use this info against them. I'll be stealing some story elements from Infiniti2000's campaign, including his glabrezu Infinitus. Here are my initial plans for the various and sundry PCs:
Mei Ling Whitelocke, female human cleric of Torm: She's got a twin sister named Celeste, a cleric of Selune from a stagnated previous campaign. I'm proud of this one's ingenuity - the player did well coming up with valid reasons why the twin sisters wound up as clerics of differing deities. They grew up poor, and when their father was arrested and executed for thievery (he was a very successful and notorious cat burglar), the two girls were sent to local temples to learn the ways of godliness. Both excelled in their studies and chose lives of adventuring.
I'm going to have her sister captured by the Temple, of course. She's scheduled to be executed right about the time they reach the Inner Fane.
Xian Windwalker, male half-elven ranger: No backstory yet, except that he's got a brother with the same name (from the same defunct campaign as Mei Ling's sister). I jokingly suggested that their father was George Foreman and that they also had a sister named Xian Windwalker. He just might take me up on that.
Since Xian's brother is part of the same adventuring
group as Celeste Whitelocke above, it seems simple enough to use both of them in the same fashion. The Temple will sacrifice him at the same time as Celeste.
Gulg, male half-orc barbarian: The bastard son of an orc raider and one of his human victims, Gulg was raised by his mother's barbarian tribe at Eagle's Nest. His uncle taught him to the tribe's ways and how to fight. Gulg and his mother were both captured by Zhentarim slavers, and Eagle's Nest was burned to the ground. Gulg believes his mother is dead (she's not, but I want to surprise him with that revelation). Gulg was sold in the slave markets of Waterdeep to a half-orc mercenary, who was killed in the huge cave-in that kicked off the campaign. Gulg was able to remove his collar and he swiped his owner's weapons/armor. He has hidden the fact that he's an ex-slave from the rest of the group.
Obviously, the hook is probably going to be his not-dead mother, but there's also the possibility of dangling his father's whereabouts as bait.
Betty Juggs, female human specialist wizard (evoker): Betty grew up in the pirate haven of Mintarn. She wasn't able to find any ships that would take her on as a sailor, but she discovered an aptitude for magic and apprenticed to an aged evoker named Tolin. The player was nice enough to leave Tolin's fate up to me - alive, dead, or lich, he didn't care - but Betty left his service when she learned that her father had vanished (again, up to me to determine daddy's fate). She heard a rumor that her father had left the Sword Coast and begun pirating on the Inner Sea. She signed on with the first ship that would take her as its crew wizard, but the ill-fated ship was attacked by the Waterdhavian navy. Having never been in a true battle, Betty panicked. The only thing she managed to do was to attempt to revive a fallen sailor (unsuccessfully) before blacking out. She awoke to discover that the pirates had all been slaughtered, and the Waterdhavian ship's crew had assumed she was actually a captive of the pirates. They set her free in Waterdeep. While on her way to the Inner Sea pirate haven of Freeport, she was caught in the earthquake/cave-in…
I'll have a whole lotta fun with this one. Threatening to expose her cowardice to her companions will be the opener, followed by the temptation/threat of her father's whereabouts (still pirating on the Inner Sea), and the grand finale of turning him in to the authorities for execution or a lifetime of slavery. I'm leaning toward the slavery gig, and he'll be sent to the Melairkyn Mines. (In my campaign world, the Melairkyn Mithril Mines are my campaign world's equivalent to the Star Wars universe's Spice Mines of Kessell. Slaves check in, but they don't check out.)
Izzy Baenre, female half-drow druid: Her animal companion is a wolf named Scotty. I don't have a background for Izzy yet, but with that last name I'm really looking forward to this one.
Izzy's player is a complete neophyte, and is only just beginning to get into her character. I've come up with a fun back story that I'm hoping will really draw her into the game, as I posted in my campaign journal thread. I'm gonna totally swipe this from Infiniti2000: Izzy Baenre, the half-drow druid, can't remember her past. The first thing she can remember is being rescued from a blizzard by Adie, an old human woman who took her in, nursed her back to health, and taught her the ways of nature. All she can remember is her name - Izzy - and she took her last name from where it was carved in the back of the spider medallion she'd worn when Old Adie found her in the snow. She's actually Izzanthriel, a bastard child of house Baenre (I haven't quite decided who her parent should be), and she's being actively sought by the drow of Menzoberranzan for some reason. When the PCs encounter Dirass and Maracla in the Outer Fane, the two drow will recognize her, call Izzy by her real name, and run away (?).
Her wolf companion - if he survives - will be another fun possibility. Heck, it may be even better if he DOESN'T survive. Turning him into an undead would be an even crueler twist.
Billie Badass, female human fighter: No backstory yet, except that she's the niece of Hommlet's woodcutter. And she and Spugnoir now have a romantic thang going on.
Initially I was going to try to use the family members, but kidnapping Renne will probably be a whole lot more effective. (Billie's player is a mom of four who works at a daycare center.)
Cordio Stormshadow, male dwarven barbarian: No backstory yet.
I'm going to try to have Thandain of Rastor try to seduce this guy and maybe get him hooked on tanbrosh. We'll see how that unfolds this weekend. He's apparently got a back story worked up in his head; he just has to write it out.
Kitty Storm, female human rogue: I just received this back story this morning, and it's quite dark. She's the daughter of a Waterdhavian gutter harlot, and she actually briefly picked up her mother's trade (and robbed her johns in the process) before turning on her "manager" and killing him in her escape. She got out of the city just ahead of the Thieves' Guild hunters, who were asking dangerous questions about the death of one of its whoremasters. She left behind a good-sized stash of money hidden away in her haste to get out of town, but I'm pretty sure something's going to happen to that nest egg while she's away.
None of her companions know about Kitty's dark past, so exposition will be the first threat against her. I really like the idea of somehow using her former "manager" against her somehow, even though he's dead - maybe Jaroo will change into his form at some point?
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I'm asking the twisted minds of this awesome community to offer up possible improvements. I want to really make this memorable; heck, I want to make it personal. I want the players to hate Hedrack and Infinitus for doing this to them...
