Hi all

My PCs are about to discover that their mysterious antagonist is collecting a specific set of ancient Dark Side artifacts as part of his nefarious scheme. They will discover this initially when they come across the lightsabered corpse of an archaeologist who possessed one such artifact, which is now missing. Hopefully, the PCs will deem it worthwhile to try to track down the rest of the set before the antagonist does so.

The campaign is set in the Republic (500BBY), and is almost entirely Coruscant-based, which is limiting me slightly as I try to come up with interesting places where such items could be hidden. So far I've got the following:

• A competitor/former colleague of the dead archaeologist.
• The Coruscant Archaeological Museum (which I assume must have existed).
• The tomb of a Jedi Master (why is there? No idea...)
• ...

Just wondered if anyone had any bright ideas as to other cool places (either on Coruscant or within reasonable travel distance) where such items might well be hidden.

Thanks in advance.

PS: I assume that the Jedi Temple probably had some sort of secure vault for just such a purpose. However, placing such an artifact there might create a bit of a plot issue, as that would be such a secure location that I don't know how the antagonist would acquire it...certainly at this stage. I'm not ruling it out, but it would be great if there were some other, less secure, suggestions.

If you're centering the campaign around Coruscant I would say the Underground and its Black Market are probably a must be for one of these artifacts.

Maybe a level 1313 Crimelord is in possession of one and the PCs need to either infiltrate his ranks and build trust to get close to it, or plan an intricate heist to steal it from him, or go in guns blazing as a peace-keeping measure.

When it comes to the Jedi Temple Vault: Cad Bane broke into it and got away. I'd imagine a sufficiently equipped / powerful Sith could do the same.

Maybe make it into a szenario where the PCs have a chance to ward him off.

Overall an interesting concept for a campaign!

Another could be hidden in plain sight, as part of collection on display, in a noble household or corporate office. The true nature of the relic is probably not even known by the wealthy collector, who could turn out to be an ally... or just pretend to be.

11 minutes ago, Edgehawk said:

Another could be hidden in plain sight, as part of collection on display, in a noble household or corporate office. The true nature of the relic is probably not even known by the wealthy collector, who could turn out to be an ally... or just pretend to be.

I think Palpatine even had Sith memorabilia in his chancellors office that even the Yoda was unable to recognize.

Isn't the Jedi temple built over an ancient Sith site? You could put something under the temple rather than in it. A 1313 crime boss is a great idea. Another could be a simple street kid has a small but critical part. But this kid is super street savvy and knows the terrain, good luck catching him.

2 hours ago, RicoD said:

If you're centering the campaign around Coruscant I would say the Underground and its Black Market are probably a must be for one of these artifacts.

Maybe a level 1313 Crimelord is in possession of one and the PCs need to either infiltrate his ranks and build trust to get close to it, or plan an intricate heist to steal it from him, or go in guns blazing as a peace-keeping measure.

1

The only issue here is that the antagonist is heavily involved in the lower levels - if part of it was owned by a gang leader there, he'd probably have it by now.

1 hour ago, Ahrimon said:

Another could be a simple street kid has a small but critical part. But this kid is super street savvy and knows the terrain, good luck catching him.

This is a really interesting idea - very different, could be fun. Thanks.

2 minutes ago, edwardavern said:

The only issue here is that the antagonist is heavily involved in the lower levels - if part of it was owned by a gang leader there, he'd probably have it by now.

Remember that Coruscant is absolutely massive and actually provides many planets worth of living space and industry.

Even if the Antagonist is heavily involved it would be basically impossible to control it all as an individual, unless he is basically about to "win" already anyway.

And if it's really that unlikely that a crimeboss would be able to hold onto the artifact in his presence you could build that szenario with the antagonist about to get his hands on the artifact and make it into a sort of race with the PCs.

Either way I see a lot of potential here. You could build a pretty unique campaign each around the aquisition of a single artifact piece with potentially vastly different themes.

If you want some ideas for ethical/moral decisions as well...

- Held by some ancient crone who refuses to part with it because its kept her alive for centuries; will they kill her for it? or otherwise take it and essentially remove her form life-support?

- Part of some famous entertainer's regular jewelry; shenanigans as they have to plan a heist to steal it and/or exchange it with a fake.

- Object of veneration for some local cult; bunch of really nice folks, great with kids, feed the poor etc...until you try to take their most holy relic.

- Built into some great work of art and its most central an noticeable component sop if it was removed it would be noticed if not destroyed the object'd'art; "It really pulled the piece together..."

- a very precocious and loud child is using it as a Toy...and is VERY attached to it; dya really want to take the toy away from the baby?

Less with the morality;

- Its the Keystone for a structure, removing it would cause the entire building to collapse....on the characters...and maybe any one else inside.

- Hidden in an ancient spacecraft crashed long ago, sunken into the long-fouled waters that once surfaced the planet...and who knows WHAT else is living in the water...

- It's right there in the open! Grab it quick before...it gets eaten by the much-beloved pet of a wealthy and arrogant noble....a pet that takes years to poop...

- In a brothel, the owner will let you "work off the price"...(Not suitable for all groups!)

An artifact that's part of an ancient war droid of sort - something insanely dangerous. Locating the artifact leads inevitably to reactivating the droid.

how about an ancient vault that is many levels down like all the way down. it just happens to be directly underneath the jedi orders temple. locating it might require some research with the jedi themselves.

One could be hidden in an upper atmosphere weather survey platform or buoy. A very innocuous (and usually boring) piece of government infrastructure, probably one of hundreds working for decades and decades without notice or non-droid maintenance.