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Old 05-25-2010, 04:27 PM   #2
Jacob Marley
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: Help Needed for a Multiple Timeline Campaign

My first thought is that there exists a mystical talisman that is passed down through the ages and has powers that are exploited for good or (usually) ill to drive many of the key events of these timelines. In each timeline, the characters are tasked with tracking down the talisman and neutralizing it (it cannot be destroyed). They have two sets of foes in each timeline. First are the mundane actors how use the talisman (Julius Ceaser, a crusader king, a French admiral for Napolean, etc.) They are the visible "face" of the great events but are generally unaware of the nature of the power they wield and either stumbled on the talisman by accident or are dupes of the second group, a secret nilistic cult whose members throughout the ages are dedicated to finding and controlling the talisman in order to destroy the universe so that their god can return from his exile in the beyond and build a new paradise. Furthermore, the talsiman is getting more powerful and dangerous over time.

Here's how I'd structure the adventure. The cult gradually becomes aware that certain people are reincarnating over and over to through time to thwart their attempts to gain control of the talisman. In the first adventures, normal unsuspecting people find themselves targeted by mysterous strangers who want them dead for no reason they can discern. Eventually, they discover the truth about the talisman and their past lives, and begin to develop the skills of reliving those past lives for clues as to the current whereabouts of the talisman and how to destroy it permently. For sessions 3-6, the players are researching and reliving those past lives to find the clues.
Eventually, they realize that the only solution is that the talisman has to be dropped into a black hole as the only way to safely dispose of it. Dropping it into a star is the wrong thing to do because by the time the ability to do that exists, the talisman will be powerful enough to explode the star and start a chain reaction that will annilate the universe. They then have to leave this information, as well as how to find the talisman for their future selves who finally destroy it.

The final session is the future selves discovering who they are, finding the message from their past lives, racing the cultist to the talisman, and getting it to the black hole. A great ending would be to have the heros sacrifice themselves plunging their ship into the black hole with the talisman aboard just ahead of the pursuing cultist armada.
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