Krieg Byr'ger disappeared on the guys. They put forth some effort and coin to try and figure out what happened to him when he disappeared from the Necropolis and discovered that he had been captured and stowed in a basement in Meroteth in less than six hours. They also discovered his true identity was Krieg Zauber'konig, Nakmander Zauber'konig's son. By the way, Zauber'konig is some half-assed German for sorcerer/wizard king. Kudos to Jeremy for picking that up almost immediately, it earned him one hundred bonus experience points. Eric earned one hundred bonus experience points for figuring out almost immediately that the guys were clones, hehe.
So Krieg was kidnapped and stowed in a basement in Meroteth. What happened? Why? Here goes. Krieg was captured by a group of sorcerers, they easily overpowered him and the Fallen and Soulless guarding the library took no interest in the goings on, as their books were unharmed by the conflict. They then teleported Krieg to Meroteth. Krieg went down rather easily, he is tough, but in no way was he equipped to win against a half dozen skilled sorcerers. These sorcerers were enforcers working for Nakmander with the specific purpose of tracking his son down and bringing him home.
Nakmander and Krieg have very strong idealogical differences. Krieg also blames his father for the death of his mother. Nakmander desired Krieg to join his empire to continue the Zauber'konig line as the rulers of Meroteth. Nakmander has the Longevity trait and the Immortality feat, so his lifespan will likely be long, but it is by no means guaranteed, and he wanted his heir to continue his work. Basically their idealogical differences relate to the artifact. Krieg believes it is too heavily relied on, which has made his father desperate to find a new defense, like the Fell Soulless and his massive cloning project. Krieg did not know the guys were clones.
Eventually, when their power level or interest was sufficient, I would have given the guys a quest or whatever to rescue Krieg. An aging Fell Human sorcerer would have met them in some shadowy dive bar and spoken of a need to recover young Krieg Zauber'konig. This sorcerer would have called himself a relative and stated he had great affection for young Krieg. He would have been cagey and reluctant to a lot of their questions, but he would have admitted that he is related to Krieg and Nakmander and sought to free Krieg from his captors.
The guys would have, with the backing of this sorcerer, located Krieg's hiding place (he would have been moved by this time) and stormed the place with guns blazing and cut their way through heaps of sorcerers and finally rescued Krieg from his captors. When they brought Krieg to their patron, they would have discovered that all was not as it seemed. Shocking!
Krieg would have reacted very strongly, the sorcerer was his great uncle, his father's uncle, and the brother of Smiling Jack: Mysterious Enemy #5, the father of one of the Fell Humans that were not acting in a militaristic fashion deep beneath The Fell Peaks on those floating islands. The sorcerer would have then proceeded to fucking kick the piss out of them all, his power surpasses that of even Nakmander. At one point ME #5 was in line to rule ALL of The Fell Peaks, he was referred to by the Glenwighta as "The Grey Shadow Awash With Flame" when he worked to conquer them and enslave their race. He is not immortal like Nakmander because his sorcery is far more powerful and literally consumes him from within.
The reason for this abduction is because ME #5 wants to use Krieg as leverage against Nakmander and to force him to rejoin Meroteth to The Fell Peaks. ME #5 would have found a way to contact Nakmander, and because he knows who the guys are (magic did it!), he would have explained that Nakmander's clones are free and captured his son and turned him over to ME #5. Nakmander would have come for the guys almost immediately, and he would have come ready for murder. They could either attempt to explain things, fight (and possibly die, depending on their level, as Nakmander was level nineteen last campaign and has been waging war for the past several years, Daun'mok would be there as well and he is basically an epic level Druid/Sorcerer/Mystic Theurge), or just fucking flee, and things would have gone from there.
The potential outcome of this arc could lead to a lot of things. If they haven't met with Nakmander yet, it draws him away from his efforts in the south, potentially stalling the battles going on down there. They could also die, or choose to join up with him, depending on how they feel about the whole clone thing. If they go after ME #5, they get to learn a lot about The Fell Peaks and the story of the whole Smiling Jack/ME #5/Nakmander family line. They also get to see not the fanatic Nakmander, but the scared father Nakmander as he fights against his older brother for the life of his son and the safety of his country. Fleeing puts them on the defensive again, with them struggling to find a way to hide from a sorcerer and druid that rule a nation of sorcerers. Good luck with that. If the guys were captured, Nakmander would have attempted to obtain blood and tissue from them to exert his mental control over them and everyone would have gone back to The South to wage war against Eldumans and Varanids in the hopes of conquering territory for Meroteth. If that happened they would have encountered the Gods of the Deep Earth and their Lacerat creator, along with some shadow monsters and a shadow egg.
It was going to be a pretty cool arc, and I was really excited about it. Any questions?
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