I'm running the quickstart issues and next session we'll be tackling Tome of The Bizarre #86. I've readthe adventure and there are some details I want to change, but there's two major ones:
-I want the events to be set on the real Tomb of Anubis.
-But it's still connected to Baron Blade's plans to distract the heroes (while gathering forces for issue 6).
So instead of robots and Miss Information's traps the characters will be facing real mummies and genuine dangers from the temple, but my problem is how to fit it in the major plot. Here are some ideas I''m playing with:
-Baron Blade found a way to open a portal to the temple in New Vegas, risking letting out all the monsters and dark energies into the city if the players can't close it from the other side (there would be a machine inside the temple keeping the passage open, serving as a clue to Baron's identity). The new Anubis went to investigate the portal but got captured by the temple's traps.
-Miss Information, hired by Baron Blade, used her powers to open the New Vegas portal as a way to lure the heroes in and let the Temple itself deal with them. Maybe she planned to capture Anubis to serve as bait.
-Blade made a deal with Ammit? Maybe he gave her the new Anubis in exchange for dealing with the heroes, but I'm not sure if it would make sense for both to interact this way.
Anyways, what are your thoughts?
I would think by far the most important question to ask first here is why do you want it to be set in the real Tomb?
In order to offer any advice on how to best progress with the story altered like that, I feel I'd first need to know why you feel it's necessary to do so in the first place?
Well, my players are newcomers to the setting and showed interest in it's take on Egypcian mythos. When it came to choose between issues 3-4-5, they seemed excited at the idea of exploring a Egypcian tomb full of mummies, traps and all those classic tidbits. I feel like making it all a scooby-doo-like hoax would take most of the fun while the twist doesn't seem worth it.
So I'm trying to find a way to tie this adventure to the plot, while also letting players fight actual mummies and traps.
Ah, I see. That does make sense. However it raises a bit of a potential problem, as I see it with Anubis' own presence there, as having him fall prey to the traps and dangers of what is, essentially, his own home would be a bit... well, odd. So it would probably be better to go where a version where Anubis was, somehow, captured independently by Blade or Miss Information (or someone else) and then imprisoned by external forces within the tomb itself?
Perhaps the generator you suggested initially is actually powered by the energy of the captured Anubis, which would explain why Blade found it necessary not only to capture him, but also to keep him there in the first place?
Ah, good idea.
Also, since you won't be using the skeletrons, another minor change might be in order for the final issue and the big showdown. Perhaps, instead of having Blade bring back the robot skeletons there, have him siphon off some of Anubis' power while he's using him as a battery, and use that stolen energy to empower and/or enhance some other kind of suitably thematic minion (or even himself, for that matter) for the final fight in Issue 6. Just a thought :)