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I'm about to start running a game that will center around the Grand Conjunction and I'm going to use Bleak House as the point where it all unravels. The biggest issue is coming up with a good Hexad verse foretelling Van Richten's death. I'm going to have it short circuit by the PCs affecting things and having the "reborn" ending occur. I know I'll need to fiddle with the timeline a bit but that's not a big issue.

I'm tying it into Van Richten because he's going to be a central figure to the campaign and it will provide a big emotional tie to the event with the players. I'd like something that obviously refers to him in hindsight but that's not obvious upfront.

A few other things I'm tossing around in my head is how to have Azalin have a shadow role in the process of having the Hexad fulfilled. I'm thinking that he can manipulate the PCs and Van Richten through a minion by feeding them information. There are going to be a couple dead ends here and there to throw them off but on the whole Azalin is playing them the whole time, ensuring they are present at each step.

I'd love to toss a bit of Toben in there somewhere as a nemesis/background character as well but I'm struggling on how to get that to work. Maybe I'll tie him into a PCs backstory and have him pop up from time to time when I need sidetrek adventures.

No ideas at all ? Anyone ?

Just an idea but you might want to have the grand conjunction be the begining instead of the end. Have your players complete the hexads without Van Ritchen. Then when From the Shadows and Roots of Evil is played Van Ritchen could help out and become a future friend. Then between the years of the Grand Conjunction and the Grim Harvest/Bleak House era Van Ritchen could pop up from time to time which makes his "death" in Bleak House much more profound. It also puts some time between the battle with Dr. Domini in Feast of Goblyns and Bleak House.
Years ago I ran my campaign that way. Dr. Domini was a swarthy bearded man in Feast of Goblyns. In Bleak House he was clean shaven with short hair. He had also lost some weight (the pressures of being a domain lord took a toll). He seemed oddly familar to my players but they did not know who he was but he remembered them which made things alot more interesting.

Azalin as a shadow-role is an idea that I 100% agree with. The GC needs all the help it can get to appear as a connected series and not just 6 random adventures. Remember that Azalin may be stuck in Darkon, but the Kargat isn't. Kargat agents should be swarming Kartakass, Har'Akir, Souragne, and the Sea of Sorrows throughout the 730's, looking for any way possible to ensure that that the signs come to pass.

Also remember that the Tribe of Hyskosa should be lurking about as well. (see one of the better parts of Champions of Darkness)

If you want to work in Bleak House, the obvious connection is Dr. D. When I ran FoG the most recent time, I even planted a link to Baron Metus as a bit of Bleak House foreshadowing. On the old ravenloft-l mailing list someone once proposed that in Bleak House, Dr. D should greet FoG survivors warmly, thanking them for ending his vampiric existence (if they "killed" him in FoG), and prove that he's now mortal and "reformed" by throwing back a curtain and basking in the sunlight (cerebral vamps are immune). (I suppose you could also plant "The Thinker" in one of the vistani appearances in the GC modules. Have him pre-amputation, when he's just a vistani psion, and then seeing what's become of him in BH will be all the more shocking).

Introduce Van Richten early and often, otherwise Bleak House loses its meaning, but remember there's a fine line to be walked. You don't want to make him uber-NPC that swoops in and solves the party's problems, but you don't want to make him a fool who needs to be rescued all the time. (Chilling Tales is a good source of Dr. VR adventures, but falls into that second category all too often for my tastes). A good tactic is to have him "too busy" fighting other evils to help the PCs more directly. That lets both he and the PCs triumph separately.

Another idea I've been using to prep for Bleak House is to get the PCs familiar with Dr. VR's associates too, especially the ones that appear as ghosts in BH. I've put Davvyd, Geddar, and Allanthir in so far in my campaign, with the first two dying off along the way, Allanthir is surely next to go.

Sadly, I don't see a good direct hook for Toben. Like you said, using a pc background is probably the way to go.

Kuffs wrote:A few other things I'm tossing around in my head is how to have Azalin have a shadow role in the process of having the Hexad fulfilled. I'm thinking that he can manipulate the PCs and Van Richten through a minion by feeding them information. There are going to be a couple dead ends here and there to throw them off but on the whole Azalin is playing them the whole time, ensuring they are present at each step.

I agree with this - the Hexad adventures were all written separately and only loosely tied together retroactively. Anything you can do to increase the thematic continuity across them is a good thing.

Apart from that, you may want to consider having Van Richten and Azalin at opposing purposes throughout. Van Richten is able to find the various items or events that are significant to the planar fabric or the GC, and he is trying to destroy them. Azalin is trying to secure them. The PCs don't really know which is which, because although Richten is open and frank with them in sharing information, he may be working from imperfect information himself. Azalin, of course, is not open with his information and may in fact be playing the PCs to destroy a red herring item while bringing back the real one unawares. I'd suggest assigning or creating an item tied to each adventure that is significant to the Demiplane's fabric, which would explain why Azalin is interested. Van Richten, of course, may just be focussed on destroying the big bad evil villain, which may not always be related to Azalin's interest.

Another thing is to consider the order of playing the adventures. The levels of difficulty are all mixed up if you play them in chronological order, so you may want to reorder them by levels.

One final thing is that you can have Azalin kill off Van Richten in Bleak House. If the PCs have come to like and respect the good Doctor, then that alone may give them enough incentive to go searching for Azalin and avenging his death. There would be no need to use the railroading events at the start of From the Shadows.