Hello! my fellow Guilders. I'd like to put this idea out there that's been eating away at me for about a year now. It was originally a D&D campaign that never got played to completion because, really, these campaigns can last years and I was lucky enough to even make it one summer. I'll lay out all the important bits, from beginning to end. I mean beginning to end too, I've had a long time to go over this. 

The genre I'm aiming for a spy thriller sort of deal, with mix of drama and a staccato'd doses of heavy action. So think of all this in the mindset of espionage, subterfuge, and suspenseful sequences that'll keep readers on their toes. Got that? Yeah?

All right. Here we go. (I apologize for any misspellings for words missing from sentences. It's 3 AM and I may not be typing at my best <3 )

This idea is based around during the great war in Eberron, based on the continent of Khorvaire.
[url=http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ForgeWar_Maps/105883.jpg]
 War has rampaged over the land for nearly century after Galifar Wynarn III died long ago and left no legitimate heirs. So his cousins, five rulers of five very complex and varied nations, have been at war for approximately ninety four years. Two years before... Before something happens. This is where the story would commence. Ninety four years into this war, the heroes are introduced. Five or six in all, making up a dynamic party like in a regular party based adventure, with one of them being our primary protagonist. I'm sticking with the regular group situation, that being a tank, a healer, a controller (support class), and a DPS class or two. I picture the main pro being one of the last classes. I imagine this group sticking around for the duration, having at least one permanent character death sometime near the late middle of the story. That's all subject to change.

Anyway. These five or six heroes have found themselves, well, SOL. They're either aligned with any of the five nations or are completely independent, whether they are, absolutely irrelevant. What is relevant is that all of them have significant reason to despair. Down on their luck and nearing the end of their ropes, they each find themselves inexplicably tied together by one man. This one man's name is Leicester, and he is our primary antagonist. Sounds obvious enough right? Wrong. 

Leicester approaches our misfortuned adventurers and offers them a second chance at their life.

A chance with his organization, which for the moment I am calling the Commonwealth. (Cheesy, I know. I KNOW they used it in the Fallout series, shit, cut me some slack here D: I'm only one man!)

So of course, given the dreary alternative, they accept.

That's the first few chapters. Now let me explain the spheel dealing with the big CW

[b] The Big CW [/b]

The Commonwealth is integral to the preservation of Khorvaire. Like many other secret societies, they claim that they serve no one king or queen, that their duty is to the realm. They claim to serve some sort of greater good by keeping the balance of power between the five nations in check. They do this by doing whatever means necessary. The Commonwealth is essentially a self-sustaining Intelligence Agency, packing the manpower, and the technology to be a convincingly real threat.

[b] The Triumvirate [/b]

The CW is split into three main headquarters which are called either Enclaves, or Chapters. The three enclaves are ruled by three equally powerful "Chapter Masters."
Ayasha Bloodmourn, a powerful sorceress in her own right, rules the underground Towering Wood Enclave, located in the Eldeen Reaches.
Darrenhall Bloon, a very militant man who breeds an army of monk-type super soldiers rules the island enclave a short northeastern journey away in the Fingerbone Mountains.
Leicester Belinser rules the Talenta Enclave at the center of a mountain in the Talenta Plains.

[b] Positins / Ranking / etcetera [/b]

Members of the CW gain prestige and rank by taking on contracts, which function as missions and quests. With each successful contract, the quest-takers are awarded coin and ranking points. New members start at 0 RP and with enough determination can work their way up to the final rank at 1000 RP. This will function as the primary driver for the story. The heroes take on missions, and they quest around for a few years to hone their spy skills and such until they reach about 800 or so RP. At this point they gain the rank of "Wraith-Marshall" and are recognized by the elite members, as well as by Leicester, for their superior skill. Of course, up until this point, they will have encountered many trials, and possibly one of them have died. But they've done it, they have come this far, and now it's time for Leicester to use his wily ways to snake into their hearts and gain their trust.

At this point in the story, Leicester has had little screen time, although when he has appeared, they were monumentally important, and I hope to have established that he is a very honorable man. I want to instill in the reader that Leicester is definitely good. So good that he has the sun shining out of his ass, but not so good as to be considered a pushover. He is their for a reason, and he just justly earned that right in the readers eyes.

[b] Here is where I run into snags [/b]
I have an ending mapped out, and I'd be more than willing to share that ending if anyone is interested in this. This point in the story; however, I have been significantly stalled. Here's why:

Leicester has something big planned. Something so big on the wow factor that the gods themselves would be scarred for an eternity or more. He has the trust of the heroes in the palm of his hand, and at their rank, they're ready to start taking contracts from him personally. He needs to work them into carrying out his schemes, whilst at the same time making those schemes appear as if they serve the greater good, and not once make the heroes suspect that he is in fact up to no good. 

You see my problem here?

I need to weave this intricate web of lies, deception, cunning, and clever manipulation over the heroes AND the readers. The big reveal near the end is going to be mind numbingly fuck worthy.

The problem is what scenarios can we create that will lead to that conclusion?

Here's some info on Leicester in a hider.

[hider=Leicester]

The big daddy of them all. The antagonist no one sees coming. 

Leicester is as honorable and magnanimous as he is cruel and calculatingly cold. He is thirty seven years old, and has run the Talenta Enclave for almost the whole of his life. He grew up a street urchin, scrounging around for his next meal, living day to day, for six years with his mentor, a man he knew only as Mr. Hobbs. Hobbs taught him the basics of survival in the slummy dead ends of cities. Lock picking, speech craft, pick pocketing. By the time tragedy struck, Leicester was a proficient liar and thief. Hobbs and him would one day be mugged, leading to Hobbs' death. Struck with the sudden loneliness and isolation, Leicester gave in to despair. Until one day he awoke with a strange trinket in his hand. A small obsidian blade, the size of a barbers shaving razor. It was darker than midnight, and in direct sunlight seemed to suck in and eat the rays of the sun. It was a feeble thing then, a creation of pure grief, and despair. Despite this it spoke to Leicester, it formed a symbiotic bond with the six year old, and fed off of his mourning and turned it into a needlepoint of a hate. It was this day that Leicester became what I call a "Blademourner". If I had to classify it, it'd be a mix between a nethermancer and an assassin. 

A blademourner gained power through death. He became the first and last of this kind of warrior. Every time Leicester killed with the Blade, he gained a small percentage of the victims knowledge, strength, and abilities. Yeah. OP right? This is a man who has based his entire career off of killing powerful people. He is definitely a force to be reckoned with.

By the time Leicester reached the age of 16, he met Ayasha and Darrenell. They have each come from different corners of the continent, the three seemingly toward each other in this mad gambit of hope and expectation. They each possessed something special that distinguished them from the common people. Together they shared their collective knowledge and came to a conclusion. The war was killing them all. Man, woman, child, it didn't matter. Nearly 60 years into the conflict and no end was in sight. They concluded that if nothing happened, then the war would reach a fever pitch that would consume them all. That day, the Commonwealth was born.

[b] The Blade [/b]

The Blade originated in the campaign that all this takes place in. I call it a "Doom" weapon. The progenitor of all my future doom weapon designs. It was the first of it's kind, and it justly deserves an epic origin. All you need to know though, is that the blade has very, *very* slowly, corrupted Leicester. So, you could say he's more Chaotic Good than anything right now. The Blade has perverted his perception of things, which leads to the chain of events that occur near the end of the story that require those intricate manipulations.

[/hider]

So yes. That's all I've got for the moment. I really hope to attract some interest in this, as I can't imagine a better place to share my novel idea. I look forward to any responses and appreciate any and all criticisms and suggestions I receive <3