Well that’s a bit different. Sorry if my initial criticism came off has hash by the the way.
I still think the premise needs a lot of work. From what you are describing it sounds like there would be a lot of dialogue between Gale and Mystra, and as a personal DM rule I try to limit dialogue between NPCs. In my experience as a player that isn’t very engaging. Listening to a DM describe two characters falling in love sounds like a lot of time listening and not role playing.
If you want to hide that the story is about Gale’s origins, you could have the campaign begin with Mystra (in disguise) tell the party that Karsus has been reborn and task them with hunting him down. Then when they find Karsus they discover that it’s actually Gale, that the person who sent them on the quest was Mystra, and that the two were lovers. At that point they go from hunting Gale to accompanying him on his journey to the astral plane.
Oh no worries, Warlocke. I understood your POV. It made sense for a normal tt adventure (my idea WOULD suck xD). So yes, be harsh and direct (lol), I actually prefer that people engage honestly with me, and give me better ideas. It helps me rewrite and fine-tune certain parts.
So yeah, this group of players are very into the Gale backstory and his love affair with Mystra. And yes, absolutely: any dialogue between Mystra and Gale will be told via Gale (under a fake name) in dialogue w the players, as the players ask me questions about his past, -- as Gale talks about his "ex-girlfriend he can't get over losing, and wants to get back, bla bla bla, and that the only way to do it, is to help him find a "certain magical artefact locked in the Astral plane".
And..... if the players don't ask certain key questions, I'll reveal those key aspects of the backstory using some means of storytelling that veils the love-story as something else entirely.... so that half way through the adventure, once the players, realize I'm Gale, they can recontextualize everything and go: "Oooooooooh, okay, I see what's really going on!"
BUUUUUUT......... I also LOVE your idea of having a disguised Mystra being the one who tasks the players in the beginning in hunting a certain powerful Mage, and then having the twist of the party switching sides and helping Gale out. Maybe I can combine all of this by making Mystra unaware of the fact that he's Karsus?
Perhaps what happened in the backstory was this: only AFTER she broke up with Gale, does Gale begin to experience strange visions of someone's former life -- Karsus. And once Gale becomes aware that his strange visions were actually Karsus' Memories dated millennia ago, THEN Mystra becomes aware that Karsus has returned (but she has no idea it's Gale -- due to some divine magical reason I have yet to concoct).
Point being: Gale is Karsus reincarnated, yes, BUT he sees himself more Gale than anything else. His Karsus memories almost feel like someone else's memories...they feel distant.... but they're in the First Person POV, so they're technically still Gale's memories as well... almost as if a crack happened during the cycle of death & rebirth -- when Karsus "died", causing a paradox -- whereby a "magical copy" of his soul migrated millennia into the future and attached itself to Gale's, causing Gale to come into existence as someone who has two sets of memories merged into one body and soul (Karsus memories remaining dormant until after the Mystra breakup).
Wow, I'm getting a headache trying to keep up with logic in this convoluted mess. LOL!
So, yeah.....that's all I got for now. Thank you though! This helps a lot! I'm definitely keeping your idea of Mystra being the quest-giver at the beginning!
