Here's what I'd do.
- The Githyanki are close to annihilating the remainder of the Illithid Empire. They have a weapon that supposedly protects them from getting dominated and on teh trail of the last surviving Elder Brain.
- The last of the Elder Brains is on the Prime Material plane, and as far as the Emperor is concerned, needs protecting at all costs.
- A Dreadmaster of Bane, posing as a scheming yet succesful politician organises an alliance with other outlawed faiths, namely A Myrkulite cult, a Sharran sect and the Murder Tribunal of Bhaal - to steal that weapon and come up with a plan to find and subjugate that Elder Brain. With it, they could rule the world, twirl their respective mustaches and all that. Of course, this alliance is fragile - but he's a Dreadmaster. He'll make them fall in line. Together they form a well rounded strike team to retrieve that weapon. Among that team is The Dark Urge and Shadowheart.
The Emperor, of course has ovfer the course of the last few years, tadpoled hundreds of people along the sword coast, waiting for a moment to strike and his intelligence network is *vast*. He learns of this plan, and concocts his own reaction. He will not steal the weapon from Vlaakith, we hill kidnap and tadpole the strike team.
This all goes well, the intro cutscene plays - the Githyanki track his Nautiloid yatta yatta
And the Emperor quickly poses a new plan. Get to the prime Material Plane, drop the newly created tadpoled team with the weapon. They might not be allies yet, but everyone and their mothers will be on their tails - so they will be quick to trust someone that protects them. If all else fails, we can always dominate them, they're tadpoled after all..
