Oh please, all of this sounds interesting. :P
The new type of artifact especially. It can be a lesser known Piece or something completely new. Seeing that the canon pieces in this age are mostly Apples and the Staff (and the Shroud, but it's minor), there is plenty of tinkering possible. Rodrigo will eventually acquire the Staff himself by becoming Pope—though that only happens later, so we can also try to speed things up a little/alter the course (what if he can't bribe his way through the conclave?
there are opposing candidates) which would make intervention necessary to secure the power by other means.
For now though, I say we keep with the artifact hunt in one way or another. As you said, Luciano is still being pressed by Rodrigo to find a replacement for the Apple (something I suppose he'll be reminded of soon...) and he will certainly try to steer this newfound ‘team’ in that direction. And for that, the first step is of course finding where it is (and
what it is if we go the creative way). Confronting the Assassins and their allies in search of information is indeed what we'll probably have to do, although we might have to take a more...secretive approach to our missions if we want to keep the true fates of Elena and Alessandro secret for as long as possible.
I'll try to set up the first such mission in my next post!
Edit: Also, yes, family drama! Luciano's family played a large part in his story until the present day, much like Elena's in hers. The Vicari are somewhat entwined with the Order and they're also surely affected by the unfolding events. I have a bunch of small idea fragments for them already. We'll see how we can implement these family dynamics, because they certainly have potential!
See, I told you everything you said was interesting. :P