Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Delgar 01-04-06, 09:07 AM	Alright, I'm going to be starting an Eberron campaign this Friday and I could use as much help as possible in making it a great game. :) My original idea is out the window so, now I'm back to the drawing board. Alright, so here is the party make up: Half-Elf Bard (Dragonmarked, Detection) Kalashtar Psion Shifter Wilder Warforged Druid Elf Monk None of the characters are combat optimized (except the druid, but it's really hard to not make a druid that's not combat optimized), although he's playing the warforged druid for the cool philosophical aspect of it (damn philosophy majors). Anyway the game is going to be roleplaying/mystery solving/over the top action heavy. My plan is to have the group work for the Bard's Dragonmarked house. The half-elf will basically be one of the houses contract negotiaters and the group will be her entourage. I'm starting them off at 3rd level. My initial plan for an adventure was going to be a simple start: - They get sent to negotiate a contract with a gnome professor (famous archeologist) who is aparently setting up a new expedition/dig. House Medani wants to get a piece of the action or perhaps the whole pie. Aparently he's being back by some money. - Showing up at the gnomes place they discover that it's been broken into. They'll find bodies of guards and that the perps are still there and they are "Questioning" the gnome. - I'm assuming a fight will break out here, and there will be a lot of furniture thrown and attempts to push characters down stairs and windows. It'll be a knock down drag out fight. - After the fight, the characters might notice a purple slug crawling out from one of the thugs ears. Also one of the thugs is wearing a House Cannith ring (one of the houses members that has been missing for a few months) - At this point the players will probably move the gnome to safety and I might ambush them on the way back home. Where to go from here? What could the gnome be digging up? What's a good name for the gnome? What's a good name for their female patron? Who is the investor? I'm sure there are a million other questions I can ask, but really once they get the gnome to safety. Where do I go from there?
Save-vs-DM 01-04-06, 09:45 AM	One good method I use when desiging adventures is to work backwords from the end of the adventure. In your case, you might decide that he final showdown is with the shadowy investor in an old clock tower that he's been using as a cover for his new cult. Well, now we all the sudden have a cult. Maybe this cult revolves around little purple brain slugs and they heard that this dig might have a purple slug worm artifact of some power. Well, where did they hear about this? It could have been from Mr. Cannith Brain Slug thug that ambushed the party. So they found out about the dig from him and the supposed artifact and then enslaved him. But where did our Brain Slug Thug hear about this? Perhaps he was one of the original diggers and actually sold the artifact he stole to a shadowy villain in the depths of Sharn. Perhaps the gnome located this artifact on a rather shady "business venture" and realized what it was. He knew that someone would be looking for it and so he bought it and hid it. Why didn't the gnome go to the cops? Perhaps he also bought some dream lilly or another illegal drug that he is addicted to. Admitting where he got the artifact might get him in trouble, so he's going to be tight lipped. Where does the Brain Slug Thug come back into the picture? When he was enslaved the Evil Cult found out that he sold the artifact they were looking for and so they sent him to rough up the gnome and find out where it's at. This is where your PCs just came in. I hope that illustrates the "working backword" method somewhat clearly as well as providing you with a few ideas for your adventure. Now on to your specific questions. Where to go from here? Linking the dig site to an evil cult opens up several sessions of gaming as your characters slowly find out how many areas this cult has worked themselves into. What could the gnome be digging up? The gnome is actually trying to hide a skeleton in his closet: he bough the artifact when he was buying illegal drugs for his own use. He hid away the artifact with plans to sell it for more drug money. What's a good name for the gnome? Belestran Elvendri What's a good name for their female patron? Gendra d'Medani Who is the investor? The evil cult who is trying to uncover more evil artifacts. Cheers and good luck! Save vs DM
Delgar 01-05-06, 09:31 AM	Thanks for the ideas. So assuming I run with the drug addicted gnome (which I like) and this series of events. Say they rescue the gnome. How do the players wind up at the bad guys base? What clues will lead them there? Slug Thug (assuming he's still alive) could possibly help clarify the situation. Perhaps the gnome himself could help out a little, revealing the artifact. How else could the players find out about the cult, where it's at, etc?
ragboy 01-05-06, 04:58 PM	Thanks for the ideas. So assuming I run with the drug addicted gnome (which I like) and this series of events. Say they rescue the gnome. How do the players wind up at the bad guys base? What clues will lead them there? You could use that "Gather Information" time to hook the party up with some long-term contacts. Many prototypical ones present themselves from vs_Dm's suggestions: - gnome's drug dealer - shady artifact dealer in lower Sharn or even in the richer districts (shady back room operation but all legit up front) - various operatives of Khorvaire's spy orgs (Dark Lanterns, etc) - some antagonist with a much longer-view con in play (rakshasas, etc.) These could be an ongoing contact/hook generators for the party throughout the campaign.
maollelujah 01-05-06, 08:03 PM	What could the gnome be digging up? The gnome has been researching the War of the Mark, and has stumbled on several references to a hasty burial of a House Leader as they retreated from the initial Tarkanan onslaught. It is a tomb of an early Medani family leader, before they officially became a house, it is rumored that a powerful artifact is buried here, something that extends the powers of any dragonmark. The gnomes motivation is that he wants to find something important to give him a leg up at his college, and despite the danger he thinks finding this tomb could be just what he needs. What's a good name for the gnome? Gregir Hanmaritt What's a good name for their female patron? Gendra d'Medani, because it is a good name. The patron believes that the tomb is tied to Arphred Medani, an ancient powerful family member that died at the beginning of the War of Mark and his body and personal affects (a powerful artifact that increased the power of his dragonmark among others) disappeared totally. Who is the investor? A shadowy figure that escaped to Thelantis towards the final assualt and now he has returned for revenge and to suceed where his former Lord failed. He wants the artifact to increase his own powers, since he possesses an odd aberrant dragonmark that has stronger than normal powers (like that of Lord Tarkanan). From there: The shadowy figure starts to destroy those that he perceives as his enemies through kidnapping, murder and scandal. Which gives the PCs a lot of things to do.
Delgar 01-12-06, 03:20 PM	I thought I'd give you guys a quick update, seeing as that you were so kind to help out. :) Anyway, so I ran our first session on Friday night, we didn't start till fairly late and one of the people had a flight out of town early the next day so we only ended up playing for a few hours. Everyone had a blast, but that had little to do with me, and more to do with the fact that everyone was just having fun and just being over the top silly. I had decided to start the campaign out at 3rd level, as a lot of people just don't really like the really low levels and 3rd seems like a nice place to start. I gave each of the players an extra background feat that I pre-choose based on their character concepts and gave them each a personal magic item. (I wrote these out on index cards, just in case the player in question didn't have the sourcebook, and for ease of play). I started off the session with them returning from a failed negotiation and good berating from Gendra. This was their last chance, failing at this, they'd be working in the kitchen scrubbing pots for the next year. It was incredibly difficult to keep a straight face while role-playing this encounter, you see the bard was trying to back peddle, try to smooth things out, promise gendra the world. All the while the shifter would chime in with some very inappropriate comment, all the while scratching at flees. At one point she even coughed up a hairball. The monk was trying to hide in plain sight (with no ranks in hide either, wearing bright white and a glammerweave cloak); the entire time while Gendra was staring right at her. Apparently the monk is following the if you I can't see you, you can't see me philosophy. I suggested getting a bag of invisbility for only 1 copper. The warforged was fairly quiet, and the kalashtar didn't say absolutely anything, until they were about to leave, I can't remember what it was, but I definately busted out laughing after it. So, they were supposed to head off to meet with the gnome. They decided, before hand to take a trip to the university and poke around a bit and see if they could dig up some more information. Asking around the campus they only dirt they could dig up was about some afair he had with some student a few years earlier. They decided to check out his office. At this point the bard tried to schmooze his secretary. It's really hard to describe what went on here, but suffice it to say that two or three players were in tears and I had to leave the room I was laughing so much. They left the university knowing little more than they already did. The arrived at the gnomes place, only to find that the door had been kicked in, and two bodies lay at the base of the stairway leading up. They could hear some crash coming from upstairs. The busted up the soulknifes interogation of the gnome, and it became a knockdown drag out fight in the library as the thugs tried to stop the players from entering the room by picking up a table and blocking the door with it. The monk leaped over the table and tumbled past the two thugs and stunned one causing the table to drop (tumble check of 29). The soulknife, injured in the scuffle, ran up the walls, smashed a window and lept out. This shocked most of my players as they're not really up to date on psionics. The shifter and Kalashtar pursued, while the rest cleaned up. The soulknife barely esacped by leaping off one of the bridges, and featherfalling down below and running off (not without taking a few arrows in the back I might add). So, they brought the gnome back to conciousness, noticed the purple slugs crawling out of the ears of the thugs, and discovered a Cannith signet ring on one of the thugs. We stopped here for the evening, but all in all it was a blast.
Delgar 01-17-06, 12:11 PM	Okay, so I'm probably going to be playing this week and I figured I'd see if anyone out there wants to help me out. Last week they rescued Belestran from some thugs, but the ring leader got away (barely I might add) by busting through a window, leaping out, and finally leaping off of one of the bridges. The players also noticed the brain slugs coming out of the thugs ears, as well as the house cannith ring. Okay, so they are probably going to take the gnome back to House Medani. They haven't said anything about the Cannith guy, but I'll drop a hint that he's still ailve, when they take the ring. Plus with a Bardic Knowledge or Knowledge (local), they'll actually recognize him of someone of some importance in the family that had gone missing about 6 months ago. If they return him to his family, I'll give them a reward, and plus once he is nursed back to health he can provide them with all kinds of information, at least what he remembers. The basic layout: - The gnome has something that the cult of the dragon wants - The characters have the gnome - The cult is spying on the group using a psicrystal (which is in the gnomes possesion) - The cult will try to grab the gnome at least one more time before they get back to the safe house. Okay so what could ambush them? Where? I was thinking that the gnome, could pursade the characters to take him into lower Sharn, to pick up something important (his drugs). If they buy that then, while in lower Sharn, not only do they get to see the dregs of society, but I can hit them with all sorts of things. What kind of cool images can I describe about lower sharn? Some cool scenes they could come across? Once they finally get the gnome back home, then from there a bunch of things could happen. - Discover the gnomes drug habbit - Discover he's not been telling them the whole truth - Find out information about the cult from the missing Cannith member - Find out about the dig site Anything that anyone can add, specific or general would be great. What would be a good name for a Cannith family member? Thanks, Delgar
Delgar 01-19-06, 09:36 AM	Ahh come on you know you want to help me. :)
Delgar 04-12-06, 10:08 AM	I cast Ressurect Dead Thread. My campaign has been on hiatus, due to me buying a house, packing, moving, cleaning and all that jazz, but I will be continuing this campaign. Anyone have any ideas for me. :D