Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Durandal 02-10-06, 07:06 PM	Hi, everyone. I'm about to be running an Eberron campaign, and while my players have characters and I have an idea as to how to get them all together and get them going, I'm having a little trouble figuring out where to try and get them to go. A little background: The characters in my campaign are: a human rogue, exiled scion of a Thrane noble family whose parents were executed for spying for Aundair; a female Valenar fighter, working as either an ambassador's attache or horse breeder in Aundair; a human wizard from Cyre, whose family died in the Mourning and who now works in Aundair, trying to find others to help him go and retrieve his family for burial; a half-elf bard, who followed his father through the last years of the Last War and has been wandering since, and a half-elf sorcerer. Since most of them have reason to be in Aundair, and most of them would benefit from a friendly power in Aundair, I'd like to have Queen Aurala's brother, Adal, hire them as expendable, unofficial explorers to go out oand find some sort of powerful magic that might help him win back Thaliost - and possibly take the throne. The rogue owes the Aundair royal family for taking him in, the Valenar is open to travel to follow her ancestor's path, the wizard wants to do something worthwhile, and the other two are, as far as I know, just bored and looking for excitement. My problem lies in where I try and point them. I realize that as players, they are as likely to follow my suggestions as to wander off in another direction, but since at least two players are new, they might require a little direction. I was thinking of sending them to Darguun, to find an ancient artifact of the hobgoblin empire, or perhaps the Demon Wastes, to find a forbidden relic of power. Maybe even Xen'drik, but they're estarting at 5th level and I don't want to kill them all just yet. Does anyone have any suggestions that might help me out? I'd be much obliged.
Rechan 02-10-06, 09:52 PM	Xen'drik isn't lethal to 5th level PCs per se. Remember, they only encounter waht you want. Ideally, I'd say the Mournland would be more lethal than Xen'drik, but that's just me. ;) Personally, were it my party, I'd put them through <I>The Speaker of Dreams</i> that's been modified. Set it in Passage (You have a noble who's corrupted by the Dragons below? Perfect!). Since Passage is in Aundair, it'd work. But that's probably not what you wanted. Some ideas that come to mind: The Eldeen Reaches - The Eldeen Reaches succeeded from Aundair, but it used to be part of Aundair - so it's likely there was Aundarian things still there. Forts, crypts, etc. The Crown might want something that has yet to be retrieved. Droaam - The place I'd send them, personally. They could go on a diplomatic mission, or one to spy on the activity of x, or just to hassle an ogre mage's tomb. The Shadow Marches - A dangerous place for about their level, and you could send them after anything. Possibly a Dhakanni/Gatekeeper item.
Kid SixXx 02-10-06, 09:58 PM	The new WoTC super module. Red Hand of Doom, starts PC's off at 5th level. Below is a link to the thread where me and some other folks are tossing around ideas for tinkering with the module to fit Eberron: click (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=584139)
Boondoggle 02-11-06, 05:08 AM	Grasp of the Emerald Claw is a very well done adventure designed for 6th level PCs. The patron of the party secretly works for the northern 'branch' of house Cannith, which is conveniently located in Aundair. The trip to Sharn would definately give you the chance to bump them up to 6th, though if you have particularly competent players, they will be able to succeed at 5th level. It will take them to about 10th level assuming they explore completely. And it gives you, the DM, a perfect BBEG to unleash upon the party later (assuming they complete the quest as instructed).
Durandal 02-16-06, 12:26 AM	Thanks for the ideas so far. I think I'm going to avoid pre-made adventures, though I do like Grasp of the Emerald Claw. Speaker in Dreams would be out anyway, since two of the players were in a game where I ran them through it once, and they'd be unlikely to fall for the same tricks again. As for the Droaam idea...I like it - I'm a little surprised I hadn't thought of it before, actually. It will give the players a chance to deal with a country run by what most people assume are monsters, there's at least one good hobgoblin ruin there (Cazhaak Draal), and the Daughters of Sora Kell would be an easy lead-in for a larger plot, perhaps something to do with the dragon prophecy. As an objective in Droaam, I suppose I could have the party go after one of the minor warlords, or go dungeon-diving. In the meantime, since it seems likely the group will run into ancient hobgoblin ruins at some point, does anyone have any suggestions as to what to throw at them? What kind of traps would hobgoblins put in their sacred places?
Korhal_IV 02-16-06, 01:32 AM	What kind of traps would hobgoblins put in their sacred places? The hobgoblins loved song and battle, and hated elves. I'd put in some sort of fascinate effect, coupled with the animation of a few warrior statues the round after. Warrior statues with an elfbane effect on their weapons. :) Illusions might be pretty frequent, too, or the binding of extraplanar critters. Really, Dhakaan was fairly epic, so any traps laid by the hobgoblins would be extremely dangerous. I'd be tempted to have a tribe of disposable mooks living in the dungeon - they've disabled most of the hobgoblin traps (the hard way) and rigged some crude ones of their own.
Cloud Divider 02-16-06, 02:35 AM	Hi, everyone. I'm about to be running an Eberron campaign, and while my players have characters and I have an idea as to how to get them all together and get them going, I'm having a little trouble figuring out where to try and get them to go. I do enjoy brainstorming...so here's my ideas. To summarize: 1) M Hum Rog; Thranish exile, born to traitor parents 2) F Valenar Ftr; Ambassador's attache/horse breeder 3) M Hum Wiz; Cyran, wants to give his family a proper burial 4) M H-Elf Bard; wanderer, father was a Last War vet(?) 5) ? H-Elf Sor; unknown. First: What style of campaign do you want to run? e.g. Espionage, Intrigue, Action/Adventure, Political, etc. "High power"/"Low power" (in their effect on the world - you can do High Power at Low Levels). Second: What style of campaign do your players want to play? Hopefully the answers will overlap - if not, hopefully some compromise can be met. It's no mistake I put the GM first - you'll be investing a lot of time into the game, you'd better be enjoying it. If you don't, you'll burn out FAST. And that leads to no fun for anyone. I'm going to wax long about the PC's and their plot hooks. I find getting the PC's personally involved is really key in a Great Campaign. I think it's really important, so I try to do it whenever I can. Anyway, looking over your PCs, you've got some pretty juicy plot hooks. The disgraced nobleman just screams for something along the lines of the Count of Monte Cristo (ie revenge is best served cold). I think it's probably safe to assume he wants revenge against the Thranes in some form. If his parents were spies for Aundair - what's his current opinion of Aundair? Is he now loyal to Aundair (rather than his homeland)? How far would he go to exact his revenge? What would he sacrifice? I think you might do well to tie that storyline in with Thaliost - perhaps that's his hometown? (I'll plug a post of mine from some time back, regarding the Knights of Thaliost as a new organization...I'll add a link in a later edit) The Cyran who wants to recover the bodies of his family is also interesting (on first read, I got this very interesting idea where something decidedly not good happens to the bodies once they leave the Mournland, maybe becoming some kind of quasi-undead/Deathless...or maybe he's haunted by what he thinks are their ghosts). Alternately, you don't have to mess with him (though maybe he can have a few dreams where the "ghosts" of his family speak to him) - wanting to give his family a proper burial is a nice and noble thing to do. He'll have a hard enough time accomplishing it that his victory should be sweet. The question now becomes - how far will he go to do it? Would he cut a deal with emissaries of the Lord of Blades? The Valenar is in kind of a wierd situation - very good if you want to pursue the political and espionage angle, not so much otherwise. Assuming she goes for the Official Diplomatic Status (as an aide to the Valenar Ambassador), it puts her into a kinda wierd category. She gets all the benefits of Diplomatic Immunity (for the moment, let's just assume we can take that particular anacronistic concept into Eberron), with all of the political baggage that invoking it entails (ie creating "diplomatic incidents"). In the modern day, that's entirely part of the reason the diplomatic corps ends up playing very strongly into the espionage game (while the Diplomat's not usually the spy - there's usually a healthy number of them in the Embassy's staff...like that certain Valenar attache). So let's run with that - she's a Valenar spy. What's she after? What's her area of expertise? Who does she report to? LOTS of good potential there. It also means very interesting things politically, if the Aundairian prince is enlisting her assistance personally (which might as well be "officially" asking for Valenar aid)... The half-elves...are a little bit trickier, because I don't honestly have a whole lot to work with (sounds like you don't, either). So we'll skip them for now. So now...what would bring this diverse band together? One exercise is to give the players a chance to hash it out themselves. I prefer that route - it gives the players a little more ownership of things. I'll offer some advice here and there, especially if it helps tie things together. Plus, as the GM, I know My Eberron better than anyone else, so I can fill in the details as necessary. If you've ever heard of a Relationship Map, this may be a good place to try one out. If that fails, we turn to GM Fiat - the GM declares how it worked out. Here's one possibility: Let's play the Last War card from the get-go - let's assume the Exile and the Bard had crossed paths before. The Bard and the Sorceror, maybe they're old travel companions (but the Sorc is not known to the Exile), especially now that we've got that whole Khoravar we're-all-one-big-family Unity Stuff from the Eberron Player's Guide. The Cyran and the Valenar may have some kind of VERY uneasy truce - given the Valenar betrayal of his homeland, she did something to regain his personal trust (more interestingly, let's say that the Valenar owes the Cyran a debt of honor of some kind). This debt of honor is IMPORTANT, because it gives her a good out for her official duties at the Embassy (as the Valenar are nothing without honor, I could easily believe that her superiors would give her a leave of absence to repay the debt, no questions asked). So now you want Prince Adal to bring them together. Adal's got his sights on Thaliost. Let's make him a manipulative patron - he's really using the PCs as a means to an end. Thaliost is the key to his plans. The Exile's ties to Thrane make him a good candidate (so say his advisors in the Royal Eyes); they've also told him of a Cyran refugee, that also just happens to have a particularly unique link to the Valenar. So through various double-blinds, he brings the 5 together (the Exile brings the Half-elves, the Cyran brings the Valenar). See, Adal is a clever sort, and is getting two birds with one stone - the Valenar, with their vaunted martial prowess will certainly get his job done; plus he's got some political leverage he can use on the Valenar Ambassador, depending on how things go. Perhaps he could ensure Valenar support, if he needs it later...It's a win-win for him. Now, you may think Adal's a bit self-serving in the above scenario. He most certainly is! None of the PC's are loyal to Aundair! They don't even have Aundairian blood! But they're certainly valuable (and quite deniable) tools for him. I'm going to have to continue the message in a second post - I think I may be reaching the character limit on this one.
Cloud Divider 02-16-06, 03:19 AM	So now we've got the PC's nominally working for Adal (though very much indirectly). After having reread his entry in Five Kingdoms, Adal is Not a Nice Man. He'll be an ideal Manipulative Patron that the PC's will ultimately have to turn upon... :) So there's our Endgame: Adal is the Enemy. He's essentially after the Magical Atom Bomb that will give him supremacy over the Five Nations - so that's our Master Plan. Seems fitting that a visit to a Xen'drik and/or a nutty Cataclysm Mage should take place. So we tailor the campaign around a series of McGuffins that lead to that end. Tailor the missions accordingly - first he'll test their capabilities, and then their loyalties. So start out simple - he doesn't trust them enough to send them after the McGuffin that's the key element of his Master Plan. Chapter 1: So perhaps he'll start out sending them after some minor ruins "safely" in Aundair. How about a good (and OLD) Gatekeeper ruin in the Eldritch Grove or Whisper Woods? Maybe he's just looking to see if they're clever enough to know that information can be far more valuable than sparkly things (maybe he'd be happy if they just brought back wax rubbings of wall carvings)... Throw in some Druidic guardians of some flavor (given Adal's focus on wizardly might and hatred of the Eldeen, Ashbound may make a good foe). Now, for the purposes of the story, you need to make the Ashbound obviously bad-guys. Make them a fanatical sub-cult, if you must. Make them half-orcs, or otherwise "less than human" if it makes it easier. Chapter 2: Subplot involving one of the PC's. Maybe a recon mission into Thaliost. Deliver supplies/goods/weapons to resistance forces there. Play up on the Exile's need. Let the PC's wail on some Thranish jackbooted thugs. Chapter 3: A little more adventurous - a raid on an Eldeen ruin (or "library," or whatever). If you want to play up the spy-game, do the whole fake ID's, "travel in plain sight" kind of stuff - they've got the backing to get whatever they need. The challenge here is 1) Can they be subtle, 2) How do they act when things go south? Maybe a fun target might be the writings of a long-dead Eldeen Cataclysm Mage, written in a tome made of human(oid?) skin. Nobody's quite sure how to translate it just yet, however (Read Magic/Comprehend Languages doesn't quite work - maybe it's written in pictographs/rebuses that just don't translate...or they can, but they just can't make sense of it). They need to steal that, and get out of dodge. Chapter 4: Now the fun begins. Adal's dreams are getting more...vivid. And he's getting much better intelligence on what he wants to do (it looks like he's getting that book translated...somehow). Perhaps he gets ...Inspired...to send the team on a mission into the Mournland. Perhaps he's got the impression that there's something in some Cannith ruins that would further his weapons/Creation Forge development efforts. It's also a good excuse to bring in the Cyran's subplot. It doesn't need to be resolved - but perhaps progress could be made. Maybe they make it to his old household, but no bodies - but he find signs that they packed in a hurry (odd - perhaps they were warned of what was coming?). Maybe a note that they fled to a shelter or redoubt of some kind (why was the PC not in Cyre on the Day of Mourning, anyway?). This shelter just happens to be a Different Cannith Forge Hold than they were sent after... Chapter 5: Perhaps Adal is now getting concerned about Aurala - he now sends the PC's to foil some of his sister's competing plans. It'd be subtle to the PC's (hey, maybe they only find out they were Royal Eyes after searching the bodies), but have a pretty big dramatic punch. Chapter 6: If you want to take the magical WMD approach - just think what Adal could do with a little bought "technology" from Mordain the Fleshweaver? Imagine, if you will, a Daelkyr-inspired magebred plague... For deniability purposes, perhaps he's sending the PC's to take out another team he's sent to acquire the magebred plague. Chapter 7: Now the PC's know Adal's cracked. They've got enough allies in the Royal Eyes to let them know that Adal's cracked the code from that Cataclysm Mage's tome - he's personally heading up a team going into Xen'drik. The PC's need to pull in favors to try and beat Adal to the punch (faster airship, raise an army, whatever). Chapter 8: Endgame. The PC's intercept Adal's expedition into Xen'drik, just as he's about to uncover some really spooky Giant-Age WMDs - the kind that trashed Xen'drik (see The Shattered Land for ideas). They fight him, and more-or-less defeat him, only to discover that he's been the pawn of the Dreaming Dark the whole time. Plus, they might have just "accidentally" killed off a Royal Heir of Galifar. Chapter 9: And so a New Game Begins... (this would be our Season 2, to use TV series jargon). How's that for a VERY rough campaign outline? It could probably stand for some fine-tuning to involve the PC's more. Each "Chapter" is likely to be at least a session or two in length - you could easily fill them out with more PC-centric sideplots.
Calibim 02-16-06, 09:25 AM	Shameless Plug: My "Doombingers" Thread (http://www.wizards.com/leaving.asp?url=http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=583716&origin=) Also, if anyone wants to add some of there own, please feel free.
Durandal 02-18-06, 12:51 AM	Wow. There are some great ideas in this thread, especially from Cloud Divider - I think I will likely end up borrowing liberally from your ideas. As they say in other threads, 'yoink'. :)