"Millenium Madness" - ideas for Eberron adventures [Archive] - Wizards Community

"Millenium Madness" - ideas for Eberron adventures [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Glupinickname
07-08-06, 02:03 PM I run an Eberron campaign irregulary for about two years now. Recently, my univeristy exams and lack of self - esteem got in my way of DMing. But now, after having several months to toy with varius ideas in my head, I decided to try and run several connected Eberron adventures.

I'm not sure will I run all of these adventures - I lose my courage quite easy. Even writing this down and sending it to a critics and opinions of a bunch of unknown people took some guts. :o

Beside, there are real life concerns as well: gathering players on sessions, hoping they'll get interested in the story, balancing time between running sessions, studying and going on vacations, and so on.

These ideas probably won't turn out as cool on the actual sessions as they sound in my head. But, I needed to vent all of them out of my system and decided to write them down.

I would definitely like to hear some comments, suggestions or ideas from other people 'cause all of the folks I usually talk about D&D play in my campaign.

I apologise for hammy grammar. English is not my native language. As for style, well, this are supposed to be cliched horror adventures for a dark swashbuckling setting, so I guess it's just as it should be. :)
Glupinickname
07-08-06, 02:04 PM Introduction

The Year is 999. Y.K. As the end of the year approaches, the sense of unease slowly creeps into the teeming populace of Sharn. Just what will the Millenium bring? Age - long prosperity? Another war? Or maybe even the end of world?

Deep inside the shadows of the City of Towers, small but rapidly growing cult preaches its' visions of the future. Scuttling like rats under the cyclopean towers of the metropolis, these fanatics gather daily new followers among the poor and desperate.

"The end is nigh!" say these fanatics. During the Last War, civilisations of Khorvaire have proved over and over again how corrupted and feeble they became. Well, no more. This Final Age ends by fire and brimstone, the moment the Eberron enters the new millenium. The cultists have prayed for salvation.

And now, from the gargantuan caves, from the deep within intestines of the Dragon Below... something has answered them back.
Glupinickname
07-08-06, 02:05 PM The main Villains

Family ir'Crattus made a fortune a century ago. Kaligari ir'Crattus traveled into the deepest bogs of dreaded Shadow Marches. After dissappearing from the face of Eberron for five years, he returned as a sole survivor of the original expedition. With himself he brought a handfull of barbaric servitors, a wealth of Khyber dragonshards, a strange shaman wife and a curse that still haunts his family. Today, ir'Crattus family still lives in relative luxury while modestly keeping their privacy. For a reason.

Constantine ir'Crattus

Dr. Constantine ir'Crattus dedicated his life to helping the insane while simultaneously continuing to fund a public shelter among the refugees from Cyre, established by his long dead grandfather. He even remade his family city palace into a private asylum. Dr. ir'Crattus' wife has died years ago during childbirth, leaving him with two sons and her daughter from previous marriage.

What the good doctor hides is that he is just about as dangerous as some of the lunatics imprisoned in cells of Crattus Asylum, maybe even more because of his seemingly calm and even charming facade. Young Constantine was delighted to discover physical changes his father's Khyber dragonshards caused on human bodies and even more delighted by the madness and fear they could provoke in their minds. Over the years, he has collected quite a collection of servants and helpers by performing radical chirurgery on his patients.

One thing he greatly regrets that his genius has to remain unrecognised by the public and academia. He's no fool and is well aware that inferior minds are conditioned by feeble morality. They cannot comprehend his bold experiments. A shame really.

Kaim

Kaim ir'Crattus is, pure and simple, a monster. His father's monstrosity lies in his mind, but Kaim is different. Mentally, he's a child - a cruel one at that. Physically, he's hulking monstrosity and sprouts several tentacles that he was born with. He was so disfigured as a child that Constantine himself had to perform numerous surgeries to prevent his son's early death. Even Kamiel, always ready to mock and bully others, stayed clear of Kaim.

Numerous scars still cover Kaim's body. He usually wears voluminous robes that hide his deformities but not his immense bulk. That's why he only goes out during the nights and usually sticks to the parts of city where people are too scared or miserable to care about his looks.

Kaim's loyalty to Father knows no bounds. He's quick to anger and his rage is murderous.

Xenia

Andrea ir'Crattus is a tortured soul. She was born by the parents who loved her, but after her father died in the Last War, her life took a turn to worse. Her mother, poor and alone, soon remarried to the far older Constantine ir'Crattus who vaguely disgusted Andrea even while she was a little girl.

Her mother gave birth first to the sadistic Kamiel and he, even while being younger then Andrea, made her life a living hell. Then her mother died giving birth to the monstrous Kaim.

After her mother's death, Andrea became depressed. Her step - father started giving her foul - smelling tonics and hypnotised her in order "to ease her pain". Her mind remained a blank about their seances but her nausea and hate towards Constantine grew and grew. Her blackouts continued well into her adulthood and she experiences them still although she moved out of the Crattus Manor (now Aslyum) years ago.

The truth is that Andrea is a victim of a carefull experiment by Constantine. Slowly, over the years, he split her mind in half: one part is regular Andrea. The other became Xenia - a far more violent personality trained to expertly kill and follow all orders made by Constantine. Althoug Andrea still passionately hates him, it only takes one command word from him to make her an obediant and terryfing assassin.
Glupinickname
07-08-06, 02:06 PM I wanted to have four villains, for one large adventure each. The party is at present 7th or 8th level. These adventures will probably take them at least two or three levels to complete.

Presently I have one villain who wields arcane magic and another who is sneaky ninja-esque rogue (and can be possibly redeemed - I think my players would like to redeem a good - looking woman! I sure as hell would! :D ).

Then there's the one who is combat brute although I'm not really sure how to design him: should I use some D&D monster and if so, which one would be appropriate? Or should I simply write a sheet for a -I don't know - half - orc barbarian with a pseudonatural template from LoM.

It would be nice symmetry if the remaining villain - Kamiel ir'Crattus - the older son of Constantine - were cleric of the evil cult. But I'm not really sure how to describe Constantine's son to make him a believable cleric. Somehow, Blackguard constantly pops into my head: a charismatic and viscious guy in a full plate armor. But I need a evil cleric, someone to actually directly run the cult and show off their evilness!

Well, I gotta run know: I'm hungry and there's a good movie on TV now. Later, I'll give a rough outline of cult's beliefs and short description of adventures I would like to run, pinning the party against the evil cultists of DQQM.
Glupinickname
07-08-06, 03:53 PM The Cult

The cult existed for quite a while now. It's base has always been in public shelter old Caligari ir'Crattis started all those decades ago. Did he planed the emergence of cult way back then? Did he started it himself? Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I'd leave at least that to the players' imagination. For years now, cultists preached that the continent of Khorvaire is on the verge of Apocalypse. Cult's members mostly come from the war refugees and military veterans. The honest pain of these people - especially of those from Cyre - makes them perfect victim of manipulation.

But only recently, after the Day of Mourning, did the cultists been contacted by an... Entity. Calling itself The Core, it send them mental images of itself: a vast intelligent ocean hidden deep underground in a gargantuan cave and surrounded by forrests of gigantic pale fungi filled with all kind of animal monstrosities. To the normal person, this would look like hell. But the cultists are genuinely convinced that the world will be destroyed, period. So, any alternative to death is a good one.

But The Core has no interests in waiting for the Apocalypse to play itself alone so it sent it's agents - disgusting worm-like creatures called psurlons - to instruct cult leaders how to achieve the end of the world. The cultists, of course, worship them, which suits psurlons just fine.

And here's where the ir'Crattis fit in. Their role began more than a century ago. Caligari ir'Crattis was meant to go to Shadow Marches and establish a contact with psurlons. The Khyber dragonshards ewere reward for his obediance but they also carried the germ of family's curse.

Constantine, for example, believes that he's guided solely by scientific curiosity. He has no interest in religion. But in his fanatical quest for knowledge he'll help psurlons in whatever mad scheme they hatch. Kaim is just meant to be a tool to help Constantine. Andrea is a wild card: she's not of the ir'Crattis blood and her conditioning by Constantine might backfire spectaculary into his face. For the last member of the family, Kamiel ir'Crattis, I would like to make him a fanatical believer and leader of the cult. Maybe he was a withdrawn kid from the childhood. Maybe he was a arrogant braggart who got converted after seeing one war horror to many. I don't know.
Glupinickname
07-08-06, 04:22 PM The Adventures

I would start these adventures simply - by stealing the beginning of the "Voyage of the Golden Dragon" adventure. PCs are invited on the christening party of the new luxury airship "Golden Dragon". The ship is attacked by criminals who demand ransom. But this is just a decoy while the cultists who hired them plant the banishment bomb within the airship's hull. This is a terrorist act to symbolically show the weakness of Khorvaire corrupted civilisation.

After the PCs clean the airship from villains, they would find clues that would lead them to the public shelter in poor part of the city. THere they would discover the main headquaters of the cult and, deep in the basements of the cult's tower, a horrible an large monster that the cult worships. Maybe a psurlon or maybe a very very taint elemental from "Heroes of Horror". I'm not sure. The fight with gigantic monster among the towers of Sharn seems very cool.

Afterwards... Well, after first adventure, god knows what will happen. I have only rough ideas about other adventures and maybe it's better to leave them that way. What I can tell you is some of the locations I would like to use in future adventures.

1) Duur'Sharaat - old goblinoid city burried deep under the present day Sharn. I imagine this place to look like a "Lost City" levels from "Thief" PC games.

2) Morgraive University - Hell, I like it. And if I plan to infuse adventures with things from Lovecraft's stories, I definitely need some action happening among the university scientists, even if it's only that the cultists want to still Necronomicon. :)

3) Mad Scientist's Laboratory - Hell, this entire chain of thought started from two things I wanted to use: Lovcraftian cultists and scientists who explore things Man Was Not Meant to Know. A couple of days ago I remembered that it would be even more cool if the scientist owned an insane asylum, like doctor Caligari or the villain from Sodenbergh's movie "Kafka".

4)Some high tower thingy - probably a clock tower. I like gears. The idea is that Constantine ir'Crattis studies human fear and devises a gas that causes people to go insane and violent. He would put the machinery and tanks of gas in the highest tower available and tthen spread it all over Sharn, casuing the eruption of random violence.

5) Yarkuun Draal - I liked it's description in "Five Nations". It's the ancient deserted goblinoid metropolis, built in the seaside cliff fissur, several days away from Sharn. It's filled with monstrous plants and animals brought here by daelkyr. I would make this city an entryway into Xoriat. The psurlons and The Core want to open a portal and bring daelkyr back. The PCs would, of course, have to stop the ritual of opening and save the world. Stopping the Constantine's attack with fear gas would be important part of this, because fear and madness fuel the ritual.

...

Well, in conclusion, all of this background info may seem like a lot of work but it was much more exhausting to write them down than to imagine them. Writing these ideas down helped me connect them into one whole. But, at the end, writing and imagining are the easy parts. Actual running of adventures... Now, THAT'S hard.

I'm not sure how exactly am I going to pull this off. I know only that this kind of ideas make me really want to run D&D games. If I manage to take that cheerfullness to the sessions and transfer even the part of it to my players, I'll be satisfied. At the end, it's supposed to be about fun.
Errant
07-08-06, 10:58 PM I have to say I was a little surprised that a thread titled "Millenium Madness" didn't have more reference to prophecy, and of course in Eberron "prophecy" seems to be synonymous with the Draconic Prophecy. Was it mere coincidence that 998 years after "Five Nations were made one" that catyclism sent shock waves through Khorvaire/Eberron? Or was it a sign spoken of in the Draconic Prophecy that would occur before something bigger would happen on the turning of the millenium?

Nevertheless, it sounds like you've got a fine foundation for a campaign against a Cult of the Dragon Below Glupinickname.
ChaoticGood
07-09-06, 12:10 AM Glupi, I am glad to see that I am not the only one who has been toying with the Morgr-iskatonic University concept. :D
Glupinickname
07-09-06, 02:47 AM I have to say I was a little surprised that a thread titled "Millenium Madness" didn't have more reference to prophecy, and of course in Eberron "prophecy" seems to be synonymous with the Draconic Prophecy. Ah, bugger! I forgot to write about the Prophecy. :)

One of the party's patrons is a mysterious woman who is actually an agent of Chamber. I thought of using her again in these adventures to tfinally introduce the Draconic prophecy and Chamber - something I wanted to do for a long time.

But the real suprise should come by the last adventure. Chamber agent would get kidnapped from Sharn. While looking for her and adventuring through Yurkaan Draal, party would find her as a sacrifice in the middle of the ritual for opening the portal to Xoriat. But, she would be shown in her true form: as a silver dragon, just as stated in ECS entry about Chamber.

I mean, you cannot top the dragon as a sacrifice for gods, can you? :)
Was it mere coincidence that 998 years after "Five Nations were made one" that catyclism sent shock waves through Khorvaire/Eberron? Or was it a sign spoken of in the Draconic Prophecy that would occur before something bigger would happen on the turning of the millenium?

Probably the second option. In Draconic Prophecy the Mourning signals the beginning of the even grater disaster. Now, also understad that The Core's dark deeds are not necesarilly connected to the Day of Mourning... Or are they?

Again, this is something I don't plan to give a straight answer.
Nevertheless, it sounds like you've got a fine foundation for a campaign against a Cult of the Dragon Below Glupinickname.
Thanks. :)
Glupinickname
07-09-06, 02:55 AM Glupi, I am glad to see that I am not the only one who has been toying with the Morgr-iskatonic University concept. :D
What I wanted to capture in these adventures were several typical situations from Cthulhu Mythos:

1) Creepy evil cults situated in the poor parts of the city

2) Old families that carry curses in their blood. Sometimes these curses manifests in physical deformities and sometimes in mental.

3) Scientists who explore things better left alone.

The only thing I didn't use are evil books or small rural inbred communities isolated from the most of society... But I *really* have enough material to work with already, so I'm not really concerned with that....

...

Hmmm, maybe if I sent the party to investigate the rumours about strange beings near the small village in the mountains of Breland...
Glupinickname
07-09-06, 05:13 AM I would also like to mention some of the sources for inspiration (i.e.: "things I shamelesly stole from"):

Sources of Inspiration

Movies
"Vidocq"
"Les Pact des Loups"
"Hellboy"
"In the Mouth of Madness"
"Batman Begins"

Books
China Mieville - "Perdido Street Station"
H. P. Lovecraft - his late stories from 1920es & 1930es - especially "Call of Cthulhu", "Shadow over Innsmouth", "The Thing on the Doorstep", "The Haunter of the Dark" and "The Dunwich Horror"
Gene Wolfe - "Fifth Head of Cerberus"

Computer Games
"Clive Barker's Undying"
"Thief: The Dark Project"
"Thief 2: The Metal Age"

Comics
"1602"
"New Frontier"
"Hellboy"

RPG Sources
Beside the obvious things like Eberron books, I was also inspired by:
"Heroes of Horror"
"Age of Worms" adventure path
Article about the Far Realm in Dragon # 330

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Glupinickname 07-08-06, 02:03 PM	I run an Eberron campaign irregulary for about two years now. Recently, my univeristy exams and lack of self - esteem got in my way of DMing. But now, after having several months to toy with varius ideas in my head, I decided to try and run several connected Eberron adventures. I'm not sure will I run all of these adventures - I lose my courage quite easy. Even writing this down and sending it to a critics and opinions of a bunch of unknown people took some guts. :o Beside, there are real life concerns as well: gathering players on sessions, hoping they'll get interested in the story, balancing time between running sessions, studying and going on vacations, and so on. These ideas probably won't turn out as cool on the actual sessions as they sound in my head. But, I needed to vent all of them out of my system and decided to write them down. I would definitely like to hear some comments, suggestions or ideas from other people 'cause all of the folks I usually talk about D&D play in my campaign. I apologise for hammy grammar. English is not my native language. As for style, well, this are supposed to be cliched horror adventures for a dark swashbuckling setting, so I guess it's just as it should be. :)
Glupinickname 07-08-06, 02:04 PM	Introduction The Year is 999. Y.K. As the end of the year approaches, the sense of unease slowly creeps into the teeming populace of Sharn. Just what will the Millenium bring? Age - long prosperity? Another war? Or maybe even the end of world? Deep inside the shadows of the City of Towers, small but rapidly growing cult preaches its' visions of the future. Scuttling like rats under the cyclopean towers of the metropolis, these fanatics gather daily new followers among the poor and desperate. "The end is nigh!" say these fanatics. During the Last War, civilisations of Khorvaire have proved over and over again how corrupted and feeble they became. Well, no more. This Final Age ends by fire and brimstone, the moment the Eberron enters the new millenium. The cultists have prayed for salvation. And now, from the gargantuan caves, from the deep within intestines of the Dragon Below... something has answered them back.
Glupinickname 07-08-06, 02:05 PM	The main Villains Family ir'Crattus made a fortune a century ago. Kaligari ir'Crattus traveled into the deepest bogs of dreaded Shadow Marches. After dissappearing from the face of Eberron for five years, he returned as a sole survivor of the original expedition. With himself he brought a handfull of barbaric servitors, a wealth of Khyber dragonshards, a strange shaman wife and a curse that still haunts his family. Today, ir'Crattus family still lives in relative luxury while modestly keeping their privacy. For a reason. Constantine ir'Crattus Dr. Constantine ir'Crattus dedicated his life to helping the insane while simultaneously continuing to fund a public shelter among the refugees from Cyre, established by his long dead grandfather. He even remade his family city palace into a private asylum. Dr. ir'Crattus' wife has died years ago during childbirth, leaving him with two sons and her daughter from previous marriage. What the good doctor hides is that he is just about as dangerous as some of the lunatics imprisoned in cells of Crattus Asylum, maybe even more because of his seemingly calm and even charming facade. Young Constantine was delighted to discover physical changes his father's Khyber dragonshards caused on human bodies and even more delighted by the madness and fear they could provoke in their minds. Over the years, he has collected quite a collection of servants and helpers by performing radical chirurgery on his patients. One thing he greatly regrets that his genius has to remain unrecognised by the public and academia. He's no fool and is well aware that inferior minds are conditioned by feeble morality. They cannot comprehend his bold experiments. A shame really. Kaim Kaim ir'Crattus is, pure and simple, a monster. His father's monstrosity lies in his mind, but Kaim is different. Mentally, he's a child - a cruel one at that. Physically, he's hulking monstrosity and sprouts several tentacles that he was born with. He was so disfigured as a child that Constantine himself had to perform numerous surgeries to prevent his son's early death. Even Kamiel, always ready to mock and bully others, stayed clear of Kaim. Numerous scars still cover Kaim's body. He usually wears voluminous robes that hide his deformities but not his immense bulk. That's why he only goes out during the nights and usually sticks to the parts of city where people are too scared or miserable to care about his looks. Kaim's loyalty to Father knows no bounds. He's quick to anger and his rage is murderous. Xenia Andrea ir'Crattus is a tortured soul. She was born by the parents who loved her, but after her father died in the Last War, her life took a turn to worse. Her mother, poor and alone, soon remarried to the far older Constantine ir'Crattus who vaguely disgusted Andrea even while she was a little girl. Her mother gave birth first to the sadistic Kamiel and he, even while being younger then Andrea, made her life a living hell. Then her mother died giving birth to the monstrous Kaim. After her mother's death, Andrea became depressed. Her step - father started giving her foul - smelling tonics and hypnotised her in order "to ease her pain". Her mind remained a blank about their seances but her nausea and hate towards Constantine grew and grew. Her blackouts continued well into her adulthood and she experiences them still although she moved out of the Crattus Manor (now Aslyum) years ago. The truth is that Andrea is a victim of a carefull experiment by Constantine. Slowly, over the years, he split her mind in half: one part is regular Andrea. The other became Xenia - a far more violent personality trained to expertly kill and follow all orders made by Constantine. Althoug Andrea still passionately hates him, it only takes one command word from him to make her an obediant and terryfing assassin.
Glupinickname 07-08-06, 02:06 PM	I wanted to have four villains, for one large adventure each. The party is at present 7th or 8th level. These adventures will probably take them at least two or three levels to complete. Presently I have one villain who wields arcane magic and another who is sneaky ninja-esque rogue (and can be possibly redeemed - I think my players would like to redeem a good - looking woman! I sure as hell would! :D ). Then there's the one who is combat brute although I'm not really sure how to design him: should I use some D&D monster and if so, which one would be appropriate? Or should I simply write a sheet for a -I don't know - half - orc barbarian with a pseudonatural template from LoM. It would be nice symmetry if the remaining villain - Kamiel ir'Crattus - the older son of Constantine - were cleric of the evil cult. But I'm not really sure how to describe Constantine's son to make him a believable cleric. Somehow, Blackguard constantly pops into my head: a charismatic and viscious guy in a full plate armor. But I need a evil cleric, someone to actually directly run the cult and show off their evilness! Well, I gotta run know: I'm hungry and there's a good movie on TV now. Later, I'll give a rough outline of cult's beliefs and short description of adventures I would like to run, pinning the party against the evil cultists of DQQM.
Glupinickname 07-08-06, 03:53 PM	The Cult The cult existed for quite a while now. It's base has always been in public shelter old Caligari ir'Crattis started all those decades ago. Did he planed the emergence of cult way back then? Did he started it himself? Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I'd leave at least that to the players' imagination. For years now, cultists preached that the continent of Khorvaire is on the verge of Apocalypse. Cult's members mostly come from the war refugees and military veterans. The honest pain of these people - especially of those from Cyre - makes them perfect victim of manipulation. But only recently, after the Day of Mourning, did the cultists been contacted by an... Entity. Calling itself The Core, it send them mental images of itself: a vast intelligent ocean hidden deep underground in a gargantuan cave and surrounded by forrests of gigantic pale fungi filled with all kind of animal monstrosities. To the normal person, this would look like hell. But the cultists are genuinely convinced that the world will be destroyed, period. So, any alternative to death is a good one. But The Core has no interests in waiting for the Apocalypse to play itself alone so it sent it's agents - disgusting worm-like creatures called psurlons - to instruct cult leaders how to achieve the end of the world. The cultists, of course, worship them, which suits psurlons just fine. And here's where the ir'Crattis fit in. Their role began more than a century ago. Caligari ir'Crattis was meant to go to Shadow Marches and establish a contact with psurlons. The Khyber dragonshards ewere reward for his obediance but they also carried the germ of family's curse. Constantine, for example, believes that he's guided solely by scientific curiosity. He has no interest in religion. But in his fanatical quest for knowledge he'll help psurlons in whatever mad scheme they hatch. Kaim is just meant to be a tool to help Constantine. Andrea is a wild card: she's not of the ir'Crattis blood and her conditioning by Constantine might backfire spectaculary into his face. For the last member of the family, Kamiel ir'Crattis, I would like to make him a fanatical believer and leader of the cult. Maybe he was a withdrawn kid from the childhood. Maybe he was a arrogant braggart who got converted after seeing one war horror to many. I don't know.
Glupinickname 07-08-06, 04:22 PM	The Adventures I would start these adventures simply - by stealing the beginning of the "Voyage of the Golden Dragon" adventure. PCs are invited on the christening party of the new luxury airship "Golden Dragon". The ship is attacked by criminals who demand ransom. But this is just a decoy while the cultists who hired them plant the banishment bomb within the airship's hull. This is a terrorist act to symbolically show the weakness of Khorvaire corrupted civilisation. After the PCs clean the airship from villains, they would find clues that would lead them to the public shelter in poor part of the city. THere they would discover the main headquaters of the cult and, deep in the basements of the cult's tower, a horrible an large monster that the cult worships. Maybe a psurlon or maybe a very very taint elemental from "Heroes of Horror". I'm not sure. The fight with gigantic monster among the towers of Sharn seems very cool. Afterwards... Well, after first adventure, god knows what will happen. I have only rough ideas about other adventures and maybe it's better to leave them that way. What I can tell you is some of the locations I would like to use in future adventures. 1) Duur'Sharaat - old goblinoid city burried deep under the present day Sharn. I imagine this place to look like a "Lost City" levels from "Thief" PC games. 2) Morgraive University - Hell, I like it. And if I plan to infuse adventures with things from Lovecraft's stories, I definitely need some action happening among the university scientists, even if it's only that the cultists want to still Necronomicon. :) 3) Mad Scientist's Laboratory - Hell, this entire chain of thought started from two things I wanted to use: Lovcraftian cultists and scientists who explore things Man Was Not Meant to Know. A couple of days ago I remembered that it would be even more cool if the scientist owned an insane asylum, like doctor Caligari or the villain from Sodenbergh's movie "Kafka". 4)Some high tower thingy - probably a clock tower. I like gears. The idea is that Constantine ir'Crattis studies human fear and devises a gas that causes people to go insane and violent. He would put the machinery and tanks of gas in the highest tower available and tthen spread it all over Sharn, casuing the eruption of random violence. 5) Yarkuun Draal - I liked it's description in "Five Nations". It's the ancient deserted goblinoid metropolis, built in the seaside cliff fissur, several days away from Sharn. It's filled with monstrous plants and animals brought here by daelkyr. I would make this city an entryway into Xoriat. The psurlons and The Core want to open a portal and bring daelkyr back. The PCs would, of course, have to stop the ritual of opening and save the world. Stopping the Constantine's attack with fear gas would be important part of this, because fear and madness fuel the ritual. ... Well, in conclusion, all of this background info may seem like a lot of work but it was much more exhausting to write them down than to imagine them. Writing these ideas down helped me connect them into one whole. But, at the end, writing and imagining are the easy parts. Actual running of adventures... Now, THAT'S hard. I'm not sure how exactly am I going to pull this off. I know only that this kind of ideas make me really want to run D&D games. If I manage to take that cheerfullness to the sessions and transfer even the part of it to my players, I'll be satisfied. At the end, it's supposed to be about fun.
Errant 07-08-06, 10:58 PM	I have to say I was a little surprised that a thread titled "Millenium Madness" didn't have more reference to prophecy, and of course in Eberron "prophecy" seems to be synonymous with the Draconic Prophecy. Was it mere coincidence that 998 years after "Five Nations were made one" that catyclism sent shock waves through Khorvaire/Eberron? Or was it a sign spoken of in the Draconic Prophecy that would occur before something bigger would happen on the turning of the millenium? Nevertheless, it sounds like you've got a fine foundation for a campaign against a Cult of the Dragon Below Glupinickname.
ChaoticGood 07-09-06, 12:10 AM	Glupi, I am glad to see that I am not the only one who has been toying with the Morgr-iskatonic University concept. :D
Glupinickname 07-09-06, 02:47 AM	I have to say I was a little surprised that a thread titled "Millenium Madness" didn't have more reference to prophecy, and of course in Eberron "prophecy" seems to be synonymous with the Draconic Prophecy. Ah, bugger! I forgot to write about the Prophecy. :) One of the party's patrons is a mysterious woman who is actually an agent of Chamber. I thought of using her again in these adventures to tfinally introduce the Draconic prophecy and Chamber - something I wanted to do for a long time. But the real suprise should come by the last adventure. Chamber agent would get kidnapped from Sharn. While looking for her and adventuring through Yurkaan Draal, party would find her as a sacrifice in the middle of the ritual for opening the portal to Xoriat. But, she would be shown in her true form: as a silver dragon, just as stated in ECS entry about Chamber. I mean, you cannot top the dragon as a sacrifice for gods, can you? :) Was it mere coincidence that 998 years after "Five Nations were made one" that catyclism sent shock waves through Khorvaire/Eberron? Or was it a sign spoken of in the Draconic Prophecy that would occur before something bigger would happen on the turning of the millenium? Probably the second option. In Draconic Prophecy the Mourning signals the beginning of the even grater disaster. Now, also understad that The Core's dark deeds are not necesarilly connected to the Day of Mourning... Or are they? Again, this is something I don't plan to give a straight answer. Nevertheless, it sounds like you've got a fine foundation for a campaign against a Cult of the Dragon Below Glupinickname. Thanks. :)
Glupinickname 07-09-06, 02:55 AM	Glupi, I am glad to see that I am not the only one who has been toying with the Morgr-iskatonic University concept. :D What I wanted to capture in these adventures were several typical situations from Cthulhu Mythos: 1) Creepy evil cults situated in the poor parts of the city 2) Old families that carry curses in their blood. Sometimes these curses manifests in physical deformities and sometimes in mental. 3) Scientists who explore things better left alone. The only thing I didn't use are evil books or small rural inbred communities isolated from the most of society... But I really have enough material to work with already, so I'm not really concerned with that.... ... Hmmm, maybe if I sent the party to investigate the rumours about strange beings near the small village in the mountains of Breland...
Glupinickname 07-09-06, 05:13 AM	I would also like to mention some of the sources for inspiration (i.e.: "things I shamelesly stole from"): Sources of Inspiration Movies "Vidocq" "Les Pact des Loups" "Hellboy" "In the Mouth of Madness" "Batman Begins" Books China Mieville - "Perdido Street Station" H. P. Lovecraft - his late stories from 1920es & 1930es - especially "Call of Cthulhu", "Shadow over Innsmouth", "The Thing on the Doorstep", "The Haunter of the Dark" and "The Dunwich Horror" Gene Wolfe - "Fifth Head of Cerberus" Computer Games "Clive Barker's Undying" "Thief: The Dark Project" "Thief 2: The Metal Age" Comics "1602" "New Frontier" "Hellboy" RPG Sources Beside the obvious things like Eberron books, I was also inspired by: "Heroes of Horror" "Age of Worms" adventure path Article about the Far Realm in Dragon # 330