Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sir Elton 03-07-06, 10:22 AM	The Mystery of Stone An Eberron Adventure by Elton Robb Teaser: It’s a lonely night in the town of Woodhelm. A young girl is looking for Tommy, her boyfriend in the woods that have a strong mist. However, she encounters a stone slab that looks exactly like him. She hears some weird sound. The young girl looks around, frightened and anxious. After turning around, she sees the horror and is turned into a stone statue. 1st Segment: Stopping in Woodhelm, the player characters encounter a sleepy town. Woodhelm is populated by humans, shifters, and Kalashtar. Spending some time to get to know the town, the heroes learn that people are disappearing into the woods and never coming back. 1st Break: A young boy, about four, return from the woods and reports seeing people turned to stone. 2nd Segment: The adventurers investigate the woods. They find the stone statues looking like some macabre sculpture garden. 2nd Break: The town blames an independent, loner sorcerer named Xeke Ashorne for turning everyone to stone, since he has flesh to stone spell scrolls. 3rd Segment: The heroes learn that Xeke isn’t responsible. So they decide to investigate the real reason for the macabre sculpture garden. 3rd break: Returning to the woods, they investigate clues leading them to discover the Medusa. Finale: The Adventurers battle the medusa with Xeke’s help. Medusa: CR 7; Size/Type: Medium Monstrous Humanoid; Hit Dice: 6d8+6 (33 hp); Initiative: +2; Speed: 30 ft. (6 sq); Armor Class: 15 (+2 Dex, +3 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 13; Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+6; Attack: Shortbow +8 ranged (1d6/×3), or dagger +8 melee (1d4/19-20), or snakes +8 melee (1d4 plus poison); Full Attack: Shortbow +8/+3 ranged (1d6/×3); or dagger +8/+3 melee (1d4/19-20) and snakes +3 melee (1d4 plus poison); Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.; Special Attacks: Petrifying gaze, poison; Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft.; AL LE; Saves: Fort +3, Ref +7, Will +6; Abilities: Str 10, Dex 15, Con 12, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 15 Skills and Feats: Bluff +9, Diplomacy +4, Disguise +9 (+11 acting), Intimidate +4, Move Silently +8, Spot +8; Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Weapon Finesse Treasure: 2 healing potions (carbonated), seven vials of oil of stone to flesh, thirty silver sovereigns, twenty gold Galifars, and fifty crowns. A dozen daggers, and one shortsword. ======================================== ============================ I'm thinking of doing this up for the design test. :D
Rechan 03-07-06, 10:57 AM	I like the break/segment aspect of it. Very TV-showish, which is your niche, Elton! :) However, I'd actually like to see this fleshed out a little more. Eberron is a land of Shades of Grey; let's give the Medusa a little more motive than just "Raa, I'm a monster!" "A monster! Kill it!" Must the Medusa be an evil creature seeking to just create a garden? Maybe there's a way to change it up that the Medusa is actually someone from the town who was cursed with the Stony Gaze (By Xeke?), and thus fled into the forest, but now people are stumbling across her lair, becoming unfortunate victims. Maybe she's trying to re-create the town in her image; now she can be surrounded by friends and family who won't shun her. I get the mental image of a ghost town with statues of all the townsfolk in the streets, on porches, etc, as if they were going about their daily business. Perhaps the Medusa actually serves some purpose; a guardian that's holding something from Khyber at bay, and slaying her unleashes something else (A follow-up adventure?).
Sir Elton 03-07-06, 11:28 AM	hehehe. Okay. She serves the White Necromancers, a rogue group that at first glance works for King Kaius III. The White Necromancers are led by Cassandra, a powerful necromancer in her own right. But I can flesh it out more.
Volaran 03-07-06, 12:00 PM	Nothing wrong with the adventure in its own right, but it doesn't seem to be very Eberron-ish to me. Nothing that couldn't take place in any standard campaign setting. What might be done to further flavour it?
polt 03-07-06, 12:44 PM	I agree. The adventure is pretty standard, the flavour is okay. But it could be in Greyhawk, FR, any other world out there. It's a pretty generic adventure, I'd spice it up a bit to make it unique.
Belabras 03-07-06, 03:07 PM	Perhaps the Medusa could be leading a Cult of the Dragon Below that includes several townsfolk, and they are slowly petrifying the non-believers in town. Make several of Xeke's accusers secret cultists and you've got it all in place.
Sir Elton 03-08-06, 12:35 AM	Okay, guys; I'm expanding it. I'm not very good at writing module Introductions, but I'm great at writing short stories. So, this adventure is going to be a little . . . unique. Only this time, I think I'll send it Keith's way. Thanks guys. :)
polt 03-08-06, 01:29 AM	Actually the introduction was okay. But the idea and the story wasn't very good. I'd love to see it when you're done though, so please post, and try to make it an Eberron adventure, instead of just some generic hook. And I think Keith get enough adventures sent to him at it is ;)
Setherial 03-08-06, 02:22 AM	this is not an adventure, it's more like an encounter and a rather cliche one at that. - people are turned to stone - players will think medusa or simular creature - people in the village point finger at a magic user, the fact they know he has flesh to stones scrolls is somewhat strange but I figur he has used them before in front of a lot of people so that everyone knows it is in his power. - sorcerer turns out to be innocent - what do you know, it was a medusa afterall this is something a radom adventure generation script can come up with. Comeon dude, give us something new !
Sir Elton 03-08-06, 09:26 AM	Yes. It is an adventure. Haven't you ever watched Hercules: the Legendary Journeys or Beastmaster? The monster encounters that Hercules usually encountered were one per episode. They built a whole drama around it. Some Episodes had two encounters, but usually the first monster encounter is taken care of in the teaser or the first segment. Then Hercules and Iolaus would deal with the second encounter. But they were rare and to establish that he was Hercules who had this relationship with Hera. Generally, the same pattern can be found in Pulp stories. Some of Conan the Barbarian's stories revolve around one monster encounter. The Pool of the Black Ones, The Phoenix on the Sword, The Tower of the Elephant all contained examples of Conan having one daring encounter. It's an adventure.
polt 03-08-06, 09:31 AM	It's a single post. It's one of the shortest adventures ever. It's an adventure hook at best. There's nothing interesting about it. You haven't created anything, just rewrote a very typical and generic adventure. Now don't get insulted, cause I would LOVE to read an adventure. I like to look at what other people have created, but you haven't really created anything here. Look at the adventures you can buy, it's page after page. You gotta have interesting NPCs for the characters to interact with. You need to have a cool story, cool encounters. I can make an "adventure" like that in 5 minutes dude. I know you can do better than this.
Volaran 03-08-06, 09:47 AM	Is it possible there is some miscommunication here about what some might call an adventure, and others might call a session?
Sir Elton 03-08-06, 10:11 AM	It's a single post. It's one of the shortest adventures ever. It's an adventure hook at best. I can make an "adventure" like that in 5 minutes dude. I know you can do better than this. :evillaugh Join my game, Polt.
Sir Elton 03-08-06, 10:30 AM	Is it possible there is some miscommunication here about what some might call an adventure, and others might call a session? Well, Polt thinks that every group can replicate the timing of a good 1 hour adventure T.V. episode down to the second. He thinks that they can hit every break, every segment, with precise timing. In actuality, it's impossible because no one group can be made to do that. Dungeon Masters have no access to film editors, you see. :D Polt doesn't see the other potential encounters in the adventure. Xeke for instance, is suffering from "discrimination" because the town thinks he's causing it. Every segment contains an encounter. In the teaser, the girl encounter the horror. Segment 1: The party encounters the townspeople. Segment 2: They encounter Xeke. Segment 3: They learn of his innocence. Segment 4 [finale]: They go get the proof and encounter the horror. Most of them are roleplaying encounters. It saves the Fighting encounter for last, designed to make it memorable. What Polt wants is four fighting encounters per day; and at least twelve of them per adventure. Preferably twenty to thirty of them. The problem with that is that it diminishes the roleplaying experience. With this method, the players can enjoy all the excitement of an Adventure T.V. series. And, allowed their freedom and unconstrained by time, they can milk the first three segments for all they are worth. Then, they can do battle with the big bad at the end and take as much time as they want without being hurried or hustled. After it's done, they can go home satisfied in making "the world" a better place.
polt 03-08-06, 10:39 AM	Yeah, that was funny. Ehm... Moving on. The thing is, the only thing you are giving us is. "The party comes to a town where a lot of people have been found with their head cracked open and their brains missing. The people in the village (Oh, this is Eberron so the village has at 1 random core race, and 2 eberron specific races.) thinks that it's an old war veteran living in the woods. However, when they investigate this they find clues that lead to a mind flayer (AND NOBODY FIGURED OUT IT WOULD BE A MIND FLAYER!). Also, I won't give you any interesting NPCs, nor tell you how they find out it's the mind flayer. The End" Hey look, I mate an adventure. I think I'll show it to Keith. And maybe get it printed Dungeon.
Sir Elton 03-08-06, 10:42 AM	First of all, it's a Medusa. Second of all, join my game, Polt. :D
polt 03-08-06, 10:44 AM	First of all, it's a Medusa. Second of all, join my game, Polt. :D I was kinda making fun of you. And if all your adventures are this generic, I wouldn't, if not, I will. I live in Denmark though.
Belabras 03-08-06, 11:09 AM	I'm not sure rampant criticism is going to help him flesh out the adventure. If you don't like it why don't you offer ideas on how to improve it?
Volaran 03-08-06, 11:39 AM	All right, Sir Elton. Some of the obvious questions that arise in my mind are regarding the sorceror: Why does he have several Flesh to Stone scrolls? This is a 6th level spell. Fairly powerful for Eberron, and what seems like a low level adventure. Why does he have them? If he is powerful enough to have created them, his help seems like it would take the fun out of the final encounter. In fact, a single scroll has the potential to take down the medusa itself, even if he did not create them. Worth a great deal more than the actual treasure included in the outline. Why do the townsfolk know Xeke has these scrolls? It does not seem like something anyone would have need to advertise. Did someone in the town know him despite his loner nature? An apprentice? Perhaps one of the missing people? Why do the townsfolk jump to the conclusion that Xeke is responsible? Being a loner sorceror, surrounded by ignorant townsfolk may be enough for light hearted adventure program. It gives the heros someone to help, along with an easy moral lesson about judging a book by its cover. Eberron is a more intelligent setting than that, to my mind, and players deserve more. Perhaps the sorceror is a known changeling? The townsfolk could believe he captured one person in order to impersonate them and take over their life, but more than one person gone would cause this to make less and less sense. Perhaps he is a foreigner? Particularly if this were a border town, tensions could run high, and blame can be easily directed. A Reacher amoung Aundairans, ect. How do the players learn that Xeke is not responsible? You mention that they just find out. What possibilites does this inspire? Perhaps he is a member of a religious order or military unit that a character would recognize as finding this means of killing anethema. For instance, a Brelish soldier who served in the border forts in the Greywall mountains might know the methods and patterns of a medusa on the hunt. When I return, perhaps some questions and suggestions regarding the medusa.
polt 03-08-06, 12:01 PM	How do they know he's a sorcerer? How do they know what a sorcerer is?
Volaran 03-08-06, 12:05 PM	Now for the Medusa Why is the medusa turning the townsfolk into status? The primary motivation listed in the MM for medusas is the aquisition of art, jewelry and other forms of wealth. Of course, this being Eberron, we aren't limited to that. Some medusas even hold what could be called political power in areas like Droamm. So, does this medusa consider its statues to be works of art? Perhaps there is some famed artist in a large city somewhere whose signature works are statues of victems in their last moments of terror. Perhaps the medusa is hansomely rewarded for these. Perhaps it is something much more simple. The medusa intends to round up enough victems to sell them back to their panicked families for a tidy sum. If the medusa does consider the statues to be works of art, that is intends to keep for itself, there might be some common characteristic among those taken, that the party can use to identify who might be next.
Volaran 03-08-06, 12:11 PM	How do they know he's a sorcerer? How do they know what a sorcerer is? The first question is valid. If he is something of a loner, he'd have little reason to display his power. Perhaps the town has some reason to be distrustful of magic (perhaps some minor magical distaster took place there in relation to the war). Minor magic is common enough that a sorceror could find uses with the locals(mending spells, minor potions, continual flame), but still not be accepted in the town. Alternately, he could legitimately be strange or unsavoury in some way, but not responsible for this particular incident. "How do they know what a sorceror is?" seems less valid in the Eberron context. The whole place is rich in minor magic, and the Last War means that even conscripts from a remote village might have seen more impressive wonders worked during their travels.
polt 03-08-06, 12:15 PM	I got the impression that it was mostly wizards and artificers who've been building the eberron as we know it. Besides that, I agree with everything you've been saying.
Volaran 03-08-06, 12:30 PM	I got the impression that it was mostly wizards and artificers who've been building the eberron as we know it. Besides that, I agree with everything you've been saying. That's a good point. I clearly was not thinking. The default is that to the casual eye, casting method for a wizard or sorceror looks the same. I was thinking more in terms of magic in general not being something unknown or feared on its own. Might be a good opportunity to misdirect the party a bit. Let them think he's a wizard, and adept, or just a spellcaster in general. "I saw some powerful wizards during the war, but none as powerful as old Xeke. Working so many spells out there in his shack. I've seen good men loose consiousness trying to work half what he does, yes sir."
Sir Elton 03-08-06, 04:47 PM	All right, Sir Elton. Some of the obvious questions that arise in my mind are regarding the sorceror: Why does he have several Flesh to Stone scrolls? This is a 6th level spell. Fairly powerful for Eberron, and what seems like a low level adventure. Why does he have them? If he is powerful enough to have created them, his help seems like it would take the fun out of the final encounter. In fact, a single scroll has the potential to take down the medusa itself, even if he did not create them. Worth a great deal more than the actual treasure included in the outline. Why do the townsfolk know Xeke has these scrolls? It does not seem like something anyone would have need to advertise. Did someone in the town know him despite his loner nature? An apprentice? Perhaps one of the missing people? Why do the townsfolk jump to the conclusion that Xeke is responsible? Being a loner sorceror, surrounded by ignorant townsfolk may be enough for light hearted adventure program. It gives the heros someone to help, along with an easy moral lesson about judging a book by its cover. Eberron is a more intelligent setting than that, to my mind, and players deserve more. Perhaps the sorceror is a known changeling? The townsfolk could believe he captured one person in order to impersonate them and take over their life, but more than one person gone would cause this to make less and less sense. Perhaps he is a foreigner? Particularly if this were a border town, tensions could run high, and blame can be easily directed. A Reacher amoung Aundairans, ect. How do the players learn that Xeke is not responsible? You mention that they just find out. What possibilites does this inspire? Perhaps he is a member of a religious order or military unit that a character would recognize as finding this means of killing anethema. For instance, a Brelish soldier who served in the border forts in the Greywall mountains might know the methods and patterns of a medusa on the hunt. When I return, perhaps some questions and suggestions regarding the medusa. I'm setting all of this up. The answers to your questions is one. He's been set up by the Order of the Emerald Claw. This will be properly explained.
maollelujah 03-08-06, 08:17 PM	Personally I would like it better if the medusa was innocent and Xexe was the guilty party.
Sir Elton 03-08-06, 08:47 PM	Personally I would like it better if the medusa was innocent and Xexe was the guilty party. They are both innocent. :angel:
polt 03-09-06, 01:33 AM	Seems like you've took our critisism to ya, so that's positive :)
Sir Elton 03-09-06, 09:07 AM	Actually, if I did . . . :D
Sereno 03-09-06, 09:38 AM	Want an Eberron twist on this? Reverse it. Just sticking with the same basic characters.... There's this medusa that lives at the edge of the town. She mostly keeps to herself, tends a lovely garden (despite a few disturbingly realistic statues) and has never done anything harmful to anyone. When she needs to do business in town, she takes a young woman with her as a guide and blindfolds herself so as not to hurt anyone. Of course, she's not completely trusted by the townsfolk ... she IS a medusa, after all. She's even used her power, one time, to help the town by turning a particularly nasty bandit to stone. His is one of the statues in her garden. Reports of people turned to stone start turning up. Some people assume it's the medusa finally showing her "true colors." They go up to her house and find it abandoned "AH HA! She's gone!! She must be on the run, lets hire some adventurers to get her!!" Xeke could/should be part of the "mob." In reality, the wizard/sorcerer Xeke is to blame. He was evil all along, and had nefarious designs upon the medusa's escort (marry her, ravish her, sacrifice her ... whatever). Xeke kidnapped them both and is keeping them somewhere (a cave, a lair, a tower, his house ... whatever). And, he did use Flesh to Stone scrolls that he purchased from a traveling artificer. Some townsfolk do remember the itenerant artificer coming through town a couple of weeks before the townsfolk were turned to stone ... another red herring! Xeke's always seems like a harmless, but eccentric, kind of guy; but he's really the leader of a (small) Cult of the Dragon Below. [edit] For even a little more Eberron twisting, make Xeke's intentions more benign; have it so that he's being *forced* into the role of kidnapper because he's fallen into debt to a group of "gamblers" who are also a cell of the Order of the Emerald Claw. To "pay off" his debt, he needed to kidnap the medusa, because the OotEC wants to use her powers. The girl was just collateral damage. Maybe she's not dead, just locked up in his house or a cave somewhere, to keep her out of the way until the "excitement" is over. Now, you've got even more hooks. Go after the OotEC? Rescue the medusa!? Find and rescue the girl?
Sir Elton 03-09-06, 09:48 AM	Actually, I'm setting it up so both are in pain. Not that your PCs are in pain. :D
Sereno 03-09-06, 12:02 PM	BTW, I thought I knew all the board acronym thingies, but what's "PEACH" stand for?! :)
Volaran 03-09-06, 01:23 PM	Please evaluate and comment (or critique) helpfully.
Sir Elton 03-09-06, 05:41 PM	actually, turning things around is a good idea, but I'm working from the angle that both were betrayed. :cool:
nirodus 03-10-06, 04:34 AM	Sereno's adv. synopsis is a much better representation of Eberron and DND, and in addition, I can understand and derive meaning from his posts. On the other hand, I hardly ever know what Sir Elton's trying to say, and he's an American. Polt has a better grasp of the english language, and he's from Denmark. Yeesh.
Sir Elton 03-10-06, 09:57 AM	Sereno's adv. synopsis is a much better representation of Eberron and DND, and in addition, I can understand and derive meaning from his posts. On the other hand, I hardly ever know what Sir Elton's trying to say, and he's an American. Polt has a better grasp of the english language, and he's from Denmark. Yeesh. I don't know how to respond to the second paragraph. The first paragraph is easy: You don't know what the revision is going to look like. Sereno's adventure synopsis is one way of handling the outline. It's not my way, because Sereno isn't running my Eberron campaign. The "yeesh" part however; I'll take that as a personal insult. So, because I've been personally insulted by someone other than Polt, I have three choices as to what to do with this outline. One, I could leave the write up as it is and not work on the revision, as expected for a person who has received an insult. Two, I could finish the revision completely out of spite. Three, I could finish the revision and disregard the sting. Or my fourth choice, I can write an essay on my humanity and post it to the boards. Lets see: 1. Hmm. Choice number 1 is not a good choice. I desire to finish this, inspite of my hatred for the Medieval world. 2. Choice number 2 is childish. But a normal reaction for a person who was born on this planet to make mistakes, some inconsequential and some horrid, and learn from them. 3. Choice number 3 is the best choice for me to make. 4. I could write a five hundred word essay on my Humanity, but I'll think I'll do it later on a more private forum. Besides, I've already written in a sentence what I was going to say. ======================================== ============================= Oh, did anyone ever catch the fact that I originally posted the outline for the Design and Development Test? I wanted some opinions on the format.
Sereno 03-10-06, 10:12 AM	I don't know how to respond to the second paragraph. The first paragraph is easy: You don't know what the revision is going to look like. Sereno's adventure synopsis is one way of handling the outline. It's not my way, because Sereno isn't running my Eberron campaign. Sir Elton, I didn't submit my suggestion as what I expected you to revise yours to ... we've been through this sort of situation before and I know that's not your style. :) I posted it in response to the number of other posters who were looking for an "Eberron twist".
Sir Elton 03-10-06, 12:32 PM	I know that Sereno. And I think you did a great job. :D My style is my style. Whether this group thinks I've gone wrong or not really my first concern as far as story is concerned. It was to see how others liked the style. Too many people didn't like the 3-Act structure of the last one, so I do this one.
polt 03-10-06, 04:18 PM	You are easily insulted I think. All I did was critize and make a little fun of how bad the first adventure hook was.
Nialo 03-10-06, 08:13 PM	The "yeesh" part however; I'll take that as a personal insult. So, because I've been personally insulted by someone other than Polt, I have three choices as to what to do with this outline. One, I could leave the write up as it is and not work on the revision, as expected for a person who has received an insult. Two, I could finish the revision completely out of spite. Three, I could finish the revision and disregard the sting. Or my fourth choice, I can write an essay on my humanity and post it to the boards. 1. Choice number 1 is not a good choice. I desire to finish this, inspite of my hatred for the Medieval world. 2. Choice number 2 is childish. But a normal reaction for a person who was born on this planet to make mistakes, some inconsequential and some horrid, and learn from them. 3. Choice number 3 is the best choice for me to make. 4. I could write a five hundred word essay on my Humanity, but I'll think I'll do it later on a more private forum. Besides, I've already written in a sentence what I was going to say. Elton, whether or not you run the adventure and how you run it isn't going to spite anyone. However, the idea was cliche, underdeveloped and generic. Furthermore I don't really know what you're trying to do in running your adventure like a TV show; in Eberron the idea is to usually cram as much intrigue and complexity into something as possible. You can do what you want; but if this many people ridicule your idea, it may be wise to listen to their critiques rather than getting pigheaded and defensive over your idea.
Sir Elton 03-11-06, 01:08 AM	Actually, the idea is to cram as much over the top, highly exaggerated plots, lots of action, and cliched characters as possible in a pulp adventure. Pulp stories from the 1890s to the 1950s uses a lot of cliched characters: Femme Fatales, Dark Warriors, Boys next Door, etc. It isn't about the complexity. It's about exaggeration of cliched chareotypes. The Noir adds a subtle dimension. But it's still Pulp: no matter how much unlike The Shadow, or Batman, Double Indemnity, Cthulhu, or the Maltese Falcon you want to make it. Pulp stories ranged from Horror, to Mysteries, to Romances, to Adventure, to Noir, to Sword and Sorcery, to straight up Science Fiction, to Planetary Romance, to Weird. Complexity in the plot isn't needed. Just over simplification. A pulp writer in the Early 20th Century didn't have time to thoroughly plan a complete pulp story on the order you demand from Eberron. Writing Pulp short stories was his livelyhood. So, he basically hacked out a plot based on little inspiration, using complex characters or the eight basic Archetypes and created cliched characters from them. Not every writer was like Robert E. Howard. Every writer wrote stories like the old Movie Serials like "Radar Men from the Moon" or "Flash Gordon." What you're asking for isn't what was written in pulp stories, except maybe Conan, but then Conan didn't really have conspiracies to unravel. There isn't any walk-in villians, there isn't any femme fatales. There is no A-team, no G.I. Joe vs. Cobra. No Jackie Chan beating up on the Bad Guys. What you are asking for is a cross between the DaVinci Code or GURPS Illuminati, and the Lord of the Rings. Combined with technology for added good measure. That's not the Pulp or the Neo-Pulp I heard about, read about (and actually read, by the way), or seen. I see Eberron as a place where Conan, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort, and the Shadow can comfortably fit. With walk-on villains (ex. Thulsa-doom) and over the top action. Villains you can tell are villains from the time they walk on screen, no matter how good they act. Femme Fatales so sexy that they are temptation all too themselves. Dark Lords so casual that they scare you. Everything is so exaggerated it's not even funny. That's real pulp stories; that's the pulp of the Early 20th Century. However, just because you can tell he is the villain to beat doesn't mean there isn't heart. Several Conan stories did have a Man-Ape, or Ghouls, or a witch that would torture her sister. But there are also stories where Conan has dealt with monsters without slaying them unless they asked: The Frost Giant's Daughter, The Queen of the Black Coast, The Black Citadel. So, Polt, if you want an Eberron based on the DaVinci Code, then by all means, I have GURPS Illuminati behind me. I can make a powerful illuminated adventure series that will have your head spin and you go screaming in hysteria. But if you're looking for real Pulp, that's what I'm trying to capture here.
Volaran 03-11-06, 01:50 AM	I think the main issue that I could bring up with the outline itself is the level of detail, and this is something I've found a bit lacking in the thread itself. The response given by you, Sir Elton just now was fairly detailed, and spoke against several points brought when criticizing your work. It was of a similar length to your entire adventure outline. However, if I may bring up your responses to some of my suggestions for fleshing things out earlier: I'm setting all of this up. The answers to your questions is one. He's been set up by the Order of the Emerald Claw. This will be properly explained. That really doesn't tell me anything. I enjoy threads where other posters are invited to comment on and participate in adventure design, but responding to detailed posts with one or two sentence answers that don't really elaborate on anything are not something that provokes me to comment or participate further. I find it unfortunate that the thread has gone in a direction where the poster, rather than the work is being criticized, so I'm going to bow out now. However the adventure appears in its final form, I hope you and your group enjoy it, and Eberron.
Sir Elton 03-11-06, 12:43 PM	Elton, whether or not you run the adventure and how you run it isn't going to spite anyone. However, the idea was cliche, underdeveloped and generic. Furthermore I don't really know what you're trying to do in running your adventure like a TV show; in Eberron the idea is to usually cram as much intrigue and complexity into something as possible. You can do what you want; but if this many people ridicule your idea, it may be wise to listen to their critiques rather than getting pigheaded and defensive over your idea. Nope. I'm not defensive and pigheaded over my idea; I'm defensive and pigheaded over me. However, think of it this way. Like I explained in my earilier post, if I set up Eberron with as much intrigue and complexity as you like it, it would defeat the purpose of having a real Pulp campaign. Setting up the campaign as a T.V. Show heavily on the Pulp allows me to explore the Pulpish world of Eberron. I could, if I wanted too, set up an Illuminated Eberron campaign with all the trimmings. The Roundtable Conspiracy, the Illuminati, the Society of Assassins. With Breland's government co-opted by the Parliamentary Wives who is subtly controlled by the Aurum, who is subtily controlled by the Arcane Congress, who is subtily controlled by the Cults of the Dragon Below, who are subtily manipulated by the Order of the Emerald Claw, which is subtly manipulated by the Blood of Vol, which is subtly manipulated by the Cults of the Dragon Below, which is subtly manipulated by Citadel, which is subtly manipulated by the Dreaming Dark, which is subtly manipulated by House Thrask, which is subtly manipulated by the Elves of Aerenal, which is subtly manipulated by the Chamber, which is subtly manipulated by the Dreaming Dark, which is subtly manipulated by the Parliamentary Wives, which is subtly manipulated by the Ashbound, which is subtly manipulated by the Lords of Dust, which is subtly manipulated by the Dreaming Dark, which is subtly manipulated by the House Cannith, which is subtly manipulated by House Thuranni, which is subtly manipulated by the Dreaming Dark, which is subtly manipulated by the Inspired, which are manipulated by the Quori, which are manipulated by the Dalkyr, which in turn are subtily manipulated by the Arcane Congress . . . . And so on. Then you need people wearing tin foil hats, Orien coaches driving over people with a certain sequence of 6 on their name plates. You'd have unexplained happenings going on, like the PCs coming home to their Apartment in Sharn and everything looks alright except something is out of place. You'd have unexplained disappearances of people who show up much later, naked and thinking that their lives started two days later with a tatoo that has the "All-seeing-eye Pyramid" on their chests or breasts. King Boranel would think: ""If my government works the way they say it works, I'm in DEEP trouble." And then what do they know? I don't know about you, but a truely Pulpish Eberron Campaign is much easier to play around with. :p And certainly, the Eberron Illuminati do exist, Eberron is full of "The Illuminati!" Groups conspiring to destroy Law and Order among the Five Nations and to bring Anarchy to Khorvaire so that anyone Militant group may step in and proclaim Order. This goes by the theory that Mankind can't stand Anarchy as much as Nature can't stand a vacuum. Complexity doesn't work in an Non-Illuminated game. My game is Non-Illuminated.
nirodus 03-12-06, 04:27 AM	I would ask you what you're talking about, but i don't think you'd successfully deliver an answer.
polt 03-12-06, 07:16 AM	Then ask yourself Elton. Do you want an adventure 100% true to pulp. Or do you want an adventure that's actually good? ;)
Johnny_Gaijin 03-12-06, 07:42 AM	i bet you five dollars if i met sir elton in real life i'd sir puke.
papytofu 03-12-06, 10:27 AM	Why do you all bite at everybody like raging dogs? You don't like Elton's style, that's it end of the line. Eberron can even be a world of Barbie and Ken if you want it. The important thing is that he and his group have fun. I've just learn what PEACH means today, and I don't see anything Constructive in what you says. You're in right of thinking what you want, but if YOU have that right, everyone have it. What are you hoping for? For him to change his opinion? If you won't change yours why should he changes his? If you find his story boring, that's all you aren't in his group so it doesn't mean anything for you. You won't probably even meet him of all your lifetime. You can say you don't like his idea and why is it like that. After that it's Elton choice to care or to not care about your comments. It takes only one post after that you can go on your way and go to a thread that fits more with your interest. Why should we lose ourself in some childish quarrel. The things that reunite us here is that we like Eberron we don't care about HOW we like it. Will you fight with somebody just because he don't like his steaks the way you like them? That's all I had to say. You're now free to think about what I've just said or to ignore it.
Endless_Helix 03-12-06, 10:48 AM	Alright, Alright. Flaming won't get anyone anywhere, and besides I didn't think his cologne choice was that bad :P Mines a lot worse ;) -> On Topic from here on in <- This is a PEACH review Sir Elton, you can do better than this. I've read some of your stuff and it's a lot better laid out than this and a lot better thought out than this. The basic structure is fairly mundane; it's something I'd expect from a generic world. Sereno gave a lot of cool and good options, I'd use some of them. So lets say we have Xeke, a (human?) sorcerer of at least (14th?) level. He lives in a shack on the outskirts of town and is very suspicious. We also have a medusa in the forest. Then we have a small village full of hardy townsfolk. People disappear and are then found in the forest, turned to stone. People spaz out and and blame Xeke, because he's weird and a magic user. This is roughly when the Players walk into town (maybe?). First of all, theres no motive. Why would Xeke flip out and turn people into statues? I mean, he's just ecentric and a bit of a loner. One possibility is that Xeke has been selling his services to the townsfolk, at an exorbitant price. House Cannith has a small enclave in the town, and can do the same work, for cheaper. This has caused bad blood between Xeke and the townsfolk and Xeke and House Cannith. Now this came to a head recently when he and the head of the Cannith Enclave got into a fight over something (possibly the origins of a spell, or a dipute about local politics). The Head of the Enclave punched Xeke, and Xeke hit him back. They had to be pulled apart, both of them were yelling about how much they'd like to kill eachother. The next day the head of the enclave had dissappeared. During the next week, several other memberd of the enclave went missing. The Village sent out scouting parties to find this guy, and found the missing members of house cannith, as statues. Enter the Players. -One thing is that there could be gatekeeper seals in the woods near the town. Most people have probably been there on a dare and could point the PC's in the right direction. This would be a good, flavorful environment for a medusa encounter. - If the PC's have the ability to make stone to flesh scrolls,the head of the enclave could lie and say it was Xeke, just to get back at him. - If the PC's encounter the medusa in the woods, and assuming that both the medusa and Xeke are innocent, and assuming the PC's don't know this, the PC's will attack the medusa. If I had the ability to defend myself, I would, so odds are the medusa would fight back. -The OotEC seems a bit grafted on for this adventure. The natural people to manipulate both characters are the Cults of the Dragon Below. Medusa have a connection to Khyber, and the cults could have kidnapped Xeke's orphaned niece in the village. This also gives you an awesomely action-packed final encounter, barging into a ritual sacrifice to open the seals and unleash a horror beyond reasoning! The basic concept of the adventure isn't bad, it just needs something to make it a little more, well, interesting.
Sir Elton 03-12-06, 11:23 PM	I would ask you what you're talking about, but i don't think you'd successfully deliver an answer. A conspiracy campaign. An unadulterated, the PCs vs. the Conspiracy Campaign. One where the Dreaming Dark and all of those little power groups in Eberron have unlimited Resources and are all conspiring to forment Anarchy in Khorvaire so that they can step in with ultimate Authority. A campaign in which every single group is co-opted by every other single group. And this co-option is so complete that They don't know whose pulling the strings. A campaign where the Conspiracy is everywhere, but no one really knows what's happening. A campaign built like the Onion you describe, so complex that the PCs will take the entire campaign to unravel all the layers. That sort of thing, I didn't set up, not in the slightest. If I did, half way through, the Players would be cowering in their beds at night; afraid that the Brelander Parliamentary Wives are out to get them through the Cult of the Dragon Below they co-opted. And all because some people demand something better when they don't know that in my campaign, Vol wants a mortal body back. And she's going to get it, too. And this is just one way the Players will come in contact with her agents working towards this grand scheme of hers. My campaign is about the players healing the feelings of the Last War by commiting good deeds. While Vol, tired of being Undead, personally trained thirteen necromancers of Arcanist and Theurgist backgrounds in the arts of Necromancy. Dubbed the White Necromancers, these Thirteen act as much her personal Agents as well as researchers trying to find a way to build an Artificial Womb to bring her back to mortality. And While the Lord of Blades plays a part in the campaign, it is Vol that is the real threat. The Background of the Adventure in question is that one of the White Necromancers co-opts a High Prefect of the Silver Flame into the Order of the Emerald Claw. She does this by first becoming one his Trusted Advisors, and then manipulates him into casting a curse that transforms a young elvish nun of the Silver Flame into the medusa in question for making out with her husband in the Church Lavatory (the curse was designed to destroy affection). Xeke had battled this White Necromancer before the High Prefect can deliver this curse, but was defeated by a simple Nonlethal Power Bolt (Expellarmus!). Then the White Necromancer demands that the High Prefect partake in the Sacrament of Blood. At that moment, he becomes a chaplain of the local cell of the Order of the Emerald Claw. After taking home Xeke, they plant the Flesh to Stone scrolls among his library. Which will, of course, be discovered. Meanwhile, sorcerers connected to the cell start to change random people into Stone. They blame it on both Xeke and the Medusa. The medusa cleric is forced to live out her life apart, and Xeke is excommunicated from the Church of the Silver Flame and is treated as untouchable. All the while, the local Church of the Silver Flame performs sacraments and libations to the Silver Flame by day, and acts as a meeting house for the Order of the Emerald Claw by night. And this is the first of the Story Arc dealing with Vol and her goal to gain a new, mortal body. You flambeau are such ignoramuses to think that I would have all this planned in my Series Bible for my players to see. Or to assume that my outline, such as it is, would include the above, right off the bat. Frankly, I think that's disgusting.
nirodus 03-13-06, 05:40 AM	When did anyone describe an onion? When has anyone mentioned conspiracy but you? When has anyone said that the problem with your adventure was the lack of complication? you posted a bad idea, with the apparent assumption that everyone else was to take for granted that you had other, better things you weren't including in your post(for some reason) and that we were meant to take that into account. i guess it's really OUR fault for not realizing this and not your poorly concieved (original) post.
Sir Elton 03-13-06, 11:54 AM	When did anyone describe an onion? When has anyone mentioned conspiracy but you? When has anyone said that the problem with your adventure was the lack of complication? you posted a bad idea, with the apparent assumption that everyone else was to take for granted that you had other, better things you weren't including in your post(for some reason) and that we were meant to take that into account. i guess it's really OUR fault for not realizing this and not your poorly concieved (original) post. Actually, Nirodus, you haven't seen my Episode chart. Nor I'm going to post it here. So, you have no right to judge whether or not my adventure was bad; because I didn't post the whole story. Just a small chapter of it. ]i bet you five dollars if i met sir elton in real life i'd sir puke. Depends on the context. If I went to your halloween party dressed as Pizza the Hutt, then you'd throw up your lunch. If you met me at Black's Beach in California, and you were there for the same reason, you won't. It all depends on the context.
polt 03-13-06, 12:33 PM	Actually, Nirodus, you haven't seen my Episode chart. Nor I'm going to post it here. So, you have no right to judge whether or not my adventure was bad; because I didn't post the whole story. Just a small chapter of it. It all depends on the context. Then why the heck post a very generic chapter when clearly, none of us know enough about your game to know what the heck it's about?
Sir Elton 03-13-06, 04:11 PM	Then why the heck post a very generic chapter when clearly, none of us know enough about your game to know what the heck it's about? I wanted opinions on the format. Not on the content. FORMAT not CONTENT.
AntiSean 03-13-06, 04:25 PM	I wanted opinions on the format. Not on the content. FORMAT not CONTENT. And yet, you mention this nowhere in the original post, or in subsequent posts, as far as a quick scan shows. Don't blame other people for misunderstanding you if you don't present yourself clearly enough.