Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lenin97 07-08-05, 01:19 PM	Greetings all! I'm an old hand at D&D but I'm new to the world of Eberron. I've actually come to adore the setting quite a bit, after just finishing The City of Towers. (Great work Keith!) I'm creating my first character for Eberron, a Warforged Artificer. The gist of his story is that he was purchased after the Last War's end, in a non-functioning state. When repaired he has no recollection of what side he fought for or what he was designed to specialize in. I wanted his new master to be a cold businessman type, that oversees several foundries and forges in the Cogs of Sharn. I was wondering which House would oversee such a business? My first instinct would be a member of House Cannith but is that correct? Since the persoality I'm trying to capture is that of an unfeeling businessman, is there another house that would be a better match? Thanks for any help you might have.
Agentrock 07-08-05, 01:36 PM	I was wondering which House would oversee such a business? My first instinct would be a member of House Cannith but is that correct? Since the persoality I'm trying to capture is that of an unfeeling businessman, is there another house that would be a better match? Yeah, I'd go with Cannith as well - it is right up their alley. And not to spoil any future adventures for you, but they can be a very unfeeling type of people (as seen by their 'experimental device' in the SotLW adventure).
Lenin97 07-08-05, 01:56 PM	Excellent! This is what I have so far. Any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated! :D ________________________________________ _________________________ Slag – n. The glassy scum that forms on the surface of the molten metal during the smelting of metallic ore. However… In the Cogs, the fiery networks of foundries and forges below the bustling streets of Sharn, the word “slag” takes on a different meaning. To the workers of the Cogs, to be called “slag” is an insult. It is used to call a person or object worthless or useless and in a portion of the city that’s very existence is based on the productivity of every citizen, the term is indeed a dire offense. To a single Warforged that worked ceaselessly in the Cogs, the term, which he heard so often, came to mean something else. It became a name… Slag is very much a mystery, to himself as much as to the few that know him. The warforged has lost vast amounts of his memory. The warforged remembers nothing of his creation, how or where he was trained, he can’t remember the names of places he might have been nor even of the people he might have meet. Despite this “amnesia”, Slag’s own body has given him some clues to his past. Slag’s massive adamantine body declares that he was built to withstand the rigors of battle but he only has the most basic knowledge of armed combat. While Slag does bear the insignia of a Cyran warforged, his rank and specialty marks have been removed, but whether he or some other removed them remains a puzzle. Slag does know that while in non-functioning state, he came under the possession of one Bal Korlan, a member of House Cannith whom acts as the Overseer of several Cannith foundries in the Cogs of Sharn. The Warforged also knows that Korlan personally repaired Slag to use him as a tireless assistant. Korlan was not a cruel master, he heaped no insult upon Slag nor did he abuse the warforged. The Overseer was cold to Slag; he never acknowledged the warforged as a living creature. To Korlan: Slag was merely a tool, a machine, and an object to ease his workload. And so Slag was set to work in the foundries… Although Korlan was not cruel to Slag, his laborers did not share his indifference. The smiths and laborers feared the loss of their jobs to more warforged; they hated this “machine” for the future it represented. It was the curses of these men that gave rise to the warforged name but curses were not all that the men hurled at Slag. The laborers would often hurl garbage and offal with their insults and quite a few times their were “accidents” where only Slag was hurt; nothing ever debilitating but still bad enough for Slag to have to spend time repairing himself. This behavior confused Slag; he saw that workers of different races worked side by side without these problems. He never spoke of this puzzlement; it was merely the way of things. Until the riots… Late in Slag’s third year of service to Bal Korlan; the Overseer won two more warforged in a private bet he placed on the Race of the Eight Winds. These two new hands; an older Brelish infantry design named Tower and a smaller scout design named Lithe... ________________________________________ _________________________ Basically in the remainder of the story, tensions boil over, the laborers riot over the addition of further warforged and attempt to destroy the trio of 'forged. Tower is destroyed and Lithe is severly damaged. In a moment of desperation, Slag taps into a repair infusion revealing his past as an Artificer. As a cool twist, I was thinking that instead of thnking of leveling in the traditional sense. As Slag levels, he would actually tap into more nd more of his past abilities. (My DM thought this has a great idea. Espeically the possibilties of past enemies I don't know of :eek: )
Edymnion 07-08-05, 02:17 PM	Actually, there are several more possibilities you could use. There is a good number of private business men in Sharn, who could be running manufacturing facilities down there without any tie to any of the major houses at all. He could be cold simply because he's a cut throat entrepenuer who doesn't care about silly little things like employee satisfaction, as long as they keep working. The major houses would be more likely to have things like safety standards and the like. Or, you could do House Tarkanan, the house for the Abberrant marked people. There's no telling what nefarious things they could be up to! :)
Agentrock 07-08-05, 02:57 PM	Another thought could be that Korlan has been banished from House Cannith (at one time was part of the house - but due to unsavory practices (or whatnot) viewed by the House he was banished). Might explain why he is adamant to treat Slag as 'nothing more than a a tool' instead of a wondrous creation that he is - he could be haboring ill-will towards Cannith-created constructs (and House Cannith itself) but may see their usefullness in what he needs done.
Lenin97 07-08-05, 03:12 PM	Another thought could be that Korlan has been banished from House Cannith (at one time was part of the house - but due to unsavory practices (or whatnot) viewed by the House he was banished). Might explain why he is adamant to treat Slag as 'nothing more than a a tool' instead of a wondrous creation that he is - he could be haboring ill-will towards Cannith-created constructs (and House Cannith itself) but may see their usefullness in what he needs done. I like this idea. Thanks.
Lenin97 07-19-05, 01:36 PM	Thanks again to Agentrock and Edymnion for their help. Here is my completed background for Slag, my Warforger Artificer. Again any comments, questions, compliments ;) are greatly appreciated. (Be warned though this is a long one!) ________________________________________ ________________________ Slag – n. The glassy scum that forms on the surface of the molten metal during the smelting of metallic ore. However… In the Cogs, the fiery networks of foundries and forges below the bustling streets of Sharn, the word “slag” takes on a different meaning. To the workers of the Cogs, to be called “slag” is an insult. It is used to call a person or object worthless or useless and in a portion of the city that’s very existence is based on the productivity of every citizen, the term is indeed a dire offense. To a single Warforged that worked ceaselessly in the Cogs, the term, which he heard so often, came to mean something else. It became a name… Slag is very much a mystery, to himself as much as to the few that know him. The warforged has lost vast amounts of his memory. The warforged remembers nothing of his creation, how or where he was trained, he can’t remember the names of places he might have been nor even of the people he might have meet. Despite this “amnesia”, Slag’s own body has given him some clues to his past. Slag’s filigreed mithral body declares that he was built for some unique purpose but what that purpose might be remained unknown. After wakening, Slag found that he had only the most basic knowledge of armed combat but he thought this might have simply been a part of his memory loss. Slag bears the heraldic seal of House Cannith, a meticulously detailed relief carved onto his left shoulder. Beside this relief and his Ghurla, Slag carries no other markings; his rank mark, military specialty mark and even his army allegiance insignia have been removed. Though, why they are gone or if they were ever even there, is a puzzle. Along with not knowing about his self, Slag doesn’t know how he came to be owned by his current master. He does know that while in non-functioning state, he came under the possession of one Bal Korlan, a disgraced member of House Cannith. Korlan’s unsavory business practices and callous worker treatment got him removed from his former post as a master armor smith. His house punished Korlan by sending him to the Cogs and positioning him as the Overseer of the most hazardous Cannith foundry in Ashblack section of the Cogs. Slag knows that Korlan personally repaired him, though the Overseer took no joy in the repairing the warforged. For Korlan it was simply a task to pass the time, though it did produce him a tireless worker for his foundries. Korlan was not a cruel master, he heaped no insult upon Slag nor did he abuse the warforged. The Overseer was cold to Slag; he never acknowledged the warforged as a living creature. To Korlan: Slag was merely a tool, a machine, and an object to ease his workload, and the Overseer treated him as such. So soon after his complete repair, Slag was set to work in the foundries. Although Korlan was not malicious to Slag, his laborers did not share his indifference. The smiths and laborers feared the loss of their jobs to more warforged; they hated this “machine” for the future it represented. It was the curses of these men that gave rise to the warforged name. Unfortunately, curses were not all that the men hurled at Slag. The laborers would often hurl garbage and offal with their insults and quite a few times there were “accidents” where only Slag was hurt, nothing ever debilitating but still bad enough for Slag to have to spend time repairing himself. This behavior confused Slag; he saw that workers of different races worked side by side without these problems. He never spoke of this puzzlement; it was merely how things were. He went where he was told; he built what he was told to build. He did not question why he performed any task; it was simply the way of things. He was not happy, he was not sad, the days simply came and went, and he did as his master commanded. Until the riot… Late in the third year of Slag’s service to Bal Korlan, the Overseer won two more warforged in a private bet he placed on the Race of the Eight Winds. These two new hands, an older Brelish infantry design named Tower and a smaller scout design named Lithe, were both in a sad state of disrepair but were operational. Korlan made no secret of the fact that after he was finished refurbishing these new warforged that they too would be out to work alongside Slag. It took just a week for Korlan, with a good amount of Slag’s assistance, to get the new Warforged back in good working condition. The trio of living constructs were immediately put to work together. Slag was overjoyed to be working with his own kind, but unfortunately, his new comrades did not share this happiness. Tower was a warrior, first and foremost, to have his weapons stripped from him and to be forced to perform manual labor was an offense to the old soldier. Lithe was no more excited about her new situation either. Unlike most warforged, after the treaty released her from her military duty, she had reviled in her freedom. Lithe had traveled, explored and even hired on as an adventurer for a bit. She loved to be the master of her own destiny, though like any free willed creature she made mistakes and it was one of worst mistakes that landed her Lithe in the servitude of Korlan. She spoke no further of her misdeeds that put her on her present course. Within a matter of days, the trio had begun working seamlessly together. They were easily tripling the output of any other three-man team on the foundry floor. These new warforged and the pace they were setting, sent Korlan’s laborers into an uproar. They were convinced it was only a matter of time before each of them would be replaced by a warforged. It wasn’t too far of a stretch, after all many of the foundries in Ashblack were manned solely by warforged… and Bal Korlan was planning for his forges to be similarly staffed. The breaking point was reached when an angry laborer purposely poured crucible of molten iron too near Tower. The splash back from liquid metal burned away at Tower’s steel skin, searing away at his face. Concerned for their comrade, Lithe and Slag went to Tower’s side. The massive warrior screamed loud enough for the whole foundry floor to come to a stop, he turned to the human responsible, grabbed the man by the throat and snapped his neck in one shift motion. The human was dead before his body slumped to the packed earthen floor. The other workers let out a collected gasp; they began to collect slowly around the trio and the body of the worker. A murmuring started to spread amongst the gathered mob; soon the murmur began to get louder, until it reached a fevered pitch. Sensing the anger rising, Slag pushed past Tower and stood between the warrior and the gathered mob. He pleaded for everyone to calm themselves, in response the side of Slag’s faceplate was crushed by a lump of iron hurled from somewhere in the crowd. Tower’s rage surfaced again; he grabbed a nearby steel rod and turned to the crowd, which had begun to arm themselves as well. As Tower wadded into the angry mob, he began to laugh and egg on the workers, taunting them to fight the massive warforged. As the throng focused their attention on the raging warrior, Lithe helped drag Slag from the crowd. As Slag lay, blinded, on the dirt of the foundry floor, his crumpled face in his hands, when something extraordinary happened. Slag was in a panic, he heard Lithe’s words to him but they did not register. As he felt her rise to join the fray, Slag saw, in his mind, the web of arcane power that gave him life. As he gazed at this web, he saw parts that were torn and as he focused on the broken portions of the web, it began to glow a brilliant green. As it blazed, the web rewove itself and Slag felt the metal of his face straighten and reshape. His eyes refocused but the green light remained, it was Slag’s hands that were alight. He felt is repaired face and suddenly, there was a glimmer is Slag’s mind. A window had opened and he remembered… power. A power over his body and objects. This filled Slag with might, he stood and once again reached within and found the magic energy. This time Slag’s fists began to charge with a sickeningly green crackling power. This infusion almost seemed to pull the warforged into the melee. However, Slag checked his newfound urge to dash into the fray. Though some of the laborers, seeing Slag rise to his feet, charged him. Slag pounded down on the attackers before him. With each strike of his mithral fists was followed by a scream or a gurgled cry of pain. Each blow slew an opponent, their lifeless bodies falling at Slag’s feet. The worker that had charged Slag, those that had survived, backed away. Their withdrawal pressed them against the brawl ahead. The fighting halted, as both sides turned to see what had caused the retreat. The combatants silently stared at Slag; his hands alight with arcane power and the bodies of foes at his feet. Slag returned their gaze, his emotionless faceplate unable to express the torrent within. Whether the fight continued or not, Slag cared not. Silently, he turned away. He walked from the foundry; only to be stopped in the street by a panicked Bal Korlan, who had just heard of the riot, but the look in the construct’s eye said that he was not above taking one more life this day. And so Slag left his foundry, Ashblack and Sharn without looking back.