Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Endless_Helix 01-14-06, 08:59 PM	I've been running a Sharn-Centered campaign with five players and I'm stumped. The party is a Gnomish Artificer, a Warforged Fighter, a Kalashtar Psywarrior/Soulknife heading towards Atavist, a Halfling Rogue/Swashbuckler with connections to the Boromars, and a Changeling Warlock. The Plot till now has been, being arrested for being accessories to Arson, fighting a random nasty summoned by a Cultist of the Dragon Below, being hired to guard a professor on an expedition into Undersharn, a raid on the CotDB, collapse of cavern being used for unspeakable ritual by CotDB, and the subsequent escape. What's happening now, is that they have inadvertantly revealled an ancient Dhakaani Tomb. Daask has begun a full-scale extraction of the wealth in it. The Boromars are all riled up because of it. However, this tomb is a prison to a quori that helped to incite the elves into rebellion and was cut off when Dal Quor was severed from Eberron. His ship got lost and landed on Khorvaire and got massacred by the Dhakaani. He was entombed and his body died but his spirit was trapped in the tomb. It's gone insane in the long years it's been stuck there. The Inspired want to kill it so it's reborn under their control and not a random factor. The Kalashtar want to control the quori by capturing and indoctrinating it to their side. The PC's will be encountering this Quori for the first time on a scouting run for the Boromars into the tomb. I've got some of the fall out planned but haven't completely grasped all of it. -The Quori wants out so it can do something completely insane, I'm still working this out. It tells this to the party - The Inspired find out about this Spirit though their secret means, and get a hold of the party and tell the party that the Kalashtar are trying to use this Quori as fuel for a weapon that will replicate the Mourning. - The party goes to The Enlightened Havakhad to sort this out, he denies the attempt to build a weapon to create the mournland again, but for Reidra. - The Party visits the Boromars, gets paid, warns Boromars about international repercussions. Boromars get area turned into historical site by council, turns owning the treasue w/o letter of marque a crime, which puts them at -1 favor, prevents Daask from using the treasure in anywhere except Droaam and the Cogs, and gets the Boromars partially restricted access. One question I've got is, Would the Boromars drop the PC with connections if she requests aid in this. On one hand, she is family and is getting powerful. However, the international ramifactions are quite serious, ambassadors have quite a bit of power. If one owed them a favor, it could increase their wealth and power immensely. The metaphysical aspects are going to be over their heads for the most part, so that won't be a motivational factor. The next is, What would you use to trap a quori with the ghost template? The final one is what are some possible next steps for the story? Thanks ahead of time,
The Necromancer King 01-15-06, 06:58 AM	Alright... You are getting a bit too caught up in could be's, might be's, and may be's. Take a step back, take a deep breath, make a quick prayer, and play. Find out what the players think is right. When you give them the situation with the ghostly Quori, have them fling a couple of ideas at you. Weigh and consider each one. Then decide which one is right, and add a complication. As for the Boromars, if they're really that important to the way the game is going to turn out, make up an NPC. My players dealt exclusively through Kostar Boromar (a bastardized Costar, who was a gnome in S:CoT). He provided them missions when they needed them, and was their voice to the rest of the Boromar clan. If a quick decision was needed, he'd give them one that held the full weight of the Boromar clan behind it. Also think about story. Your player characters are the main characters. Giving them a bunch of high-powered back-up takes away from their spotlight. Never, ever take the spotlight away from the player characters. It's anathema to good gaming. So if the connected character straight out asks for help, tell her, "Can't do it for ya, homie. But I'll do you one better." And then give them a piece of the puzzle they need to figure out to trap the quori ghost for themselves. Where does the rest of the story go? Again, look to your player characters. They'll let you know what is important to them, and come up with plans of their own. Let them follow up on those plans, put some complications in their way. It will make the game a whole lot more fun in the end, and a lot less of a hassle on you. Reactive Game Mastery is always a lot more effective than Proactive Game Mastery, because you never have to force your players to do anything. And that ultimately makes for better games.
Setherial 01-15-06, 07:32 AM	wtf ? Sounds a lot like my idea, Tomb of Agnomon, at least give me a bit of credit when you post this !
Endless_Helix 01-15-06, 08:52 AM	@ Setherial: Go back and check the thread, I was there and putting in a bit of feedback now and again,and I also said I would be running a lower level campaign using this in the original thread, but I digress. Yes this is a homage *blatant rip off* of the Tomb of Agnomon, which was Setherial's most excellent campaign idea. Are you happy now? ;) @ The Necromancer King: Thank you! You're post was helpful! I am renown for getting stuck in the details; it's my personal battle as a DM. The prayer really helped for some reason :p The reason I need to know about the first Q is because it will influence how the entire game turns out. If the players don't have the Boromars, they will be entirely w/o connections except to the Kalashtar, which will be iffy when they hear the Inspired Ambassador. If the Players have the Boromar Clan as allies, they have a huge network to gain information and stuff like Khyber Traps, which were pointed out to me last night. Another thing I forgot to mention is that the person giving the missions is one of the PC's siblings and is fairly well respected in the organization.
Setherial 01-15-06, 11:07 AM	hey no problem, I'm glad poeple use my ideas, I have too many to play out myself anyway :) As for the insane thing the quori intends to do: I imagine it has gone mad from rage from being trapped for god knows how long. It hates those that trapped him but even more so his own race for letting him rot like that (it has become the focus of his rage). He wants to go back to Dal Quor and release his rage on his own kind. Once he is released he'll try to jump into bodies hoping to find a host and use the hosts dreams to go back to Dal quor. This however does not work due to his unique state (ghost form), he can posses a host (or he might not at first but as his power grows he gets better at it) but in doing so the host conciousness is pushed into the background and the ghost does not have access to the hosts dreams. They are still 2 different beings sharing one body but not one mind. This fuels the Quori spirit's frustration and anger even more and he burns up bodies as he jumps from victim to victim, leaving his hosts in a catatonic state. At first, when the party or some group releases him, he is still weak and he tries to posses but he can't, he can get inside someones head for a very brief time, or control ones body for lets say a round before he looses control again. During that time the victim recieves a waterfall of images, the Dal Quor invasion, the giants of Xendrik, the Dhakaani empire at its peak etc... It also recieves images of hate and destruction, alien thoughts horrible to witness. Parties involved: - The Boromars: I would encourage to maintain a link between one of the players and the clan. The boromars gain a powerfull ally, they can use a high level hero that ows them favours and on the other hand the players gain access to a wealth of resources, political corruption, information... Also image the fun when the party becomes more and more famous, maybe they become nobility themselves, landowners and lords. As politicians their reputation is very important and trying to cover up former ties to a criminal organisation might become an adventure by itself. - the Inspired: crazy Quori spirit is rampaging through sharn, how much worse can things get. They wanne kill it as much as anyone and fast. - the Kalashtar: crazy Quori spirit is rampaging through sharn, hmmm not so good. crazy Quori wanting to destroy the Quori certainly is good but controlling this rampaging haunt might prove to be near impossible. Also what if the spirit draws attention to the existence of the inspired and the Quori threat, maybe a war to destroy all inspired breaks out, maybe the kalashtar might become victims of this war themselves. So all in all, not so good. Lets kill it.