Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rechan 02-03-06, 10:49 PM	Recently there have been a few threads about "Help my idea/campaign". A few months ago, there was one long thread where all of these requests were contained - well, why not re-create the idea? So, the purpose of this thread is a place to come for fleshing out your current adventure, get ideas for campaigns, requesting suggestions, or getting critiques on your current plot/campaign. First, some resources: Adventure Seeds (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=275225), Set pieces (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=287428) and Exciting Eberronian Encounters (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=569576). In addition, I find The Houses (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=569576) an invaluable resource on putting a real face on the Dragonmarked Houses, and Custom Aberrations in minutes (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=489042) is a real timesaver. ------------------------------------------------------------ To kick off the thread, I'll present a one-shot adventure that I'm going to do soon, which may develop into a mini-campaign. This adventure is based in Stormreach (I use both Stormreach: My version (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=462420) and the PGtE as resources), and the plot is a modified verison of Death in Freeport. Background: Milos, having been working in the Eldrich Congress's library of magical texts on Stormreach, came across two interesting facts: 1) The nature of Erandis's birth, and the fact she had the Mark of Vol, and 2) The Draconic Prophecy. Believing that these were inter-related - that Erandis's blood allowed her to tap into the full potential of her Dragonmark, to influence the prophecy in a much more significant fashion. This is the reason that the Aerenial destroyed House Vol - for fear of Erandis's power, and how its influence on the Prophecy might bring the Dragons down on the heads of the Aerenial. Milos began researching an eldrich machine he had heard about - an artifact that, with sufficient focus, could begin altering individuals. It had been found in Xen'Drik a few years previous, and was still being researched by the Cannith Enclave, Morgrave and the Eldrich Congress. Milos then stole it, and had it moved to a secret location, where he began privately pouring himself into it. The Eldrich machine was actually a tie to Xoriat - a Khyber shard with the essence of a Daelkyr stored inside of it, and as more minds were sacrificed to it, its power would grow. The altar began to warp Milos's mind, and then his body as he focused in on it when not at the Congress. Believing he had finally unlocked the power of the altar, Milos began to meet in secret with those in the employ of the Houses in Stormreach - only those who had the Least mark, who had little favor and influence in their enclaves, but who were still employed - Blacksmiths, ship hands, minor treasure hunters - and began whispering to them about the power of the altar, and how he believed he could awaken the true potential of their Dragonmarks, by turning them into half-dragons with the transmutational powers of the Altar. At first, the House members, bored and finding this prospect either exciting or at least novel, began their worship with Milos. As they to began to be twisted by the altar, they realized that to harness it's true power, it needed sacrifices - to consume sanity (truelly, that power was fuelling the link back to Xoriat). To fulfill the thirst of the Altar, the cult has been kidnapping those of the lower class district as sacrifices. The Altar changed those who were subjected to it, but merely turned them into aberrations - the most evident was the Jorasco halfling who was mutated into the choker. Others, less fortunate ones, had to be hidden away in the underground compound, while others merely could not venture forth any longer, as they had no means of disgusing themselves. Lucius, a librarian at the Eldrich Congress, has been a casualty to this plot. Four years ago, he had snuck into the secret regions of the Congress, past places he had the clearance for, and was expelled. Then he merely disappeared. Four years later, he comes back - and has no memory of where he'd been. But with new, rare texts under his arm, he barters his way back in to the Congress. However, Lucius has been trying to re-trace his steps, find out what happened, and Milos, having believed he had Glimpsed something - some knowledge of the Prophecy in that madness, kidnapped him, and began torturing him to pull those secrets from him. Here's an outline of the plot: The PCs arrive in Stormreach. Almost immediately, they are attacked by a press gang on the docks (A press gang is a group of thugs who try and beat people into submission and sell the subjects into slave labor). Naturally, the PCs put that threat down without challenge. However, once the gang is neutralized, someone approaches them, claiming he was watching the docks for just such an occasion to find someone who's capable of handling themselves. The individual, Emil, offers the PCs cash (First up front and then some afterwards), as well as assisting the PCs in getting better situated in Stormreach in exchange for finding his friend, Lucius, who's gone missing. Emil is a priest of Aueron, and works at the Eldrich Congress (Stormreach outpost of the Eldrich Order of Aueron). His friend was a librarian and wizard who also worked with the Congress, and who has went missing for four days. The PCs are taken to Lucius's house, where they find a To Do list and his diary, then to the Congress. Poking around, the PCs attempt to speak to the head of the Congress - but are stopped by his right hand man, Milos. Milos denies them entry to the headmaster, explains why they aren't looking too closely for Lucius (because he had disappeared before), and for the most part gives them the run around. Now, the PCs only have one more lead - Lucius's to-do list, which mentions him meeting a ship captain. This takes them to Soarbell d'Lyander, who really can't tell the PCs all that much about Lucius, but during the conversation Soarbell mentions someone in the Lyander enclave that's been missing too, and writes down the name of a "discreet" friend of his who deals with information in Stormreach. Said info broker has been watching the news, and via a few contacts with the various House enclaves and other regions, manages to get the PCs a list of a few people, all with Least dragonmarks, tied to the various houses who've gone missing within the last month or so. As well, they are told that many people in the poor districts have gone missing as recently as a week - these are going unreported, but the poor know something's up. While the PCs are going to the various Enclaves checking up on these missing folk, they are ambushed. In addition, if the PCs happen to go snooping around the poor quarter, they could come across a convenient abduction. Inevitably, these two events will lead the PCs to a giant-ruin (Stormreach is built upon them, after all) that leads into an underground level. Inside, they find a cult, comprised of a mix of races, all of which show a slight bit of mutation. As the PCs draw closer to the worshipping room, the underground level has undergone warping - the masonry of the stonework looks wrong, where it wouldn't meet geometrically, but still fits - the floor kind of 'shimmers' and ripples, and an all-together uneasiness settles in. There's also moaning, shrieking, and Other Noises from chambers off to the side. On the way to the Altar, the PCs are assaulted by something small, vaguelly reptialian/snake-like, with snake-fingers and a translucent, scaled skin - upon which is a mangled Mark of Healing (this is in fact a choker, or at least is using the Choker stats). Upon reaching the Altar itself, which is a glowing Khyber shard formed into an Idol of Tiamat, the PCs do battle with Milos and two of his best henchmen. Upon death, Milos reverts to something that looks vaguely human but isn't anymore. How does that sound? I think the plot needs fleshing out in these areas: 1) Can you think of any more sleuthing I could tie into this? I want this to be a mystery with less railroading. Also, I'd like to add red herrings to this, or get more NPC groups involved - perhaps a death cult who is in passive opposition of Milos steers the PCs his way, or offers some form of backup, or the organized crime (loose gangs in the poorer districts) see the kidnappings as a slap in the face of their community, and want the culprits brought in. I just can't think of how to tie these NPCs in (namely how the PCs run across them, and how they can further the story). 2) Who is Milos? Does his story sound fine? Would he fit in the story better if he was a wizard or sorcerer of house Cannith who joined the EC in Stormreach? Or would his story be better if he was actually some other agent - a cultist of Khyber who was looking to destroy the city, and duped the House members to be his lackeys? 3) Who ambushes the PCs? Milos could have hired thugs to take them out, feeling they were getting too close (and too beliggerent)? Or he could have sent some martial members of his cult after them - a House Tharashk bounty hunter and some Deneith/Cannith backup.
RickVigorous 02-04-06, 12:52 AM	Pursuant to your question over on my Stormreach thread, I can see a few ways to bring in some of the city's NPCs and power groups. In particular, I can see the quori being interested in anything tied to Xoriat. After all, in Eberron, dreams and madness are the two primary sources of psionic power, and the quori are always looking for an advantage over their foes. So a small team of Inspired psions and psychic warriors out to capture Milos' relic might make for a good ambush. Also, the appearance of agents of the Dreaming Dark will likely get the PCs thinking that the quori are the main villains, when in fact they're just incidental to the main plot. The other obvious player from my version of Stormreach is Ardenti Callen, the half-dragon agent of the Chamber in the city. He'd be very interested in Milos' efforts to create another half-dragon with a dragonmark, and I can see him getting involved to assist the PCs (or to attack them if he thought they'd be likely to make the situation worse). I'd be careful about throwing in too many red herrings. It's been my experience (as a Dark*Matter GM) that players always bite. So if you use false leads and the like, I'd recommend you limit the amount of time they can spend on investigations; by cutting down on their freedom, you force the players to investigate only the most important leads, and you make them really feel it when they waste time investigating a red herring. If they have the freedom to investigate everything, red herrings wind up just wasting game time. So here's my suggestion: have the Inspired show up early on. They know that Emil is investigating Milos's relic, which they want. They hope he can lead them to it. They are shadowy "men in black" types at first; they appear just before the action breaks out and vanish before anyone can confront them. But then they strike out of nowhere once they learn where Milos's relic is. This occurs just as the PCs get close, leading the characters to think that 1. they're on the right trail (which is correct), and 2. they're up against the Dreaming Dark (which is false).
Rechan 02-04-06, 01:05 AM	In particular, I can see the quori being interested in anything tied to Xoriat. After all, in Eberron, dreams and madness are the two primary sources of psionic power, and the quori are always looking for an advantage over their foes. So a small team of Inspired psions and psychic warriors out to capture Milos' relic might make for a good ambush. Also, the appearance of agents of the Dreaming Dark will likely get the PCs thinking that the quori are the main villains, when in fact they're just incidental to the main plot. This would be very useful, as one of the PCs is actually a Kalasthar sent to Stormreach to keep an eye for Inspired, as Adar believes a place of Giant/Quori battle would have lots of reasons for the Inspired's placement. However, I think the Inspired, believing the Altar to be a threat to Stormreach's existance (namely, it slowly building a manifest zone to Xoriat) would be better off helping the PCs destroy Milos (by pointing them in the right directon), then either ambush the PCs on the way out, or sneak in, destroy all the evidence and try to steal the altar from where-ever it may be taken to. The Information Broker, for instance, could be an Inspired mind-seed or plant. The other obvious player from my version of Stormreach is Ardenti Callen, the half-dragon agent of the Chamber in the city. He'd be very interested in Milos' efforts to create another half-dragon with a dragonmark, and I can see him getting involved to assist the PCs (or to attack them if he thought they'd be likely to make the situation worse). I had also considered this - but I'm just not sure where to drop him in, how the PCs would come across him, and what sort of information he could provide. Emil is in fact just looking for his lost friend, who unfortunately just wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Alternatively, he could be an actual agent with some other group. Though, Emil's a native of the island, who's been raised in the Congress, so he would have to be a very-deep plant or a sleeper of some kind, so what group he'd qualify for I don't know. So here's my suggestion: have the Inspired show up early on. They know that Emil is investigating Milos's relic, which they want. They hope he can lead them to it. They are shadowy "men in black" types at first; they appear just before the action breaks out and vanish before anyone can confront them. But then they strike out of nowhere once they learn where Milos's relic is. This occurs just as the PCs get close, leading the characters to think that 1. they're on the right trail (which is correct), and 2. they're up against the Dreaming Dark (which is false). This could work. My only fear is, if the PCs are hit by the Inspired on their way to the underground complex, it would really sap their reserves of spells/power points for the combat-thick climax. Alternatively, the Inspired could hit them in the middle of the night. The only scheduled ambush I have I had planned on using either mercenaries or the cult-members, because both of those are tied to the cult itself - the PCs could interrogate a member from either one (or find an address in the pocket of a mercenary) and go from there. If I use the Inspired instead, I'll need some other way to get the PCs to the Cult's whereabouts. It really depends on how I run the session, but if the PCs are real smart, and I somehow slip information on when the Cult's next mass is, they might slip in during the cult's next religious ceremony. :) And, thanks for responding!
Rechan 02-04-06, 03:00 PM	Anybody else?
Endless_Helix 02-04-06, 05:29 PM	Just a quick idea for a fun possibility; if you've got a mostly good aligned group you could have it take a day to investigate a lead( game time) but each time they go on a fake lead, have 2d4 people disappear from the poor districts, giving them a real reason to find the right lead.
Rechan 02-05-06, 01:00 PM	Just a quick idea for a fun possibility; if you've got a mostly good aligned group you could have it take a day to investigate a lead( game time) but each time they go on a fake lead, have 2d4 people disappear from the poor districts, giving them a real reason to find the right lead. Not sure how well that'll work with my group- one PC is playing a Kalasthar monk/egoist, so naturally they'll be LAWFUL at least. However, another PC is going for a CN Warlock/Hexblade, and I'm not even sure what the third player is going to be.