Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Darkwood avatar 01-01-07, 06:45 PM	Has anyone actually explained in their campaign how the Mournland came to be. I was thinking of explaining it in an upcoming campaign I want to DM but I want to do something believable, but also make it something the players can prevent from happening again, at a mid level 7 to 12 range
mhacdebhandia 01-02-07, 08:51 AM	The easiest way to make sure your PCs will be able to prevent a recurrence of the event that caused the Mourning is to decide that it was caused by an artifact in the possession of some individual or group they can reasonably expect to defeat. The idea that an artifact capable of destroying an entire nation could be in the hands of someone a 7th-level party (or even a 12th-level party) can defeat seems weird, but it's simple enough to say that if the artifact has any other powers than destroying nations, the current holders of it don't know how to access them. Alternatively, the Mourning could have been a side-effect of a foolish attempt to magically probe the artifact's nature, which the current holders are even more foolishly planning to repeat. Another alternative: if the Mourning was caused by the emergence or temporary emergence of a rakshasa rajah or daelkyr, cultists could be trying to repeat the process in a different nation - and those cultists could be a reasonable challenge for a 7th- to 12th-level party. Perhaps a cult of the Dragon Below is trying to perfect the process that caused their rakshasa overlord to temporarily slip its bonds - imagine the devastation that could result, if the Mournland is what happens when it doesn't manage to get completely free of its prison?
Shriven 01-02-07, 04:46 PM	In my upcoming campaign, the Mourning was caused by the magical (and rather explosive) destruction of a creation forge in Cyre. I seem to recall reading somewhere that there's a rogue creation forge under Sharn somewhere. If my memory is playing up, you could easily make one up. Either way, that would make an awesome campaign. Racing through Sharn's underworld to stop lunatic cultists (or agents of another nation?) destroying the forge and turning Sharn into another Mournland:cool: .
yrogerg 01-02-07, 11:35 PM	In one of our campaigns, set during the Last War, we... might have... inadvertantly... helped out the engineer of the Mourning. He was a Rakshasa masquarading as the head of Cyran Intellegence, and we were hapless Mercenaries turned Secret Agents. We ended up collecting the Artifacts and tomes necessary for him to use a Giant-era Wonderous Device to suck the souls out of the people of Cyre, and use them to elevate himself to Raja-like power. And then we found a Couatl, cut out its heart, and killed the Raja. My character (already a DD agent) went on to become the head of the Dreaming Dark in Sharn, and the other surviving party member went on to become the Lord of Blades, and now fight an epic battle that serves as a backdrop for a campaign that another of the original players is DMing. It was a pretty dark campaign; only one character stayed Good the whole way through, and even he was iffy. The original DM was pretty brilliant; he had mentioned that he wanted to DM a game where a bunch of Cyran refugees had to adjust to hostile nations post-Mourning, so even though the Mourning had hung over our heads for half the game, we were fairly unaware that we were about to help contribute to it.
Salla 01-03-07, 05:48 PM	I haven't decided for sure yet. I'm strongly leaning towards it being an intentional act of destruction by one of the other four nations (they just haven't built a second one yet ... not use of the word YET), at least in this campaign. It'll probably change in the next one.
Alex_ 01-03-07, 07:15 PM	Eldritch Machine. Basically a magical weapon of mass destruction according to the back of the ECS. They're pretty much built for this kind of stuff, only usually on a much smaller scale. Whoever built it will vary depending on who I want to be the main opponent that campaign (Lord of Blades, Emerald Claw, Lords of Dust, Inspired, etc). Since I see some similarities between the Mournland/Treaty of Thronehold scenario and Japanese nuclear bombing/Cold War, I like to entertain possibilities that the knowledge of how to build such a device still exists, and it's easy enough to build another. The question becomes, why haven't they used it yet, and what are they waiting for?
thebestideaieverhad 01-03-07, 08:17 PM	I would just like to say that my story of the mournland (like all good stories) is based around dragons and the draconic prophecy... the prophecy is to me the ultimate explanation of every question you want to answer... because its vague and can probably be applied to anything.
Orion Polaris 01-03-07, 09:38 PM	The PC's themselves caused it. Through the use of an Eldritch device they travelled back in time and caused an event that set off the Day Of Mourning. I won't go into anymore detail due to the fact that I know at least one of my PC's roams this board.
Kensan_Oni 01-04-07, 01:21 AM	I still like the idea that the Mournlands actually exist because the Demiplane of Dread (Ravensloft) came down and swallowed Cyre whole, and the Mournlands are what is what remains of nations that are swallowed up as such by the plane.
goblin_pride 01-04-07, 01:45 AM	I still like the idea that the Mournlands actually exist because the Demiplane of Dread (Ravensloft) came down and swallowed Cyre whole, and the Mournlands are what is what remains of nations that are swallowed up as such by the plane. I considered this option myself, using a creation forge driven by the power of a Daelkyr trapped within a gatekeeper seal. The sudden flash of power the Daelkyr could exert when the forge was first used triggered the ripping of the country from Eberron and placing it afloat deep in the demiplane dread on Xoriat. The Dark Powers of the old Ravenloft setting are the deeper, darker creatures of the Far Realms of Xoriat, the Daelkyr are merely servants. The Mourning effects are the bits of Xoriat that seeped in during the removal of Cyre as they did so long ago when the Cities of the Dhakaani that the Daelkyr seized were ripped from the face of Eberron, leaving nothing but devastation in their wake. And yes, that does mean it's happened before, just not on the scale of Cyre.
Endless_Helix 01-05-07, 04:59 PM	Someone should make a "1001 causes for the Mourning" thread so everyone can contribute their ideas and make fun of the concept. And besides, we all know that the Forgotten Freedom's Captain Jarlot, Son of Khyber, set off the Mourning to keep Khyber under the ground. :)
ccerose 01-05-07, 06:03 PM	I'd like to put down my theories, but my PC regularly read these forums and are currently engaged in a campaign that starts before the end of the war. Because of their knowledge of the setting, they know the Day of Mourning is coming, but are unsure about its cause. When it does happen, I still intend to keep things vague. The campaign will continue after the war and the events that caused the Day of Mourning will eventually be revealed. I have clear ideas to the cause. To keep my players guessing, I have had them deal with various power groups and nations, all who have possible ties to the impending destruction of Cyre. What I will say is that in my game, the Day of Mourning was no accident.
kyeudo 01-08-07, 01:17 PM	In my campaign, though the players don't know this yet, is that the mourning was caused by a Grey Elf Psion Shadow Savant taking advantage of a House Cannith test run of an experimental weapon desighned for destroying entire cities so that he could harvest the souls of all of Cyre to power his ascenscion to godhood once the proper planar convergances occur. He amplified the power of the device through a well placed net of linked affinity field generating devices and stored the souls of those killed in a giant Kyber dragonshard. However, the process didn't work entirely as planned, so not everyone was killed and wierd stuff happens in the Mournland. Currently my PCs are trapped in the remains of Cyre 3 days after the Mourning, in a city infested with zombies.
Nautilus 01-08-07, 03:02 PM	The cause of the Mournland is something I'll have to sit down and have a good think about. One possibility is that the creation of warforged itself - binding sentience into constructed beings - is a profoundly unnatural act which accumulates a residue of 'negative energy' in the universe. If that energy ever gets to strike back - look out. Perhaps House Cannith was tricked into making warforged by a group who knew how dangerous it was.
Kid SixXx 01-08-07, 03:30 PM	Has anyone actually explained in their campaign how the Mournland came to be. I was thinking of explaining it in an upcoming campaign I want to DM but I want to do something believable, but also make it something the players can prevent from happening again, at a mid level 7 to 12 range My thoughts & suggestions: The glassification eldritch machine at Whitehearth that took out Rose Quarry in the Shadows of the Last War module tend to make me think that House Cannith is probably responsible for the Mourning. Either it was an accident via an eldritch machine gone horribly wrong, or it was perhaps on purpose either to cover up something or maybe prepare the way for the Warforged nation that may come to pass if the Lord of Blades has his way. There is also the school of thought that thinks that perhaps elements of The Chamber somehow brought about the Mourning because they believed that its existance somehow speaks to some part of the Prophesy. If you're looking to make a campaign out of it, I'd go with the eldritch machine angle. It's relatively easier to foil some wacko doomsday plot than it is to square off against a member of the Chamber at the level range you are talking about
Heian_d'Phiarlan 01-10-07, 02:07 PM	Here's what I've done with the cause of the Mournland in my campaign: "Being as it was surrounded by enemies I've always thought that Cyre commisioned some kind of "Force Field" from House Cannith that would envelope the entire country (hence the Mournlands being limited to the borders of Cyre) and would help to protect it. This "Force Field" would dampen necromantic energy (to slow down the karnnathi legions), would serve as an alarm when large groups of soldiers would cross it, or just wathever you want. (There's something similar in the Dragons series by Richard A. Knaak). It was from the Cannith facility situated at Making that this Force Field would spread. But something was wrong with the eldritch machine and the entire defensive project turned into what we know. What do we have left? An inimaginable disaster with no known author (they would be dead), no means to reproduce it (unless you recover the eldritch machine and/or original notes), etc Imagine the irony. Everybody looking at their neighboors, afraid of something that can't be reproduced, suspicious of someone completely innocent." Hope it helps!