Cyre's Lost Subaquatic Colony: Site description/mini-adventure (PoeticJustice) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Cyre's Lost Subaquatic Colony: Site description/mini-adventure (PoeticJustice) [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Dawn_of_an_Age
02-08-07, 01:03 PM Below you will find a mini adventure that was posted a couple of years ago by PoeticJustice. I wanted to post it here so that as a forum we could tear it apart, and put it back together again.

I am very excited about the concept of it, but somewhere along the way the majesty of it is lost, it doesnt flow as well as I think it could, and since I am no writer, I thought to ask for the help of this forums combined expertise in fleshing it out and helping it to flow with the Grand feel that I think it should have.

Please Help.

I will post the rest of the threads dialog below, and we can take it from there.

Strange lights haunt the depths of Lake Cyre at night. The little folk of Talenta, distrubed by the lights, have contracted advenutrers to investigate the anomaly. Until now, none have succeeded. This is the story of a group of brave adventurers that sought out a mystery, found a piece of the past, nd got more than they bargained for.

BACKGROUND INFO:
Just after the Valenar betrayal, House Cannith completed one of its greatest works: A self-sufficent, submerged hamlet. From beneath several hundred feet of water and embedded in tough rock, the place was completely impervious to assault. It was to be a treasure vault to hide the riches of Cyre's royal family and a hiding place for the family themselves when the war seemed bleak. After the Day of Mourning, all contact between the surface and the colony were cut off.

Incorporating the colony into your game:

One of the PCs recieves a map and keystone (see below) from a cyran relative, along with an account of the colony. Deciding to plunder the riches of the vaults, the party sets out for the eastern Mournland...

Prince Oargev of New Cyre believes that a long-lost cousin is still in the colony, which might have been untouched by the Mourning. He commissions the PCs to bring back the relative, and gives them a Keystone necessary to gain entry.

GETTING TO THE COLONY: On the Western Shore of Lake Brey, there lies a hidden military encampment, long abandoned and possibly inhabited now by Mournland mutations. At that encampment, there lies a dock. At the end of the dock, there is a soarwood platform afloat on the water missing a circular piece(the keystone), which is about the size of a hubcap, from its center. Once the plate is set in the center, a hemispherical wall of force surrounds the platform and it descends beneath the water. The Pcs may see, with a sufficent Spot, forms admidst the murky water. But its far to late to turn back now...

FIRST IMPRESSION OF THE COLONY: The platform moves of its own accord down the murky depths, and before long a dome of Brass, about 30 ft tall, and set to glimmering by soft golden light issuing forth from the dome's many windows as well as faint light from the top of the lake. The dome's base is surrounded by many small bulges, each with a window, and directly in front of you lies the colony's apparent entrance, a gaping maw of light amidst the dark lake. You pass through, the platform raises through a pool of water and emerges in a pool at the center of the dome.

THE INTERIOR: Spic and Span, a ring of quarters surround the launch bay and command center at the center of the colony. On the top floor if the dome lies a large hydroponics bay, stocked to the brim with fresh vegetables. The vault lies underneath the dome itself, diretcly underneath the captain's quarters in the command center.

INHABITANTS OF THE COLONY:
The place is manned by 20 soldiers and their families. They are all, apparently unaware that the last war has ended, or that the Nourning has occurred, so anyone bearing the colors of enemy nation, or any Valenar Elf, can expect a rude welcome. Anyone spouting news of the death of Cyre can likewise expect rough treatment. A sufficently high diplomacy check can keep the party out of the brig, though every member of the colony is violently opposed to any attempt to leave, lest the secret of their base be revealed. There is, however, one exception. Prince Farwell, a scion of Cyre's royal family, wants desperately to leave the place. If the party is imprisoned he springs them loose. Once they're free, Farwell askws they infiltrate the vault and steal an artifact that will facilitate his escape. With no other way out of the colony, the PCs may have little choice. Farwell seems a little bit off. He'll look at a wall with seemingly nothing wrong and wince or blubber. He looks unkempt and fevered. By comparsion all the other denizens seem perfectly in-tune and well groomed. In fact, they all seem to ignore the Prince...

THE TWIST: Once the artifact is lifted, the PCs emerge to find the Colony a changed place. Whereas before it radiated life and light, it is now strewn with corpses, spattered with Blood, and equipment lies in utter ruin. No one living remains to be seen, save for Farwell...
"They all went crazy." He sobs, "I could see them killing each other in my head, and then I woke up... It happened so long ago. Please take me back. Take me away from here... They had to die. They wouldn't let me leave. I had to do it..."
At this point a loud clanging becomes audible. In keeping with the Eberron penchant for action, the base begins to collapse as Kuo-tua, a Dragon Turtle, or any sufficently powerful sea creature spotted on the way down begins to hammer the base.
"STOP IT!" Farwell screams derangedly at the group, "I'LL MAKE YOU STOP IT! YOU WON'T KILL ME!"
This would be the climactic fight, one between the insane Farwell, who, it becomes apparent, has developed telepathic (or sorcery) powers as a result of the mourning, which he had used first to get the crew to kill each other, and then to delude the party into thinking all was well. Oh, and the Pcs need to get the job done with time to escape the collapsing dome, which is becoming more watery every second...
Comments?

the clanging should be a gnomish artificer in his Crafted undersea vessel attempting to remove this abomination from the undersea realm. of course he'll have a fine english accent and after the climatic fight will "invite" the PC aboard as he takes his fight back to the "evil Lhazzar pirates"

(anyone for a touch of 20,000 leagues)

Very nice! I wish I could find illustrations for this, as it seems it would be a visually stunning adventure!

This looks like a really cool site for a side trek. I like the location; the only problem is that its so small. There's not much room in the underwater colony for an extended dungeon crawl. If you're planning on expanding an adventure set here, maybe expand the colony, too.

Make it more of an undersea base, with more than just a handful of soldiers. Part of it could be infested with monsters and more, with the soldiers pinned down in one of the remaining intact sections, still spotless and well-mantained as you mentioned. They could be fighting a losing battle against the other inhabitants, but be too wary of the PCs to trust them or ask for their aid. Instead, the PCs would be locked up and the adventure would proceed as you described.

That has the advantage of a better ending, as instead of having a random monster show up out of nowhere for the end scene, there are already monsters abound that the PCs have tangled with earlier. Plus, it would be more of a challenge to escape through the ruined sections at the last minute. Other than, I really like the main plot twist. There's all sorts of possibilities in a location like this. Very cool and creative!
Dawn_of_an_Age
02-08-07, 01:16 PM I'll go first. :D I think it would flow better if the lake was somehow fed by an underground water source that could be traversed somehow by an underwater vessel like say the SeaDart; (See: Grasp of the Emerald Claw), or maybe in this case the RiverDart.

I would also make it a more vast civilization, maybe with some of House Canniths most advanced "technology". For some reason I'm really starting to get an "SG Atlantis" feel.:embarrass

Many of these ideas were expressed by previous posters, but I wanted to flesh it out a bit more with some exact thoughts on how I could see those ideas manifest.
PoeticJustice
02-08-07, 03:27 PM I had totally forgotten about this, but its great to see it again.
When I was writing this initially, it was during my senior year of high school.

I'd usually spend my student aide period on a computer when I wasn't doing real work. Given that I only had fifty minutes at a time, I would rush.
In light of this, I think developing the illusory/phantasmal crew into more fully fleshed NPCs is the first way to make the adventure better.

Other than that, instead of the illusion dropping, it could just stop being so normal. You could apply the living spell template to Phantasmal killer, for starters, and drive your players up the wall with stairwells that never end, doors that lead to other planes, and other unreal stuff.
Dawn_of_an_Age
02-08-07, 05:07 PM Hey, Poetic

Its good to see you here, tell me this. Based upon the following information.

INHABITANTS OF THE COLONY:
The place is manned by 20 soldiers and their families. They are all, apparently unaware that the last war has ended, or that the Nourning has occurred, so anyone bearing the colors of enemy nation, or any Valenar Elf, can expect a rude welcome. Anyone spouting news of the death of Cyre can likewise expect rough treatment. A sufficently high diplomacy check can keep the party out of the brig, though every member of the colony is violently opposed to any attempt to leave, lest the secret of their base be revealed. There is, however, one exception. Prince Farwell, a scion of Cyre's royal family, wants desperately to leave the place. If the party is imprisoned he springs them loose. Once they're free, Farwell askws they infiltrate the vault and steal an artifact that will facilitate his escape. With no other way out of the colony, the PCs may have little choice. Farwell seems a little bit off. He'll look at a wall with seemingly nothing wrong and wince or blubber. He looks unkempt and fevered. By comparsion all the other denizens seem perfectly in-tune and well groomed. In fact, they all seem to ignore the Prince...

Couldnt the crew actually still be alive and in tact? Maybe something along the lines of they have been sending teams up to the surface for some time now, but none have returned. (All lost to a "1001 Mournland Horrors" :weep:) The PC's are the first individuals they've seen in X number of years.

Could Cyre's Royal Family now be housed in this last great city of Cyre?

What are the implications of this?

Or maybe it (the city) slips in and out of phase every 3 years, the inhabitants have managed to survive thus far. (you figure out how). But this time is their last chance to make contact with someone before the city slips away (out of phase again). Maybe the lake is in a very powerful manifest zone tied to Mabar, and every three years the planes become conterminus for 3 days. This is maybe their last chance, they are down to the last vestiges of their food supply, and many are wounded from the constant conflict with the creatures of the night in Mabar.

What do you think?
PoeticJustice
02-08-07, 11:42 PM I think the reemergence of Cyre's Royal Family would be the kind of even around which to base an entire campaign. A pretty good one in fact.
Look, I originally concepted the time line something like this
1. Mourning happens, supernatural energy taints Cyre.
2. Prince Farwell develops psionic powers.
3. Prince Farwell goes insane and kills everyone, conveniantly trapping himself in the colony.
4. Prince Farwell (barely) stays alive via psionic power until PCs arrive.
5. He convinces PCs to get something he needs or, in the grip of madness, thinks he needs.
6. Things go badly...
7. Profit.

Ultimately I think all your ideas are really good and I am happy to have helped spark your creativity.
UnderworldLord
02-09-07, 12:26 AM That reminds me vaguely of Knights of the Old Republic, on the Class O planet. With the guy going "Here fishy fishy fishy."
Seth of the First Brigade
02-10-07, 02:29 AM I think the reemergence of Cyre's Royal Family would be the kind of event around which to base an entire campaign. A pretty good one in fact.

If the Cyran Royal Family was to reemerge, how do you think Oargev would respond to them, and how would they respond to Oargev. Would he continue, or be allowed to continue in his current position, or would he abjucate or be asked to abjucate the Cyran "Throne" if you will.

Also do you think a move would be made to have the Thronehold Accords reopened and amended?
PoeticJustice
02-10-07, 01:57 PM If the Cyran Royal Family was to reemerge, how do you think Oargev would respond to them, and how would they respond to Oargev. Would he continue, or be allowed to continue in his current position, or would he abjucate or be asked to abjucate the Cyran "Throne" if you will.

Also do you think a move would be made to have the Thronehold Accords reopened and amended?

Those questions are exactly why it'd make an good basis for a campaign. And there's some many more.

How would the Cyran survivors react? How would the rest of the world react to them? Would their hopes be inflamed by their sovereigns? Would this cause their host countries to get nervous?

Do any of them know the secret of the Mourning?
Would they try and reclaim the Mournland?
I could see them trying to claim th island of Thronehold, personally.
Seth of the First Brigade
02-11-07, 12:46 AM I could see them trying to claim th island of Thronehold, personally.

Hmm....Tasty!!! :plotting: Tell me more. How do you think the 5 Nations would respond if Cyran Royal Family moved to take Thronehold?
Dawn_of_an_Age
02-13-07, 04:10 PM Any other ideas?

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dawn_of_an_Age 02-08-07, 01:03 PM	Below you will find a mini adventure that was posted a couple of years ago by PoeticJustice. I wanted to post it here so that as a forum we could tear it apart, and put it back together again. I am very excited about the concept of it, but somewhere along the way the majesty of it is lost, it doesnt flow as well as I think it could, and since I am no writer, I thought to ask for the help of this forums combined expertise in fleshing it out and helping it to flow with the Grand feel that I think it should have. Please Help. I will post the rest of the threads dialog below, and we can take it from there. Strange lights haunt the depths of Lake Cyre at night. The little folk of Talenta, distrubed by the lights, have contracted advenutrers to investigate the anomaly. Until now, none have succeeded. This is the story of a group of brave adventurers that sought out a mystery, found a piece of the past, nd got more than they bargained for. BACKGROUND INFO: Just after the Valenar betrayal, House Cannith completed one of its greatest works: A self-sufficent, submerged hamlet. From beneath several hundred feet of water and embedded in tough rock, the place was completely impervious to assault. It was to be a treasure vault to hide the riches of Cyre's royal family and a hiding place for the family themselves when the war seemed bleak. After the Day of Mourning, all contact between the surface and the colony were cut off. Incorporating the colony into your game: One of the PCs recieves a map and keystone (see below) from a cyran relative, along with an account of the colony. Deciding to plunder the riches of the vaults, the party sets out for the eastern Mournland... Prince Oargev of New Cyre believes that a long-lost cousin is still in the colony, which might have been untouched by the Mourning. He commissions the PCs to bring back the relative, and gives them a Keystone necessary to gain entry. GETTING TO THE COLONY: On the Western Shore of Lake Brey, there lies a hidden military encampment, long abandoned and possibly inhabited now by Mournland mutations. At that encampment, there lies a dock. At the end of the dock, there is a soarwood platform afloat on the water missing a circular piece(the keystone), which is about the size of a hubcap, from its center. Once the plate is set in the center, a hemispherical wall of force surrounds the platform and it descends beneath the water. The Pcs may see, with a sufficent Spot, forms admidst the murky water. But its far to late to turn back now... FIRST IMPRESSION OF THE COLONY: The platform moves of its own accord down the murky depths, and before long a dome of Brass, about 30 ft tall, and set to glimmering by soft golden light issuing forth from the dome's many windows as well as faint light from the top of the lake. The dome's base is surrounded by many small bulges, each with a window, and directly in front of you lies the colony's apparent entrance, a gaping maw of light amidst the dark lake. You pass through, the platform raises through a pool of water and emerges in a pool at the center of the dome. THE INTERIOR: Spic and Span, a ring of quarters surround the launch bay and command center at the center of the colony. On the top floor if the dome lies a large hydroponics bay, stocked to the brim with fresh vegetables. The vault lies underneath the dome itself, diretcly underneath the captain's quarters in the command center. INHABITANTS OF THE COLONY: The place is manned by 20 soldiers and their families. They are all, apparently unaware that the last war has ended, or that the Nourning has occurred, so anyone bearing the colors of enemy nation, or any Valenar Elf, can expect a rude welcome. Anyone spouting news of the death of Cyre can likewise expect rough treatment. A sufficently high diplomacy check can keep the party out of the brig, though every member of the colony is violently opposed to any attempt to leave, lest the secret of their base be revealed. There is, however, one exception. Prince Farwell, a scion of Cyre's royal family, wants desperately to leave the place. If the party is imprisoned he springs them loose. Once they're free, Farwell askws they infiltrate the vault and steal an artifact that will facilitate his escape. With no other way out of the colony, the PCs may have little choice. Farwell seems a little bit off. He'll look at a wall with seemingly nothing wrong and wince or blubber. He looks unkempt and fevered. By comparsion all the other denizens seem perfectly in-tune and well groomed. In fact, they all seem to ignore the Prince... THE TWIST: Once the artifact is lifted, the PCs emerge to find the Colony a changed place. Whereas before it radiated life and light, it is now strewn with corpses, spattered with Blood, and equipment lies in utter ruin. No one living remains to be seen, save for Farwell... "They all went crazy." He sobs, "I could see them killing each other in my head, and then I woke up... It happened so long ago. Please take me back. Take me away from here... They had to die. They wouldn't let me leave. I had to do it..." At this point a loud clanging becomes audible. In keeping with the Eberron penchant for action, the base begins to collapse as Kuo-tua, a Dragon Turtle, or any sufficently powerful sea creature spotted on the way down begins to hammer the base. "STOP IT!" Farwell screams derangedly at the group, "I'LL MAKE YOU STOP IT! YOU WON'T KILL ME!" This would be the climactic fight, one between the insane Farwell, who, it becomes apparent, has developed telepathic (or sorcery) powers as a result of the mourning, which he had used first to get the crew to kill each other, and then to delude the party into thinking all was well. Oh, and the Pcs need to get the job done with time to escape the collapsing dome, which is becoming more watery every second... Comments? the clanging should be a gnomish artificer in his Crafted undersea vessel attempting to remove this abomination from the undersea realm. of course he'll have a fine english accent and after the climatic fight will "invite" the PC aboard as he takes his fight back to the "evil Lhazzar pirates" (anyone for a touch of 20,000 leagues) Very nice! I wish I could find illustrations for this, as it seems it would be a visually stunning adventure! This looks like a really cool site for a side trek. I like the location; the only problem is that its so small. There's not much room in the underwater colony for an extended dungeon crawl. If you're planning on expanding an adventure set here, maybe expand the colony, too. Make it more of an undersea base, with more than just a handful of soldiers. Part of it could be infested with monsters and more, with the soldiers pinned down in one of the remaining intact sections, still spotless and well-mantained as you mentioned. They could be fighting a losing battle against the other inhabitants, but be too wary of the PCs to trust them or ask for their aid. Instead, the PCs would be locked up and the adventure would proceed as you described. That has the advantage of a better ending, as instead of having a random monster show up out of nowhere for the end scene, there are already monsters abound that the PCs have tangled with earlier. Plus, it would be more of a challenge to escape through the ruined sections at the last minute. Other than, I really like the main plot twist. There's all sorts of possibilities in a location like this. Very cool and creative!
Dawn_of_an_Age 02-08-07, 01:16 PM	I'll go first. :D I think it would flow better if the lake was somehow fed by an underground water source that could be traversed somehow by an underwater vessel like say the SeaDart; (See: Grasp of the Emerald Claw), or maybe in this case the RiverDart. I would also make it a more vast civilization, maybe with some of House Canniths most advanced "technology". For some reason I'm really starting to get an "SG Atlantis" feel.:embarrass Many of these ideas were expressed by previous posters, but I wanted to flesh it out a bit more with some exact thoughts on how I could see those ideas manifest.
PoeticJustice 02-08-07, 03:27 PM	I had totally forgotten about this, but its great to see it again. When I was writing this initially, it was during my senior year of high school. I'd usually spend my student aide period on a computer when I wasn't doing real work. Given that I only had fifty minutes at a time, I would rush. In light of this, I think developing the illusory/phantasmal crew into more fully fleshed NPCs is the first way to make the adventure better. Other than that, instead of the illusion dropping, it could just stop being so normal. You could apply the living spell template to Phantasmal killer, for starters, and drive your players up the wall with stairwells that never end, doors that lead to other planes, and other unreal stuff.
Dawn_of_an_Age 02-08-07, 05:07 PM	Hey, Poetic Its good to see you here, tell me this. Based upon the following information. INHABITANTS OF THE COLONY: The place is manned by 20 soldiers and their families. They are all, apparently unaware that the last war has ended, or that the Nourning has occurred, so anyone bearing the colors of enemy nation, or any Valenar Elf, can expect a rude welcome. Anyone spouting news of the death of Cyre can likewise expect rough treatment. A sufficently high diplomacy check can keep the party out of the brig, though every member of the colony is violently opposed to any attempt to leave, lest the secret of their base be revealed. There is, however, one exception. Prince Farwell, a scion of Cyre's royal family, wants desperately to leave the place. If the party is imprisoned he springs them loose. Once they're free, Farwell askws they infiltrate the vault and steal an artifact that will facilitate his escape. With no other way out of the colony, the PCs may have little choice. Farwell seems a little bit off. He'll look at a wall with seemingly nothing wrong and wince or blubber. He looks unkempt and fevered. By comparsion all the other denizens seem perfectly in-tune and well groomed. In fact, they all seem to ignore the Prince... Couldnt the crew actually still be alive and in tact? Maybe something along the lines of they have been sending teams up to the surface for some time now, but none have returned. (All lost to a "1001 Mournland Horrors" :weep:) The PC's are the first individuals they've seen in X number of years. Could Cyre's Royal Family now be housed in this last great city of Cyre? What are the implications of this? Or maybe it (the city) slips in and out of phase every 3 years, the inhabitants have managed to survive thus far. (you figure out how). But this time is their last chance to make contact with someone before the city slips away (out of phase again). Maybe the lake is in a very powerful manifest zone tied to Mabar, and every three years the planes become conterminus for 3 days. This is maybe their last chance, they are down to the last vestiges of their food supply, and many are wounded from the constant conflict with the creatures of the night in Mabar. What do you think?
PoeticJustice 02-08-07, 11:42 PM	I think the reemergence of Cyre's Royal Family would be the kind of even around which to base an entire campaign. A pretty good one in fact. Look, I originally concepted the time line something like this 1. Mourning happens, supernatural energy taints Cyre. 2. Prince Farwell develops psionic powers. 3. Prince Farwell goes insane and kills everyone, conveniantly trapping himself in the colony. 4. Prince Farwell (barely) stays alive via psionic power until PCs arrive. 5. He convinces PCs to get something he needs or, in the grip of madness, thinks he needs. 6. Things go badly... 7. Profit. Ultimately I think all your ideas are really good and I am happy to have helped spark your creativity.
UnderworldLord 02-09-07, 12:26 AM	That reminds me vaguely of Knights of the Old Republic, on the Class O planet. With the guy going "Here fishy fishy fishy."
Seth of the First Brigade 02-10-07, 02:29 AM	I think the reemergence of Cyre's Royal Family would be the kind of event around which to base an entire campaign. A pretty good one in fact. If the Cyran Royal Family was to reemerge, how do you think Oargev would respond to them, and how would they respond to Oargev. Would he continue, or be allowed to continue in his current position, or would he abjucate or be asked to abjucate the Cyran "Throne" if you will. Also do you think a move would be made to have the Thronehold Accords reopened and amended?
PoeticJustice 02-10-07, 01:57 PM	If the Cyran Royal Family was to reemerge, how do you think Oargev would respond to them, and how would they respond to Oargev. Would he continue, or be allowed to continue in his current position, or would he abjucate or be asked to abjucate the Cyran "Throne" if you will. Also do you think a move would be made to have the Thronehold Accords reopened and amended? Those questions are exactly why it'd make an good basis for a campaign. And there's some many more. How would the Cyran survivors react? How would the rest of the world react to them? Would their hopes be inflamed by their sovereigns? Would this cause their host countries to get nervous? Do any of them know the secret of the Mourning? Would they try and reclaim the Mournland? I could see them trying to claim th island of Thronehold, personally.
Seth of the First Brigade 02-11-07, 12:46 AM	I could see them trying to claim th island of Thronehold, personally. Hmm....Tasty!!! :plotting: Tell me more. How do you think the 5 Nations would respond if Cyran Royal Family moved to take Thronehold?
Dawn_of_an_Age 02-13-07, 04:10 PM	Any other ideas?