Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dragonmann 06-21-06, 03:32 PM	Although I am currently running an eberron campaign based on the forgotten forge path, I am certain it will run out of steam eventually. I have started compiling notes for for new new, completely unique campaign. I would like it to be one sweeping story line, similar to the Dungeon Magazine adventure paths. Here is the outline I have so far, please feel free to offer anything you have. Background: A renewal conclave of the Treaty of Thronehold is due to be held in the next few days. Basically this is a political gathering to discuss problems that have arisen since the treaty was signed. Adventure 1: The party is hired to escort a House Orien courier from Fairhaven to Thronehold for the meeting. Along the way the party will be attacked twice, seemingly at random. In actuality the information the courier is carrying is quite important, and it is being sent in such an inconspicuous manner to avert suspicion. The first group to attack the party is actually employed by Merrix d'Cannith, but has no obvious ties. The second group is clearly the Emerald Claw. In addition to some minor encounters, at the end of this adventure the party should be level 3. Adventure 2: After arriving in Thronehold the party discovers they don't have much to do, and realize they weren't going to be paid for the return trip. However their life soon gets interesting again as the various political groups on the island begin to clash. Life is further complicated by the discovery that several of the Deneith gaurds had been murdered. The party will become closely involved in this plot. In actuality the gaurds were killed by changelings working for the cabinet of faces. Adventure 3: Ideally the party will not have completly determined what is going on with adventure 2 when yet more starts to happen. By virtue of being in the wgong place at the wrong time, the party becomes aware of a large number of warforged gathering on the island. It turns out that this is an elite group of warforged in service to the lord of blades, intent on disrtupting the conference, and killing the fleshies. In the end the party will discover that the warforged have been sneaking onto the island for some time, and burying themselves in inconspicuous places. All told there are over 50 warforged on the island, but the party should only have to deal with the leaders because of the personal security as well as the remaining Deneith gaurds. Also during this fighting, the players will finally have the opportunity to find the remaing changelings from adventure 2. Adventure 4: The party finally discovers what was in the original message that they were transporting. Cannith West has been experimenting with a modified Creation Forge, and been caught. However the new "Breeding Forge" does not create independent sentient life, but what they call Forge Bred animals, specifically horses. The royal eyes discovered their secret, and the queen has pushed it into the light. Queen Aurala proposes that the experiments be allowed to continue, but insists that the animals training be conducted by House Vadalis, not Cannith to insure that the forge bred animals are indeed not sentient. Some issue is raised because of the Queen's association with Vadalis. The party is sent (now that they have saved everyone they are considered a good neutral choice) to bring back several of the forge bred for the gathered diplomats to examine. Upon returning to aundair they discover that the original batch of animals has been stolen, and the forge hold sacked. Evidence leads them to the Ashbound in the Reaches. Eventually the party recovers the horses, and returns to Thronehold. and there was much rejoicing. Adventure 5: After returning with the forgebred horses the party is quickly caught up in events again. Despite their best efforts, the party and the Deneith were not able to remove all of the warforged from adventure 3. One of whom has been hiding in plain sight since the attack. Much better at keeping things out then in, security is unable to stop the one lone warforged from steeling a forgebred horse and riding off towards the mournland. The party is hired to go recover, or destroy the forgebred animal. It is revealed at this point that each of the original 10 forgebred horses contain a special form of schema for creating more forgebred. They were intended to be distributed as "blue prints" to several forgeholds. Adventure 6: The party returns to Thronehold again, this time to a heroes welcome. The various countries and dragonmarked houses each vying for their attention. It is at this point that they first encounter a member of the Aurum, who presents himself as a business planner. Bearing the mark of Kundarak, and being a likable and apparently compotent fellow, and the fact that the party is made up of adventurers and not landlords, the party should entrust him with their land grants and other fiscal holding, while maintaining control of their liquid assets. At this point the return home to Aundair should be uneventful, but ofcourse that never happens. A devotee of the lord of blades so fanatical that he has cleric levels (Warforged (healing replacing cures with repairs) and War domains) dogs their steps. This adventure will be a recurring villain chase, similar to WotVB. Effectively once they know he exists, he needs to be dealt with. Adventure 7: After a few weeks of downtime (for the crafters) the Party is invited to a celebration, at which they are gifted with several of the first batch of forgebred animals, trained by House Vadalis. During the celebration one of the forgebred goes berserk, and the party (or someone else if necessary) barely manage to put it down before it tramples the queen. The party again puts on their investigation caps, and discovers that a half-fiend(rakshasa) ashbound druid is actually responsible for the attack. He had magically forced the forgebred to attack. Once they successfully hunt down the fiend, they receive the queen's thanks. Adventure 8: Their Aurum business manager approaches the party with a suggestion. He indicates that it could be highly profitable to sponsor a race from Fairhaven to Sharn, pitting the new forgebred animals against more traditional creatures. If the party doesn't agree, the aurum approaches cannith/vasalis directly, and the race happens anyway, without the PCs getting any of the money. In either case, a winding path is set for the course, and entries arrive from all of Khorvaire (And beyond?) This is effectively a multi-national version of the Race of 8 Winds, with multinational problems. Valenar, Halflings, and others have brought their own riding animals. Even some warforged, and a loan shifter have entered on foot. At the gate are nearly 200 racers, with or without animals. (Think the race from Hidalgo) The party gets to watch much of the race from the vantage of a specially chartered airship (The Golden Dragon?). They will have to decend several times to break up fights, or save injured riders. But most of the action takes place on the airship. Adventure 9: The party arrives in Sharn, and discovers they have enemies here they never knew of. First Merrix (remember back in adventure 1) is angry because his plans to steal the forge bred plans from his rivals failed. It doesn't matter to him that they weren't carrying the plans, Merrix fixes his dread gaze on them. Also, the cabinet of faces, through the Tyrants lash out against the party. Although revenge is the motivation, the real goal is to replace the party with doubles and use their influence to further the goals of the cabinet. And, one of the Rakshasa hiding in the Cogs happens to be the parent of the fiend they slew in adventure 7. Never hurt somebodies kid... Adventure 10: The party learns that even though it was quite profitable, their share of the profits from the great race isn't all that much. Furthermore they get doubly hosed because the investors insist that most of the money is recycled to fund the race becoming an annual event. Unless someone has a lot of ranks in the profession (accountant) skill, they shouldn't be able to determine this is a bunch of bull, and the Aurum is just ripping them off. Although the race does become annual, and they do get paid. **************************************** ***** I know this is a lot already, but I am not sure where to go next. As you can see most of the plot revolves around the introduction of forge bred animals, the parties involvement there in, and periphery events that happen along the way. Comments, suggestions, applause, anything you got, please...
Ellorin 06-21-06, 03:49 PM	Interesting ideas...I have some questions though. 1. What is the purpose behind the aassassination of the guards by the Cabinet of Faces? 2. Are the political clashes going to have an active impact on the players or will they be merely background? You could play on the players' loyalties[I hope my last sentence wasn't an attack against the English language :) ]. 2. Does Cannith West REALLY need Aurala's permission? I thought their neutrality could prevent that. I suggest using Cannith artificers&wizards who are members of the Twelve instead of Cannith West and the University's principal instead of Queen Aurala. That's my thoughts, for now. Otherwise, it was not bad at all!
Zuj 06-21-06, 04:57 PM	Very well done! It seems like you've really taken the time to incorporate ALOT of different factions form Eberron and the amount of travel and different types of events should keep the campaign fresh. At this point, I wouldn't plan anything further. Also, I would caution you to have a lot of back up plans and contingencies in mind; I have tried elaborate plots like this only to have the party do something completely unexpected during the very first adventure. Many DMs can fall into this trap, and it can be very frustrating when you have nothing to do "on the fly" if they run your carefully crafted plot into the ground. I would suggest making a flow chart from each adventure, mapping out what would happen upon the party's general success or failure. This way, you can easily track their progress and examine many different ways to stay on course.
Dragonmann 06-22-06, 08:10 AM	Alright, Ellorin: The purpose of the assassination would be primarily to gather information. Since the Deneith gaurds would be expected to be everywhere, they would overhear a good deal that others would have trouble getting near. Near the end of the conference, they could make a secondary move against some of the peripheral players. Replacing a Karrnathi Aide, or a Brelish Advisor. It could be as simple as a money making scheme, having other agents ready to sell the information, or in could be the first step on a much larger plan. I want the political clashes to be similar to those that appear in Voyage of the Golden Dragon. I minor clash between Karrnath and Thrane, which could escalate, if the party doesn't step in. Or a trade dispute because Aundair wants to tax goods shipped from the Reaches to Breland. Playing on party loyalties is deffinetly on the to do list. Their homelands will deffinetly be on the morally wrong side. But mostly these are going to be "random" encounters. I see the political neutrality of the Houses as being balanced on the edge of a knife. No they technically don't need her permission, but the queen could make it very difficult for them to continue their work. Also, who knows if she already tried to make a backroom deal, and this is their punishment for disagreeing. Of course if she goes too far, they can cut Aundair off from Cannith supplies which could be devastating, but could also give more power to Cannith South and East who would step in to fill the void. It is also a case of precautionary NIMBY an Aurala's part. If the other rulers wanted to declare this a violation of the "no more warforged" then when the fical matter hit the rotary air impellor, some would be bound to land on Aurala if she hadn't tried to stop it as soon as she found out. Zuj: I did want to incorporate a lot of the world, without putting it all in one adventure. I am also very concerned about having the party decide they want to go left instead of right, but since I will have a good plan of what is going to happen, I can guide character generation, as well as the actual adventures. I intend to have a few "leash" encounters in each adventure. If the party decides to wander off, this happens, and they get pulled back in. For example if the party decides not to investigate the murdered gaurds, another murder happens literally right in front of them. Perhaps outside their bedroom window. The flow chart idea is excellent, and I will start working on it right away. My other goal is to start writing up the NPCs for this entire saga, so I know who they are and where they are at all times. I really am trying to follow the adventure path format from dungeon. The good news is, one of my players wants his turn behind the screen to run Age of Worms before this campaign, so I should have 6 months or more to write it all... Yay!!!
Nightlore 06-22-06, 10:45 AM	You seem to have written a very compelling outline for the beginning of a campaign. Congrats! I wish I was playing in your group when this one gets started! As a fellow DM who has a proclivity for complicated story lines and multiple plot threads I just wanted to offer you some ideas on how to keep everything straight in your head (and even the players' heads). At the beginning of a campaign, typically before the first session, I follow Zuj's advice and have a large flow chart made for how events would progress if the player characters weren't involved. This helps me disassociate the plot lines from the players. It is also very hany if the players decide to take a session off to say, build up their new base of operations. This would be fine by me as a DM and I would allow them to, but they should know that the world won't stand still and the bad guys' plots will develop and progress as the characters take time off. This is handy so that you can have events from the plots keep snagging the characters' attentions if they keep wanting to go away from your plot lines. I like the idea of the political clashes you mentioned happening in the background, talk about a great way to introduce plot hooks. Different factions could be competing for the characters' favor if they play their cards right. I really think your ideas have potential. You'll have to come back and let us know how things turn out.
Dragonmann 06-22-06, 12:46 PM	I was actually hoping to make some sit down time with the Eberron Calendar they have online somewhere (I have it book marked, but not on this PC) and schedule the first few events on the calendar. I figure no matter what happens the major conference events will occur as scheduled. It would also give me the chance to plot some of the secondary information that might be useful. Especially since the calendar tool also displays lunar phases and planar status, I can check for any major conjuctions, holidays and the like. Other events I can say will take X number of days after something else finishes. Another note, one of my main goals when writing this was to let the characters get famous. In the current campaign, they are mostly running around doing secret missions that they can't talk about. And even though they are now 12th level, aside from a few patrons, nobody knows who they are. I get the impression that some of my players are craving a little notoriety, but working for the dark lanterns (as in WotVB) doesn't make good barrom bragging. Unless you want to get arrested, and convicted of treason. I was hoping to even incorporate the possibility of a Korranberg Chronicle writer, attaching himself to the party, and making a running series of their exploits. I thought it would make a nice recap to have a hand out that is the article about them after each session. And of course the annoying little guy is going to get in the way... muwahahaha
Dragonmann 08-15-06, 01:35 PM	Help with adventure 0: You can read the main campaign outline above, but what I am looking for now is some help setting restrictions on what can and can't be around. Also, some good ideas for how these particular characters can be getting the attention of House Orien to be hired. Is there anything that clearly doesn't fit? I am already saying nothing from Xen'drik, character backgrounds must end in Fairhaven, PHB or ECS races only. Is there anything else that could really break a primarily political/economical theme like this?