Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Errant 09-10-06, 08:56 AM	So I was thinking about Rainbow Six (Tom Clancy's very cool international counter-terrorist strike force, as featured in his novels & the computer games of the same name) & I was wondering how such an organization could form in Khorvaire. Teams dedicated to responding to & investigating unusual/dangerous situations across Eberron... So far, I have three ideas: 1) An order establish by an alliance of Sovereign Host temples? Members recruited from the faithful across the lands... 2) An investigative arm of the Twelve? Assembled from nominated, distinguished members & affiliates of the various dragonmark houses, led in the field by a Sentinel Marshal ot take advantage of the Sentinels' influence... 3) Founded secretly during the negotiations for the Treaty of Thronehold at the suggestion of rulers who had, thanks to efforts of their intelligence agencies, come to suspect outside agents of provoking & dragging out the Last War. The idea being obviously that (for a mid-high level campaign) the PCs begin as members of the organization, recruited through their temple/ house/ homeland to work with similarly elite individuals from other areas to investigate mysterious events and the shadowy threats to all of Eberron. Any comments or suggestions on alternatives or names for the organization?
(Psi)SeveredHead 09-10-06, 11:20 AM	I don't think the Sovereign Host would do it. They're not a military organization. The Silver Flame might be up to it, or maybe the priesthood of Dol Dorn. (This is just my personal opinion, but that's getting uncomfortably close to interventionist FR deities.) The Twelve can't do it. It's like the UN; too many conflicting members. Nowadays, what threatens all twelve Houses anyway? A powerful organization set up to smash "House" Tarkanan seems a bit pointless. IMO, there would be multiple "Rainbow Sixes". Rainbow Six is an American organization (I believe, anyway); there should be a Russian equivalent, Chinese equivalent, etc. Any powerful nation should have one. I would expect one for each of the surviving Five Nations, plus some non-human nations as well. "Rainbow Six" could be a part of the Trust, or part of the Dark Lanterns, or part of any semi-secret governmental organization that ever uses violence.
Cutlass 09-10-06, 11:44 AM	Taking the considerable risk of being stoned for heresy :) , it is my opinion that there is a flaw in Keith Baker's conceptualization of Galifar. Quite simply, Keith Baker appears to have portrayed Jarlot as running the entire kingdom/empire of Galifar more or less on his own, apparently delegating the lion's share of various duties down to his scions. In a nutshell, while the Kingdom of Galifar may very well have worked that way originally, I don't see it still working that way after it had been in business for approximately 1,000 years. In short, there must have been a rather considerable "Galifaran" bureaucracy with "minister" level officials in charge of various bureaus or departments. If that is the case then it would be reasonable to expect that at least some of those posts may have been held by Khorvaire elves, dwarves, and gnomes who were loyal to Galifar instead of Zilargo. Indeed, one could make the argument that at least part of the reason for Cyre's staying power throughout the course of the Last War was that the bulk of the Galifaran bureaucracy took up Mishann's cause and transferred the resources they were responsible for to her control. After all, she was the legitimate heir as far as true Galifaran loyalists would have seen such things. Now, after more than 100 years of war and the destruction of Cyre, the nature of just whose cause needs to be championed is a lot less clear. So, you want a "rainbow six" devoted to trying to neutralize "foreign" threats to Galifar while the various nations get their respective acts together? I would then suggest that a possible source for such an organization could be found in the shattered remains of the Galifaran Ministry of External Intelligence currently being run by a venerable elf using some operating funds that were squirreled away under a secret account with Mror bankers over 150 years ago, and acquiring other funds in the course of some of its activities.
Ricohard_Draconis 09-10-06, 01:11 PM	orc druids determined to take out any chance of 'foreign' (by foreign, read extraplanar) influence on eberron. think how good infiltration gets when you can literally be as quiet as a mouse
Welt 09-10-06, 02:21 PM	The Deneith sentinal marshals, as described in Sharn, seem to be pretty close to this.
Nived 09-10-06, 03:02 PM	Rainbow Six is the designation of the main character and team leader in the original novel. The Unit is called 'Rainbow' because it was a multinational counterterrorist force (rainbow has many colors, the unit was comprised of many nations, russian, german, israeli, irish, biritish etc etc). In Eberron the best organization to head such a team would be House Deneith, they already have treaties to cross international boundries, as shown by the Sentinal Marshals. In the case of Eberron I could see House Deneith trying to form an extremely elite unit recruiting from the toughest and meanest units from the various nations. The best of the best, only now they're boarderless. A couple of key elements of the novel to keep in mind. Rainbow never went in without permission from the country they'd be operating in. A hostage or terrorist action took place the country called in Rainbow as a rapid response unit to deal with the crisis. Officially, they didn't exist (till about 3/4s the way through the novel). Their presence only known to the highest military leaders of various participating countries. Like in the original novel I'd have any kind of Eberron annalog to them be a recent development. Post Last War (similarly to how Rainbow was post cold war) a silent agreement between House Deneith and various countries. Now of course the 'loyalty' of the supposedly neutral task force might be questionable (the guy from Aundair is still reporting back), but for the most part they do their jobs. Another thing to consider is what countries refuse to let this unit ever operate within their borders. Just some thoughts.
Errant 09-10-06, 09:05 PM	Thanks for the replies all :) I don't think the Sovereign Host would do it. They're not a military organization. The Silver Flame might be up to it, or maybe the priesthood of Dol Dorn. (This is just my personal opinion, but that's getting uncomfortably close to interventionist FR deities.) The Twelve can't do it. It's like the UN; too many conflicting members. Nowadays, what threatens all twelve Houses anyway? A powerful organization set up to smash "House" Tarkanan seems a bit pointless. IMO, there would be multiple "Rainbow Sixes". Rainbow Six is an American organization (I believe, anyway); there should be a Russian equivalent, Chinese equivalent, etc. Any powerful nation should have one. I would expect one for each of the surviving Five Nations, plus some non-human nations as well. With the Sovereign Host idea I was basing on the ECS statement that the faithful usually revere the nine deities together in a single temple. I didn't think it was a big leap to think that a senior priest at one or more of those temples (or a veteran Host worshiping adventurer) at some time might have thought supporting one or more teams to secretly identify & battle the greater Evils threatening Khorvaire. Likewise with The Twelve. There you already have mages (wizards/sorcerers/artificers/adepts) working together studying magic. If one House's enclave(s) came under attacks involving magic that were difficult for that House to deal with its no a big leap to see them asking their mages at The Twelve if they've heard of anything similar. From that point, is it really that unlikely that The Twelve could support one or more teams that can draw upon the skills of all the houses to defend them against threats tough for single houses to deal with? Especially when the national goverenments (a) don't care much what happens to the houses unless it costs the government something & (b) are limited in the support they can offer when enemies cross national borders. As Nived points out below (thanks for the reminder Nived) in addition to be the novels/games' titles "Rainbow Six" was the code name for the commander of the counter-terrorist teams formed from the special forces of the various NATO nations, primarily US in makeup (being created by an american what else would you expect) but not just US. I'm sure the Five Nations each have their own special forces in some form but the key characteristic of Rainbow teams is that they are international and can operate anywhere in Khorvaire - a big advantage if the DM doesn't want to limit the campaign to one nation. So, you want a "rainbow six" devoted to trying to neutralize "foreign" threats to Galifar while the various nations get their respective acts together? I would then suggest that a possible source for such an organization could be found in the shattered remains of the Galifaran Ministry of External Intelligence currently being run by a venerable elf using some operating funds that were squirreled away under a secret account with Mror bankers over 150 years ago, and acquiring other funds in the course of some of its activities. Thats a nice idea, I think I'll nominate that Rainbow background #4. :D orc druids determined to take out any chance of 'foreign' (by foreign, read extraplanar) influence on eberron. I thought about the Gatekeepers for founding the teams but I had trouble understanding how they'd recruit well from the different regions. After all, to most of Khorvaire the war the Gatekeepers fought is currently irrelevant ancient history, if known at all. If a Daelkyr or LoD was to break free that would change pretty quick of course, but the Gatekeepers' ability to recruit is damage by their own success I thought. In Eberron the best organization to head such a team would be House Deneith, they already have treaties to cross international boundries, as shown by the Sentinal Marshals. In the case of Eberron I could see House Deneith trying to form an extremely elite unit recruiting from the toughest and meanest units from the various nations. The best of the best, only now they're boarderless. I did think of House Deneith (hence my original idea to have teams led by Sentinel Marshals) but not as far as you're suggesting Nived. I should have recognised the possibility for Rainbow teams being elite House Deneith mercenary units, recruited from the best of the best across Khorvaire, well paid, highly skilled teams hired for the toughest jobs that the local authorities don't want to (or can't) risk their own forces to deal with. That'll be Rainbow background #5. :cool: I was thinking I would pick one background for the campaign I'm contemplating, but on reflection I could let them pick with of the backgrounds they like best & use that. Any ideas on what name to use? Rainbow teams doesn't seem very Eberron-ish...
Ringmereth 09-10-06, 11:05 PM	So, you want a "rainbow six" devoted to trying to neutralize "foreign" threats to Galifar while the various nations get their respective acts together? I would then suggest that a possible source for such an organization could be found in the shattered remains of the Galifaran Ministry of External Intelligence currently being run by a venerable elf using some operating funds that were squirreled away under a secret account with Mror bankers over 150 years ago, and acquiring other funds in the course of some of its activities. Great idea. As for the aforementioned question of naming this organization, I'd tie in the Five Nations to it. If I were running the game, I'd have each unit composed of one operative from each nation (at least by tradition, before Cyre went boom). Perhaps the "Blades of Five," "Hands of Five," or the "Fifth Order."
Dragonmann 09-11-06, 09:53 AM	Rainbow (in everything I have had a chance to read) has always been represented as an operational unit, not an intelligence unit. That is to say they tend to kill people, not determine who needs killed. I would suspect that during the Last War, any Crown Agency would have eventually fallen apart. Zero funding, personal loyalties, and the like would have eventually reduced any such organization to nothingness. A Rainbow like group had its best chance to spring up during the Treaty of Thronehold, when everyone was together. It is pretty easy to think that a ranking member of House Deneith could have approached each signing delegation independently and proposed an Elite cadre of Sentinel Marshalls, to which the nation would be required to send members, in exchange for being able to request the services of the unit. Now for historical flavor, this could be a resurrection of an organization which existed before the fall of Galifar, and as such could have access to a nifty hidden base (at Thronehold), or group of bases. In fact the parties first few adventures could include the liberation of a Sharn Safehouse from House Tarkanan, or removing the infestation of abberations from a hidden base in Aundair. So the organization has a backer (House Denith) a recruitment pool (the Thronehold Signitaries) an intel source (Phialarn and/or Tharanni) a mandate (answer calls for help). The "uniform" could be a slightly altered form of the the Sentinel Marshall's (assuming they have one). For differentiation they could be simply called the Thronehold Marshalls, or Throneholders for short. With all that niftiness, the next step is for someone to write a prestige class.
Errant 09-11-06, 10:41 AM	Now for historical flavor, this could be a resurrection of an organization which existed before the fall of Galifar, and as such could have access to a nifty hidden base (at Thronehold), or group of bases. In fact the parties first few adventures could include the liberation of a Sharn Safehouse from House Tarkanan, or removing the infestation of abberations from a hidden base in Aundair. So the organization has a backer (House Denith) a recruitment pool (the Thronehold Signitaries) an intel source (Phialarn and/or Tharanni) a mandate (answer calls for help). The "uniform" could be a slightly altered form of the the Sentinel Marshall's (assuming they have one). For differentiation they could be simply called the Thronehold Marshalls, or Throneholders for short. Excellent suggestions, thanks Dragonmann. The historical flavor & openning mission ideas are superb. I think I'd try to keep the organization secret, so no all-round uniforms, but a Sentinel Marshal in each group would cover their activities as far as local powers go. I think. I've had the impression Sentinels often work alone, but I'm really just assuming they wouldn't cause much more of a stir showing up with a handful of companions.
Dragonmann 09-11-06, 11:32 AM	In regards to minor variation, I have always thought that sentinel marshall's and their deputies would carry a badge of office. I guess my modern mind has always imposed an embroifdered shoulder patch, but I digress. If it is a badge, maybe there is an extra feature somewhere on it. A shoulder patch might have a different colored border. I would make it minor enough that it would require a DC 20 or so spot check to notice the change at all, but have it there as "proof" of identity.