Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Detson_king 06-08-05, 09:38 PM	I am starting a new Eberron game, and wanted to know what everyone thought of this idea. The story starts with a great chaotic storm that appears in different places each time it forms. The storm is disrupting all cosmology/plane reading/research. So, no one knows the alignment of the planes. The storm also has destroyed two+ air transports, this makes the Houses cut almost all air travel to the Shadow marches, and has disrupted all cable line communications. The Shadow Marches were already pretty isolated, but now they are 99% isolated, which makes news scarce at best. Along with this unatural storm, there has been a disease named "The Disease of Madness". It spreads through unkown means, and the victim has a sudden outburst of emotion, and leads to severe exhaustion, which leads to death. The strange thing is that, most of the victims have never met each other. The disease has hit every village and town in The Shadow Marches. The reason for all this chaos and confustion, is that The Inspired are looking at the idea of invading Khorvaire, by setting loose demonic forces, and making the Orcs go into a bloodrage rampage (using a solution that can be put into wells) to disrupt the whole continent and using the post war devastation to invade a weakend Khorvaire. Now the Inspired chose The Shadow Marches for its fragmented society and remoteness, and it has one of the biggest collections of dragonshards, making it the perfect place to start an invasion. Also, the primative peoples of The Shadow Marches would be easier to control than more aware people, who can better resist the mental powers of the inspired.
Detson_king 06-09-05, 09:49 PM	bump I would like to have some comments, PLZ :weep:
ussie 06-10-05, 01:04 AM	hey, okay I really like the idea to be honest with you. I think it makes sense, is logical and will allow for good game mechanics. So we have established the basic story line, lets get down to the nitty gritty. what exactly is this disease? (i wasnt clear if this was the thing that was making the orcs mad... if it is, then is it meant only for orcs to go into a bloodlust frenzy so to say). Is there any way to combat this disease, how is it actually being spread, and most importantly what exactly to my lovely inspired gain from these deaths, are the people dying ppl who could fight back, or are there enuff masses dying that resistence is less. basically you have to answer before u start, "why, what, how" for the disease. great idea tho. secondly do the inspired plan a full on invasion or an invasion along the lines of Sarlona? What is the storm, where did it come from, how did they arrange it, what benefit does it serve the inspired. Something that I dont know, because different DMs have different styles is , whether u have a solution for every problem u throw at your players or do u throw problems at players which they come up with a solution (im not advocating one over the other). IF youre of the first style then what are the solutions for the two problems, stopping the inspired invasion or is there a way to just heal the disease and stop the storm (this gets rid of the symptoms and no the 'disease' but for a small campign arc, this is extremely effective). How will your adventurers discover this? The above portion should be decided after u decide how long u wanna play out this idea, it can be a great 4 level to 20 level sorta idea, so either its cool. Finally how are you going to get your characters there, or are they already from there. It might appear that I am going into too much detail but thats only cos i like your idea and I think you can now start working out the mechanics. One last thing, since youre doing an inspired adventure you might wanna decide before hand how much psionics u wanna use in your game, u can lower it by using the inspired by smaller doses and throw in tons of minions of all varieties, leaving an inspired viceroy (or whatever title) to be the ultimate baddy. Possessed creatures could work well as minions. Word of warning, if u are running a psionic heavy campaign make sure atleast one player is psionic and u have the psionic handbook nearby for psionic creatures, it would make some sense for the inpsired to have some (i think not sure of what actual mechanics might be). there were my 200 cents.
Detson_king 06-10-05, 01:09 PM	Well the "Disease of Madness" is not the same thing as the Orc frenzey thing (which I decided to take out). The "Disease of Madness" (DOM) is spread intelligently, which means it targets certain individuals. These individuals are people who are, or could be a leader, that would create an effective resistence to the Inspired invasion. The way I'm going to let the players stop the disease, is by hunting down the disease spreader, who is a person who purposely spreads this disease. Or by hunting down an abducted druid who might know how to stop the disease. The Inspired are using a bunch of factors to cause chaos and dissatisfaction among the people, so they can come in and act as the saviors of the population, and gain the hearts and minds of the people. The storm is a collection of energy coming from Kythri, plane of choas. It was created to further isolate the Shadow Marches. The Inspired used local cultist spell casters from the Cult of the Dragon Below. I create problems that theres only so many ways to solve it, and I make problems that PCs can solve on their own. So, I'm a little bit of both. The Storm is to powerful to just have a caster summon it at will, they created a kind of focus point in one of the more powerful temples, which can give the spell caster the ability to heavley influence where the storm hits again. The DOM can be cured by two methods. Either going after a tribal druid who could cure the disease, but has been abducted by unkown forces. Or the adventures can track down the disease spreader. I'm looking at it going to some where between 4-15. The characters will have the option to say they are native of the Shadow Marches, or say they moved their by circumstance. There will be little psionics, because the story will have very little contact with the Inspired, just a lot of contact with Inspired agendas. The Inspired are using local contacts and resources to carry out their plans, so if they were to be foiled, their would be no conection to them.
ussie 06-10-05, 04:02 PM	sounds great, I wish I was actually playing in it :mad: :( lemme know how it goes and if u wanna hammer out any more ideas. All in all sounds like a very well thought out concept and i dont see any problem spots, good for u buddy. one question, does remove disease/heal etc., take care of the disease
Detson_king 06-10-05, 09:16 PM	No, its one of those DM "mysterous" diseases that has no easy way out of curing it.
Gurv 06-10-05, 09:48 PM	Don't bump a thread after 11 minutes. I sometimes take longer than that to respond to a post, so it isn't that you're being ignored. Bump the thread if it drops off the front page. Now, I like this idea. It sounds exactly like Inspired tactics: sow confusion and then step back into the shadows. They get what they want, and no one ever knows they were there. But what do they want? You didn't say what kind of invasion it is, other than to say that the Inspired will remain behind the scenes. What will they do if their tactics work? If the PCs fail to figure anything out and stop it? Although it is an unlikely outcome, the Inspired don't know that. Are they hoping that the problems in the Shadow Marches will spread, start war, and leave Khorvaire in the same state that they found Sarlona in (divided and warring)? That would obviously be a long-term plan, since it would take years for such a war to leave the Five Nations vulnerable enough. Or do they have another plan for this invasion? Unlike when they conquored Sarlona, they now have the ability to send armies against those they wish to control. Will it come to a Sarlonan invasion of Khorvaire?
Detson_king 06-11-05, 02:50 AM	First, just to point out, it was on 06-08-05 08:38 PM when I first posted, the bump was at 06-09-05 08:49 PM. See that 09, thats the day. Sorry to sound rude, its 2:45am in the morning. The kind of invasion we're talking about is a kind of pacifier take over. The Inspired cause a bunch of problems, and come in and help fix these problems and win the hearts and minds of the people. The invasion, is a no force of arms invasion, just a kind of peace and good will invasion. The Inspired plan to spread disease, cause wars, and weaken the stability of the other nations, and come in and make things all better and make the trains come on time.
treehouse916 06-11-05, 11:10 AM	Mmm, Inspired-rific! Sounds like a pretty good plan to me. Why don't you also develop some parallel plots that the Inspired would be working on? They do not seem like the sort of schemers who put all their eggs in one basket. For instance, while all of this is going on in the Shadow Marches, other Inspired agents are also causing unrest among the dragonmarked houses, or providing indirect assistance to the most radical Heirs of Dhakaan for the start of a new (but ultimately doomed) goblinoid war.
Detson_king 06-11-05, 08:04 PM	hmm, sounds good.