help me work out this Cult of the Dragon Below encounter/mini adventure [Archive] - Wizards Community

help me work out this Cult of the Dragon Below encounter/mini adventure [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Setherial
03-09-06, 02:38 AM Yo guys

I have a few cultists of the dragon below settling down in the town of BlackStone (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=562108). It's basically a mining town (see map (http://www.davidopdebeeck.be/temp/blackstone.jpg) ) run by a woman called Raziel. On of the mines (The Dragons Hole) has a passage to Khyber and abberations are bringing Khyber Shards to the surface for Raziel. This is all very secret and Raziel pretends the mine is a Dragonshard mine.

Anyway the cultists are drawn to the presence of the abberations and the evil that lingers in town. Now I need to come up with what it is that they do and how to get the players involved. Basically it comes down to this:

- Cultists start drawing attention by maybe kidnapping people to sacrifice them to the dealkyr
- Raziel is furious as she sees the cultitst mettle in her plans, they draw far too much attention to her town with their foolish and ignorant activities.
- Raziel pursuades the players to track down the cult and elliminate it.

Ok the above guidelines are only one approach, the only thing that I need is that Raziel wants to stop the problem the cultists are creating, whatever that may be and she askes the players to figur out who is responsible and take them down.

I read that cultists of the Dragon Below (either in Magic of Eberron or the Players guide to Eberron) are often men and women toched by the Dealkyr, they are insane like their masters, their minds somewhat alien like the aberrations they worship.
This might be something I want to show to the players somehow, these cultists all have houses and businesses in town and their behavior might come over as odd at times. Though I don't want anything too obvious. I figured as a leader I want someone who can mess with the players' minds and who is touched in more obvious ways by the Dealkyr as the others. This might be a newly invented monster, an extremly disfigured human/half Daelkyr maybe whoms body is totally merged with his simbiont or maybe a half human/half illithid (template from Fiend Folio) with great mental power. Someone who still belongs to the world of men but is seen by the cultists as one blessed by the Dealkyr.

Anyhow I hope you guys can help me craft this into an exciting mini adventure. Just think outloud, let it all out :)

cheers

SeTherial
igotsmeakabob!!
03-09-06, 03:10 AM I like that idea... the players are hired by Raziel to uncover and exterminate the cult, then (somehow, that could be elaborated on) discover that Raziel is actually the big bad enemy... this could turn into a 2 session adventure (depending on how long you run them). Cool stuff, think you could post the whole thing here when you flesh it out? I'd like to take a look at the whole adventure outline then flesh it out for my party.. great stuff.
Setherial
03-09-06, 03:36 AM I like that idea... the players are hired by Raziel to uncover and exterminate the cult, then (somehow, that could be elaborated on) discover that Raziel is actually the big bad enemy... this could turn into a 2 session adventure (depending on how long you run them). Cool stuff, think you could post the whole thing here when you flesh it out? I'd like to take a look at the whole adventure outline then flesh it out for my party.. great stuff.

Raziel is one of the Lords of Dust, she will not be beaten in session 2. She might not go down for the next 2 hundred years even, whether the players are on to her or not.
If you wish to find out more about Blackstone read the thread about Blackstone keep (in my signature) and participate. I might set up a website with a mini eberron city setting for Blackstone, a discussion forum for the setting and a an overview of my upcomming "Return to Blackstone Keep" adventure.

In this post I'm looking for ideas to blow life into a typical cult of the Dragon Below, give it flavor typical to Eberron and sort of explore the idea of this cult in general. So far I have no experience using them and the fluff on them in the books I've read sofar is somewhat poor at best.
Jetty
03-09-06, 04:49 AM You should consult the article Cult of the Dragon Below from Keith Baker in Dragon Issue #332. There is a lot of useful information.
Setherial
03-09-06, 05:11 AM yeah well, I don't buy Dragon Magazine. I already own all the books, I would think that is enough. Can't we make this thread into a source of ideas for everyone to benefit from, not just those who buy articles.
Rechan
03-09-06, 08:44 AM Here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=489042) is a thread that will help you customize your own aberrations easy, and scale them to your party's appropriate level.

If you want the cult to do 'just weird stuff', have them do... well, weird stuff. For instance, searching the town over for bent nails, or copper pieces from a certain date, the teeth of children, or something random like that. Remember, they're inspired by madness, so what they do doesn't have to make sense from a logical standpoint.

However, if your PCs are a little experienced with the game, then maybe they have all ready been exposed to cults of the dragon below.

So why not shake it up a bit? Remember, the Daelkyr don't have to be the only thing in Khyber; Khyber birthed the Rakshasas and other monsters long before the Gatekeepers sealed the daelkyr up. And the Rajahs themselves are imprisoned in Khyber.

So perhaps Raziel is also a worshipper of Khyber, since she is employing aberrations to get her shards. But she considers those who do not worship the children of the Daelkyr "heretics" (and the cult sees her as the same). Or vice versa; she could be researching Shards to somehow try and free a Rajah, and is only employing the aberrations because they're the easiest exploitable means, and those filthy madness worshippers are encouraging her aberration henchment to get uppidy; the cultists are worshipping the aberrations instead of getting them to work, and naturally the monsters would rather have affection dolled on them then mine shards.
Setherial
03-09-06, 09:17 AM Here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=489042) is a thread that will help you customize your own aberrations easy, and scale them to your party's appropriate level.

If you want the cult to do 'just weird stuff', have them do... well, weird stuff. For instance, searching the town over for bent nails, or copper pieces from a certain date, the teeth of children, or something random like that. Remember, they're inspired by madness, so what they do doesn't have to make sense from a logical standpoint.

However, if your PCs are a little experienced with the game, then maybe they have all ready been exposed to cults of the dragon below.

first of all thanks for the link, cool stuff !

I like your idea about them doing something that doesn't seem to make sense. I was already a bit against the cliche of human sacrifices or creating human/abberation hybrids... it's been done over and over by every evil cult in the past.
I don't want them to come off as total lunatics either though I don't mind some weirdness, but the creepier the better.
What about gathering bodyparts. The first night they attack a lady in her home and cut out her eyes and leave her there gagged and tied to a chair until the morning when people find her, still alive but disfigured. Few days later they get a tongue, then teeth, maybe a liver....

Also they might attack the mine, trying to get to the abberations they sense are in there, but Raziel has the mine fortified and guarded because of it's value and ofcourse to guard her secret that the mine if fake.
This will certainly **** off Raziel.

What about this, they harvest the body parts of people like I described above and they hang them somewhere in sight of the mine entrance, every night someone gets mutelated their missing parts can be found in front of the mine. The one putting them there uses magical means to conceal his presence.
Fabian
03-09-06, 09:31 AM Weird stuff for a cult....

Have the cult kidnap people and then release them with no apparent damage. The idea is for these guys to throw a curve ball at the players. It doesn't have to make sense at all. Raziel is worried because of the attention the town is getting.

Here are some ideas:

- cats (or other animals) start disapearing only to show up totally shaved;
- for a gruesome twist, have the animals disappear only to show up dead stitched to each other (half-dog and half-cat)
- a person is kidnapped and is later released, the only change to the person is that he/she now has a symbol (letter?) branded (painted with permanent paint) onher forehead;
- add a few of the symbols on other people and you'll have your players trying to figure out what the letters spell (or symbols mean);
- have the players find 'little altars' in town (or surrounding wilderness). One altar could just be a mound of salt (or other spice). Another altar could be made up of animal (humanoid) bones fused together;
- have a person be kidnapped and then released. The only thing she remembers is people chanting and asking her to do the save (she was blindbfolded);

Hope some of these help.

L8r,
Rechan
03-09-06, 10:32 AM I don't want them to come off as total lunatics either though I don't mind some weirdness, but the creepier the better.
What about gathering bodyparts. The first night they attack a lady in her home and cut out her eyes and leave her there gagged and tied to a chair until the morning when people find her, still alive but disfigured. Few days later they get a tongue, then teeth, maybe a liver....

Now there's an utterly terrible and wholely interesting perspective. Maybe the aberrations that the Cult are venerating consider organic material "jewelry"; necklaces of fingerbones and the like. Or it wants to eat the various parts, but just attacking someone at random would give an idea as to what's doing it. The cultists could say, remove the various parts, in addition to removing maybe a thumb or a pinky from each victim, and said pieces are never nailed up on the mine.

Some things to keep in mind:

You said that the cult members own shops and businesses. That means that they are part of the community, and in a small town, that means they know everybody. So going around butchering your neighbors and friends who you've known for a long time generally is a bad idea; the Widow Johnson gave you milk from her cow for free every week, the Baker gave you discounts when your kid was born, etc. So, either the victims are new people coming into the town (because of the success of the mine), or are "outcasts"; people the town sees as bad.

Red herrings. Play this off as something else; a serial mutilator, etc. Maybe the first victim or two could be construed as "a grevious sin", so it looks like the perpetrator of the mutilation was inacting some sort of bloody punishment. Raziel doesn't learn it's a cult until after the PCs have began investigating (perhaps the first victim is someone they know, ergo why they'd begin investigating before she asks for their help). The Cult could also be digging up graves to throw off the scent; it looks like a necromancer at first (especially you said because weird zombies are coming back). But in reality they're just snatching a body, taking a piece, and disposing of it in the woods.

Is anyone suspicious of Raziel? She's using aberrations for her own ends; a mind flayer and dolgrims. Perhaps something more powerful considers her consorting with the aberrations, or using them, an offense; either a half-daelkyr that considers aberrations beholden to no one, or another fiend who believes aberrations are filth, and Raziel allying with them shows how depraved she is.
Belabras
03-09-06, 10:50 AM As far as local flavor goes, since the town is regularly dealing with aberations have the local populace have a fair amount of Daekyr-touched (if you have Magic of Eberron) and people with Aberrant Blood feats (if you have Lords of Madness) around. Might also be a good place to introduce some symbionts to your characters, or allow a character to start the Aberrant Blood feat line themselves.
Setherial
03-09-06, 04:04 PM Weird stuff for a cult....

Have the cult kidnap people and then release them with no apparent damage. The idea is for these guys to throw a curve ball at the players. It doesn't have to make sense at all. Raziel is worried because of the attention the town is getting.

Here are some ideas:

- cats (or other animals) start disapearing only to show up totally shaved;
- for a gruesome twist, have the animals disappear only to show up dead stitched to each other (half-dog and half-cat)
- a person is kidnapped and is later released, the only change to the person is that he/she now has a symbol (letter?) branded (painted with permanent paint) onher forehead;
- add a few of the symbols on other people and you'll have your players trying to figure out what the letters spell (or symbols mean);
- have the players find 'little altars' in town (or surrounding wilderness). One altar could just be a mound of salt (or other spice). Another altar could be made up of animal (humanoid) bones fused together;
- have a person be kidnapped and then released. The only thing she remembers is people chanting and asking her to do the save (she was blindbfolded);

Yes awesome, thanks Fabian, this is fantastic I'm going to have a blast DMing this one :) I can't begin to express how much I like the stitched cat/dog idea (not that I don't like animals, I have a very nice cat myself and I'm very nice to her). This sort of thing if brought correctly can really shake up players and get things from funny to serious and really tense and freaky.
I'm more and more interested in Horror teamed gaming and really getting in the spirit of it, and this is the stuff of horror allright.

Some things to keep in mind:

You said that the cult members own shops and businesses. That means that they are part of the community, and in a small town, that means they know everybody. So going around butchering your neighbors and friends who you've known for a long time generally is a bad idea; the Widow Johnson gave you milk from her cow for free every week, the Baker gave you discounts when your kid was born, etc. So, either the victims are new people coming into the town (because of the success of the mine), or are "outcasts"; people the town sees as bad.

You've got a point here though since it is a rich and very young town (khyber mine is drawing people from all over) with a lot of new faces settling down every day I don't think it is much of a problem. Also the cultists are rather excentric even in daily life when they try to act normal, their social interaction with others is not all that.

Is anyone suspicious of Raziel? She's using aberrations for her own ends; a mind flayer and dolgrims. Perhaps something more powerful considers her consorting with the aberrations, or using them, an offense; either a half-daelkyr that considers aberrations beholden to no one, or another fiend who believes aberrations are filth, and Raziel allying with them shows how depraved she is.

The people love Raziel, she pours mony into the town, she is highly charismatic (she's a Succubus), she heals the sick (actually she kills them but they become tainted minions looking like healthy people after her visits etc...
The only ones who know about the dealings of Raziel with aberrations are a few druids who are attacking the town and the mine, trying to fight Raziel in what seems like terrorist acts (see Blackstone Keep thread)

But you sparked a few good ideas here, the cultists for instance could be digging a tunnel into Raziels Mine. This would really mess things up for Raziel, she sends the players to find the cult but they find more, they find a tunnel that leads into her secret off limits mine.
I also like the idea of the cultist leader hating Raziel because she treats the aberrations as mere slaves to do her bidding, I just don't see it work yet...

As far as local flavor goes, since the town is regularly dealing with aberations have the local populace have a fair amount of Daekyr-touched (if you have Magic of Eberron) and people with Aberrant Blood feats (if you have Lords of Madness) around. Might also be a good place to introduce some symbionts to your characters, or allow a character to start the Aberrant Blood feat line themselves.

Well the town is already pretty messed up since it is a place of great taint and the people are slowly being corrupted and transformed into tainted minions. I like Your ideas to add even more madness to this. I have the books you mentioned so I'll do some research and see what I can use, thanks!
Rechan
03-09-06, 04:45 PM The people love Raziel, she pours mony into the town, she is highly charismatic (she's a Succubus), she heals the sick (actually she kills them but they become tainted minions looking like healthy people after her visits etc...

Well, I also meant like, does Raziel have any rivals before she came to the town, etc. :) She is after all a succubus, and could have collected some enemies.
Setherial
03-10-06, 02:15 AM Well, I also meant like, does Raziel have any rivals before she came to the town, etc. :) She is after all a succubus, and could have collected some enemies.

Well she probably has quite a few, although she is clever and tries to keep a low profile. Her husband is the official ruler of the town and the one set up to take the fall if anything goes wrong. She just plays the good innocent wife of a Lord. Ofcourse she might not have been this carefull in the past and I could for instance have a hunter track her, an assassin out to kill her out of personal revenge (he doesn't even have to be high level, he might not even know she is a demon. Maybe just a peasant girl who wants to take revenge on Raziel because she stole away the love of her life and killed him although there was no evidence against her).
I don't know if it will be overkill or not, I already have quite a bunch of poeple/groups involved here.
Rechan
03-10-06, 02:27 AM Not too overkill for Eberron. The plot I'm doing has the DD, the Daelkyr, the Chamber all vying for an item housed by a Quasi-Cult of the Dragons Below (I say this because it's not "really" a cult in the sense they're worshipping Khyber or the Daelkyr, but it's something similar).
Setherial
03-10-06, 08:33 AM Ok I'm going to attempt to come up with a few more strange things the cult might do along the lines of what Fabian already came up with:

- 2 goats were killed on a farm about a mile outside Blackstone, they were completly drained of blood. That same night 20 houses across Blackstone were marked with goats blood. A strange symbol on each door, each symbol slightly different.
- 3 wild boars, or wolves or whatever were discovered in a house one morning all of them in a blood frenzy, their skin/fur smudged with a strange dark grease smelling of blood and spices. The owner of the house was found gagged and tied to the ceiling of the room with the animals. The entire ceiling was painted in blood with strange symbols (possibly the same symbols found on the doors of the houses), the man was bound inside a painted circle surrounded by symbols.
- 20 cows were stolen from one of the farms near Blackstone, all of them were found slaughtered in front of the gate to the Dragons Hole Mine. A strange yellow greenish flued dripping from their mouths and their bellies moving strangly. When cut open swarms of small spider like abberations flood from their bellies.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Setherial 03-09-06, 02:38 AM	Yo guys I have a few cultists of the dragon below settling down in the town of BlackStone (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=562108). It's basically a mining town (see map (http://www.davidopdebeeck.be/temp/blackstone.jpg) ) run by a woman called Raziel. On of the mines (The Dragons Hole) has a passage to Khyber and abberations are bringing Khyber Shards to the surface for Raziel. This is all very secret and Raziel pretends the mine is a Dragonshard mine. Anyway the cultists are drawn to the presence of the abberations and the evil that lingers in town. Now I need to come up with what it is that they do and how to get the players involved. Basically it comes down to this: - Cultists start drawing attention by maybe kidnapping people to sacrifice them to the dealkyr - Raziel is furious as she sees the cultitst mettle in her plans, they draw far too much attention to her town with their foolish and ignorant activities. - Raziel pursuades the players to track down the cult and elliminate it. Ok the above guidelines are only one approach, the only thing that I need is that Raziel wants to stop the problem the cultists are creating, whatever that may be and she askes the players to figur out who is responsible and take them down. I read that cultists of the Dragon Below (either in Magic of Eberron or the Players guide to Eberron) are often men and women toched by the Dealkyr, they are insane like their masters, their minds somewhat alien like the aberrations they worship. This might be something I want to show to the players somehow, these cultists all have houses and businesses in town and their behavior might come over as odd at times. Though I don't want anything too obvious. I figured as a leader I want someone who can mess with the players' minds and who is touched in more obvious ways by the Dealkyr as the others. This might be a newly invented monster, an extremly disfigured human/half Daelkyr maybe whoms body is totally merged with his simbiont or maybe a half human/half illithid (template from Fiend Folio) with great mental power. Someone who still belongs to the world of men but is seen by the cultists as one blessed by the Dealkyr. Anyhow I hope you guys can help me craft this into an exciting mini adventure. Just think outloud, let it all out :) cheers SeTherial
igotsmeakabob!! 03-09-06, 03:10 AM	I like that idea... the players are hired by Raziel to uncover and exterminate the cult, then (somehow, that could be elaborated on) discover that Raziel is actually the big bad enemy... this could turn into a 2 session adventure (depending on how long you run them). Cool stuff, think you could post the whole thing here when you flesh it out? I'd like to take a look at the whole adventure outline then flesh it out for my party.. great stuff.
Setherial 03-09-06, 03:36 AM	I like that idea... the players are hired by Raziel to uncover and exterminate the cult, then (somehow, that could be elaborated on) discover that Raziel is actually the big bad enemy... this could turn into a 2 session adventure (depending on how long you run them). Cool stuff, think you could post the whole thing here when you flesh it out? I'd like to take a look at the whole adventure outline then flesh it out for my party.. great stuff. Raziel is one of the Lords of Dust, she will not be beaten in session 2. She might not go down for the next 2 hundred years even, whether the players are on to her or not. If you wish to find out more about Blackstone read the thread about Blackstone keep (in my signature) and participate. I might set up a website with a mini eberron city setting for Blackstone, a discussion forum for the setting and a an overview of my upcomming "Return to Blackstone Keep" adventure. In this post I'm looking for ideas to blow life into a typical cult of the Dragon Below, give it flavor typical to Eberron and sort of explore the idea of this cult in general. So far I have no experience using them and the fluff on them in the books I've read sofar is somewhat poor at best.
Jetty 03-09-06, 04:49 AM	You should consult the article Cult of the Dragon Below from Keith Baker in Dragon Issue #332. There is a lot of useful information.
Setherial 03-09-06, 05:11 AM	yeah well, I don't buy Dragon Magazine. I already own all the books, I would think that is enough. Can't we make this thread into a source of ideas for everyone to benefit from, not just those who buy articles.
Rechan 03-09-06, 08:44 AM	Here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=489042) is a thread that will help you customize your own aberrations easy, and scale them to your party's appropriate level. If you want the cult to do 'just weird stuff', have them do... well, weird stuff. For instance, searching the town over for bent nails, or copper pieces from a certain date, the teeth of children, or something random like that. Remember, they're inspired by madness, so what they do doesn't have to make sense from a logical standpoint. However, if your PCs are a little experienced with the game, then maybe they have all ready been exposed to cults of the dragon below. So why not shake it up a bit? Remember, the Daelkyr don't have to be the only thing in Khyber; Khyber birthed the Rakshasas and other monsters long before the Gatekeepers sealed the daelkyr up. And the Rajahs themselves are imprisoned in Khyber. So perhaps Raziel is also a worshipper of Khyber, since she is employing aberrations to get her shards. But she considers those who do not worship the children of the Daelkyr "heretics" (and the cult sees her as the same). Or vice versa; she could be researching Shards to somehow try and free a Rajah, and is only employing the aberrations because they're the easiest exploitable means, and those filthy madness worshippers are encouraging her aberration henchment to get uppidy; the cultists are worshipping the aberrations instead of getting them to work, and naturally the monsters would rather have affection dolled on them then mine shards.
Setherial 03-09-06, 09:17 AM	Here (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=489042) is a thread that will help you customize your own aberrations easy, and scale them to your party's appropriate level. If you want the cult to do 'just weird stuff', have them do... well, weird stuff. For instance, searching the town over for bent nails, or copper pieces from a certain date, the teeth of children, or something random like that. Remember, they're inspired by madness, so what they do doesn't have to make sense from a logical standpoint. However, if your PCs are a little experienced with the game, then maybe they have all ready been exposed to cults of the dragon below. first of all thanks for the link, cool stuff ! I like your idea about them doing something that doesn't seem to make sense. I was already a bit against the cliche of human sacrifices or creating human/abberation hybrids... it's been done over and over by every evil cult in the past. I don't want them to come off as total lunatics either though I don't mind some weirdness, but the creepier the better. What about gathering bodyparts. The first night they attack a lady in her home and cut out her eyes and leave her there gagged and tied to a chair until the morning when people find her, still alive but disfigured. Few days later they get a tongue, then teeth, maybe a liver.... Also they might attack the mine, trying to get to the abberations they sense are in there, but Raziel has the mine fortified and guarded because of it's value and ofcourse to guard her secret that the mine if fake. This will certainly **** off Raziel. What about this, they harvest the body parts of people like I described above and they hang them somewhere in sight of the mine entrance, every night someone gets mutelated their missing parts can be found in front of the mine. The one putting them there uses magical means to conceal his presence.
Fabian 03-09-06, 09:31 AM	Weird stuff for a cult.... Have the cult kidnap people and then release them with no apparent damage. The idea is for these guys to throw a curve ball at the players. It doesn't have to make sense at all. Raziel is worried because of the attention the town is getting. Here are some ideas: - cats (or other animals) start disapearing only to show up totally shaved; - for a gruesome twist, have the animals disappear only to show up dead stitched to each other (half-dog and half-cat) - a person is kidnapped and is later released, the only change to the person is that he/she now has a symbol (letter?) branded (painted with permanent paint) onher forehead; - add a few of the symbols on other people and you'll have your players trying to figure out what the letters spell (or symbols mean); - have the players find 'little altars' in town (or surrounding wilderness). One altar could just be a mound of salt (or other spice). Another altar could be made up of animal (humanoid) bones fused together; - have a person be kidnapped and then released. The only thing she remembers is people chanting and asking her to do the save (she was blindbfolded); Hope some of these help. L8r,
Rechan 03-09-06, 10:32 AM	I don't want them to come off as total lunatics either though I don't mind some weirdness, but the creepier the better. What about gathering bodyparts. The first night they attack a lady in her home and cut out her eyes and leave her there gagged and tied to a chair until the morning when people find her, still alive but disfigured. Few days later they get a tongue, then teeth, maybe a liver.... Now there's an utterly terrible and wholely interesting perspective. Maybe the aberrations that the Cult are venerating consider organic material "jewelry"; necklaces of fingerbones and the like. Or it wants to eat the various parts, but just attacking someone at random would give an idea as to what's doing it. The cultists could say, remove the various parts, in addition to removing maybe a thumb or a pinky from each victim, and said pieces are never nailed up on the mine. Some things to keep in mind: You said that the cult members own shops and businesses. That means that they are part of the community, and in a small town, that means they know everybody. So going around butchering your neighbors and friends who you've known for a long time generally is a bad idea; the Widow Johnson gave you milk from her cow for free every week, the Baker gave you discounts when your kid was born, etc. So, either the victims are new people coming into the town (because of the success of the mine), or are "outcasts"; people the town sees as bad. Red herrings. Play this off as something else; a serial mutilator, etc. Maybe the first victim or two could be construed as "a grevious sin", so it looks like the perpetrator of the mutilation was inacting some sort of bloody punishment. Raziel doesn't learn it's a cult until after the PCs have began investigating (perhaps the first victim is someone they know, ergo why they'd begin investigating before she asks for their help). The Cult could also be digging up graves to throw off the scent; it looks like a necromancer at first (especially you said because weird zombies are coming back). But in reality they're just snatching a body, taking a piece, and disposing of it in the woods. Is anyone suspicious of Raziel? She's using aberrations for her own ends; a mind flayer and dolgrims. Perhaps something more powerful considers her consorting with the aberrations, or using them, an offense; either a half-daelkyr that considers aberrations beholden to no one, or another fiend who believes aberrations are filth, and Raziel allying with them shows how depraved she is.
Belabras 03-09-06, 10:50 AM	As far as local flavor goes, since the town is regularly dealing with aberations have the local populace have a fair amount of Daekyr-touched (if you have Magic of Eberron) and people with Aberrant Blood feats (if you have Lords of Madness) around. Might also be a good place to introduce some symbionts to your characters, or allow a character to start the Aberrant Blood feat line themselves.
Setherial 03-09-06, 04:04 PM	Weird stuff for a cult.... Have the cult kidnap people and then release them with no apparent damage. The idea is for these guys to throw a curve ball at the players. It doesn't have to make sense at all. Raziel is worried because of the attention the town is getting. Here are some ideas: - cats (or other animals) start disapearing only to show up totally shaved; - for a gruesome twist, have the animals disappear only to show up dead stitched to each other (half-dog and half-cat) - a person is kidnapped and is later released, the only change to the person is that he/she now has a symbol (letter?) branded (painted with permanent paint) onher forehead; - add a few of the symbols on other people and you'll have your players trying to figure out what the letters spell (or symbols mean); - have the players find 'little altars' in town (or surrounding wilderness). One altar could just be a mound of salt (or other spice). Another altar could be made up of animal (humanoid) bones fused together; - have a person be kidnapped and then released. The only thing she remembers is people chanting and asking her to do the save (she was blindbfolded); Yes awesome, thanks Fabian, this is fantastic I'm going to have a blast DMing this one :) I can't begin to express how much I like the stitched cat/dog idea (not that I don't like animals, I have a very nice cat myself and I'm very nice to her). This sort of thing if brought correctly can really shake up players and get things from funny to serious and really tense and freaky. I'm more and more interested in Horror teamed gaming and really getting in the spirit of it, and this is the stuff of horror allright. Some things to keep in mind: You said that the cult members own shops and businesses. That means that they are part of the community, and in a small town, that means they know everybody. So going around butchering your neighbors and friends who you've known for a long time generally is a bad idea; the Widow Johnson gave you milk from her cow for free every week, the Baker gave you discounts when your kid was born, etc. So, either the victims are new people coming into the town (because of the success of the mine), or are "outcasts"; people the town sees as bad. You've got a point here though since it is a rich and very young town (khyber mine is drawing people from all over) with a lot of new faces settling down every day I don't think it is much of a problem. Also the cultists are rather excentric even in daily life when they try to act normal, their social interaction with others is not all that. Is anyone suspicious of Raziel? She's using aberrations for her own ends; a mind flayer and dolgrims. Perhaps something more powerful considers her consorting with the aberrations, or using them, an offense; either a half-daelkyr that considers aberrations beholden to no one, or another fiend who believes aberrations are filth, and Raziel allying with them shows how depraved she is. The people love Raziel, she pours mony into the town, she is highly charismatic (she's a Succubus), she heals the sick (actually she kills them but they become tainted minions looking like healthy people after her visits etc... The only ones who know about the dealings of Raziel with aberrations are a few druids who are attacking the town and the mine, trying to fight Raziel in what seems like terrorist acts (see Blackstone Keep thread) But you sparked a few good ideas here, the cultists for instance could be digging a tunnel into Raziels Mine. This would really mess things up for Raziel, she sends the players to find the cult but they find more, they find a tunnel that leads into her secret off limits mine. I also like the idea of the cultist leader hating Raziel because she treats the aberrations as mere slaves to do her bidding, I just don't see it work yet... As far as local flavor goes, since the town is regularly dealing with aberations have the local populace have a fair amount of Daekyr-touched (if you have Magic of Eberron) and people with Aberrant Blood feats (if you have Lords of Madness) around. Might also be a good place to introduce some symbionts to your characters, or allow a character to start the Aberrant Blood feat line themselves. Well the town is already pretty messed up since it is a place of great taint and the people are slowly being corrupted and transformed into tainted minions. I like Your ideas to add even more madness to this. I have the books you mentioned so I'll do some research and see what I can use, thanks!
Rechan 03-09-06, 04:45 PM	The people love Raziel, she pours mony into the town, she is highly charismatic (she's a Succubus), she heals the sick (actually she kills them but they become tainted minions looking like healthy people after her visits etc... Well, I also meant like, does Raziel have any rivals before she came to the town, etc. :) She is after all a succubus, and could have collected some enemies.
Setherial 03-10-06, 02:15 AM	Well, I also meant like, does Raziel have any rivals before she came to the town, etc. :) She is after all a succubus, and could have collected some enemies. Well she probably has quite a few, although she is clever and tries to keep a low profile. Her husband is the official ruler of the town and the one set up to take the fall if anything goes wrong. She just plays the good innocent wife of a Lord. Ofcourse she might not have been this carefull in the past and I could for instance have a hunter track her, an assassin out to kill her out of personal revenge (he doesn't even have to be high level, he might not even know she is a demon. Maybe just a peasant girl who wants to take revenge on Raziel because she stole away the love of her life and killed him although there was no evidence against her). I don't know if it will be overkill or not, I already have quite a bunch of poeple/groups involved here.
Rechan 03-10-06, 02:27 AM	Not too overkill for Eberron. The plot I'm doing has the DD, the Daelkyr, the Chamber all vying for an item housed by a Quasi-Cult of the Dragons Below (I say this because it's not "really" a cult in the sense they're worshipping Khyber or the Daelkyr, but it's something similar).
Setherial 03-10-06, 08:33 AM	Ok I'm going to attempt to come up with a few more strange things the cult might do along the lines of what Fabian already came up with: - 2 goats were killed on a farm about a mile outside Blackstone, they were completly drained of blood. That same night 20 houses across Blackstone were marked with goats blood. A strange symbol on each door, each symbol slightly different. - 3 wild boars, or wolves or whatever were discovered in a house one morning all of them in a blood frenzy, their skin/fur smudged with a strange dark grease smelling of blood and spices. The owner of the house was found gagged and tied to the ceiling of the room with the animals. The entire ceiling was painted in blood with strange symbols (possibly the same symbols found on the doors of the houses), the man was bound inside a painted circle surrounded by symbols. - 20 cows were stolen from one of the farms near Blackstone, all of them were found slaughtered in front of the gate to the Dragons Hole Mine. A strange yellow greenish flued dripping from their mouths and their bellies moving strangly. When cut open swarms of small spider like abberations flood from their bellies.