Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Toloran 01-11-08, 12:09 AM	I need some help brainstorming a high level (9th to about 12-13th) Eberron adventure. I had a few ideas but they either A.) Don't have that high level feeling (ie. Feels like a lowbie adventure that was scaled up) or B.) Doesn't have the eberron flavor (ie. "What setting are we in again?") So the question is: What is high level Eberron like?
Wizardman 01-11-08, 01:47 AM	So the question is: What is high level Eberron like? It is the point where you move beyond the cultists and face their masters directly. It is the point where (depending on the events and/or locales of the campaign) people in even the most remote thorps know of your exploits. It is the point where the Aurum/LoD/EC stops reacting to you and starts actively trying to either end you or recruit you. It is the point where the spies of all nations stop thinking of you as patsies and start to make serious preparations so that they may be ready should their paths cross with yours. It is the point where the dragons start to become very interested in you (especially if their are dragonmarked in your party) because mortals that powerful are bound to affect the Prophecy in some manner. It is the point where the Houses start to fall all over each other to get you to work for them (or, if there are dragonmarked in the party, the point where they start REALLY leaning on those members to make them start toeing the line again). It is repelling the next great planar incursion. It is facing Erandis d'Vol in Illmarrow Castle and doing so as an equal. It is duelling an aspect of Tiamat in the skies over Argonnessen (or, if the levels are high enough, duelling Tiamat herself). It is marching into the heart of Khyber to face the daelkyr directly. It is leading an army of the Ghaash'kala into the Demon Wastes and not stopping until the destruction of Ashtakala is complete. It is breaking the various curses which the dragons placed on Xen'drik. It is travelling through the heart of Dal Quor on the way to a showdown with the Devourer of Dreams itself. It is anything you can imagine it to be. Have fun with it.
Adamaro23 01-11-08, 01:48 AM	Sorry but I can't help. In fact i'm in the exact same situation, my campaign started at level 1 and now they're level 9/10... There's plenty of challenges for high level caharacters (Lords of Dust, Blood of Vol, etc...), and the problems i'm having is making these higher level adventures "feel like eberron"...
Marcus Majarra 01-11-08, 02:46 AM	I don't mean to criticize, but those are the mid-levels, Toloran. High levels typically involve levels 13-20, even in Eberron. In Argonessen, you can even delve into epic-level play without difficulty. In any case, it would really help if we knew what material you had to work with and what the adventuring party looks like. If you really want to destabilize the group culturally, you could always have something go wrong when the party seeks to stop an eldritch machine of your choice. Some kind of magical explosion could occur, and when the party comes to, they wake up somewhere in the war mazes of Ohr Kaluun, in Sarlona, and they must find a way to escape the continent before Riedran forces bring them down. This escape could take them all the way through the continent, down to Syrkarn, where they can hope and leave for Khorvaire onboard a ship of Adaran refugees. This allows you to play around with opponents typically found on Sarlona, and Inspired of all kinds can make for interesting mid-level encounters.
Nexusdragon 01-11-08, 10:52 AM	I always liked the idea of exploration of different exotic locales as a high level thing. They have more resources at their disposal so places like Frostfell aren't as foreboding. And while places like that aren't really fleshed out or have an automatic Eberron feel to them, their open-ended quality allows you to fit them to what you will. I would love to throw my players into Frostfell or Menechtarun or even Everice. Desolate wastelands always give a challenge to any level player, in my opinion.
Toloran 01-11-08, 11:59 PM	Thanks for the advice everyone :D Sorry but I can't help. In fact i'm in the exact same situation, my campaign started at level 1 and now they're level 9/10... There's plenty of challenges for high level caharacters (Lords of Dust, Blood of Vol, etc...), and the problems i'm having is making these higher level adventures "feel like eberron"... Yep, thats the same problem as me. In any case, it would really help if we knew what material you had to work with and what the adventuring party looks like. The party includes a 5th Lvl Changeling Hexblade (effectively the tank of the party), a 5th Lvl TWF Gnome Ranger, A 5th Lvl Half-Elf Sorcerer, and a 5th Lvl Lesser-Tiefling (fewer abilities, +0 LA) Artificer (he makes stuff, a lot). In all the party is low on healing (mostly survives on scrolls, wands, and potions) but is very well equipped due to the artificer. So far the adventure has basically been the party repeatedly butting heads with the Emerald Claw. I am currently running them through Eyes of the Lich Queen. I plan on them eventually fighting the Lich Queen herself (just not THIS adventure). Based on peoples suggestions, here is what I came up with (basically a modified version of my original idea). Any suggestions on making it more "Eberron" are greatly appreciated. The party is hired by the Dark Lanterns initially to recover an evil intelligent sword from a researchers home where he was studying it. After recovering it they are sent on a mission to either purify or destroy the sword (the latter is impossible because the sword is made of 100% pure plot). After researching in the Library of Korranburg (and fighting off a bunch of EC assassins), they discover the best method of purifying it is by finding a Coualtl. This leads them to two locals: The first one is Xen'drik where they befriend a Kobold tribe and an Awakened Clawfoot Master Inquisitive. Stuff goes on and the Kobolds tell them that the Coualtl that was in their area died millenia ago but they have an ancient relic that will help track one if they get near one (fairly short range). The second one is an ancient Library in some ruins in Sarlona which contains a book on Coualtl lore. They sneak in to Sarlona and find the ruins only to discover it has been taken away fairly recently. They somehow learn it has been taken by an Empty vessel magistrate/ruler type-person and they have to infiltrate his estate to reclaim it. This lets them learn the approximate location of where a living Coualtl may be: The Frostfell. Using their new trinket and knowledge, they head out to the location. The trinket leads them to a castle made completely of Blue Ice that was built by a not-evil-but-quite-insane wizard who specializes in Cold/Electric magic. In the final confrontation, they have to fight him as well as the frozen animated corpse of the Coualtl itself. By defeating the both of them, the spirit of the Coualtl is freed and uses his power to purify to the blade.
grifo 01-12-08, 07:06 AM	I think the best way to figure out what you can do in these levels is to think of the progression in levels as a progression in fame as well. The best way I can come up with to send this message through is through the NPCs the players deal with. In lower levels they deal with the little people - local thugs, small community leaders, and so on. They can be anyone from the local sheriff to the leader of a small Emerald Claw branch. These are either important persons in small scale organizations or unimportant persons in a big organization. The next phase is making the antagonist more powerful while keeping the party's supporters among the less known or powerful. Only after they beat a relatively big fish should bigger forces start noticing them. At this point in the game the players are dealing with some regional mangers - a parliament member, the head of a small yet wide spread guarding organization, one of The Lord of Blades' main officers... by now th party should be at high-medium levels, this is when they start dealing with people like the iron council, vol herself, the head of the Ashbound. these strong figures should be the players' major enemies and patrons, only after they earn a name with these guys should other groups, which the party has never been in contact with, start approaching them and they'll become famous on a universal scale.
Thaliost 01-12-08, 12:57 PM	I need some help brainstorming a high level (9th to about 12-13th) Eberron adventure. I had a few ideas but they either A.) Don't have that high level feeling (ie. Feels like a lowbie adventure that was scaled up) or B.) Doesn't have the eberron flavor (ie. "What setting are we in again?") So the question is: What is high level Eberron like? It's a good time to use the Thoon series in Monster Manual V. Those are basically CR5 - CR15 illithids who managed to travel to Xoriat and then back to Eberron, which actually should be a mission impossible. Due to its existing background in Eberron and the appropriate CR and feeling (say, the planes), that might be good for your campaign. And if I were you, I may also consider a conflict between the quori and the illithids, where PCs must choose one evil from the other, as mentioned in the Book of Vile Darkness.
Gurv 01-13-08, 07:13 AM	What they said. Or, you could go another way with it. Why not put them in charge of something? As others have said, by this point, people should be taking the player characters seriously. They have the ability to cast spells that are hard to come by on Eberron. They quite likely have great personal assets. They know people who know people. They shouldn't just be working for whatever organizations deal with- they should be involved in running them.
crazysamaritan 01-13-08, 07:34 PM	The party includes a 5th Lvl Changeling Hexblade (effectively the tank of the party), a 5th Lvl TWF Gnome Ranger, A 5th Lvl Half-Elf Sorcerer, and a 5th Lvl Lesser-Tiefling (fewer abilities, +0 LA) Artificer (he makes stuff, a lot). In all the party is low on healing (mostly survives on scrolls, wands, and potions) but is very well equipped due to the artificer. Your group is about where I want mine to be. I'm about to use the Speaker in Dreams pre-made (I changed a few things... It's set in Whitecliff now :D). My plan for the group is based around the Draconic Prophesy, although they haven't learned that yet. What they have done, is free Rhashaak. Soon they'll have the opportunity to end a lycanthrope threat, defeat crazy wizards, and battle low-level fiends that have been released. THEN they get to fight the Mindflayer behind it all, who is a partner with the Rashaska who tricked them into freeing Rhashaak. I love Eldrich devices (this one was a ritual).
Marcus Majarra 01-14-08, 12:22 AM	I have some more questions, Toloran: 1. Why does the Order of the Emerald Claw want the evil sword? 2. Why does Breland want it purified? 3. What agenda would a Chosen or an Inspired have with a book on Couatl lore? The trick behind giving an adventure (or series of adventures) more Eberron flavor is to have clear ideas of why things are happening. Some interesting options to consider: The evil sword could be intelligent by virtue of a rather impressive Khyber dragonshard embedded into its hilt. This dragonshard could actually be binding a rather powerful fiend into the weapon. Lore on this specific fiend could reveal that it specialized in manipulating the Draconic Prophecy. Dragons bound this fiend ages ago in an attempt to prevent it from affecting the Prophecy. Everything went well until Vol got word of this and sought to acquire the sword in order to use the fiend's knowledge to restore her Mark of Death. The Chamber, aware of this, infiltrated the Dark Lanterns (or used its contacts within) in order to hire the party to have the sword purified and rid once and for all of this nefarious fiend. Why did the Chamber choose to act through proxies? The Draconic Prophecy can be a simple reason here: the Chamber agent has learned (or believes) that the PCs are directly involved in undoing the fiend's power.
Toloran 01-15-08, 09:24 PM	I have some more questions, Toloran: 1. Why does the Order of the Emerald Claw want the evil sword? 2. Why does Breland want it purified? 3. What agenda would a Chosen or an Inspired have with a book on Couatl lore? The trick behind giving an adventure (or series of adventures) more Eberron flavor is to have clear ideas of why things are happening. Some interesting options to consider: The evil sword could be intelligent by virtue of a rather impressive Khyber dragonshard embedded into its hilt. This dragonshard could actually be binding a rather powerful fiend into the weapon. Lore on this specific fiend could reveal that it specialized in manipulating the Draconic Prophecy. Dragons bound this fiend ages ago in an attempt to prevent it from affecting the Prophecy. Everything went well until Vol got word of this and sought to acquire the sword in order to use the fiend's knowledge to restore her Mark of Death. The Chamber, aware of this, infiltrated the Dark Lanterns (or used its contacts within) in order to hire the party to have the sword purified and rid once and for all of this nefarious fiend. Why did the Chamber choose to act through proxies? The Draconic Prophecy can be a simple reason here: the Chamber agent has learned (or believes) that the PCs are directly involved in undoing the fiend's power. 1) The emerald claw doesn't really have anything to do with this adventure. It is kind of a delayed follow-up to Whispers of the Vampires Blade pre-made adventure. So if I wanted to include them more, it would probably be because the sword formerly belonged to a Karrnathi warlord. 2) Although there wasn't this issue with the sword initially, the sword has begun to "leak." As such, it has begun to take control of those around it and not just those in direct contact with the sword. The sword can't be destroyed via normal methods since it would release whatever evil is sealed inside of it. As such, it has to be purified rather then destroyed. 3) I forget where I read it, but I seem to recall a few references to Couatl existing in Sarlona. That and they are somewhat psionic in nature so it would make sense that there would probably be pre-inspired books on on them. As to the reason a chosen/inspired would have the book is that they like to have as much information as possible about potential threats (since they DID bind the Rakasha Rajas and the remaining ones or those taught by the Couatls might try the same with the Quori). Oh yeah, and I do just that: I always try to have reasons for things happening rather then have them just happen. Thats why it takes me so long to write adventures ;_;
LoneStranger 01-16-08, 06:33 PM	I have to agree with some of the people in here that are suggesting a more social mechanic taking over most of the game now. Instead of raiding ancient tombs and slogging through the wilderness they're probably famous enough to talk to the mayor of Sharn (at worst), maybe even get picked by one of the Five Nation's leaders to be a diplomatic envoy to another nation. I'm in an Eberron group that's between levels 8-10 and the guy running wants to have us be more social, have us interact with the world more with our charisma instead of our weapons/spells (my poor warforged is doomed in that case). I do agree that they should be seen as heroes of the continent at this point (maybe not by everyone but you get my meaning) and there should be at least some reward for all the fights and the ambushes and the near death and so on. Just make sure to watch and see if they abuse it at all.
Ehtiar 01-17-08, 11:14 AM	Part of it is that when you start going up those levels, it shouldn't be so much of the party reacting to other people. The players need a good feel for their characters and what they want. Aka, it stops being about them stumbling into adventures, and starts being about them trying to "choose" adventures to advance their own goals. In other words, the adventure doesn't start because a dead body falls on them in Sharn. The adventure starts when they make a dead body fall on someone else in Sharn to achieve their goals :D Or something to that effect. Which is where the reaaaal hard work comes in. The discussions on what they want to do, and how they might achieve it... Once they start down that route, then you can start combining it back with the old where adventures stumble up because of what the players are trying to achieve.
iserith 01-17-08, 06:21 PM	My current Eberron PCs are 13th level. I'm running the Shackled City adventure path with major alterations to fit in a Sharn campaign. I have plenty of material with these modules. My last Eberron campaign followed the published Eberron modules, starting with Shadows of the Last War and ending with Voyage of the Golden Dragon. Once they got to Xen'rik at the end of Voyage, they decided they wanted to do some Xen'drik expeditions, so I created a lost city way deep in there that took about three months of game time to reach. They had about 30 hirelings on the expedition, including porters, scribes, and the like. It was very Indiana Jones. It allowed me to continue the "travelling campaign" theme so prevalent in the previously played modules, plus I could get really creative in Xen'drik. Each region they entered along the way had different terrain, monsters, tribes, ruins, etc. They would randomly roll for discoveries along the way such as a newly discovered plant or animal or perhaps an ancient giant road that would speed them along their path. They eventually found their prize and had to rally some friendly drow tribes to fight a large number of warforged who wanted to usurp the find (agents of the Lord of Blades). But that's a whole different story... In short, try Xen'drik.
Rauric 01-19-08, 08:50 AM	I used a 28 days later scenario in Sharn, and had necromancers from Droaam involved but Vol can be substitued. Decadant nobles were being given poisoned Dreamlily so if they overdoesed on it they came back as undead, and became carriers of a virus that tunred people into zombies if they died. I go the idea from the Ravenloft book. If the drug/zombie/carriers died though then all the people they infected that are now zombies cese to be zombies. Anyway the story is not in full gear yet. The players stopped the first step of the necromancers plan. When they get back to Sharn they may find the whole place on lockdown. :devil: Other good Blood of Vols scenarios could be the Claws plans to unearth a legendary Lich or Vampire that was locked away long ago. With its help Vol can possibly destroy Kaius once and for all. Maybe there is a Eldritch device the Claw needs that can make vamps move around in daylight?
Ehtiar 01-19-08, 10:58 AM	That's always the plotline of Blood of Vol/Emerald Claw seeking to unearth the prison-tombs of some of the Quabalrin Elves in Xen'drik.... Ye Ancient Necromancer types of bone-chilling nature ... And the ones that were locked away were the ones the rest of the Quabalrin thought were too extreme (or just the losers of the political gains). As for eldritch devices.. go for one that creates a full eclipse / twilight conditions in an x-mile radius around the device. So either the bad vamps/undead have to protect and move the device if they're thinking army type approach... Or concealing / protecting it in a city they're trying to take over.. Hm, Sharn at Perma-Twilight anyone? Talk abot going Gotham Nights...
Kreistor2 01-20-08, 08:06 AM	There are many places in Eberron that you can play those levels, even without leaving Khorvaire. Droaam's monsters can easily achieve CR13. The Shadow Marches can hide many dangerous enemies. You can justify invasions from The Demon Wastes and Khyber that can handle that kind of CR. Off of Khorvaire, almost any continent can fit the bill. Aerenal's elves can be of any level you want. The Seren Islands are alone and barbaric enough that high level enemies can exist there. Xendrik? Looked at Giant CR's recently? The basic enemy in Xen'drik murders EL5 parties. The place is strange enough to justify any CR. I haven't read Secrets of Sarlona recently, but I'm pretty certain you can find appropriate enemies if forced to visit there. And then there's the Frostfell. That's a great place for undead with their immunity to cold, so Blood of Vol facilities can be set up there, far from Khorbairen eyes. Underwater adventures tend towards higher level PC's, and there's lots of water around for that. Only the civilized regions of Khorvaire suffer the low level limitation. Every place else? Those beliefs about Eberron being low level are clearly false.
Marcus Majarra 01-20-08, 06:38 PM	Off of Khorvaire, almost any continent can fit the bill. Aerenal's elves can be of any level you want. The Seren Islands are alone and barbaric enough that high level enemies can exist there. Xendrik? Looked at Giant CR's recently? The basic enemy in Xen'drik murders EL5 parties. The place is strange enough to justify any CR. I haven't read Secrets of Sarlona recently, but I'm pretty certain you can find appropriate enemies if forced to visit there. And then there's the Frostfell. That's a great place for undead with their immunity to cold, so Blood of Vol facilities can be set up there, far from Khorbairen eyes. Underwater adventures tend towards higher level PC's, and there's lots of water around for that. You forgot Argonessen. Which is probably the high-level Eberron player's paradise. It features a city where the lowest-level citizens are typically 8th to 10th level. Not to mention dragons. Lots of dragons. And target practice for dragons.
Kreistor2 01-21-08, 12:03 AM	Well, my Argonessen is suicide for anyone L13, so I didn't include it. Others may decide not to include Collossal dragons on their Argonessen.