Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Seth of the First Brigade 08-08-06, 12:29 PM	Hello All, Fellow gamers within this fantastic world we call Eberron. I wish to solicit the help of each of you. I will soon be running the Mournland portion of "Shadows of the Last War". However I do not intend to run it simply as it is written in the module, I want to use it as a springboard for several things, as well as to introduce the first morsels of my story arc. My overall goal is to present the Mournland in such a way that it incurs a gambit of strong emotions from the PC's, such as great sadness, tragedy, and of course TERROR :) . Yet the tragedy and sadness is of the sort that comes from great loss, whether it is the loss of a loved one, or the loss of some great ideal. The kind of disappointment one fills when say for instance you see a civilization that is about to do great things and usher in an age of reason and enlightenment the likes of which have either not been seen in an age or the likes of which have never been seen before. period!; you know that right on the cusp of greatness thing. Yet at its zenith, at the prelude of this finest, and greatest hour it is forever lost, not only it, but also the hope it brought with it as well. I want that to be communicated in the simple things like the visage of a husband and wife mourning the broken body of their child, taken by the ravages of war. They cry and weep and hold her yet when the PC's approach and reach out to lend a hand, that very hand they reach out with simply passes through the family, or the one they are trying to console. The element of terror that I am looking for is more along the lines of a passive, mental terror, not the type of terror that comes from some great monster in their faces that they have no hope of defeating but the type of terror that comes from feeling watched when you should, as far as your concerned be alone, or things like; as you look into the dead grey mist you see spirits of anguish, their faces twisted in horror (Mourners), the thing is, they never attack you they just fly next to you always staying about 10 to 20 feet away. Here’s what I have come up with so far. First of all the ambiance will be set in the gaming room by candlelight, and carefully selected music. In addition to this I intend to use various elements from "1001 Mournland Horrors", as well as the "Expeditionary Dispatches". The main things I want to accomplish in addition to the elements already set forth are. 1. There are other people out there as well, looking for things just like they are. I.e. "The Expeditionary Dispatches". 2. I want to ever so faintly introduce them to the remnants of Cyre, namely Prince Oargev but not directly. Eventually they will meet him and he will play a major role in the course of my campaign. Please any ides you have to help me flesh these things out will be most welcomed. I would be especially interested in each of you helping me to pick out the best elements from "1001 Mournland Horrors" or any other material that you feel would be appropriate, as well as any overall story pieces that you might add. Thank You in Advance! Seth PS: The PC's are from Breland, none of them are from the Mournland, nor do they have any ties to it other than ones that could be introduced at this time.
Nurgan_the_drunked 08-08-06, 06:51 PM	Well, you've got the main thread on this one linked, so saves linking to that one. Especially if you're running SotLW, you'll be after non-threatening horrors, and sometimes subtle ones at that. Go for people getting cut off in the middle of some harmless, touching scene: dead, undecayed bodies at a local fair, or a lady in a brides dress writing a letter of why she just can't love the one she is due to marry. While you can get very freaky scenes by ghosts mourning, pushing the sheer scale of death as uninteresting works wonders too. In D&D, there's a certain trigger that connects threat to action, and horror feelings often get blown by that if there's a "monster" present. Introduce the feel of life's great soap opera suddenly being cancelled, and it feels a lot nastier. If you want to link to Oargev, find some sequence of people connected to him. The described bits of SotLW could be used for this fairly easily, as I recall. You can play up other people looking by having them show up twisted in the head but harmless, mumbling about "the dark shadow ahead" or similar. And while the PCs may not having any direct link to the Cyrans, its fair to play off their established links who might know about the fallen. Not only can this rub in the nastiness, but means you can make events that seem harmless and far off seem instantly very close to home. Hope this helps. EDIT : don't forget Cyre was at war at the time of Mourning, so there's still a fair chance they might 'meet' some old friends arounds, even if they are Brelish...