Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Glupinickname 09-18-06, 05:14 PM	For a month now, I'm toying with the idea of starting a new Eberron campaign, or at least an adventure arc. I jutted some ideas for various RPG moods & adventures in the notebook and this one I like the best. In short Angsty heroes from Karrnath travel throughout northern Khorvaire battling monsters of night and fog. Inspiration Movies: "Brotherhood of the Wolf", "Van Helsing", "Vidocq", "Dracula", "Frankenstein", horror movies from 1920es and 30es. Books: gothic horror fiction, "Prisoner of Zenda", "The Dragon Waiting" by John M. Ford. RPGs: "Heroes of Horror", Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play, Ravenloft. Various: Transylvania, Central Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance Description Heroes travel through gothic landscape of Karrnath (and beyond) to exterminate all sorts of supernatural threats to Karrnath: creatures of the forrests, renegade war constructs, Mournland monsters, vampires and ghouls, occasional flesh golems, clay golems, werewolves, ghosts and similar. For a more fairy-tale feel, I might add some evil fey or witches. The main idea of the campaign is the conflict between Civilisation (as represeted by the Karrnathi regime and Sovereign Host church) and Chaos (various Dark Six cults, monsters, Lords of Dust, etc.). Also, the idea is to stress the taint of evil: the way it corruptes people into doing very stupid, selfish and dangerous things. In all that, PCs are heroes- maybe slightly darker and angstier than usuall - but still decent folks who save the day.
Glupinickname 09-18-06, 05:17 PM	The game begins on a dark and stormy night in the "Slain Boar" inn somewhere on the Orien Trade Road in Karrnath. PCs meet each other there: some of them came ot the "Slain Boar" with a Orien stage coach or by themselves while some are already there (Plot point!). There are bunch of other travelers and locals in the inn. They are all quite cheerfull, until several rough-looking armed men enter the inn. They talk to the in-keeper who hastily brings them food and drinks. Although they don't have any insignia on them, good Spot check might tell PCs that they showed him Emerald Claw symbol and good Listen or Sense Motive check shows they intimitidated him. Stormtroopers get drunk and start throwing their weight around. PCs hopefully attack and humiliate them, then get a bunch of free drinks and go to sleep. But this is all ruse to distract the players. The inn is actually a haunted place, a former center of a small Keeper cult that sacrifised the travellers. Cultists were burnt alive by Karrnathi Royal Swords ten years ago inside of this very inn. Since then, at the every anniversary of that burning, the inn comes back to life for one night: it looks as it did at the cult's peak and all of the burned cultists (now undead) appear normal. That night there's always a violent storm and at least some travelers on the Orien road hide inside. During the night, the undead cultists show their true (horribly burnt) faces, capture all of the living guests and sacrifice them to the Keeper. You see, the cultists's souls are cursed never to leave the place of their death: they can move around the inn and around it, but cannot leave the premises. What they hope to do with their offerings it to please the Keeper in allowing them to pass on to the Dollurh or into his domain. With the first rays of sun, the inn turns once again into an empty husk. To increase false sense of security, I would even arrange that one of the players plays one of the undead cultists. That would be the PC they meet in a tavern. In some coneveniant moment (not too conveniant, I hope, as I would like to unsettle the players, not kill their PCs) he would turn against the party and start hacking at them. Party would need to survive the night and, hopefully, save other living travelers. Later, after the Night at the "Slain Boar" Inn, they would meet a real PC of a player that role-played the cultist.
Nived 09-19-06, 12:42 AM	Not bad, I might take some of your ideas. I myself am running a Karrnathi based campaign. Tomorrow night I'm going to be running an adventure inspired by a different kind of horror story. James Cameron's Aliens. The party is made up of ex-Karrnathi military and a Karrnathi born Deneith scion who hire themselves out mainly to the government to handle extreme situations. Currently they're on their way to Jern (a small town in Northwest Karrnath that's on the Five Nations Karrnathi map). The town is very remote, I'm putting it probably another 40 miles north of its official position (why I kept the name is beyond me but eh). My Jern is a small throp that sprung up around an outpost. Being Karrnath's most northwest fort its not an enviable job. Basically those posted there aren't expected to fight they're expected to patrol and act as an early warning system to anyone trying to move forces through the northwest territory, even durring the Last War the outpost was minimally staffed, now the misterable outpost is operating with little more than two squads. The small town around it consists of two dozen or so outlying farms, one small inn, a smithy (that's mostly for horseshoes), and a House Silvis message station. Not much call for it, but an early warning system doesn't work if the warning isn't heard to the government pays for the station's existance. A few months back the standard reports sent from the outpost to the nearest Warlord started to change, reports of livestock going missing from the outlying farms soon turned to reports of missing persons. Then missing military personel. A request for reinforcements... then nothing. A squad was sent up to find out what's going on. They reported back when they passed through Trag but then weren't heard from. Two weeks passed with no report. So a promising young graduate (with full honors) from Rekkenmark was outfitted with a squad and sent up, the same thing happened. No word has been sent back. So now the Warlord has contracted the party, all being 5th level they're known as heroes, one being a Bone Knight. Given command of a squad of Karrnathi Skelletons they're heading north to discover what has happened to the fort, the town, and the two missing squads. Oh and they have to take along a NPC marked Silvis artificer to recover the speaking stone. Now like I said I'm baseing this off Aliens, thematically anyway. A remote colony cut off from the rest of the world, by the time they get there winter is quickly closing in (the first snow of the season happens the morning they arrive). The place seems abandoned. Some buildings are smoldering remnants, the rest show signs of struggles, hasty barricades, and blood but there are no bodies. The reality of the situation? A large pack of barghests passed through a thin spot between Mabar and Eberron deep in the Karnwood, Jern had the unfortunate privilage of being the place these evil outsiders found. They started by killing the horses, donkeys, and other beasts of burden that could take the commoners to safety, then they started killing the men. Unlike normal predators they tried to kill the stong first, leaving the weak to their mercy. They killed the Silvis Gnome since he was the only magic user in the tiny town, the side effect was cutting off the communication. The fort's walls and defenses ment nothing to the creatures that could pass through walls, and their DR kept them from being slain. Anyone that tried to go for help was hunted down before they could reach Trag. When the reinforcements came only handfull of the soldiers were still trying to protect the commoners. Riders were sent back to Trag but they too never reached it. One by one the soldiers were picked off and devoured by the barghests, eating everything including bone. When the next set of reinforcements came there were only a handful of survivors all 'weak' women and children. The soldiers tried to save them of course and just set themselves up to be the next victims. I have a number of handouts and 'journal' entries written down detailing the murderous series of events for the party to discover... of course some will claim they're werewolves or hell hounds... and soon they're beset by these strange tough wolves that will hit and run trying to soften them up... eventually as the party realizes their true nature from the clues left behind the barghests will attack in greater numbers and using their alternate forms and magic to the fullest extent to try to devour the party. I'm pondering leaving a survivor but I don't want to make it too obvious by leaving a 'Newt' character what I'm going for. I expect it to be a fun evening.... I finally have use for the dozen or so Worg minis I have.
Glupinickname 09-19-06, 08:22 AM	I like the idea. I especially like the claustrophobic feel of it: PCs are basically trapped inside of a small village while the blizzard prevents them from leaving. ... Ok, unless someone allready has "Fly", but that' s what you get for running games in D&D. But anyway, you could make barghests attack only during that blizzard. Considering that they are from Mabar, maybe they'll hate normal daylight winter blizzard and cloudy skies prevent most of the sunlight of reaching the ground so that's when they attack. So, PCs are now in the village fort, barghests are coming in waves, and they have to hold on for their mere survival. The beauty of such a simple plot would be that you get to choose when to end it: the blizzard stops, sky clears and there's beautifull winter sunrise. Barghests begin to run away, most probably back to their home plane. PCs have survived nd therefore won the day. If you want to make it feel mor heroic, you could easily throw in not just The Newt but actually some other villagers as well. That way, PCs will not just save themselves but also the innocent lives. Also, there's the handy answer as to why the PCs just don't fly away: they don't have that many Fly spells to take all of the villagers with them. ... Damn, I just might use this adventure idea myself. Except, that I would probably go with werewolves instead of barghests. Werewolves are a bit more traditional monsters and I would love to convey the players the sense they are adventuring through a fantasy version of 17. century Europe.
Glupinickname 09-19-06, 08:40 AM	While being in the city this morning I was thinking what kind of a main villain would be suitable for my campaign. I already had brilliant but insane wizards (although you can never have to many of those), fanatical priests and sly courtiers. As I was reading "Heroes of Horror" I stumbled upon an interesting suggestion for a Fighter Villain: "A mercenary geneal wants to carve a kingdom of his own, no matter the cost". I actually never had a really cool warrior villain: someone who knows far more about fighting than about magic or social grace. Someone who is charismatic military leader adored by his troops. Someone who might even think he's doing the right thing but is actually evil or who is at least very unscrupulous with his tactics. This villain would be like an evil twin brother (or sister) to William Wallace or Joan of Arc. He - or she, as any D&D villain is so much more cool if she is a female - would also embody the main themes of campaign: he thinks he does the right thing but is actually corrupted by evil forces. Also, he firmly believes that he is agent of necesarry change in Karrnath, while actually being the agent of Chaos and Entropy, bend on destructing established order in Karrnath and maybe even throghout Khorvaire. As he is deluded in thinking that he does the Good Thing, so are his followers convinced that he is a true Karrnathi patriot. His opposers point to atrocities commited by his troops, while his followers see it as necesarry evil. It's just one idea.
Kresalak 09-19-06, 01:40 PM	Are you planning to run this online? It sounds rather interesting and, if you are doing it online, I would be interested in playing.
Glupinickname 09-19-06, 02:20 PM	Are you planning to run this online? It sounds rather interesting and, if you are doing it online, I would be interested in playing. Well, not really. I was planning to run it with my friends. But if that somehow fails, I could maybe try it on the web. I appreciate the interest. :)
beezly 09-19-06, 02:42 PM	I never really realized how cool barghests could be...
Sharn Inquisitor 09-19-06, 03:20 PM	Considering Kaius' struggle to free Karrnath from the grip of Vol, I would think that Karrnathi soldiers faithful to the kingdom would easily run into lots of confrontation on that front, maybe discovering for themselves that the Blood of Vol taints their land.
Glupinickname 09-19-06, 03:58 PM	Considering Kaius' struggle to free Karrnath from the grip of Vol, I would think that Karrnathi soldiers faithful to the kingdom would easily run into lots of confrontation on that front, maybe discovering for themselves that the Blood of Vol taints their land. Which is all fine and neat, 'cause that's just the type of conflict I had in mind. ;) Although,to repeat that, I was thinking more of focusing the conflict on Kaius & Sovereign Host Church vs. various Dark Six cults. I've been reading about Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play and I liked the basic premise of the setting. There's this quasi-germanic Empire that tries to maintain peace, order and stability faced with all these internal and external evil threats to it: Skaven, Chaos cultists, Beastmen... In my campaign, Blood of Vol would be more of a wild card: a third player that sometimes helps and sometimes hinders the PCs. I can see low-level BoV clergy or common worshipers aligning with heroic PCs that saved them from monsters while, at the same time, undead leaders of the Church plot to destroy the party. But nothing is still written in stone. The more I think about the charismatic military villain, the more I'm intrigued by an idea of making him a leader of Order of the Emerald Claw. I'm still not sure will I use the Order as written or will I make them more generic as to connect them more strongly with the worship of Dark Six. That's a problem with Karrnath. From the way it's described in 5 Nations and ECS, if you don't watch while walking in Karrnath, you'll either stumble upon the BoV undead or the Emerald Claw Stormtrooper. What that means is, if you want to run something different, you realise you'll have to make it all up top to bottom. And all the while BoV remains standing there like an elephant in a living room.
OzyBurrfoot 09-20-06, 10:35 AM	Sounds like a good time to pull out the ol' Heroes of Horror book.. :devil:
Glupinickname 09-20-06, 11:03 AM	Sounds like a good time to pull out the ol' Heroes of Horror book.. :devil: I like "Heroes of Horror" a lot. I don't really plan to run a proper horror campaign, but HoH has a lot of great ideas how to give D&D adventures a darker feel without a great deal of tampering with mechanics. I'm lazy when it comes to D&D rules so I like that. I bought a copy back in February and I stil occasionaly open it at random and start reading. I especially like monsters presented there: Dusk Giant, Unholy Scion, Cadaver Golem... Very nice ideas. :)
OzyBurrfoot 09-20-06, 11:13 AM	Yeah, I'd be hard pressed to run a true horror game in DnD, but the HoH has tons of useful tidbits for dark games.
Glupinickname 09-25-06, 12:54 PM	A friend of mine mentioned movie "The Wicker Man" on other forum and we started discussing the movie as a basis for an adventure. My friend: "Have you seen The Wicker Man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wicker_Man)? It pretty much makes the perfect plot for your Sovereign Host/civilization vs. Dark Six/savagery game. With apologies to whoever wrote the Wikipedia entry... The PCs are sent an anonymous letter recommending that they investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison, on the remote Karrnathi island of Summerisle. They travel out to the island and during their investigations discovers that the entire population follow a pagan religion under the island's owner Lord ir'Summerisle (http://www.silvascreen.co.uk/productimages/WM-001.jpg), believing in re-incarnation, worshipping the sun and engaging in other rituals. The PCs, extremely devout and conservative Sovereign Host followers, are increasingly shocked by the islanders' behaviour; yet, they are attracted and repulsed by the alluring and sexual Willow (http://www.spotlightcd.com/hallfame/portraits/britt_ekland.jpg), the landlord's daughter. They receive no assistance in their search from the islanders, who initially deny Morrison exists and then say that she recently died. The PCs persist and uncover evidence suggesting the girl was a victim, or perhaps is soon to be a victim, of human sacrifice. Delving deeper into the island's culture, they disguise themselves as principal characters of the May Day festival, to uncover the details of the ceremony. The islanders are not fooled and at the end of the festival it is revealed that the girl is alive and unhurt; the letter was part of a ploy to bring the PCs to the island for them to be the sacrifice, which they believe will restore the fertility of their fields. As the PCs are seized by the islanders, Lord ir'Summerisle drolly notes that the sacrifice will be especially effective since the PCs, like the characters in the festibal, are virgins, are simultaneously wise and fools, come as Kings (representatives of Her Majesty's government), and come to the place of sacrifice of their own free will. The PCs admonish Lord ir'Summerisle that if his sacrifice does not work, the next year, the islanders will have no choice but to sacrifice their king – Lord ir'Summerisle. Ir'Summerisle appears certain that sacrificing the PCs will work. The PCs are forced into the belly of a large hollow wicker statue of a man, which is set on fire. In the final-but-one shot of the film, the islanders surround the burning wicker man and sing the Old Karrnathi folk-song "Sumer Is Icumen In" while the terrified PCs shout out prayers to the Host and implore divine vengeance on the island and its inhabitants... ... of course, this is where the game diverges from the film, since in D&D shouting out prayers to implore divine vengeance results in 1d6/level damage in a 10 ft. radius, Reflex half... so the final shot of the game is PCs killing Lord ir'Summerisle and taking his treasure." Of course, that's what THEY think. And then the Wicker Man, CR 11 Huge Construct, described in Fiend Folio comes to live an starts attacking them. :D