Looking for input [Archive] - Wizards Community

Looking for input [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Rolzup
09-03-04, 09:49 PM As I prepare for running a campaign, I’ve found myself getting increasingly enthusiastic about using Eberron for the setting. It’s got just the right tone for I got me a plan.

Campaign’s going to kick off with the PCs, each in a different place, walking through a door and finding themselves…elsewhere. Elsewhere, in this case, is a ruined city deep in the jungles of Xen’Drik.

(The purpose of this, obviously, is to throw all the PCs together and give them an ostensible reason to work together. They’ll be able to use e-mail to introduce and describe their characters before the game begins, and then I’ll start the actual game off by dropping an enemy on them. Beats the “Old man in a tavern” opening, or so I like to think.)

The city that they find themselves in will have many secrets to reveal, but the chief two are:
1) It’s alive. Very old, more than a little mad, but very much alive. It’s brought the characters here for purposes of its own. Possibly akin to a colossal Warforged of some sort, but I’m a long way from making up my mind on that.

2) The city is a prison, or perhaps a guardian. In catacombs beneath its streets, Something sleeps. Something horribly powerful, and horribly evil.

I’m not going to railroad the PCs into dealing with this stuff, mind. If they want to high-tail it to the coast and catch the first ship back to Khorvair, I’m fine with that -- fighting their way through the jungle offers lots of potential

Details on Xen’Drik are a little sparse, though. And while I’m certainly not averse to making up stuff of my own -- and in the end may well do so -- I’m curious to hear an “official” answer or two. Or at least the thoughts of other people.

So….

What lives on Xen’Drik other than Giants and Drow? Nothing else is specifically mentioned, but I’m planning on using Lizard-Man (or perhaps Troglodyte) tribes to play the part of the hostile jungle dwellers.

And is there anything setting specific that could be trapped beneath this city? I’m not about using some vaguely Lovecraftian god, but I’d like to take a different approach if I can find one.
Psychonaut
09-03-04, 10:09 PM What lives on Xen’Drik other than Giants and Drow? Nothing else is specifically mentioned, but I’m planning on using Lizard-Man (or perhaps Troglodyte) tribes to play the part of the hostile jungle dwellers.

And is there anything setting specific that could be trapped beneath this city? I’m not about using some vaguely Lovecraftian god, but I’d like to take a different approach if I can find one.

Well, anything that could potentially live in a forest, preferably a jungle.
Considering that it is habited by Giants and Drow you could do a kind of "Underdark" style dungeon. You don't have to have a single thing that is all powerful, you could have a civilization. or buried technology just waiting to be activated. keep in mind a threat doesn't have to be physical or evil.
Mentat55
09-03-04, 10:56 PM And is there anything setting specific that could be trapped beneath this city? I’m not about using some vaguely Lovecraftian god, but I’d like to take a different approach if I can find one.

A fiend of some sort, imprisoned long ago during the Age of Demons, could live in some underground ruin in Xen'drik. Of course, then the ruin would likely predate the giant civilization, and thus have features more akin to Haka'torvhak or Ka'rhashan in Q'barra or Ashtakala in the Demon Wastes, i.e., lots of brass and stone architecture.

Perhaps the fiend reached out and drew the PCs here, hoping to convince them to free it, or at least to have them set in motion (perhaps unwittingly) a chain of events leading to its release.
Saurenda
09-03-04, 11:15 PM Kieth finished telling us tonight that there are no offical answers for Xen drik, just options, and it seems like you've got that covered.

To be honest I think having that happen to the PCs is railroading them. You've taken each one of them out of thier natural enviroments and teleported them elsewhere together. You've just done the thing you wanted not to do.

Instead of this or the Old man at the bar ideal you can always have the PCs just start in Sharn and each one of them want to go to Xen drik, willingly. INfact the reason they cannot get there is because the do not have a letter of marque, and no letters are given to individuals, just groups.

Or better yet make the requirement for a letter of Marque a group project. If the PCs want to raid the treasures they will have tow ork together.

Dumping them all together in the same place like that IS railroading. Sorry guy. There is no denying that.
Ringrose
09-04-04, 12:25 AM Might be slight "Railroading" but it is much better than the typical tavern scene or the "You look like a trustworthy fellow...come join our party" usual blah. Actually sounds like a fun campaign....
1. Have little equipment (scrounge for weapons, armor...food even)
2. No temple, church ETC to run to for healing
3. No actual base of operations...everything is new
4. And since it is an unexplored region...he can make up all sorts of new creatures etc. to confound any possible metagamers in the group...
Sounds like it would be kinda fun...

Kurt
ChrisTheS
09-04-04, 12:36 AM There's always the option of railroading them much more literally: "You wake up groggily, head throbbing. You wonder how much you had to drink last night; you feel dizzy, as if you're walking unsteadily on air. Then you realize... you are. Shaking your head to clear it, you discover that you're tied up, with a weird rock on your back, and you're floating in the air above a couple more weird... rocks... you realize, oh crap, you're tied to a conductor stone above the lightning rail track, and you hear in the distance the sound of the coach fast approaching. What do you do?"

The other way is a little bit kinder. But this way would be so much fun, don't you think? *gleeful, if somewhat maniacal, grin*
Master of shaarat'khesh
09-04-04, 02:25 AM I like this for a different way to start.
There's always the option of railroading them much more literally: "You wake up groggily, head throbbing. You wonder how much you had to drink last night; you feel dizzy, as if you're walking unsteadily on air. Then you realize... you are. Shaking your head to clear it,

I'd add right here.
" you look... you close your foggy dry eyes tight, then open them to make sure it's not just a blurry hangover induced vision. You don't know where you are... Looking around you see others that you've never seen before looking as bewildered as you.
well, atleast you're not alone.

But blast the Damnable pounding in your skull... What happened to you? Thinking back, your last thoughts take you to the vision of your own hand raising a mug to sip the last of your ale... Then... nothing, until the almost unbearable humid heat of this... This jungle? By the 12 moons you're in a jungle! But where? How? The others are apparently realizing the same predicament and all look confused too.
well, atleast your not alone.

Suddenly the ground shakes, only a trimmer at first then more intense and then a little more. Enough eventually to know it's not your head that's causing the damnable pounding. You raise up to look over a bluff to a valley below and it dawns on you where you are. Down in the valley, ominously treading your way... GIANTS??? GIANTS!!!
Sliding back down you realize you can only be in Xen'Drik...But How?
Well, atleast you're not alo... you see the last of the party of strangers running into the darkened jungle and you realize that you are alone "

So what do you do?

I may steal my own stuff. :)

I liked your start, I really may use this, it inspired me as you can see.
It makes the PC's meet each other in a very unusual way and creates a tension and degree of mistrust. It makes for other adventures later on,when they return to Khorvaire, to try and figure out how they got there and what circumstances caused them to end up there and why they shared this strange connection.

As for Xen'Drik encounters in the back of the ESB around pg.223 there is a caption on a picture of a ruin of Xin'Drik that alludes to these are cyclopean ruins and ironically there is an article in the new Dragon Mag #323 about the cyclopse race and how to incorporate them into a campaign world. Apparently they once were a dominant race judging by the picture of the ruins.
Rolzup
09-04-04, 03:02 PM "Railroading" is a matter of interpretation, I suppose. Beginning a cmpaign always involves just a bit of manipulating the PCs -- how else do you bring 'em all together?

Besides, if they find the situation truly objectionable, they'll be a way for them to skip right back to civilization. Negotiating with the City should be an interesting bit of roleplaying....

I haven't settled on anything really solid as to what's going on here. Lots of different options.

If anyone's curious, here are the exceedingly vague notes that I made yesterday:

The City is in the middle of a jungle, and has been largely overgrown by it. Various beasts, monstrous and otherwise, occupy the area. Nothing of intelligence; whatever natives there are avoid the area.

The City has, in the past, been known to defend itself. Viciously. Native tribes (possibly Troglodytes?) will assume anything coming from the city is evil and must be killed to death.

It's been slumbering for the past few centuries, until the arrival of an explorer from Khorvair woke it up.

Why is it pulling in new inhabitants?

First thought, it's lonely. The Explorer reminds it of what is was like when people lived within, and after he's killed it decides to bring in some new citizens. Explorer killed by inhabitants that the City cannot percieve, for some reason. It's unaware of their existence, let alone their presence. They are servants of that which dwells below, the Thing kept imprisoned by the City.

Second thought, it needs antibodies. Heroic sorts to kill/drive out the Bad Guys who have occupied it. Helpless in this version. The invaders have perhaps done something to cripple it? Befriended, and then betrayed the City. Bad Folk intend to loot the City, and/or free the One Imprisoned.

Third thought, it's bored. The locals have learned to avoid The City, so it hasn't had anyone to play with for a long time. The One Imprisoned drove the City mad, so it killed the previous inhabitants. It's been spending most of the time since dozing, awakening only when the Trogs come to town, but the Explorer really woke it up. Someone different, someone interesting.... So now it's playing games. Observing, setting its guests against each other, occasionally stepping in and doing things directly. Not often for that, though -- The City has decayed to the point of losing much of its former capabilities. Rebuilding and repair have begun, slowly, with buildings literally regrowing.

I'm leaning towards option three right now, but have yet to actually settle on anything. Plenty of time to decide right now....
Slizaro
09-04-04, 03:35 PM Looking at what you wrote gave me a slight idea.

What about an ancient Eldrich Machine left from the time of the giants, perhaps still working out some machinations from its creation or perhaps it has gained, or was given, sentience.

The current inhabitants of the city, perhaps the former slaves (drow) or some other form of beast or persons (raiders from the city that I forget the name of that was set up in the current age). Perhaps they have some how triggered it's reawakening, or perhaps it was the Mourning that has stirred its arcane gears back into action.

What could such a machine be crafted for? Who made it? The Drow? The Giants? The Quori? If it is sentient, what could such a thing desire, what could motivate it? Why did it bring the party there and what other powers does it poses?
ChrisTheS
09-04-04, 05:44 PM That reminds me of a question brought up during the wee hours of the morning in chat... what the heck IS an eldritch machine? Tactical Nuclear Spell Creator, or Soul-Sucking Coffeemaker? What is the big deal with eldritch machines?
AvonRekaes
09-04-04, 06:21 PM Chris: Edlritch machines are plot devices. One that, when fully powered, pulls all the moons crashing down onto Eberron. One that, when completed, will cause all dragons within a 1000 mile radius to fall under your control.
Heck, one that transforms the entirety of Xen'drik into a giant walking earth elemental named Bob.
Anything you want to do that can't be done normally, an Eldrich Machine can do. They aren't for Players, normally, and are only meant to spur the story.

Rolzup: I know it's cliche, but did you consider the Tarrasque being the One Imprisoned?
Also, how bout the last pysically manifested Quori on the material plane? Perhaps the Giants captured it in their war and imprisoned it here, and somehow it's prison managed to stay intact during the catastrophe? Hell, it might be the Devourer of Dreams, that spends all it's time sleeping and co-ordinating its own rescue operation from Dal Quor. Maybe thats why the Quori want to manifest so bad, to free their leader.
It might also be cool and creepy if the Devourer was possessing someone like the Quori possess humans and Inspired, onyl its a baby giant. (Yay for big evil creepy babies!) Maybe the catastrophe permenantly traped the Devourer in the body of its host and it can only return to Dal Quor in it's dreams.
ChrisTheS
09-04-04, 06:28 PM I prefer eldritch machines being a foolproof method of acquiring a monopoly on the world's supply of theobromine...
AvonRekaes
09-04-04, 06:32 PM Yes, that works too. ^_^
Brastan
09-04-04, 06:38 PM A Giant Warforged! Like Master Mold from the X-man TV show!
Just Jokeing.
Something Eberronish... How about Dragon Mark from Kyber buried below. There you will also find a newly made opening to Kyber itself. Waiting for the PCs just informant of the pit is a Daelkyr... uh never mind to powerful. How about a Dolgaunt Monk detected to Dragon Below, using some of the new monk feats. He and is group of aberrations are there studying the Kyber Mark. They also ****** of the Building trying to get in.

See page 281 for 4th-level Dolgaunt monk.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Rolzup 09-03-04, 09:49 PM	As I prepare for running a campaign, I’ve found myself getting increasingly enthusiastic about using Eberron for the setting. It’s got just the right tone for I got me a plan. Campaign’s going to kick off with the PCs, each in a different place, walking through a door and finding themselves…elsewhere. Elsewhere, in this case, is a ruined city deep in the jungles of Xen’Drik. (The purpose of this, obviously, is to throw all the PCs together and give them an ostensible reason to work together. They’ll be able to use e-mail to introduce and describe their characters before the game begins, and then I’ll start the actual game off by dropping an enemy on them. Beats the “Old man in a tavern” opening, or so I like to think.) The city that they find themselves in will have many secrets to reveal, but the chief two are: 1) It’s alive. Very old, more than a little mad, but very much alive. It’s brought the characters here for purposes of its own. Possibly akin to a colossal Warforged of some sort, but I’m a long way from making up my mind on that. 2) The city is a prison, or perhaps a guardian. In catacombs beneath its streets, Something sleeps. Something horribly powerful, and horribly evil. I’m not going to railroad the PCs into dealing with this stuff, mind. If they want to high-tail it to the coast and catch the first ship back to Khorvair, I’m fine with that -- fighting their way through the jungle offers lots of potential Details on Xen’Drik are a little sparse, though. And while I’m certainly not averse to making up stuff of my own -- and in the end may well do so -- I’m curious to hear an “official” answer or two. Or at least the thoughts of other people. So…. What lives on Xen’Drik other than Giants and Drow? Nothing else is specifically mentioned, but I’m planning on using Lizard-Man (or perhaps Troglodyte) tribes to play the part of the hostile jungle dwellers. And is there anything setting specific that could be trapped beneath this city? I’m not about using some vaguely Lovecraftian god, but I’d like to take a different approach if I can find one.
Psychonaut 09-03-04, 10:09 PM	What lives on Xen’Drik other than Giants and Drow? Nothing else is specifically mentioned, but I’m planning on using Lizard-Man (or perhaps Troglodyte) tribes to play the part of the hostile jungle dwellers. And is there anything setting specific that could be trapped beneath this city? I’m not about using some vaguely Lovecraftian god, but I’d like to take a different approach if I can find one. Well, anything that could potentially live in a forest, preferably a jungle. Considering that it is habited by Giants and Drow you could do a kind of "Underdark" style dungeon. You don't have to have a single thing that is all powerful, you could have a civilization. or buried technology just waiting to be activated. keep in mind a threat doesn't have to be physical or evil.
Mentat55 09-03-04, 10:56 PM	And is there anything setting specific that could be trapped beneath this city? I’m not about using some vaguely Lovecraftian god, but I’d like to take a different approach if I can find one. A fiend of some sort, imprisoned long ago during the Age of Demons, could live in some underground ruin in Xen'drik. Of course, then the ruin would likely predate the giant civilization, and thus have features more akin to Haka'torvhak or Ka'rhashan in Q'barra or Ashtakala in the Demon Wastes, i.e., lots of brass and stone architecture. Perhaps the fiend reached out and drew the PCs here, hoping to convince them to free it, or at least to have them set in motion (perhaps unwittingly) a chain of events leading to its release.
Saurenda 09-03-04, 11:15 PM	Kieth finished telling us tonight that there are no offical answers for Xen drik, just options, and it seems like you've got that covered. To be honest I think having that happen to the PCs is railroading them. You've taken each one of them out of thier natural enviroments and teleported them elsewhere together. You've just done the thing you wanted not to do. Instead of this or the Old man at the bar ideal you can always have the PCs just start in Sharn and each one of them want to go to Xen drik, willingly. INfact the reason they cannot get there is because the do not have a letter of marque, and no letters are given to individuals, just groups. Or better yet make the requirement for a letter of Marque a group project. If the PCs want to raid the treasures they will have tow ork together. Dumping them all together in the same place like that IS railroading. Sorry guy. There is no denying that.
Ringrose 09-04-04, 12:25 AM	Might be slight "Railroading" but it is much better than the typical tavern scene or the "You look like a trustworthy fellow...come join our party" usual blah. Actually sounds like a fun campaign.... 1. Have little equipment (scrounge for weapons, armor...food even) 2. No temple, church ETC to run to for healing 3. No actual base of operations...everything is new 4. And since it is an unexplored region...he can make up all sorts of new creatures etc. to confound any possible metagamers in the group... Sounds like it would be kinda fun... Kurt
ChrisTheS 09-04-04, 12:36 AM	There's always the option of railroading them much more literally: "You wake up groggily, head throbbing. You wonder how much you had to drink last night; you feel dizzy, as if you're walking unsteadily on air. Then you realize... you are. Shaking your head to clear it, you discover that you're tied up, with a weird rock on your back, and you're floating in the air above a couple more weird... rocks... you realize, oh crap, you're tied to a conductor stone above the lightning rail track, and you hear in the distance the sound of the coach fast approaching. What do you do?" The other way is a little bit kinder. But this way would be so much fun, don't you think? gleeful, if somewhat maniacal, grin
Master of shaarat'khesh 09-04-04, 02:25 AM	I like this for a different way to start. There's always the option of railroading them much more literally: "You wake up groggily, head throbbing. You wonder how much you had to drink last night; you feel dizzy, as if you're walking unsteadily on air. Then you realize... you are. Shaking your head to clear it, I'd add right here. " you look... you close your foggy dry eyes tight, then open them to make sure it's not just a blurry hangover induced vision. You don't know where you are... Looking around you see others that you've never seen before looking as bewildered as you. well, atleast you're not alone. But blast the Damnable pounding in your skull... What happened to you? Thinking back, your last thoughts take you to the vision of your own hand raising a mug to sip the last of your ale... Then... nothing, until the almost unbearable humid heat of this... This jungle? By the 12 moons you're in a jungle! But where? How? The others are apparently realizing the same predicament and all look confused too. well, atleast your not alone. Suddenly the ground shakes, only a trimmer at first then more intense and then a little more. Enough eventually to know it's not your head that's causing the damnable pounding. You raise up to look over a bluff to a valley below and it dawns on you where you are. Down in the valley, ominously treading your way... GIANTS??? GIANTS!!! Sliding back down you realize you can only be in Xen'Drik...But How? Well, atleast you're not alo... you see the last of the party of strangers running into the darkened jungle and you realize that you are alone " So what do you do? I may steal my own stuff. :) I liked your start, I really may use this, it inspired me as you can see. It makes the PC's meet each other in a very unusual way and creates a tension and degree of mistrust. It makes for other adventures later on,when they return to Khorvaire, to try and figure out how they got there and what circumstances caused them to end up there and why they shared this strange connection. As for Xen'Drik encounters in the back of the ESB around pg.223 there is a caption on a picture of a ruin of Xin'Drik that alludes to these are cyclopean ruins and ironically there is an article in the new Dragon Mag #323 about the cyclopse race and how to incorporate them into a campaign world. Apparently they once were a dominant race judging by the picture of the ruins.
Rolzup 09-04-04, 03:02 PM	"Railroading" is a matter of interpretation, I suppose. Beginning a cmpaign always involves just a bit of manipulating the PCs -- how else do you bring 'em all together? Besides, if they find the situation truly objectionable, they'll be a way for them to skip right back to civilization. Negotiating with the City should be an interesting bit of roleplaying.... I haven't settled on anything really solid as to what's going on here. Lots of different options. If anyone's curious, here are the exceedingly vague notes that I made yesterday: The City is in the middle of a jungle, and has been largely overgrown by it. Various beasts, monstrous and otherwise, occupy the area. Nothing of intelligence; whatever natives there are avoid the area. The City has, in the past, been known to defend itself. Viciously. Native tribes (possibly Troglodytes?) will assume anything coming from the city is evil and must be killed to death. It's been slumbering for the past few centuries, until the arrival of an explorer from Khorvair woke it up. Why is it pulling in new inhabitants? First thought, it's lonely. The Explorer reminds it of what is was like when people lived within, and after he's killed it decides to bring in some new citizens. Explorer killed by inhabitants that the City cannot percieve, for some reason. It's unaware of their existence, let alone their presence. They are servants of that which dwells below, the Thing kept imprisoned by the City. Second thought, it needs antibodies. Heroic sorts to kill/drive out the Bad Guys who have occupied it. Helpless in this version. The invaders have perhaps done something to cripple it? Befriended, and then betrayed the City. Bad Folk intend to loot the City, and/or free the One Imprisoned. Third thought, it's bored. The locals have learned to avoid The City, so it hasn't had anyone to play with for a long time. The One Imprisoned drove the City mad, so it killed the previous inhabitants. It's been spending most of the time since dozing, awakening only when the Trogs come to town, but the Explorer really woke it up. Someone different, someone interesting.... So now it's playing games. Observing, setting its guests against each other, occasionally stepping in and doing things directly. Not often for that, though -- The City has decayed to the point of losing much of its former capabilities. Rebuilding and repair have begun, slowly, with buildings literally regrowing. I'm leaning towards option three right now, but have yet to actually settle on anything. Plenty of time to decide right now....
Slizaro 09-04-04, 03:35 PM	Looking at what you wrote gave me a slight idea. What about an ancient Eldrich Machine left from the time of the giants, perhaps still working out some machinations from its creation or perhaps it has gained, or was given, sentience. The current inhabitants of the city, perhaps the former slaves (drow) or some other form of beast or persons (raiders from the city that I forget the name of that was set up in the current age). Perhaps they have some how triggered it's reawakening, or perhaps it was the Mourning that has stirred its arcane gears back into action. What could such a machine be crafted for? Who made it? The Drow? The Giants? The Quori? If it is sentient, what could such a thing desire, what could motivate it? Why did it bring the party there and what other powers does it poses?
ChrisTheS 09-04-04, 05:44 PM	That reminds me of a question brought up during the wee hours of the morning in chat... what the heck IS an eldritch machine? Tactical Nuclear Spell Creator, or Soul-Sucking Coffeemaker? What is the big deal with eldritch machines?
AvonRekaes 09-04-04, 06:21 PM	Chris: Edlritch machines are plot devices. One that, when fully powered, pulls all the moons crashing down onto Eberron. One that, when completed, will cause all dragons within a 1000 mile radius to fall under your control. Heck, one that transforms the entirety of Xen'drik into a giant walking earth elemental named Bob. Anything you want to do that can't be done normally, an Eldrich Machine can do. They aren't for Players, normally, and are only meant to spur the story. Rolzup: I know it's cliche, but did you consider the Tarrasque being the One Imprisoned? Also, how bout the last pysically manifested Quori on the material plane? Perhaps the Giants captured it in their war and imprisoned it here, and somehow it's prison managed to stay intact during the catastrophe? Hell, it might be the Devourer of Dreams, that spends all it's time sleeping and co-ordinating its own rescue operation from Dal Quor. Maybe thats why the Quori want to manifest so bad, to free their leader. It might also be cool and creepy if the Devourer was possessing someone like the Quori possess humans and Inspired, onyl its a baby giant. (Yay for big evil creepy babies!) Maybe the catastrophe permenantly traped the Devourer in the body of its host and it can only return to Dal Quor in it's dreams.
ChrisTheS 09-04-04, 06:28 PM	I prefer eldritch machines being a foolproof method of acquiring a monopoly on the world's supply of theobromine...
AvonRekaes 09-04-04, 06:32 PM	Yes, that works too. ^_^
Brastan 09-04-04, 06:38 PM	A Giant Warforged! Like Master Mold from the X-man TV show! Just Jokeing. Something Eberronish... How about Dragon Mark from Kyber buried below. There you will also find a newly made opening to Kyber itself. Waiting for the PCs just informant of the pit is a Daelkyr... uh never mind to powerful. How about a Dolgaunt Monk detected to Dragon Below, using some of the new monk feats. He and is group of aberrations are there studying the Kyber Mark. They also ****** of the Building trying to get in. See page 281 for 4th-level Dolgaunt monk.