Post/Author/DateTime	Post
james bierly 01-24-05, 02:53 PM	Here's the deal. One of the players in my group made a character (Akasha) who was the daughter of a great hero (now deceased) from the Last War. To make a very long story short, said hero (Raul) is now back. Right now he's a bit disoriented... the plane of the dead has that effect on people... but soon he will come back to his senses and try to get the party to work for him. I'm thinking he will have ulterior motives of his own for the missions he sends them on, and eventually they may have to kill him. But all that is just fluff. The basic jist of the thing is that I have just introduced a 12th level uber-hero into Eberron. This kind of NPC is not supposed to exist in the setting, which is part of the reason I decided to introduce him. It's like mixing oil and water, and I want to see what develops. Now, I am asking you, the members of this board, to help me flesh out some ideas for what to do with this fellow. How would you play this if it were your game? Feed me input, folks!
Gurv 01-24-05, 03:09 PM	Right now he's a bit disoriented... the plane of the dead has that effect on people... but soon he will come back to his senses and try to get the party to work for him. I'm thinking he will have ulterior motives of his own for the missions he sends them on, and eventually they may have to kill him. But all that is just fluff. The basic jist of the thing is that I have just introduced a 12th level uber-hero into Eberron. This kind of NPC is not supposed to exist in the setting, which is part of the reason I decided to introduce him. It's like mixing oil and water, and I want to see what develops. It doesn't sound as bad as I expected. Its not that high-level NPCs can't exist in Eberron. Its more that they are not assumed to exist. You can't depend on them. Shopping for high-end spells isn't something that can be glossed over. Those which do exist are generally part of the problem, and the PCs are the solution. So it sounds like your high level NPC fits most of those criteria. He may be a hero, but he's out of the loop. He has his own motives, which may not be good at all. They may need to kill him. Sounds like you have made a powerful patron who may well betray the party and become a villian. Good job. That fits Eberron just fine. Although if Mr. Hero (not to be mistaken with Capt. Hero) is going to run around doing the jobs the PCs should be doing, then it will take a lot away from the setting. The PCs are supposed to be the heroic ones, and although knowing that there is someone better than you can be interesting roleplaying, when it comes to who saves the day, it should be the PCs. An interesting theme, however, would be to have them complete the adventure with minimal help from the old hero, and then have him steal the credit. Who are you going to believe? The famous hero, or those kids over there?
Isran_Imrador 01-24-05, 03:09 PM	What Nation is he from? And race as he has a daugther? (something to start with..) i am thinking Ranger\Sorcerer...Abberant mark hidden somewere. the might get it to when he gets back as a symbol on somthing wrong
james bierly 01-24-05, 05:00 PM	What Nation is he from? And race as he has a daugther? (something to start with..) i am thinking Ranger\Sorcerer...Abberant mark hidden somewere. the might get it to when he gets back as a symbol on somthing wrong Raul is a Kalashtar fighter/wizard. He fought on the side of Breland during the Last War, but put most of his energy toward fighting the Dreaming Dark. It bears mentioning that the PCs have been using his mansion on the outskirts of Sharn as a base.
james bierly 01-24-05, 05:01 PM	Drat-nabbed double post...
Ithamar 01-24-05, 05:49 PM	OK, how about a little Eberron spice? Akasha's dad didn't actually come back. Now that your PC's are gaining some notoriety, they have drawn the attention of a member of the Lords of Dust. Daddy dearest is actually a Rakshasha in disguise and is using the PC's for his own nefarious purposes. Maybe its known that the dead father was a powerful warrior who fought against the Dreaming Dark. Perhaps the rakshasha is currently rather upset with the Dreaming Dark for spoiling one of his schemes he has been working on for a few hundred years. So he gets the PC's to come along and give the DD some trouble. Some good is achieved (ie the DD being thwarted in their efforts), but all along the PC's have just been tools of an even greater evil. Then at some point in the future maybe Akasha has to fight her father and this discovers she has been duped all along. Oh the look on her face!
Gurv 01-24-05, 07:21 PM	How did this fellow come back to life? Or was his death simply exaggerated?
james bierly 01-24-05, 07:22 PM	OK, how about a little Eberron spice? Akasha's dad didn't actually come back. Now that your PC's are gaining some notoriety, they have drawn the attention of a member of the Lords of Dust. Daddy dearest is actually a Rakshasha in disguise and is using the PC's for his own nefarious purposes. Maybe its known that the dead father was a powerful warrior who fought against the Dreaming Dark. Perhaps the rakshasha is currently rather upset with the Dreaming Dark for spoiling one of his schemes he has been working on for a few hundred years. So he gets the PC's to come along and give the DD some trouble. Some good is achieved (ie the DD being thwarted in their efforts), but all along the PC's have just been tools of an even greater evil. Then at some point in the future maybe Akasha has to fight her father and this discovers she has been duped all along. Oh the look on her face! Oh, that's gold. That's gold. Especially since one of my plots indeed did involve a falling out between the dreaming dark and the demons... Dang, that's good. Anyone wanna help flesh that out some more? EDIT: OHH! IDEA! Maybe it really is her father, but he is now in the employ of the Lords Of Dust. It was the demons that gave him what he needed to maintain his identity for two years in the realm of the dead.... whatya Eberron planes experts think?
Gurv 01-24-05, 09:06 PM	EDIT: OHH! IDEA! Maybe it really is her father, but he is now in the employ of the Lords Of Dust. It was the demons that gave him what he needed to maintain his identity for two years in the realm of the dead.... whatya Eberron planes experts think? Doesn't sound unreasonable. Although the Lords of Dust are not your typical demons in that they are native to Eberron, that doesn't mean they know nothing of dealing with such planar issues. They certainly have the magical know-how to do it. Bringing the dead back is hard in Eberron. But if you took the effort to alter the soul somehow before it died so that the typical effects of Dolourh were neutralized, then it starts to make some sense. Then, there is the whole clone spell possibility. Here is another idea: maybe the father isn't alive at all. Perhaps he has come back as some kind of undead. This could be accomplished with the aid of the Lords of Dust, or perhaps by sheer force of will. Or maybe, since the old hero is a kalashtar, it isn't actually the same being at all. A kalashtar shares a quori spirit with many other kalashtar. The goal of the evil quori is to kill all the kalashtar so that these spirits are destroyed as well and newer evil quori are born to replace them. What if the old hero was the last kalashtar with that spirit? And when he died, his quori spirit was captured, tortured, mindraped, and converted to the Dreaming Dark? Now he has been sent back with the goal of creating a new sect amongst the kalashtar. One with an evil guiding spirit.
RatFlail OF DOOM!!!! 01-24-05, 09:11 PM	i had to delete this because of profanity... the ideal of a high level npc set me off
Edymnion 01-24-05, 09:17 PM	Here's another option, especially since the child is a daughter. We know that a Kalashtar child inherits the Quori spirit of the same gendered parent, meaning this one inherited her mother's spirit. Daddy "died" during the last war. Or did he? Maybe it wasn't daddy that died, but his Quori spirit. Keith has already said that one of the Kalashtar spirits has been destroyed (don't remember any details on it though). Perhaps Daddy here was linked to that spirit, and fell when it did. However, perhaps one of the Dreaming Dark stepped in to take the good Quori's place. Daddy wakes up, and suddenly he's got these dark impulses. He's not an Inspired, but he's been twisted by the Dreaming Dark spirit he's been unwillingly forced to link with.
james bierly 01-24-05, 09:40 PM	How did this fellow come back to life? Or was his death simply exaggerated? He came back to life by GM Plot Device involving secret House Cannith experiments and a portal to the plane of the dead.
Gurv 01-24-05, 10:11 PM	i had to delete this because of profanity... the ideal of a high level npc set me off Now, now. The problem isn't high level NPCs. Its high level adventurers doing what the PCs should be doing, and saving the day all the time. A high level NPC who functions as an antagonist is perfectly acceptable. NPCs of high level are also fine as long as they have NPC classes, or are otherwise incapable of doing tasks meant for a PC.
darkthought 01-25-05, 04:23 PM	Here's another option, especially since the child is a daughter. We know that a Kalashtar child inherits the Quori spirit of the same gendered parent, meaning this one inherited her mother's spirit. Daddy "died" during the last war. Or did he? Maybe it wasn't daddy that died, but his Quori spirit. Keith has already said that one of the Kalashtar spirits has been destroyed (don't remember any details on it though). Perhaps Daddy here was linked to that spirit, and fell when it did. However, perhaps one of the Dreaming Dark stepped in to take the good Quori's place. Daddy wakes up, and suddenly he's got these dark impulses. He's not an Inspired, but he's been twisted by the Dreaming Dark spirit he's been unwillingly forced to link with. Don't quote me on this, but I remember Keith saying something about that. I think he said that one of the Quori spirits would be destroyed when all members of the line who have the spirit are killed. So maybe the "human" bit of the kalashtar came back, but the quori did not.