Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sibery 08-13-04, 05:55 AM	Hi all, i am hosting my first ever campaign and i have had an idea about a little side quest i want to do. This campaign is set in the world of Eberron. First my players are going to be on a lightning rail train to somewhere in thrane, from sharn. Along the way the train is stopped at a small village as members of the silver flame are on a rampage and are trying to kill any sign of shifters. Then my ideas sort of run out i need a way of having it so that the players have to do something in the town so that the train can get going again but im not sure what so someone please help me (i am a noob to DMing at the moment).
Alexius D'Cannith 08-13-04, 07:55 AM	well simply the Flame have stopped the train to find shifters this is where flowchart adventures are good, you make a flowchart that shows the start point and the main methods the party can take to achieve (though expect them to surprise you) Path 1) Death to the Flame, The party in gungho damn the torpedoes style come pelting out and massacare the silver flame (or are massacared depending on how big a group is in the village) if the party dies, their fault for picking a silly fight, if they kill them then they instantly end up on the silver flames most wanted list Path 2) Full Cooperation, The party help make an effort to search the train and town to make sure all shifters are dead and the flame are happy, they allow the train to continue on its way with the thanks of the flame, In this case give good characters a crisis of concience and warn them about their alignment as that wasnt a nice thing to do, It puts them in the good books of the flame (well some of them) thus providing avenues for further work, and also it might put them on the hit list of a shifter equality group (who might not all be shifters and may have members in sharn) Path 3) Feigned cooperation The party make a show of helping and help search the train and town but pull a fast one and help a number of shifters hide and or escape, if the ruse is pulled off the flame are happy and let them go on their way, Shifters will eventually learn of thier part and the party may end up being hired to run and underground railroad to get shifters out of the more intolerant parts of thrane/bring their case before the keeper of the voice in Flamekeep The silver flame will also be happy if they dont work it out.... Path 4) Greasing the wheels of due process Its the lightning rail, its not cheap ergo there must be enough gold on the train to bribe a Flamite, its just a matter of finding the right one and getting him to let the train continue this has the implications of having them introuble for bribing flame officials, being hired as a deniable asset for that person in the future Path 5) Coup A portion of the Flamites do not agree with the persecution of shifters, perhaps they think the lycanthrope purge was pushing it, but for whatever reason they want an end to the blood shed unfortunatly this means the expedition leader and some of his associates will have to be 'called to join the flame' a little earlier than might be expected, The faction talking to the party cannot fight them themselves because of oaths not to harm their bretheren, though they can provide non combat support and wont get involved, Once the inquisitors are dead the mission will be over and the threat gone, the train can leave, Though some of the other nasty elements in the silver flame might not like the idea of what happened, Or the party might be asked to prune some more unwanted elements from the church hireachy This is just a quick selection of possible solutions and potential consequences I havnt even touched on having people who arnt silver flame but are trying to discredit them with this public display Infiltrators / agents giving false orders to cause this ..... Choose carefully and have at least 2 things going on that affect the party, then put in a couple of troubles and rumours that have no connection, keeps them guessing
q'afuu 08-13-04, 08:33 AM	Originally posted by Sibery Along the way the train is stopped at a small village as members of the silver flame are on a rampage and are trying to kill any sign of shifters. Then my ideas sort of run out i need a way of having it so that the players have to do something in the town so that the train can get going again... Since the train normally doesn't stop in small villages, you'll have to decide how the Silver Flame is going to stop it. Roadblock? Interfering with the elemental that powers it? Removing or tampering with the conductor stones? There are lots of options, but remember that a) however it's done, there's going to be hell to pay when House Orien gets the news (I'd definitely make this a splinter group of the Silver Flame if they're going to be setting up such drastic actions and have the Silver Flame distance itself completely from this) and b) many options will likely result in a disaster, considering the train chugs along at 30 miles/hour normally (with this in mind, interfering with the elemental that propulses the train is likely the best solution. Obviously you'll have to find a plausible way to do that and moreover, one that allows the party to undo it since you want them to do so). I'd be inclined to leave fixing the rail or train to House Orien (with the magic available to the house, it should be possible to send word relatively fast and teleport a senior engineer in to take care of the problem). Considering they were witnesses I'd try to get the PCs involved in another way: as I said, House Orien will want the perpetrators or this action apprehended and made examples of. An important family member sent along with the engineer could make the party an offer to track down these criminals and investigate who the mastermind behind it is (is the Silver Flame involved or not, were they really after shifters or were they after someone specific (one particular shifter who was on the train) and just tried to disguise it as an action by loony fanatics, etc). If you want to make the deal a bit more attractive, you can have the fanatics steal from or otherwise harm the party - that'll give them a bit more incentive. A nice reward and the gratitude of a powerful Dragonmarked House should do the rest. Completely alternate setup: the fanatics try to board the train while it's in full motion. Think western movie with robbers chasing a train on horseback and jumping on it to make off with the goods. Can make for some great action scenes. Important question: is there a Shifter in the party, or anyone else who would be an enemy of the Silver Flame for some reason?
MarkB 08-13-04, 08:51 AM	Originally posted by q'afuu Since the train normally doesn't stop in small villages, you'll have to decide how the Silver Flame is going to stop it. That's not necessarily true. The nation maps don't show intermediate stops, but that's only because they didn't want to pin down every small village - you're supposed to be able to drop them in when and wherever needed. And if a village is on the lightning rail, there's a good chance there will be a stop there, though perhaps only a daily 'stopping' service will call there, with the normal 'express' services passing it by.
Endless_Helix 08-13-04, 08:57 AM	Hmmm... I think the reason the Thranes had the Inquisition against Lycanthropy was because those who had it, could spread it. Shifters can't spread what they've got so they wouldn't be the target. However if you moved the train to Karrnath, you could have some Silver Flame fanatics going after a small village, right outside of a small city. They could have a deep hatred of the undead, so the raiders could be 10 1st level warriors and 1 1st level ranger and 1 ist level Cleric of the Silver Flame. Hmmm... I'm using this for my campaign as of now.
q'afuu 08-13-04, 08:59 AM	Originally posted by MarkB That's not necessarily true. Granted, but that doesn't change much if he wants the train to be stopped by fanatics. If the train stops as normal and the fanatics are merely waiting that's something else, but then there wouldn't be a problem to get the train going again. (I don't think the train stops in 'small' villages though - any place or village fortunate enough to have the lightning rail pass through it will probably grow to moderate size just because of that. But that's a discussion for another thread.)
Sibery 08-13-04, 09:21 AM	Okay thanks guys. Endless_Helix have you read about the silver flame, they may have lead that inquisition against the lycanthropes but they also have many splinter groups that also want to rid the world of shifters. q'afuu, no i dont have anyone in my party at the moment that is either a shifter or in trouble with the flame, my party consistes of 2 half-elves, 1 elf and an orc (dont ask me but they decicded on that, way to many elves!).
MarkB 08-13-04, 12:16 PM	By the book, there's not a great deal of evidence that any major element of the Silver Flame has targetted Shifters. Shifters kept themselves dissociated from lycanthropes during the Inquisition, some even helping the Silver Flame. Any group of Flamers which has made the large leap of faith to go from a long-ago extermination of lycanthropes to a present-day extermination of Shifters is going to have to be subversive and clandestine or else the formal arm of the Silver Flame would wipe them out themselves. Assaulting a Lightning Rail train would be an extremely bold move for them. However, it's your game, so you could assume that the church is more splintered in your world. Or perhaps groups of Shifters have begun attacking Thranites in revenge for the Inquisition, which they see as an assault on their forebears, and this action by the Flamers turns out to be a response to those attacks, attempting to track down the Shifters responsible. And believe me, that party composition is mild by some standards. :) I recently ran a Middle Earth D&D game, saying to my players "you can choose any race except Half-Orc, Halfling or Gnome. Without any apparent collusion on their part, what I got was a party of five elves. And they sing.
Alexius D'Cannith 08-14-04, 07:44 AM	it could be a group of bandits sponsored by the blood of vol to impersonate the Silver Flame to discredit them and get Thrane royaly whaled upon by Orien and the Dragon houses