Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Adamaro23 04-21-07, 05:15 PM	what kind of campaign would be cool in Sarlona? My group knows next to nothing about Eberron, let alone Sarlona. So this will seem like a real cool adventure, So far know they will start in Khovaire, then to Sarlona by skyship to find a lost group of people that went on an expedition (sp?). But for what reason, could you possibly give me a few ideas why/where a group of people would be sent to Sarlona, they would've been given funding for the expedition, but by what house? Any help would be appreciated Ps. This is my first time ever running an Eberron game, and the only Eberron books availiable to me is: Player's Guide to Eberron, Secrets of Sarlona, Eberron Campaign Setting.
Cloud Divider 04-21-07, 05:58 PM	what kind of campaign would be cool in Sarlona? My group knows next to nothing about Eberron, let alone Sarlona. So this will seem like a real cool adventure, So far know they will start in Khovaire, then to Sarlona by skyship to find a lost group of people that went on an expedition (sp?). There's a lot of potential reasons. Which is "best" will be very much dependent on what mood/style you're looking for for your game. It could run the full range: Maybe you want heavy intrigue. Perhaps they've been sent to try and find out what happened to the last airship expedition. Play up the First Contact aspect with the Sarlonans (if you're "nice" GM they meet Adarans or Kalashtar...if you're "evil," they meet an Inspired Riedran intercept team that wants to capture/mind-seed/kill them). Maybe you want exploration... For whatever reason, the PCs airship slips under the Riedran radar, and they're able to start searching, and discovering what the native life is like in Sarlona, before dropping a First Contact on them. Maybe they find the other Airship wreckage and/or a ruined base camp, signs of battle...and then First Contact. Maybe you want all-out Action!! Skip all the tense talky bits of First Contact. They meet the Adarans, and get tasked to help support them in blowing up some Riedran Monoliths. If they help, the Adarans will help them rescue the first ship's crew. But for what reason, could you possibly give me a few ideas why/where a group of people would be sent to Sarlona, they would've been given funding for the expedition, but by what house? It could be anyone. Maybe a Deneith high-ranker is taking some initiative based on some information he was fed by a spy in Sharn (before he mysteriously vanished...but he said something about a land to the East in his last missive). While Khorvaire has interacted with the Riedrans, it's been almost entirely one-sided. Little accurate information exists on Riedra, and I doubt very many even know about Adara (I'd compare it fairly roughly to China and Taiwan in the modern world). Any "official" information that comes from Riedran officials is likely to be heavily sanitized and biased. But the Deneith lord decides he needs some independent verification. Enter the PCs. He hires a ship, and sends the PC's off on an unsanctioned recon mission to Sarlona. Maybe a Kundarak (or just regular old nobility) collector has gotten his hands on a few secondhand Riedran objects d'art (or crystals/crysteel, or whatever resource sounds good to you). He's interested in "opening new trade routes," and perhaps more importantly, securing access to those goods without having to go through a Riedran middleman in Khorvaire. He's also wealthy enough to sponsor the trip himself, and hire a crew of specialists. Also on the Actiony side, maybe the PC's are on a special/secret mission for King Boranel (King of Breland) to gather information. In general, it's the same as the one above with the Deneith - just this time, they're working for a nation, and not a Dragonmarked House. Boranel's also interested in some independent verification/intelligence on Riedra (since he's got a large population of Riedran immigrants in Sharn), and he's dealing with Riedran diplomats regularly. If your PCs have the right kinds of ties (ie one's a Kalashtar, or a Sharn-transplanted Adaran human refugee), they could be sent by the Kalashtar/Adarans based in Sharn. Perhaps they need to bring someone to Sarlona, or (more interestingly) get someone (IMPORTANT!) from Sarlona to Khorvaire, without tipping off the Riedrans. The Kalashtar don't have the benefit of meetings in Dal Quor (unlike the Inspired and Quori), so if they need to get a message to/from the Adaran HQ, it's got to be essentially hand-delivered. If you're an Evil GM, the expedition is being secretly backed by some Riedran Inspired. They ideally want to get some important movers-and-shakers (a wealthy businessman + his adventurer entourage (the PCs)) over into Riedra, for some nefarious purpose (perhaps Mind Seeding them. There's few Inspired powerful enough to use that power, so they're bringing the mountain to Mohammad in this instance). Why? Getting a pile of well-connected and relatively powerful (but largely unrelated...the PC's are merely hired help) brainwashed to be deep cover spies could be part of their Grand Scheme (whatever that might be). So the PC's (and their immediate boss) are being set up. It's up to them to hack and slash their way out of the predicament. In a similar fashion, maybe some important relic was discovered in Khorvaire/Xen'drik, and has fallen into the Adaran/Inspired hands. However, to be properly utilized, it needs to be used in one of those Riedran Monoliths (or some other important magical/psionic ruin site in Sarlona). So the PC's are delivering an object... Hope those ideas can help get your creative juices going...
Flack Jack 04-22-07, 03:28 PM	It might be fun to have one party member be a resident of Sarlona. A special person who helps tie the party together. Imagine everybody is ready but Billy who comes out fromthe back room as something called an Uneko. Well he looks like a half-orc mostly. What is he? Were does he come from? Billy has a role like that chick from The 5th Element. So Billy gets the rest of the party mixed up with the wrong people and eventually have to go back to Sarlona not just to get themselves out of a hard place but perhaps all of Khorvaire.
Marcus Majarra 04-29-07, 11:49 PM	There are many reasons to fund expeditions to Sarlona: 1) The modern Sovereign Host (as well as the Dark Six) have roots in old Sarlonan religions. Churches of either pantheon could fund teams to retrieve lost relics from the old religions. These faiths were practiced in what is now Riedra. 2) Sarlona is the cradle of humanity. Any academic organizaton could fund teams to retrieve any sort of historical relics concerning the roots of humankind. 3) Riedra has only recently started to admit foreigners into its borders (primarily in the bastion cities of Dar Jin and Dar Ulatesh). Perhaps an expedition could be sent by any political-minded faction in order to establish ties with Riedra an extend their influence into Sarlona. 4) It is said that the great mountain Korrandar in Adar is host to a group of dragons known as the Storm Guardians. It is possible that members of the Chamber have unlocked a new fragment of the Draconic Prophecy and that the expedition was sent to Adar to partake in what this fragment has revealed.
Anguish2 05-29-07, 12:55 PM	My current campaign has the players (who are native to Adar in Sarlona, but that isn't critical) trying to reintegrate the parts of a giant-made artifact that holds Dal Quor away from Eberron. The Inspired (or at least a faction of them) is trying to get their hands on the bits of this artifact, to disable it. Meanwhile, the item is only marginally functional. The hanbalani (the big psionic egg-things the Inspired have been making all over Sarlona) are slowly overwhelming the power of the artifact. The artifact in question is an intelligent weapon with the sizing property (Magic Item Compendium). The giants made it 40,000 years ago in their war with the Quori, and its creation is what made Xen'Drik explode. As it happens, the third and final chunk of the artifact is back on Xen'Drik, so this campaign will span both "Secrets of" continents. The point is that the backstory of the Quori/Kalashtar/Inspired is very, very rich and touches upon a lot of other things. It's relatively easy to adapt a few things to fit a Sarlona campaign. Hell, I made Barrow of the Forgotten King the opening chapter in this campaign, and instead of the item that gets handed to players at the end of that module, they got the unconscious first portion of the artifact... a sword. Entrusted to one of the 12 kings' ancestors centuries before, back before the giants and humans crossbred to create the Eneko. Ooops. There I go tying threads of Sarlonan lore together again. Look, get your hands on Secrets of Sarlona. It's full of good bits. Less of the back-stabbing cloak & dagger stuff typical to Khorvaire, but a rich playground in its own way.
Edymnion 05-29-07, 01:01 PM	Star Wars. No, seriously. Sarlona is the big monolithic empire, the PCs are the core of the rebel alliance, the Emporer is an Inspired with psionic powers that let him shoot lightning bolts... You could literally take the entire Star Wars Saga (well, the good one anyway, the original trilogy), change names, and put it into Sarlona.
Burningspear 05-29-07, 07:56 PM	Star Wars. No, seriously. Sarlona is the big monolithic empire, the PCs are the core of the rebel alliance, the Emporer is an Inspired with psionic powers that let him shoot lightning bolts... You could literally take the entire Star Wars Saga (well, the good one anyway, the original trilogy), change names, and put it into Sarlona. Lol, you were not the only one thinking that, :plotting: ah well, great minds think alike :smirk: