Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Adamaro23 05-25-07, 01:40 AM	How far can the Lightning Rail go into the Mournland before it runs out of track? Also, If someone were to take the Lightning Rail into the Mournland, how long would it take before mournland's effects would do stuff to it? I'm basicly asking: 1. When in Mournland in the Lightning Rail, will mournland's "evilness" ever effect the elemental? or the conductor stones?
Shattered_Shard 05-25-07, 02:20 AM	the conductor stones are straight up magical items and barly magical at that according to Hellcow. So I don't see how the Mournland could affect them. As for the Elemental in the Lightning Engine it might be affected in some way. But I would say as long as it stays bound its not a problem. That said if you are the DM there is no reason why either of these Items can't be affected and still cause all the problems you want. It's your game and your version of the Mournland maybe it did affect the conductor stones, or maybe some conductor stones or the elemental binding on the Lightning Engine are defective get creative have fun. The major lightning rail lines in the Mournland are shown in the ECS pg 189 however Cyre was house cannith's home before it became the Mournland so I would say it had a pretty extensive lightning rail system
Cifer 05-25-07, 05:41 AM	the conductor stones are straight up magical items and barly magical at that according to Hellcow. So I don't see how the Mournland could affect them. However, there are rumours that several of them are missing... At the present time, driving into the mournland by lightning rails seems like a Bad Idea to me. It's not the question if something will happen but when - which probably is nearly random. However, I'd say that when the nations agree one launching bigger expeditions into it, reestablishing the line to Metrol and building an outpost there might be a good idea.
Arryn 05-25-07, 08:01 AM	I don't know how feasable it is to try and take a lightning rail into the Mournland, but I've always thought that using the conductor stones would be a good way to get into the Mournland. I don't know if it has ever been addressed, but illustrations show the stones being pretty close together, close enough that the next one should be visible even through the grey mist. You want to avoid getting lost in the mist? Just follow the stones until you are in the Mournland proper.
Syltorian 05-25-07, 08:45 AM	How far can the Lightning Rail go into the Mournland before it runs out of track? I believe the correct answer here is "as far as the DM wishes". The only official bit of information I can find would let you get as far as Metrol, but no further... apparently, the Lightning Rail Station is not where pre-Mourning plans of Metrol say it is (Five Natios, p.33). Other than that, the Mournland is pretty much unchartered. Perhaps the lightning rail you are on will get just into the mists before the stones run out, perhaps you'll just enter a loop and turn in a circle for days, perhaps you get through without trouble. Perhaps different lightning rails on the same line of conducter stones will suffer different fates. All up to the DM, really. Also, If someone were to take the Lightning Rail into the Mournland, how long would it take before mournland's effects would do stuff to it? I'm basicly asking: 1. When in Mournland in the Lightning Rail, will mournland's "evilness" ever effect the elemental? or the conductor stones? Again, nothing official. However, I suggest you read "Flight of the Righteous Indignation" by Ari Marmell (Tales of the Last War) (marked a spoiler just in case someone really doesn't want to know what the novels are about before reading them). Note that novels are not canon in Eberron. So, yet again, the answer is: It will affect the elemental and the stones when and if it suits the purpose of the story...
Cifer 05-25-07, 01:25 PM	@Arryn The general idea is good, but it's rather questionable whether the stones are not afflicted by the mourning...
gensuke626 05-26-07, 05:56 PM	For me...I think I'd make the lead car drive right up to the dead grey mist then stop, forcing the driver to try to coax the car onwards. Sense motive check Dc 25 on the elemental tells you one thing, It's Afraid to go farther. From there it's contested Cha rolls for every 25 feet (or as nessecery) with the possibility of the car starting to back up along the stones if the driver rolls poorly.
Cifer 05-27-07, 06:42 AM	@Gensuke That would certainly be an idea for non-DMed drivers. The dragonmark completely suppresses the elemental, so while the driver may sense its fear (questionable since elementals have pretty alien thought patterns), it doesn't have the choice of slowing down.
tallric_kruush 05-27-07, 01:10 PM	The major lightning rail lines in the Mournland are shown in the ECS pg 189 however Cyre was house cannith's home before it became the Mournland so I would say it had a pretty extensive lightning rail system Don't forget House Orien. The lightning rail was a joint venture. While Cannith no doubt provided a lot of technical/magical assistance, the lightning-rail is really "Orien's baby". Although some of the info in the supplements is questionable, there is a good snippet in Dragonmarked (p.59). It states that the three major, Galifar-subsidized routes met a Metrol. Orien claims that the Cyran lines are intact, but they have yet to send a commercial coach into the Mournland. Others, as someone in this thread has already pointed out (can't find the reference), maintain that stones are being stolen and the routes thereby comprised. I, too, always thought the routes could serve as a good landmark in navigating the Mournland. However, the route could be crowded with living spells, which seem to be drawn to magical auras of all sorts. Other dangerous creatures may also be drawn to the routes. Also, the line may stretch for miles, only to abruptly end. The next stone in line may be three hundred miles north, now, with the rest of the route continuing intact in it's new, post-Mourning location. Being hired by Orien to check on these routes would be a good adventure hook. There's some good railcoach action in Metrol in the novel Flight of the Dying Sun.
gensuke626 05-27-07, 04:09 PM	@Gensuke That would certainly be an idea for non-DMed drivers. The dragonmark completely suppresses the elemental, so while the driver may sense its fear (questionable since elementals have pretty alien thought patterns), it doesn't have the choice of slowing down. *shrug* Didin't think of that aspect of it...though I figure the discovery of fear would happen like in a movie... Driver: What's wrong with this elemental? It's fighting me harder than normal... Wizard: It's afraid. Driver: What? It's an elemental! What's it got to be afraid of? Wizard: Do you feel fear when you enter a graveyard? Driver: Well, yeah, but... Wizard: Think of what the Day of Mourning did to Cyre and everything in it's borders.
elbrop 05-30-07, 02:16 AM	This reminds me of my first Eberron adventure. It started with a House Orien scribe (dragonmarked) who found clues to a clandestine meeting held in Cyre just around the time of Mournday. Getting nothing but disbelief and scorn from his own superiors (he was of low rank) he took his discovery to the party and hired them This secret meeting was held in a small repair hamlet used by the House about eighty miles from the border of Breland in Cyre. The details were sparse except that the meeting would be in a SHC – that’s a Secure House Cart. These are basically small lightning trains (three carriages, the “engine” and two luxurious cabins) built like tanks. Instead of wood and iron they are built with adamantine and magically hardened steel. Defensive spells and wards are built into every surface. A SHC is invisible to almost any form of divination and the cart is powered by a elemental strong enough to pull two normal sized lightning trains. As far as the scribe knows the House only ever had three built because of the expense and each has a name and history to the family. The one mentioned in the few scraps he found isn’t one of them. If the dates match then that unknown SHC is still in Mournland – what a find, what a mystery! The party travelled into Mournland (that was the bulk of the adventure) on horseback. Nearly died a few times but managed to find the SHC. With the scribes help (he had a replacement dragonshard with bound elemental) they freed the SHC from a rather sticky situation (involving houses that attacked, yay for living animate object spells!) and drove it out of Mournland and into Breland. After getting past the border guards the news exploded that a train had come out of Mournland. The people went mad, crowds rushing to see the marvel and the party getting treated like heroes because for the first time in years something came out of those lands representing hope and not terror and despair. Of course what the players found inside the SHC... now that’s fuel for a few more adventures to come.
Nived 05-30-07, 03:03 AM	I agree with Syl Official material states that the lines are not in tact, remember entire sections of the landscape have been changed... I mean the ruins of towns can be on the wrong side of the dang Mournland from where they were in Cyre. Somewhere along the lines they're broken. So where does the lightning rail line end? It'll take you all the way to where the plot is.
Nevarre 05-31-07, 12:27 PM	It would be cool for a group walking through the Mournland to come across a short line of stones - in a completely random place, relocated by land movement from where they were originally...