Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Zealot_Reborn 08-27-07, 12:56 PM	Good day to all. I bring you a tale of hilarity, luck, randomness, and the need for some advice. If this thread more aptly belongs to the eberron forum, i'm sure a kind wizo shall magically transport it for me, but until then, my current situation. Current party, with known plot hooks and cool stuff attached: me, the CN halfling fighter 2/rogue 4 from talenta riding an awesome magebred clawfoot who the dm has been advancing alongside my halfling, and in turn i've invested a lot of money and feats/skills into becoming skilled on my clawfoot. As a result... he's freaking awesome. I've taken leadership and plan to have my clawfoot awakened to make him my cohort, and my dm has cut me a deal that since the clawfoot will be more powerful than i can take as a cohort, i just cannot take followers until i am powerful enough to legally have my clawfoot as a cohort. Another incident is that after an airship battle, we discovered a squad of deactivated warforged shock troopers (we're guessing level 2 barbarians), all of whom had been deactivated since literally the day of the mourning. After reactivating them, we managed to finagle my character as squad sergeant, and after setting them free, we hired them on as mercernaries (after, of course, they went around looking for jobs and discovered that noone else would pay them 5 gp a week each). Finally, through circumstances that will be explained with the next character, my character now has an aberrant dragonmark on his chest. Our patron is one of the top dogs at house Cannith. Other than that, the dm has stated that he doesn't need plot points for my character, since he has a tendency to make his own :D So, advice time: 1) Should I develop my aberrant dragonmark through the feats in the dragonmark book? 2) What should i do to prevent detection of my aberrant dragonmark, magical or nonmagical? 3) Any cool ideas to do with my new squad of warforged? Currently, since there are five members of the party, i'm having them splitting into two groups of 5 and acting as 24/7 bodyguards. NG Human Favored Soul 6: after much rumormongering by my character, our group is named after him, and is known to the general public in sharn as well as our enemies. We have discovered that his powers are granted by the Traveller, and his father is a changeling adventurer. He tries to stay out of the spotlight, and thanks to my character, fails miserably at it. Generally objects to many of my ideas, including hiring the warforged, but I object to most of his objections, and do as I want :D 4) My character enjoys the Traveller as a diety, and is planning on starting a 'cult' devoted to the traveller with the favored soul as a messianic figure. Any tips on how to go about this? NG Human Artificer 5: tries to be a munchkin, is smacked down often by the dm. Trying to become a high elemental binder, will likely result in the group being trapped in the service of gnomes, a situation we are NOT comfortable with. 5) Any ideas as to how the group as a whole can avoid being bossed around by gnomes by the time they come asking for payback from teaching the artificer binding? LN Human Knight 4: Has the knights code, and her own personal code. Neither of which the group is familiar with, leading to a very upsetting incident where we had a bunch of knocked out emerald claw weenie troops that my character and the clawfoot and the favored soul jumped in and started killing them, due to their status in the campaign as zealots and terrorists, and generally irrevocably evil. We tried to explain that capturing and trying to convert them did no good, but the knight still threw a fit and stormed away. Favoured soul, being the only sane one in the group at that point, went and apologized. My character is going to refuse to if push comes to shove. 6) Any ideas on how to deal with a knight whose code we don't know? My character is definetly not going to go following her rules, such would disrupt my chaotic nature. I'm just looking for alternate ways to keep in-party fighting from happening.
DrMorganes 08-27-07, 05:16 PM	1 & 2: No idea. I know very little about Eberron... 3) Stats on your newfound toys would be good. Are they all identical in terms of class, level, ability scores, etc, or are they a mixed bag? If they're low-level, guard or messenger duty is always a safe bet. I'm sure your DM won't care overmuch if you leave 'em at whatever base you're using to keep an eye on things. From there, however, you have options for developing them. The first thing that comes to my mind is that you have 10 converts to your new religion! 4) First, read up on real-world cult figures (David Koresh, et. al.). See what it was about them that allowed them to attract their followers. Keep in mind that your Favored Soul can actually perform divine magic, too. Then embark upon a campaign of (mis)information. Try to convince your new warforged buddies that FS is what you claim. Failing that, let 'em in on the plan and offer them a cut. They seem to have the concepts of "money" and "mercenary" down... 5) Feed the artificer to them? Seriously, you're up against an entire nation that jealously guards this particular secret. The odds that you can somehow avoid entanglement in this are slim. However, you can attempt to use it to your advantage. Remember those 10 warforged? You have your own little squad of gofers (y'know - go fer this and go fer that?), enforcers, and all-around strongarms. By agreeing to "help" this artificer make good on his debt, he is in turn indebted to you. Do you see the web of contacts and minions beginning to develop yet? And those gnomes? I'm sure a few of them will be open to the idea of an avatar of the Traveller coming into the world... 6) Ask her about it. Seriously. If you're going to be traveling with someone, you generally strike up a conversation and get to know them. If you're depending on that person to keep you alive, you definitely want to understand what they are willing to do and not do! Don't fall into the "chaotic stupid" trap. Only fools don't recognize the benefit of teamwork and cooperation, and only characters that are completely insane exhibit total randomness in their behavior. This knight may not necessarily LIKE the way you bend the rules, but she'll come to appreciate the results you can achieve. Likewise, its in your best interest to not alienate someone with her martial prowess. Will it really hurt to tone yourself down a bit? Feel free to roleplay the tension as much as you like - even start a few arguments - but eventually at least agree to disagree.
Zealot_Reborn 08-27-07, 06:36 PM	3) They are all identical, however, the dm has up until now not released stats on them. Granted, this was a recent development that brought them into my employ, so he might not have stated them out yet. We assume they are at least level 2 barbarians due to an apparent lack of intelligence on their part and their use of greatswords. However, for all you eberron gurus out there, it was revealed that their sergeant was Chrome, the only warforged who ever of his own initiative asked for an honorable discharge, so lack of intelligence is perhaps unfair. And for mercernary and money.... well, they have me for a teacher :D 4) Hmmm.... liking that concept. 5) The concept of turning her debt to my advantage is... pleasing, to be sure. Definetly going to double the amount of warforged I have guarding me at all times, to keep safe from reprisal. And i'm sure making sure that the artificer doesn't renege on her deal will no doubt let the gnomes look favorably upon me... Lastly, I'm not falling into the chaotic stupid trap. My main problem so far has been that people assume I'm falling into the chaotic stupid trap. Half the party has been acting as if I'm going to kickstart the next last war, which frustrates me more than anything. The thing is, I'm not; I'm acting in the best interests of the party. When our patron was spotted meeting with us in Sharn when she wasn't supposed to be there due to House Cannith politics, I'm the only one who acted to cover her, which i'll admit sorta spiraled out of control. My character's primary motivations have been money, survival, and that following the favored soul around is more interesting than anything else at the moment. My character, being the only one who actually fought in the Last War, was the one insistent upon the rights of the warforged we found and pays them out of his own pocket (and i intend to pay them their 100 gold each for reparation as soon as I can, even if i have to pay them myself.) The Knight was quite awesome in terms of combat, but as soon as we got out of combat we had a bunch of unconcious emerald claw soldiers that we couldn't imprison due to being on an airship without a brig, and the party at that point (even the Favored Soul) wanted to throw them overboard and be done with it. After my clawfoot killed one and the favored soul got another, the Knight somehow commanded my clawfoot to stop, and then demanded that we keep the rest of them alive. Eventually, the arguement which resulted between the favored soul and the knight (i was still trying to figure out how she commanded my clawfoot) got heated enough where the dm intervened as the captain of the airship and 'converted' one of his cargo holds into a brig. I'll try to avoid stepping on toes, but would it be too horrible if i refused to submit myself to her two codes, which is something that even a CG pc would do given his alignment and neither of which have anything to do with my character?
Neutronium_Dragon 08-28-07, 01:44 AM	4) There's a bit of a disconnect between the typical messianic figure and a follower of the Traveler. By and large, the Traveler's faith is one which operates out of sight (or at least without overt recognition), which doesn't really go together with a charismatic cult setup. It would be much more fitting for the favored soul of the Traveler to be a figure (and as a cover identity at that) who is known in rumor but not in public. For him, hearing people whisper fitfully about the amazing clandestine deeds of *cover identity* would be the payoff. As a bonus, this totally fits the theme of Eberron.
Zealot_Reborn 08-28-07, 12:43 PM	Hmm... so, my spreading rumors of the FS's awesome exploits (with some exaggeration) is more suiting to the traveller than an outright cult... I'm liking the sound of that... :D