Aberrant Campaign - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 SteelMirror Nov 21, 2008 1:15:49	I've been raring to do this forever, and it hasn't happened until now! I'm set to run a new Eberron campaign, and I want it to be aberrant themed. In good story arc fashion I will start my PCs in smaller, seemingly unrelated adventures, so I have some time to plot my overrarching campaign plots for now. For those of you who love Eberron as much as I do, I could use your help refining my ideas. campaign plot outline: Basically, starting in a few adventures the PCs will face off against an exceptionally powerful aberrant individual who is looking for a schema left over from the last war. This schema supposedly allows one to construct a Talon of Khyber, which amplifies aberrant dragonmarks' power. He will be the PCs gateway into escalating confrontations with House Tarkannan, which is now led by a council of 9 ridiculously powerful individuals who consider themselves the heirs of Halas Tarkannan. Each will have a thematically unique dragonmark. To add a further wrinkle, not all of them are evil and some legitimately want a way to protect their kin from another purge, which all of them fear is coming. One of my PCs has expressed interest in manifesting an aberrant mark, which will add to the fun. This will lead the PCs into paragon tier, where the PCs will improbably find themselves allied not only with the "true" marks from the dragonmarked houses but a representative of the Lords of Dust and the blood of Vol as well. Eventually the PCs will track events back to Aerenal, where they will learn the truth (in my campaign) about aberrant marks. Aberrant marks are the universe's way of trying to correct for the ancient loss of the mark of death, which left an unsolved variable in the Draconic Prophecy which needs to be filled. The War of the Mark was a critical time when a new thirteenth mark was about to ascend from the chaos of the aberrant Marks, but it was foiled by agents of the Lords of Dust, the jealous Errandis d'Vol, and xenophobic members of both the Draconic Chamber and the Dragonmarked Houses who never wanted to see a new true mark ascend. The PCs now have the choice to stop this ascendancy process once more, dooming Eberron's mortal races to thousands of years of strife as the Draconic Prophecy slowly tears itself apart and strengthens the Dragon below, or to take a chance and side with Medritha d'Phiarlan (a deathless councilor who regrets her actions in the destruction of House Vol) and rogue members of the Draconic Chamber who are seeking to elevate one of the newly powerful aberrant marks to true markhood. Then starts the Epic tier, with the PCs facing off against the Dragonmarked Houses' combined might, the entirety of the Blood of Vol, and some of the Lords of Dusts' servitors to piece together the last parts of the schema for the Talon of Khyber and gather the most powerful of the aberrant marks together for the ascendancy ceremony. Things are made worse when one of the aberrant marks starts killing off the others one by one in a gruesome fashion to ensure that he is the last mark standing, and is raised to being a true mark. The final BBEG will be a member of House Tarkannan that steals the completed Talon of Khyber, kills the PCs allies in the chamber and the undying court, and arranges a ritual whereby the 13 most powerful Khyber marks will replace not only the lost Mark of Death, but all twelve true dragonmarks as well (killing every marked member of every house in the process). The PCs team up with every ally and former enemy in the DM houses to stop him.
#2 yakman Nov 27, 2008 7:04:53	interesting. hopefully you make it work and everyone has a blast.
#3 SteelMirror Nov 29, 2008 13:03:08	interesting. hopefully you make it work and everyone has a blast. Thanks!
#4 rekko Nov 29, 2008 16:23:48	I have a similar campaign theme. Your work is great. In my game, I explain why Aberrant Marks have more offensive power. The reason is that the Aberrant Marks are in competition to become the 13th dragonmark. They are agressive in nature. Maybe their power will soften when they'll become the 13th mark. Or maybe the powers of the 12 true dragonmarks will start becoming agressive to defend their position as true marks. Who knows... Lately, the campaign theme got twisted a bit. Vol is currently trying to revive the Mark of Death by transmuting all the Marks of Shadow of House Thuranni into Marks of Death. Moreover, the only PC in my game has developed a strange dragonmark, which seems like other dragonmarks put together like a puzzle, he can manifest the powers of more than one dragonmark (currently the least and lesser mark of sentinel and the least mark of passage) Mechanically, this ability is very similar to the dragonmark secret of the cataclysm mage PrC (we are still playing 3.5) This campaign theme enables me to involve many organizations and the Prophecy. We have a lot of fun playing. Something funny when I compare our two games. At the start of my campaign, my player needed to collect schemas to build an artifact that would enhance the powers of a dragonmark, similarly to your Talon of Khyber. However, he soon discovered that the schemas made him manifest (via some rituals made by some Lords of Dust agent) a curious dragonmark that could have huge consequences on the Prophecy. In a sense, he "became" that artifact. All in all, I would like to hear more about your game. Have a good day! Rekko

campaign plot outline:

Basically, starting in a few adventures the PCs will face off against an exceptionally powerful aberrant individual who is looking for a schema left over from the last war. This schema supposedly allows one to construct a Talon of Khyber, which amplifies aberrant dragonmarks' power. He will be the PCs gateway into escalating confrontations with House Tarkannan, which is now led by a council of 9 ridiculously powerful individuals who consider themselves the heirs of Halas Tarkannan. Each will have a thematically unique dragonmark. To add a further wrinkle, not all of them are evil and some legitimately want a way to protect their kin from another purge, which all of them fear is coming. One of my PCs has expressed interest in manifesting an aberrant mark, which will add to the fun.

This will lead the PCs into paragon tier, where the PCs will improbably find themselves allied not only with the "true" marks from the dragonmarked houses but a representative of the Lords of Dust and the blood of Vol as well. Eventually the PCs will track events back to Aerenal, where they will learn the truth (in my campaign) about aberrant marks.

Aberrant marks are the universe's way of trying to correct for the ancient loss of the mark of death, which left an unsolved variable in the Draconic Prophecy which needs to be filled. The War of the Mark was a critical time when a new thirteenth mark was about to ascend from the chaos of the aberrant Marks, but it was foiled by agents of the Lords of Dust, the jealous Errandis d'Vol, and xenophobic members of both the Draconic Chamber and the Dragonmarked Houses who never wanted to see a new true mark ascend.

The PCs now have the choice to stop this ascendancy process once more, dooming Eberron's mortal races to thousands of years of strife as the Draconic Prophecy slowly tears itself apart and strengthens the Dragon below, or to take a chance and side with Medritha d'Phiarlan (a deathless councilor who regrets her actions in the destruction of House Vol) and rogue members of the Draconic Chamber who are seeking to elevate one of the newly powerful aberrant marks to true markhood.

Then starts the Epic tier, with the PCs facing off against the Dragonmarked Houses' combined might, the entirety of the Blood of Vol, and some of the Lords of Dusts' servitors to piece together the last parts of the schema for the Talon of Khyber and gather the most powerful of the aberrant marks together for the ascendancy ceremony. Things are made worse when one of the aberrant marks starts killing off the others one by one in a gruesome fashion to ensure that he is the last mark standing, and is raised to being a true mark.

The final BBEG will be a member of House Tarkannan that steals the completed Talon of Khyber, kills the PCs allies in the chamber and the undying court, and arranges a ritual whereby the 13 most powerful Khyber marks will replace not only the lost Mark of Death, but all twelve true dragonmarks as well (killing every marked member of every house in the process). The PCs team up with every ally and former enemy in the DM houses to stop him.