Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Gurv Oct 24, 2010 16:18:45	I am running a 3.5 Eberron campaign. Most of the PCs are battle-oriented with very little spellcasting. They're relic hunters in Xen'drik. Recently the group spoiled a forgery scam being perpetrated by some "explorerers" in an old elven ruin. The ruin had stopped producing financially, so the NPCs were creating some realistic-looking Qabalin art and selling it through channels in Stormreach. The PCs figured it out, put a stop to it, and called it "their good deed for the month". They found some moderately valuable items and took notes on an eldritch machine when they delved into the ruins themselves and then headed back to Stormreach. Unknown to the PCs, those "Qabalin" relics were being purchased by agents of the Emerald Claw who had no idea that they were fakes. When the relics stopped coming, the EC looked into it and found out that the last treasures to come from that ruin were sold in town by the PCs. Considering the PCs to be unwanted competition, the EC sent a couple of goons to toss their inn rooms and steal their notes. Although the EC only took very little and nothing of value, two of the PCs tracked them down to the Black Freighter. After a confused exchange with Captain Smargat, they forced themselves into the presence of the White Raven. One a**-kicking later, they bought their lives with the journal they had made about the real Qabalin magicks discovered in the ruin. Now, the whole party wants to go back to the Black Freighter and smack them around a bit. With the whole group present and a prepared artificer, they should be able to do a lot better. I don't want them to encounter the White Raven again quite yet. I do want them to face a moderate amount of opposition: enough to maintain the facade that the Freighter is a "false headquarters" for the EC but not enough to make them think they're really hiding a fortress. I also plan to use an NPC to let them know that the EC thinks all those fake relics were real. Help me decide what they face at the Black Freighter. What kind of forces do they have protecting the place? What exactly are they hiding? I think that they would keep some mildly incriminating evidence hidden in the basement to satisfy investigators before they ever found the secret enterance to the ruins below. What protects the secret passage? I'd rather that they not find it at all: what would work best but still be fair? And if they do find it, how can I keep them out? Ultimately, I would like the PCs to learn that the EC has been gathering Qabalin lore in order to create an emerald reanimator. Since some of the relics they have studied are fakes, the eldritch machine they create will be fatally flawed. Thousands of people could die when it activates. I need to get them to focus on that new piece of information, not tear the Freighter apart board by board.
#2 unrulycow Oct 29, 2010 15:08:45	They could be hiding anything from the mundane stockpiled supplies for expeditions/money to more fake artefacts.  Perhap the PCs find crates packed up and ready to ship filled with more fakes.  Maybe your secret passage can only be accessed by a member of the EC.  There is a religous (not arcana) seal on the door/ceiling/floor that only allows an initiate in the EC to see it unless a sufficiently high DC is met.  Perhaps you could have the PC's find a note on a desk or corpse, maybe encrypted or something so it stands out.  The note could hint at the complexity of making such a machine and the consequences if it fails.  "...I just hope we are using these artefacts properly, but if not, at least there wont be anyone alive to punish us."