Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 neosocrates Oct 19, 2010 19:24:02	I apologize if something like this has been asked about before, but given how awful the search function is in these forums, I wasn't able to locate anything especially helpful.  Thanks in advance to those who offer any suggestions. I'm currently running a campaign set in Eberron that's been going on for about 10 months now.  We started at 1st level, playing the little adventure in the back of the Campaign Guide which began on the Day of Mourning.  When they finished the module, the party gained employment with House Sivis (one of the party members is a Dragonmarked gnome from that family).  I had them running errands for the House at first, but at 7th or 8th level they did the Forbidden Forge adventure from Dungeon 167 .  Since they captured it (and even before that to some extent), I've been setting up a major conflict between House Sivis and the remnants of House Cannith. After gathering some spare parts in Xen'drik to refit the creation forge (for purposes I have yet to reveal to my group), the party finally returned to the forge--which I've given the name "Sivisforge"--and were tasked with retrieving one final component: a Master Forge Key.  The only known locations of such keys, however, are in former Cyre, at Metrol, Eston, and Whitehearth.  Since Whitehearth is just across the border from Sivisforge (located in the mountains of Darguun, just west of the Mournland), the group seems keen on going there. So here's my question: what would be some good encounters to throw at the party while in the Mournland?  I'm planning on running the skill challenge of navigating the mists, and then having them fight some of the undead that constantly refight the battle at the Saerun Road, but I'm really not sure what else to throw at them, particularly for what they encounter at Whitehearth.  Since I've already taken them through an experimental creation forge facility--the Dungeon magazine adventure--I don't want to merely give them a repeat of that.  To make things more difficult, the monsters included in the Mournland section of the ECG are not particularly useful for me.  I'm not really interested in having them fight magebred humans (although I might be persuaded otherwise if someone had a good idea of how to incorporate them organically in my campaign), and they're too low level to fight the Lord of Blades and his croneys. What I'm looking for first are suggestions for level appropriate monsters.  The party is now level 10, but since I play a high magic campaign, they are probably more like low paragon-tier (11, 12, maybe even 13) in their abilities.  On top of that, though, I'd love ideas for interesting combats or non-combat encounters that played to some of the themes of my campaign: the Prophecy (especiallly as it appeared in that first adventure from the ECG), the competition between Sivis and Cannith, and the search for magical artifacts relating to warforged technologies.  What should be going on at Whitehearth now?  Who is "in charge"?  What was going on there prior to the Day of Mourning?  And what happened there immediately after Cyre was destroyed? I plan on doing about 3-4 sessions in Cyre, with my first being this Thursday.  I think I have material for that session, covering the road to Whitehearth, but I'm not sure about what to do when they get there.  (If it helps, I'm not particularly familiar with 3E Eberron, so I don't know if there was material published from that edition which I could adapt.  So even suggestions like, check out this book, or this old issue of Dungeon, would be helpful.) Thanks again for any help!  I'll be happy to answer further questions about my campaign if that makes providing suggestions any easier.
#2 Talae Oct 19, 2010 22:44:21	I wish I had more time to answer you right now, but I can send you in the right direction. Check the stickied thread in this forum section (Eberron - List of Resources) and look over the first post for something akin to "1001 Mournland Encounters."
#3 Madfox11 Oct 20, 2010 8:12:33	The novel Fading Dream by Keith contains some fairly interesting and lethal Mournland encounters. Thunderstorms that dissolve flesh. Trees that drain the blood of the living and a mist that has a particularly nasty effect on those traversing it. It certainly impresses the nastyness of the place.
#4 neosocrates Oct 21, 2010 13:50:02	Thanks to both of you for getting me started.  I should have looked over the stickied post in greater detail. Unfortunately, Talae, I can't seem to find a link named anything like "1001 Mournland Encounters" in that first post.  If you have a moment, or if someone else knows off hand and wants to step in, could you perhaps provide the link here?  Thanks much.
#5 Talae Oct 22, 2010 17:21:39	community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...
#6 hademair Oct 23, 2010 14:07:00	The ECG provides good inspiration here: the entrance to Whitehearth is a mineshaft. We all know how dangerous an abandoned adamantine mine can be, especially if choked with dead-gray mist and stalked by foulspawn, demons, and elementals. The mines eventually give way to a vast irradiated cavern, crackling with raw energy, and this is where Whitehearth still stands, as if the Mourning never happened. It was in fact designed to be a "fallout shelter" of sorts--engineered by someone with insidious foreknowledge of the events to unfold--and Cannith agents still toil there with an otherworldly vigor... are they undead? Their task is to infuse warforged with the elemental energy that naturally occurs in those caverns. But Whitehearth is not a creation forge. In fact, it is more of a warehouse, and a subterranean rail line still ships warforged prototypes there. But it is also a site of ghastly research, where beasts of Khyber are hauled in for combat trials against "enhanced" models. Of course, for a place like this to make any sense, there would have to be a market for these war machines.... Good luck!