Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Griffin2099 Apr 16, 2015 17:27:49	Hi everyone,   I'm running a game for players that have a home base in northern Droaam, long story short mosrt of the players are dwarves who have been exiled from their home in the Byeshk Mountains (theres a longer story but it's not overly important to the rest of the post), and I have been seeding a plotline about a war between the Znir Brotherhood and the Minotaur worshipers of the Horned prince led by Kraggash (my homebrew warlord that controls the region the players live in).   So far my idea is that one of the Lords of Dust (or a minion) is leading Kraagash to sacrifice being imbued with Demonic energy and collect that energy into an Eberron shard in Kraagash's chest, the most common demonic infused entities being Gnolls the Minotaurs have started capturing and killing the Znir Brotherhood.   The overall scheme is that the LoD would then use the labyrinth scars on Kraagash together with the Demonically infused Shard to open a portal to one of the Overlords (I'm thinking Tul Oreshka) and drain a lot of her power.   I'd like most of this to escalate into a full Minotaur Vs Gnoll war, with an attack on Znir itself.   So far I've accounted for the Daughters of Sora Keel by going with the idea that they want to weaken the Lords of Dust influence in Droaam by discovering and killing the organiser of the war but also want the Shard for their own purposes so they are waiting for the close of the scheme before acting.   I also have a troop of Thrane soldiers led by a Paladin coming in becuase the Silver flame has delivered a warning about a great demonic awakening in Droaam, these are mostly an introduction to the Players to bring them up to speed on Thrane and the Silver Flame.   Any other ideas people have that could help me out here?
#2 Beoric Apr 17, 2015 6:41:52	Breland would build up its defences to avoid the war spilling over, while at the same time do what it could to foment the war in order to weaken Doaam's forces overall.  It might choose one side over the other:  the Znir are about as civilized as Droaam gets, while the minotaurs pose a greater threat for raiding.  On the other hand, in the long term, the Znir are probably Droaam's best bet for a standing army, but Breland may not take Droaam seriously enough as a nation to really consider that.   Tharashk would want to promote peace to ensure a stable supply of mercenaries (it they are fighting each other, they can't fight for Tharashk), and to prevent tension among mercenaries in their own units, while Deneith would want to foment trouble for the opposite reason.   What is the relationshp between Kraggash and Rhesh Turakbar?   The Znir and the minotaurs of Turakbar's Fist have to cross Xor'chylic's territory to fight each other.  Unless the mind flayer is behind it all for some reason, this will almost certainly upset whaterver his plans are, and he will respond accordingly.  Minotaurs being less disciplined than Znir, they soon cause trouble in Graywall and are expelled; either the mind flayer eats the brain of someone important to the minotaurs, or the gnolls start using Graywall as a marshalling area.  Either activity gets Graywall attacked by minotaurs, and Xor'chylic starts attacking any force that comes into his territory, giving particular attention to the minotaurs.   Tereza surely knows what Kraggash is doing, and may have even told her sisters about it.  However, she has her own agenda, which inevitably involves the PCs, and is at times at odds with her sisters.   Kethelrax the Cunning has been trying to convince Tharashk to hire kobold trapsmiths in competition with House Kundarak (a plot element from my own campaign), and sees this as an opportunity to showcase their talents.  He offers to lend Xor'chylic a few squads to turn the area around Graywall into a deadly no-man's-land.  They outdo themselves.   The Wind Howler harpies under Callain lend support to the minotaurs to try to disrupt the Sisters' plans.  The Sisters are in a difficult position:  they can't allow the trade in Graywall between Droaam and the Five Nations to be disrupted, but have a limited ability to do anything about it.  They can't order the minotaurs to stand down, because they may not be able to force the issue when the minotaurs refuse, which weakens their position; doing nothing also weakens their position, but more slowly.  They can't rely on the other warlords to help.  If they lend their own troops to one side or the other, they (a) make the Great Cragg vulnerable to attack from other warlords, and (b) risk destabilizing things further by showing favouritism toward a particular faction.    Unless it becomes clear that the Znir are going to win, the Sisters take the official position that they will not interfere in petty squabbling between warlods, support Xor'chylic in preventing raids and keeping Graywall open for business, and try to manipulate matters in favour of the Znir.  They try to prevent Wind Howler harpies from travelling through their domain, and ensure that the Brass Talon harpies know when the Wind Howlers pass through theirs.  They revy heavily on covert, deniable operaters to undermine the minotaurs.  Like the PCs.   Maenya takes a peacekeeping force to patrol the Graywall area.  The irony of this does not escape her.  The Sisters also lean on Tharashk to do the same, and Tharashk is only too happy to comply.  Katra divides her time between making sure the other warlords don't use this as an opportunity for mischief, and assuring the Five Nations that everything is under control.   That's all I've got for now.
#3 Griffin2099 Apr 17, 2015 16:22:10	Wow, thanks for that. I haven't been able to find many npc's of either race in eberron, I know about the minotaurs of Turakbars Fist but I'm pretty much making up the other players from scratch.           Most of the PC stuff will be up north I think ( unless they surprise me and just leave, that's happened before :p)   I really like the Kobold stuff, I hadn't thought much about other races and how they will react.   anyone have any idea what makes Minotaur and Gnoll society different from humans?   I see gnoll (or at least the znir) as a society of recovering addicts, trying to deny and expunge the demonic essence inside themselves, most gnoll shave an odd and savage sense of humour that humans usually don't get. I really like the ancestor worship side of their world, I tend to think that a lot of the bones a gnoll wears are from family members, and the rest are object of personal glory, sort of a reminder of what they can accomplish without worshiping an overlord.   Minotaurs I see as being the ultimate munchkin, power for power sake and the sort of mind that works all the angles to get it, hence the labyrinth, not overly smart but able to make connections and intuitive leaps. They have almost no interest in objects, followers or money as much as the power that comes from them, they worship the horned prince because they see that the world is theirs to devour feeling no need to give back.   So, is that different enough or am I just working with odd humans?
#4 Beoric Apr 17, 2015 21:20:45	There is a little bit on Znir society in Keith Baker's book, The Queen of Stone.  They have a particular flavour in that book, which is hard to put into words.  If I recall correctly, their society was relatively orderly, with a sort of tribal wisdom to it, and a shaministic religious tradition.  Sort of like if First Nations peoples had been given the opportunity to coexist with european cultures without suffering the impacts of colonialism.  The Znir have never been subjugated, and never sought to subjugate others.  I remember someone once asked Keith what the Znir would think of other gnolls who still followed Yeenoghu, and he said something like the Znir thought of other gnolls as violent savages.  Read the book, it is a good read anyway and gives some nice insight into monster psychology.   Minotaurs seems to be one of those rare Eberron races that actually play to the traditional DnD type:  chaotic and violent.  Rhesh Turakbar, warlord of Turakbar's Fist, is described as massive, covered in dark fur and scars, with his teeth filed to points.  He follows Baphomet (as per traditional DnD canon), and sacrifices captives to him.  The Sisters barely tolerate him as it is, so if the minotaurs cause more trouble I have no doubt that they would try to have him removed.  His armies include gnolls who rejected the Znir pact, harpies, minotaurs of Turakbar's clan, orcs of the Bloood Eye tribe, ogres and demons (especially goristros).  The walls of their fortress are painted with the blood of their foes.  Pretty much the whole clan are demon worshippers.   I forgot to mention Grimstone Keep, which is between Turakbar's Fist and the Great Cragg.  It is run by gargoyles, led by the nabassu gargoyle Cairngorm, and also has troll troops.  The hags don't trust Cairngorm, and it is possible the Wind Howlers could make some sort of deal with him.  However, the trolls report back to the hags, so they would have to be circumspect.
#5 Breefolk Apr 21, 2015 20:48:09	I don't really have anything worth adding at this point, but I just want to say that I think the whole concept you've put together sounds like a really good story!
#6 Ogiwan May 18, 2015 10:13:56	In terms of tactics, I can see the Znir Pact relying on traditional light infantry tactics, since they are outclassed in a stand up fight with 'taurs.
#7 Beoric May 18, 2015 20:31:59	More or less like hyenas taking on lions, I would think.  Hyenas with bows.
#8 Hellcow May 19, 2015 18:47:31	Beoric wrote:
#9 Ogiwan May 20, 2015 9:53:23	So, like I said: light infantry tactics. Raids, ambushes, night attacks, etc.