Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Griffin2099 Jun 21, 2015 21:46:05	Hi, before I go any further I am going to admit that this issue is entirely my fault. Now please help me out.   I have the group in the Shadow Marches exploring Slug Keep, lured there for two reasons, the rumor of a "Great Power" that can be found in Slug Keep and one of the players fathers has gone to the Keep and never returned.   They entered Slug Keep and med Mordachai the Shadow, a Revenant without the Revenge stuff who can not travel more than about 3 days from the Keep before falling apart. Mordachai was transformed into a Revenant by a Magical experiment that used Energy from Mabar.   It turns out that Slug Keep was a Research Station established early in the reign of King Galifar the first, primarily researching Mabar, Xoriat and Dal Quor, I also included an area for personal study by the research Mage Wrights that introduced some wierd stuff.   My problem comes from me not paying attention to my notes and getting a bit lost, the Keep was largely abandoned about 100 years ago, the Administrator leaving at the beggining of the Last War and most of the staff trickiling off after that leaving Mordachai alone.   In that time a few Orc Clansmen and a Group of Dwarven Treasure Seekers are the only ones he knows have entered the Keep, and no one can get out without Mordachai making an "Amulet of Passage" (Basically a swipe card) to get around the security features.   But, The group found three Kalashtar (Well two Kalashtar and an Inspired) that had been bought into the Keep over the last three years, See how I didn't look at my notes enough.   I have introduced a way around the security measures, someone got in and then setup a Teleport Area in an out of the way place. Basically magic writting on a brick that acts as an anchor for an object that will teleport someone to a space with a specific anchor point setup. Originally the Kalashtar would have been abducted by the Scientists 100 or more years ago but now I have another sub plot to work out (not dissapointed but at a bit of a loss)   Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.
#2 EnderXenocide0 Jun 22, 2015 13:41:22	Hm. Perhaps I'm misreading this... but I don't see where your issue lies. You were worried about how the Kalashtar got in/out and so you introduced the teleportation anchor, yes? Did that not solve the problem? Or is the problem elsewhere that I'm missing?
#3 Griffin2099 Jun 22, 2015 16:57:09	Mostly It's that I hate having dangling plot threads, I have a number on the go where I have introduced something but not had any idea where to go with it.   1. a gold tooth found in the Shadow Marches swamp (in a skull) the tooth reads as magical and has an icon of a triangle rising out of a circle. 2. An ornate Belt Buckle with an emblem of a pattern that hurts the eye to follow. Taken from an orc chieftain who was strangely hostile to the group. 3. Rumors of a Dragon nesting near the home town of some of the PC's 4. A Goblin who has become the servant of one of the players, I keep insinuating he knows more than he lets on but have no idea what that might be. 5. One of the players has an experimental Flaming Sword (Named Fluffy) that he has fumbled with on a few occasions launching the flame up his arm, where the flames have touched him he has started to turn into living Bronze. I have no idea why. 6. One of the players has a Father and Brothers that have dissapeared in the Byeshk mountains. 7. One player has a letter from House Tharashk for the leader of House Vadalis, No real idea what thats all about but I introduced it so hey it should be fun to find out. 8. The players recently spoke with a member of the Magebred Humans in Cyre, they live in Droaam, I'm hoping that by the time they get there (if ever) I'll know what that adventure is going to be about.   There are others but these are the ones I'm teasing around in my brain at the moment.   So yeah, just looking for help on who this guy could be and why he would be kidnapping Kalashtar.
#4 Beoric Jun 22, 2015 21:33:47	Well, since he is not discriminating between Kalashtar and Inspired, it must have something to do with the connection to the quori spirits.  But I think we need more details if you want an answer that has a connection to what is already going on in your campaign.  Who are the Kalashtar and Inspired, for instance, and what has he been doing to them?
#5 Griffin2099 Jun 22, 2015 23:43:03	The Kalashtar are at this point pretty generic, one was a woman working in an alchemists shop the other a man who worked as a courier. Both taken in Sharn with no idea of who took them. The Inspired was a female Rhiedran Ambassadorial Aid. Also taken from Sharn.   The three of them where kept in large cylinders filled with green liquid, no scars on them. When they had been found by the part they had been removed from the cylinders and strapped to tables and looked as though they where going to be used in some experiment by the Dolgaunt that had strapped them down.   Originally I had planned to introduce them as a way of showing that Psyonics are important in Eberron / introduce a little more Eberron flavor into the game. The experiments being run on them would have been around the connection to Dal Quor and how the spirits connect to the human host. Which I can still do. But who would be interested in that and be working alone? It doesn't sound like something the Chamber, the Aurum, the BoV or the Lords of Dust would be interested in. At least not from what I know.   Given that the group lives in Droaam it might be interesting to have the Daughters of Sora Kell investigating dreams. But I already have them involved in a few plotsthe players have yet to come across.
(Reply to #5) EnderXenocide0	The Daelkyr, a Cult of the Dragon Below, or any given mad scientist/wizard/artificer! It doesn't have to be a particularly well-established Eberron group. Personally, I'd say choose whatever works best for your overall story. Since you're in the Shadow Marches, it's a ripe opportunity to introduce the Gatekeeper/Daelkyr remnant conflict. Maybe the dolgaunt is under the instruction of Dyrrn the Corruptor (my personal favorite Daelkyr) and is experimenting with how the Quori have found two different ways of merging with a body. Maybe the Daelkyr thinks this is its escape from Khyber. If it can only understand the process... Keep in mind, the motives of the Daelkyr are alien and sometimes incomprehensible. It may seem absolutely insane to a normal person, but in their alien mind, whatever they're doing makes perfect sense. I'd suggest using that tactic sparingly, though, and only if you intend on actually delving into the Daelkyr as a main focus at some point.   As for your other plot points, here's some random suggestions:   1. The gold tooth belonged to an old Gatekeeper orc from ages ago. The rune inscribed on it was meant as protection from aberrations and similar creatures. But it wasn't particularly strong magic and it is fading with time... 2. The orc chieftan hears whispers day and night. He can't sleep. The can't hear himself think. They're driving him mad, but he dare not tell anyone, or the younger orcs may make a play for leadership. Really, he's hearing the whispers of the ghost of some long-dead, crazed artificer who made the belt. What strange purpose does it serve? Is it cursed? What happens when the player starts hearing the whispers? 3. The players are approached by a wealthy businessman asking them to retreive an item from the dragon's horde for him. He's heard of their adventures and thinks they can pull it off. To make matters worse, he tells them that the dragon has been terrorizing local villages, razing them and stealing treasures. When the players find the dragon, it's distracted, contemplating hundreds of strange symbols in a cave. The dragon is old and can't put up much of a fight if they provoke it. The man thanks them, pays them, and departs. It's only later they hear that the dragon wasn't responsible for the attacks on the village, but rather a wealthy-looking sorcerer matching the description of the businessman... 4. The goblin is actually a Duur'kala from the Kech Volaar (if female) or a Sharaat'kesh assassin (if male). Either way, the goblin is from Darguun on a secret mission out west, searching for a lost Dhakaani artifact. The item has something to do with the Daelkyr Wars. 5. The sword was in Cyre on the Day of Mourning. It was being forged by a master smith who used powerful magic. The smith saw the arcane energy rolling in from the distance. He had no means of escape, so he chose to finish his sword as his legacy. He finished it just as the energy washed over it... and something went wrong. 6. The father and brother happened to be traveling near a byeshk ore mine in the mountains. Their disappearance happened at the same time that the mining crew stopped reporting in. The only traces left at the mines is a strange ooze seeping from the mineshaft walls. 7. House Tharashk was mining for Dragonshards in Xen'drik when they stumbled across some strange creatures in magical stasis in the ruins of an old Giant complex. They send a letter to House Vadalis asking for assistance in understanding what these creatures are. 8. I don't actually know anything about magebred human in cyre, but they're clearly related to House Vadalis... so maybe Vadalis had a secret facility in Cyre that went up in flames on the Day of Mourning. They assumed their tests went with the facility... but some of them survived. They tell the players they were abducted against their will and experimented on. Now they want proof of Vadalis' wrongdoing exposed to the public. And they want the party's help.
#7 Beoric Jun 23, 2015 19:30:35	Your current storyline, and items 1, 2 and 7 seem to have potential connections to the Shadow Marches.  I would be inclined to tie them together somehow.  So say Slug Keep was the base for a daelkyr who had a particular interest in mortal dreams.  He was a good daelkyr, who realized that (from a daelkyr perspective) mortal dreams make much more sense than their waking thoughts.  He wanted to help the mortal of Eberron by forcing them into a permenant dream state, or merging Dal Quor with Eberron, or whatever else might fit your overall plot.   He is now imprisoned in Khyber, but his cultists have occupied the keep and are attempting to make "sense" of his notes and equipment.  They are convinced that they can make contact with their deity if they can make a connection with the world of dreams, and are continuing his work to try to merge the two planes.    The Dreaming Dark has become aware of this research, and is encouraging it through the dreams of the cultists.  They also encouraged the capture of the kalashtar for experimentation, as well as the capture of the Inspired to act as a sort of anchor to make it easier to find the dreams of the cultists (the quori spirit doesn't care about the capture, since it can possess or leave the chosen vessel as it pleases.  The Dark is subtly directing the research to learn more about the spirit connection, and to try to find a way to manifest physically using empty vessels as a conduit.   The golden tooth is a gatekeeper artifact dating back to the war of the daelkyr, and was designed to protect the dreams of the user from the predations of the daelkyr in question.  It is in the form of a tooth because in order to worm properly it must be implanted in the skull, and the easiest way to do this was to implant it in the upper jaw.  It will be of significant importance in a Dreaming Dark campaign.   Meanwhile, the Dreaming Dark has been influencing Vadalis to recommence its magebred humans program, with a view to creating an improved form of empty vessel (or poriibly a better conduit for a physical manifestation).  Vadalis has been using Tharashk operatives to find breeding stock.  The letter is either in relation to that project; or the Gatekeepers in the house, who are familiar with the stories of this particular daelkyr, are seeing similarities between what the daelkyr were doing and what Vadailis is now doing, and are expressing their concerns.  (I just realized, you can probably tie this into the magebred tread you mentioned as item 8.)  (Or here is another thought, maybe the resarch is to build physical quori vessels in Eberron (i.e. they look like quori and have the same powers, but are empty vessels that can be possessed by the quori of Dal Quor).   In any event, the Slug Keep research, and the Vadalis research, are related parts of a bigger project which is being directed from Dal Quor.    I'm not sure what to do with the orc chieftain.  I would need more about the story with him, where he falls in the campaign timeline relation to the ourney to Slug Keep, and how his hostility expressed itself before I could do anything with that.  The belt buckle could be a daelkyr artifact, or the pattern on it could a a holy symbol for the daelkyr's cult.   Also, your players may have some cool theories as to what is going on with one hook or another.  Listen to them, and feel free to rip them off (and won't your players be pleased to have got it right!).
#8 Griffin2099 Jun 23, 2015 22:07:46	Wow, I think I like some of those better than the solutions I had come up with.   The Overall story is a "Rod of Seven Parts" style adventure, gather information and artiacts in order to dstroy Baelshyra. I started with the Khyber Harvest adventrue from 4e where the players obtained the Coat of Eyes, from here they have learned that the Coat can be used in a ceremony to kill the Lord of Eyes but they don't know what the ceremony entails. During the adventure one of the party has become attached to a psychic gauntlet.   They travelled to the Shadow Marches to talk to House Tharashk and / or the Gatekeepers in order to have the Gauntlet removed but the player was told that in order for the ceremony to be completed they would need an Impure Prince (someone infected with a symbiote but still in control of themselves)   If everything goes to plan after the next adventure (a Gnoll / Minotaur war in Droaam) they should be off to either Sharn to visit an NPC at Morgrave or the Eldeen Reaches to try and get a limb off Oalian.   The full components of the ceremony are Three secially named Dragon Shards The Heart of Khyber (Khyber Shard) The Eye of Syberris (Syberris Shard) The Will of Eberron (Eberron Shard) The Ash from an Awakened Oak Powdered Crysteel   and the sword Krazzat'kyr (Forged by the Dhakaani during the Daelkyr wars and destroyed not long after) To get the sword they will have to collect Byeshk, Flametouched Iron and livewood. One of the party is a Smith so we are building up that character and he'll probably forge the sword (he already forged the experimental sword listed above), but that has to be done in a manifest zone to Thelaniss.   The know that there is a prophecy and that they need some of the materials above but aren't really invested in the quest as yet, next session I plan to let them know that Baelshyra thinks they are directly linked to the prophecy and is trying to havethem killed, in that way getting them motivated to kill him first.   They went to Slug Keep as a side quest to find one of the Characters lost Fathers and found that this was one of 13 laboratories scattered through Khorvaire. The orb that acts as a conferencing system between the labs is how they encountered the Magebred Human in Cyre while being on the other side of the continent.   You may notice that I have pulled shamelessly from Eberron books and source material :P
#9 Beoric Jun 24, 2015 20:24:55	If the players aren't invested in your scavenger hunt yet, my advice would be for you to not invest too much in it either, at least not at this stage.  Wait until the players find something that does interest them, and then start building the overall plot around that.