I know Cannith West is more involved with diplomacy, and thus far he's had fun doing joint ventures with a few of the other houses, but I'm not really sure where I can go with that sort of thing. He's very focused on "what will help my side of the house do better" but has a player goal of eventually putting himself in the running to be the next Baron. I can use Jorlanna for some things; he has expressed wanting her to become his patron at some point, and actually made his character Jorlanna's secret son, officially a house foundling after manifesting a mark of making. I'm also planning on some politicking, with Cannith South trying to bring the PC over to their side to become a Cyre Scout/Xendrik adventurer for them.
So? Does anyone have ideas on what kinds of adventures/situations would be fun for a Cannith more interested in gaining prestige than building magic items?
I'm running a solo Eberron game and my player is a member of Cannith West. We've just finished his first adventure and I have another planned, but after that I'm not sure what directions or threads would be relevent for his PC.
I know Cannith West is more involved with diplomacy, and thus far he's had fun doing joint ventures with a few of the other houses, but I'm not really sure where I can go with that sort of thing. He's very focused on "what will help my side of the house do better" but has a player goal of eventually putting himself in the running to be the next Baron. I can use Jorlanna for some things; he has expressed wanting her to become his patron at some point, and actually made his character Jorlanna's secret son, officially a house foundling after manifesting a mark of making. I'm also planning on some politicking, with Cannith South trying to bring the PC over to their side to become a Cyre Scout/Xendrik adventurer for them.
So? Does anyone have ideas on what kinds of adventures/situations would be fun for a Cannith more interested in gaining prestige than building magic items?
Well as House Cannith suffered pretty much the worst from the Last War, I've always seen them as the House that the most hungry, most desperate to regain it's status. As such I'd see them heaping prestige for recovering lost relics and artifacts from previous eras as well as objects from the Mournlands that survived. Also now that the House as a whole are no longer (legaly) allowed to create new Warforged, they're in a pinch to fill that hole.
Also Cannith seems to be the House that could work universally with any other House. The Lightning Rail, flying ships, etc... negotiating with other Houses to make more unique, powerful magic items seems right up their alley as well imo.
I ended up churning out a plot somewhat unrelated to Cannith itself. I'm going to spend most of heroic tier giving the PC missions that 1.) get him into contact with potential allies and 2.) establish the rivalry going on between Cannith's three branches. These missions will involve retrieving artifacts, ferreting out sabotage, and fortifying diplomatic relations between the other houses and nations. I'll let the other branches try to convince the PC to their side, so if he sees opportunity doing something else he's free to go to Cannith South/East; it might make for some good drama, forcing him to choose his loyalties.
During this time I'll hint that something big is stirring, probably via the Draconic Prophecy (as he and a Sivis gnome encountered it during his first adventure). I think I'll try to make something vague like "a shattered house seeks power, leaving ruin in its wake", and have the NPC's opinion be that the "shattered house" is probably House Cannith. But then (twist!) House Tarkanan will start making overt moves. I'm not decided on if Tarkanan will be trying to seize legitimacy in the Five Nations/the outer nations (Droaam or Q'Barra might be a good spot for that) or if they're caught attacking the Twelve; maybe both, with Thora's group concerned with establishing themselves and the Son of Khyber's group making the first assaults in what could very well be the next War of the Mark.
Choosing to make House Tarkanan more prominent and actively dangerous should help shake up the status-quo of the houses, and give my boyfriend's PC more opportunities to rise through the ranks and take leadership positions himself despite lacking a traditional background. Plus, it should prevent intrigue-overload by allowing for an open antagonist as opposed to setting him against someone like Merrix d'Cannith, who can't really be fought and who openly attacking actually creates more problems than it solves. I'm also opting to make the Five Nations more background noise that anything; House Cannith doesn't want to start any trouble with the nations, but nor will they be very invested in their politics and troubles.
I'm, of course, open to any feedback.