Merrix d'Cannith Idea - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

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#1 MarcelusDragonsbane Mar 17, 2014 20:13:13	Ok, so I am trying to come up with a campaign based around intrigue, which is harder than I thought. Basically, I want to create a campaign that can immerse my players in the world of Eberron and, ultimately, take down Merrix d'Cannith and thwart a Lord of Dust member. Thus far, the idea I have come up with is based around the idea that Merrix d'Cannith is furious at the loss of Warforged production after the last war. In my campaign, Merrix sees the fractured nations as a weak and archaic form of control, and believes that the world is just trying to hold of the ineivitable: Capitalism. Now Merrix understands that there are 13 dragonmarked houses, but he knows without a shadow of a doubt that his house is first and foremost among them. After seeing the profits of some houses like Lyrandar soar (heh) because of house cannith produced items, Merrix has decided that delivering the goods through a third party just isn't going to cut it. Unfortunately, the whole restriction on certain items being able to only be used by members of a house with the correct dragonmark makes things immensely difficult. Merrix realizes that to gain control over the economic wealth of the land, he is going to have to accomplish a few things: 1. Find a way to use the devices without relying on the help of other houses. 2. Find a way to make USING these items without the other houses LEGAL 3. Make the people of the nations and the houses WANT house Cannith to sell these items with the bypass method. So I have some of his diabolical plot written out, but there are some holes to fill. 1. To bypass the "locks" on the items, Merrix has discovered an interesting solution in the mournland: The Empress. As you may know, Empress Donata is maxing our her Crazyiness Ability score by attempted to be magical hitler and create the magebred master race. Merrix sees an interesting opportunity here: A lab to test on humans and dragonmarks in a land noone would dare go to and a built in scapegoat. So here is the plan: send an exorciated renegade to offer expertise and provide maintenence on the machines needed for the breeding program. In reality, the renegade mastermind is trying to direct the breeding techniques to create a sifferent sort of master race: humans of cannith bloodlines with other types of dragonmarks. Why is this genius? Merrix can have dark research done in such a way that, if found out, there is already a ringleader in place to take the fall, and a ring leader with a much more obvious goal in mind (master race to eliminate all other races!) to take any focus off of his renegades work within the same facility. Also, this gains leverage for him over house vadalis when it comes time for the vote (see part 2 of dark evil plan) 2. Merrix has figured out a way to make his house look like the heroes and that is by manipulating each remaining house into a position where they either must side with his plans or risk the entire house fallen into ruin. His plans for the houses are as follows: 1. Orien: House Orien is slowly slipping in status with Lyrandar's success in the travel and shipping department. After the loss of Cyre, causing the lightning rail through there to become nearly unusable, Orien's coffers have been depleting. A few more destroyed lightning rails can lead to certain doom for the house... 2. Lyrandar:...and create great success for Lyrandar! Lyrandar's demand for business will skyrocket, leading the house to request more airships be built, which is great.... 3. Thurask: ....if it were not for the depeletion of dragonshards. It seems that an bnormal amount of sites being mined for dragonshards are coming under attack from mysterious agents and new sites for claims are being jumped on before the house can get the rights to the area (This is caused by a new ally of Merrix's. An ally who has been around for a very long time and has very good knowledge of the depths of khyber). This looks bad for the relatively new house, so they are having to start investing more money into their bounty hunting services, much to the chagrin of... 4. Deneith: ...House Deneith, who is not too happy about losing their business to a bunch of bounty hunters. Luckily for them, there are plenty of things to investigate and criminals to be brought to justice due to the influx of attacks on orien's operations, which can start to spread the house thin. To make matters more complicated, denieth is getting very little help from.... 5. Medani:....the inquisitives of Medani, who are currently investigating the both the abrupt profit risings of Lyrandar and the rumors of abberent dragonmark sitings accross the nations, seemingly coming from the mournland. I have yet to figure out how to incorporate the other houses. This is problem 1 I am running into. The idea is the eventually force a vote in which the nations force the houses to release their monopoly on their respective dealings, opening up a more competitive market in which House Cannith can surely find themselves easily on top. 3. Merrix wants to put the nations at the brink of war again. To do this, he has found a few allies to help him in this endeavor. Order of the Emerald Claw: Merrix has secretly been giving the Order of the Emerald Claw House Orien Shipping Manifests and they have been taking advantage of this opportunity. to supply their organization and in turn the Blood of Vol. If this were to come to light and officials were to find the hidden stores of supplies in churches across Karrnath, this could look quite bad on King Kauis's proclamations of peace. Thrane seems to be brimming for war. The High Cardinal, Krozan, seems to be upping the churches presence in the political realm and is aggressively attempting to expand Thrane's borders to regain land lost during the war. This is of course enraging Karrnath and Aundair. Some whisper that Krozan too speaks to a voice in the Flame, the voice of its shadow This is the second problem. Including the other two nations, and even the fledgeling nations. I am trying to sprinkle in the lords of dust through this plot. My goal is to have the PCs take down Merrix around late paragon, early epic only to discover that his downfall at the hands of the heroes were part of the prophecy they needed fulfilled to begin the release of the Overlord hidden in the silver flame. I think. I can use a little help on this. How do I include the other nations and the other dragonmarked houses into this plot?
#2 Beoric Mar 18, 2014 9:10:55	I am not sure that, by cannon, the Houses have a legal mnopoly in their respective fields. I think that their monopolies result more from the competitive advantage created by dragonmarks. There is no reason why you can't make your Eberron that way, but may i suggest an alternative: that what Merrix is really looking for is to create a situation where the Nations support a Cannith alternative. Maybe they can do it faster or more securely. In any event, I think Merrix would face some opposition from the other two heads of Cannith, Jorlanna and Zorlan. Jorlanna would have some influence in Audair, and Zorlan would have influence in Karrnath. In addition, both Orien and Lyrandar are headquartered in Aundair, which likely supports Aundair's economy; I expect Aundair would be be a tough nut for Merrix to crack. Both Aundair and Karrnath could get behind openeing up lightning rail passage to Karrnath for those reasons. Expect government funding of studies to enhance the Marks of Storm and especially Passage. Since it would be tough for Merrix to keep widely-known secrets from the higher-ups in Cannix, word would eventually leak to Jorlanna and Zorlan about what he was attempting. I would guess they would start plotting to expose his hidden creation forge, which would likely influence Breland's and Thrane's positions. Note Jorlanna also has influence with the Twelve. I would also expect that someone from Vadalis would be trying to find out what was happening at Clifftop with their magebred human program, which is how you can get Vadalis involved. Plus, it could be a Vadalis excoriate that Merrix sends into the Mournland. Merrix would need to find some way to keep Vadalis distracted, maybe generating constructs to compete with magebred animals, or building a device that would make magebred animals behave erraticly. His best attack on Sivis would be to create a printing press, telegraph, or equivalent. I would think Ghallanda and Jorasco would be tough for him to compete with.
#3 Hellcow Mar 18, 2014 9:31:43	I am not sure that, by cannon, the Houses have a legal mnopoly in their respective fields. I think that their monopolies result more from the competitive advantage created by dragonmarks. There is no reason why you can't make your Eberron that way, but may i suggest an alternative: that what Merrix is really looking for is to create a situation where the Nations support a Cannith alternative. Maybe they can do it faster or more securely.
#4 MarcelusDragonsbane Mar 18, 2014 10:21:27	I forgot about the Twelve (how did I forget about the Twelve). This well help immensely in creating a storyline. The whole ambiguous vote idea for no reason was killing me in this hahahaha. Thanks you guys. To the drawing board!!

Post/Author/DateTime

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MarcelusDragonsbane

Mar 17, 2014 20:13:13

Ok, so I am trying to come up with a campaign based around intrigue, which is harder than I thought. Basically, I want to create a campaign that can immerse my players in the world of Eberron and, ultimately, take down Merrix d'Cannith and thwart a Lord of Dust member.

Thus far, the idea I have come up with is based around the idea that Merrix d'Cannith is furious at the loss of Warforged production after the last war. In my campaign, Merrix sees the fractured nations as a weak and archaic form of control, and believes that the world is just trying to hold of the ineivitable: Capitalism.

Now Merrix understands that there are 13 dragonmarked houses, but he knows without a shadow of a doubt that his house is first and foremost among them. After seeing the profits of some houses like Lyrandar soar (heh) because of house cannith produced items, Merrix has decided that delivering the goods through a third party just isn't going to cut it. Unfortunately, the whole restriction on certain items being able to only be used by members of a house with the correct dragonmark makes things immensely difficult. Merrix realizes that to gain control over the economic wealth of the land, he is going to have to accomplish a few things:

1. Find a way to use the devices without relying on the help of other houses.

2. Find a way to make USING these items without the other houses LEGAL

3. Make the people of the nations and the houses WANT house Cannith to sell these items with the bypass method.

So I have some of his diabolical plot written out, but there are some holes to fill.

1. To bypass the "locks" on the items, Merrix has discovered an interesting solution in the mournland: The Empress. As you may know, Empress Donata is maxing our her Crazyiness Ability score by attempted to be magical hitler and create the magebred master race. Merrix sees an interesting opportunity here: A lab to test on humans and dragonmarks in a land noone would dare go to and a built in scapegoat. So here is the plan: send an exorciated renegade to offer expertise and provide maintenence on the machines needed for the breeding program. In reality, the renegade mastermind is trying to direct the breeding techniques to create a sifferent sort of master race: humans of cannith bloodlines with other types of dragonmarks.

Why is this genius? Merrix can have dark research done in such a way that, if found out, there is already a ringleader in place to take the fall, and a ring leader with a much more obvious goal in mind (master race to eliminate all other races!) to take any focus off of his renegades work within the same facility. Also, this gains leverage for him over house vadalis when it comes time for the vote (see part 2 of dark evil plan)

2. Merrix has figured out a way to make his house look like the heroes and that is by manipulating each remaining house into a position where they either must side with his plans or risk the entire house fallen into ruin. His plans for the houses are as follows:

1. Orien: House Orien is slowly slipping in status with Lyrandar's success in the travel and shipping department. After the loss of Cyre, causing the lightning rail through there to become nearly unusable, Orien's coffers have been depleting. A few more destroyed lightning rails can lead to certain doom for the house...

2. Lyrandar:...and create great success for Lyrandar! Lyrandar's demand for business will skyrocket, leading the house to request more airships be built, which is great....

3. Thurask: ....if it were not for the depeletion of dragonshards. It seems that an bnormal amount of sites being mined for dragonshards are coming under attack from mysterious agents and new sites for claims are being jumped on before the house can get the rights to the area (This is caused by a new ally of Merrix's. An ally who has been around for a very long time and has very good knowledge of the depths of khyber). This looks bad for the relatively new house, so they are having to start investing more money into their bounty hunting services, much to the chagrin of...

4. Deneith: ...House Deneith, who is not too happy about losing their business to a bunch of bounty hunters. Luckily for them, there are plenty of things to investigate and criminals to be brought to justice due to the influx of attacks on orien's operations, which can start to spread the house thin. To make matters more complicated, denieth is getting very little help from....

5. Medani:....the inquisitives of Medani, who are currently investigating the both the abrupt profit risings of Lyrandar and the rumors of abberent dragonmark sitings accross the nations, seemingly coming from the mournland.

I have yet to figure out how to incorporate the other houses. This is problem 1 I am running into. The idea is the eventually force a vote in which the nations force the houses to release their monopoly on their respective dealings, opening up a more competitive market in which House Cannith can surely find themselves easily on top.

3. Merrix wants to put the nations at the brink of war again. To do this, he has found a few allies to help him in this endeavor.

Order of the Emerald Claw: Merrix has secretly been giving the Order of the Emerald Claw House Orien Shipping Manifests and they have been taking advantage of this opportunity. to supply their organization and in turn the Blood of Vol. If this were to come to light and officials were to find the hidden stores of supplies in churches across Karrnath, this could look quite bad on King Kauis's proclamations of peace.
Thrane seems to be brimming for war. The High Cardinal, Krozan, seems to be upping the churches presence in the political realm and is aggressively attempting to expand Thrane's borders to regain land lost during the war. This is of course enraging Karrnath and Aundair. Some whisper that Krozan too speaks to a voice in the Flame, the voice of its shadow

This is the second problem. Including the other two nations, and even the fledgeling nations.

I am trying to sprinkle in the lords of dust through this plot. My goal is to have the PCs take down Merrix around late paragon, early epic only to discover that his downfall at the hands of the heroes were part of the prophecy they needed fulfilled to begin the release of the Overlord hidden in the silver flame. I think. I can use a little help on this.

How do I include the other nations and the other dragonmarked houses into this plot?

Beoric

Mar 18, 2014 9:10:55

I am not sure that, by cannon, the Houses have a legal mnopoly in their respective fields. I think that their monopolies result more from the competitive advantage created by dragonmarks. There is no reason why you can't make your Eberron that way, but may i suggest an alternative: that what Merrix is really looking for is to create a situation where the Nations support a Cannith alternative. Maybe they can do it faster or more securely.

In any event, I think Merrix would face some opposition from the other two heads of Cannith, Jorlanna and Zorlan. Jorlanna would have some influence in Audair, and Zorlan would have influence in Karrnath. In addition, both Orien and Lyrandar are headquartered in Aundair, which likely supports Aundair's economy; I expect Aundair would be be a tough nut for Merrix to crack. Both Aundair and Karrnath could get behind openeing up lightning rail passage to Karrnath for those reasons. Expect government funding of studies to enhance the Marks of Storm and especially Passage.

Since it would be tough for Merrix to keep widely-known secrets from the higher-ups in Cannix, word would eventually leak to Jorlanna and Zorlan about what he was attempting. I would guess they would start plotting to expose his hidden creation forge, which would likely influence Breland's and Thrane's positions. Note Jorlanna also has influence with the Twelve.

I would also expect that someone from Vadalis would be trying to find out what was happening at Clifftop with their magebred human program, which is how you can get Vadalis involved. Plus, it could be a Vadalis excoriate that Merrix sends into the Mournland. Merrix would need to find some way to keep Vadalis distracted, maybe generating constructs to compete with magebred animals, or building a device that would make magebred animals behave erraticly.

His best attack on Sivis would be to create a printing press, telegraph, or equivalent.

I would think Ghallanda and Jorasco would be tough for him to compete with.

Hellcow

Mar 18, 2014 9:31:43

I am not sure that, by cannon, the Houses have a legal mnopoly in their respective fields. I think that their monopolies result more from the competitive advantage created by dragonmarks. There is no reason why you can't make your Eberron that way, but may i suggest an alternative: that what Merrix is really looking for is to create a situation where the Nations support a Cannith alternative. Maybe they can do it faster or more securely.

MarcelusDragonsbane

Mar 18, 2014 10:21:27

I forgot about the Twelve (how did I forget about the Twelve). This well help immensely in creating a storyline. The whole ambiguous vote idea for no reason was killing me in this hahahaha.

Thanks you guys. To the drawing board!!