Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 sanewman Sep 16, 2009 1:01:19	Hey people, first time poster here so hoping to get some good responses. I started DMing about 9-10 months ago because I had friends who wanted to play and I was the first to step up to the plate. I started with d20 modern but came to realize my true love was going to come with DnD. One of my players is a serious veteran and introduced me to 4th ed. and I loved it and especially fell in love with the newly released 4th ed. Eberron Campaign guide.   So here I am, and have storytold myself into a place with hundreds of ways out... but I don't know where to go. I want to stay true to the theme of the setting, but remain innovative and throw a few curve balls that my veteran players haven't seen. I need to keep the story with lots of detail and intrigue because I have a definite actor in the group, but I have some people who love the combat as well. Below I'll post a general outline of what we've gone through so far with some brainstorming I've done and ANY comments/critique/concerns/etc. you have will be appreciated, I just ask that it be constructive. The players started in the library in Morgrave University in Sharn. They did not know each other and were each there for different reasons. There is a booming explosion and they are all drawn into a combat where a mysterious man-in-black summoned monsters into the library who quickly began burning it down after the mysterious man retreated into a secret tunnel he opened in the wall. The party quickly had to learn to work together to survive, and by the end of the combat they also needed to retreat into the tunnel to escape the burning building. The 4 players learned from the party's warforged that the 5th player (who was late to game) had been captured by the MiB's monster when she tried to stop him. They advance farther and farther down into the lowest levels of Sharn and seem to be entering a temple for some forgotten deity, a mysterious symbol decorating the walls. They catch up to the last party member and confront the mysterious man. He has made it to the final chamber of the temple where the party see him taking what appears to be a large Dragonshard off an altar. The dragon shard is distinctly different from a Khyber, Eberron, or Siberys shard. The man holds out his hand (which has an abberant Dragonmark, the same design of which is the one decorating the temple) and activates the shard. A blinding white light emits from the shard and the man is gone, a hazy portal left where he was and the lingering command of the man to his minion (a modified spirit devourer), "Kill them" After the combat the players learn that removal of the shard set off a trap that is flooding the temple, their only escape through the portal. While doing this several of them realize the blinding light they were hit with had an alternate effect as well... each of them has received the same Abberant Dragonmark that the man-in-black had. The present danger not giving them time to dwell they jump through the portal. When they get a chance to try out their Dragonmark I give them a little hint about what it does. Using their Abberant mark is an Encounter power, and they role a d20 to get a seemingly random effect off a chart I made which ranges from attack bonuses, random teleportation, casting of magic missile, etc. I haven't given them a name for the mark yet but I am hesitantly calling it the Chaos Mark. They come through the portal in pitch blackness only to find out they are in a giant closet. When they pry open the door they realize the resistance from the otherside was a dead body. From the look of a room it appears to be a noble of House D'Cannith. The warforged and artificer of the party soon realize something that causes them much horror, the body is Starrin D'Cannith. (now if you are trying to remind yourself of who that is, Starrin was the last patriarch of House D'Cannith... and he died ON the day of mourning.) I actually ended that game right them to give the players time to sweat out what was coming. There is an assasin's blade in Starrin's chest and he is recently dead. (The party took the dagger with them... I'm not sure why.) When searching the room they find plans of Starrins saying that all the creation forges in Cyre have been connected through an underground network, the effect seeming to be that with the addition of a new type of Dragonshard (perhaps the one the man is bringing), output will be drastically improved. The party doesn't have time to sit and think though as the Warforged and Artificer of the group urge them that they must leave... now, it is the Day of Mourning. Upon opening the door to the hallway the guards ask how they got in, and when they try to inform them that the Baron is dead they say, "No he's not... he just left down the hallway." The guards attempt to detain them sensing that something is up, and get beat down. The party is now in total chaos trying to figure out what to do. The man they are chasing has teleported them back in time to the Day of Mourning, that same man murdered and has taken on the appearance of Baron Starrin D'Cannith, who will, they assume, be activating a device that they now think is the cause of the Mourning. They have newly aquired and not very well hidden Aberrant marks, guards are chasing them through the facility, and they now know the only way out without fighting through hundreds of soldiers is a waste pipe that flows to a river, but they only way to get to it is through the forges, the same place the mysterious man is. When the last game ended they were riding an elevator down to the forge level, ready to fight. The party is 11th level.   So here I am everyone. Now here are some ideas I am playing with. The man-in-black is a doppelganger. Whoever he is working for he may attempt to double cross and instead of letting the device destroy the continent he drains the power and becomes the Lord of Blades. The party would then have to get back there in present time to stop him. Also, who is he working for? Should I borrow from older DnD and have him working for the Queen of Chaos? Maybe the Shadow Within the Flame? Another Demon? Also the Dragonmark I made entirely of my own design, but afterwards I realize the symbology is remarkably similar to the realm of Dal Quor, that can be a lot of fun to work in somehow.. but how? Can they remove the marks? Do they want to? I want to work in the draconic prophecies, and maybe the person pulling the strings is also trying to manipulate the prophecies? I want to work in at least one Artifact somehow. Also want to try tying together enemies with the theme/template system outline in the DMG2. And with the DMG2 and my current theme of going with portals would it be good in an Eberron game to try and get the party to go to Sigil somehow? Sorry for the lengthy post but would LOVE some notes and suggestions, so let me know! Thanks again!
#2 Gilo Sep 16, 2009 16:02:33	Maybe your main antagonist can be like the character Sylar (from the t.v show Heros): His aberrant mark allows him to harvest the powers of the people he kills which he then stores in a shadowy shard-like artifact (/mini-Eldritch Machine) dedicated to The Shadow. When the antagonist harvest enough power (kill enough people) for the artifact he can utilize it for powerful spells such as time travel,  creation of planar manifestation zones etc. The antagonist main plan is to bring about the day of mourning, and harvest all of Cyre powers in one instance.
#3 sanewman Sep 16, 2009 18:01:46	Hey thanks for the reply. I like the idea of him deliberately "infecting" people with the mark so that he can harvest them after they have grown in power. I also like the shard as a depository for life energy that he is trying to get to absorb all the souls in Cyre. Perhaps it works the opposite way than what you said, he can draw energy from the shard and intends to devour all of Cyre at once? I think if I go with this option when the PCs try to stop him it will cause his absorbing to have an unintended side effect and he could perhaps become the Lord of Blades? Lots of things to mull over. Thanks for the input!
#4 sanewman Sep 16, 2009 19:03:07	Hey, if you are interested in posting on this topic I have a lot more ideas on it under the same heading in the "Campaign & Adventure Workshop" section. Just want to keep it consolidated. Thanks!
#5 skrapsan Sep 17, 2009 14:37:56	A crashing, colossal lightning rail coach in a dungeon, which is also underwater. Halfway through the battle lightning strikes. At the end, everybody dies.