Sharn Sidequest Ideas - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 w0nkothesane Jul 08, 2009 18:28:11	So I'm running the Forgotten Forge and my players are very near the end of that short adventure. Afterwards they'll be going to Shadows of the Last War, but between the two it is implied that there are at least a few days of the PCs checking for new messages from Elaydren D'Cannith about new work. I thought I'd try to fit a short adventure (1 session long if that) into that period to try to get my players more familiar with the setting. This is everybodys first game of Eberron (mine too) and I'd really like to throw something at them that screams "EBERRON" and couldn't happen in vanilla D&D. With that in mind, anybody have ideas for very short side-quests that could happen in Sharn, specifically with very Eberron-specific elements?
#2 t1p2 Jul 09, 2009 2:10:18	A group of goblins from Malleon's Gate has started some trouble in another district and needs to be stopped. The Watch doesn't want to get involved directly for whatever reason, so they turn to the party for assistance. Perhaps in exchange for overlooking certain misdeeds the group may have done.
#3 AvonRekaes Jul 09, 2009 14:09:09	Fighting goblins is vanilla DnD. Instead, have the Boromar halfling mafia disrupting civilian goblin life in Malleon's Gate. Possibly pushing a new drug on them or something else suitably noir.
#4 JohnLynch Jul 09, 2009 21:21:13	Pffft. Mafia plots are stock D&D (at least they are in my D&D :P). Here's some "Steal This Hook" for 3.5e Eberron: I'm probably using these sometime so if you're a player in my group don't look Professors at Morgrave University need magical expertise in raising an airship that crashed and sunk to the bottom of Lake Galifar during the War; it may be full of historical treasures. The players are hired to act as guards for the Lyrandar pilot in case any unnatural creatures are lurking around -------- The Morgue-Mind A murder mystery the heroes are investigating leads them to the Constable's Morgue, a particularly large corpse-storehouse run by law enforcement. The heroes stumble on a gruesome scene: the kindly old clerk at the morgue is hunched over one body with a saw, and has already mutilated several other bodies in storage there. After the clerk is apprehended, the local sheriff tells PCs that this behavior is wildly out of character for the gentle clerk; someone or something must have induced him to perform these awful acts. A brain in a jar (Libris Mortis) created by a necromancer has taken up hidden residence at the morgue, and is looking for a new body to inhabit. The diseased brain uses its psionic powers to control those around it to find the perfect body. Perhaps only the necromancer herself, full of remorse at her inability to control the awful creation, can help the PCs to stop it. Or will the brain decide that the skull of the necromancer who created it would be its perfect home? ----- The Hand-Takers Someone in Sharn is stealing hands. The bodies of gnomes, humans, and other races have turned up with their hands sliced off at the wrist -- over twelve such bodies in Sharn alone. The heroes meet a crucial witness when a handless warforged comes forward with a fantastic story: that he survived an attack by a gang of rune-covered skeletons with fleshy hands. The bony gang overpowered him and knocked him unconscious, and when he awoke, his appendages (one hand and one armblade) were taken. Is a group of spellstitched undead (Monster Manual II) the cause of the attacks? Are the attacks random, or are the victims connected somehow? Perhaps a sick-minded sorcerer wants the hands of master artisans, believing they will grant him creative power. Perhaps a Vol cultist is using the hands to imbue his animated dead minions with the arcane abilities of the hands' former owners. Either way, the bony gang (one of which now sports an armblade) may attack the characters next.
#5 Vilnias_Nastavnik Jul 10, 2009 0:38:03	The PC's are hired by Morgrave University to escort a recently recovered artifact from the Lightning Rail station up through Sharn to the University. However, the "artifact" contains (or is) a powerful (level appropriate) undead creature that comes to life when the Blood of Vol cultists try to steal it from the PC's. You could have a skill check to navigate through a crowded market place or to lose the tail from the BoV and then have one big encounter with the BoV attacking and the undead creature waking up.
#6 w0nkothesane Jul 10, 2009 2:13:03	Instead, have the Boromar halfling mafia disrupting civilian goblin life in Malleon's Gate. Possibly pushing a new drug on them or something else suitably noir. I really like this idea as a starting point. I could have some halfling tough guy who's pushing a new drug that gets Goblins hooked bad, and the adventurers are hired as investigators. Once they find the guy (depending on how they try to bust him) he'll flee, possibly leading them on a flying chase through the upper layers of the city. I think I might be able to work with that one, but keep the ideas flowing, I really appreciate it.
#7 bstarrfft Jul 10, 2009 15:41:16	Great ideas, I see the chase playing out like some wild Jackie Chan movie. would you run it as some kind of cinematic skill challenge? halfling scatters debris, wreckage and innocent bystanders in his wake that the party must hurdle over. (athletics) halfling jacks a skycoach, the pc's must jack their own coach and leap onto the halflings ride. (balance, driving?) I am new to this 4e skill challenge thing, but i think this is a great example of a thrilling noncombat encounter. Im curious to know what other skills could be added and more daring stunts the drug dealing halfling could have in store.
#8 need_a_life Jul 11, 2009 8:37:59	The PC's are hired by Morgrave University to escort a recently recovered artifact from the Lightning Rail station up through Sharn to the University. However, the "artifact" contains (or is) a powerful (level appropriate) undead creature that comes to life when the Blood of Vol cultists try to steal it from the PC's. You could have a skill check to navigate through a crowded market place or to lose the tail from the BoV and then have one big encounter with the BoV attacking and the undead creature waking up. How about escorting it en route from Sharn to say... Aundair in a lightning rail? Mid-journey it wakes up and a suitably cinematic fight scene at the top of the lightning rail occurs. Or it tries to reach an airship - which instinctively obeys its commands, much to the horror of the 'marked pilot - and travel back to Xen'drik. The players must reach the airship, fight this Solo Undead and gain the appreciation of House Lyrandar in the process? If they lose it somewhere before this, well then jump into "The Hand-Takers" as suggested above. If it escapes, the BoV would be very interested in this undead, believing it to be a Qualabrin (sp?), ancient undead necromancers from Xen'drik, believed to have disappeared forever.
#9 tallric_kruush Jul 11, 2009 13:14:07	As a couple of others have suggested, anything using Eberron's unique bound-elemental vehicles screams Eberron. Personally, I feel nothing is more appropriate and unique to Sharn than skycoach antics. Whether the PCs are involved in a high-speed chase or a battle within in cramped confines of such a vehicle, skycoaches scream Sharn and Eberron.
#10 blackmage88 Jul 11, 2009 21:57:23	This is somewhat a situational suggestion, but after running the Forgotten Forge myself and discovering a rather broad swath of grey morality with specks of white and black running through the party, I'm taking things down into the depths of the City of Towers. Both physically and morally. Having slaughtered the small dwarf-led gang in Ruffian's Alley and after making friendly connections with Skakan the goblin merchant/fence, the party has one foot in the door of Sharn's criminal world. So of course they push the door open and step through. One such idea leads through Skakan; the goblin drags the party into a gang war between rival factions in the city, either acting as a contractor for one gang and sending the party to hurt the rivals, or being targeted and hiring the party as bodyguards.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

w0nkothesane

Jul 08, 2009 18:28:11

So I'm running the Forgotten Forge and my players are very near the end of that short adventure. Afterwards they'll be going to Shadows of the Last War, but between the two it is implied that there are at least a few days of the PCs checking for new messages from Elaydren D'Cannith about new work.

I thought I'd try to fit a short adventure (1 session long if that) into that period to try to get my players more familiar with the setting. This is everybodys first game of Eberron (mine too) and I'd really like to throw something at them that screams "EBERRON" and couldn't happen in vanilla D&D.

With that in mind, anybody have ideas for very short side-quests that could happen in Sharn, specifically with very Eberron-specific elements?

t1p2

Jul 09, 2009 2:10:18

A group of goblins from Malleon's Gate has started some trouble in another district and needs to be stopped. The Watch doesn't want to get involved directly for whatever reason, so they turn to the party for assistance. Perhaps in exchange for overlooking certain misdeeds the group may have done.

AvonRekaes

Jul 09, 2009 14:09:09

Fighting goblins is vanilla DnD.

Instead, have the Boromar halfling mafia disrupting civilian goblin life in Malleon's Gate. Possibly pushing a new drug on them or something else suitably noir.

JohnLynch

Jul 09, 2009 21:21:13

Pffft. Mafia plots are stock D&D (at least they are in my D&D :P).

Here's some "Steal This Hook" for 3.5e Eberron:

I'm probably using these sometime so if you're a player in my group don't look

Professors at Morgrave University need magical expertise in raising an airship that crashed and sunk to the bottom of Lake Galifar during the War; it may be full of historical treasures. The players are hired to act as guards for the Lyrandar pilot in case any unnatural creatures are lurking around

--------
The Morgue-Mind

A murder mystery the heroes are investigating leads them to the Constable's Morgue, a particularly large corpse-storehouse run by law enforcement. The heroes stumble on a gruesome scene: the kindly old clerk at the morgue is hunched over one body with a saw, and has already mutilated several other bodies in storage there. After the clerk is apprehended, the local sheriff tells PCs that this behavior is wildly out of character for the gentle clerk; someone or something must have induced him to perform these awful acts. A brain in a jar (Libris Mortis) created by a necromancer has taken up hidden residence at the morgue, and is looking for a new body to inhabit. The diseased brain uses its psionic powers to control those around it to find the perfect body. Perhaps only the necromancer herself, full of remorse at her inability to control the awful creation, can help the PCs to stop it. Or will the brain decide that the skull of the necromancer who created it would be its perfect home?

-----
The Hand-Takers

Someone in Sharn is stealing hands. The bodies of gnomes, humans, and other races have turned up with their hands sliced off at the wrist -- over twelve such bodies in Sharn alone. The heroes meet a crucial witness when a handless warforged comes forward with a fantastic story: that he survived an attack by a gang of rune-covered skeletons with fleshy hands. The bony gang overpowered him and knocked him unconscious, and when he awoke, his appendages (one hand and one armblade) were taken. Is a group of spellstitched undead (Monster Manual II) the cause of the attacks? Are the attacks random, or are the victims connected somehow? Perhaps a sick-minded sorcerer wants the hands of master artisans, believing they will grant him creative power. Perhaps a Vol cultist is using the hands to imbue his animated dead minions with the arcane abilities of the hands' former owners. Either way, the bony gang (one of which now sports an armblade) may attack the characters next.

Vilnias_Nastavnik

Jul 10, 2009 0:38:03

The PC's are hired by Morgrave University to escort a recently recovered artifact from the Lightning Rail station up through Sharn to the University. However, the "artifact" contains (or is) a powerful (level appropriate) undead creature that comes to life when the Blood of Vol cultists try to steal it from the PC's. You could have a skill check to navigate through a crowded market place or to lose the tail from the BoV and then have one big encounter with the BoV attacking and the undead creature waking up.

w0nkothesane

Jul 10, 2009 2:13:03

Instead, have the Boromar halfling mafia disrupting civilian goblin life in Malleon's Gate. Possibly pushing a new drug on them or something else suitably noir.

I really like this idea as a starting point.

I could have some halfling tough guy who's pushing a new drug that gets Goblins hooked bad, and the adventurers are hired as investigators. Once they find the guy (depending on how they try to bust him) he'll flee, possibly leading them on a flying chase through the upper layers of the city.

I think I might be able to work with that one, but keep the ideas flowing, I really appreciate it.

bstarrfft

Jul 10, 2009 15:41:16

Great ideas, I see the chase playing out like some wild Jackie Chan movie. would you run it as some kind of cinematic skill challenge?

halfling scatters debris, wreckage and innocent bystanders in his wake that the party must hurdle over. (athletics)

halfling jacks a skycoach, the pc's must jack their own coach and leap onto the halflings ride. (balance, driving?)

I am new to this 4e skill challenge thing, but i think this is a great example of a thrilling noncombat encounter. Im curious to know what other skills could be added and more daring stunts the drug dealing halfling could have in store.

need_a_life

Jul 11, 2009 8:37:59

The PC's are hired by Morgrave University to escort a recently recovered artifact from the Lightning Rail station up through Sharn to the University. However, the "artifact" contains (or is) a powerful (level appropriate) undead creature that comes to life when the Blood of Vol cultists try to steal it from the PC's. You could have a skill check to navigate through a crowded market place or to lose the tail from the BoV and then have one big encounter with the BoV attacking and the undead creature waking up.

How about escorting it en route from Sharn to say... Aundair in a lightning rail? Mid-journey it wakes up and a suitably cinematic fight scene at the top of the lightning rail occurs.

Or it tries to reach an airship - which instinctively obeys its commands, much to the horror of the 'marked pilot - and travel back to Xen'drik. The players must reach the airship, fight this Solo Undead and gain the appreciation of House Lyrandar in the process?

If they lose it somewhere before this, well then jump into "The Hand-Takers" as suggested above. If it escapes, the BoV would be very interested in this undead, believing it to be a Qualabrin (sp?), ancient undead necromancers from Xen'drik, believed to have disappeared forever.

tallric_kruush

Jul 11, 2009 13:14:07

As a couple of others have suggested, anything using Eberron's unique bound-elemental vehicles screams Eberron.

Personally, I feel nothing is more appropriate and unique to Sharn than skycoach antics. Whether the PCs are involved in a high-speed chase or a battle within in cramped confines of such a vehicle, skycoaches scream Sharn and Eberron.

#10

blackmage88

Jul 11, 2009 21:57:23

This is somewhat a situational suggestion, but after running the Forgotten Forge myself and discovering a rather broad swath of grey morality with specks of white and black running through the party, I'm taking things down into the depths of the City of Towers. Both physically and morally.

Having slaughtered the small dwarf-led gang in Ruffian's Alley and after making friendly connections with Skakan the goblin merchant/fence, the party has one foot in the door of Sharn's criminal world. So of course they push the door open and step through. One such idea leads through Skakan; the goblin drags the party into a gang war between rival factions in the city, either acting as a contractor for one gang and sending the party to hurt the rivals, or being targeted and hiring the party as bodyguards.