I was curious enough to start a thread asking How is your Eberron?. Basically, what has Keith Baker's setting come to mean to your player characters and what spins have you put on it?
Have any of the Eberron signature NPCs become fixtures at your table like Vecna and Elminster have at others? What fond memories have you got and have the Emerald Claw engrained itself suitably in your minds for villainy?
Share and share alike.
Share and share alike.
I've been awake for just over 23 hours now, and the first thing that popped into my head when I read the title of the thread was:
"Fine, thank you. And yours?"
I'll be back in a couple of hours to see if that is still funny or not and to give a proper contribution to the thread.
The character is Dazzle, the beautiful unscrupulous performer with a terrible history of sadness and woe.
one of his performances
Before you can make your way there the raised circular stage in the middle of the room becomes occupied by a gaunt, blond, blue-clad human. As he walks upon the stage the lights in the room fade out yet the performer and a circle around him remains illuminated, as though from an invisible light source just above him.
I regret that I must ruin everyone's mood by turning you to somber thoughts, he says quietly, yet all are able to hear him easily and the din of conversation quickly fades to silence. No doubt both effects are achieved with the aid of magic. In less than a week it will be Mourn Day. It will have been four years since the magical cataclysm that changed the course of history on Khorvaire. But if I have noticed one pronounced effect on the people around me, its that not knowing why this happened is what truly causes the pain. We've all lost someone in the war: friends, family, people that owe us money - but we take solace in knowing how they died and who to hold responsible. But Cyre? Who do we blame for all those that died on that day? This uncertainty has prevented the healing of an entire continent, and to that end I will present my answer. I offer you my explanation of what happened that night, that your healing might begin.
The entirety of the room is instantly plunged into magical darkness, but within a moment the two sides of the stage are filled with illusory images, each telling a seperate story simultaneously. The performer is nowhere to be seen.
Before you can make your way there the raised circular stage in the middle of the room becomes occupied by a gaunt, blond, blue-clad human. As he walks upon the stage the lights in the room fade out yet the performer and a circle around him remains illuminated, as though from an invisible light source just above him.
I regret that I must ruin everyone's mood by turning you to somber thoughts, he says quietly, yet all are able to hear him easily and the din of conversation quickly fades to silence. No doubt both effects are achieved with the aid of magic. In less than a week it will be Mourn Day. It will have been four years since the magical cataclysm that changed the course of history on Khorvaire. But if I have noticed one pronounced effect on the people around me, its that not knowing why this happened is what truly causes the pain. We've all lost someone in the war: friends, family, people that owe us money - but we take solace in knowing how they died and who to hold responsible. But Cyre? Who do we blame for all those that died on that day? This uncertainty has prevented the healing of an entire continent, and to that end I will present my answer. I offer you my explanation of what happened that night, that your healing might begin.
The entirety of the room is instantly plunged into magical darkness, but within a moment the two sides of the stage are filled with illusory images, each telling a seperate story simultaneously. The performer is nowhere to be seen.
the left side of the stage
The image depicts a coastline at night at the edge of a huge forest of tall, slender trees. Waves are angrily lapping at the shore as a handful of coloured moons reflect on the black water.
Yeah... we now avoid the plains at all costs, and I've never been able to live down saying, "They're only halflings," upon spotting the incoming barbarians astride glidewings.
My group has also had a fight on top of a lightning rail. That started when a player who loves Deadlands said "Nice, there are trains in this setting." I knew what he was thinking so I gave it to him. They had to save a hijacked Lightning Rail. They only saved 8 people but two of them were royals so that was a plus. Plus their odd racial party makeup and their good deeds has made them a target for the Sharn and Korrenberg newspapers.
We have only been playing this campaign since last July by the way. Good times.
They hate this Lord of Dust more than any other because he gave them exactly what they wanted, was completely honest with them at all times, and never did anything they weren't informed about.
Moordocc would begin by tempting them into a game of chance. Win or lose, he would give them what they were seeking, just for playing the game. If they won, even greater rewards were granted. Losing meant paying him some powerful magical item agreed upon when the bet was made, or performing some task for him. Tasks were never open-ended deals, were always possible, and could be accomplished without resorting to evil deeds (unless one counts doing anything for the LoD as an evil deed).
The reason they began to hate him so much was simple. Having such a powerful patron available was tempting. In the course of adventuring (whether doing something related to him or not), things would come up that would be just the kinds of things that a rakshasa lord could help with. And he would gladly do so, if they would just play another game with him. As they advanced, the prizes also become greater.
Moordocc was always fair. He lost as many of the bets as he won and always paid up. It was infuriating.
In one case, one member of the group needed some spellcasting done to complete a plan in an ongoing feud with a personal nemesis. Moordocc provided it, but wanted to gamble. He put up a rod similar in nature to a rod of security, except that the extradimensional space included the equivalent of an entire fiefdom. If he won, he wanted the firstborn child of the PC. After agonizing over the ramifications of the bet, the PC agreed. The dice did not favor Moordocc and the PC gained the extradimensional fiefdom.
The fiefdom became a major tool of the party during their adventures, right up to high-levels. Later, the same PC dealt with Moordocc again. This time, she was actually pregnant and (long story short) the Prophecy had much to say about the child. Moordocc wanted the same deal for the firstborn, but there was no way the PC was going to risk that. She offered the fiefdom as her side of the bet and Moordocc agreed, on the condition that he would gain "the fiefdom and all that it contains". Although this included quite a bit, the PC agreed.
She lost this bet, much to the annoyance of the rest of the party (and to the small population of changelings inside. Another long story) but she got what she wanted and wrote it off as a loss. It wasn't until she was killed in a battle with her nemesis that she remembered that she had a clone hidden inside the fiefdom. The player ended up playing a surrogate character until the other players managed to win her back from Moordocc.
Moordocc toyed with them like this for years before they gathered the tools required to kill him. The game went into epic levels, and although they accomplished many deeds on their own, Moordocc was always there in the background. Many times arguments were made for or against seeking his aid. The players were terrified to sink deeper into his debt. They knew that associating with him was always wrong on some level, and suspected that even the most innocent interaction somehow fueled some terrible evil. But when faced with choosing between completing their (often good) goals or not, how could they refuse?
They hate this Lord of Dust more than any other because he gave them exactly what they wanted, was completely honest with them at all times, and never did anything they weren't informed about.
That is truly excellent. I've never had a reason to use the Lords of Dust until now. I'm going to remember this character!
I'm currently in the planning phases of a campaign, my group rotates DMs every few months, I've claimed dibs on running the first 4e game come summer and I've been framing a game around the Lords of Dust, and... I want to steal your NPC.
I'm currently in the planning phases of a campaign, my group rotates DMs every few months, I've claimed dibs on running the first 4e game come summer and I've been framing a game around the Lords of Dust, and... I want to steal your NPC.
Go ahead. If you want to be true to my version, Moordocc had a personality that could almost make a paladin forget he was a demon. Although he was ancient and evil to the core, he did not lack an understanding of good creatures. He never fell into the trap that most evil overlords fall into: believing that good was inherently weak or stupid. He knew it could win, he understood that things like love and friendship had power that he had to take into consideration. It was as though he were True Neutral in mindset, but had simply chosen the Evil side because "that’s what he was".
By treating everyone with courtesy and respect, he never underestimated them. By never hiding his true nature, he was ever caught in a lie. He knew that his skull-and-blood decor would frighten mortals. But he knew that hiding it beneath a false facade would only add to their sense of powerlessness and thus enhance that fear and strengthen their resolve to end him. The spell-chained couatl in the courtyard was always there. He was the master of "Yes, I am evil given physical form. Make yourself comfortable and tell me what I can do for you today."
That is truly excellent. I've never had a reason to use the Lords of Dust until now. I'm going to remember this character!
You, naturax, would do well to remember the insidious nature of my Lords of Dust. *waves hands around and makes scary noises*
I have to remember that I have players on these boards now...
Rather than hateful rege filled blood frenzy like revenge, the long planned out revenge that ruins someone mind, body, and soul, a lingering type of revenge. I liked that idea, especially because I know my game group, and even though they play the good guys they love nothing better than ruining recurring bad guys before they do away with them.
Now your Rakshasa, I can see him being the type of NPC that will get under my groups skin, not immediately, but eventually, over time, like your group they will eventually grow to hate him and seek to kill him, but killing a rakshasa is hard, they'll just come back after a week, no my PCs will have to put thought into it, make sure that the rakshasa stays dead, that kind of planning and vengance... well that could trigger something bad.
If I can pull it off right, the look on their faces when they think they beat the BBEG only to find out that their revenge brings around the second coming of a rajah... if I can pull it off that will be priceless.
I've been awake for just over 23 hours now, and the first thing that popped into my head when I read the title of the thread was:
"Fine, thank you. And yours?"
Oh, I thought the exact same thing.
Well, my Eberron was once going strong, thanks to the Forgotten Forge-Shadows of the Last War-Whispers of the Vampire's Blade-Grasp of the Emerald Claw string of modules, but then I moved to TN to work on my Master's degree, and I've just resumed running a game (which I know i'm going to regret the time expenditure later, but it's EBERRON), and so far, my players love Eberron.
When they met him, they learned the truth was much different. In my campaign, Mordain is a robust, young-looking elf. He is handsome, with platinum blond hair and steely grey eyes. Much of this vigor comes from the living breastplate that he liberated long ago, over which he wears a magnificently woven cloak of eyes. He moves with the energy of a young man and speaks as one who was raised amongst aristocracy.
Mordain does not waste time nor energy on projects that have no purpose. While experiments do sometimes fail, every one of them has a reason when begun. The Fleshweaver is not foolish enough to create something he can not destroy, and he takes pains to make sure his control over his creations is absolute. Far too many stories tell of mages who sought to create a minion and became its first prey. Aside from creating new species, the Fleshweaver has studied ways to improve individuals. Grafts and symbionts play a role in his work, but so does medicine, herbs, and magic. His healthful appearance is not an illusion; it comes from an understanding of his body rarely accomplished by any but the greatest of monks.
Mordain's brilliance is inspired by his knowledge of Xoriat. Most who study such things are instantly destroyed by the knowledge. The rest are left completely mad, sometimes physically deformed. Only one has walked away, mind apparently intact. Mordain does not pretend that it didn't change him. He claims that it changed everything about him; he walked away from his previous life without a qualm. But where the lens of Xoriat leaves others with a warped view of the world, the Fleshweaver gained unparalleled vision to see the world around himself as something different. Something better.
My Mordain is an excellent source of information. His studies require him to have knowledge of creatures (both natural and unnatural) great enough to rival the oldest druid. He also knows everything there is to know about disease, poison, and life energy as they affect his work. He has studied extraplanar life in his research of the daelkyr.
Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of Mordain is the detail of his knowledge and the utterly moral-less way he seeks it. He knows exactly how much blood an infant has, exactly how long it can live without it, and has a half dozen ways to prolong that time. Many would refuse to use what he has learned, unwilling to give his research legitimacy. Certainly, he should not be encouraged to continue.
But he does know the cure to almost any disease. Any poison. Heal terrible wounds Conditions never documented by House Jorasco fill the books of the Fleshweaver. Mordain knows how to treat any beast, no matter how exotic. Need to increase your life span, improve your health, become stronger? These are the goals of Mordain the Fleshweaver. He's just willing to do more to accomplish them than most people.
I actually also play Erandis D'Vol as a little girl in mind as well as body. She's super-intelligent, ages old, and possesses god-like arcane power (by Eberron standards) but she's also spoiled and petulent whom absolutely hates not getting what she wants! It makes a wonderfully delightful twist on your typical Evil Overlords.
Why does Erandis want to conquer the world? Well, honestly, its mostly because it's the dream she has. Because she's a child, she can never really get disillusioned like an adult would. Likewise, her magical skill is somewhat stunted because she's easilly bored of it. Oh, she's gotten HUGE amounts of skill but pressing herself BEYOND the level of an archmage takes a long long time of hard serious work that she often finds herself tiring of. She wants an undead pony instead....no wait, an undead DRAGON to ride.
One of the fun aspects of Erandis D'Vol is that her 12-14 year old nature also impacts the nature of her plans. The Blood of Vol is a Chaotic and Weird Mass of 900+ plots going on at any given time ranging from Machiavellian Genius to Utter Bat
Insanity. Erandis relies generally on the player characters trying to stop the Plague that Will Destroy ValenarTM while she gets her Important Magical ItemTM because they can only stop one. However, basically, her ideas are so whimsical and her fanatics so devoted that you never know WHAT the Blood of Vol is going to do next.Hell, they might kidnap a Prince of Breland because Erandis wants to keep him as a pet.
Ironically, the Crimson Covenant still worship her as a god because she created most of them and she's amoral as only selfish teenagers can be as well. If you displease her, well there's no problem snuffing you out like a light.
Maybe someday she'll possess someone and lose her virginity too!
As the pet project of House Vol and the Emerald Claw (the dragon), Erandis lived a sheltered life of great luxury. Several half-dragons had been born to the family (an important detail discussed later) and raised this way. All were trained in the traditions of the house and studied magical secrets known only to the Vol line, as well as techniques possessed only by dragons.
Not all heirs of a dragonmarked line manifest that mark. Erandis was the "lucky" one. As expected, her mark grew more quickly because of her draconic blood and had far more power. The Emerald Claw and his allies protected her, and taught her about the Prophecy and the role that dragonmarks might play in it.
The line of Vol had long sought a means to prove that undeath was the true path to divinity. The deathless were too dependant on devotional energy, lacking the stronger, more predatory power of the undead. But already they had accomplished a union of souls, and the divine power of the Undying Court threatened them terribly. They ploted to create a similar, even greater union of undead souls which they rightly believed would grow even more quickly- literally consuming the life of the world as it desired.
For this project, they selected a remote island, hidden far from the eyes of Aerenal. The island held a manifest zone to Dolurhh, and the elves built a massive enclave structure there. The zone emulated the entrapping feature of Dolurhh, making it an ideal place to hold souls. Even the living lost all ambition to leave, eventually starving to death and joining the shades. The enclave was enspelled with powerful necromancy long in advance of the final component: a Mark of Death so powerful that only one with draconic blood could bear it.
Had all gone to plan, Erandis would have been central to a ritual that would have transformed the enclave into a Blood Court. All those of the ancient tradition would transcend death: their souls held forever in union within the Blood Court while their physical bodies remained free to roam the world as powerful undead. Those who were worthy would be granted the right to join the Blood Court's divine ranks, while those who were not would increase its power even as they fed the undead.
Things did not go as planned. The secret was betrayed. The Undying Court saw an enemy more personal than the dragons, and the dragons saw undead elves rising to a godhood far more destructive than the deathless. Most of the line of Vol were slain in Aerenal and abroad. Seeing the last chance to save her people, and the last chance at immortality, the mother of Erandis persuaded her young daughter to activate her mark. She did. Drawing the souls of those who had pledged themselves to the Blood Court, she bound them within it even though they no longer had physical bodies to rule with.
But the ritual was not performed perfectly, or as planned. Without the others to guide the power of the ritual, Erandis was forced to handle all of the energy herself. It overwhelmed her, swept over her, and drew her in. Witnesses who swear to her destruction were not mistaken in what they saw.
Erandis Vol reformed on the island, the enclave acting as her phylactery. Her dragonmark was powerless, her blood spent. Completely alone, aside from the shades of her family who could not leave the confines of the enclave. Mad with grief and unending hunger, these spirits were little comfort. Her dragonmark, were it alive, would allow the spirits to unite and become more than the sum of their parts. It would allow the Blood Court to be born, with her as its Lich Queen.
Erandis fled the enclave, fearing its discovery by the dragons. Hiding on the nearby island of Farlnen she has manipulated from behind the scene for generations. Her goal is always the same. To spread the traditions that would bind souls to the Blood Court. To find those who might also possess the Mark of Death and be able to act as the key.
Over the ages, others have stumbled on the enclave that would have been the Blood Court. Finding a mighty fortress, the dwarves lost many to the entrapping powers of the manifest zone before they found methods to resist its power. It was House Kundarak who armed their guards with these methods and offered to imprison the unwanted of every nation in a prison that even the prisoners would find themselves unwilling to leave. Erandis cared not about such things: these creatures would be unwitting protectors of her phylactery and their prisoners would provide sustenance to the Blood Court.
Eventually the prison, dubbed Dreadhold by those who had felt its terrible power, would hold prisoners of interest to Vol. The true heir of Karrnath was delivered into her hands by one who swore to destroy her. Dozens of Emerald Claw Knights who swore oaths to her have been imprisoned since the order was disbanded. And while Erandis might one day put any of them to use, Dreadhold still performs its function well enough. Even House Kundarak doesn't know that they have the backing of the Lich Queen, should her phylactery come under attack.
Honestly, Keith Baker, I confess to you. The character I've absolutely BUTCHERED in my games is King Kaius. I know he's supposed to be the "likeable" evil who wants peace but he's quickly morphed into one of the biggest monsters in our games and it always seems to happen. Honestly, if you ever played Ravenloft, I seem to have a habit of incorporating large elements of Falknovia and Vlad Dracov (a D&D villain based on Adolf Hitler and Dracula!!) for him.
King Kaius is just a monster that loves oppressing the peasantry and preparing for when he'll destroy the other nations and rule it forever as a God Monster (because only he can). The simple fact is that as long as he doesn't know what caused the Mourning though, he's not going to ruin his country by continuing the war.
He's a racist, militaristic, authoritarian, partially crazy DESPOT but the guy is a capable ruler. The joke being that Queen Aurala is his exact opposite in our games. She's a flighty, compassionate, wonderful hug the children type, whom of course is watching EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING in her homeland and just waiting to rebuild Galifar by making that one Big World War 1 Push over the corpses necessary to conquer the world.
Part of it is that Aurala is a big Chivalric Eleanor of Aquitane/Elizabeth style girl while Kaius is a Monster from the Trenches.
I'm gonna just go ahead and kill Kaius. Its the worst kept big secret in Eberron and if the players know hes a vamp I dont see how this can be fun. I think somewhere very early in the campaign the Claw makes their move and takes Karnn with the aid of Valenar.
The NPC foil is a 'forged monk asassin called Silence...the has breasts that store the venom she uses on her kamas.
The master plot revolves around the Soulburner. A 25 story tall dragonshard created when a large syberis shard "meteor" crashed deep into the earth and merged with a Khyber shard vein.
Some real good ideas in this thread and ill be around telling ya guys how it went and asking suggestions.
I'm finishing up the planning phases and about to start. Some elements I know I'm putting in..
I'm gonna just go ahead and kill Kaius. Its the worst kept big secret in Eberron and if the players know hes a vamp I dont see how this can be fun. I think somewhere very early in the campaign the Claw makes their move and takes Karnn with the aid of Valenar.
Better yet - switch him back. If the players can't avoid thinking about their OOC knowledge of how Kaius is a vamp -- change it on them. Kaius isn't a vampiric Kaius I, he's:
- a LG Outsider impersonating the king.
- the reincarnation of the original Karrn the Conqueror
- being possessed by the ghost of the last King of Gallifar (the guy whose death kicked off the last war).
- a specially bred Empty Vessel who replaced Kaius at birth
- a doppleganger agent of the Lords of Dust
- a body double scrambling desparately to hold the nation together after Kaius III's secret assassination
- Kaius I _did_ oust his grandson - but the grandson just succeeded in taking his place back.
And then laugh at your players when they realize they've screwed themselves by metagaming.
And then laugh at your players when they realize they've screwed themselves by metagaming.
I dunno, it's like making Strahd a Lich when they play Return to Castle Ravenloft. Kaius is the quintessential vampire in the setting and changing that sort of just undercuts the storyline.
My Eberron is vast and miniscule, ancient and modern, poetical, and gritty. Workshops and studios of the cities and larger towns are lifted as it were from the paintings of Gustave Courbet, yet when one raises one's eyes to the horizon, one gains a vision inspired more by Thomas Cole.
In detail, however, I find that I must produce adventures that satisfy my players—and the players that I spend most time with are pre-teen girls.
As a consequence, and to wean them gently away from Harry Potter, my most detailed setting in the game is the school at Arcanix.
Written before Five Nations described Arcanix as a madhouse little different from Kythri-come-to-Aundair, my vision of the place is radically different from the canonical version.
In my vision, the work of the Arcane Congress was that of an institution of education and arcane research, similar in overall intent to a university. However, the specific means is quite different.
The Congress consists of Masters who have proven their capability as practitioners or as researchers in the arcane arts and sciences. The Congress is more or less subdivided into Councils, responsible for oversight of various branches of study. Each Master's work is supported by the Congress for a period of not less than two and not more than five years, and the expiration of which, their work is subject to review by the appropriate Council, which makes a recommendation to the Congress about whether and to what extent to continue supporting that Master's work; the matter is then voted on by the whole Congress.
A few projects, notably those of secret or military nature, are not disclosed to the Congress, and are generally supported by Aundair itself, rather than through the Congressional budget.
There are five Towers; they originally represented the Five Nations, but the distinction has been lost over the years. The Towers (and their colors) are:
- Autha (Bronze/Black)
- Chalar (Brass/Blue)
- Raka (Copper/Green)
- Archar (Gold/Red)
- Ornaussir (Silver/White)
Yes, those are the traditional dragon colors: that was deliberate. Each tower also has something of the character of the terrain of its colors: Autha is dark, and slightly moist, Chalar is dry, with an airy warmth, Raka is warm and cozy, with stone and wood and many growing things, Archar is majestic, with wide halls, and Ornaussir is cold, pale, and crystalline.
There is a slight correspondence—not complete, by any stretch of imagination—that has traditional necromancers in Autha, those who work with living plants and animals in Raka, tinkerers and mechanicians in Chalar, war-mages in Archar, and binders and seers in Ornaussir.
When students come to the school, they are not separated into classes with their age-mates; rather, those Masters who desire to take on additional students interview the newcomers and decide among themselves which students will be assigned to which Master. The students then serve and study with the Master who selected them.
Any given Master may have students of a variety of classes and levels: a given Master Wizard might have a research and study team consisting of three or four lower-level wizards, a scattering of magewrights, sorcerors, and artificers, with a few commoner servants and perhaps a warrior or three for security when traveling.
There are, of course, rivalries and alliances among masters, and, consequently, among their students. Successful Masters might have dozens of students, assistants, and staff, all of which might fall away in an instant if they fail to please the Councils that grant them these things.
My players serve one of the lesser Masters, a Cyran human necromancer named Theris, who has had them studying Dhakaani ruins all over Aundair, western Breland, and the Eldeen reaches, looking for dirge singer artifacts from the Daelkyr War period; the campaign has had them in altercations with rural goblin bands, recurring antagonists among the Dhakaani and the Ashbound, and more than a few rivals among the students and Masters at Arcanix.
There is a slowly developing backstory in which Cyran expatriates are pressuring Master Theris to change the focus of his studies and will eventually get the group to the Mournland, but I don't expect that to happen until this fall sometime.
I've also done a number of one-off adventures with adult players, such as one featuring an expedition to Xen'drik to study the thri-kreen, and another featuring a vengeance-crazed Karrnathi Navy captain in the Lhazaar Principalities.
I'm also currently working on a one-off adventure featuring the sometimes strained but mostly functional working relationship of the Blood of Vol, House Jorasco, and the Seren. Remember: there's nothing better than targath for either overcoming the damage resistance of the Undying, or for preventing infections and plagues. And the only known targath mines are on the north coast of Argonnessen, so…
In short, my Eberron is magnificent.
—Siran Dungmoran
In short, my Eberron is magnificent.
—Siran Dunmorgan
Sounds like it is! I almost ran an Arcanix-game, but it never came together. I was going to make use of the 5N stuff, but give it a little more life and a lot less chaos. 5N makes it sound too powerful: too much high magic and not enough wide magic.
The players are a little like Bourne in that they have implanted memories and some other little quirks since they were "made" this way. The 4 monster classes are kobold, goblin. minotaur, and imp. The first two are no big dea lbut the last two...
. I am worried. The story has just gotten to the "meat" of it. A floating citadal of Tiamat was released and the PCs have to take it down. They have unknowingly been dealing with Tiamat's cult before as well as a rakshasha who wished to get a Book of Khyber away from the group's druid. The book can bind or release planar/godlike beings like the rajahs daelkyr. Anyway they are going to assault the citadal and after the battle I must "close" that chapter till we get 4Eized. We will make new pcs and play around till we get to the "appropriate" 4E/3.5E level equiv. I hope I will be able to convert the pcs even if it changes them drastically/ The one guy loves his imp a ton.