So I thought I'd post a summary of my campaign as it goes on. I'm keeping session summaries for myself anyway so I might as well post them ;) Plus perhaps I could also get some ideas to help me as well
My players are all new to Eberron (although a couple of them have read some of the 3.5 books in preparation for the campaign), so I can pretty much do whatever I want and they'll have very little if any preconceptions, for now.My Players
We've got a motley bunch. I let them make their characters without any connections between them. And so what we got were:
* Avocado d'Lyrandar - a half-elf draconic sorcerer of House Lyrandar. He's going on 1 last adventure around the world before he takes on the duties and responsibilities of a Lyrandar Heir.
* Nari ir'Acelin - a thranish noble woman who has joined the Church of the Silver Flame as a Pilgrim in the Order of Friars.
* Grognak Toeclaw - a halfling barbarian who is a follower of Holy Uldra. He came to Breland on a fact-finding mission to learn what he can of the world outside of the Talenta Plains. However he lost his Clawfoot mount near Sharn to some thieves while he was fishing. And so now he is consumed with his desire to find his mount, Spike.
* Rask Murgrough - A half-orc ranger (multi-classed into spike training) member of the Gatekeepers druidic order. He has come to study under the orcs stationed in Sharn. He has a tiger beast-companion and he was meant to be a Warden of the Wood accompanying the Eldeen Reach's very first ambassador (which would give him a warrant that allowed him to have a tiger beast companion in the city. Unfortunately he wanted to change that at the very last second so he got no warrant).
So before we even got started Grognark threw me for a loop as he wanted to travel directly through the Mournland to get to Sharn (where the campaign is starting). I had plotted a nice course and worked out how long it would take him to get to Sharn by going through Karrnath. My first reaction was to say "no, you can't travel through the Mournland as a level 1 PC", but he was fairly eager about doing it so I relented and instead had him take a mere day to get through the Mournland.
I tried to make sure he realised taking a day to travel through the Mournland was extremely unusual. But I'll be emphasising this in future adventures as well and exploring how he travelled so quickly through the Mournland. I didn't have any idea how I would achieve it when I first said it, although I've had a couple of ideas since.
Campaign Backstory
One of my players really likes playing a cleric and there's a lot of undead monster stats, especially at the lower levels. So I decided that Dolurrh becomes conterminous with Eberron on Lharvion 10th, 998 YK. This gives me an in game year to throw undead creatures at my players from time to time and I don't have to work very hard to explain why there are undead everywhere
A national holiday in Sharn is the Day of Laughter. This is an event where performers are hired to walk around the city like zombies and people throw tomatoes at them and just generally laugh in the face of undead monsters. Its an attempt to lift people's spirits, before the undead truly do become more powerful.
Session #1 of the Dolurrh's Onward March adventure
We had someone travel by airship (avocado from stormhome), train (nari from thrane), boat (rask travelling down the dagger river) and foot (grognark after spike was stolen).
They all went to different places. Nari didn't roll a streetwise but simply asked the first person she found where a church was, so she got sent to Wroan Gate where she was offered a closet that had some hay. She went "naaah. That aint going to work" and so rolled a streetwise and found a skycoach driver who took her to the "finest temple in all of Sharn (after the Sovereign Host one, that is)."
There she was told for 2 gp a week and providing services 3 times a week she could stay. She was given a room designated for visiting pilgrims, so nothing fancy. But certainly better than a closet with some hay ;)
As they walk about town they come across some zombies, but before they attack they realise these zombies are simply people dressed up as zombies. Each player was given a ticket for a dinner and entertainment at Mizano Rupa's that night.
Each player took the plothook (thankfully, otherwise things were going to get awkward), although Grognark instead used the back of the ticket as a help wanted poster. Fortunately he stuck it on the window of a store so the storeowner came out and grognark asked him if he had stolen spike or if he knew where the spike thieves were. Wanting to get rid of the halfling who was working on blocking his store window, the store owner said the thieves would be at Mizano Rupa's (fortunately good rolling of the dice and a crappy passive insight got me over that hurdle).
They arrived eventually (grognark went there straight away and so had a 5 hour wait, rask refused to use unnatural contraptions such as sky coaches and so he had a very long walk) met each other (and immediately the cleric and half-orc hit it off with the cleric complaining that the half-orc stunk. She made such a big deal I had a waitress go get a cook who came in and prestidigated the half-orc).
Shranna the Magnificent was the night's entertainment thanks to someone's suggestion on this forum. I had the sorcerer realise that while he knew Shranna was using magic, he wasn't sure how because these rituals required time and spell components that Shranna simply didn't have). The last trick was to make 4 people disappear. He went on about how fate had to select these people (which was a whole lot of phooey), and then suddenly purple arrows appear over the PCs heads. They go up to the stage easily enough, eager to see how this trick would work. But before he could do the trick some zombies came onto the stage and ate poor Shranna.
The players attacked, and they had a very easy fight. I completely underestimated how well my players would fight. I had a Dread Zombie and I was a tad worried it would TPK the players. Well apparently 3 strikers = 1 dead dread zombie in 2 rounds. I was looking forward to it dying, and then coming back to life. But it was the cleric that dealt the lethal blow with turn undead. Darn radiant damage
This was also with the ranger not having his beast companion!Afterwards the sorcerer attempted to detect the arrow and I had told him he was pretty sure it was prestidigation and that it would go away after 5 minutes. Although he got a high enough arcana roll to know something wasn't quite right about it. They picked through Shranna's pockets, and so they found a very, very long hankerchief, some flowers, and that sort of thing until the Sharn Watch arrived. They secured a perimeter and the captain explained they weren't the only place to be attacked that night.
The players asked her why the arrow was there, and she said it was probably just prestidigation and that it would go away after 5 minutes. When she was told they'd already waited 5 minutes, she looked confused and said they could wait for a wizard she was having brought here in half an hour. The players were meant to simply sleep it off, but they waited for the wizard instead.
A high and very important wizard from the Morgrave University came in and tried to detect magic. He could work out that it wasn't because of the Shadowfell (although any scholar could have told them that), but he didn't know what it was (I rolled poorly on his arcana roll, plus he wasn't scripted to appear "on camera" it was meant to be in the skill challenge). They asked him about the arrows and he gave them the same prestidigation answer.
Although when they explained the situation he revealed that Shranna was a very powerful wizard and that it would take him a week of study to even attempt such a feat. But he was willing to if it didn't go away on its own.
They left the back exit to avoid the reporters out front (after some nudging from Captain Ronsoe that it was time to leave). I expected my players to retire to their temples/taverns/gatekeeper-building, but Grognak foiled me again. He wanted to sleep on somewhere nice and soft that reminded him of home. Perhaps some grass. In a city of stone towers. Grognark isn't exactly good at streetwise checks, so all he could find was a midden heap. Fortunately Rask told poor Grognark about Skysedge Park.
In the morning each person got given a letter by the Zilargo Ambassador. It was suppose to reveal how well connected the gnome ambassador was, that he could find the players despite having had no contact with them. Unfortunately I think it came across as a bit railroady (especially with Grognark sleeping in some grass in a park).
The players went to the Embassy where they met the gnome ambassador. He revealed he had organised and rented the restaurant for the night and asked about their arrows. When he learnt what happened he had a servant rush to bring in Shranna. When the players said Shranna was dead, Tasho Mol Doras simply chuckled to himself.
An elderly gnome who definitely wasn't Shranna from the night before entered, and apologised profusely and quickly got rid of the arrows. When they asked the elderly gnome what was going on, he revealed the Shranna who died was in fact simply a showman he had hired and trained. He was truly Shranna and over the years he'd had a few different fake "Shranna's" and that he would now have to find a new gnome to train.
The Ambassador then hired the PCs to find out who caused the zombies to attack the restaurant. He was convinced it was a personal attack against him. The players asked about their tickets and the Ambassador called a clerk. The clerk came in and was able to reveal a nobleman had personally bought over a dozen tickets and had the clerk right down "the bearer". The nobleman claimed it was for a charity event with the tickets being prizes. Seeing nothing wrong with this, he aquiesed to the nobleman's request. Although he did think it odd that the nobleman would personally buy the tickets rather than send a servant.
The PCs got a generic description (unfortunately no identifying insignia had been showing) and were left with puzzle to work out. As I feared they went to the nearest Sharn Watch building and the half-orc and barbarian were quite rude and abrasive to the guards. Fortunately Avocado could smoothe things over and so was told to head to Captain Ronsoe's precinct (which is near Mizano Rupa's).
On the way to a skycoach Rask got his tiger beast companion from the Gatekeepers and they also bought 2 copies of the Sharn Inquisitive. I've "retconned" the history of the magazine somewhat. In my version of Eberron it was founded by Thurik Davandi 50 years ago during the Last War. Thurik did so through intermediaries and although the paper has since paid back the loan, owing to its frontline reports during the Last War making it extremely popular. Thurik still has a favoured position in the newspaper, although no-one knows who he is as he works through intermediaries, and will from time to time write an article for it with the express purpose of his own political gain.
This issue of the magazine was filled with hatred and bile towards the Zilargo Embassy. Seizing on the opportunity to hurt Tasho Mol Doras's public image, an inquisitor loyal to Thurik gathered as much evidence as he could and Thurik twisted and misquoted people to paint the Ambassador as a Traveller cultist, and that this could have been so much as a declaration of war on Breland (no-one in power would act on something simply hypothesised in a newspaper without first confirming its veracity, but it could cause uncomfortable questions for the ambassador). The players part in the zombie attack was given a brief one line mention.
Surprisingly my players barely batted an eye and said they wanted to speak with the priest that was quoted.There they learned the priest had been misquoted, although the priest was quite pleased to see he had been mentioned at all. They went to the correct precinct for the City Watch this time, and when they entered Captain Rosoe put some papers away he'd been reading. The Silver Flame Cleric outright demanded to see the papers. A high intimidate roll later (intimidation had the highest DC of all possible skills), she had in her hands reports on more zombie attacks today.
Some diplomacy from Avocado undid some of the cleric's abruptness and so they learned that investigations had since identified some of the zombie bodies as patrons and workers of a particular bar near Mizano Rupa's. They also learned the zombies had been people who were somehow transformed into zombies through some sort of polymophic spell. They spoke with the precinct mage (different from the important mage from Morgrave University who I'm now making into someone whose much more adept at politics then wizardry ;)), and he said he learned this by going through a number of detect magic rituals, one specific for each type of spell that can be cast. So he didn't learn it through being a genius, simply by spending a lot of time on the issue.
My players then went to the bar where the zombie outbreak seemed to originate. Despite what had happened it was filled with drunken soldiers. The barkeep simply confirmed what they'd already learned and said he didn't know who did it. However the players got the idea that perhaps it was some sort of disease or something.
I wanted to wrap up the skill challenge as it had dragged on for a bit (and although some of players enjoy learning about the world, one of them likes to fight a lot more). So I had the inquisitor who supposedly wrote today's Sharn Inquisitive issue have arranged to meet some people in the bar later that day.
I expected my players to simply wait peacefully. They waited, although somehow almost caused a tavern brawl through their undiplomatic nature by threatening to torture the inquisitor. After averting a tavern brawl, through a lot of intimidate and a splash of diplomacy (a light splash). They also chased a poor boy down who had run away to get help so the players didn't kill his father or his "uncles." Fortunately they used a lot of diplomacy here.
Eventually the inquisitor turns up (Caul Stokes). While 3 of my players have a passive insight below 12, the fourth player has a passive insight of 20. So Caul's lies weren't working. He revealed he worked for a powerful person on the City Council. When they demanded more he said it was a gnome. This confused the players, and given how undiplomatic 2 of my players are, the inquisitor gave them good advice when he said "don't get involved."
Fortunately the players told the inquisitor what they'd learned in the skill challenge (I gave them a number of successes based on the information they'd learned the night before) and Caul Stokes was able to provide the final clue, which was the soldiers in the bar had all been fired from. They gave the players some information on how the nobleman had been acting funny (him and his wife had taken to sleeping in separate bedrooms), and confirmed the description matched the nobleman.
The players were actually eager to solve this mystery. And so they went to Mithral Towers where some guards were standing guard to enter the tower. One of them told the players they'd get an escort and came back with 7 guards. They took the players to a very quiet part of the tower (its where serviceman and servants enter the manors near the back) and turned around said "Here's a good spot. But don't kill them! I know the lord said we should, but one of them is from House Lyrandar and that would cause too much trouble. We'll just throw them into Fallen."
Despite this very clear warning, the players still killed the guards. After a couple of deaths Avocado's player said "These are City Watchman. We can't kill them" but the barbarian who was "in a rage" said he didn't care and so anytime a player would subdue a Watchman, the halfling would coup de gras it.
After the first battle was a cakewalk, I increased the difficulty level from "standard" to "hard." Unfortunately that meant this battle should have been a TPK. I "forgot" one of the recharging powers which helped avoid it. But clearly I need more work in creating balanced encounters.
Afterwards they left one sole survivor alive and they threw the rest out a small slit (human sized though) to help hide the attack (tiger claws are fairly distinctive). Due to the height of Mithral Towers I'm ruling that all the bodies that landed on the ground were smashed into a bloody mess that is impossible to identify very much from.
The halfling tortured the sole survivor (breaking his arms). This made me actually stop the game for a second and asked if the halfling could do this and still keep his alignment. After a few seconds thoughts and the halfling pointing out he's unaligned and during the fight was "in a rage" I went "yeah okay. Keep going." I'm very much an alignment optional person, but even this seemed a bit much when coupled with everything else ;)
The guard confirmed they had been hired to kill the lord they were going to see, although he didn't know why. When asked if gold was all he cared about he said "after what I've seen in the Last War. Nothing else matters."
I then had him unable to give anymore information because of the agony he was in. They made sure the guard would tell everyone that this was a zombie attack or else they'd find a way to kill him. Considering how much of a maniac the halfling was acting, I had the guard suitably intimidated into agreeing.
And now we ran out of time so the players said they rested in an abandoned part of the tower. I'm going to reveal they were in a merchant's manor that has been abandoned since it was attacked in the Last War. How did the attackers get into here? Dunno. But if the players are truly interested and I truly can't think of any ideas I can always fall back on a "suicide bomber."
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I was worried my players disliked the game. The "random handing out of tickets" coupled with the "random zombie attack" made it feel a bit of a railroad to me. The skill challenge lagged on for at least an hour (if not longer, possible an hour and a half to two hours) and so I was worried I'd lost their interest. I then near-TPK'd them to top it all off.
However they instead said they've got a mystery to solve and are quite anxious about solving this "cliffhanger" so much so that they organised to get together a lot sooner then I was expecting. They also said they didn't feel like the skill challenge dragged, but instead enjoyed learning a lot about Sharn and Eberron. They had no idea to expect people shooting each other down while on griffons (practicing the race of the eight winds which is in 2 weeks time. All shots were non-lethal of course and at worst had some bruises). Although I'm fairly certain one of them would have liked more combat as she typically does enjoy more combat ;)
They also liked the challenge in the last encounter although made sure I realised they didn't want it all the time ;) They also confirmed the first encounter was a cakewalk.
So while I personally found quite a few things wrong with it, the players enjoyed it so i can work on improving things for future sessions
I also know that my players do like mysteries, so I'll be introducing more as we go on.For example the "random zombie attack" and "random handing out of tickets" aren't actually random but are both linked to a Cult of the Traveler being behind the entire zombie attack. They've recovered a prototype created by Jolan Tankran and then stolen by House Cannith to make sure no-one ever used it. This will solve the mystery on who is behind it, why they're behind it (Traveler cultists are behind it because change is good, anarchy is good. Stability and government are bad. These aren't ordinary followers of the Traveler, but are instead extreme radicals) and how they're doing it.
I'll also be introducing a new mystery, which will be the nobleman who is in fact a changeling. This changeling works for the BBEG. If the players subdue him when awakened he will say "I'm sorry mother, I have failed you. I shouldn't have used these fools" at which point he will bite down hard on "a poison pill hidden in a tooth" (probably not exactly this, he probably sectioned it off in a pouch through shapechanging). At which point he morphs back into a changeling.
If the players outright kill a nobleman of Sharn, they won't get this clue. What he says before dying is a clue to the BBEG because
Massive end-game spoilers so if one of my players has read this far, please stop
My BBEG is a Dal Quori who created all changelings. She somehow managed to survive the Giant-Quori war and has been in stasis until recently. She had a few changeling servitors in stasis with her.
As such a changeling will periodically appear in a plot whose sole purpose is to destabilise the Five Nations. This whole adventure was meant to be considered an attack from either House Cannith or Karrnath in an attempt to, if not restart the Last War, convince Breland to start stockpiling weapons. The players will foil this by revealing that neither Karrnath nor Cannith were involved, but instead cultists were behind it.
Changeling spies have been inserted into almost every single government of Khorvaire and has convinced most of these governments to develop or discover new weapons. Breland's changeling has failed to do this as King Boranel is quite adamant on the issue.
As such there will periodically be an adventure with a halfling acting as the mastermind. Each time such an adventure is completed there is a chance the players will get an additional clue as to who the BBEG is.
As such a changeling will periodically appear in a plot whose sole purpose is to destabilise the Five Nations. This whole adventure was meant to be considered an attack from either House Cannith or Karrnath in an attempt to, if not restart the Last War, convince Breland to start stockpiling weapons. The players will foil this by revealing that neither Karrnath nor Cannith were involved, but instead cultists were behind it.
Changeling spies have been inserted into almost every single government of Khorvaire and has convinced most of these governments to develop or discover new weapons. Breland's changeling has failed to do this as King Boranel is quite adamant on the issue.
As such there will periodically be an adventure with a halfling acting as the mastermind. Each time such an adventure is completed there is a chance the players will get an additional clue as to who the BBEG is.