In my current campaign I have one scene that will involve an emissary from Sarlona, comming with an offer for the Daughters of Sora Kell. The emissary has an agenda that has nothing to do with the offer itself, he is just using this offer to get free access to the Great Crag without arising much suspicion. While the offer is false... it still has to be believable offer, attractive to the daughters (at least in his own oppinion), and an offer that won't put the emissary in bad light to the more civilized nations of Khorvaire.
Can anyone give me a suggestion what this offer could be?
How bout leveraging Reidra's considerable political influence with all the Five Nations to support Droam as a fully recognized nation under the Treaty of Thronehold?
The novel "Queen of Stone" by Keith Baker deals with the Daughters of Sora Kell inviting deligates from all Thronehold nations to attent a conference in which they attempt to convince them to recognize Droam as a nation.
Regardless of the actual outcome of the book, this alone shows one of the desires of the Daughters: recognition. It's something Reidra might be able to give them.
1) Drugs like dream lily
2) Slaves and servents
3) Psionic items
4) Assistance in takin out potential trouble makers
5) Information
The true nature of their relationship doesn't have to be public.
Aside from the financial and magical selling points of dragonshards, we must also consider the age Khorvaire is at currently. With the major war over, people will have less time to kill, and instead use their knowledge towards more non-war scientific, magical, and philosophical means. As other nations want to learn more about the draconic prophecy, they may pay a pretty penny for stones to analyze and experiment with.
If knowledge is rescource, then the dragonshards can be useful on many fronts.
In my current campaign I have one scene that will involve an emissary from Sarlona, comming with an offer for the Daughters of Sora Kell. The emissary has an agenda that has nothing to do with the offer itself, he is just using this offer to get free access to the Great Crag without arising much suspicion. While the offer is false... it still has to be believable offer, attractive to the daughters (at least in his own oppinion), and an offer that won't put the emissary in bad light to the more civilized nations of Khorvaire.
Can anyone give me a suggestion what this offer could be?
"...the Inspired have proven to be helpful allies in the aftermath of the war" I've always seen the Inspired as coming with humanitarian aid, finding or building shelters for the homeless, collecting food with their wealth...
It's a matter of trust. They want to own Khorvaire, spread their influence and control magic/build their egg-shaped monuments etc. etc., be the rulers, all that jazz. They're willing to take thousands of years to do that--they've spent 40,000 so far to just get Sarlona--but when they see a prime opportunity, they seize it.
Droam is a place filled with strife, death, hunger... the Inspired could show up, offering to stabilize some areas and make sure everyone's taken care of. They start doing better than the Daughters have--they don't just keep the Brelanders out, they keep the area in a happy monstrous concert.
All part of plans. Maybe the Inspired don't control a huge area, but they pacify a small area--augmented by their own psionics and monuments, which mentally subdue aggression and enhance happiness. Eventually this area will grow, and grow, and maybe 1,000 years from now, the Inspired will own Droam.
Of course, since they're simultaneously doing this everywhere, 1,000 years from now likely they'll own the entire continent and they'll be the kings of Galifar and nobody will be able to recall exactly WHEN that transition took place...
Oh man, this just makes me want to do a time travel campaign. The Inspired own everything except the Mournland, filled with freedom fighters and the Lord of Blades and his forces...
Looking to things that probably WOULDN'T be involved: Dreamlily. Dreamlily is first mentioned in Sharn: City of Towers. If you check again, you'll see that the OTHER highly addictive drug in that sourcebook comes from... Droaam. The Daughters have their own tricks in that direction, and it you read the Graywall backdrop, grist and harpy song pretty much keep their masses in line. Ditto on slave labor. They've basically already got that, and besides, the reason the Riedrans are such good laborers is because they don't believe they are slaves.
So what do they want?
Recognition is something. The Inspired have pull with the Five Nations. If the Inspired approve of the Daughters, it makes it hard for the Five Nations to ignore them. At the same time, it's an open question as to whether the Daughters actually WANT recognition. They've got the greatest living oracle on Eberron on their side. Which means, you'd think, that they'd have KNOWN they were going to get turned down when they petitioned for recognition. Option one is that Sora Teraza just didn't bother to mention it. Option two is that they are playing a deeper game. They KNEW they were going to get turned down; they were simply going through the motions for their own purposes.
This ties to option two: Intrigue. Through Sora Teraza, the Daughters know more about the world than most powers that be. Teraza at least surely knows about the Dreaming Dark; the only question is if she's told her sisters. If so, Katra might be willing to work directly with the DD. That's what Daask is for her: a game. Her wit against the world. Working with the Quori adds an interesting wrinkle to that. So she might be willing to negotiate not simply with the Inspired, but with the QUORI - if, of course, Teraza decides to fill her in.
If not? They might not want dreamlily, but I would expect that the Daughters would love to get Riedran manufactured goods. It may seem simple, but I would think that just armor and weapons alone likely come in a VERY wide range of quality across Droaam, and that a lot of their forces are essenitally fighting with pointed sticks. They are still building an industrial base from a system that had a lot of feudal villages. Not only to the Riedrans have a strong military-industrial system, thanks to Borunan they actually have a history of designing weapons sized properly for ogres. Which brings in another point: If I brought the Inspired to Droaam, unless I was dealing with the Quori directly, it wouldn't BE an Inspired. I'd bring in an Oni and a retinue of ogres from Borunan. It's an excellent opportunity to highlight this unusual aspect of Sarlona, and it's the same principle as Tharashk using mainly orcs and half-orcs in its Droaam offices. Droaam might even be interested in employing Borunan ogres and oni as military consultants, training their monstrous forces (as the Borunan ogres have been part of the disciplined Inspired forces for centuries).
So with THAT said, there's another option... for the Sarlonans to work not with the Daughters, but with one of the other warlords... such as Tzaryen Rrac. In fact, what if Tzaryen wasn't a native Khorvairian oni at all, but rather a Borunan agent of the Horned Shadow? The question arises why Sora Teraza wouldn't know. BUT... it's been said that Riedra is mysteriously off the map of the Prophecy. Could the Oni of the Horned Shadow have found a way to cloak their actions from Sora Teraza? To what end?
Anyhow, just some random thoughts...
Whether anything comes of it, it's certainly room for an extended discussion and lots of time hanging out at the Crag.
Of course, if it was ME, I'd say that if the Inspired are using this as a cover for some other activity, that they will discover that the Daughters are aware of this and have a surprise in store. I'm a big believer in using the Daughters as the force people consistently underestimate. Yes, they aren't a threat to the world or even Khorvaire. But in the knowledge-is-power category it's hard to beat Teraza, and they are essentially faerie tales come to life. That's right, they got turned down by Thronehold. They can't even all their soldiers. But at the end of the day... is that REALLY what they care about? Or is it all part of a grander story? In my mind, Katra enjoys playing with her nation - but at the end of the day, the Daughters are working towards something far more mysterious than just building a nation.
But that's me.
While the promise for military equipment and training will indeed be very tempting offer, I figured that the inspired delegate will keep it as a "heavy gun" for whenever he really need something from the Daughters instead of using it now for decoy and risking the word to spread out and to risk ruining the game his inspired associates are playing in the more civilised parts of Khorvaire.
I have totally forgotten about the Horned Shadow - it indeed is something that he might be insterested in since he is in the region anyway. Will have that in mind.
As for the people usually underestimating the Three - that is exactly what I'm going for in the end. As the negotiations start to drag out, the inspired delegate will begin to believe that the Hags are indeed nothing more than some old bags of bones having more power than they can handle and will try to put a nightmare seed in Katra... then the things will get spicy
I realise that this will be a bit unusual approach for the inspired (and they are much more careful by nature), but the focus of the campaign is on Droaam and I want to highlight the Daughters this time, so I don't really care.I realise that this will be a bit unusual approach for the inspired...
As long as you're having fun with it, nothing wrong with that! No one says the DD can't be playing things more fast and loose in your Eberron.
Now I do want to do something with the Horned Shadow in Droaam, though... and/or Heirs of Ohr Kaluun in the Venomous Demesne. Aside from a good excuse to eventually get PCs out to Borunan or Ohr Kaluun, I like the idea of having a good reason to have elite Riedran forces on Khoraviare... potentially in a capacity where they aren't even bad guys, but legitimately trying to track down terrorists. interesting chance for PCs to get to know some of the NON-possessed, not-so-evil Riedrans... or even a jumping off point for a PC Riedran-human psionic-classed PC, what with the PH3 coming out soon. Elite soldier sent from Riedra, either on active duty hunting these dark forces and believing working with the PCs will help... or potentially going native after learning too much about the Inspired.
* I wonder how many players would ever just trade away their "story" in such a fashion. Some deals are just too good to be true ;)
is it Cyre that's the missing member of the Baker's dozen, or is it Droaam....
What if the source of all Tereza's knowledge came from the Quori / Dal Quor, as in, she is an incarnation of the plane or of the dreaming dark, thus being linked to everyone's dreams, thoughts and aspirations all at once. (This also poses the question if the other Hags are incarnation of other planes or beings)
If this were true, what is the purpose of making the Inspired come to Droaam seemingly with a hiden agenda?
Just something to chew on
Rekko
Here's a huge "What If"
What if the source of all Tereza's knowledge came from the Quori / Dal Quor, as in, she is an incarnation of the plane or of the dreaming dark, thus being linked to everyone's dreams, thoughts and aspirations all at once. (This also poses the question if the other Hags are incarnation of other planes or beings)
If this were true, what is the purpose of making the Inspired come to Droaam seemingly with a hiden agenda?
they may encourage the Hags to launch an invasion of Breland, and then offer to send reinforcements to assist the Brelish defend their frontier--which has been conveniently subverted with dreamlily and Inspired sabotage. Breland would then become a Riedran client-state and they would then have taken control of the most powerful of the the 5N and established a formal military and political presence on the ground in Khorvaire.
The PCs may then uncover either evidence of the sabotage or of Chosen "advising" Droaam's invaders. They then face an uphill battle to convince Brelish commanders of the Riedran double-game... while trying to save their own skin from Riedran-paid assassins, Inspired subversives, and Brelish commanders who aren't interested in some meddling rogues who are trying to convince politicians in Wroat to abandon the assistance of a powerful ally.
As for the people usually underestimating the Three - that is exactly what I'm going for in the end. As the negotiations start to drag out, the inspired delegate will begin to believe that the Hags are indeed nothing more than some old bags of bones having more power than they can handle and will try to put a nightmare seed in Katra... then the things will get spicy
Perhaps this is, in fact, their plan all along. We know that a mind seed doesn't always hatch into something loyal to il-Lashtavar. If the Daughters had their very own pet shadow...
they may encourage the Hags to launch an invasion of Breland, and then offer to send reinforcements to assist the Brelish defend their frontier--which has been conveniently subverted with dreamlily and Inspired sabotage. Breland would then become a Riedran client-state and they would then have taken control of the most powerful of the the 5N and established a formal military and political presence on the ground in Khorvaire.
Sounds a bit rash for the quori and the hags to me.
Droaam is tollerated at the moment, and also not particularly stable. I doubt Droaam has the resources to sustain a serious invasion, since they cannot even get all the various tribes to listen to them* (although of course that could be an elaborate hoax to alleviate the fears of their neighbors). More importantly, it would be against character. The hags have been trying to be recognized for decades, and they actively sponsor the Dragonmarked Houses to open up trade in Graywall. A serious invasion of any kind would immediately ruin that work.
Similarly, such an invasion might actually get the Galifar nations to unite. Granted, it is no sure thing that they can set aside their differences long enough and in time to do so, but would the quori take that risk (assuming they want a shattered Galifar)?
* Note that of course, the quori might think they can use the lack of control to their advantage. A couple of gnoll and harpy tribes actively invading/raiding Breland might work better then a full scale invasion after all ;)
I agree that the hags are too wily to be played like that, Madfox. I don't see what the hags would have to gain from taking part in that plan. Sora Tezra is the best non-dragon seer in the whole setting. Surely she would see this plan as having utterly horrible outcomes for the hags and Droaam as a whole despite anything the Inspired promise them. I just do not see them taking the bait.
maybe the Inspired aren't promising anything to them.
Maybe Sora Teza is the chosen vessel for one of the Kalaraq Quori, and Droaam is only the first part of a grand Quori scheme to conquer all of Khorvaire.
Just a thought.
A product which would grant the Hags even greater control over thier dominion.
A product that could be used to reenforce thier bid for legitimacy.
A product which would ensure they live on in the minds of mortals for untold generations to come.
A Monolith.
There is one product which the inspired could offer the Hags, which only they can provide.
A product which would ensure they live on in the minds of mortals for untold generations to come.
A Monolith.
Actually, this is an interesting question on many levels.
The Daughters of Sora Kell have been established as being far more powerful than typical hags. They are the subject of legends. They have already lived longer than one would expect for hags. Sora Teraza is likely the greatest living oracle on Eberron.
A question I’d see is… are they legends because they are powerful? Or are they powerful because they are legends?
If you look to the Undying Court and Tairnadal ancestors, you see examples of spirits sustained or empowered by the reverence of others. Now, we have lots of examples of OTHER people who are loved or revered without gaining power, so I’m not suggesting a general rule of reverence-equals-power in Eberron (as is the basis for divinity in some settings). However, you could make a case for something like this with the Daughters specifically. Their mother was a night hag, and a remarkable night hag at that… and night hags interact with dreams. So perhaps, on some level, the Daughters themselves are tied to Dal Quor… and the spread of their stories strengthens them in some way. It’s still unclear why the Daughters chose to found Droaam when they did; it could simply be that Teraza told them that it was time to create new legends. They knew they wouldn’t be accepted when they petitioned Thronehold, but that wasn’t the goal; the goal was to bring them into the public eye, and to get people to remember their stories and to tell knew ones.
I guess the point to me is that when it comes to “living on in the minds of mortals for untold generations to come”… the Daughters have already been the subject of stories and folklore for centuries. On some level, at least, they already HAVE this form of immortality. Though if true, this raises a very interesting question of what sort of further alliance or shared interest they could have with the Quori… or whether this might be a basis for setting them in opposition to the Dreaming Dark, and as allies of the PCs in that struggle. Perhaps Teraza knows something about the turn of the age… and if the Daughters are tied to Dal Quor on some level, what will that transformation do to them?
The Dreaming Dark novels include an example of a group of dragons who have apparently sent their souls to Dal Quor to escape going to Dolurrh after death. They have no connection to the Quori, and are simply another force living on the fringe of the plane. This would be another direction for the Daughters. Perhaps they are building legends and are literally becoming dreams while still alive, so that after death they become something akin to a living story. Perhaps they are on their way to becoming Vestiges.
Just a random thought.