Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 oorlof Jul 22, 2008 11:37:40	I'm DMing a campaign centered in northern Breland's Xandrar-region. One of the PCs is a Drow scout who moved to Khorvaire, worked as a black-op for Aundair's Royal Eyes, then left the agency on a bad note and went to live in Breland. Now, the Royal Eyes have captured him and want to make the Drow work for the agency again. They no longer trust the guy, but do want to use him as their tool in the field. To this end, they've placed a Mark of Justice on the Drow, command word-activated. (Think Belkar's curse in Order of the Stick) Naturally, the PC will want the Mark removed. I've determined the caster was 9th level and the PCs are approaching level 7. It will be another 2 levels, near my projected end-of-campaign, before the groups cleric can remove the Mark himself via Break Enchantment. So I'm trying to figure out Where the Drow could find a relatively high-level caster to remove the Mark should it get triggered. Best I can think of is asking a 7th level Artificer to pen a scroll of Break Enchantment, but even 7th level artificers don't exactly grow on threes. Or is that level cap a bit too harsh, even for Eberron? Anyways, I've introduced a mage (lvl 7) and an artificer (level 6) in Xandrar, the PCs homebase. It looks like they'll have to go somewhere else to get the Mark of Justice removed. I want to make it a bit difficult for the PC to get the Mark removed, but not impossible. I'm thinking minor quest (2 to 3 sessions) to get the caster to agree to removing the Mark, plus financial compensation. But it won't be as easy as walking into the nearest Elminster and having him take care of the problem. Any ideas?
#2 mystrich Jul 22, 2008 12:44:09	Well, there are a few high level casters, especially among "older" races since they have time to devout to becoming better in what they do. I think you could probably easily find a level 10+ cleric among the Undying Court, but it would be an interesting quest to find one who would help a drow.
#3 martm Jul 22, 2008 12:46:35	The Dark lantern could find him what he want, they have plenty of "work" opportunity to be repaid (or prepaid). Doinsg so, the drow will be caugh between two strong organisation... Making is life twice more interesting... :-)
#4 RedRider Jul 22, 2008 14:27:41	Maybe the Black Pit in the mountains of Northern Breland? (I think that's the name.) Now Black Pit pretty much illustrates "Wretched hive of scum and villainy" so you're probably looking at someone who's either at least something of a bad guy (Skilled mercenary, who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty), decent but seriously misunderstood (A heretical cleric) or someone who's ******* off the neighbours something rotten. ("We don't want the light of justice here. We want cheap rotgut and a nice rock to scuttle under.") In addition to the local cutthroats and cads there's a pit leading down into Khyber next door. Plot/quest opportunities abound!
#5 oorlof Jul 22, 2008 15:40:03	Redrider and MartM must've been reading my campaign notes... the PCs are working for the Dark Lanterns as freelancers. Also, they've already got plans to visit Black Pit. Something about my spur-of-the-moment newspaper article about "clouds of winged vampiric heads, rising from Black Pit" captured my guys' interests... Is there any table where I can find the highest level caster, derived from a towns population?
#6 RedRider Jul 22, 2008 18:25:18	Strangely enough... Though as I'm sure you're already aware, high level characters should be treated as unique individuals. (Instead of the old cliche of the level 9 cleric sitting in a chapel waiting for adventurers to drag in fresh corpses and a bag of diamonds.) Following from that, you should feel free to have an old, cynical mastercaster frittering his days away fishing in some backwater village if it serves your purposes. (Just as long as there isn't an old cynical high magus in every village.)
#7 oorlof Jul 23, 2008 2:28:46	Oops :D Thanks dude!