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Djibriel
2009-06-19, 09:15 AM
As a DM, I have an upcoming situation I'm not sure how to deal with.

The Inspired from Riedra form diplomatic ties with Q'Barra, as mentioned in the ECS I believe. In a town, a detachment of Inspired forces are present to protect the town from jungle dangers. These are both Inspired and 'normal' folk truly believing the Inspired are what they claim; religious leaders with a benevolent agenda. These people can have Lawful and Good alignments, naturally, as their mission is to serve and protect.

The PCs have a powerful Kalashtar in their midst. How will Inspired and/or the normal folk react? Immediate and violent? Extreme distrust coupled with protective Powers? Or does the feud become somewhat ignored since here and now, the two groups share a common goal? Will they be able to cooperate at all if pressured heavily, or is this simply impossible?

The situation is made somewhat more difficult since the Kalashtar is a Telepath, and is thus able to identiy the Inspired, their alignment and possible violent intentions they may or may not be repressing at the moment. I have little experience dealing with Psionics, so I don't really know how these Powers can affect social encounters.

This is a 3.5 game, if it matters.

mohdri
2009-06-19, 09:56 AM
Remember, the Inspired are master manipulators. They "enslaved" half a continent by "encouraging" other to do the dirty work, and they stepped in and "restored" peace.

They probably won't hide who or what they are. They (the Inspired) were invited to Q'Barra, brought supplies and lots of help, asking very little. A kalashtar then comes in, pointing fingers saying "EVIL", who should the Q'Barrans believe?

Also remember the Dreaming Dark. Most Inspired are directly affiliated with them. The Inspired sent to Q'Barra might actually not know anything more than they were told to "go here" and "do that". A Psion/Telepath might legitimatly not get anything, because they not know anything.

Kol Korran
2009-06-19, 10:52 AM
a few things:
- first of all, the regular folk probably can't recognize a Kalashtar, especially if they have been brought there from Riedra. i doubt the Inspired tell about their enemies to their servents, and to most people a Kalashtar just looks like an exotic looking person. to the regular folks they won't be any more different then the rest of the races of Eberron, quite possibly the opposite.

- how the inspired reacts to the kalashtar depends first and foremost about the personality of the inspired in question. is it a brash new youth following blindly the dreaming dark? is it an older inspired who is more interested in bigger goals than "small time vendettas"? is it perhaps an insipired that turned out to be far less carefull and bright then originally expected, so s/he was punished at doing this lowly mission instead of something better?

you see, there are tons of ways to play the inspired, all depending on who they are. i do suggest some common questions to help you think your way through this:
- how importent is the protection mission to the inspired? how importent is the impression they want to leave with the settlement? if that is more importent at the moment, then they can possibly on hunting the kalashtar for the moment.
- what is the main inspired people experience with the kalashtar? do they invoke hatred? curiousity? boredom? interest? that will greatly color the interactions with the kalashtar

a few other things to consider:
- these are the inspired, master spy and manipulators. i wouldn't be surprised if each and everyone of them in a major position holds some power/ magic item/ special bind on their soul that prevents others from accesing their thoughts, especially preventing the discovery of the Quorri spirit.
- i suggest you put on only a few inspired, the most just regular people who serve them, though a few of them might also have special capabilities (have class levels). the inspired is an aristocracy class, and there for they are few, but well stocked and protected.
- speaking of which, the Inspired should have access to unusuall resources to fulfill their objectives- rare special poisons (maybe psychic posions), communication with higher ups (so even if they can't deal with the character, they know how to call someone who can). highly trained specialists (make custom made combatants against your characters), access to multiple uses special magical items, and so on...

hope this helped,
Kol

Djibriel
2009-06-19, 11:07 AM
I thank you both with helpful responses so far. I can't post too much about the specifics; there may be an off chance my players are reading this.


first of all, the regular folk probably can't recognize a Kalashtar, especially if they have been brought there from Riedra. i doubt the Inspired tell about their enemies to their servents, and to most people a Kalashtar just looks like an exotic looking person. to the regular folks they won't be any more different then the rest of the races of Eberron, quite possibly the opposite.

Secrets of Sarlona mentions how all Riedrans know about the Kalashtar, who have been possessed by evil demons and are always working to destroy Riedran stability. Since Kalashtar look like Inspired, and the Riedrans all already know eachother (I mean, the detachement there), I doubt it'll take most of them long to put 2 and 2 together.

Kol Korran
2009-06-19, 04:54 PM
hhhmmm, i don't own the "secrets of Rierda" book. didn't know that. but kalashtar definetly don't look like inspired. just see from the pics. Kalashtar do just look like beautifull/ exotic humans, if i read their entry in the ECS right.

good luck to you, sounds like an interesting situation. hopefully you'll make the most out of it. (i personally tried to avoid the entire dreaming dark and the inspired in my Eberron campaign. they were mostly at the background. me? i like abberations the most...)

Gralamin
2009-06-19, 05:16 PM
In a place like this, it makes the most sense for the inspired to appear defensive. They do nothing to go out of their way to cause trouble for the Kalashtar, but the following sort of things probably are done:

The Riedrans have been taught that through Noble action they can defeat the evil spirits. Kalashtar are believed to house evil spirits. Chances are the non-inspired are going to be following this idea to the letter - never starting a fight with the PC, but being happy to put them down if they do start one.
The Inspired are probably already trusted there, but they probably want more assurance then this. They will probably try to provoke the PCs to acting brashly, leave evidence that they are working with the attacking lizard folk, and similar things.
The PCs may try to cause the non-Inspired Riedrans there to turn against their masters. This will probably fail spectacularly, as Riedrans have been indoctrinated since the moment they were born, and believe their masters to merely be religious leaders.

Salt_Crow
2009-06-19, 06:34 PM
I'm certain that some passages mentioned that the attacks on Newthrone (Q'Barra) were ochestrated by the Inspired so that they'll have reason to garrison more troops in the area. Not exactly a Good act now is it? Of course non-Inspired (so not in the 'Knows') would just as likely to be good as anyone else though.

It'd be interesting to see how they play it out with the Lords of Dust, who have their own interest in the area themselves.

Also: remember that Inspired are vessels currently inhabited by Quori spirits. They're ancient and would happily go out of their way to make a Kalashtar's life much more... interesting (read: miserable/nonexistent). Even if they're just empty vessels, they're the 'chosen' ones that are brainwashed from the very beginning to serve the interests of Quori. So, I wouldn't say any vessels (let alone Inspired) would have any attitude friendlier than hostile against recognisable Kalashtar.

But then again, a Kalashtar could disguise him/herself as a human (for which they do not get penalised for) just as well as an Inspired, so without means such as psionic/magical detection they'd get along (until their true natures are revealed).

Once they establish their identities (which, as OP mentioned, will not be difficult) I'd say they'll play out an elaborate mind game for themselves. Inspired, to possibly kill (without getting his/her hands dirty) or extract information from him/her; Kalashtar to reveal the true intentions of Riedrans by perhaps bringing in evidences of their 'ochestrated' attacks against Newthrone.


p.s. Also, Inspired have bases of operation throughout the world, especially Sharn (selling drugs no less XD). So once a PC's identity is revealed, you could use that to provide further psionic adventures if you do so wish ;)