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View Full Version : DM Help Eberron campaign - Mass Effect flavoured. Advise appreciated.



Xerlith
2015-05-06, 08:41 AM
If you're my player, and I know you know if you are, please leave this thread or you'll have no fun from discovering the plot]
Warning: This may be lenghty - TL;DR I'm making a campaign and want help with fleshing out the overarching plot.
So, after a while, I'm finally up to run an Eberron campaign on PF rules with a brand new group of my old friends (D&D 3.5 veterans). They're new to Eberron (And Pathfinder), but they pretty much got into the theme of the setting and rolled up:


A Kobold Wandslinger (http://pf-eberron.wikidot.com/archetypes:gunslinger-wandslinger). Optimized to be a badass archeologist kobold. Named Harrizon. Basically, this image. (http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/7199/koboldjones.jpg)
A Warforged Artificer (https://sites.google.com/site/eberronpathfinder/conversion-info/classes/artificer)
A Human Zen Archer Monk of Silver Flame
A (probably) Bard into Windwright Captain (my girlfriend who is the only person with general Eberron knowledge).


They expressed a desire to play something "LIEK MASS EFFECT AND INDIANA JONES AND MAGICZ" so I, a ME fan myself, decided to deliver:


They begin at 1st level in a kind of "flashback" during the War (Around ~994 I guess). Probably in/near Cyre. They're tasked with recovering (for Cyre, probably) a MacGuffin (A stone monolith embedded with Khyber and Eberron dragonshards) from an old crypt of a Dhakaani warlord, currently overrun by enemy forces. The failure/success decides about small details, if they succeed - they are outside when the Mourning happens a few days laer, if they fail, they're left for dead in the - now being evacuated due to being found - crypt. And then the Mourning happens. They miraculously survive and have to get out to safety. I'll throw in an old man who shows up looking amused, tells them the dragons will surely be happy they're alive - with their cute Prophecy on the right track and whatnot.
Four years later and at 2nd level, they're contacted by a woman from the Cannith house and asked to go and retrieve the very crystal. They're equipped and sent to the Mournland again, via an Orien coach with a dragonmarked chauffeur. Their task - retrieve this very crystal, whose whereabouts were lost until not long ago when a Cannith scout found clues about its resting place. The reasons for the players being asked - instead of, say, sending an expedition - are kept secret. Baron Merrix d'Cannith has grown interested in the monolith - and that's all they know. What happens now is basically the Shadows of the Last War adventure, beginning with the players entering the Mournland. In the end, if they find the crystal they are overwhelmed by visions of madness, death and nightmarish images.
When they come back to Sharn, they're welcome by the news of people disappearing and coming back later, different... Or not coming back at all. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?397111-Eberron-Creating-a-mystery-horror-lite-adventure-s-plot) Mostly women. If they decide to follow that trail, they discover an unnatural stir within the cults of the Dragon Below. The perpetrator of the whole disappearance is a Jorasco heir who enslaves pregnant women to corrupt their pregnancies with breed leeches to create daelkyr half-bloods. The man himself believes to be helping them and is genuinely surprised if the PCs confront him directly. The men disappearing are simply those who came dangerously close to the truth.
Blank space for a level - yet to figure it out - then the heroes get to go on a premade adventure again - Red Hand of Doom. The hobgoblins are trying to release a minor Daelkyr instead of Tiamat - they only think it's her due to the Daelkyr's madness abilities. The Ghostlord is either an old, corrupted now Gatekeeper druid or changed to the Lord of Blades - actually Aaren d'Cannith, who artificially prolonged his life and crafted a persona of the Lord of Blades - with Bulwark's help - but then madness took them both and warped their goals into creating a holy war against the flesh.
Somewhere in-between I want to throw in the Giants and the Quori as a red herring.
At levels 10+ the foreshadowings are going to be realised through a rise of Daelkyr armies and the Daelkyr emissaries themselves beginning to warp the minds of humans and planar seals weakening. Long term goals of the campaign?
Saving Sharn. It'll be one of the places hit by the Daelkyr armies marching on - maybe even one Daelkyr will turn out to be imprisoned below.
Reversal of the Mourning. Possible, but at a cost. It was originally a country-wide spell that was meant to protect - but a Daelkyr warped the minds of the spellcasters who built the Eldritch Machine, effectively warping the whole country. The global peace was an unseen byproduct of the madness that Daelkyr wanted to test out.
Imprisoning the Daelkyr again - or imprisoning them if the former proves impossible.


Whew, a long post. I know most of these is terribad and I'd be very happy to receive criticism about the idea - and overjoyed if you decide to suggest improvements.
TL;DR I'm making a Daelkyr-centric, Mass Effect-inspired (hard!) campaign and am asking for ideas.

DragonBaneDM
2015-05-06, 09:01 AM
I've just started an Eberron campaign, too!

Just like you, I went with the flashback route. Ended up in a Level 2 to 3 jump because of the 4 years of toned downed adventuring my party did. Worked out pretty well, they adjusted quickly and I'm enjoying my expanded XP budget.

I like your campaign goals! My Mourning is different, but I've never thought about them being able to reverse it before. I dig that! I'm using Aeron a bit differently and my campaign features Drooam a bit more as the BBEGs, but overall I think you have some really tight ideas.

What Mass Effect fluff are you throwing in there? I'm guessing the daelkyr and reavers line up real well, but what are you going to do in Sharn to make it feel like The Citadel?

Xerlith
2015-05-06, 11:20 AM
I am curious - what is your Mourning? I've thrown about many versions before I settled on this tentatively.

About the theme - it's more the little things. A player character who pilots the ship and gets to befriend its elemental. A Warforged who explores their (in)humanity.

The overarching plot of the incomprehensible invaders corrupting and warping everything they encounter.

The "age of exploration" feel.. And more.

Laughingmanlol
2015-05-06, 12:39 PM
Sounds like a great idea! Going by the source material alone, I'd suggest frequent moral dilemmas with lasting consequences, such as how they deal with the experimentation or whether to reactivate a warforged factory at the end of an adventure, but also more minor incidents such as whether to free a rebellious elemental, or if they should fight through a train via the carriages and risk civilian casualties or take the more risky roof route to the engine. Be sure to record EVERY choice and come up with a way of showing the results a few levels later.
Also, both of the franchises the players like are very much exploration-themed, so a globe-trotting plot would be essential. A rival team of well-funded dragonmarked nobles might make a fun set of recurring NPCs, especially if they can be persuaded to ally for the final battle, though it's worth ensuring the players hear enough about them to know they're snobby rather than evil before they first meet them so they don't just kill them straight away.
Finally, for this type of campaign I think you have to plan around the ending: come up with a set of options and epilogues that will satisfy your players, and work backwards from there to build up to them and not leave plot threads hanging.
Good luck, and I'd be eager to read a campaign log!

DragonBaneDM
2015-05-07, 12:05 PM
I am curious - what is your Mourning? I've thrown about many versions before I settled on this tentatively.


I sat down and thought about who would be willing to see Cyre destroyed in order to stop the war. The answer I came up with was Q'Barra. I figured one of the Lords of Dust would approach a Galifar loyalist and give them a way to end the war. The Galifar loyalist in question would have been destroyed and remade into some sort of immortal aberration near the source of The Mourning: a city-sized spell-bomb found underneath Cyre in a country-sized dungeon of tunnels stretching from The Glowing Chasm and ending along the country's borders. The spell-bomb destroys Cyre, stopping the war, exactly what Q'Barra would want. And after all, who expects them to be bad guys?

However, I might steal part of your idea, and have the Galifar loyalist (haven't named him yet) pawn off the spell off on the Cyrans as a defensive shield. After all, that makes PERFECT sense for why it only affected that one country!

Kol Korran
2015-05-08, 03:27 AM
Hey Xerlith. Some of my thoughts:
1- Shadows of the last war has a reputation of being way too easy, quite a cake walk really, be aware of that, you may need to upgrade stuff. It also introduces the Blood of Vol agents, who seem to not play ny part in your campaign, maybe substitute them for others? (I'll get to that)

2- I suggest not to use a prophecy. Prophecies get problematic in a game where things (Quite drastic things) change at time. I once played a game with five players, so I made a prophecy about "The hand" with mentions of the characters. Then one player quit... and two more ended up changing characters later on... In short, "the hand prophecy" got totally mangled. Prophecies don't hold nicely in game, though "Dragons of Eberron" has some nifty ideas on how to use THE Prophecy well in the game.

3- The crystal mentioned in the first and second adventure... You don't mention it at all later on- what's up with it? Does it play any specific role? It seems both pivotal and forgotten. Also, You assume the party will just go along the mission for some unknown benefactors for reason highly tied to their past without them knowing? Most players I know will insist, demand, cajole, threaten, diplomacize and a lot more to get to the bottom of this, and might outright refuse to take the job. Make sure you got some REALLY compelling reason for them to just "play nice" and go along.

4- You got the Daelkyr, but I think you may need another source of tension, which will bring uncertainty, and thus the "unknown quantity" factor to the table. You briefly mentioned you wanted to bring the Inspired/ Quori as red herrings. How about the following? The Daelkyr, who have lay dormant for so many years, have recently started to take interest in Khorvaire. Why? For the appearance of a new race, (Recently for them at least), a psionic race, somewhat akin to the psionic manipulations they used to develop (Mind flayers)- The Kalashtar. Psionics which are merged spirits, of this world and of another, have given rise to Delkyr curiousity... But the Inspired learn of this force as well, a force who's origina are in Xoriat, who might be as powerful as the dreaming dark, and so the two forces- servents of the Daelkyr, and the ISnpired servents of the dreaming dark start to play a lethal game in the shadows of Khorvaire, trying to develop something... else, new, terrifying. A unity of supreme flesh, and supreme mind, with both vying for control and influence.

In Shadows of the Last War you can exchange the Blood of Vol agents with Inspired agents (Turn the undead to crystalin psychically empowered simple constructs or such).

At some point the party may need to request help/ info/ resources from the Inspired, but at what price?

5- Last, but certainly not least: It's good to have a broad outline in line, but I suggest not to plan overly long into it. Things change- party members change, interest change, the party can take things in different ways (They might decide to head into the Mournland sooner than expected, or later on). Be prepared to play along and adjust. Also, instead of looking at it like one long campaign, I suggest looking at it like a few mini campaigns (Like the RHoD module is). Plan a complete story for every 4-5 levels, with soem connection to the big story, but a resolution point at the end of those. It is needed for players' gratification and feeling of accomplishment, instead of being on a veerrryyy long game who'se end they don't see. The players need an obvious enemy (Even if it's unknown, say "The shadow mask"), an obvious goal, an obvious threat other than "just serching for clues and doing odd jobs". They need a drive, a motivation. And they'll need resolution for it every now and then.

Think of a campaign as a series with 4-5 seasons. Each season tell it's own story, with a start and a finish, but with interconnections between seasons.

Good luck!

Xerlith
2015-05-10, 06:02 PM
(...)
Also, both of the franchises the players like are very much exploration-themed, so a globe-trotting plot would be essential. A rival team of well-funded dragonmarked nobles might make a fun set of recurring NPCs, especially if they can be persuaded to ally for the final battle, though it's worth ensuring the players hear enough about them to know they're snobby rather than evil before they first meet them so they don't just kill them straight away.
Finally, for this type of campaign I think you have to plan around the ending: come up with a set of options and epilogues that will satisfy your players, and work backwards from there to build up to them and not leave plot threads hanging.
Good luck, and I'd be eager to read a campaign log!

While I normally leave the players a completely open world without proposing any choices and basically allowing them to figure out their own, here I think you're right in scrupulously noting everything they do. It should be fun, springing some minor NPC they interacted with later on and referencing that. :smallamused:
As for working backwards, I'm not really sure. I am pretty adept (I think) in conjuring resolutions and consequences to chocies on the spot, so I'd rather not fall into the railroad trap.


(...)
However, I might steal part of your idea, and have the Galifar loyalist (haven't named him yet) pawn off the spell off on the Cyrans as a defensive shield. After all, that makes PERFECT sense for why it only affected that one country!

Q'Barra is unexpected, I admit. I think your last two lines though gave me an idea for an intrigue that may or may not be created in the end...


Hey Xerlith. Some of my thoughts:
Why, hello. Fancy seeing you there - as you can see, I didn't forget about the other thread - just had the campaign blow up unexpectedly. Maybe this one will actually see that adventure happen. :smallbiggrin:


1- Shadows of the last war has a reputation of being way too easy, quite a cake walk really, be aware of that, you may need to upgrade stuff. It also introduces the Blood of Vol agents, who seem to not play ny part in your campaign, maybe substitute them for others? (I'll get to that)

2- I suggest not to use a prophecy. Prophecies get problematic in a game where things (Quite drastic things) change at time. I once played a game with five players, so I made a prophecy about "The hand" with mentions of the characters. Then one player quit... and two more ended up changing characters later on... In short, "the hand prophecy" got totally mangled. Prophecies don't hold nicely in game, though "Dragons of Eberron" has some nifty ideas on how to use THE Prophecy well in the game.

The difficulty is nothing to worry about. I intend on ramping up the level a bit, no problem. :smallbiggrin: The prophecy in question is THE Prophecy, in which the characters play a role. Marked by fate and whatnot, their early survival is key even if only one of the characters stays during the later levels - it's what they set in motion. I am familiar with Dragons of Eberron. :smallwink:



3- The crystal mentioned in the first and second adventure... You don't mention it at all later on- what's up with it? Does it play any specific role? It seems both pivotal and forgotten. Also, You assume the party will just go along the mission for some unknown benefactors for reason highly tied to their past without them knowing? Most players I know will insist, demand, cajole, threaten, diplomacize and a lot more to get to the bottom of this, and might outright refuse to take the job. Make sure you got some REALLY compelling reason for them to just "play nice" and go along.

Good points, here. I'm actually struggling at conceiving a compelling reason for them to work on retrieving the crystal. I am in the process of drawing up a political situation that would push the Lyrandar heir to act (gunna give'em a magic'd up version of the Normandy. Dragonshard-powered stealth, man!), the historical/cultural value that would push the Koboldiana Jones to action and... I don't know what buttons I should push with the Silver Flame Monk and the Warforged. The players have yet to present their backstories to me. :smallmad:
The monolith itself is a glorified macguffin, not gonna lie on this one. A psychic (vague) record of what happened during the Daelkyr Invasion. Call it a Dragonshard Beacon of sorts. Its role is mostly to be interacted with by player characters and set off a vision while implanting Alien Knowledge™ in their minds. It will probably explode after doign that. Or just go dark and lifeless - I'm going to mention subtle traces of motion in the crystals before, of course.



4- You got the Daelkyr, but I think you may need another source of tension, which will bring uncertainty, and thus the "unknown quantity" factor to the table. You briefly mentioned you wanted to bring the Inspired/ Quori as red herrings. How about the following? The Daelkyr, who have lay dormant for so many years, have recently started to take interest in Khorvaire. Why? For the appearance of a new race, (Recently for them at least), a psionic race, somewhat akin to the psionic manipulations they used to develop (Mind flayers)- The Kalashtar. Psionics which are merged spirits, of this world and of another, have given rise to Delkyr curiousity... But the Inspired learn of this force as well, a force who's origina are in Xoriat, who might be as powerful as the dreaming dark, and so the two forces- servents of the Daelkyr, and the ISnpired servents of the dreaming dark start to play a lethal game in the shadows of Khorvaire, trying to develop something... else, new, terrifying. A unity of supreme flesh, and supreme mind, with both vying for control and influence.

This is a BIG conundrum for me, actually. I thought of employing both the Quori AND the Daelkyr as the BBEGs, but I feared that it'd be simply too much plots within plots. I am tempted to do so anyway, since the Quori allow me to play more subtle mind-games with my players, with the Psionics allowing for sweet, sweet Indoctrination. I could even pass Merrix as a sleeper Quori agent who got implanted with the wrong kind of magitech from Xen'Drik Giant ruins... I like your plan of conjoining these, but I feel somehow sceptic about the two great forces interacting in any way other than pure hostility. The Quori desire stability, while Daelkyr are beings of pure madness, after all.

But then again, the cyyycles. The red herrings I could drop... Maybe I'll go with your idea, but making these two great opposing forces - it'd be actually interesting to see the players maneuver between and then maybe try to stop both at once... Yeah, I can see this, methinks.



In Shadows of the Last War you can exchange the Blood of Vol agents with Inspired agents (Turn the undead to crystalin psychically empowered simple constructs or such).

At some point the party may need to request help/ info/ resources from the Inspired, but at what price?

Definitely gonna do this. I feel i could also play a bit with Dolgaunts and Dolgrims to make them show up here and there. Tensions Rising IIRC had something that could be of use...



5- Last, but certainly not least: It's good to have a broad outline in line, but I suggest not to plan overly long into it. Things change- party members change, interest change, the party can take things in different ways (They might decide to head into the Mournland sooner than expected, or later on). Be prepared to play along and adjust. Also, instead of looking at it like one long campaign, I suggest looking at it like a few mini campaigns (Like the RHoD module is). Plan a complete story for every 4-5 levels, with soem connection to the big story, but a resolution point at the end of those. It is needed for players' gratification and feeling of accomplishment, instead of being on a veerrryyy long game who'se end they don't see. The players need an obvious enemy (Even if it's unknown, say "The shadow mask"), an obvious goal, an obvious threat other than "just serching for clues and doing odd jobs". They need a drive, a motivation. And they'll need resolution for it every now and then.

Think of a campaign as a series with 4-5 seasons. Each season tell it's own story, with a start and a finish, but with interconnections between seasons.

Good luck!

This modular build is what I had in mind in the first place - the beginning, the 5 levels, are meant to be actually DISCOVERING who the BBEG are, but not all of it. Maybe just show the Quori part. Make the players cut some aberrations out from Sharn, hint at something bigger... And then bait and switch to Quori to make them guess. I don't want to make it too convoluted, so this may be subject to change.
The second part is simple and straightforward - Humans are being attacked by some forces (Bugbears!) that are driven by something bigger... The whole RHoD is a self-contained mini-campaign as you said, which plays into this beautifully. I'm going to have some (a lot) work done around hinting on alien influence here and there.
The third and fourth part would be gathering allies and dealing with the danger once and for all.


Right now, I'm mostly concerned about what overarching plot I REALLY want to put inside. The Daelkyr? The Dreaming Dark? The Daelkyr AND the Dreaming Dark? The Daelkyr VERSUS the Dreaming Dark? All of these have the good and the bad sides. When I have that figured out, the rest will hopefully fall into place easier.

Xerlith
2015-05-13, 05:45 PM
Finished the full draft for the first adventure.
The PCs begin in medias res, in 994YK over the lands of Cyre.
In an airship, going to regroup with a reconnaisance team which spotted enemy soldiers who found an ancient Dhakaani tomb. The higher-ups are concerned with potential advantages the artifacts found could have (pulp adventure! Nazis are after the Ark!).
The airship gets shot down, after a crash landing they are forced to fend off the angry fire elemental. Survivors, if any, are your average expert1, so I hope the PCs will want to help get them to safety. The randes vous point is a kilometer away - they will have some skill challenges or whatnot until they meet up with the recon squad.
After an exchange of information, they are to enter a tomb through enemy lines and find out what's inside. Indiana Jones-style. The adventure ends with them finding a map encoded in an Eberron shard.

The map shows the location of the monolith I mentioned earlier and is a tie-in. Depending on what they do with the map itself, I will craft different motives for them to go to the Mournland four years later.
Default one - They give the map to the higher-ups (If they manage to do so in time... Mourning's imminent). Years later, they are contacted and offered money AND closure about what they found. Should work.