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DragonBaneDM
2015-11-12, 11:41 AM
In a couple of sessions my Eberron party is set to arrive in Korranberg, a large gnomish city famous for a library. I'm having trouble finding sanctioned resources online, and came here for assistance.

For those of you who are familiar with Eberron:

I swear to the Silver Flame I found a friggin' map once, but I didn't save it. Does anyone have one?
What books are best to look at for detailed information on Korranberg? I don't want to use everything Wizards has ever written about the place, but if there's already cool plot sitting out there I wanna snatch it up.
Sneaking into the Library of Korranberg with the Trust well aware and betting on the party's success (wouldn't be possible for low level adventurers otherwise): what kind of traps and encounters would you include? Book/scroll golems are a must, of course.

For those of you who are not:

What kind of side adventures would you put in a big, bustling gnome city with a huge library at its center?
What kind of unique shops, services, and buildings do you think a party of Medium sized adventurers might encounter there?

Fable Wright
2015-11-12, 07:35 PM
What books are best to look at for detailed information on Korranberg? I don't want to use everything Wizards has ever written about the place, but if there's already cool plot sitting out there I wanna snatch it up.

I think Dragonmarked and Explorer's Handbook had some info on it, but I'm not sure. Those are the only two sources that I can think of referencing it in detail at any rate.

Honest Tiefling
2015-11-12, 07:45 PM
Aren't gnomes in Eberron really paranoid, or am I thinking of a different set of gnomes? Anyway, assuming I have the correct gnomes, here's a few ideas:


The party is spied upon. They find out. Those who know how these people operate will quickly learn they shouldn't complain, complaining gets one marked down as suspicious. The party, if they intend to do ANYTHING illicit (And this is an RPG, so of course they are) they need to find protections. But protection of this sort doesn't come easily, and they might need to make some...'friends'.
The good stuff isn't available for foreigners. They'll have to prove themselves trustworthy to get it, either to the community, faction or merchant themselves.
Someone wants something done...But the job isn't straightforward. The party is either a smokescreen for another job, or they're disposable mooks who get framed doing something they didn't even know was wrong. They have to prove their innocence, or get out of the city.


As for the traps, go for the cheapest: Inaccuracy. The place is littered with scrolls, books and tablets with incorrect facts, just to make sure no one gets the information without permission. I'd allow for some skill checks to determine that symbols on the spines, code words, or other markings designate the inaccurate tomes, but make it juuuust high enough so there's a good chance they won't succeed.

DragonBaneDM
2015-11-13, 07:50 AM
Aren't gnomes in Eberron really paranoid, or am I thinking of a different set of gnomes?

They are! They appear friendly and concerned at first, but Zilargo gnomes love information and intrigue. They really do trust no one but their family. And hey, thanks for the ideas, I especially love the misinformation one.

Beleriphon
2015-11-13, 08:36 AM
They are! They appear friendly and concerned at first, but Zilargo gnomes love information and intrigue. They really do trust no one but their family. And hey, thanks for the ideas, I especially love the misinformation one.

Well, gnomish information gathering mechanisms and the security organs of the gnomish state make the KGB and CIA look like children playing ninjas.

DragonBaneDM
2015-11-13, 10:33 AM
Well, gnomish information gathering mechanisms and the security organs of the gnomish state make the KGB and CIA look like children playing ninjas.

Agreed. Now what's a good way to show my players this instead of just telling them?

I already have a big plot laid out: I'm going to have them working alongside a thieves guild working against the gnomish government. Turns out one of their senior members is a Trust agent: he's just been brainwashed into thinking he's not. When the time comes for the heist to go off, they turn off his amnesia and he goes Benedict Arnold.

What's another, less dreadful way I could show this? By having the inn they go to already know their names, classes, and favorite drinks?

Honest Tiefling
2015-11-13, 12:57 PM
What's another, less dreadful way I could show this? By having the inn they go to already know their names, classes, and favorite drinks?

A chubby, middle-aged gnome runs a cheaper, but clean and cozy inn. She welcomes the party in. A sense motive check reveals she's not surprised at all, and seems to have come out of the kitchen for no apparent reason. She warmly greets the tall folk, inquiring about the number of rooms they want. If PCs are married/dating, have the number of rooms reflect that. She offers them drinks...Not their favorites, but ones popular in their home regions. If asked, she brushes it off as simply being hospitable or stocking exotic drinks for people who like a bit of excitement in their lives. Likewise, their rooms are tailored to them, such as people from a warmer climate getting extra charcoal for their room to keep it nice and toasty. Suspciously, there is room in the stables for animal companions or a pet bed in a room for a familiar.

Speaking of...She starts to ask the party about their previous adventures, to gauge how problematic they are, and what they are capable of. She might even have a brother-in-law's sister's ex-wife's daughter who would love to have some magical assistance with something minor. This is to see how easy it is, and how reluctant they are to part with lower level spell slots in exchange for money.

I wouldn't go for classes, because it wouldn't be a challenge if the party can't hide SOME information from the gnomes. I'd start to make mental notes of what they have done in this place, so the spies seem more realistic if they know things based on what the characters have done. If the spies learn something and the party can connect it to something they did here, they'll be on their toes realizing their moves are being watched and that they give their enemies more knowledge...

Beleriphon
2015-11-13, 01:31 PM
Agreed. Now what's a good way to show my players this instead of just telling them?

I already have a big plot laid out: I'm going to have them working alongside a thieves guild working against the gnomish government. Turns out one of their senior members is a Trust agent: he's just been brainwashed into thinking he's not. When the time comes for the heist to go off, they turn off his amnesia and he goes Benedict Arnold.

What's another, less dreadful way I could show this? By having the inn they go to already know their names, classes, and favorite drinks?

Likes, dislikes are a good way to go. The other thing to keep in mind is that like any good paranoid society you can have multiple Trust informers informing on each other about how suspicious they're acting is supposed to be normally. Outwardly the gnomes are friendly and happy to chat with strangers. All of this gets fed back to handlers, later innocuous comments the players make should come back up in conversation later.

Afgncaap5
2015-11-13, 03:11 PM
I've never seen the gnomes of Zilargo as paranoid so much as I've seen them as being gleefully skilled at playing the game of espionage, just as they're gleefully skilled at many games. I think one book even describes a crushing espionage or business defeat between two gnomish rivals being something that they'd talk jovially about over drinks at the end of the day since it's just the latest stage of the fun for them.

Having said that, I'm sure that what paranoid gnomes there are probably wind up in The Trust somehow.



As for the kinds of traps that you could find in the library how about...

A haunted lectern that makes anyone who reads the scrolls upon it cast the spells on themselves or their teammates, even if it's just casually reading.
A Korranberg Chronicle archive chamber with a floor that has Khyber Shards embedded in it so that intruders are pulled into illusory recreations of the historical events the papers talk about (or possibly use syberis and eberron shards and have the archived newspapers send them back in time to the events themselves.)
A hallway where the book shelves start rumbling and inching closer and closer together a la the trash compactor scene in Star Wars, with either a hallway so long that it'll be almost impossible to get to the door at the end of it, or one where the piles of books create stumbling blocks.
A research room in the lower levels of the library with a graduate student from Korranberg's university who's trying desperately to finish the research on his alchemical thesis project, and he just CAN'T FOCUS with adventurers traipsing through the room all the time!
The book overflow room, a demiplane created with a shrine to Aureon at its core. Shaped as the holy octogram and filled with Escherian staircases comprised entirely of books, this mental challenge can make people not trained in its navigation (such as those with Profession (Librarian) or the Research feat) be lost for days or weeks, likely going mad in the process! Also there's a statue of an executioner stalking them through it for some ill-defined reason.
Exiting Aureon's Book Overflow incorrectly and winding up in the research room with the iritable graduate student again! You thought it was annoying before when he just cast Reduce Person and Silence on you? Now he's REALLY mad!
An assassin who works for the library as a guard (because it's Zilargo) who learns who the adventurers are, does some research, finds a document that's absolutely crucial to the backstory for one character, and threatens to destroy the document if they don't leave immediately. Also he'll kill them, or try to since the PCs will likely be superior combatants, but with his dying breath he'll reveal that the scroll he was waving at them was blank and that the real document was left teetering over the edge of the library's furnace or a fireplace or something, and that it's rigged to tilt into the fire if it's not approached in a specific way.



Would any of those work?