PDA

View Full Version : Help me fill out some draconic prophecy.



Zalabim
2021-07-11, 04:53 AM
If by some chance you are reading this and about to start an Eberron game with a warforged alchemist, a half-elf cleric, a human reporter and a warforged serial killer avant-garde taxidermist, then you can probably recognize the handle and skip the spoilers.

One of my players is interested in studying the draconic prophecy, so I want to write some for him to learn about. The important one is something that sends him to investigate the tavern for the campaign opening. This place is recently opened by a warforged in Sharn, run by its owner, and is set to be the scene for what I hope to be the inciting incident for the campaign. After that, any extra prophecies serve to show that this stuff is big and confusing and maybe some of them will even come true in the campaign.

In an idea grown from a vague megaman X series shaped seed, a Quori has made an Inspired of a warforged and begun a plan to slingshot Dal Quor, the plane of dreams, back into contact with the material plane by maneuvering around with aid from the slightly less banished realm of Xoriat. This Inspired 'forged is patient 'sigma' carrying to Khorvaire a magical plague of madness. Victims either obsess over dreams or twist their ideals into nightmares, with the worst cases becoming fuel for Dal Quor's return. The owner/operator of "the Rooms at the Ninth" (R IX to its regulars) is about to show that there's more than just sudden changes in behavior at stake. In the worst case, they will be consumed by the Dreaming Dark, the nightmarish rulers of Dal Quor.

Only full fledged manifestations can turn Dal Quor towards the material plane, and the strongest manifestations happen when certain powerful ideas, the sort that transcend the borders of a single kingdom, get mingled with manifest zones. Sharn is an obvious target, but the Dreaming Dark wants to use all the planes to ensure Dal Quor will make contact before their time in the driver's seat is over.

Thanks for any help. There's at least a couple weeks for me to get the wording just right.

Zalabim
2021-07-12, 02:53 AM
Making my first draft.

"Grief's child of wood, stone, metal, and fire breaches the wanderer-cursed wilds, awakens the mirror of the night, and rebukes Giant's legacy to become unlantern's Host. The unlantern guides the Dark towards Khyber." A warforged from Cyre explores Xen'drik, contacts Dal Quor, and agrees to become host to a Quori, becoming an Inspired agent. This Inspired establishes cooperation between the Dreaming Dark and a cult of the dragon below.

"The Host seeks a host offering a meal in the number swallowed by the jungle's treasures so that the Dark may soar. The host looks down from the final inning on the court where wright polishes the base from the diamond where the high and the low are players alike." The Inspired looks for Hospitality manifest in the zone of Syrania in the 9th tower. The inn overlooks the Diamond Theatre. The target is both the chef and the main course.

TaiLiu
2021-07-13, 12:32 AM
I'm not sure I have any practical tips for writing the prophecies. But I think one of the big guiding ideas for the Draconic Prophecy—in my Eberron at least, and I believe in Keith's—is that it isn't just a bunch of predictions. The Prophecy is something actionable, a series of if-then statements that can be triggered on or off. This is why the dragons and the Lords of Dust are playing their little game in the dark: they need to make sure certain events either transpire or fail to.

I don't know what level the characters are. But if the Prophecy plays a big role in your campaign, I think it might be helpful for parts of it to be obviously manipulable by the characters.

Zalabim
2021-07-16, 02:31 AM
Maybe I should be doing this backwards. Start from what information I want to convey, exactly, then work that into more interesting language. So what I want to say is: A grand dream is going to cause this kerfuffle at the Rooms, in Middle Menthis plateau. If the owner is not removed from the dream, then he will be taken, the Dreaming Dark will step closer to Eberron, and I can put a metaphysical checkmark on the Hospitality/Sky box. When grand dreams suffuse Eberron's life and planes, it will be the time of Dal Quor's ascendance.

From there, the problem can spread on its own, but the lynchpins are Order, Dead, Fire, Dawn, Chaos, Nature, Night, Ice, Battleground, Sky, Magic, and Madness held up by Hospitality, Detection, and Finding in Summer, Scribing, Shadow, and Passage in Autumn, Warding, Storm and Sentinel in Winter, and finally Healing, Making, and Handling in Spring.

And now I'm going to take a break from thinking. It's too hot.