Russell Jones's page

Goblins flee and goblins run,
Hide in trees from wicked sun.
Longshanks chase with nasty dogs,
chase the goblins into bogs.

Boggy ground and boggy air,
But the goblins do not care.
Hunters chase the goblins round,
Never seeing pits in ground!

Trappers now the trapped they be,
While the goblins dance with glee!
Heads get smashed and longshanks dead,
And goblin bellies soon get fed!

Name: Alyssa "Lynnell" d'Lyrandar, half-elf Druid 8
Location: Sharn, Zyrxog's lair
Adventure: The Hall of Harsh Reflections
Catalyst: Rend, rend, rend.

The set up: I'm the DM, and Lynnell is being played by a fellow DM. All her action points had been used well before they reached Zyrxog, but she was the ace up the party's sleeve, being a Gatekeeper druid with spells that dealt horrid damage to aberrations.

So when she went down in the first round to Zyrxog's mind blast, they knew they were in trouble.

The shifter barbarian, shifter monk, Lynnell, and the changeling fighter/rogue all went down for 10, 8, 4, and 8 rounds respectively from the first mind blast. Only the halfing mage was out of the blast range. After that, it turned into a straight-up spell duel between the two of them.

The octopins, meanwhile, started WAILING on the shifters. Lynnell was pretty much ignored, until she came out of her stupor. With a feral growl that belied her slight frame, she slammed a pair of Nature's Fury spells into the mind flayer and his minions, finishing off one of the octopins and stunning the mind flayer. She then became their sole focus, and was dropped to six hit points in a hurry.

The mage let loose with his last lightning bolt, empowered by his upbringing on the storm-swept Talenta Plains. The mind flayer was stunned again and heavily damaged, so Lynnell opted to move in for the kill, instead of healing herself. That's when the last octopin scored a hit and a critical hit with its claws, rending for enough damage drop her to -14.

At the end of the round, the monk shifter woke up and tore Zyrxog to pieces in one turn.

The party mourned Lynnell, for she had literally saved their lives. They then turned her body over to House Lyrandar, hoping the dragonmarked houses might possess some means of reviving their lost comrade.

Well there is always the Miracle spell. If I recall correctly, that spell can ressurect a whole bunch of minor people in a single casting.

Ah, but that means there's someone *around to cast miracle. Which there really isn't in... say... Eberron.

I thought out what would happen if the Day of Death does happen in Sharn. While it wouldn't mean the end of the city (10,000+ wights vs. city of 1 million+), it would mean a pretty big deal, considering there aren't many mid-to-high level characters around to deal with it, and plenty of Commoners and Experts ready to get undead-ified.

The solution? Send in the warforged.

In the days following the end of the tournament, the wights spread from The Hollow Tower to engulf the Hareth's Folly district, and start to spread ever further. Warforged from the Cogs volunteer in droves to assist the Sharn Watch contain the threat (finally, something they're programmed to deal with; invaders!).

The living constructs help push back the hoard of undead, but Hareth's Folly is a total loss; it becomes a haunted, feral place that the Watch seals off, a blight on the City of Towers. Meanwhile, public approval of warforged soars to an all-time high, as people become gratful for their city's saviors. Conversely, the Lord of Blades also sees a boost in recruitment, as many 'forged see this event as a sign of the fleshies' weakness.

Over the course of a year, attendance is up at churches and recruitment for holy warriors (paladins, clerics and monks) also spikes. The Silver Flame becomes much more active in Sharn, and by extension Breland, almost overshadowing the Sovereign Host completely.

Meanwhile, the PCs see a drop in the popularity; some chronicles paint the surviving party members as "victims and witnesses to the tragedy", but some label them "incompetent, unable to prevent the horrors that were right in front of them." As such, most people react unfavorably to their presence, and they likely lose several contacts because of this.

Of course, the chance for players to redeem themselves and reclaim Hareth's Folly exists. Miracle could possibly reverse the effects of the Tournament's finale; Miracle followed by Wish would definitely do it, even cleansing the entire district and repairing all the property damage likely done. Such high-level magic and actions would make the heroes legends in Khorvaire for a very, very long time.

EDIT: I didn't have the living construct stats in front of me when I wrote this and plan to revise it accordingly, but if memory serves the theory is sound.

In this type of campaign, keeping a good handle on what the characters know is extremely important. For example, my guys know the campaign's called "the Age of Worms", but they're just finding out what that means.

My campaign's in Eberron, so one of the mages is planning to become a Cataclysm Mage (PRC focused on history), and the Age of Worms plays very well into that. Each age has ended with a severe cataclysm, each one worse than the one before. If a new age is coming, this current age might end with the biggest bang yet.

He has a lot of knowledge ranks, so they know quite a bit.

- The Age of Worms is some dark, apocalyptic Tomorrow that's whispered by only the darkest of mages.

- One of these was Kyuss, an ancient human whose only known fact is that he was called the Harbinger of the Age of Worms.

- The cultists of the Ebon Triad under Diamond Lake think the worms (and the Age) mean their Overgod will rise, and thus are studying them, possibly trying to use them to raise their dark lord.

- Undead filled with worms are rumored to have been seen in the surrounding Brelish countryside... and they've just discovered the cultists know of worms that can be found in the Mistmarsh, part of the King's Forest.

They're heading to Blackwall Keep this weekend, so I've been brushing up on what they SHOULD find out...

- The rumors of undead are true; they should witness the results of Worm transformation at least once or twice and understand what a threat they are, plus how to fight them.

- Allustan should explain to them more about the anatomy of the worm, and what he knows about Spawn of Kyuss in general (helping tip them off to what they need to prepare spell-wise).

- The lizardfolk are dupes of Ilthane, the black dragon, who is truly responsible for the worms appearing in the marsh.

- Reasonable deduction; because agents of dark powers are spreading these undead, the Age of Worms might not be as far in the future as many believe. Someone is trying to bring it about soon, and the only thing the PC's can point to is the Ebon Triad.