Well, the (eberron adapted) age of worms chewed up our party and spat all but the warforged druid out. The old DM and I decided to switch chairs, and it's my turn to DM. Because our warforged, oak was still kicking, and I didn't want to make oak's player (who's quite new), get rid of a character he's just getting used to, I decided to forgo a homebrew campaign and instead continue in eberron.
The PCs are as such:
Oak, the warforged druid. Oak fought in the last war untill captured in the lhazzar principalities. He rid out the rest of the war in the wilds, wandering untill he ended up in diamond lake. He joined a trio of characters who were trying to locate the bones of a dead child's family. He's the only survivor.
Gilden, the wanderer from the human wastes. I have five pages on this character, run by the former DM, so I'll keep it short. The barbarian/ranger is from a clan in the wastes trained to hunt fiends. Long ago they were entrusted to guard an artifact and never wield it. When his father was captured by a powerful demon, Gilden and his uncle took the Aegen slaag and slew the demon with it. Banished from their hometown, they gave the aegen slaag to what appeared to be gilden's sister to take back to the clan. It never made it. Now gilden wants to find it.
Nuke, the dwarf fighter. Nuke is just like every other dwarf fighter that his player has run, right down to the name. Drinks ale, wields an axe, smashes stuff.
Minnow: Halfling rogue. Minnow was a spy for hire durring the last war.
The campaign started in diamond lake. The big news in the town was that a sentinel marshall had come to town. Sentinel marshalls are denieth heirs that are permitted to enforce the law beyond national boundaries. As such, the shadier aspects of diamond lake were busy trying to cover their tracks.
Gilden came to town with word that a resident would know something of the aegen slaag, only to find that the contact knew nothing of interest. He was shortly after contacted by the sentinel marshall who claimed he knew information on the aegen slaag, but wanted help in return.
The sentinel marshall, Gladan d'Deneith (Ftr2/Psion4), is from the sharn Deneith Enclave. He was a dreamlilly adict, and was possessed by a Quori spirit. He has three missions: Investigate the many deaths that have occured in diamond lake of late; Stop an agent of the Lords of Dust who is reaking havoc of the dreaming dark's plans, and find out what the kalashtar Talvakri (my old PC) was up to.
Gladan asked Gilden to investigate a string of murders of small children. He had rounded up the other three PCs and asked them to investigate. He, as an aside, asked Gilden to get ANY information he can on Oak, saying he suspects the warforged to be a dangerous criminal. Gladan's motives are to A) get an ally against the rogue rakshasa, B) Get information on Oak, Talvakri's last seen travelling companion, and C) do his job and stop the murders.
The PCs track down the murderer, a splinterwaif (mmIII), and dispatch of it. When the come back for a reward, they get a few hints that things are out of place. When Oak informs one of the parents of the deceased that the killer was found, the parent slips in having no knowledge of the gender of the murdered. The town archivist takes an inordinate interest in what murderer was caught, and looks relieved when the PCs name the splinterwaif.
What actually happened is the town is captured by a mercenary ship of changelings from the gray tide principality (see the "Principalities of Lhazzar, part 2" dragonshard at wizards.com), who are trying to capture and replace as much of the city as possible as to infiltrate brelish society.
The PCs figure out something is up, and get in a couple of scraps with townsfolk/changelings who try and sap the pcs (but can't hit worth BEANS). After feeling completely creeped out by the town, they manage to find Gladan (whom they can trust as imitating a dragonmark is hard), and he leads the PCs and other rescued townsfolk away from town.
The PCs meet with the brelish military, whom have enacted a state of emergency after one of the infiltrated changelings made an attempt on the life of king boranel. Everyone who was in the region was to be lightning railed to far away mistmarsh where they can be investigated bit by bit to screen out hostile changeling spies.
Whilst confined in mistmarsh, the PCs opt to reside outside the town in a shanty district led by Zade d'Tonn, a dragonmarked heir of house Tharrashk. The PCs deal with three abberations (a dolgaunt, a chocker, and a runehound), and accidentally travel near the path of a filth belcher (from Monsters Geographica: Marsh and aquatic).
Zade is a troubled man, who lived in fear of a small gang who forced him to front a crooked inquisitive agency. The guilt of his actions caused him to be slightly unhinged, and he now hears the whispers of Khyber (See Dragon 332). The stress of the changeling incursion has aggravated this. Abberations, following the will of Khyber, are starting to flock towards Zade.
One thing I rather like about this group is that they've never had me as a DM before. They thus know nothing of my "there are no random encounters" policy. In general, if you don't absolutely feel like a monster belongs in the environment you fought it in, there's probably a good reason for it to be there.
WHen it is time for the PCs to finally be vetted out for changeling status, the town of mistmarsh comes under attack from a large Darguul force. The task set forth for the gray tide is to instigate war between Breland and Darguun. On the lightning rail, they managed to kill a few soldiers and steal their clothes and identity papers. Under the guise of Brelish soldiers, they attacked a darguul border town in a hit and run operation. The invasion my PCs are fighting off is in retaliation for this.
Durring the battle: The pcs manage to save only one of the six inquisitors, Zade snaps and kills twelve goblins, the PCs help the Captain of the regiement in charge of this crisis, captain dallax.
Captain Dallax is in fact a changeling. The changeling sees captain dallax as his identity, and is a patriot to the brelish crown. He isn't opposed to using his shapechanging ability to help his platoon run properly, and will use heavyhanded measures such as drafting local citizens if he deems them necessary.
That's about as far as we got for our first session. I'll likely post my second session in a bit. Fun stuff happened that session.