I'm running the AoW campaign in Eberron. It's great, but I want to just increase the overall Eberron flavor. I've read Keith Baker's conversion notes, and again while helpful, do not go far enough to really inject the feel of Eberron into the campaign. Some elements that really seem missing are:
-Dragonmarks--their use, etc. (especially for the PCs)
-Dragonshards
-Effective use of Eberron races (warforged, etc.)
-Travel (airships, lightning rail)
I would appreciate any help or feedback on how some of you have accomplished this in your Eberron-based AoW campaign. Thanks!
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For my Eberron AoW campaign, one of the simplist things to do is use the Day of Morning as the first "herald" of the Age of Worms. Other than that, travel and organizations really make the Eberron "feel" for me, so I am moving the adventures all over the place.
TRAVEL:
WC & TFoE (and GoW) are set near Silver Lake, which sits on the border of Breland, Aundair, The Eldeen Reaches, and Droamm.
EoBK is in Qbarra (Duh) and shows how the problem is global already.
HoHR (which needs major overhaul for Eberron) and TCB are set in Sharn, where all of those Changelings (not Doplegangers, save for Ixiaxian and Telakin) are a splinter group of the Tyrants, and Zyrzog has a loyal following of Dolgaunt Monks instead of the misplaced Drow. I thought about making Zyrzog a Rakshasa and spilling the Lords of Dusts involvement (and I still might) but for the moment I like the "oh god, the Daelkyr are rising" misdirection.
For later adventures I haven't decided yet, but Kyuss's city he necro'fied will be either on Xen'drik or Sarlona, the Rift in the Demon Wastes (maybe Droamm, others) and other possible fantastic places as dictated by the later adventures.
ORGANIZATIONS:
The Chamber is clearly involved, on both sides of the conflict. Dragotha worked to free Kyuss the first time, and was rewarded with Dracolich'dom for her efforts, and the dragons under her (Ithane the Black, others) are rallying to her interpretation of the Draconic Prophecy. For the good guys we have Manzorian, an aged archmage who is actually an agent of the Chamber and dragon in disguise. Manzorian, too, knows that the Age of Worms is coming, and has uncovered a bit of the Prophecy hinting at how it could be stopped. Manzorian uses mortal agents (Alustan, Eligos, others) to ferret out more information and drive the prophesized heroes (the PC's) toward their goal.
Other than that, the Dragonmarked Houses, religions and governments of Khorvaire, Arenal, and Sarlona would be most interested in what's going on. Encounters with the Emerald Claw, Dreaming Dark, Shadowmarked houses, and other nefarious and sneaky groups should be frequent once the PC's have left Diamond Lake to add flavor to the setting but not detract from the overall plot. The Dreaming Dark would be interested in why the ruins of Kyuss's city are starting to become active again, the Emerald Claw persuing rumors of "unkillable zombies", the Shadowmarked houses working to find out what the Ebon Triad is doing (so they can sell the info) etc.
And always remember, the Lords of Dust have been working for a long time to bring this to fruition. They should have their backwards fingers in just about every slice of the pie, and deal with threats to their plans swiftly and harshly.
All for now...
-Ryn
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Make the church a Church of the Silver Flame.
In addition to taverns, provide a House Jorasco enclave at which your characters can buy services.
If you're playing per the Overload, talk about how there are regular overflights of airships to Sharn.
If there's a dock in your version of Diamond Lake, have a small elemental-bound ships docked there on occasion.
Throw in Warforged as miners.
Make all of your bad guys grittier.
Throw in some aberrations from the EBCS with "green worm variations".
Replace the lanterns with magically-attuned dragonshards.
If your characters have aberrant dragonmarks, have a side story about them hiding that fact, or hiding from pursuers. Tie it in. Maybe the DD wants a piece of one of the players.
Make sure your players understand the world. Have them play racial archetypes. Cliche isn't always bad.
Hopefully that is somewhat helpful.
I've made most of the changes as suggested in the conversion notes in order to give the feel. One thing for sure, once the group goes to Sharn later in the story, they'll be sure to know they are Eberron. The change from Diamond Lake should be overwhelming.
rooster
Take great, loving gobs of time describing all the distracting stuff in Sharn. We took an entire session's five hours to get from their arrival at the Terminus lightning rail station from Wroat to the attempted murder at the Crooked House.
I didn't put Blackwall Keep in Q'Barra...I noticed in the Explorer's Handbook that there was a Westren Breland town called Mistmarsh, so I made it a town around the local keep, Blackwall. Made things a little more urgent with all the civilians and the razed town.
I'm also using the "real" Mistmarsh. It fits in better with my campaign, since I moved the 3FoE to Darguun.
Some more random adaptation notes:
The idea of incorporating the Blood of Vol has been mentioned before and I like it. Kyuss in my AoW will be a long lost member of the line of Vol, 3-4 generations older than the infamous Erandis. Speaking of which, it has also been suggested that our favorite half-dragon lich could be substituted for Dragotha. But why not sub her in for Lashonna instead? It would make the whole betrayal thing make a lot more sense - she naturally feels that she should be the right hand of her ancestor rather than some upstart dragon.
I had originally thought I would set "Spire of Long Shadows" in Xen'drik - certainly it has that lost temple in the jungle feel. But I also can't see placing "Kings of the Rift" anywhere else, for obvious reasons. So now I'm thinking "Spire of Long Shadows" is actually in Aerenal. Sure, it's not a huge place, but I'm sure there are depths to the rainforests that the elves choose to avoid, especially if they are associated with a period of history they would prefer to forget.
I've already started planting the hooks that will get the players to Sharn for "Hall of Harsh Reflections" and "The Champion's Belt." HoHR I will use pretty much as is, but I'm thinking of changing tCB to center around the Race of the Eight Winds. This is mainly because I've already run some of these players (in a previous homebrew campaign) through "Pandemonium in the Veins," so another gladiator adventure would seem redundant. This will take some adaptation, obviously, but I envision the big climactic fight taking place during some award ceremony at the end of the race.
Not sure yet what I'm going to do about "A Gathering of Winds." I really feel like the whole Wind Duke - Rod of Seven Parts side plot is out of place in AoW, not to mention an Eberron adaptation thereof. Another problem is that in my campaign, the characters started off with 3FoE. Actually, they did run through "The Whispering Cairn," but that party were all killed by the Wind Warriors, so when we started the campaign over we started far away from Diamond Lake. Any suggestions for a good adventure to substitute in? Whatever it is, I think I will make set it in Red Hand/Alhaster, to give the PCs more of a history with that place.
"Library of Last Resort." In another Eberron campaign, I had a secret druid enclave on an uncharted island in the middle of Lake Galifar. No reason why I couldn't recycle this idea.
"Prince of Redhand" and "Dawn of a New Age" will be set in the Lhazaar Principalities, as suggested by Keith Baker. This actually fits with adding in Erandis d'Vol as well, since she hides out in that region as well. Don't know how it will all play out, but one of the signs of the return of Kyuss will be the reappearance of the 13th moon as the Mark of Death ascends once again. When Kyuss and Erandis are defeated, the Mark will somehow be transformed to the Mark of Life.
Lots and lots of details to work out still. Sorry for the randomness of this post - I'm mostly thinking out loud here. Feel free to chime in with comments and suggestions.
Looking ahead at "Wormcrawl Fissure", there's really no other place that it could be set, IMO, than the Lair of the Keeper. It just fits way too well. Of course, that means a nice lengthy trek through the Demon Wastes (or over it... my players have their own airship now). I like the idea of the lilend/lich relationship; it should throw my players a little off-guard. I've got to read up on avolakia before I introduce them in Prince of Redhand; I remember seeing something about undead rakshasas that would be very nice to put in instead.
One thing I'm trying to do is increase the presence of the Lords of the Dust. I've already decided to make the rogue elf in Auric's party a rakshasa; she meets up with the party again before Zeech's banquet and tries to worm her way into their good graces.
Oh yeah, forgot about the "Wormcrawl Fissure." Definitely agree on placing it in the Demon Wastes. I've already (in 3FoE) dropped a bit of a hint that should at least have the PCs thinking about the region.
One thing I'm trying to do is increase the presence of the Lords of the Dust. I've already decided to make the rogue elf in Auric's party a rakshasa; she meets up with the party again before Zeech's banquet and tries to worm her way into their good graces.
Mmhmm, fun with Rakshasa!
IMC Okoral (Raknian's assassin cohort) is in fact a Nathrazune Rakshasa from MM3. He's there to oversee things, and has steered Raknian down his dark path. Maruudril is a standard Rakshasa with sorcerer levels to make up the difference in CR. And I replaced all of the Avolakia with Ak'chazar Rakshasa, also from MM3. I have switched the Ak'chazar's spells to cleric spells, so that all of the four 'main' character types are represented by the native fiends.
The only one that I can't fit in are the Zakaya Rakshasa's from ECS. They look like prime candidates for high level grunts, but why any immortal being would throw it's life away as a 'grunt' escapes me...
Anarch of Ashtakala
I've not actually run much Eberron yet, so I'm still wondering just what "pulp" and "noir" are and how they apply to a D&D game. All I can work out so far is that it has something to do with old fiction magazines and old black-and-white crime movies.
The first thing you should do is read Chapter Nine of the Eberron Campaign Setting, "An Eberron Campaign". Start with the assumption that the adventure path was written for standard D&D or Greyhawk, and consider how Eberron is different and how to reflect that.
Something that sounds important is "Eberron isn't simple about dungeon crawls and wandering monsters. Instead, the player characters are heroes fighting to protect Khorvaire (or small parts of it, at least) from the nefarious schemes of villainous masterminds." In other words, the PCs must stumble upon the plots of the villains and have reasons to investigate and stop them.
On a more superficial level, completely take out any races that don't exist in the setting, and add in a few that do. If an adventure calls for a quaggoth, replace it with a shifter. If there are aasimars or tieflings, consider swapping them for other races unless you can explain how they got there. Replace drow with valenar elves, make some NPCs artificers, and so on.
I've not actually run much Eberron yet, so I'm still wondering just what "pulp" and "noir" are and how they apply to a D&D game.
I think a perfect example of an Eberron adventure would be Nic Logue's "The Chimes at Midnight", which is in Dungeon 133. I like the twisted inquisitive a lot; so much so that if I should ever run it, I would take pains to keep him as a Moriarty-type villain.
I think it's a bit more difficult to really change this AP into an Eberron Adventure Path, but I still think you can get a ton of mileage from it just by playing up the Eberron-specific things. When the players are feverishly trying to figure out who's trying to kill them in Sharn in the "Hall of Harsh Reflections", things will fall into place.
Besides, who can pass up the chance to run "Champion's Belt" in Sharn? The chance for calamity should the players fail is just too tempting.
Noir -
"The term was coined by postwar French film critics as film noir (black film) to describe the sort of movie characterized by dark photography and a despairing, doom-laden sense of life. Scholars of the mystery story found it convenient to use the term for work that shared the same attitude…Typical themes in noir work include obsessive love (or hate, or both), amnesia, illness, betrayal, and man-as-the-plaything of fate"
There are a lot of brooding, introspective themes in the Eberron setting. The current generation of humans was born during a hundred years war, and peace is a completely new way of life. You can do a lot with the existential questions raised by the nature of the Warforged. There's filth, poverty, and crime-a-plenty in the cities, but the trains run on time, and the rich and powerful live in a floating city at the top of Sharn, or they are Wizards of the 12 in their mystical towers, or they are doomed and cursed, like King Kaius, trying to claw his country's way out of the corrupt influence of the Blood of Vol.
Pulp Fiction - "Mass market novels printed cheaply and intended for a general audience. The content was usually melodramatic, titillating, or thrilling. The earliest samples are the "penny dreadfuls" or "bloods" of the eighteenth century, which were followed in the nineteenth century by so-called "dime novels" (which were sold for ten cents). Examples included westerns, Horatio Alger novels, and crime stories. The designation "pulp" comes from the paper quality--these novels were usually printed on the cheapest newsprint available."
Fantastic adventure! Daring escapes! Chilling plot twists! Airships! Murder and mystery!
It may be cheesy, but darn, it sure is fun.
There's a good reason why the ECS suggests that you start an Eberron adventure with the discovery of a dead body. Preferrably one being thrown off a tower balcony.
I've decided to replace Lashonna with Vol. So the Emerald claw has a much larger place in my version. I'm stealing the previous comment about the rise of the 13th Moon and the return of the Mark of Death.
To accomplish this I'm using the 3FoE. I will keep it as written except the purpose of the whole complex is to be a sacrificial altar. All the parties in complex believe and would give their lives willingly to complete the ritual. Vol, wrote the ancient texts per the whispered instructions of Kyuss. They were placed long ago in the complex and then covered up. The cult is actually trying to raise the Overgod, but it won't work. The real purpose is for a willing group to be sacrificed, by the chosen ones(PCs) who will do so with good in their hearts.
At the end of 3FoE instead of the Overgod, it will instead be an undead puppet of Vol who thanks the PC's for being such willing pawns and bringing about another sign of the AOW, essentially it monologues and drops hints about blackwater keep. The puppet then tries to slaughter them, as per the Draconic Prophecy they are the only ones who can stop Kyuss.
I think it is very Noir, as the PC's through good actions bring forth an unbelievable horrific event, their actions further the plans of Kyuss.
I have an elf player, I may even give them the mark of death...Hehe
I'm keeping things pretty much as Keith Baker suggests in the suppliments, with Kyuss as Kashtaka, although I am moving Blackwall to Q'Barra--give the PCs a chance to hop the Lightning Rail to Zilargo, then take a ship around Valenar and up to New Galifar.
I'm introducing some ideas of the Draconic Prophecy--the Age of Worms threatens the dragons much as it threatens humanity. My players have named their party the Windforged (after the Wind Dukes in the first adventure), now I'm planting some references to "forged winds" in ancient texts.
Filge was going to be a dark anti-hero, but the party killed first and asked questions later :) I've introduced an Inquisitive friend of his who is trying to figure out who the changling murderers in Diamond Lake are--we've got two changlings in the party.
Finally, and this has been suggested elsewhere--I'm using "bad guy monologues." If you're party abides them, they're great for building that distinctive Eberron feel. This one was delivered by Grallak Kur (a Dolgaunt Monk 4 in my campaign) in 3FoE as he stood throwing mushrooms into the fire:
As it has been dreamed, so does it begin.
Whence the Lords of Dust lay dreaming
Grew my master, strong and scheming.
Kyuss was naught but a mortal man,
Lord Kashtaka will realize his plan.And as the scaled ones hide in mist
Those mighty wyrms our worms will twist!
Of four they spoke with firey breath,
The prophecy--the dragon's hope and death!For now sweeps through this blood forged wind
The Age of Worms will soon begin;
Green pestilence will consume the land
So endeth dragons, giants, and man.Kashtaka, now your prison rattles
We offer you these souls in battle.
The Scholar's dead--he no more broods,
And now these four shall become worm food!
Excellent poem, mougoo. I'm probably going to steal parts of it for my own sinister devices. Grallak Kur is dead, but perhaps Bozal Zahol fancies himself a bit of a poet?
I'm also considering swapping Marzena with Flamewind the gynosphynx from Xen'Drik, who currently resides at Morgrave. As I said, I'm running Blackwall in Q'Barra. Flamewind, who holds a great interest for the draconic prophecy, has been researching possible links between Kyuss-Kashtaka and the prophecy. Her research has uncovered evidence of Kyuss worms in Q'Barra, and so she has gone to investigate.
Meanwhile, Allustan has been surreptitiously writing to Morgrave, trying to find out if they know anything about the worms. (In my campaign, the players lost the worm from Filge). Allustan hears about Flamewind's research, and so, after the party emerges from Dourstone's mines, he suggests the trip to Q'Barra to get their hands on another worm, and perhaps ask a few questions of Flamewind.
Flamewind has allowed herself to be captured by the lizardfolk--she views it as a research opportunity. Of course, the soldiers think she needs to be rescued, and this provides the hook for the players to go.
Flamewind will offer riddles to the players about the future of the Age of Worms, and probably accompany them back to the keep. The players will probably think this is the end of the adventure--that is, until a soldier yells that the lizardfolk are back! Hundreds of lizards surround Blackwall, and they are approaching quickly. Hope seems lost, when out of the clouds bursts an airship with a ladder going down to the keep. Allustan, who used his teleport scroll to escape earlier on, stands at the top of the ladder, yelling for the players and soliders to come to safety.
The keep is overrun as the airship lifts off, pulling the party to safety at the last moment...
Now THAT feels like pulp to me!
As others have said elsewhere, I'm struggling with a way to increase the importance of HoHR in this campaign. After reading Baker's "City of Towers" novel, I'm starting to get an idea...
Forget the doppelgangers in Sharn for HoHR. What you need for PC sabotage is a possession.
I've got a warforged fighter who is a power-monger. I think I'm going to introduce a fiend (either possessing the faceless one, or later sometime in Blackwall) who will possess the fighter, and give him a +4 to Str. The fiend will dangle this to try to win over the fighter, and then start to suggest some horrible things--ultimately, trying to lure the players to the illithid in Sharn for some horrible purpose.
Still trying to figure out the tie to AoW. Perhaps the illithid (I can't remember its name) has heard of Kyuss-Kashtaka, and wants to find what the players know about him. Perhaps the illithid is trying to impress the cult by eliminating a threat. I'll deal with that later.
In any case, I'm going to keep the doppelganger feel a bit with some changelings, but the PC swap will probably be a possession rather than a shapeshifter.
I am thinking the winddukes will favor characters with the
mark of the storm.
Also, they may have done early research into creating warforged.
Gnomes will be pumped for information by their conspiracies.
Important note. A mind clone gem can be installed into a
warfoarged in any item slot.
It is a repository of all memories and knowledge skills
from the victium.
A warforged caster will find all the victiums arcane spells
are imbedded in it.
They must still be prepaired normally, but they are now
spells known.
My players just finished the transition between Spire of Long Shadows and The Prince of Redhand. After their adventure in the Spire, and the witnessed Prophecies about the AOW, they decided to go back to Manzorian and petition to get the Rod of Law (7 parts) back. They reached the decision after some carefully-worded questions in a Communion spell. They also turned over all the magic items the archmage had given them, and after a DC 35 Diplomacy check convinced him to relinquish the Rod.
This is when I made a very risky move on my part; after the players returned to their recently-constructed guildhouse in Diamond Lake, they were approached by Tirra, the elf rogue formally in Auric's group. Tirra had escaped a botched robbery in Sharn while working for the Boromar Clan, and had a price put on her head. She had also managed to keep a piece of loot, and went to the players (who'd always been good to her) to see if they could help her.
The loot she had was the 4-inch piece of the Rod of Law.
The players all took a collective breath and then welcomed her into their adventuring guild, taking the Rod and putting it with the headpiece somewhere heavily-warded against scrying. You may ask, "Why just give them the piece of the Rod they need to find the rest of it?"
The answer...............
Tirra's a rakshasa.
She's a catspaw for one of the Lords of Dust on the Council of Ashtakala who wants the Rod for his own. She has infiltrated the party with the intention to let them do all the work, then take the Rod and scoot when they get it all.
Hopefully, the players will be so giddy with finding the Rod and stopping Kyuss, Dragotha and Lashonna that they overlook the OTHER Lords of the Dust. I thought this would be a good way to figure the rest of the Overlords in, and provide an impetus for the players to start actively searching for the rest of the Rod.
That being said, i'm working on places/people who may have the other pieces. Since artifacts are making their way to Khorvaire, site of the unfolding Age of Worms, I figure the Rod parts will be no different. An Inspired Lord found a piece and is on his way to Khorvaire searching for others, another is hiding in a different Vaati tomb guarded by Shulassakar (couatl children), etc.
I was wondering if anyone else was undertaking the Rods quest in their Eberron campaign, and where they're putting their pieces.
Thnx!
That being said, i'm working on places/people who may have the other pieces. Since artifacts are making their way to Khorvaire, site of the...
Alright, so the locations of the pieces of the rod are:
1), 2) With the PCs3) With Manzorian (he has his own chunk, remember?)
4) With the Inspired
5) Guarded by coautl
6) In the clutches of the pit fiend (if you're using the hook from the published module)
This leaves one piece left. Since Eberron's all about travel, they should be scattered as far as possible. One's in Rierda, at least in theory, although the Inspired will presumably be taking it with him. One's with Manzorian, but it might well be kept in some cave in Argonessen. The pit fiend is probably hiding out in Khyber somewhere (the Black Pit? in a cave only accessible via the Mournland?). The coautl-spawn are presumably in Xen'drik.
So that leaves the Frostfell.
Imagine, if you will, a city carved deep into the ice somewhere twenty miles inland. A city home to thousands of decadent ape-like creatures with blue eyes and white fur, creatures that worship their Rod-wielding ruler as if he were the embodiment of the Fury.
Either that, or the last segment of Rod of Law is transitory, migrating through the world's oceans on a galleon crewed by evil ghosts. Or perhaps the Crimson Ship?
So that leaves the Frostfell.
Imagine, if you will, a city carved deep into the ice somewhere twenty miles inland. A city home to thousands of decadent ape-like creatures with blue eyes and white fur, creatures that worship their Rod-wielding ruler as if he were the embodiment of the Fury.
Isn't there a Lord of Dust loose in the Frostfell? I didn't read that particular bit of the Players guide, but I think there's (or has been) a Rajha in the Frostfell. Makes sense that he's the one that Tirra serves, and that he has the last piece. That way, once the PC's have the other six bits, they travel to the Frostfell to collect the last piece, and inadvertantly deliver all seven pieces into the clutches of the Rajha (Or Tirra, who doublecrosses the Rajha and uses the Rod to siphon off his power for her own...)
I would put the Pit Fiend's rod with the Fiend on Shavaresh, the Plane of Battle. High level PC's should plane hop a little, and what's more fun than the Blood War? Nothing ;)
The only thing I would be careful of is distracting the PC's from the real plotline. This would make a great followup to the AoW, however.
Anarch of Fiend on Fiend Wrestling
The only thing I would be careful of is distracting the PC's from the real plotline. This would make a great followup to the AoW, however.
I'm pretty sure my players will attempt to track it down during the course of the AOW campaign, just so they can get a potent weapon to use against Katashka/Kyuss. I think I have a way of keeping the players from taking too much time away from the main plotline...
The Inspired lord that has a piece, along with the pit fiend that attacked them in the first place, will likely continue searching for the other pieces now that they're all resurfacing. As the players finish modules in the AOW, I'll keep track of which pieces the other two "rod hunter" groups have managed to collect in the meantime. Sooner or later they'll come after the players again, this time with more numbers and with a larger piece of the rod... and the later in the AP the players try to track down the pieces, the 1) less legwork they'll have to do and 2) harder it will be to get them.
I think the Frostfell idea is excellent... now I just have to get the players to trust Tirra more...