Playing with the idea to start an online game running this lovely trilogy, I wonder where Exag would fit in. Any conversion suggestions? Perhaps one of the Fantastic Five? :)
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice.
I originally posted an idea, but the post seemed to have been eaten. I don't know enough of Eberron to make a good suggestion, but you could make the xenophobia and state of affairs in Exag a more recent affair, part of the hag takeover of Droaam. Put Exag into the Byeshk mountains of Droaam, with the hags unwilling to attack the City because they are afraid of unleashing the golems. The city is now under a sort of state of siege, since the hags don't want to risk another pyramid ceremony wiping of their forces and the humans devolving the way they have because of the isolation imposed by the lack of contact with civilization.
I don't think twenty years is too long for a human society to devolve to the point that Exag residents have, although you'll have to change some of the creation legends to fit the more recent nature of Droaam's takeover by the monsters.
Someone else with more Eberron lore ranks should probably chime in with a better suggestion, please?
I haven't thought this through completely or doublechecked the Exag backdrop, but how about placing it in the Blade Desert?
If you place it up in the northern end of the Blade Desert, near Krezent or the Boneyard, you can maintain the isolated feel. It isn't so far gone that no one travels there... but with having to cross the Talenta Plains and then go through the desert, it isn't an easy trip.
Plus you have other funky ruins in that area, so Exag should fit in.
Thanks for the replies. It is funny since at the beginning I would have put it in the Eldeen Reaches or Aundair near the Demonwastes. A friend of mine said Talenta Plains. After reading the whole module and the backdrop: due to the gnomes in the first adventure I would have put it in Zilargo or Darguun.
And I like your ideas, too. Droam is great and well the Plains, although already mentioned, as well. Great! This discussion alone is evidence of the flexibility of this lovely Exag.
One other thing to keep in mind is the tone of the three adventures. All of them have Lovecraft elements so by putting them in Eberron you can play up a pseudo-1920's pulp feel. Good sources therefore include many great Lovecraft classics listed as follows. The first adventure, "Vile Addiction" takes place in an alien city inhabited by somewhat degernerate humans (sort of a "Dunwich Horror" or "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" meets "At the Mountains of Madness"). The second adventure, "Spawn of Sehan" is set in an ancient set of tombs (sort of a "Beneath the Pyramids"). The last adventure "Dread Pagoda of the Inscrutable Ones" has as the title suggests a mysterious Eastern feel (almost an Oriental Adventures setting). It is set a little ways away from Exag in a mountainous (and somewhat alien) setting. This adventure could be played up in the style of a Fu Manchu novel or serial (or even the asian elements from the Alec Baldwin movie "The Shadow") mixed in with a healthy helping of "The Shadow Out of Time." Re-envision the prime antagonists in chapter three as the great race, as their motives and powers are somewhat similar.
Hope that helps,
-GGG
The Talenta plains isn't a bad idea. Replace the humans in Exag with a bunch of extremely xenophobic halflings who actually hate and loathe the dinosaur riding halflings because of the reptile issues from their past....an enclave of dinosaur-reptile hating halflings who think their cousins outside the walls are the anti-christ embodied.....
My first thought was somewhere in the hinterlands of Aundair or the Eldeen Reaches. I imagine I might change some of the flavor of the architecture and such, but the xenophobia could easily work there.
I hadn't much considered the Blade Desert or the Talenta Plains, though they could really work too. I think that it would be a great adventure arc to adapt to Eberron precisely because of the pulp horror roots of the adventures. Once again Dungeon gives me more great stuff to populate yet another campaign I don't have time to run :-)
We have put some additional "resource information" on Exag in the Dungeon Wiki if you want to see some additional material that was edited out of the published piece. It emphasizes the "pulp horror" mentioned in this thread a little bit, as it details the culture of the inhabitants and their practices a little more. If you use this additional material, beware that your players may find themselves quickly involved in more than they can handle if they piss off the locals.
Another good possibility that occurred to me while reading the supplemental material is the Shadow Marches. An isolated backwater area with druidic traditions, mixed orc/human lineage and proximity to a great number of ruins and cairns from the war with the Daelkyr (and maybe some creeping Dragon Below influences in their beliefs and cultures) would also be an ideal place for Exag. It would also be rather humorous to see a group of people living in a swamp that are deathly afraid of reptiles.
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And of course, there's the possibility of placing it on Xen'drik, where the caravan is coming from Stormreach (a long trek) and Exag being still "out of the way". It could've been built by giants long ago, for their slaves, but somehow it never gots used and humans seddled in and being happy to have found a whole city to inhabit, the started to think this was a sign of their gods and started to venerate the Crafters.
It would also be rather humorous to see a group of people living in a swamp that are deathly afraid of reptiles.
That would also explain why they never leave town! LOL....