|
Hmm. Dragons? But why?
Maybe something to do with Argonessan... Seren barbarians riding dragons? :)
Gives me some food for thought, thanks Wrath. Time to go re-read Dragons of Eberron for ideas.
By the way, are there any 4e Eberron resources that are worth a look at? I kind of tuned out when they allowed any race to get a Dragonmark.
|
>:)
I'm trying to work out a way to make it work now actually. I'm hoping I can run a PbP here on the Paizo boards of it. The biggest roadblock I'm finding is that I loathe the first adventure so much and wondering what I should do in its place.
** spoiler omitted **
I had an adventure planned out for my players...oh years ago, in Eberron where the PCs are sent to an abandoned House Cannith research lab. At the time I think it was in the Mournland, hence abandoned. Any way, it would be discovered that House Cannith was working with House Lyriander and another House (either Deneith or Kundarak, I can't quite remember) on creating a whole new breed of airship. The PCs were sent to recover the remains of the prototype, which of course is not remains but rather fully intact. After a bit of adventure in the ruins to power it back up, the party would blast out of there only to be attacked by...something. I hadn't quite worked that out yet. They were pretty high level for Eberron (11th I think) so dragons was probably what I was going to go for, but you could easily swap that out with some mutant Mournland thing or a rival pirate group on their own airships. Either way the point was to have a massive chase scene through the canyon the where the hanger of the facility opened up into and give the party the chance to test out their new toy. Think getting the Ebon Hawk in Knights of the Old Republic or your fancy airship in, well, almost any Final Fantasy.
Ooooh, idea! The rival pirates are there after a tip off from a dragon who may or may not be watching the whole thing. The tip off is because the dragon has ...issues with the prototype airship in question (Draconic Prophecy issues). The big boss fight could be against the dragon's charmed Drake allies (their are some good CR4-5 drakes that would make great chase scene/final boss fodder).
Whoops! I forgot all about it last week! I've put a reminder in my phone to write something up when I get home tonight. Sorry about that!
Robert, Hi there. :)
No worries, I'm just glad you were able to provide some assistance in the form of notes from Keith Baker himself. :)
Thanks!
PS: I had the first session of my Eberron/PFRPG rules game last night, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. (If I can work it out, I may do a campaign journal for the fun of it).
~Dean
|
|
Did some reading of Dragons of Eberron and some thinking overnight thanks to Wrath and Mr. Bojangles, and this is what I came up with...
Harrigan will be a rakshasa of some sort who is working both for the Talons of Tiamat but also secretly for the Council of Ashtakala. His intentions are to follow what the Talons of Tiamat are doing re: twisting the prophecy to awaken Tiamat, and hopefully influence it at the right time to turn it in favour of the rajahs.
No doubt the Chamber will become interested in the PCs, and are potential allies for the later "fleet" battles...
The Free Captains will probably be replaced with House Lyrandar, with Tessa Fairwind (probably being renamed Tessa d'Lyrandar) becoming their patron for most of the campaign... but things will get far bigger than just House politics quickly with the dragons and rakshasa involved!
Quite obviously, our intrepid adventurers and their fancy flying ship are likely to be seen as key in some pivotal strand of the Prophecy. :)
Did some reading of Dragons of Eberron and some thinking overnight thanks to Wrath and Mr. Bojangles, and this is what I came up with...
** spoiler omitted **
@ Alice M. - very, very cool! Almost makes me want to try this out with my Thursday group. ;)
Although the allure of crafting much of my own story (with a couple of the modules thrown in) is a little more alluring at this time.
Still, very cool way to use S&S (Skull & Shackles) in Eberron.
Dean
Rakshasa...Tiamat...etc.
One of the challenges of running pre-published modules in Eberron is how high-level the NPCs can get versus the assumed low-level population of Khorvaire. Converting to high-power native Eberron threats like Rakshasas and such is a really slick conversion.
On the other hand, after you've turned the whole thing into a skyship dragon war vs. demons, are you really even playing Skull & Shackles any more? It sounds like so much work converting everything, it defeats the purpose of buying a pre-made module.
No argument that it sounds really epic and Eberron-y, but that level of dungeoncraft is completely beyond me. If I could do half of what you have planned, I wouldn't need to buy modules...
One of Eberron's big handicaps (to me) is that it has just enough unique traits that make using published, "generic" adventures there challenging.
I too am ill-content with the "all borders mapped" status of Eberron [..]
I agree with both of these points, and coincidentally those are problems I have with Golarion as well.
One of the challenges of running pre-published modules in Eberron is how high-level the NPCs can get versus the assumed low-level population of Khorvaire.
This I have less problem with because there are plenty of high-level threats in Eberron -- they're just "far away". So you can just bring a few of those threats temporarily closer for the PCs to deal with.
I remember when Eberron first came out and how enamored I was by it. Everything was new and different, but really cool. A lot of the magical technology which really reminded me of some of the video games I played when I was a kid, and the entire setting wasn't Tolkien Medieval Europe Realm #198. They did a lot of unique things with their setting and even after the novelty has worn off, I still find myself using some of the tropes Eberron set up.
I'll admit, I don't like how small it felt. The nations were larger and more definied and the continents and kingdoms too few. I feel Golarion does a better job with feeling bigger and having a great deal more nations, especially since really, only two and a half of the seven continents have been fully fleshed out. Still, Xendrik is probably my favorite adventuring lands by far and much of my current campaign stems from what I have about those lands. Everything from jungle drow to giant civilizations I borrow from. Currently, I'm running a Xendrik/Caribbean-inspired version of Kingmaker, which should be very fun!
|
|
Thanks Wyrm and Fletch!
No argument that it sounds really epic and Eberron-y, but that level of dungeoncraft is completely beyond me. If I could do half of what you have planned, I wouldn't need to buy modules...
I know what you mean, and I'm thinking that too... but really it won't be as bad as you (and I) think. For the most part most of the modules (e.g., story, setting descriptions, and even lots of enemies) can stay the same. It's only in the later modules that things really need to change drastically, and well, I'm okay with doing that stuff. The CR guidelines are all there, so you don't even need to worry about appropriately balancing for the party, etc.
Plus I guess my big problem with Skulls & Shackles is that I really like the idea of a group of pirates/sailors/whatever, I really hate the execution of S&S. I like heroism. :P
Plus I guess my big problem with Skulls & Shackles is that I really like the idea of a group of pirates/sailors/whatever, I really hate the execution of S&S. I like heroism. :P
My grief with S&S (aside from vol. 3 being a truly awful module) is that 3.5/Pathfinder rules don't model well the 16th century Caribbean pirate world the AP's trying to emulate. No rules for armorless defense, fer instance, leaves your fighter-types either weakened or drowning, and casual spellcasting is a far cry from spooky voodoo mysticism.
For some reason, though, Eberron seems more appropriate for a pirate campaign. I wish I could explain why, but despite using the same rules, Eberron as a setting gives a better meshing of pseudo-Renaissance with magic. I dunno. Precedent, I guess.
Plus I guess my big problem with Skulls & Shackles is that I really like the idea of a group of pirates/sailors/whatever, I really hate the execution of S&S. I like heroism. :PMy grief with S&S (aside from vol. 3 being a truly awful module) is that 3.5/Pathfinder rules don't model well the 16th century Caribbean pirate world the AP's trying to emulate. No rules for armorless defense, fer instance, leaves your fighter-types either weakened or drowning, and casual spellcasting is a far cry from spooky voodoo mysticism.
For some reason, though, Eberron seems more appropriate for a pirate campaign. I wish I could explain why, but despite using the same rules, Eberron as a setting gives a better meshing of pseudo-Renaissance with magic. I dunno. Precedent, I guess.
I actually found that replicating the armorless dueling was simple with Fighting Defensively. With both sides of a duel doing it, you get a decent AC and the attack penalty evens it out a bit. It helps make armorless AC more doable for longer, especially with Acrobatics, Combat Expertise, and the Dodge feat. That said, could definitely use a Swashbuckler class and also, there are some good options and feats in Razor Coast for armorless dueling.
|
|
How about Way of the Wicked?
I think with Way of the Wicked you'd have to invent the island on which it takes place. I'd put it a fair way off the coast of Khorvaire - close enough for the continent to have an influence, but far enough away that none of the Five Nations are tempted to get involved in the internal politics.
The bad guys need a lawful evil organisation to belong to. I'd probably use the Lords of Dust here. I don't think the Lords have clerics, but if not I'd allow them to have them, since in my mind the Cardinal works best as a villain if he is a priest of evil.
There's more scope for choosing who the good guys support, but I have a hankering to make them servants of the Silver Flame.
The events would be tied in closely to an important but extremely vague part of the draconic prophecy, hence a number of dragons take an interest in proceedings - on both sides, since they can't agree which side is the "right" one.
This thread is relevant to my interests. ;) I just started a Pathfinder/Eberron campaign and look forward with interest to the discussion.
-The Gneech
|
|
I find this thread to be exceptionally useful. I've been running in Eberron with Pathfinder rules for years, and it's really nice to see how people are suggesting the AP conversions. I look forward to running one soon, probably going to start with RotRL as the Eldritch Giant suggestions really appeal to me.
Did some reading of Dragons of Eberron and some thinking overnight thanks to Wrath and Mr. Bojangles, and this is what I came up with...
** spoiler omitted **
I'm loving this idea, Alice, and I'm planning on borrowing it for a solo campaign I'm running for my wife. She's playing a pair of fraternal twin sisters - one's a level 2 aasimar cleric/inquisitor gestalt, and the other's a level 2 tiefling magus/rogue gestalt - while I'm using a rotating cast of characters for a Final Fantasy/Legend of Dragoon-style gameplay to round out the party. My plan is to run The Forgotten Forge, Shadows of the Last War, and Whispers of the Vampire's Blade before sending the party to the Mournland to recover an airship... which will then lead into Raiders of the Fever Sea.
Would you be willing to share any notes you might have on your conversion of the plot of Skull & Shackles?
|
|
I haven't really thought much about it yet short of what's been written in this thread, largely because I haven't had time to consider starting up a new campaign yet - and my home group is begging me to run Wrath of the Righteous atm. :)
I really like the idea of doing it as a solo campaign with Final Fantasy-style party members, though! It's nice that they could be the captain of the ship with none of the other party members feeling left out of decision making or anything.
I haven't really thought much about it yet short of what's been written in this thread, largely because I haven't had time to consider starting up a new campaign yet - and my home group is begging me to run Wrath of the Righteous atm. :)
I really like the idea of doing it as a solo campaign with Final Fantasy-style party members, though! It's nice that they could be the captain of the ship with none of the other party members feeling left out of decision making or anything.
Fair enough. I'm planning on having an officer of the Queen's Dark Watch (my campaign's equivalent of the King's Dark Lanterns) commission the party for the Mournland expedition in "The Hunt For Red November," with the intent of finding an experimental airship and setting up as privateers in the Lhazaar Principalities, secretly supported by the Empire of Albion (Breland).
I've actually largely mapped Eberron onto Earth for my campaign, just for fun.
@ SteampunkObrimos Any chance of posting that map? I'd really like to see it.
I liked Eberron but also felt it was too mapped out. Been working on a semi gothic Eberron influenced Jack Shearesque version of the Palladium Fantasy RPG map and world.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
@ SteampunkObrimos Any chance of posting that map? I'd really like to see it.
I liked Eberron but also felt it was too mapped out. Been working on a semi gothic Eberron influenced Jack Shearesque version of the Palladium Fantasy RPG map and world.
I'll have to download the appropriate maps and colorize them - I've been using a hardcopy atlas and Crayola markers to mark the maps. Here's a listing of where I mapped each nation, though:
Aundair (Kingdom of Asturia) - Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland, Latvia, Estonia)
Breland (Empire of Albion) - British Isles, Northern France (Brittany, Normandy), Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, western Poland, east coast of the United States, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma, Australia, New Zealand, the Guianas (Guyana, French Guiana, Surinam)
Cyre/The Mournland - Greece, Albania, former Yugoslavian republics, Bulgaria, Hungary
Karrnath (The United Kingdoms of the Khadoran Red Star) - most of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, eastern Poland, Romania, Moldavia
Thrane (Holy Protectorate of the Silver Flame) - Remainder of France, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Andorra, Monaco, Italy (including the Vatican), Spain, Portugal
Eldeen Reaches - Canada, Alaska, northwestern US
Darguun - Turkey, Syria, Lebanon
Droaam - Midwestern US (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan)
Demon Wastes - Southwestern US (California, Nevada, Arizona)
Lhazaar Principalities - Caribbean Islands
Shadow Marches - Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam
Valenar (Imperial Shogunate of Rokugan) - Japan, Manchuria, far eastern Russia, Korea, Taiwan
Mror Holds - Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Azerbaijan
Talenta Plains (Talenta Steppes) - Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan
Zilargo - Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands
Q'barra - Louisiana, Mississippi, east Texas, Arkansas
Xendrik - South America
Argonnessen - Africa
Aerenal - Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines
Riedra - China (less Manchuria and Tibet)
Adar - Tibet, Bhutan
Non-Eberron nations:
Protectorate of Menoth (from Iron Kingdoms) - Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Arabian peninsula
Cryx (from Iron Kingdoms) - Mexico and Central America (associated loosely with Lhazaar Principalities)
That sounds pretty f~~$ing cool. Not gonna lie.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
dotting as a huge Eberron fan, likely going to run an Eberron game in the (relatively) near future.
@SteampunkObrimos: That sounds really awesome! These are very cool ideas. I have been messing around with taking historical maps of great cities and tracing over them my own fantasy cities. The furthest I've gotten is London and Prague. I hadn't thought of taking the whole country or whole world or of using an atlas. Genius!
It figures the only way to deal with the Russian winter is with zombies!
Pretty funny, I live in the Demon Wastes.
@SteampunkObrimos: That sounds really awesome! These are very cool ideas. I have been messing around with taking historical maps of great cities and tracing over them my own fantasy cities. The furthest I've gotten is London and Prague. I hadn't thought of taking the whole country or whole world or of using an atlas. Genius!
It figures the only way to deal with the Russian winter is with zombies!
Pretty funny, I live in the Demon Wastes.
I was thinking about the North American map earlier on my way to work, and I think I might just merge the Demon Wastes into Cryx (in Mexico), in favor of having a colony of Albion (Breland) in the US Southwest, borrowing an idea from Deadlands (the ghost rock veins in the Great Maze of California)...
<EDIT> ... though all things considered, having the Great Maze in the Demon Wastes makes sense, too...
Dotting for Eberron Great Justice.
I'm currently running Kingmaker in Eberron and my group is about five sessions in. While I agree that reclaiming the Eldeen Reaches for Aundair is a good initial substitute for Brevoy/Stolen Lands I decided to go with more of the pulp Indiana Jones feel and have the Twelve fund a group of Dragonmark-related PCs carve out an area of Xen'drik (a good ways south of Stormreach) into a Kingdom.
As for Skull and Shackles...Lhazaar Principalities seems like the perfect stage for pirate-y action. Also airships. Delicious Eberron Airship Battles.
I had initially dismissed Carrion Crown as impossible to run in Eberron but I absolutely love the ideas placed in this thread.
Okay, so I've run into a bit of a conundrum...
Between Whispers of the the Vampire's Blade and Raiders of the Fever Sea, I need to run a homebrewed adventure (since I haven't found any "salvage the airship in the Mournland" published scenarios) which I've tentatively named The Hunt for Red Sypheros (it had been The Hunt for Red November originally, but I figured I'd use an Eberron month name)... but I'm trying to figure out how to allow the party to have salvage rights over the Cyran prototype airship. I'd originally planned for the Queen's Dark Watch (King's Dark Lanterns) to be the party's patron for the adventure, but I can't logically see the Citadel allowing the characters to keep the ship rather than turning it over to the crown.
Any ideas?
The Dark Watch could send the PCs after something else entirely which turns out to be in the hold of a crashed prototype airship. The Watch get's their McGuffin, and the PCs refit their airship.
Plus, not to talk you out of a homebrew adventure, but wasn't there a "find the crashed airship" adventure published in Dungeon Magazine?
Here it is. Tensions Rising, issue 136.
The Dark Watch could send the PCs after something else entirely which turns out to be in the hold of a crashed prototype airship. The Watch get's their McGuffin, and the PCs refit their airship.
Plus, not to talk you out of a homebrew adventure, but wasn't there a "find the crashed airship" adventure published in Dungeon Magazine?
Here it is. Tensions Rising, issue 136.
Thanks! After looking at "Tensions Rising," I've decided to adapt that (and "Riding the Rail," Dragon #143) for "The Hunt For Red Sypheros" - and once the PCs have finished those, we'll be ready for Raiders of the Fever Sea.
|
|
'Mummy's Mask' doesn't really have a good location to happen in Eberron. You could relocate the 'archaeology' part to Xen'drik but that's mostly jungle rather than desert and very different culturally. 'Hell's Rebels' and 'Hell's Vengeance' are both heavily tied to an 'evil empire', something Eberron only really has in Riedra, and that's a very different situation and not really a good equivalent. You can do them places other than Golarion, but not Eberron. Likewise, 'Iron Gods' requires a crashed space ship, which is probably not workable. 'Age of Ashes' is very setting-linked in some very specific ways and I don't think converts well either.
'Giantslayer' seems like you could do something involving a rogue faction within Droamm, or maybe in Xen'drik once again (for the giant connection). You'd probably need to adjust the enemies in chapter 1 if going the Xen'drik route since Orcs aren't native there, but it seems possible.
'Strange Aeons', from what I know if it, seems much more doable. Work out some metaphysics connecting it to Xoriat and maybe set it in Karrnath and it seems very workable.
'Ruins of Azlant' deals with specific underwater stuff, but you can probably work something out with a colony on Xen'drik somewhere away from the Sahuagin in the Thunder Sea.
'Ironfang Invasion' has sort of already happened in Eberron, with the founding of Darguun and all. I'm not sure a reprise like this would work very well.
'War For The Crown' involves a specific political situation, and you'd need to adjust things to make that work. The death of the King of Breland and his lack of a clear heir seems like you could maybe do something with this, though you'd need to really readjust a lot of details (Breland has no restriction on female rulers, for example).
'Tyrant's Grasp' involves a very specific ancient and unstoppable Lich (actually, two of them). Lady Vol potentially works for this in Eberron, but that runs into the issue of why the Dragons don't just crush her (since they both could, and want to). Her possession of some new superweapon might answer that, though. Alternately you could maybe do something putting her in Arazni's role and some sort of Dracolich or Dragon in the Whispering Tyrant's, but a lot of details would need to change either way.
'Return of the Runelords' requires you basically inserting the Runelords into Eberron's prehistory. If you do that, you're probably good to go, honestly.
'Extinction Curse' seems very workable to me. You need to change details about troglodyte culture and worship, and pick a place to set it, but it seems super doable.
.
.
.
Almost all of those require major overhauls, though, with 'Strange Aeons' and 'Extinction Curse' seeming to require the least changes to me.
'War For The Crown' involves a specific political situation, and you'd need to adjust things to make that work. The death of the King of Breland and his lack of a clear heir seems like you could maybe do something with this, though you'd need to really readjust a lot of details (Breland has no restriction on female rulers, for example).
Is High Cardinal Krozen still around? If he assassinated Jaela and some of the other church hierarchy to take Thrane, and resistance formed around Queen Diani, the rest of the plot follows along.
Instead of the Queen's brother, Jaela can be raised.
|
|
Is High Cardinal Krozen still around? If he assassinated Jaela and some of the other church hierarchy to take Thrane, and resistance formed around Queen Diani, the rest of the plot follows along.
Instead of the Queen's brother, Jaela can be raised.
Oooh, yeah, that'd definitely work. It'd put a much more secular vs. religious slant on things, but it'd definitely have some potential.
|
|
I am still learning the lore of Eberron, though I was curious if the "Way of the Wicked" Adventure Path by Fire Mountain Games might work in Eberron. Breland?
More likely Thrane. Breland is fairly secular, with worship of deities not something most people even care much about. Some faiths might be illegal, I don't know, but most people on the street won't care. Thrane, meanwhile, is a militant theocracy dedicated to a LG faith.
|
|
There's another "Adapting for Eberron" thread that was active for a while around 2016.
In general, I'm of the mindset that pretty much any of the APs can be adapted to Eberron, though some might depend on how much work you're willing to put in.
I have two roughly outlined and stupidly huge AP "mash-ups" set in Eberron that I'm working on, one built around Savage Tide and another centering on a blend of Curse of the Crimson Throne and War for the Crown, both weaving in several other APs to round out a broader narrative.
I've messed around with those as well, Veltharis. Savage tide is my favorite AP, and I have notes for CotCT mixed in with some of the traditional Eberron adventures, some notes for RotRL, and some for a mashup for ReturnotRL and Shattered Star. I also started a pretty in-depth cover of Giant slayer tonight, and already finished up the broad strokes for the first adventure.
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
In the interest of keeping the conversation going, here are a number of ideas (influenced by this thread and others) I've considered for some of the APs. Not the "stupidly huge mash-up" versions, though, as those are WAY more involved...
However, rather than inserting an entirely new empire into ancient Xen'drik, I feel working the Runelords into the existing structure of the Age of Giants produces a more "Eberron" feeling end result. Based on both canon sources and notes from Keith Baker's blog, Xen'drik was never really a single unified empire, but rather a number of competing civilizations: consisting of the Cul'sir Dominion, the Sul'at League, and the Group of Eleven for the giants, as well as the Qabalrin and the ancestors of the Tairnadal for the elves, at a minimum.
The Group of Eleven, being a collection of loosely allied yet competitive mage-run city-states, seems like the most obvious place to serve as "Thassilon", but I personally like the idea that "Thassilon" was more of an "elite social club" type of thing - not a nation in its own right, but rather a cabal formed of the most powerful mages from across Xen'drik, with arcane might trumping race and political affiliations (in theory, at least). This would make most Runelords giants, but also allow particularly capable elven mages into the mix (I envision Sorshen, in particular, as a Qabalrin elf, capable of cowing a peer several times her size through sheer reputation and presence).
From there, adapting the Runelord-centric APs should be fairly easy. The "cataclysm" they went into hibernation to avoid was the dragons razing Xen'drik at the end of the Age of Giants. I'd probably tone down the Seven Deadly Sins associations and bump up the Runelords' overall numbers (12 with a missing 13th, because Eberron), but beyond that, they should slot in fairly seamlessly, though with Return's time travel shenanigan-ry, you'll want to give a lot of thought to how "alternate" versions of Eberron would have developed.
The other route one could take, and this is my preferred option, is to scale up the setting from a single city-state to one of the Thronehold Nations, and ideally one of the Five Nations, which substantially raises the political upheaval that our newly ascendant evil queen can cause. Cyre being reduced to disparate refugees and a city-state in Brelish territory effectively removes it from the list, as does Thrane being firmly under the control of the Church of the Silver Flame. Karrnath has some aesthetic similarities with Cheliax/Korvosa, but not only is King Kaius III young, there's enough other plot threads going on under the surface that I have a hard time seeing the AP's plot working in Karrnath. That leaves Aundair and Breland.
If you choose to set it in Aundair, then I honestly think ditching the brief succession crisis element and just making Queen Aurala the villain is the best way to go. But personally, I prefer Breland.
Breland has an elderly monarch with no clearly designated heir. Rather than a young queen, I would cast "Ileosa" as one of his daughters, who manages to sharply raise her prospects through cunning and treachery in the lead up to poor old King Boranel's untimely assassination.
In both cases, I would use the looming threat of "Ileosa" reigniting the Last War as a major concern, and potentially play down the "quest for eternal beauty" angle depending on the nature of "Ileosa" - Aurala and a generic Brelish princess might go for it, but one of the Brelish options I'm more into is Borann (a warrior-princess who served as a general in the Last War and was presumably killed in the Mourning), who probably wouldn't be.
This also gives leeway to incorporate some of the "fixes" to the various issues some people have with the AP's conclusion: allowing the PCs' efforts to help rebind Katashka through the Prophecy, rather than simply taking away his new uber-weapon and leaving him to sulk for a while.
Vol, in my mind, instead plays the role of Arazni, led to work with the PCs because Katashka threatens everything she has worked for over millennia (and possibly holding a bit of a soft spot for people killed before their time only to be brought back as a mockery of the living with no say in the matter), but also knowing through Prophecy that her own time is running out and that Katashka is very much capable of killing her permanently.
Haven't had the opportunity to go through Tyrant's Grasp in depth yet, so my notes beyond that are a bit scattershot, but I don't think it'd be too hard to adapt.
Got thoughts on some of the others as well, but I've been writing too long in one sitting as it is, so I'll save it for another time.
|
|
Another possibility on CotCT is to make everyone in power Tieflings and set it in the Venomous Demesne. We known basically nothing about that place's culture beyond it being a small city, 'civilized', and magic rich so you can do what you like with it to some degree. Some of the tribes of Droamm then sub in for the Shoanti pretty directly.
This is the rough conversion I was working on for Giantslayer.
Giantslayer
Battle of Bloodmarch Hill
Background:
The border separating the monster kingdom of Droaam and the human farmers of the Eldeen Reaches has been a contentious one since even before Droaam sought autonomy a decade ago. Even before the start of the Last War, when the area was part of Breland, the monsters of the region continued to grow stronger and more ambitious, repeatedly overrunning the defensive lines of what was at that time Aundair. Breland never attacked, but it was often a source of diplomatic tension between the two nations of Galifar that Breland couldn’t “reign in” the monsters inside its borders.
During several of the orc tribes of western Breland’s campaign to breach the southern border of Aundair across the Byeshk Mountains in the century before the Last War, the Twisted Nail orc tribe counted the hill giants of the Heart Eater tribe among its strongest allies. The alliance was an unusual one in that the hill giants’ self-styled Hero-Chieftain Uskroth commanded the obedience of both orcs and giants. The Twisted Hearts, as the combined tribes came to be known, were a force to be reckoned with, and Uskroth led the army to victory after victory against both southern Aundair and Breland itself, even claiming territory both to the north and the south of the mountain range. Uskroth’s ambitions proved too great, however; without the backing of other orc tribes or giant reinforcements from the west, the Twisted Hearts were unable to hold the territory they had conquered, and they were eventually overwhelmed by Breland’s forces.
This great battle caused a Manifest zone to Shavarath over 500 miles away to draw them in, teleporting the entire battle there. The Manifest zone was located on a hill in the Demon Wastes, in the Stone cage mountains.
The final battle between the Twisted Hearts and the humans took place on Bloodmarch Hill, where Hero Chieftain Uskroth finally fell with 23 spears and swords planted firmly in his flesh. The few surviving Twisted Hearts managed to temporarily drive the humans back south, but both the orcs and hill giants knew their campaign was over without their mighty leader. Before the Twisted Hearts retreated north, they laid Uskroth to rest in a tomb beneath Bloodmarch Hill, burying the giant hero with his favorite weapon, a stone war-hammer named Agrimmosh, which Uskroth had claimed was the hammer of Minderhal himself. The subterranean crypt was carefully hidden, and a keep was built over the tomb over the next several decades. Eventually, the orcs who resided there forgot of the treasure in the tomb beneath them.
In the decades since the Twisted Hearts fell to the Blackened blades of Breland and the Knights of Green of Aundair, called the Green-blades, the monsters of Droaam have continued to strain against the human territories on all sides until the daughters of Sora Kell quelled them. Orc memories are short, and few among the Twisted Nail tribe remember their ancestors’ alliance with the Heart Eater hill giants or the existence of the tomb of Hero Chieftain Uskroth.
Now, the Eldeen Reaches town of Sylbaran sits atop the ancient spot where the battle happened before the Manifest zone to Shavarath drew it into the Demon Wastes. Inhabited by the descendants of those who refused to flee when the orcs overwhelmed the town in 920 YK. The hardy folk of Sylbaran have stubbornly resisted the orcs for decades, unaware that a ley line to Uskroth’s tomb lies beneath their feet, waiting to be unlocked. Hill giant memories are even shorter than those of orcs, but a recent discovery by a Heart Eater hill giant chieftain named Grenseldek has driven her to once again ally her tribe with the orcs of the region, specifically a group of Eco-terrorist Ashbound orcs. A distant descendant of Uskroth, Grenseldek ostensibly seeks to destroy Sylbaran and reestablish the glory of the legendary Twisted Hearts.
In truth, Grenseldek has little interest in the humans or reuniting the orcs and the hill giants. Her true objective is finding Uskroth’s tomb and obtaining the great treasures she believes are hidden there—including both Uskroth’s fabled hammer, Agrimmosh, and a family heirloom that supposedly serves as a map to the resting place of a famed giant-slayer, Nargrym Steelhand. Word has reached Grenseldek that far to the south in Xen’drik, a storm giant calling himself Volstus the Storm Tyrant has begun gathering an army of giants under his banner. Volstus plans to dominate the monsters of Droaam, then lead a combined army of giants and orcs against the nations of Galifar.
Grenseldek’s cunning plan is to offer her hand in marriage to the Storm Tyrant, presenting the treasures recovered from the tombs of both Uskroth and Nargrym Steelhand as her dowry. In Grenseldek’s mind, these riches should be more than sufficient to secure Volstus’s affections. He will make Grenseldek his queen, and she will surpass even the legendary deeds of her ancestor Uskroth. Grenseldek has constructed her scheme carefully, knowing that she will likely have only one chance to find Uskroth’s tomb.
Through Droja, Grenseldek was able to learn of the location of the tomb now...far to the west in the Demon Wastes, and also learn that to “open” the tomb under the fortress of Xul-Jarak, a ritual needed to be performed on both ends of a ley line, connecting the energies of the Manifest zone of Shavarath and the battles original location. Droja was able to learn a few snippets of the dragon prophecy.
Unwilling to risk the giants of her tribe, Grenseldek has sent a team of half-orcs led by a canny and ruthless alchemist named Skreed Gorewillow to infiltrate the town and find Uskroth’s tomb, as well as weaken Sylbaran’s defenses. When these agents locate the entrance to the tomb, Grenseldek plans to send the Ashbound into Sylbaran and plunder the crypt. As long as Grenseldek gets the contents of Uskroth’s tomb, the orcs may burn and keep whatever else they pillage. So far, Skreed and his half-orc agents have managed to enter Sylbaran and begin the search for the entrance to Uskroth’s tomb, but a patrol captain of Sylbaran’s militia named Rodrik d’Deneith has caught wind of the danger and begun an investigation. As Rodrik gets closer to unraveling the saboteurs’ aims, Skreed decides to remove the threat—a catalyst that may cause Grenseldek’s plans to crumble completely.
Part I: Mysteries in Sylbaran—The heroes are asked to investigate whether an apparent suicide in the town of Sylbaran was actually a murder, only to discover the threads of a larger conspiracy that could threaten the town’s very existence.
Changes:
- The town of Trunau is now called Sylbaran.
- Roderick Grath is now Roderick d’Deneith.
- Kurst Grath is now Kurst Grath of House Denieth.
- Councilor and banker Lessie Crumpkin (LN female human cleric of Kol Korran 4).
- High Priestess Tyari Varvatos (LG female human cleric of The Silver Flame 6).
- The town is a little more “traditionally” racist here, due to its history. Some of the younger residents push back against the older residents assumed negativity directed at half-orcs and orcs. They are much more focused on the Last War than the orc wars.
- Freedom town assassins are now Graywall assassins.
- I’d advise removing the liquid blade...they are fairly ridiculous and don’t ever come up again. Give one of them an eternal wand, possibly.
- Daktani is a shifter.
- Katrezra is an orc from Fiendfell in the Demon Wastes. He can be used to give snippets of the Dragon Prophecy to the characters, such as -
“Should the child not drown at the burned house of sickly wealth, and the clamor of love be forever tarnished and silenced, and the unblemished cursed lay inadequacy to rest; then shall the deceived ashes burn, and true loves carnage—white, drooping, shining, black, beaked, autumn, hoary—and the march to the hill of blood shall be revealed. As the crushed nail twists, a moon ceases to shine; silence the thunder and drink where the ground kills. Unmake yourselves and you shall find.”
So if Othdan doesn’t die from the flood troll in the former house of the silver flame, now called the plague house, and Brinya’s love is recovered, and Rodrik is buried by his brother Kurst (who doesn’t have a dragon mark), then the Ashbound will raid Sybaran, having been manipulated by Skreed Gorewillow, and the ley line to Bloodmarch hill will open, and Skreed’s disguise will disappear.
- The Plague House, also known as the Burned Church, was Sylbaran’s original church of the Silver Flame. At the time, Thrane came all the way east to Xandar...just 100 miles to the northeast around Silver Lake. When orc raiders burned the building down and killed the priests within, the church of the Silver Flame decided to build a new chapel inside the city walls. The ruined church became known as the Plague House following a tragedy 50 years ago in 948 YK when Sylbaran was afflicted with a plague. The town’s authorities hastily rebuilt the structure and used it to quarantine the plague victims, but a mysterious fire consumed the building a few days later, killing everyone inside—patients and healers— and leaving the infamous site once again in ruins.
This was actually the Manifest zone pulsing through its Ley line when it was co-terminus in the Demon Wastes.
None have attempted to rebuild it since. When Skreed Gorewillow and his half-orc infiltrators first came to Sylbaran, they took up residence in the Plague House’s mostly forgotten basement, as the group’s cleric believed they might be able to tunnel from there into Uskroth’s tomb. Having found no sign of an entrance to the tomb after nearly a week of frustrated digging, Skreed killed the cleric and ordered the team to move into Sylbaran proper—first to the Ramblehouse, then into an old house in upper Sylbaran that Skreed purchased from an unscrupulous seller at the Barterstones. Skreed ordered a native Sylbaran accomplice, a shifter cut-purse named Daktani, to regularly visit the Plague House to meet with a pair of flood troll messengers (one of whom Rodrik accidentally encountered) to coordinate the activities of Skreed’s infiltrators and the Twisted Nail orcs waiting to attack the town.
Part II: Sylbaran under siege
The biggest change here is the fact that the orcs are a cell of Ashbound orcs bent on razing the city to the ground and returning it to nature. During the raid, Skreed is opening up a Ley line portal connecting to the manifest zone of Shavarath located in the Demon Wastes.
The battle against Crusher has a portal open in the middle of the lake...water is draining into it, “falling” out the other side. Skreed and a dozen orcs and a giant jump through.
Part III: Tomb of the Hill Giant Hero
Run this as is. If you want to increase the difficulty, you can add portions of Sons of Gruumsh over the top of the tomb. If this is the case, whilst Skreed is performing the ritual, on the other end of the Ley line, Daazlag is performing the same ritual. He is a descendant of the Twisted Nails tribe and rules the citadel of Xul-Jarak, that was built over the tomb.
I'd like to make this more "Shavarath-y".
Unbeknownst to Skreed, Daazlag has betrayed Grenseldek. He wants the tomb opened, but only so he can seize its power to attack a clan of the Moonreavers, thereby increasing his territory.
A villager from Sylbaran who the PCs became fond of will disappear during the siege, and be taken through as a hostage to Xul-Jarak.
This sets the beginning of the adventure on the borders of the Eldeen Reaches and Droaam, not too far from Aundair and Breland, and takes them to the Demon Wastes before the end of it. We are introduced to the struggles of the Last War, as the town was once part of Aundair. We are introduced to the Ashbound orcs, to manifest zones, and to House Deneith. We have betrayal, rituals, subterfuge, racism, nationalism, and more, all themes that can be fleshed out or dropped depending on your story.
I'm just getting back into Pathfinder after a few years away; how funny this thread is still current.
I don't know anything about any of the more recent Paths since, say, Giantslayer, but that won't stop me from chiming in because I really like Eberron.
I think Veltharis has a great idea for Tyrant's Grasp being about a Rakshasa trying to break free. Vol appearing as an ally would be amazing. The only thing I can add is that the summary of 'Eulogy for Roslar's Coffer' sounds a little like the Mourning.
'Strange Aeons' would also make a good addition to Eberron lore. Not a Lovecraft fan myself, but it sounds like it could 100% be about Xoriat re-linking with Eberron and the PCs involvement in making that not happen. The kind of campaign that isn't just set in Eberron, but is *about* Eberron.
Finally, I would have no interest in 'Extinction Curse' unless it were set in Eberron. It has House Phiarlan written all over it and I wouldn't be interested in a campaign involving a traveling circus unless it came with that kind of history.
|
|
I've been thinking seriously about setting Agents of Edgewatch in Sharn.This sounds super interesting, though you'd obviously need to see the AP first, and account for where all the high level people are coming from in later chapters.
Yeah, it's way too soon for solid planning, but conceptually it seems like it could work. The only detail I've developed so far is that I would replace the Precipice Quarter with a tower that fell awhile back and has just been re-raised.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
↑ Sounds like a great idea for making really cool adventures set in Eberron! :D
Hope you (& your players) will keep having fun with it! ^^
Carry on,
--C.
I do like the idea of converting the spaceships into airships & using the Dragonmarked Houses as equivalents to the Corporations! There's a lot from Starfinder that you can carry over into Eberron: You already have the Day of Mourning as an equivalent of the Gap (if that fits with your games), & you could also incorporate elements of Absolom Station into Sharn, use the kasatha to add to the kalashtar (or vise versa), replace the various Pact Worlds with the appropriate Signatories of the Thronehold Treaty, use ideas from the various Vast worlds as exotic locations in Xen'drik... There's a lot of possibility here! :D
Have fun!
Long time lurker and first-time poster. But I love the idea of converting APs to fit within Eberron. This might be a wild idea but I converted the Dead Sun AP to fit Eberron. Converting over space ships to airships, the drift rock is a floating rock found by some scavengers within Cyre. I tried to keep as much scifi as I could, it was a cool concept. It allowed Eberron to truly have a unique feel.
So far I converted the first 2 books. And am having a lot of fun with it. I might also convert Fly free or Die AP. have the PCs work for House Lyrandar as their "mega corp"
I would love to hear what you guys think about this.
I love this.
Hell I love it WAY more than I liked Dead Suns itself (which I felt was a bit railroady, especially the first adventure). Are you using Karrnath as the Undead power center?
|
In the interest of keeping the conversation going, here are a number of ideas (influenced by this thread and others) I've considered for some of the APs. Not the "stupidly huge mash-up" versions, though, as those are WAY more involved...
** spoiler omitted **...
as for Tyrant's Grasp, I'm running it now, and I think your take is spot on.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Long time lurker and first-time poster. But I love the idea of converting APs to fit within Eberron. This might be a wild idea but I converted the Dead Sun AP to fit Eberron. Converting over space ships to airships, the drift rock is a floating rock found by some scavengers within Cyre. I tried to keep as much scifi as I could, it was a cool concept. It allowed Eberron to truly have a unique feel.
So far I converted the first 2 books. And am having a lot of fun with it. I might also convert Fly free or Die AP. have the PCs work for House Lyrandar as their "mega corp"
I would love to hear what you guys think about this.
I love this.
Hell I love it WAY more than I liked Dead Suns itself (which I felt was a bit railroady, especially the first adventure). Are you using Karrnath as the Undead power center?
Maybe ... follow me on this one.
There's like a big Siberys crystal starfall. AP 1 is sort of the same, the PCs are in like, PICK ANY BIG CITY, and the authorities are preventing anyone from going in to claim the shard, which unfortunately landed on a small hamlet. The PCs are eventually given permission to go there and there they discover that these aren't just any regular siberys shards...
2 - The PCs are informed that a distant scholar - Aerenal fits in great here - has information on the shards. Given a ship by the greatful city, they travel there, only to find that the scholar has been abducted. Pursuing her captors on foot is the only viable option, and they journey into the jungle, following the Cultists of the Dragon Below who abducted her. At an ancient elven observatory, they learn that the falling Siberys shards was not only predicted, but can possibly calculated by the scholar (who becomes a helpful tag-along-NPC).
3 - Journeying to the next predicted fall of shards, the PCs go to X. X can be any 'weird' location on Khorvaire, but is preferably a wasteland with a city. The Demon Wastes might work, but I would save those for later books. Instead, I would place book 3 in Shivarn, in northern Valenar, on the border of the Blade Desert. The Shadow Marches could be a good fit as well. The PCs uncover the Order of the Emerald Claw active there, and race them to recover the siberys stone. They then calculate the location of the next siberys starfall...
4 - Which turns out to be a dangerous, distant place. I would suggest an island off the coast of Xen'drik or Argonessen, which is dominated by a ruined city and inhabited by some debased race - morlocks or something. The PCs learn that the Cult of the Dragon Below has already staged a raid on the island, ransacking an ancient temple. Seeking the same information, the PCs essentially do the SAME THING that the really evil people did, but they FINISH THE JOB. (Book 4 of Dead Suns is a good adventure, but ultimately, the PCs are functionally pretty close to the Devourer Cultists to the kish...)
5 - Now in possession of the plotted location of the final starfall, the PCs are in a race to get there before the Cult. They fail, and are forced to battle through the cult's defenses ... I'm going to suggest an isolated inlet in the Demon Wastes, but you can really choose any location. Just as the star falls...
6 - The Emerald Claw arrives in force. The PCs have to battle from airship to airship, fighting to the grand galleon, wherein remains the final, and most powerful siberys stone.
I dunno. Just a few minutes diversion in between emails.