Eberron: Rising from the Last War brings the world of Eberron back to Dungeons & Dragons, giving you a whole new world of magic and mystery to explore. This campaign setting describes the war-torn continent of Khorvaire, as well as other regions of the world of Eberron. Additionally, it contains monster statistics for dozens of new creatures unique to this world, as well as magic items, mystical Dragonmarks, and other supernatural elements that set Eberron apart from other D&D settings. Indeed, Eberron is a world where magic has been used to create technology somewhat analogous to the real-world era of the First World War—with some additional fantastical elements, like the living constructs known as warforged.

This encounter series, called Around Khorvaire in Fifty Days, is a whirlwind tour of Khorvaire, the thematic heart of the Eberron campaign setting. It’s a perfect place for new players to enter the campaign setting, as it introduces and highlights many of the elements that make Eberron stand apart from other campaign settings, like the Forgotten Realms. This series elaborates on all the immediate details you need to run this adventure.

The background of this encounter series is described in greater detail in the first encounter, Departure from Skydock Six. Captain Angelica Estrella d’Sivis, her dragonmark, and her purported mission are described there as well. More information about Angelica, her mission, and her true identity were revealed in Gathering at Gatherhold.

Progression

This is the eighth encounter along this journey, and a party of five characters should be at least 3rd level when they begin this encounter. The previous encounters are:

1. Departure from Skydock Six
2. Storm over the Howling Peaks
3. Friendship in the Wilderness
4. Espionage in Grellreach
5. Sabotage over Lake Cyre
6. Gathering at Gatherhold
7. Dragonmark of the Dwarves

Command of the Celeste Noir

At the end of the Gathering at Gatherhold, the characters gained information and allies that could inspire them to mutiny against the Celeste Noir’s captain, Angelica d’Sivis. That encounter includes one way that mutiny might lead to a battle which will change the course of this story.  

All encounters in this series this point onward assume that the characters mutinied and took over the Celeste Noir. Advice on how to alter scenes in this encounter if Angelica is still in command of the Celeste Noir are provided in the body of the encounter, below.

Encounter Summary

In this encounter, the characters use the Planar Transpositor to enter the Plane of Dreams. This extraplanar shortcut grants them rapid access to the lair of the warmongering House Cannith agents that created the Celeste Noir, but it incurs the wrath of evil quori living within the Plane of Dreams.

Before the Encounter: Where to Next?

If the characters successfully mutinied, they now have the run of the ship. Angelica’s cabin contains some useful items, which are described in Dragonmark of the Dwarves. Relevant to this encounter, Angelica’s cabin contained a coded journal that one of the characters’ allies on the ship has started decoding. That character could be the anti-Cannith insurgent Grixe Laddimoff, the artificer Ziggy Arcingwind, the crusading kalashtar Nerokhad, or even another member of the Celeste Noir’s crew. At the start of this encounter, that character excitedly meets the characters over breakfast. Your ally slams a partially-translated journal and a handful of notes on the table and breathlessly explains the following vital information:

• You already know that the Planar Transpositor—AKA, the sundial—allows a ship mounted with it to enter Dal Quor, the Plane of Dreams, and use it as a sort of subspace to travel rapidly around Khorvaire.
• The House Cannith compound where the Celeste Noir was constructed also has several other ships within it, the Lune d’Or and the Soleil d’Argent. If the compound were destroyed, whatever warmongering scheme the Cannith agents were planning would be put to rest for good.
• The House Cannith compound where the Celeste Noir was constructed is hidden in the Labyrinth, a treacherous maze of canyons in western Khorvaire that separates the rest of the continent from the evils of the Demon Wastes.
• The journey to the Labyrinth would take several weeks of flying, and the Cannith compound is heavily guarded. Angelica had no map describing the path to the compound once within the Labyrinth itself.
• Its coordinates are preset into the Planar Transpositor. If activated, a passage through Dal Quor could be opened, allowing rapid and undetectable access to the Cannith compound.

If the characters want to avoid the passage through Dal Quor, they’ll have to travel across the Khorvaire and then infiltrate the Cannith base on foot. In this case, you can create new encounters to extend the length of this adventure.

Combat Encounter: Shortcut through Dal Quor

This combat encounter is suitable for a party of 3rd-level characters, if aided by one or two allies. If the characters have no allies, you can make this encounter easier by reducing the creature’s AC to 14 and changing its Possession ability to recharge on a short or long rest. This encounter features a tsucora quori from Eberron: Rising from the Last War.

This encounter begins when the characters decide to use the gauntlet of transposition they received in Dragonmark of the Dwarves to activate their ship’s Planar Transpositor and enter the Plane of Dreams. If Angelica is still captain, she activates the transpositor herself, in order to return the Celeste Noir and the lost transpositor it to her House Cannith employers.

Entering Dal Quor

The Celeste Noir takes off from the ground in preparation for the transpositor’s use. When the characters touch the transpositor with the gauntlet, read or paraphrase the following:

A spark leaps from your fingertips as you touch the gauntlet to the stone of the Planar Transpositor. The many metal-wrought celestial symbols embedded in its surface glow with unearthly light, and a vortex of emerald light forms around the stone circle. As the light whirls around the transpositor, another vortex appears fifty feet in front of the prow of the Celeste Noir. The captain looks to you for a command.

Assuming the characters command the ship to enter of the vortex, continue. (Alternatively, the captain looks to Angelica for a command, which she gives.)

The airship flies at top speed into the vortex, and the world seems to spiral away, like water being sucked down a drain. In an instant, you are hurtling at unbelievable speed through a tunnel of emerald energy. Your movements feel floaty and sluggish, like moving through a dream, and you can see tiny images of countless dream-images flitting by in the distance. Massive objects, like boulders, float in the void of sickly green light, hurtling past you far too fast to comprehend their unearthly shapes. Somewhere in the distance, a tiny speck of blue sky sits at the end of the tunnel, growing closer with each passing moment.

If the characters want to gaze into the otherworldly environment of Dal Quor, you can describe tiny glimpses of other beings’ dreams streaking by, or the strange ruined structures of the quori as they hurtle past. As they soar past one such structure, characters with a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 16 or higher notice something strange and fleshy clinging to it. This creature has a slug-like body with a horrific face in its torso, dozens of eyes, six humanoid arms, and two massive, crab-like pincers. Once the Celeste Noir passes this creature, read or paraphrase the following:

Suddenly the ship lurches, as it is struck by one of the pieces of stony debris floating in this corridor. As the crew begins to inspect this mind-bending piece of architecture, a creature slithers forth from it and releases a piercing shriek. This nightmarish creatures has a headless torso covered with eyes and twitching limbs, including two massive arms that end in powerful pincers, and a serpentine tail tipped with a vicious stinger. It then lunges at one of the nearby crewmember and dissolves into sickly green energy as it crashes into him. The crewmember staggers backwards, then draws his sword and turns to you with an evil look on his face, and green light in his blank eyes.

This tsucora quori has just used its Possession action to possess one of the mercenaries (use knight statistics) serving aboard the ship. He fights until the possession is ended (see the quori’s statistics), and the rest of the crew flees the deck to call the characters’ allies (such as Grixe, Ziggy, and Nero) for aid. They arrive once the mercenary is killed or the quori is otherwise driven out.

Once it has been driven out, the quori shrieks again and says, “You come to Dal Quor of your own volition… you are arrogant and foolish, and you shall soon be a slave of the Dreaming Dark.” Its slimy voice slurps from a puckered mouth hidden somewhere in its nightmarish flesh. In combat, the quori uses its Possession action as often as possible to protect itself from harm, and uses its fear spell and its Stinger attack to keep as many creatures frightened of it at a time as possible. It fights until it is reduced to half its hit point maximum, at which point it flees by leaping off the deck of the Celeste Noir and is whisked back into Dal Quor.

Conclusion: Light at the End

After the quori is hurled from the deck of the airship, the characters find that the blue dot at the end of the tunnel of energy has filled their entire field of view. Moments later, the Celeste Noir bursts through the gap between planes, and merges in the azure skies of Eberron once more. An emerald vortex closes behind the ship, and they skid to a halt in mid-air within the stony corridors of the Labyrinth—border between the Demon Wastes and the rest of Khorvaire. Read or paraphrase the following:

You punch through the planes, and emerge into a land whose air is still as the grave. The Celeste Noir shudders as your helmsman pulls the ship to a sudden full stop, narrowly avoiding collision with a pillar of twisted stone. Your helmsman points downward and says, “Captain, below us.”

About one hundred feet below your ship is a landing pad concealed by a rocky overhang. The distinctive crest of House Cannith is carved into the pad, and two other airships sit atop it. One is gleaming silver, and the other shining gold. The Celeste Noir begins to slowly descend…

Treasure and Progression

The characters advance to 4th level, if they haven’t already.

This adventure will continue next week in Encounter of the Week: Finale in Fire. The adventure continues in Eberron: Rising from the Last War. Begin your journey by ordering it now in the D&D Beyond Marketplace.

Did you like this encounter? Check out the other encounters in the Encounter of the Week series. You can also pick up the adventures I've written on the DMs Guild, such as The Temple of Shattered Minds, a suspenseful eldritch mystery with a mind flayer villain. My most recent adventures are included in the Gold Bestseller Encounters in Avernus, a collection of over 60 unique encounters created by the Guild Adepts, which can be used to enhance your campaign in Avernus or elsewhere in the Nine Hells. Also check out the Platinum Bestseller Tactical Maps: Adventure Atlas, a collection of 88 unique encounters created by the Guild Adepts, which can be paired with the beautiful poster battlemaps in Tactical Maps Reincarnated.

James Haeck is the lead writer for D&D Beyond, the co-author of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and the Critical Role Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, a member of the Guild Adepts, and a freelance writer for Wizards of the Coast, the D&D Adventurers League, and other RPG companies. He lives in Seattle, Washington with his fiancée Hannah and their animal companions Mei and Marzipan. You can find him wasting time on Twitter at @jamesjhaeck.