You guys might remember that a little while ago, I said that I wanted to run a short campaign using the Eberron setting. Since then, I have been trying to come up with a story that would fit into the Eberron setting. The campaign is going to be for four players, and as it is my first campaign using the Eberron setting, I thought that I would keep it short, but leave loose ends that I could pick up for future campaigns if it goes well.
The campaign would follow four young members of a Dragonmarked house as they uncover the secret legacy of their missing father. Their father, Eiran, is an archaeologist and a member of the Keepers, a secret coalition between the Dargonmarked houses, dedicated to building a better future by exploring the past.
While investigating what happened to their missing father, the characters become aware of the evil Organisation, led by a powerful Dragonmarked known as the Professor. Along the way, the characters come into possession of a legendary amulet and two powerful magical artefacts known as Spirit and Body. They become aware of a third known as Mind but are unable to locate it. They also learn of an ancient myth that tells the tale of a would-be King, who created the amulet and the three artefacts aeons ago as a way of achieving immortality.
Eventually, the characters will learn that the Professor is a descendant of the King spoke of earlier and that he was also once the head of the Keepers. However, his lust for power alienated him from the other Keepers who eventually banded together against him and forced him out of their number. The Professor now seeks the amulet and the artefacts, so that he can use their power to become immortal and rule the world.
The characters must follow the clues left by their missing father to unmask the Organisation, keep the amulet and artefacts our of evil hands and ultimately defeat the Professor.
During the last fight with the Professor, I will have him tell the characters about an ancient and evil group known as The Spiral who plan to bring the prophecy to fruition by unleashing Khyber and its hoards of Demons and Fiends, thus fulfilling the prophecy by putting an end to the world. The Professor will tell them that only he - as an immortal King, can save the world, and he will use this belief as justification for everything that he has done. At this point, the Professor will reveal that he has had the artefact Mind all along and has been using it to "mind control" the other Keepers, including the characters missing father. He will try to use the artefact Mind on the characters, but the amulet will protect them, leading them into the final battle.
After defeating the Professor, the characters will finally gain control of the last artefact and be able to free their father.
If my players want to continue onto campaign two, after defeating the Professor and rescuing their father, Eiran will tell them that what the Professor said about the Spiral is true. He will then introduce them to the order of Keepers (they will have already met some of them) and fighting the Spiral will become campaign two.
That it folks, that is pretty much all the notes on the idea I had for a campaign using the Eberron setting. Eberron is still a very new setting for me, however, so I would be most grateful if those of you more familiar with Eberron could tell me whether or not this kind of thing would fit with the overarching themes of the world.
Also, if you have any other thoughts, comments, constructive criticisms or ideas about what I have described, then please do feel free to share them as well.
Thanks
Foxes
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Apart from the Khyber bit, this just sounds like a fairly generic campaign so I don't see it not fitting in Eberron. But maybe leverage some of the thematic beats if Eberron more; pulp action, hardboiled noir drama, that kind on thing.
One thing I'd suggest against is the whole being four siblings of a dragonmarked house. This will likely force the players to all pick the same race, unless they decide to faff around with some contrivance.
Apart from the Khyber bit, this just sounds like a fairly generic campaign so I don't see it not fitting in Eberron. But maybe leverage some of the thematic beats if Eberron more; pulp action, hardboiled noir drama, that kind on thing.
One thing I'd suggest against is the whole being four siblings of a dragonmarked house. This will likely force the players to all pick the same race, unless they decide to faff around with some contrivance.
I agree, there's plenty of organizations within the Eberron lore that could fulfill the function of your "Keepers" and "Organization" that tie more into the setting, allowing for greater immersion. I would also caution you in making the main focus being on Dragonmarked Houses. As more like monopolized corporations, they make for poor good guys unless you're going for moral ambiguity as a main theme. Not to mention, your players may want to choose different backgrounds than "rich heir."
It .at even be more interesting if Eiran maybe wasn't everyone's father, but maybe was significant to each player in different ways. Maybe he's one player's father but it's a secret, another player's mentor, a third one's rival who they need a crucial piece of information from, etc. That way you can work with your players individually to come up with a background that includes this character in interesting and unique ways.
Apart from the Khyber bit, this just sounds like a fairly generic campaign so I don't see it not fitting in Eberron. But maybe leverage some of the thematic beats if Eberron more; pulp action, hardboiled noir drama, that kind on thing.
One thing I'd suggest against is the whole being four siblings of a dragonmarked house. This will likely force the players to all pick the same race, unless they decide to faff around with some contrivance.
I agree, there's plenty of organizations within the Eberron lore that could fulfill the function of your "Keepers" and "Organization" that tie more into the setting, allowing for greater immersion. I would also caution you in making the main focus being on Dragonmarked Houses. As more like monopolized corporations, they make for poor good guys unless you're going for moral ambiguity as a main theme. Not to mention, your players may want to choose different backgrounds than "rich heir."
It .at even be more interesting if Eiran maybe wasn't everyone's father, but maybe was significant to each player in different ways. Maybe he's one player's father but it's a secret, another player's mentor, a third one's rival who they need a crucial piece of information from, etc. That way you can work with your players individually to come up with a background that includes this character in interesting and unique ways.
This is where my knowledge of Eberron really shows its weakness. I am super new to this setting. I have a basic understanding of the world and its various races and so forth but I am still learning about the lore, the setting and the world in general.
You mentioned that there are existing organisations that would fit in with what I want the Keepers and "The Orginisation" to be.
If you don't mind me asking, which ones would you recommend?
Here are the ideas that I had for the orginisations/groups and so forth
Keepers (exploring the past to build a better future): They basically explore ancient ruins and past civerlisations in search of knowledge or technology that the Dragonmarked houses can use to "build a better future". Although the Keepers come from all the Dragonmarked houses, they don't hold any aliegance to them. In fact, their only real aliegance is to knowledge, the truth and improving and protecting the lives of the people of Eberron. Being seekers of truth, they know things and have discovered things, many of which they have shared but some they have not.
The Orginisation (formed by the Professor to do his bidding - he keeps them in line and even controls some of them using the artifact Mind): The Orginisation holds aliegance to one man, the Professor. As the former head of the Keepers, he knows about the threat posed by the Spiral. The Professor likes to talk about his good intentions but his real aim is to use the Spiral threat to make himself even more powerful than he already is and take over the world. He is your typical bad guy who has created The Orginisation as a way of achieving his goals, while remaining hidden in the shadows untill the time is right for him to reveal himself.
The Spiral (general evil bad people) The Spiral worship Khyber. They are an incredibly ancient and wide spread cult, although few people know of them as they are extremely good at hiding themselves. Their aim is to fulfil the prophecy by essentially destroying Eberron (and thus, ending the world). The Spiral were the primary enemy of the would-be King who first created the amulet and the artifacts. Like his descendant, the Professor, the would-be King also sought power to defeat the Spiral and also wanted to rule the world.
The Spiral will feature more in the second campaign if my players enjoy this one and want to play more but they will be mentioned in this on as well.
Because my knowledge of this settings lore and history is limited, I have had to create generic orginisations/groups but if you are able to recommend ones that fit the basic themes of my generic ones that I'd love to use those instead because it will make the game much more immersive and memorable for my players than generic ones that could belong anywhere.
Even if you don't want to offer any suggestions, thanks so much for the comments and thoughts as they are greatly appreciated and I will definatly use them to improve my game.
XD
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
As I'm also still familiarizing myself with the lore, I wouldn't set these suggestions in stone or anything, but here's some recommendations.
1) The Keepers sound analogous to "The Twelve", which is an organization that "facilitates cooperation among the dragonmarked houses." As a DM you have some leeway to determine what form that cooperation takes and what the ultimate goal is. Your story could even concern a secret subset of The Twelve that the characters join that specifically look into threats to the houses.
2) The Organization is technically fine as is, but you can connect it to the world more. Maybe it has its origins in the intelligence community, with The Professor perhaps splitting off from Breland's "King's Lanterns" or the Emerald Claw (or the intelligence force of any nation you choose) and taking some dedicated followers with him and building his organization from there. That helps to give your villain a past, but also to tie him into the central tension of the Eberron campaign setting, ie the lingering tensions from the Last War. Basically, who was the professor during the Last War? What nation did he owe his allegiance to before discovering he was of the Galifar line? What friends/enemies might he still have from his former life?
3) The Spiral is only different from the Cult of the Dragon Below in name, but it might just be useful knowing that that *is* already a thing in the lore, so you can read up on it to more fully integrate it into the world.
Hope that helps! So far im finding Rising From the Last War a fun/useful read. It has a lot of stuff on the different factions that wasn't really featured much in Wayfinder's, so it's still worth getting.
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Hi, everyone
You guys might remember that a little while ago, I said that I wanted to run a short campaign using the Eberron setting. Since then, I have been trying to come up with a story that would fit into the Eberron setting. The campaign is going to be for four players, and as it is my first campaign using the Eberron setting, I thought that I would keep it short, but leave loose ends that I could pick up for future campaigns if it goes well.
The campaign would follow four young members of a Dragonmarked house as they uncover the secret legacy of their missing father. Their father, Eiran, is an archaeologist and a member of the Keepers, a secret coalition between the Dargonmarked houses, dedicated to building a better future by exploring the past.
While investigating what happened to their missing father, the characters become aware of the evil Organisation, led by a powerful Dragonmarked known as the Professor. Along the way, the characters come into possession of a legendary amulet and two powerful magical artefacts known as Spirit and Body. They become aware of a third known as Mind but are unable to locate it. They also learn of an ancient myth that tells the tale of a would-be King, who created the amulet and the three artefacts aeons ago as a way of achieving immortality.
Eventually, the characters will learn that the Professor is a descendant of the King spoke of earlier and that he was also once the head of the Keepers. However, his lust for power alienated him from the other Keepers who eventually banded together against him and forced him out of their number. The Professor now seeks the amulet and the artefacts, so that he can use their power to become immortal and rule the world.
The characters must follow the clues left by their missing father to unmask the Organisation, keep the amulet and artefacts our of evil hands and ultimately defeat the Professor.
During the last fight with the Professor, I will have him tell the characters about an ancient and evil group known as The Spiral who plan to bring the prophecy to fruition by unleashing Khyber and its hoards of Demons and Fiends, thus fulfilling the prophecy by putting an end to the world. The Professor will tell them that only he - as an immortal King, can save the world, and he will use this belief as justification for everything that he has done. At this point, the Professor will reveal that he has had the artefact Mind all along and has been using it to "mind control" the other Keepers, including the characters missing father. He will try to use the artefact Mind on the characters, but the amulet will protect them, leading them into the final battle.
After defeating the Professor, the characters will finally gain control of the last artefact and be able to free their father.
If my players want to continue onto campaign two, after defeating the Professor and rescuing their father, Eiran will tell them that what the Professor said about the Spiral is true. He will then introduce them to the order of Keepers (they will have already met some of them) and fighting the Spiral will become campaign two.
That it folks, that is pretty much all the notes on the idea I had for a campaign using the Eberron setting. Eberron is still a very new setting for me, however, so I would be most grateful if those of you more familiar with Eberron could tell me whether or not this kind of thing would fit with the overarching themes of the world.
Also, if you have any other thoughts, comments, constructive criticisms or ideas about what I have described, then please do feel free to share them as well.
Thanks
Foxes
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Apart from the Khyber bit, this just sounds like a fairly generic campaign so I don't see it not fitting in Eberron. But maybe leverage some of the thematic beats if Eberron more; pulp action, hardboiled noir drama, that kind on thing.
One thing I'd suggest against is the whole being four siblings of a dragonmarked house. This will likely force the players to all pick the same race, unless they decide to faff around with some contrivance.
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I agree, there's plenty of organizations within the Eberron lore that could fulfill the function of your "Keepers" and "Organization" that tie more into the setting, allowing for greater immersion. I would also caution you in making the main focus being on Dragonmarked Houses. As more like monopolized corporations, they make for poor good guys unless you're going for moral ambiguity as a main theme. Not to mention, your players may want to choose different backgrounds than "rich heir."
It .at even be more interesting if Eiran maybe wasn't everyone's father, but maybe was significant to each player in different ways. Maybe he's one player's father but it's a secret, another player's mentor, a third one's rival who they need a crucial piece of information from, etc. That way you can work with your players individually to come up with a background that includes this character in interesting and unique ways.
This is where my knowledge of Eberron really shows its weakness. I am super new to this setting. I have a basic understanding of the world and its various races and so forth but I am still learning about the lore, the setting and the world in general.
You mentioned that there are existing organisations that would fit in with what I want the Keepers and "The Orginisation" to be.
If you don't mind me asking, which ones would you recommend?
Here are the ideas that I had for the orginisations/groups and so forth
Keepers (exploring the past to build a better future): They basically explore ancient ruins and past civerlisations in search of knowledge or technology that the Dragonmarked houses can use to "build a better future". Although the Keepers come from all the Dragonmarked houses, they don't hold any aliegance to them. In fact, their only real aliegance is to knowledge, the truth and improving and protecting the lives of the people of Eberron. Being seekers of truth, they know things and have discovered things, many of which they have shared but some they have not.
The Orginisation (formed by the Professor to do his bidding - he keeps them in line and even controls some of them using the artifact Mind): The Orginisation holds aliegance to one man, the Professor. As the former head of the Keepers, he knows about the threat posed by the Spiral. The Professor likes to talk about his good intentions but his real aim is to use the Spiral threat to make himself even more powerful than he already is and take over the world. He is your typical bad guy who has created The Orginisation as a way of achieving his goals, while remaining hidden in the shadows untill the time is right for him to reveal himself.
The Spiral (general evil bad people) The Spiral worship Khyber. They are an incredibly ancient and wide spread cult, although few people know of them as they are extremely good at hiding themselves. Their aim is to fulfil the prophecy by essentially destroying Eberron (and thus, ending the world). The Spiral were the primary enemy of the would-be King who first created the amulet and the artifacts. Like his descendant, the Professor, the would-be King also sought power to defeat the Spiral and also wanted to rule the world.
The Spiral will feature more in the second campaign if my players enjoy this one and want to play more but they will be mentioned in this on as well.
Because my knowledge of this settings lore and history is limited, I have had to create generic orginisations/groups but if you are able to recommend ones that fit the basic themes of my generic ones that I'd love to use those instead because it will make the game much more immersive and memorable for my players than generic ones that could belong anywhere.
Even if you don't want to offer any suggestions, thanks so much for the comments and thoughts as they are greatly appreciated and I will definatly use them to improve my game.
XD
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
As I'm also still familiarizing myself with the lore, I wouldn't set these suggestions in stone or anything, but here's some recommendations.
1) The Keepers sound analogous to "The Twelve", which is an organization that "facilitates cooperation among the dragonmarked houses." As a DM you have some leeway to determine what form that cooperation takes and what the ultimate goal is. Your story could even concern a secret subset of The Twelve that the characters join that specifically look into threats to the houses.
2) The Organization is technically fine as is, but you can connect it to the world more. Maybe it has its origins in the intelligence community, with The Professor perhaps splitting off from Breland's "King's Lanterns" or the Emerald Claw (or the intelligence force of any nation you choose) and taking some dedicated followers with him and building his organization from there. That helps to give your villain a past, but also to tie him into the central tension of the Eberron campaign setting, ie the lingering tensions from the Last War. Basically, who was the professor during the Last War? What nation did he owe his allegiance to before discovering he was of the Galifar line? What friends/enemies might he still have from his former life?
3) The Spiral is only different from the Cult of the Dragon Below in name, but it might just be useful knowing that that *is* already a thing in the lore, so you can read up on it to more fully integrate it into the world.
Hope that helps! So far im finding Rising From the Last War a fun/useful read. It has a lot of stuff on the different factions that wasn't really featured much in Wayfinder's, so it's still worth getting.