IC Eberron games [3.5]
I have a few different groups I'm thinking of running. The game would be one group of players playing in multiple adventures with different characters in each one.
Let me know what appeals to my potential players so I know which ones to set up first?
Starting at 1st, a conflict between the broken factions of House Cannith, the mysterious Lord of Blades and the Karrnathi supremacy group the Emerald Claw, culminating in a battle in the lost continent of Xen'Drik. After the dust settles (and if the game is still going) higher level adventures in Xen'Drik (material is ripe here, lots of published stuff for all this). This is probably the most "iconic Eberron" sort of story, lots of varied parts of the setting to interact with
[Forgotten Forge, Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, Grasp of the Emerald Claw, then the two adventure paths from Secrets of Xen'Drik]
Starting at 6th, a mysterious benefactor approaches an elite group of heroes to tempt them with an offer to explore ancient ruins and break into places they would never dream of going before. Along the way, ancient and strange magic is unlocked within the characters. Shades of the great game of intrigue between the dragons and the demons echoes across the game, ending at 12th with either the prophecy's newest chapter, or the party's lives forfeit to eldritch magic
[Eyes of the Lich Queen]
The town of Deepwater, a frontier town in the jungles of Q'Barra. The party play townsfolk just trying to get by in the mineral rich land of Q'Barra, a "Wild East" lawless land called Hope. Q'Barra was founded as the last remnant of the ancient kingdom of Galifer when the war broke out, but the deserters, refugees and prospectors of Hope are a far cry from the cities of idealistic New Galifer. And what's more, the lizardfolk have overrun most villages within two years of their founding, and Deepwater's already been around for a year and a half. Three players will need to take on the roles of the town's Law, Money and Faith, the three pillars that will shape what Deepwater is like.
[Based on Keith Baker's Deepwater campaign seed]
An entirely different continent for these next three (no premade adventures, would be a collab with players to help create a truly epic story of conflict in Sarlona)
Sarlona was once a continent of thirteen great kingdoms, until a time called the Sundering set kingdom against kingdom, some destroyed from within by upheaval, some destoryed by alliances between kingdoms only for mistrust to turn former allies against one another. Now Riedra's Unity rules most of the former kingdoms, with only Syrkarn, Tashana and Adar left out of the glorious peace and tranquility of the Chosen's benevolence
Syrkarn is a place of vast open plains, tangled jungles and stunning mountains. Nomadic half-giants mingle with the human and eneko (ogre-giant mongrels) tribes that settle this vast land, and Riedra does not bother them. Once Syrkarn was four of the great arcane kingdoms of Sarlona, but now it is nothing but ruins and whispers of horrible monsters in the dark. Anyone who is running from Riedra can come to Syrkarn and not be bothered, it is so easy to disappear in the great rolling hills and savanna. The game would consist of exploring, wilderness survival and dealing with border incursions or infiltration by Riedra or the Horned Shadow (a cabal of evil ogres and eneko that hide among the other peaceful groups) not too mention the giant-derived death cult of Karaak, the hoarder of souls, now spreading even to human tribes.
Adar is, in a word, fantasy Tibet. High mountains and isolated valleys and lashing rain are Adar's most constant features. A shroud of fog and light surrounds this land, preventing widescale invasion by Riedra, but make no mistake the Unity wants in. To the people of Riedra, the Adarans are demons, violent extremists and consort with monsters. In the century before the Sundering thirteen beings from another plane fled to Adar and possessed thirteen monks. Since then, those monks' bloodlines have guarded Adar, and the Chosen of Riedra speak of the demon monks (totally different from their enlightened possession by spirits from another plane) as the prime threat to the Unity. Players will play Adaran villagers, their dromite (insect men) allies, or Kalashtar (the descendants of those monks), or refugees/exiles from Riedra, mostly fighting Riedran troops and their ogres/shifters, with growth into plumbing the secrets of Adar's mystical defenses in the hopes of finally completing the protective rituals started centuries ago.
The Tashana Tundra is a land of cold and family. The birthplace of the shifter race (and their 'cousins' the lycanthropes) this land is rolling grasslands giving way to stark hills, breathtaking tundra, and towering mountain ranges. Along the coast, the merchant tribes of shifters and coastal maenads trade with Khorvaire's seafaring traders of Lhaazar and the Shadow Marches, while in the north the nomadic shifters avoid almost everyone, and the clans of rugged dwarves forment a civil war, siding between the iron-fisted council of elders and the young upstart paladin orders. The south has the Akiak dwarves (the greatest artisans Sarlona ever saw) either enslaved to Riedra's expansion or sheltered by the river shifters. Human, neanderthal and half-giant nomad tribes wander the tundra. To the south, Riedra looms looking to expand and take the rest of the Akiak. But from within the dreaded Khalaak reavers rove across the tundra, killing herds of caribou and leaving their remains to rot, pushing the nomadic and aggressive shifters of the tundra to raid their coastal brothers and the already battle-nervous dwarves for enough food to survive. The leader of the river shifters has called his best pipers and drummers to go north and gather aid, to fight back against the Khalaak and Riedra alike, for he sees a great evil slumbers within Tashana's permafrost.
The Sarlona ideas are less direct but more character driven, interacting heavily with a specific part of the world (and one that's away from the "magepunk" and politics of Eberron's usual setting)
