Is this thing still on? I have no apologies, but I promise to start making posts again. Tomorrow's, for example, will be about why I don't think we should love America. I had this idea on Fourth of July, but as I started to type it I was arrested and beaten until I told them where the munitions cache was. In the meantime, this is a campaign journal for a Dungeons and Dragons game I started last night.
The setting is Eberron. Until recently, we were Living Forgotten Realms gamers, and Living Greyhawk before that. I've never played "real" D&D in the sense that many seem to--where the DM runs the story himself and anything can happen. Usually I've stuck to modules. But in the last few months, my group has gotten increasingly dissatisfied with LFR mods' writing and with the direction the campaign is going in general, as well as the groups we've been finding for it at our local shop. When we don't play at the local shop, we usually run a game one of us has written (possible in LFR). Last week, as I mentioned, we ran Tomb of Horrors. It was not as crazy dangerous as it should have been, I felt. We only had one death, that was in the final encounter, and they started it naked (granted, their gear was at their feat). I think the combat encounters were not properly made to fight parties--solos without the proper measures to overcome action economy, etc. Anyway, everyone still had a really great time, and I had fun running it. So when one of my players said "You know, I'm just going to say it. I'm tired of LFR. I don't intend to ever play it again, except with you guys", I saw an opportunity. I said, "Why don't we just start a total home campaign? I've heard good things about Eberron. I'll look into it." And, so, off we go. It's paragon tier--they started at level 13. This is a bit high for Eberron, so their characters are supposed to be fairly well known, but I don't think I'm really facing them against Eberron's paragon tier. Anyway, where my game differs from the setting, Keith Baker can go fuck himself. Ahem.
First session, we start with individual RP sessions for each character as an introduction. Varius (Elven avenger) was out on the warpath with a Valenar warband, and wakes up to find a recent arrival attempting to introduce a dangerous snake into a tent. After catching this person, he interrogates him and discovers that he has an aberrant dragonmark of House Tarkanan (guild of assassins and thieves). His cover story bases him in Sharn, and so he lets his would-be assassin go and heads for the nearest lightning train.
Next, the air genasi warlord (does Eberron have genasi? I dunno.) and his warforged bodyguard/warden Staunch were stationed in a fort in Aundair. As the colonel wakes up and heads to the officer's hall for breakfast, he takes a drink and immediately chokes on some poison (out of game, he suffered an attack vs. Fort, which failed). Examining the staff reveals that one recent arrival is, yes, from Sharn.
Finally, the halfing has a cool story. Fennel was a halfling sorceror working as a navigator on an airship when his wild-mage tendencies crashed the airship...into a mountain of dragonshards in the Shadow Marches worth far more than the airship. Hailed as supernaturally lucky, he's gained some fame/notoriety as a wandering oracle. Along the way, he's gained a traveling companion (because halflings don't go walking around a fantasy bayou alone), Gozzigush, the orc barbarian. While walking through the streets of one of the larger towns, someone hands him a magic item--which promptly sets off a curse. The barbarian, however, is able to chase down the man and find that, yes, he too has an aberrant dragonmark. To Sharn wit ye.
Geography and DM fiat meant they were all on the same lightning train as it pulled into Sharn, but as it pulled in, the front car exploded, releasing the dangerous elementals within. The PCs being suicidal, like most PCs, charge out of their train cars to combat the new threat, including some very nasty lightning burst attacks. But they defeat the elementals in the end, and in doing so, everyone meets each other. After the fight's over, a man approaches them and says, "You need to come with me right now."
"Why?" say the PCs.
"Well, I know things. I know there have been two attempts on your life in the past few days. I know that someone's willing to blow up train cars to get to you. I know where a safehouse can be found. And, I know why they're doing this." At which point the PCs figure, alright, sure. They follow him to an abandoned commercial building, where he comments that he "knew the owner, pity he died recently." He hides them in the basement. They ask who he is. "I can't tell you that. Recent events suggest we have problems with security leaks. I'm not sure any of you can be trusted yet." They grumble, and ask what he expects them to do. "Well. I'm going to try and see if I can gather some intelligence up top, but Tarkanan activity is focused in the Cogs. You could see what you find down there." They decide to wait four hours (warforged needs a rest) and head down.
The Cogs is an industrial district so deep that they run factories off of the volcanic energy. The manifestation of the Elemental Chaos doesn't hurt either. Asking around, most people don't want to talk about House Tarkanan. One guy, however, speaks up. (PCs: It's because of our great Streetwise roll!) He says that in a particular factory are some people who know about the Tarkanans. The PCs head down to the factory and find five dragonborn waiting there. "Who sent you here?" they say. PCs reply, "Just some guy we ran into, look, we want to talk abou--" "Well, they match the description." DRAW WEAPONS ROLL INITIATIVE YOU ACTIVATED MY TRAP ENCOUNTER. The dragonborn have the coolest first round ever--basically, imagine a three by three square. The PCs are the five squares on the east and south sides. The dragonborn run up to the three squares bordering the top-left, but not in the square themselves, they all dragonbreath, and then they all charge, crossing each other's path. They high-five on the way. However, they are Cog gangsters fighting fairly capable adventurers, and as such get TRASHED. (PCs: It's because we're so awesome!) I planned it this way, actually, this encounter was a few ELs below the others. Wanted them to feel awesome. One gangster is taken alive and questioned, and says that some guy (matching the description of the one who directed them to the factory) told them to wait here and kill the PCs, for three thousand gold pieces a piece. Someone's tossing some pretty serious money at this PCs-are-alive problem. However, he also tells them where they were going to rendezvous with the man for payment, so the PCs go there.
It's deep underground in a cave complex. So deep that it turns into a platform of rock jutting out into lava. This might not have made any sense, but it was cool enough that nobody asked questions. The man they saw earlier is there, laughing. "Oh!" he says, "You're really supposed to be dead by now. You know, some people say we're crazy." (The PCs charge and bloody the guy in a single round, but on his first initiative..) "But do you know the crest of House Tarkanan?" It's a beholder. And that's exactly what rises up from below the platform--a Beholder Eye Tyrant. The fight is pretty iffy for the PCs--it has a petrifying eye and a death-eye, so there were multiple times they were a few saves away from being really screwed. At one point I hit the warlord with a Disintegration Ray, and it does ongoing damage. Ongoing 2d20. I rolled 36. He took three turns to save against it, spending most of the rest of the time dropping down and having people shovel potions down his throat. Still, they kill it. On the body of the man, they find two notes. The first identifies a 15,000 gp bounty on the heads of all those named on the "attached House Cannith memo." The second is a memo saying that House Cannith, in preparation of defense of key assets, is looking to assemble a third-party expeditionary force, and lists six or seven candidates--all the PCs who had attempts on their lives, plus several other names which were marked off. Signed and notarized, Merrix d'Cannith.
They find the Cannith offices, and present the memo. After being compared to internal records--to verify its authenticity--the safehouse guy comes out, revealing himself as a Cannith agent. He's happy they're alive, and takes them to see Merrix, who is in his laboratory enclave. Taking his obligatory-steampunk-goggles off, he reveals the problem: the Genesis Forge. This factory, the size of a small town, was an amazing feat of engineering, but was located in Cyre. Cyre exploded. It was assumed that the Genesis Forge was lost. However, rumors leaking out of the Mournland suggest that the Lord of Blades intends to claim its remnants. If there's any chance that this threat is real, or that the Forge could be used to pump out an army of fanatical warforged, House Cannith needs to know, and wants to mount a small expedition of, oh, say, five people, into the Mournland. The PCs go--having to navigate through some deadly mist, their journey made easier by a ritual of magic flying eagle mounts. They come to the Glass Plateau, where crystals and newly-formed rock juts out of the bare landscape surrounding the city of Making. (I think the Forge was at Whitehearth in the book, but I like this better.) There is a warforged encampment outside, and several patrols walking the perimeter of the forge. The PCs land near a rocky encampment not far from an entrance, planning an ambush. One rolls a 7 Stealth. They get jumped, but manage to beat off the warforged. The last one, bloodied and surrounded and prone, surrenders. It says that the warforged have claimed the area, but that they have not been able to venture into the Forge, as it is "hostile to constructs." The PCs turn towards the entrance, determined to enter the Forge, and I say we should really stop for the night...
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