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FMHB
2014-09-29, 10:08 PM
I got my start with RPGs the way many do, I think, and that was with Dungeons and Dragons. I was 9 years old when I first played, and I was 11 when I started DMing games. For the last decade or so, I have run a variety of homebrew campaign settings. Some were more successful than others, and some died before their time. I've finished two, and the main group that was involved in them wants another one. But they don't want a homebrew this time.

This time, they want Eberron.

As long as I have been playing D&D, I have almost never drawn from already created material. I will lift elements and inspirations from various places, and build off of ideas, but they were not necessarily as large as setting a campaign in a world. So, I'm in need of some help from experienced D&Ders.

It sort of feels like I'm getting into D&D again for the first time, which is a beautiful feeling. So come at me. I have a couple ideas for a campaign and some input my players have given me that I am attempting to weave into a coherent narrative.


In terms of settings, they really want to do something in deep forests. They've done jungle, and temperate standard worlds. Plains and astral jaunting are familiar, so what they want is a setting where Ents could be found and hidden pools would be explored. A very Pacific Northwesty rainforested feeling. Are there any places in the Eberron world that are like that?
Additionally, my players have somehow never done a desert setting, so I'm planning on visiting the Demon Wastes at some point after the whole deep woods thing. Any interesting ideas there?
One of my players pushed the idea of Eberron above all other settings, primarily because he wants to play a warforged, so any help with that lore and brainstorming interesting adventure ideas and narrative arcs would be appreciated.

I'm in the first part of brainstorming. All input is welcome, and while I may or may not use it explicitly, it will probably help me feel more comfortable in the world and dig my chompers into the whole history of it. Also, any online resources anyone could recommend would be great.

Steel Mirror
2014-09-29, 11:20 PM
In terms of settings, they really want to do something in deep forests. They've done jungle, and temperate standard worlds. Plains and astral jaunting are familiar, so what they want is a setting where Ents could be found and hidden pools would be explored. A very Pacific Northwesty rainforested feeling. Are there any places in the Eberron world that are like that?Try the Eldeen Reaches (http://sharn.wikidot.com/the-eldeen-reaches). It's a part of the continent that broke away from the rest of the realms during the last war, and is ruled by a council of druids who mostly let some agrarian communities live according to their own wishes. Also mixed in are some druidic orc tribes, tribes of shifters who escaped to the woods during the great purge by the Silver Flame, and even some actual lycanthropes who lurk there waiting for their chance to return to prey upon society.

Additionally, my players have somehow never done a desert setting, so I'm planning on visiting the Demon Wastes at some point after the whole deep woods thing. Any interesting ideas there?I don't know much about the Demon Wastes, unfortunately, though I seem to recall something about some Barbarian tribes roaming the place and being incredibly hostile towards outsiders. I think that there were also some kind of natural resources, maybe dragonshard deposits maybe some kind of metal or ore valuable to artificers, in large quantities in some parts of the Wastes. Perhaps one of the powers that be is interested in finding a way to exploit those resources? The PCs could get hired to seek out a deposit themselves, or to retrieve a cache of samples so that they can be tested for purity by one of the Dragonmarked houses. Maybe a few scouts went missing in the Wastes and the PCs are sent in to retrieve them, only to discover a tribe of barbarians who captured the scouts and are using their knowledge of modern magecraft to construct machines of terrible power using the Demon Wastes' rare materials in order to make war on the Five Nations. And of course there are always old ruined fiendish cities and crypts to be explored and looted.

One of my players pushed the idea of Eberron above all other settings, primarily because he wants to play a warforged, so any help with that lore and brainstorming interesting adventure ideas and narrative arcs would be appreciated.Keep in mind that, if you use the time period given by the setting books and so on, the Last War only ended a few years ago, and it was a tenuous ceasefire rather than a lasting treaty. Any warforged existing probably fought in the last war, maybe against a nation that someone else in the party calls home. Maybe he experiences prejudice throughout his travels as people treat him like an unfeeling weapon rather than a person. Maybe he comes across a town where a warforged regiment committed unspeakable atrocities during the war- at the orders of a superior officer, but the surviving townsfolk don't really see the distinction. Maybe the warforged will get caught up somehow in the machinations of the Lord of Blades (http://eberron.wikia.com/wiki/The_Lord_of_Blades). Perhaps former war comrades of the warforged character get caught up in the Lord of Blades' cult, or maybe the Lord of Blades seeks him out personally in order to fulfill part of his plans to dominate the fleshy races.

If you have any more questions I'll probably be willing to ramble a bit more; as you can see, I really love me some Eberron. :smallbiggrin: Do you have a chance to get any of the books? I guess the old 3.5 campaign book is long out of print, a real shame because it really was quite good. Great for getting you in the mood and supplying a thousand and one plot hooks and campaign ideas.

FMHB
2014-09-29, 11:34 PM
Yeah, the Eldeen Reaches seem to be the best place to start out right now. Maybe in a small town around Lake Galifar. I'm thinking Sylbaran, possibly, though maybe it would be better to begin in Aundair, give them a taste of tech and society, and then drag them into the wilds. Idk yet, still thinking it through. But the Wardens are feeling more and more like they'll be playing a major role.

I really like the warforged ideas you gave. I was considering setting the time period in an earlier era or maybe even a latter timeline to give me some room to work in new stuff of my own, but the proximity to the Last War is really appealing now.

I haven't been able to find the Eberron Campaign Setting as a book, but it's online as well. I'm pawing through Faiths of Eberron right now, and it's helping to get a lot of the old creative juices flowing. ^_^ Right now, I'm thinking, for a main conflict something between the Lord of Blades and the Wardens. Perhaps the Lord of Blades finally decides that it is time to let loose the legions proper, and start essentially culling the wilds for raw resources. This enrages Oalian and the other druids, but they warforged aren't necessarily doing enough damaged to civilized lands for the nations to particularly care about the threat yet.

I'm not sure. I'm also considering some sort of warforged virus that causes them to behave more as a group and less as individuals. Like ants, that begin ravaging the countryside, unaffiliated with any cults or the like. Perhaps it's not a virus, but a deformity, or perhaps it's a malevolent deity working its dark magicks.

Again, baby steps at this point. But I do really like the idea of a clash between these machines of progress who have just gained sentience and these old world defenders trying to preserve nature.

Oh, also just as a note, probably gonna be running 5e since I just got the books for my birthday yesterday. :D

Beleriphon
2014-09-29, 11:47 PM
Try the Eldeen Reaches (http://sharn.wikidot.com/the-eldeen-reaches). It's a part of the continent that broke away from the rest of the realms during the last war, and is ruled by a council of druids who mostly let some agrarian communities live according to their own wishes. Also mixed in are some druidic orc tribes, tribes of shifters who escaped to the woods during the great purge by the Silver Flame, and even some actual lycanthropes who lurk there waiting for their chance to return to prey upon society..

There's also the fact that leader of the groups in the Eldeen Reaches is an level 20 druid awakened pine tree (he's over 1000 years old to boot). That's kind of hard to beat for awesome in a forest.

The Demon Wastes have barbarian tribes that hostile in one of two ways, the first are functionally cults of the Dragon Below the other seek to protect the rest of the world from the insane crap within the wastes. That includes killing anybody or anything that tries to leave.

FMHB
2014-09-30, 12:17 AM
Yeah, when your government head is a giant sentient tree, you're assured my love. XD

Are the Demon Wastes really a desert? The more I look into them, they seem less and less like deserts, especially with the predominant Labyrinth sprawling all across it. Menechtarun or the Talenta Plains seem more along the environment of what I'm looking for, though just on this map (http://andysdnd.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/dd-4th-edition-eberron-map.jpg) it seems like both Argonnessen and Sarlona might have vast deserts that rival anything on Khorvaire or Xen'drik.

Steel Mirror
2014-09-30, 12:23 AM
I'm not sure. I'm also considering some sort of warforged virus that causes them to behave more as a group and less as individuals. Like ants, that begin ravaging the countryside, unaffiliated with any cults or the like. Perhaps it's not a virus, but a deformity, or perhaps it's a malevolent deity working its dark magicks.I like where you are going with lots of your ideas, but that one in particular sounds pretty cool! You could even work it in with the LoB. Perhaps he somehow came across this hive virus, and realized that it could greatly expand his power among the warforged. He could adopt the philosophy that individuality is for fleshies, the warforged have no need of it and achieve perfection through their unity of purpose and mind. Maybe he invades the Reaches with his new force in order to secure resources, either for a creation forge that he somehow got his hands on or for general warmaking purposes. Then it could turn out the LoB himself is being manipulated by the shadowy force you mentioned, and it is the real big bad that the players have to defeat, possibly by tracking it into the Demon Wastes.

Also, if hive mind warforged do make an appearance, you've gotta have an "oh ****" moment when the PCs see a few of these guys (http://eberronunlimited.wdfiles.com/local--files/warforged-titan/WarforgedTitan) appear, having been infected by the virus. :smallbiggrin:


Oh, also just as a note, probably gonna be running 5e since I just got the books for my birthday yesterday. :DSweet! 5E has been great for me so far. If you have any conversions you want to make for 3.x stuff to 5E, I could probably get in on that action. Dragonmarks in particular are a difficult one, and have drawn some speculation on other parts of this forum already.

Steel Mirror
2014-09-30, 12:31 AM
Are the Demon Wastes really a desert? The more I look into them, they seem less and less like deserts, especially with the predominant Labyrinth sprawling all across it. Menechtarun or the Talenta Plains seem more along the environment of what I'm looking for, though just on this map (http://andysdnd.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/dd-4th-edition-eberron-map.jpg) it seems like both Argonnessen and Sarlona might have vast deserts that rival anything on Khorvaire or Xen'drik.I was going to mention that, and then forgot in my ramblings. Yeah I think that the deserts between Valenar and the Talenta plains might be a good place to look for wide open, sandy deserts. You also get those mysterious shrouded elves thundering across the sands on their horses, with dinosaur-riding halfling caravans travelling the other direction. All good stuff.

Sarlona has those sweet, sweet monolith-filled deserts, as long as you are okay having adventures in a land ruled by despotic totally-not-Goa'uld alien overlords with an obsession for mega-scale architecture and grandiose evil plans. And, to be fair, all of that sounds totally awesome.

Argonessen I would have to check my books for, but it always seemed an elemental sort of place. Trackless desert would seem to fit right in there.

FMHB
2014-09-30, 12:47 AM
Oh god, now I'm imagining the hiveforged like Harbinger from Mass Effect assuming direct control over Collectors, only sub collectors for warforged. XD

Maybe it's like that. Oh my gosh, maybe some Quori force or Far Realm entity has found that they are able to possess warforged by some means. Gosh, now that this parallel is drawn, all I can see is the warforged as being changed into these monstrous abominations like the Reaper forces were. This has me excited!

So, once it was out that these hiveforged were being dominated by some Far Realm baddie or Quori force, not only would the Wardens then want a piece of them even more, but the Gatekeepers would probably need to be contacted. That could happen at like level 5 or so, when the PCs hit the second tier. The warforged who weren't turned would then have to decide whether surrendering their newly gained individualism would be worth sacrificing for a powerful collective. It's the same sort of issue the Geth went through, almost.

...and now I'm wondering if I should just make this campaign entirely Mass Effect based. lol

Thankfully, none of my players are overly familiar with Mass Effect. Their missing out is my boon.

I like the idea of Sarlona. I guess the idea of Argonnessen is more that you can make it whatever you want, as it's supposed to be this great unexplored land of dragons? If I'm reading that right.

There's two things I'm kinda stuck on right now. I want the nature/warforged conflict to not be one of good and evil. I want there to be possible merits to both sides, and downfalls to both as well. The hiveforged have obvious merits and drawbacks, many of which can be drawn to a close in similar ways as the Geth storyline was in Mass Effect. But there's no real evil or downside I see to the preservation of nature. I'm not seeing the opposite side of the coin present. I want to be able to show my players a grayscale morality and world. Perhaps the Ashbound grow stronger and more fanatical? Or another nature cult tries to swing the pendulum the other way and start reclaiming civilized places? I'm not sure, nothing's sitting with me.

And the second: there's gotta be a reason to eventually go to Sarlona. If I go with the Quori overlord aspect for the hiveforged being created, that would give a good reason to go there and start interrogating kalashtar and the like. But even that seems tenuous and I'm not sure if I want the Quori to be the BBE or not. :/ Idk.

Steel Mirror
2014-09-30, 12:58 AM
All right, there are actually good reasons for the Quori to be involved! If you check out the Xen'drik sourcebook, I forget for the moment what it was called, there are actually several implications that the Quori created the original creation forges that churned out the original warforged way back in the day, I think for a war against the giant civilizations that ruled the continent at the time. Warforged back then were basically robot bodies that let the Quori walk around in our world, a feat that they eventually replicated by thousands of years of selective breeding to create perfect hosts in Sarlona from mortal stock.

House Cannith is implied (or maybe actually stated, I can't recall) to have discovered this old magitech and repurposed it to turn out capable, reliable soldiers for the Last War, but the Quori might have had something to do with it behind the scenes, and they certainly know secrets about the current generation of warforged that even the Cannith artificers don't suspect...

As for making the druids more of a morally grey force, what if they started turning actively against magitech and arcane magic in general, seeing it as a perversion of natural law that leads inevitably to the destruction of the natural balance? They could point to the actions of the hive mind warforged as evidence of this belief. Perhaps they start distrusting arcane casters in their own lands, outlawing unauthorized magic, and tracking down wizards, sorcerers, bards, and others who have the arrogance to command the forces of the universe with no concern for the natural order. That would also make them opposed to things like airships, lightning rails, Kundarak's vaults, refrigerated wagon carts, magebred domestic animals, and all the other modern conveniences that make life in Eberron so charmingly anachronistic. You could set up the classic progress vs natural harmony dynamic, with both sides having some good points, both sides taking things to horrible extremes, and common people being stuck in the middle.

FMHB
2014-09-30, 01:05 AM
I like that a lot. And it's a natural, sort of conservative reaction to overt progressiveness like the kind the hiveforged would be supporting.

Yeah, I like that a lot. That's it.

And by Xen'drik sourcebook, you mean Secrets of Xen'drik? That's the only one I've been able to find. I'll give it a look through now.

EDIT: Yup, you're totally right. The Quori Outpost mentions in its intro that it's the possible source for Cannith's eventual mass production of warforged. So the way the campaign is looking right now:


PCs start off in Sylbaran. They deal with the problems of the Eldeen Reaches, and also a growing schism between Warden philosophy. Whispers abound that in the east, warforged are beginning to act curiously.
By level four or so, hiveforged have now actively started encroaching on the Eldeen. The druidic orders are split on how to deal with this new threat. The PCs continue to help the region and begin to learn more about what is causing these particular warforged to act the way they do (first Hiveforged Titan encountered as a miniboss when they discover a hiveforged group attempting to make a new creation forge in the Eldeen Reaches).
Sources lead the party to believe that the Quori may have something to do with this. They travel to Sharn, inspect Merrix's creation forge for understanding and more info in exchange for maybe a deal with him. They then travel to Xen'drik to find these old Quori outposts. Hilarity and hijinks ensue.
The Quori outpost leads them to Sarlona. Espionage and intrigue abound. And then things go from there as the conflict comes to a head.

From there, I dunno. Things start coming to a head. I don't think I can plan that far ahead in advance without seeing some reactions and stuff that the PCs cause.

Kol Korran
2014-09-30, 01:36 AM
Hi there, welcome to Eberron! A few thigns to keep in mind:
- I highly suggest to get a map. Sarlona is wwwwaaaay away, and is under the rule of the Quori, which so far haven't had much with the warforged. They can get involved, but that bringstheir entire nation, the dreamign dark and all of that, and will probably take away from the intended plan.
- As to Argonessen? There are two ways to play it- as you make it up, or by the book- Dragons of Eberron. If it's the latter, than just know it's meant for epic levels. The dragons RULE that place, and the "staging area" to get into the region is a wild uncontested land where the lowest CR encounters are aroudn CR 15-20. You can easily meet encounter of CR 25-30 on the continent. It's meant for Epic stuff only. Hey- you might be fighting organized armies of dragons, yeah?

As to some of the other ideas:
- The Eldeen Reaches does sound like a good bet. Some other regions might be The Karrnath heavy forest (Themed more on cold heavy forests), or some of the Shadow marches (More on the steamy hot jungles kind of stuff), and last but not least- Q'barra! For the feel of a new land, steamy lizardfolk infested jungles and old civilizations, A bit of an "Indiana Jones on the frontier" feel. Note that very little of the Elden is civilized, and a lot of it is kept wild and unapproached, other than some druids and rangers, mainly gatekeepers.

A lot of the Eldeen reaches can revolve on their inner politics, between the five druid sects (With the Ashbound and Children of winter proving the most obvious antagonists), House Vadalis, the shifter vs. other humanoids suspicion, and of course- Aundair, who had never quite let go of the land they lost to the reaches in the last war. I think a play on these factions may go well...

- The lord of Blades: This is a very unique figure. It stands somewhere between a prophet, a messiah to the warforged, and a terrorist. His few followers (He got only about a 1000, which is not much) are based in the Mournland (Which again, is an EXCELLENT adventure staging area!) from which they send strikes. Moving openly against the Eldeen reaches though? Hmmmm... not very likely. First- There are Thrane and Aundair in the way. Secondly, The druidic forces are quite strong, and warforged are especially vulnerable to druidic magic. Also, the Lord of blades have proved an ire to most nations, and the warforged themselves are HIGHLY mistrusted by the general populace. If they try taking land? Well, most likely many forces will try to stomp them. THe only reason the lord of blades haven't been dealt with yet is the protection of the Mouirnland.

I'd suggest to make the conflict more subtle or... perhaps use another adversary altogether? How about... House Cannith? The house of making? Perhaps some sort of wood from the the reaches just proved to have some special properties that may help the nations a great deal, and the house is tryign to establish power bases and woodcuittign operations there. It might use quite a bit of political powers, maybe some secret groupsto frame some druid sects? (Like the Ashbound? Or children of winter? The party might even work FOR the house at the beginning) thus enabling the house to "protect itself" with brought in constructs, Deneith soldeirs and more?

As the campiagn goes on, whatever natagonist you choose, warforged are associated with the bad guys, even the decent warforged (The majority), your PC alongside them. They may become the target of prejudice, hate crimes, and more. The PC may need to see what he can do about it? (And he mayb e approached by the antagonists to join. After all "IF they treat your people like this!")

- I HIGHLY suggest NOT to involve deities in this! Or any kind of "higher power"! Eberron works under the assumptions that NO deity has ever been confirmed to exist, and that none has EVER taken a direct effect in the world. Eberron works under a lot of ambiguities, a lot of uncertainties, and this is a major one of them. Priests get thier power from their FAITH and BELIEF, not from any known direct link to the god itself. This is one of the main attractions for religious characters- to play a beliver without the concrete proof, as it is in our world.

- Desert location: The Demon wastes, while it is a desert, it is a blasted, post apocalyptic, demon hounded desert, and probably not what most people think of. It's focus is on th conflict with demons, not the "desert feel". As has been suggested, the "blade desert", between the Talenta and the Valenar is excellent for such a feel, but there is little to no info about it, except as a contested land between the two factions. But the Talenta plains could also give the "desert feel", with it's unique cultures, along with dinosaurs!

- Sarlona: Again, I suggest to avoid that. It's like playing in European middle ages and then suddenly going over to communist China. It's not a "Quick tour", and it involves a whole mess of trouble. It's shifting the enite feel and focus of the campaign to something totally different and alien, and means upping up the scales a hell of a lot more. The Quori are one of the 4 "Don't mess with me" Super powers of Eberron. (With the Lords of Dust, The Daelkyr and the Dragons of Argonessen being the others). Worse- they are well organized,m and taking an active interest. If you want any kind of influence from there, I suggest to either have it be brought to Khorvaire (maybe brought to the desert?) or have it from another source altogether. I'm sure many people would like to control the warforged.

- The downside of nature prevailing: The lord of blades only looks after his warforged, so maybe some of the woods can benefit them the most? Perhaps some of these woods are needed to repair broken creation forges inside the Mournland? But the LOB and his people haven't got the process right, and so need to experiment with different kind of special woods? very RARE, few woods? Either protecting a special kind of tree, or the salvation of a species? If you're going with some dragonmakred hosue antagonist, perhaps recent discoveries associate special properties with such plants and woods, that can greatly benefit the dragonmark creations, and thus Khorvaire? Perhaps the bark of soem wood can enhance healing? Another might make the creation of airships much easier? And so on, and so on...

I hope this helps, good luck! However, I REALLY suggest you get the Eberron campaign setting book. I see some confusion (Few Kalashtar only on Sarlona for example. They have FLED the Quori) which could be easily be dealt with the book.

Steel Mirror
2014-09-30, 01:56 AM
PCs start off in Sylbaran. They deal with the problems of the Eldeen Reaches, and also a growing schism between Warden philosophy. Whispers abound that in the east, warforged are beginning to act curiously.
By level four or so, hiveforged have now actively started encroaching on the Eldeen. The druidic orders are split on how to deal with this new threat. The PCs continue to help the region and begin to learn more about what is causing these particular warforged to act the way they do (first Hiveforged Titan encountered as a miniboss when they discover a hiveforged group attempting to make a new creation forge in the Eldeen Reaches).
Sources lead the party to believe that the Quori may have something to do with this. They travel to Sharn, inspect Merrix's creation forge for understanding and more info in exchange for maybe a deal with him. They then travel to Xen'drik to find these old Quori outposts. Hilarity and hijinks ensue.
The Quori outpost leads them to Sarlona. Espionage and intrigue abound. And then things go from there as the conflict comes to a head.

From there, I dunno. Things start coming to a head. I don't think I can plan that far ahead in advance without seeing some reactions and stuff that the PCs cause.It all sounds fantastic to me. Good ramp for increasing challenges, nice mix of environments and foes, and a stop-by in Sharn which is always a must see on any adventurer's tour through Eberron.

Kol Korran has some good overview on the regions you were thinking about including, but I respectfully disagree about him on any aspects of your campaign plot being a bad idea. It all sounds like fun, knits together known campaign background in interesting ways that should be cool to discover for your players, and constantly pits them against foes that seem too powerful to overcome at the time. Good campaign material, in my book.

FMHB
2014-09-30, 02:04 AM
Thank you, oh god of trade and commerce. ;) That was very enlightening. Yeah, I'm sort of doing this whole thing stream of conscious style in between reading through the campaign setting, so apologies if I mess things up. The Kalashtar's whole deal with the Quori isn't something I quite understand yet.

I guess I'll just x-out Sarlona altogether. Seems like a beast I don't want to tackle, with all the rest that I'm trying to.

I still really want the hiveforged to be the one of the main antagonists and foot soldiers in the conflict, but I see your point about distance and the Lord of Blades not really having the standing/resources to pull of anything like that.

In that vein, I like the idea that there's some sort of wood or mineral or something (as you said) that would draw LoB over to Eldeen. And maybe there's something wrong with it that turns the warforged into hiveforged. Perhaps LoB and his crew don't refine it enough, and there's some sort of latent infection in it? I'm suddenly liking the idea of a malevolent counterpoint to Oalian, maybe something from the Gloaming.

You've given me a lot to think about. I think I need to delve more into the lore of the world before getting concrete again. Thank you, by the way. Just being able to have people that are kind in their help with this and that I can sort of soundboard off of is really nice. ^_^

EDIT: Oh, also, I found this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?369497-Warforged-in-5e) concerning 5e Warforged possibilities. I'm wondering if there are any others. I'm now very impatient for the DMG to come out. lol

Kol Korran
2014-09-30, 04:08 AM
Hmmm... Just had an idea- Since you're talking hiveforged, And we have the children of Winter... What if the two might be working together? Or at least a specific person/ group within the children of winter? Suppose they can insert some kinds of insect spirit into pieces of wood, that can be integrated into warforged? They see the Lord of Blades as a tool of the apocalypse perhaps? After all, it lives within the Mournland, what better sign than that? So they make a deal with him? They will insert spirits into all kinds of woods used for some "novelty" operation for warforged (Perhaps smell masks? It is said that warforged crave anything that can grant them extra senses, like smell. But it could easily be anything else that the new race may find intriguing. The Lord of Blades will be an expert on that psychology). In return, the Lord of blades act against targets of the HCildren of Winter, showing his loyalty, and priming it to their take over.

Once sufficient warforged throughout Khorvaire, the spirits could be awakened giving the warforged a simple choice: Serve the Lord of blades willingly, or unwillingly. Make it really hard to know which is which.

At least as a start of a plot?

FMHB
2014-09-30, 05:19 AM
Mmkay, so after thoroughly searching through the Children of Winter lore, I think that's going to be how it will play out in part. Like you said, the sort of mutually beneficial relationship that can arise between the Lord of Blades and the Children is a reasonable leap to make. Not being content with just that, however, I sought out a means for a greater threat to loom and I think I've found it. And possibly my ultimate BBEG.

Currently goes like this:

The Children want the great cleansing they hope for to come sooner. Under a radical, as yet to be named leader of a pack, a group of Children contacts Mabar during one of the times it is coterminous with the Gloaming. They seek out a Corrupter Demon of great age, believing this demon to be able to help them usher in their preferred apocalypse.
Striking a deal, they then make pilgrimage to the Lord of Blades and give him an offer to enhance his warforged and help him essentially set up shop in the Gloaming as their tools and virus (shall we call it) aren't suited for installing in the Mournlands. I'll think up a reason for thi
LoB get's pimped, begins a slow reclamation progress, and in the background over the course of the other stuff that'll be happening in the world, he does the Children's bidding.
Time passes, the latent spirit virus fully awakens, revealing true purpose activates: serve the Corrupter Demon willingly or unwillingly. As the next coterminous nights approach between Mabar and the Gloaming, the Corrupter Demon begins to draw in his support and make his full attack on Eberron.


I dunno how clean that all goes, but it is rather late lol. I'll probably sleep on it a bit and see where things progress. Thank you all again for the input, it is muy helpful. :3

Steel Mirror
2014-09-30, 12:14 PM
I personally like the Quori better as behind the scenes BBEGs, and the hive mind virus could be explained as actually the first step towards the Quori taking control of warforged physically as vessels in the material plane. You could even tease that by having the PCs, in their confrontations with the LoB himself, slowly seeing him grow in psionic power, for some reason. Maybe in their first encounter with him, he's his normal Blade-y self, then in their next encounter he can somehow do some telekinesis, then in the next one he can read their minds, and by the final confrontation he is in full mind blast/brain powers mode, as the Quori possessing the hive mind gains more and more control.

If you want to include the Children of Winter, you could have them be the enemy at the lowest levels, when you wanted to introduce schisms between the druid sects in the Eldeen Reaches. Then later on, as the hiveforged threat begins to threaten everyone in the area, the more moderate Wardens are forced to ally with the Children of Winter as a better-the-enemy-you-know sort of moment. And that could begin their descent into Luddism and their crusade against arcane magic and modern magitech. Once you let the extreme elements in to your own side, it becomes a dangerous game of balancing your battle against the true enemy with how far you are willing to go to placate the extremists among your own ranks.

Of course, if the new stuff sounds better to you, go for it! :smallbiggrin: I have no doubt that it could be a great campaign, too. I just have a personal soft spot for the Quori and the LoBster as baddies, so a plot that combines them both sounds sweet.

Oh, and if you do go for having the Quori be the reason for the hive virus, you could give your warforged character strange, unsettling dreams as a result of the Quori's influence trying to snag him for the hivemind. Unsettling dreams are a classic fantasy thing, and let you drop hints about the plot as well. Not bad for a race that usually never sleeps or dreams! :smallbiggrin: