New Eberron story (Part 2)

The girl nervously said that she couldn’t stay and excused herself. She was halfway to the door when four men with cloaks and wide brimmed hats came into the bar. She saw them and almost collapsed with fright. They called her a witch said she needed to come with them. Kaelan really should have stayed in his seat this time…..

He was at her shoulder in a moment, asking what was going on. The man repeated that she was a witch and was required to come with them to stand trial. The elf took exception to this and, once again, politely suggested the party threatening this girl leave. The humans took it no better than the hill giant and drew swords that immediately sprang into a silvery flame. His blade was in his hand too when the minotaur got there. The man told the minotaur that she was required to come with them and the minotaur had the nerve to AGREE. Kaelan once again politely but firmly said that wasn’t going to happen. The minotaur took a step toward her and found the reverse edge of the scimitar at his thick neck.

Rork sighed. Here came that headache….

The elf looked very evenly at the minotaur. “No…HERE is what is going to happen. We’re going to leave and go out into the street to fight this out like civilized people…and the kid goes with ME. Do we have a problem with that”

The wild grin on the elf’s face spoke of apparent mental issues.

The minotaur bellowed “Fine. BOTH of you get the hell out of here! AND DON’T COME BACK!!”

Ouch. This was the only place to get halfway reliable information in Stormreach. This was going to be expensive….

Kaelan looked apologetically at Rork as he came up. The dwarf sighed again and looked up at the elf. “Lad….ya think you might want to put the damned blade down yet?”

The elf looked back at his blade, still at the minotaur’s throat. “Oh yeah. Heh. Sorry…”

Not wanting to kill the witch hunters in the street, Rork went up to negotiate with them. He exhaled and a green cloud enveloped them. Tianna looked at Kaelan. “What the hell was that?”

Kaelan grabbed the girl’s wrist and looked at Tianna. “We’re gonna want to move now. I’d hold your breath too.”

She looked at him quizzically “Why would we……OH GODS!”. She clutched at her nose and ran.

We needed somewhere to run they would follow us, and the jungle at night wasn’t an option. Kaelan calmed himself and tried to remember….and, as always, the answer came to him with a weird tingle and familiar feeling, even though he’d never been there. There was one place to run to their pursuers would NEVER think they’d be stupid enough to go to….the giant graveyard in the center of town.

Stormreach was built on top of giant ruins, and there was a graveyard there. People didn’t go into it. Too many stories came out of there. So the elf wisely decided not to tell the girls where he was headed until they got there.

Two minutes later, after a shove and much complaining from Tianna about how giant wraiths were going to drain their souls (Kaelan assured her giant wriaths were never seen in groups of more than two), we hunkered down behind a grave. The witch hunters came to the gates and turned away down another street.

We were just figuring out how to regroup with Onyx and Draven (who had decided to check in with the local Host temple) and decided to send Tianna to get them. The girl, named Harmony, mentioned that most people from organized churches considered her a heretic at best, a witch at worst. Tianna mentioned there may be difficulty with Draven, should he find out, but the dwarf waved her away. “That boy is the single last person that is going to judge her. He’d be throwing a very large rock at a VERY large glass house.” Even Tianna was forced to agree with that.

She had just teleported away when a shadowy figure very suddenly appeared before Kaelan and a skeletal hand picked him up. A cold came over him that he barely fought off as it attempted to energy drain him. The dwarf came to his aid, breathing fire onto the wraith and it dropped the elf. Kaelan was just commenting about how ironic it was it showed up JUST AS TIANNA LEFT when another ragged black cloaked figure moved off to their right as another giant wraith appeared. Kaelan shoulded “OH COME ON….I WAS –KIDDING-!!” as the three of them ran for the gates.

The human and elf easily outdistanced the short legged dwarf and he was breathing fire left and right to keep the wraiths from him. The elf knew when he reached the gates that Rork didn’t have a chance. He shoved the girl through the gate and chanted a quick protection spell and dove at the dwarf, driving the wraiths back. They began to circle the boundaries of the spell, hissing at them in rage. The dwarf looked up at Kaelan. “Well NOW what do we do?”

That’s when they heard the girl scream and saw four slivers of silvery flame in front of her.

The elf said “Get ready” and intoned another spell, teleporting the dwarf and himself behind the four hunters, who had knocked the girl back and were getting ready to strike. The girl closed her eyes and armor formed around her, making her grow a good two feet in height. She gestured and the lead hunter flew backwards as a blast of wind hit him. The dwarf breathed flame at the feet of the other three and they howled as they tried to put themselves out. The elf began to walk towards the lead hunter, once again unsheathing his sword.

“Know what? I’m going to be more forgiving than usual today. Go. Away. Or I’m going to kill you.”

The human stood up and raised his flaming sword. “I think not….”

“You want to die? Fine. Let me introduce you to how –I-- do fire.” Kaelan charged and an explosion of fire rocked the hunter back again.

“So…you’re a witch too. Then die with her!”

“No witch. I’m just a LOT better than you are….”

The comment wasn’t entirely true. The knight got a few wicked hits on him, but his abilities were very potent these days and fire ringed his sword with every hit. After a heavy cut to the hunter that sent him reeling he stopped again.

“You’re not doing so well and neither are your men. Go away and leave her alone. NOW.”

The hunter gasped and glared at him. “This isn’t over” he spat.

“Friend, the next time we meet….one of us isn’t walking away from it."

The hunter’s sword raised toward him. “COUNT on that.” And he staggered away.

Before Kaelan could react, Harmony’s armor had retracted and she threw her arms around him. “Um. You’re welcome?”

She blushed and said “Sorry. It’s just…nobody has ever…helped me before.”

“Yeah well…I REALLY hate bullies.”

Tianna found Draven praying at the altar with Onyx patiently watching him, and told them there was trouble.

“Did the elf cause it?”

“Yes.”

“At a tavern.”

“Well…yes.”

“A girl?”

“Isn’t it always?”

Draven finished his prayer and stood.“ Then we’d better go quickly.

As they left, they could see four figures coming up the hill towards the religious quarter. Tianna hissed that those were the four causing the trouble and filled them in quickly on who they were. Draven tensed up immediately. If a silver flame witch hunter ever found out what he was….

Tianna teleported to avoid them and Draven pulled up his hood and walked very slowly past them with Onyx at his side. He was past them when he heard it. “Hey…you!”

He sighed as he tensed again and turned back. The lead hunter was looking back at him. “Be careful. There are dangerous types about down there tonight.”

“Thank you for the warning brother.”

A few minutes later, Draven healed the elf and we were heading behind an alley, where Kaelan made an extradimensional room for everybody to sleep securely in that night. There were some stressful words between Draven and Harmony upon his finding out what she was, but mainly it was directed towards Kaelan as he rolled his eyes and said “You and your choice of mates…”, to which both Harmony and Kaelan stammered there was nothing like that going on. The dwarf signaled Kaelan to head outside to talk.

“You know we’re gonna have to keep her with us.”

“What? NO we won’t. I’ve been thinking about how they’re always finding her and all we need is to give her an amulet of nondetection.”

“Lad…she’s not gonna survive that long. Where does she have to go? They’ll be watching the ships, she can’t afford a teleport….the only way out is the jungle. She either comes with us or goes into it alone.”

At the elf’s uncomfortable look, he wagged a finger at him and continued. “Listen. YOU made the choice to get involved here, for better or worse, and YOU are gonna have to live with the responsibilities of your decisions!”

“I… I know that. But….you KNOW I don’t always have options in this type of stuff…”

“Then by the gods you are going to follow through with your choice!”

“…fine. I get it. She comes with us.”

Harmony was just cleaning up the dinner she had cooked for them as they came back in. Kaelan told her she was going to have to stick with them a bit longer, and once they got back to Sharn he would get her an item he believed would make it harder for them to find her. It wouldn’t be perfect but it’d give her a fighting chance if it worked. She smiled broadly and thanked them both, and everyone got some shuteye. They’d have to be up early the next day. They had a bar owner to bribe. HEAVILY. They had information to get, a ship to charter, sahaugin to pay off and a map to find. It was going to be a busy day….

New Eberron story (Part 1)

Just back from a long trip, we had hung up our gear and were getting ready to test the limits of blood alcohol content when a page showed up with a summons. We were about to tell him to go away when we saw the name Merrix d’Cainnith signed on the bottom of the summons. To our credit, we still briefly discussed blowing him off. No job given to us by him was going to go well and both Rork and Kaelan knew it. But in the end we took the transport to the Cainnith tower in the Dragon Towers district of Sharn. We were taken to a very private room where the master artificer showed up. He told us one of his airships had crashed in Xen’drik and it had an item of utmost importance to him on board. It was a darkwood and adamantine black box about 8 feet by 4 feet that was sealed and locked. He said that he was hiring us because discretion was absolutely necessary with this retrieval, and because of that he couldn’t use his house’s resources or any official means to search for the downed airship. He gave us a magical wand (presumably of Locate Object and keyed to the box) and a general location. Our price was simple….no contracts, no official documents whatsoever….but we wanted an airship.

Her first conscious feeling was an irregular pounding on her skin. She was almost unaware of it at first, but it was pulling her out of the blackness and becoming more and more pronounced. Then a roaring sound that catapulted her the rest of the way into consciousness. She opened her eyes to a raging storm overhead, pouring rain and thunder and lightning from the sky. She was cold.

She looked around slowly to take stock of the situation and saw the burning wreckage of something laying all around her. It was…an airship. Yes she knew that much. But not much else came to her…no memories of who she was or even a name. She was laying in a splintered crate and it looked very odd. Gauze and fabric were molded to her exact frame, and her unclothed body was covered in a gel of some form. Together they had probably saved her from the crash.

She saw bodies around her in the wreckage and slowly stood up. She walked over to the nearest one, cutting her bare feet on the sharp rocks, and it didn’t take much to realize whoever this was did not survive. Further investigation confirmed….she was the only survivor.

Knowing she had to get warm, she gave a small apology to one of the men and dragged him towards the shore and the treeline beyond it. There she stripped the body and put on his clothes. The pants were too big, as were the boots, and the shirt was torn beyond the bounds of modesty, but she was able to use the belt and tie the shirt and get the clothes to cover her enough to function. She was about to search for some half dried wood and go back to the ship to light a fire from the still burning wreckage to get warm when she saw reptilian forms stalking from the trees further down the shore towards the bodies. Once their they began their meal. Sickened and realizing she had one of the bodies very close to her now, she snuck further into the jungle behind her. Warmth would have to wait.

Stormreach was a simple teleport from Sharn. They even set up platforms for the purpose. We appeared on one and followed Rork to an inn known for good food, soft beds and even better information. We had to find out if anybody had seen the ship crash. The bar was very full, and we found out it was because of a very special guest that evening….a dancer known far and wide in xendrik for her talents. We ordered drinks and pulled up chairs to a table. Two hill giants sat across the room, which piqued Kaelan’s interest (like any good Valenar elf, Kaelan’s hatred of giants breached the bounds of sanity), but he was reminded very firmly of the importance of our mission. Kaelan also noticed someone more interesting to watch….a human from the look of her, she was sitting alone with her hood up and nervously looking around her and drinking from a small cup like a frightened deer. But then the show began.

The dancer was exotic, and not in a dirty way (well maybe). A naga slithered out onto the stage and began to dance with a serpentine grace that was astounding and distracting to even the elf. That is until the human girl waved away another drink and the barmaid went back to the hill giants to give it to them….

The giant who ordered it for her got up with an angry look on his face as a smile came to the elf’s. He veeeeery carefully reached back and unclasped the double bladed scimitar in its cradle and got a soft whisper of a dwarven voice in his ear.

“If you get out of that chair we’re gonna be lookin’ at each other eye to eye from here on out.”

He turned back, scandalized. “Hey…the girl could be in trouble!”

“Right. Keep it in yer pants lad and keep yer sword in its sheath. Remember…we’re a bit busy to be helpin’ out every pretty girl you come across.”

The giant appeared to be getting angry with the girl’s hasty explanations of why she wouldn’t join them.

“This isn’t going to go well…”

“And that’s why this place has a bouncer. See now? He’s headin’ back to his table.”

The hill giant’s fist whirled back and smashed through the table the girl was sitting in front of. Kaelan raised an eyebrow at the dwarf, who sighed. The elf’s grin was one he’d seen too many times, and it always meant the beginnings of a headache for him.

Shadow enveloped Tianna as she stepped out from behind the girl and pulled her to safety, as Kaelan walked in front of the giant and told him very evenly that he was giving him one chance to leave. The giant looked confused at the elf, half his size if that, and reached forward to grab his head. In a moment the scimitar was out and the elf was in a fighting stance, saying “That hand comes any closer and I’ll be wearing a giant-finger necklace tonight.”

The giant pitched forward, his arm pinned by the minotaur bouncer. He told the giant to get out and it did. The minotaur glared down at the elf. “NO DRAWN WEAPONS!” then looked at the naga and apologized and asked her to continue. The elf quietly invited the girl to accompany them to their table for a bit, ordered her a drink of whatever she had, and walked back to the table, smiling and giving a polite salute to the naga. She looked at him and he stopped. For a moment the entire room faded, and she was all he could see. His jaw dropped slack as he stared…and then she looked away and went back to her dance. He shook his head and sat down.

(continued in part 2)

New Eberron story (The Cast)

Kaelan (last name TBD):

Kaelan was born and raised in Northern Aerinal. He accompanied his mother and her warclan to Khorvaire, where he fought in the war with them as mercenary forces. When the war was over and Valenar declared its sovereignty from both Cyre and Aerinal, he left the warclan and took command of a group of bandits operating around the deserts. Pickings were ripe for bandits in the chaos after the war, and he made a very good living as a predator.

As time passed he became more violent and uncaring about his victims, stripping them of everything they owned and leaving them with a skin of water and a couple days food to get out of the desert with (he’d have sold them into slavery….but I’m pretty sure I read that elves are not big on slavery in general….). One day he raided a passing caravan and took everything of theirs, only to have the elder return to his camp that night. They shook their head sadly and lamented at how far he’d fallen. They called him by another name and said that it was high time he woke up. Kaelan walked up and made to grab the old one’s collar and drag them back to their caravan personally, but they had a blade at his throat before he could blink. They told him to remain calm, considered it for a moment and said, almost to themselves, that it’d probably go easier if he was unconscious for the ritual. One apologetic look later and a comment that he would doubtless take some form of amusing revenge next time the tables were turned, Kaelan was blasted back by an explosion of flames. He tried to get up but he was instantly kicked again and lifted off of the ground with the force. Before darkness took him he saw the old man’s fist descending towards his face.

Then he woke up. He was back in his bedroll and unharmed with one exception….a very stylized and beautiful green phoenix was now tattooed across his shoulderblades and back. He resolved to chalk this up to something he’d never tell anyone about, and continued on his way. But something was…different. He started gaining abilities in both spellcasting and martial pursuits. He started having dreams of other time periods, other lives. In these dreams he’d live and die, love and kill, he was a father, a mother, he was every race on Eberron he had ever heard of. A thousand lifetimes assailed him every night in his sleep, but they all had two things in common….that tattoo, and the path of morality he walked.

He left the desert soon after and came to Sharn. He made his living there selling his services to the highest bidder. It still wasn’t MORAL work, but it was better than being a bandit. Most of the time he denied the tendencies and dreams by sinking into hedonist tendencies, drinking and womanizing, but all of it…even the adventuring….seems like he’s just biding his time. He knows something will have to give eventually, but he’s not sure what he can do to make it all stop, or try to find some way to live with it before it all drives him insane.

Physical appearance is a lithe but muscular elf with long, unkempt dark blonde hair and the green eyes of his race. He wears more modern attire than most of his people, with a double-buttoned blue shirt, red sash-like belt and sand-colored tan leggings, cape and head covering and a set of goggles and a bandanna hanging around his neck. At his back is a cradle with a double-scimitar in it and he has smaller throwing blades shaped much like the double scimitar at his belt.

Rork:

Once a rival treasure hunter, he and Kaelan have been inseparable since the two of them escaped from the trap in UnderSharn. Rork is a bit unusual looking for a dwarf, hairless beyond a fire-red goatee that comes to a point under his chin and looks like an inverted candle flame. Rork, like most of us, will not share too much of his past…just that he has a rather defensive nature when dragons are mentioned in a bad light. Rork has the stubbornness and plain spoken manner of most dwarves, but he is easygoing and sociable. He and Kaelan make frequent trips to Sharn’s red light district in order to drink and take in the other entertainments. Rork is the more level headed of their partnership, and is a good counterpoint to Kaelan’s daring but occasionally foolhardy nature.

Tianna:

Three years ago, rumors hit Kaelan and Rork of a woman fighting in gladiatorial arenas in Droam. This was of interest, but not enough to make the trip…until some of the moves she used were described to Kaelan and hit a memory. She seemed to use the same type of blade magic he used. So he and Rork talked it over and decided it was time to bring on additional talent. They took the trip and talked to her. She seemed very closed off about any information about her abilities or herself in general, but seemed VERY interested in the money promise. The three of them had to battle their way out past the gladiator arena owner who wasn’t happy about her departure, but they got out and back to Sharn and she joined the Four Winds.

Tianna doesn’t share much about her personal history (none of us do), but she will talk at length about her family, most notably her brother, who is going to school (and probably being put through it by her earnings). Beyond that she acts like the big sister of the group (even though she’s by FAR the youngest), reigning in the boys when it’s needed. She and Kaelan fight almost constantly….mainly because they adore taking each other down a notch so much.

Onyx:

Onyx is a psiforged the Winds discovered while investigating a string of thefts in lower Dura. He was living in a hovel made of tarps and junk and had all the stolen pieces arrayed out and was examining them. Onyx is a Psiforged and a psion of some power, so we took him with us and he joined up. He’s too curious and too willing to talk to strangers (especially ones we are trying to pull one over on), but his insights are amusing and occasionally surprisingly valuable.

Draven:

Draven is a Sovereign Speaker…a priest of the entire Host. He is a thin young man with unkempt black hair who perpetually wears robes that cover his entire body. He’d be decent looking if he ever bothered to look up, but the robes hide his “friends” from view, and any admirer who sees THEM is surely to reconsider. Draven possesses three Daelkyr symbiotes, who hide inside his robes. Thus far the group hasn’t asked him why he has them….as people with secrets respect others’ as well. The secret Draven hasn’t told them is that he is a Daelkry halfblood. He is as much an aberration as the symbiotes he wears. Abandoned by his mother at a Host temple, he was raised by a kindly priest, who never let him too far from his sight. His surrogate father was overprotective enough that Draven was save his entire childhood, but never got to meet anyone. But his father taught him the ways of the Host, and to his surprise they seemed to accept him. With a mind constantly at war with itself, the rotes and repetitions of worship were like a balm to him…allowing him to focus on something and come to some sort of peace.

Two years ago his father died and he was forced to reveal himself to the temple. He was not outright attacked, but he could see the distrust on their faces and he quickly gathered his things and left. He has since been traveling Khorvaire, trying to live up to the memory of his father. He traveled from town to town helping people, but his presence always brought mistrust and eventually hostility whether they knew what he was or not. He met the Winds when he happened upon them. One of their number was grievously hurt and he healed them and helped them finish their quest. A discussion was had and the fact that we lacked a priest was evident, so the offer was extended for membership. Draven said no initially, but reconsidered after a time. He can travel a wider distance with their help, and can go to lands that barely know of the Daelkyrs’ presence. He takes any prejudice with a sad shaking of his head. It obviously bothers him a great deal and can cause him to go into a brooding phase for days after, but he never strikes out at an oppressor unless in defense of someone else who is being persecuted. The one time that happened and escalated was the one person Draven has killed while with the Winds.

He has taken some comfort in the presence of Onyx, who knows nothing of what his symbiotes are. He and Onyx have become something approaching friends and Draven will discuss philosophy and religion at length with him. As for the others, he knows they will either find out his secret or sour to his presence soon enough…the human woman is already very tense around him…but until then he finds it both fascinating and enjoyable to watch their interactions and not be glared at constantly. He’ll often sit and read in the same room as they are all interacting just to be present and watch them. So he’s taking advantage of the time he has.

New blood (Harmony):

In Xen’drik we found a Binder named Harmony…a dark skinned human girl being hunted by witch hunters of the Silver Flame. In a bid to save the damsel, Kaelin ruined a perfectly good evening for the Winds and ended up with her in tow in an ancient giant graveyard. One hour, two giant wraiths, and one more confrontation with the witch hunters later, the decision was made to keep her with us until we can get her to the anonymity of Sharn.

New Eberron story (lead-in)

It was funny…we sent email after email about the numerical advantages of these characters, entering a state where there was some pressure to take advantage of the carde blanche attitude of the game, along with all the new classes that became available with this latest book purchase.

Then…the evening before we started…it all of a sudden became about the GAME instead of the min/maxing. We started talking about the characters’ stories and the backdrop of the game (beyond “exploration and treasure acquisition”) and the beginnings of a potentially VERY fun group came into being.

The campaign follows the story of the Four Winds Adventuring Company, a very famous and successful adventuring group operating out of upper Sharn. The foundation of Four Winds came when two rival treasure hunters were in a race to get an ancient goblin idol from UnderSharn. They got to the idol at the same time and each laid a hand on one side of it and looked across at each other…..just in time for the trap to spring. In the end, another rival got the idol and the two of them were stuck in UnderSharn and had to rely upon each other to get out of the trap and UnderSharn itself. From that point the two decided they could be infinitely more successful if they pooled their resources and have been best friends since. As the years passed they brought in other talent, first a human woman they found in Droam fighting in gladiatorial arenas for money, then some new type of psionic warforged they found lurking around lower Dura in Sharn, then a quiet priest of the Host who, for reasons he has not seen fit to share, has attached multiple daelkyr symbiotes to himself.

Noone can really say they know anyone else in the group and everybody has their own secrets and reasons for being there…but together this group is one of the most successful adventuring companies in Sharn. They will go anywhere, acquire (almost) anything (treasure, damsel or otherwise), and their success ratio makes them in demand by nobles, dragonmarked houses and affluent men and women in Sharn and beyond.

We begin with the story of the single stupidest job the group has ever taken…

New Eberron story

We started up a new Eberron campaign this weekend, and in it we decided to notch up the power level a bit. We uppped the level to 12 and decided to allow some of the "questionable power level" classes from the new Book of Nine Swords for D&D. In this game I get to try out my Fleshforged concept (Warforged with human skin who doesn't know they are human) as well as a Daelkyr Halfblood (mmmmm...angsty....).

Aaaanyhow...I wrote up a report on the game and the background for Ryan and figured I'd also post it here. As usual it's both long and in seperate parts.

Enjoy. :-)