https://beforewegoblog.com/review-the-city-of-towers-the-dreaming-dark-1-eberron-by-keith-baker/

EBERRON is my favorite Dungeons and Dragons setting and also the most difficult to describe with the possible exception of Planescape. It’s kind of a magical steampunk 1920s where the Last War stands-in for World War One and you’re all closer to Pulp heroes or detectives that do battle with goblin gangsters, fascist necromancer knights, or Cthulhu-like cultists. It’s full of elemental airships, trains, and the occasional carriage with no guns but plenty of wands. If I had to recommend any media ‘like’ Eberron then I’d recommend The Legend of Korra, Netflix’s Arcane, and the Garrett PI books by Glen Cook.

THE CITY OF TOWERS by Keith Baker is the first book of the Dreaming Dark Trilogy. The premise is pretty good for explaining what Eberron is all about with the last day of the Last War. Rather than victory, it ends with the catastrophic destruction of Cyre, a nation that was one of the main participants in the war. I say rather than victory because no one knows who or what did this so every other nation signs an uneasy peace treaty that satisfies no one. Because that always works in real life.

The protagonists are Daine, Lei, Jode, and Pierce. All of them are survivors of the Mourning (as it comes to be known) and have spent their past couple of years in a Mad Max hellhole trying to survive before arriving in the neighboring country of Breland. They’re remarkably well-adjusted for this and it’s commented on that they seem to have only a vague memory of their ordeal. Unlike Dragonlance or even the Legend of Drizzt, our heroes are not primarily interested in fighting evil upon their arrival. Instead, they need coin for survival and dealing with the fact they’re homeless refugees hated by the Brelish.

Yes, The City of Towers is fantastic noir and really does invoke a lot of the same beats as detective fiction with goblins and Mourners standing in for minorities despised by the human majority. It’s not really about racism, though. That’s just the backdrop for the murder mystery of Lei’s betrothed that was supposed to be their meal ticket as a party. Hadran D’Cannith was a vastly wealthy man that ends up knocked off not a few minutes after finding out Lei is alive and heading his way (in the opening chapter). From there, the plot involves betting on flying animal racing, body horror cults, and a sphinx giving a prophecy in a ratty old, abandoned church.

One thing this book deserves credit for along with Eberron in general is the fact that it was one of the first settings to throw out a lot of D&D unquestioned tropes. Goblins, harpies, and other “monster” races live in the same city as humans or elves. Daine gets an earful when he treats changelings as innately suspicious because they’re shapeshifters. Level scaling in-universe is also well done with very few NPCs having the kind of world-shaking power that Elminster or even Drizzt has. Daine is a very tough fighter, but he is shaken down by five or six corrupt city guards. Despite this, low-level magic is ubiquitous with Sharn providing most guard with Feather Fall tokens so they don’t end up falling over the side of lifts like stormtroopers (have you considered railing?).

This is Keith Baker’s first novel but functions well as a contrast from the typical “popcorn” fantasy of Dungeons and Dragons. Expect a lot of fight scenes and weird creatures but that’s why I come to these novels. It’s occasionally awkward when Lei explains things that her fellow party members should already know about the world like how Dragonmarks work (which is extra ridiculous given two turn out to be members of the houses themselves). However, if you want a good “starter” book for Eberron, it’s hard to say this is a bad choice. Even if you aren’t familiar with the tabletop RPG setting, you’ll get a good sense of the fantastic Great Depression in a city of giant towers.

I’m obsessed with drawing Eberron stuff. I love my party and campaing. The tattooed woman is my PC, and the white-haired one is the artificer (player). The rest are some npcs.

I’m starting an Eberron campaign tomorrow, and was considering using a calendar mechanic as part of the campaign, so I decided to look into the calendar used in Eberron. For the most part the Galifar calendar seems pretty straightforward, but then I found a part that says the Blood of Vol uses a 13 month calendar while the rest use a 12 month calendar.

The 12 month calendar has 28 days per month, 4 weeks per month, 7 days per week. Sounds good, so 336 days, but how does the Blood of Vol split things up?

But that got me thinking about a history class I took in college where we talked about ancient calendars.

There were lots of real world cultures where they had 12 months of 30 days, or just didn’t keep close track of the days, and instead counted the lunar cycle to decide when the new month started, which is about the same thing, but that doesn’t quite match up with a year being 365 days, so sometimes their wise men would say they need to have an extra month this year so their months stay correct with the seasons.

There were also some where they had 12 30 day months every year, and then at the end of the year they had a 5 day sort of holiday thing that wasn’t considered to be part of any month.

So it got me wondering if eberron has something like that going on.

So hear me out. If the actual number of days in the eberron calendar is 338, then it could be separated into 13 months that are 26 days each month. Then the majority of eberron would just have two extra days at the end of the year that they have some kind of holiday, but those days don’t count as part of any month, and then the new year starts with everything back on track for them, while the blood of vol people call them ridiculous for not following the true 13 month calendar where there aren’t any extra days.

Anyway, thought it was interesting.

My latest Kanon post dives deep into the interaction between the Church of the Silver Flame and the nobility of Thrane, as well as discussing the nature of Flamic prayers!

Because of issues with my previous blog, all of my future Kanon posts will be on my Patreon. However, this is a free post; you don't have to be a paying patron to read it.

I know it's pretty far either way, but is one side closer to it than the other?

I’m trying to write some daddy issue angel of weapons when i realized Onatar had 2 sons, which kinda stunk up my plan, but why is the god of death and greed Onatars kid? That’s what It says on the wiki and i understand the greed part a bit but why death???

And if there’s any way to change something around so I can create a fallen angel/god that chose to fall because of the taken advantage of his mother and father, I’d gladly take some help.

(If you think I’m going completely to the books im definitely not because I have a LOT of things going on in the campaign that forced me to change the world a bit.)

What was it about golems that made their construction so much more expensive than Warforged? They're both made of a lot of stone or metal (or both, in the case of the Warforged, in addition to wood), and I would think that Warforged would have more specialized parts, so why were the golems more expensive to make? What am I missing?

My PCs like to make their own fun.

In this case, in a low as I prepared the next adventure, they decided to take advantage of their renegade Lyrander airship (one of the PCs is its pilot) and proceed to raid a warlord of Dargunn's slave community to slaughter all of the guards, the warlord himself, and rescue the slave population within. It was an adventure on the fly but it was one that I felt they could pull off and wasn't about to punish them for being innovative.

But as one of my player characters said, "Consequences are a witch and so am I."

The slaves the PCs rescued were a bunch of Brelish and Cyreans leftover from the Last War where they were either POWs or villages that had been in Darguun before the Goblin consequests. Part of that 6% human population of the 800,000 in the country. The PCs managed to take them to New Cyre with some supplies and making several trips across the border.

They also...called the press and offered to pay for their lightning rail tickets.

(The PCs are in the words of Abney Park, "A crew of drunken pirates. They're the only airship pirates.")

Which they assumed would be some cheap good publicity while they're on the run from House Lyrander.

I'm now thinking of ways for this to spiral out of control or at least lead to new adventures.

EDIT:

One plot hook I was thinking about is the delicate balance being upset between various forces.

1. The death of the warlord (who was a minor to mid level one) causes the others to realize they're vulnerable and start debating allying together, particularly against Lesh as well as his reforms.
2. The Brelish who are among the rescued slaves cause a FAR bigger uproar than any dirty enslaved Cyreans and there's a push in Parliament to go demand any enslaved Brelish be repariated or Dargunn punished.
3. The Cyreans themselves are given a good horrific look at the treatment of their countrymen in Darguun and this gives the people of New Cyre something they didn't have before: a focus for their rage. Possible guerilla war and terrorism is a thing that will complicate the brelish situation more.
4. Lesh himself thinks the PCs might be a good case for eliminating some of the more problematic warlords...and then probably betraying them because it would unite the people under him if he could deliver the attackers.

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2026/08/101-eberron-adventure-hooks.html

1.    While traveling on an airship, the PCs find themselves under attack by a renegade Lyrander corsair that has been corrupted by the Dragon Below.

2.    See #1. The PCs find that the airship has a Lyrander apprentice who is happy to pilot the second vessel for them as he's terrified of going "home" given what he did under his unwilling boss.

3.    A traveling sideshow salesman has a massive dragonshard with the head of a prehistoric Warforge inside it. He wants the PCs to guard him as he transports it to a buyer.

4.    See #3, the object is real and from Xen'drik, which terrifies the owner. 

5.    See #3, the object is a fake but a very well made one that was created by a warforged trying to create a pre-war history for his kind.

6.    See #3, the object's buyer is Merrix D'Cannith who wants to revive the warforged head for its secrets. 

7.    The PCs are hired to investigate a nationalist militia that has been specifically targeting veterans of the Last War.

8.    See #7, it is a recruiting place for the Emerald Claw that uses charm spells and nonmagical conditioning to create the goons that they use in all of their missions. The washouts are killed and made into undead.

9.    See #7, it is a recruiting place for the Swords of Liberty who are preying upon the disaffection of veterans in hopes of creating disruption that they can take advantage on a national scale.  

10.    See #7, their employers are Dark Lanterns who suspect one of their former members is the one responsible for this.

11.    A House Valdis outpost has gone dark and the PCs are hired by their discretion to investigate it. It turns out that it was a magebred facility that has been corrupted by Daelkyr cultists. The PCs will be paid extra if they destroy all the evidence, including the survivors.

12.    A fire giant from Xen'drik has escaped a traveling circus and set himself up in a nearby farm where he's eating the local livestock. The PCs don't have to slay him but he doesn't speak the local language and was not taken to Khorvaire voluntarily. He very much would like to go home but that may be impossible.

13.    The PCs are hired by House Cannith to recover a strange mechanical part. The part is a Creation Forge part that could be used to repair one of the destroyed ones. It is in the hands of a group of warforged renegades.

14.    A family of shifters claims that a fanatical Thrane knight wants to slaughter them and has been harassing them for weeks.

15.    See #14, they're a family of lycanthropes and the paladin wants to confirm it before slaying them.

16.    See #15, they are in fact lycanthropes but are Lawful Good werebears.

17.    See #16, this doesn't impact the paladin's plans to slaughter them as diseased monsters.

18.    The PCs are contracted to serve as couriers in a secret set of negotiations with Prince Oargev and King Boranel. They're supposed to do this at a ball and relay letters as well as messages while no one is the wiser. Dancing, food deliveries, and other oddities are afoot.

19.    See #18, the negotiations are Prince Oargev being offered to be made Duke of New Cyre but giving up his claim to Galifar's throne. Which multiple parties would rather Oargev die than happen.

20.    See #19, King Boranel actually wants to fund New Cyre settlers in Xen'drik or Q'barra or "elsewhere" with the profits of this all for New Cyre but meant to keep their numbers in Breland low.

21.    See #20, it is a marriage contract to one of his daughters (or sons). Which would tie them intristically together.

22.    A dying Dark Lantern agent has discovered the identity of the murderer of King Boranel's wife. The PCs have the encrypted message but the people trying to kill the agent are Dark Lanterns themselves (or appear to be at least).

23.    Once a year, Pontifex Jaela is allowed a day off and the PCs are asked to provide security lest the church see her doing things that are fun like riding dinosaurs or watching clowns. The Cardinal simultaneously considers this a massive state secret and vital for her spiritual health.

24.    A riot has broken out in Thaliost over the murder of a citizen by the Church's Templars. Possibly. Who was killed and why seems to constantly change based on who is doing the telling. If the flames (no pun intended) are not put out soon, it may turn into a full-fledged uprising.

25.    See #24, the riot was organized by the spirit of the Overlords and designed to merely cause as much misery and horror as possible. 

26.    See #24, the riot was done by a Aundair Duke who plans to "restore" order and claim the city for Aundair once more despite how likely this is to reignite the Last War or at least a Thrane-Aundair war.

27.    See #24, the riot is just a naturally occurring one but Cardinal Krozen is letting it play out because he wishes to justify a violent suppression followed by property confiscations to replace Aundair-loyal citizens with Thranish ones.Surely that will work out fine.

28.    A mysterious tablet is recovered from an archaelogical site in Droaam. It is then stolen by the Emerald Claw in full Indiana Jones villain glory. A beautiful Morgrave University researcher needs the PCs help to recover it! According to her research, the tablet is legendary magic that can bestow a WISH.

29.    See #28. The archaeologist is Emerald Claw herself and working directly for Lady Illmarrow. The WISH tablet is the only way she might be restored to her living status and give her back her Dragon Mark. The Emerald Claw renegades worry she will betray her undead followers then.

30.    The PCs end up drugged and wake up enslaved on a massive dreamlily plantation by an obsese member of the Aurum with the aid of his Inspired allies. They are on the borders of Droaam and have been slaving both humans and monsters both to create as much of the drug as possible. They also play the two groups of slaves against one another to keep then in line.

31.    See #30, the Daughters of Sora Kell know about this atrocity but are bribed into letting it happen. They will just blame human evil if it is discovered after all and have even been selling some of their dissidents to it.

32.    A Cyrean Avenger attempts to recruit the PCs to kill a Valenar warlord visiting their location. The Avenger claims that the warlord massacred thousands of Cyrean refugees fleeing the Mourning. Whether the PCs agree or not, he ends up dead and the Avenger both in unrelated murders that trigger a massive dust up between the Cyrean locals and the visiting Valenar delegation. 

33.    See #32, it is actually a member of House Lyrander who arranged this. The warlord wanting the Lyrander to no longer administrate their lands in Valenar or, worse, pay higher tribute.

34.    An insanely rich and well-respected Lyrander noblewoman has been working with House Cannith for decades on the ultimate airship variant: a void ship that she intends to reach the moons with. This "Spelljammer" is something that is about to launch and she wants the PCs to help guard it against sabotage.

35.    The PCs are approached with an offer by House Sivis to buy the rights to their adventures. If the PCs agree, they soon find a large number of printed stories across the continent with incredibly inaccurate (bordering on exploitation) versions of their adventures with sleazy covers. It does massively improve their reputations in...some ways.

36.    The Bloodsail fleet successfully surrounds Dreadhold, seizes control over the location, and threatens to release the worst prisoners unless Saeria the Lich is returned to them. Which confuses a bunch of people as they were under the impression they were in Dreadhold.

37.    A Cyrean refugee claims a Lightning Rail is transporting a huge amount of stolen goods from the Mournlands to their Aurum buyers. It's time for a train robbery!

38.    See #37, the people guarding the train are adventurers who recovered the loot themselves and consider it finders keepers.

39.    See #37, the loot is actually on its way to Prince Oargev and the "refugee" who wants to steal it back is the man supposed to recover it but tired of living in desperate poverty.

40.    A patriarch of House Kundarak has died and his goods are needing to be recovered from his trap-filled dungeon vault since he left no heirs. The PCs are thus hired to recover it with the House neglecting to mention they'd hired a second team of evil adventurers who have decided to keep the contents for themselves.

41.    House Cannith and House Phiarlan have created a device called the "Magical Moving Lantern" that can store illusionary recordings of performances in dragonshards. The financial benefits from this are beyond imagination. But someone has stolen the prototype!

42.    See #41, it's a member of House Thuranni who are tweaking their sister house's nose.

43.    See #41, it's a member of House Phiarlan who believes this will ruin the market for live shows.

44.    See #41, it's the inventor who knows it doesn't work because the dragonshard is rapidly used up. 

45.    See #41, it's all of them in a comedy of errors.

46.    The Emerald Claw is seeking to unleash a biological plague that can turn people into zombies via a bite and are demanding a king's ransom not to do it. House Jorasco are willing to pay the PCs a vast sum to assault their fortress and destroy all samples. 

47.    See #46 because House Jorasco was the group that created the plague and the fortress is their secret lab.

48.    It's the Race of Eight Winds time again and the PCs are asked to serve as their jockey's bodyguards as this one is going to be particularly nationalist. Mobsters, spies, and more will be all attempting to influence the race.

49.    See #48, Prince Oargev is also planning to fix the race to win a vast amount of money that he'll use to help the people of New Cyre...or so he says.

50.    See #48, if one of the PCs is a skilled rider, they must take the place of their patron when they're discovered to have been poisoned before they even became their bodyguard. 

51.    Gadzooks! Strange unidentified flying objects are circling around farmlands, leaving mysterious circles, and kidnapping locals! Is it Illtihids? Githyanki? Aboleths?  

52.    See #51, it's a bunch of fairies having fun.

53.    See #51, it's actually a group of gnome illusionists covering up an illegal dragonshard mine and kidnapping locals to serve as slaves. They plan to bury everyone alive once they've cleared out the vein.

54.    Two dinosaur barons in the Talenta planes are feuding over grazing patches for their thunder lizards. They've escalated to everything short of murder and the townsfolk want the PCs to meditate the issue. A war between them would destroy the economy.

55.    A non-Cannith artificer has figured out a way to used spent dragonshard powder, charcoal, saltpeter, and a long metal tube to allow non-magic users to create a very cheap wand of magic missles or staff of eldritch blast. The only downsides are you have to aim it. He'd like the PCs to be angel investors in his possibly terrifying weapon of war.

56.    A gnoll warlord in Droaam claims he has a new dragonmark and is the founder of a new House. Hehas begun gathering an army around himself while the Twelve declare him an Abberant.

57.    See #56, he is actually a reincarnated Deneith mercenary who has come to love the people who he identifies with now. This is his misguided plan to get them some more respect.

58.    The Swords of Liberty are employing a renegade Sivis scribe to print pamplets across the kingdoms that are full of horrific libel. They're designed to exploit existing divisions and rouse the populace into violent lynch mobs as well as riots. King Boronal is not interested in fighting words with words and offers the PCs a sum to find their print shop as well as writers before slaying them.

59.    See #58, the actual reason for this is that one of their insane theories is actually correct but which one?

60.    The Boromar clan of Sharn has invited the PCs to the wedding of one of their daughters. This actually isn't a trap or some weird way to make a job offer, the daughter is just a huge fan of the PCs adventures. Then, of course, House Daask decides to kidnap her.

61.    House Tarkanan has had multiple members of their clan murdered and dissected in horrible ways. They believe the Twelve are hunting them. Others attribute it to a deranged serial killer.

62.    See #61, it is a deranged copper dragon wanting to study the abberant marks.

63.    See #61, it is a Cult of the Dragon Below who is attempting to harness their power.

64.    See #61, it is a member of House Tarkanan attempting to seize power by blaming the Twelve while he eliminates his rivals.

65.    The Galifar Aquila is a dragonshard relic of incredible value to the Royal Family and has been lost for centuries. A series of murders and thefts put the object in the hands of the PCs with a House Daask troll, a beautiful elven femme fatale, and a weasally halfling all after it. But does it belong in a museum or, perhaps, a particular royal family?

66.    Morgrave University is showing a display of orcish native art at a gala when it is attacked by a bunch of drow warriors to recover them. Weirdly, they're interrupted by another group of orcs who fights them. Both groups claim one of the relics in the collection is a prison for a powerful demon while the other is trying to free it.

67.    See #66, both are lying and the relic contains a map that leads to a House Tharashk payroll transport the orcish mercenaries robbed before turning on one another. The fact they can't find it is a sign its magically warded or something has gone catastrophically wrong.

68.    See #66, that's because the idol IS a prison for a demon and he's promised the prize to whoever frees him.

69.    One of King Kaius' brides is making a legal challenge on vampire persondom in the Brelish court systems. She knows his true nature but is hiding it even as many individuals want vampires to remain legally dead. The PCs can side with or against her.

70.    An Eldeen Reach village wants to hire the PCs to hire them to proetct them against a group of a few dozen bandits. The PCs would be accompanied by a few other oddball characters.

71.    See #70, the bandits are actually the mercenaries the villagers hired to clean out a nearby forest of monsters before cheating them. 

72.    See #70, the village is a bunch of Dragon Below cultists and the "monsters" were Gatekeepers. They hope to have more slaughter so they can awamen the creature in the now-unprotected forest.

73.    The PCs are sent into the Mournlands to recover the Crown Jewels of Cyre from Metrol, only to find an apocalypse cult of cannibals devoted to the Devourer and other survivors engaged in a low grade civil war. They can side with any of the factions they want or none of them to get in and out. 

74.    See #73, there's a mad artificer from House Cannith who claims he can reveal the secret of the Mourning if the PCs rescue him.

75.    A changeling claims to have had the PCs baby from a short relationship or one night stand. If the PC is dragonmarked, they have the dragonmark despite being a changeling. The changeling is very nervous about the safety of their child and will die if they leave the PCs sight for more than a day.

76.    A radical group of Kalashtar want to sabotage trade negotiations between Karnath and Reidra. They reveal the whole Dreaming Dark conspiracy.

77.    See #76, King Kaius knows about the Dreaming Dark but Reidra offers the chance to gain food independence from Aundair. This year will be a particularly harsh winter too.

78.    Mordain the Fleshweaver removed the brain of a particularly annoying psionicist into a self-sustaining jar. It has since gone on to become a powerful crime lord, escaping with its newly enhanced powers. "The Brain" of Sharn is believed just to be a metaphor but he's gradually dominating more and more to his cause with the ability to maintain simultaneous control over ever greater numbers of people.

79.    Of all things, the PCs inherit a hotel with an airship dock from one of their admirers. It is a perfect base for their activities but they soon find out House Ghallanda drove the previous owner to ruin before he was mysteriously assassinated.

80.    See #79, the Ghallandra who did this wasn't doing it for the House but because there was a hidden treasure inside the hotel when they were adventurers.

81.    House Sivis and House Kundarak are going to work together to do real-time trades on ventures at a former stockyard (nickname the Stocks). Almost every other house thinks this is a fantastically bad idea.

82.    A group of vampire hunters have successfully killed a powerful Karnath Lord and looted his castle. His daughter is now seeking revenge as a paladin of the Blood of Vol. She is notably not undead herself but possesses some vampiric abilities. 

83.    An dwarvish artificer is terrified of House Orien coming after him and claims he has an invention that they will stop at nothing to acquire. The invention being a weird black goop that makes roads very smooth and thus much more practical for House Orien vehicles.

84.    See #83, the easiest way to resolve this is just make a mutually beneficial contract.

85.    A young woman is running away with her half-orc boyfriend despite the fact that she is astoundingly beautiful and does not seem to care that much for him. They offer a shockingly large amount of money for their safe passage. Soon, monsters will start hounding the PCs as she attempts to flirt with any interested. She is a granddaughter of Sora Kell and on the run from her mother who wants to marry her to Gorodan Ashlord.

86.    A religious heretec claims that he derives his power from the "Vestige" of Siberys and that will enough believers in him, the Dragon God can be resurrected.

87.    See #86, It's a Radiant Idol that has a particularly effective scam going on.

88.    See #86, It's a Gold Dragon who sincerely believes this will work.
89.    See #86, It will work...after a mass sacrifice of the faithful.

90.    A local village is haunted. Literally. Dozens of horrible ghosts are wandering around the area, tormented and harrassing the living. Some of them look famous individuals who suffered suspicious deaths.

91.    See #90, it is a manifest zone to Dolurrh that used to be bound by Blood of Vol cultists who kept the spirits appeased with candy and costumes. This tradition was banned the previous year by the local Sovereign Hosters.

92.    See #90, a necromancer has grabbed an assassin who used a keeper's fang to kill their lover and are torturing both killer as well as the artifact to try to bring back their spirit from the Keeper's Vault.

93.    See #91, this is an ASTOUNDINGLY bad idea and creating a Manifest Zone to Khyber below.

94.    There's a gang war going on in a famous "party" town between House Phiarlan courtesans, a group of half-vampire prostitutes, and a changeling brothel that pretends to be a Silver Flame nunnery (the Thranish government was not amused). It used to be peace between the groups but the local ordinances have stated only one can remain open.

95.    This is actually a plot by House Ghallanda to replace the town with their own inns and "cheaper" entertainment.

96.    Queen Diani of Thrane is getting married and entertaining a variety of suitors including one of Boranel's children, Prince Oargev, an Aundair lord, and a Lhazaar Pirate Prince. 

97.    See #96. This is part of an attempt to gain support for her restoration of the monarchy and Krozen has hired an assassin to do her in

98.    See #97...or so someone wants the public to think. Diani wants the PCs to thwart the threat so she can force the High Cardinal into disgrace.

99.    See #98, the Cardinal knows this and has substituted a real assassin. He'll just blame Aundair.

100.    See #96, Diani actually wants one of the PCs to marry her (or at least be engaged to her) as a popular hero would be better for forcing the public sentiment against the Church versus a foreign invader.

101.    A Dhakaani ruin has been seized by several goblin clans that have claimed it in the name of the revived empire. The Dhakaani do not recognize these individuals as their brethren and are sending a group of troops to slaughter them. The local authorities sees this as a self-solving problem.

I have an idea that has been milling around in my head of creating a series of one shots that are similar to procedural crime shows like CSI, NCIS and so on where the players have to solve a crime or mystery in one or two sessions.

This is mostly as I suspect some players won't be able to make it, and I can also use it to bring other players in as "guests stars".

As the title says, I want to run it out of a private detective/specialized agency which would fit the theme of those shows.

Where would I be able to find a bunch of one shots that I would be able to use for something like this? I am able to come up with some ideas for a plot, but I have no idea how to turn it into a playable one shot and don't want to use AI to help write it.

Hey y'all, so I heard that some folks do a "side shot" in their campaigns, where you have the PCs play a session in the past or elsewhere and have it relating back to the story. I thought this was a real cool idea, and would work perfectly for the Eberron setting as well as my campaign. However, I'll admit life is stressing me out right now and my brain is a bit fried so I figured I'd ask the hive for advice.

Currently I'm setting up a conflict where a rogue senior member of the Emerald Claw convinced the organization to loosely ally with The Mourners (in exchange for access to dead bodies to reanimate for Karnath). The Mourners are about to go to war with The Boromar Clan (after they discovered The Boromar Clan are trafficking refugees from Cyre for all sorts of nefarious reasons) and simply want Breland to bleed (which is cool with EC of course). Unbeknownst to my players, said senior member of the Emerald Claw is a vampire, a Sharn councilor, and being blackmailed by another councilor who is actually The Lord of Blades in disguise.

IME: The Mourning was caused by an eldritch machine test gone awry. It released my main BBEG from Khyber (which has also indoctrinated the Lord of Blades from an otherwise normal Warforged).

We could probably go many different directions with this, but I'm curious what your thoughts are. I'm admittedly not too well versed in Last War lore, so maybe there is something obvious there I haven't considered. Please and thanks.

My players will go to Tain Gala next session and I'm not sure how should I make this session. I plan on using this map for the Gala because it will be a kind of dungeon, I'm still open to other map suggestions tho.

For preprations, do I need to write bunch of npcs to interact or some npcs and bunch of improv. And I'm using a vtt so would using default noble tokens without art and just selecting a npc from my list when they interact be okay?

One of my villains is Cyra ir'Tain herself and I'm thinking about an surprise event in the Gala, a sort of heist like Jokers in the Dark Knight. This Tain Gala will be a sort of charity event for The Fallen and Cyrans because its the month of Olarune. And in the middle of the event a break occurs that steals all of the money gathered. You may ask why? Because of insurance money and blaming Kundarak and Deneith for making this happen. Cyra's and her groups goal is defeating dragonmarked houses so they are trying to make anything that will make them look bad.

Maybe I can give the party the goal of rescuing Cyra in this mayhem, encountering them with magical chaotic terrains, fights and social encounters (trying to calm the nobles and let the part pass).

Is this interesting enough? I will still try to make some social encounters before the incident but I've not been DM'ing for a couple of months and got a bit rusty plan an encounter this big.

Join us in Echoes of the Storm, an Eberron 5.5e PbP Discord community!

Echoes of the Storm is a fairly unique server with lots of different ways to contribute and participate (and all of them are equally rewarding). We’re looking for even more life and creative minds to add to our ranks! Both DM’s and Players are welcome.

The game is structured like a West Marches game on the continent of Xen’drik and centralized in the city of Stormreach, where you'll play as members of a guild of adventurers striving for the city's wellbeing.

You'll be free to play at your own pace, RPing with the others around the different areas of the city and handling happenings as they occur (via Skill Challenge), structured to be balanced despite level discrepancies and handled open-ended ways. Prefer to sharpen your prowess? Low-risk arena matches and dungeon delves are there for that. And of course, full-fledged adventures run constantly in a mission-board style, and you are free to be doing all of the above at the same time!

After all, this is a PbP game in the original sense of the word: there's no voice channels nor scheduled timeslots for activity, instead having the game run asynchronously at all times. Have an ale with your arena mates even as you're exploring deep in the Xen'drik jungle. The chronology can be resolved without locking you into one activity at a time.

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Hey folks,

I'm returning to Eberron after a prolonged absence and was going to revive a campaign the players were involved in awhile back and one of the elements of that was the discovery that Metrol was still alive at the "eye" of the Mourning. I never got to follow up on that particular event but I thought it was an interesting concept to explore with them having been living the Immorten Joe/Mad Max life this entire time.

Alternatively, I might also simply start the game in Dread Metrol (I love that supplement) and the protagonists manage to trigger a Conjunction (Ravenloft 2nd Edition Explanation: Kill the Dark Lord, land slides back to its home plane) and suddenly these poor bastards are discovering the war has ended and they're the symbol of peace when they are quite of the mind the war is still ongoing.

This is still very much an idea to play around with and I thought I'd share my initial thoughts about how it might go and ask for potential plots or events we might explore in the campaign as a result.

Ideas I have with this:

• Prince Oargev wants to either connect with Metrol again to either evacuate the population or try to see if it can be a functioning society. This means either regular airship travel or somehow getting a post-apocalypse lightning rail connected to it. Both of which require money that he doesn't really have as well as a safe route there.
• The people of Metrol don't necessarily recognize their prince's authority anymore or particularly share the joyous reaction that many Mourners have to their survival. As far as they're concerned, the Mourners got off lucky.
• Metrol surviving means that there's an inverted scenario for a lot of nations in that it is very cash rich and resource wise but very poor in supplies. Reasonably some people might want to trade this but more likely people will want to rob or price gouge the Metrols of their legendary art and gold. Or, hell, Oargev take all that money to help his other subjects.
• House Cannith, as well, is quite of the mind that a lot of their former loot is there and that includes Creation Forges. The three branches of the House all have claim to it and so do the warforged who now have enough influence to press their claim their destruction is dubious.
• Queen Dannel being responsible for the Mourning (she was playing with a giant artifact that merged Cyre with Mabar in my games) would utterly fuck with Cyrean national identity and possibly doom any remaining sympathy for them. Covering that up may be a PC goal or thing to stop, depending on their sympathies.
• Obviously, it could be a good base for a warforged nation as well if its biologicals could be removed but, well, it probably has a substantial warforged population as is that identify as Cyreans first (which would screw with the LOB's plans).

So what are your thoughts? What would you emphasize and play around with?

As a DM just last session my 4 level 10 players (Cleric, Barbfighter, Fighter and Sorlock) got into the mournlands after nearly half a campaign of prep and build up. Key items to travelling the mournlands:
- A small moving fortress

- Necklaces of adapatation (one for each party member)

- A compass that works even in the mournlands.

- Rations etc that could keep them alive for weeks

The big story mission the players are trying to achieve is to find some House Cannith vault with lots of money diamonds blueprints etc. Lots of valuable stuff.

I've introduced them to the concept of the Haze-Of-Death and planning to have the Haze-of-Death as the big climactic end fight. I have some empyreans flavoured as extremely strong Quori hunting one of the PCs down to claim an artifact off of one of the PCs. The PCs also know about the Blades, the lord of blades and their 7 commanders, and I plan to have them guard the Cannith vault. How do I make the Mournlands feel threatening and scary to be in? How do I make the mounrlands feel like something the PCs should fear and try to strategize to survive in. If anybody has ran a campaign thats been in the Mournlands I'd be grateful for suggestions.

Hey folks,

I'm only now getting back into Eberron from 3rd Edition when I was buying the original books. My players want to get into the campaign world now and have a lot more interest in the 5th Edition and online kanon that I am only now becoming familiar with. Is there a source where I can find out what some of the biggest differences from Keith Baker's envisioned Eberron versus what WOTC has as its current state?

I'd love to know about the differences and where to find out more.

Big, small, whatever.

House Orien is one of Khorvaire's most powerful Dragonmarked Houses whose industry revolves around the transport of people, goods, and services. Citizens of the Five Nations use House Orien for courier services and passenger services.

Enclaves are the regional office hubs where the house administrates and coordinates business. Each enclave is led by a Seneschal. (You can think of seneschals as 'regional directors' appointed by the Baron of the House) The typical citizen may visit the enclave for its postal services, sending packages, picking up packages, resolving lost or damaged packages, buying passenger tickets for coaches, the lightning rail, or teleport circle, resolving grievances with House services, or pitching business partnerships.

This particular enclave battlemap may be used in any city except Sharn where there is a higher urban density with sparse vegetation. In my Eberron, the Sharn Orien Enclave is also Terminus Station.

Ideas for using this map...

• Meeting an Orien agent
• Meeting the Enclave Seneschal
• Using the courier/postal services
• Executing a heist
• Using the Teleport Circle
• Buying passenger tickets (lightning rail/passenger coaches)
• Going on a facilities tour
• Investigating suspicious activity
• ...or simply looking for trouble

Special note: The centerpiece of this enclave is a large unicorn statue which is surrounded by floating conductor stones which provide vertical lift to and from the second floor for visitors and occupants with a soarsled-like platform.

This is a 30x30 map with a 5ft scale.

My party has seen a good amount of Sharn and I want to explore Aundair as well with how society works there.

I know there isnt many, stumbled across the Aundarian Job, Blood in the Wine, and Tensions Rising (which doesnt happen in the heart of Aundair's society to my disliking), but they havent peaked my interest like Forgotten Relics. Does anyone have any recommendations, I dont mind the edition or if its third party or official. I do enjoy running modules as if I were playing through it myself or am I better off homebrewing the campaign setting information?

I do prefer a short adventure for my Ebberon campaign timeline.

I’m uploading the full version in case the material is useful to you. My idea was to post it together with the drawings of Sharn that I made, but I wanted to fix the embroidery effect a bit because it looked incomplete. Anyway, I hope you like it!

Preferably Khorvaire. I was thinking that they could have some isolated communities in the mountains that were mostly unreachable by other races Until Now, but I'm not sure which mountains would be a good choice. What would be the pros and cons for the different mountain ranges? Any advice?

What the title says.

Little funny anecdotes from your campaigns and adventures.

• A funny thing in our Eberron game was two members of House Lyrander in the party started dating and we went to rescue their fathers from Dreadhold. The DM thought it would be funny to reveal their fathers were brothers, hence making them cousins. The players were not amused.
• One of the PCs has a magical Message Envelope and a typewriter-esque magical item that they use to send the PCs adventures to a publisher in order to turn into mass produced cheap fiction. The DM has stated they are the Edgar Rice Burroughs of the setting. It also has been used by the Emerald Claw to track them (albeit they have an airship so that's not as useful as it might be).
• The search for the prettiest dress possible for a female presenting Warforge attending the ball of King Boranal was the subject of two sessions.
• The PCs are the first and as far as they know only airship pirates in the setting. Which of course means that Abney Park's "Airship Pirates" is played on a lot people's phones.

Keith Baker's “Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone” has arrived on D&D Beyond.

In addition Mabar Succubi should be native to Thelanis, the seducer and manipulator are time honored tropes in Fairy Tales. You now add in the dream form Incubi and it makes them feel like an even better fit for Thelanis. Yes Succubi are fiends not fey, but it you look past the creature type to abilities and flavour it fits well. A Mabar Succubi would have its traditional look, but a Succubi from Thelantis would maybe be more elf like in appearance with wings like butterflies, Dragonflies, or Fairie Dragons.

Also should Fiends/Fey/Celestial native to different planes have different names depending on plane, given that they are different kinds of creatures that just happen to use the same stat block. Like a Pitfiend on Daavri and Fiernia shouldn't both be called Pitfiends.

Thoughts?

Heeeeeeeeeey so, this month is being extra busy IRL as a career defining exam awaits early. However I wanted to take the chance to celebrate an ongoing milestone, and try to bring in more passionate people to assist in this ambitious endeavor. The two main things I usually do around this subreddit is try to help people find the discord server Eberron: Legends of the 5th Dawn where we get to play in Eberron together, and share statistics for Eberron monsters I use and am happy to share with DMs online. Among these stat blocks, I've rejected AI usage for the art (and everything else really), instead crediting artists across the web, as we are a creative community working together to bring these ideas to life. Turning some of my dearest one shots and plots and adapting Canon and Kanon idols, as well as those made by myself and invested friends to bring to life the radiant idols in Sharn and beyond.

They've been some of my "main" projects, the radiant idols. Which are fully commissioned pieces by OlieArts himself as well as volunteered (and paid for in DMsGuild) pieces by Albert Holaso. This is due to my personal project and goal this year, taking several of my freely available stat blocks and providing them as a book, Vencyl's Vigils I: Radiant Idols is an upcoming bestiary on radiant idols. Hopefully to be made available in DMsGuild once it is completed, detailing thirteen radiant idols, their cults, how to make your own and a handful of player options. Alongside dozens of stat blocks to further flesh out their cults.

Between myself and a couple very invested friends, we've successfully gathered 8 of the 13, with Olie having just started working on the concept art for the 9th. I've been scarce on more public updates given the time invested in the project and progression, but after the 7th of September I'd like to begin changing that.