Eberron Lost style, give me ideas

Matt_Little · Jul 6, 2005

So I've decided to run a campaign for my players in the world of Eberron in the vein of the Lost tv show. The players are on a airship traveling from Fairhaven to Wroat and somehow end up a deserted island near the continent of Xendrik. The drama will largely revolve around the mysteries of the islands and the NPC's personalilities. I have some general plot strands and other ideas for what occurs on the island and NPC actions but could always use the creative ideas of everyone here. So if you have a second contribute your NPC or island mystery in the vein of Eberron and NBC's Lost.

cmanos · Jul 6, 2005

well the first and formost adventures should revolve around water, shelter and food. PC's can';t just plop down at the beach and take a sip of seawater whenever they are thirsty. And what they think is dinner may think of them as dinner. Shelter from the sun and storms will be important.

Then you throw in things like dinosaurs, lizardmen, cannibalistic feral halflings (oh wait, wrong setting),

The Edge · Jul 6, 2005

Unfortunatly I cant say I know anything about Eberron or any of that lot. I seem to be rather ignorant to many thing discussed frequently here, quite annoying realy.

But...an NPC I quite like is my silver dragon. Heres how its gone in my campain...The players are heading down a mountain side road when they see a elven maiden surrounded by a band of orcs. like heroes do they rush over to help, and dispatch the bandits. They dont know that being a young silver dragon, the 'damsel in distress' didnt need any help, but she lets them do their thing regardless. After the fight she plays along and thanks the 'grand heroes', she remains in her disguise (as silver dragons love to do) and tells them shes trying to find a large city, which she has trouble nameing, which surprises the players after figureing out that she speaks of Arvenhold (the big shiny capital city in my game world) and surely everyone around should know of it (its her first time far from her little cave and starting hoard given by her unknown parents, also her first real encounter with people other than orcish tribals here). She offers to pay them as guides, they agree but are surprised by the amount she offers as payment (unsure of its value amoung others yet), and how much gold and plat shes carrieing (nearly a whole pack full). They guide her along, endureing an endless barrage of strange questions from their naive employer, all of a sudden they are horified as a bulette bursts from the ground below her and sends her flying. To their amazement she gets up reletively unharmed, looks undecided for a moment, and then asks for a weapon. battle...blah...blah...etc. Eventuly they get to the city, she hangs around them for a while, being intimidated by the strangeness of the city. etc, etc.

Thats roughly as far as they are with this side of the campain, they havent found/figured out her indentity yet. Its quite cool haveing them not know who she is the whole time. So far my players have settled on the idea that she must be high level or something, but dont understand why she seems to know so little.This NPC could work nicely enough in almost any campain, I think. You can choose any name, city name (use your own local big city), time they meet, etc. This could even be done realy early in the campain, even at first level (just remove or swap that bulette of course). It would be cool for the players to have known her for ages and then finaly the shock of her turning into a dragon some time. In my campain my idea is that when they find out she'll be a useful ally, and play a part in a fight against a other larger dragon.

Hmm...I didn't mean to write that much. oh well.

So there you go, thats my NPC for you, use if you like. Hope this is useful.

Whisper72 · Jul 6, 2005

Well... one sort of mystery could be this (or a nearby) island is actually a Zaratan (giant turtle)

Another could be that there lies some heavy curse on the island and that is is the prison for some alien entity from Xoriat or somesuch. The PC's are visited by strange dreams in their sleep, giving them clues about a certain tomb with untold riches. In reality it is the imprisoned being, goading the PC's into entering the prison and freeing it. The curse and nightmares makes the PC's tired and haggard, giving all manner of penalties on things they try to do. The tomb is protected by various traps and clockwork beings...

The Edge · Jul 6, 2005

Thats quite cool, what happens if the thing gets out? Im presumeing you would need upper level characters for this one, 1) so they can free it, then 2) so they can get it back in its pen.

Thinking of zartan just gave me an idea right now. Why just build on top? It would be kinda neat to have merfolk/triton/sahugin etc, live in city underneath a zartan, kinda hanging in a way. Depending on the race of the owners you choose this could have diferent roles in a game. Althogh I imagine you dont want a zillion zartan in the world so two in one place might be a bit odd, I guess you could space them out a little.

drothgery · Jul 6, 2005

It's probably worth noting that eventually your characters will get off the island if they have a major caster with access to trasportation spells.

Matt_Little · Jul 6, 2005

The characters will between levels 3 through 5 to reduce the chance of easy escape. If they do manage to find some easy way off the island such as a spell or magic item I didn't plan for, I'll simply not allow to work and claim it was something on the island.

Patryn of Elvenshae · Jul 6, 2005

I haven't seen all of Lost - actually, I saw the first episode, got extremely hooked, missed the second, and decided I didn't want to ruin the series by watching out of order, and am now waiting for the DVD - so take my advice with a grain of salt ...

What you need are some mooks.

NPCs with just the barest minimum of personality, but with which the PCs will instantly bond. Perhaps a pregnant lady, or a friendly grandmother, or a depressed dwarven monk - whatever. You need a couple stand-out characters that the PCs will empathize with quickly.

Then, you need to kill them in spectacularly bloody fashions. Remember what happens to the pilot in the first episode? You need to do that - but since these are D&D characters we're talking about here, and presumably used to sticking their heads into dangerous places, you may need to do it more than once to set the proper tone of paranoia.

Let the monk decide to swim to a close island, only to be eaten just beyond the breakers. Maybe he just yells once and disappears below the waves. Let his arm wash up on shore later in the day, when the tide changes. Have a group of foragers walk into the jungle and never return. Maybe the party hears screams. Maybe one person makes it back - mostly. He's gone insane from what he saw, and kills himself if not carefully watched. Maybe he comes back as undead.

shaylon · Jul 6, 2005

Isn't it ABC's show?

This would be difficult since the only people that the cast of The Lost interact with is themselves. Interesting idea though.

-Shay

Jack of Shadows · Jul 6, 2005

Well,

The island is actually the secret lair of a human artificer terrorist who has been launching raids against the shipping lanes off the coast of Breland. He uses a special submersible airship with a chained water elemental rather than air or fire.

The island is laced with his secret tunnels and he has many failed experiments roaming the surface. He also has a netwok of scrying devices so he can see everything that is happening on the island. Unsure what to make of the party he watches from afar and both challenges and assists the party as the whim takes him.

P.S. Classic fiction is your friend

Jack