[Eberron] Erandis Vol: Eldritch Machine

I had a rather fun thought. A bit cliche...

I've been desperately trying to figure out where to take my campaign. I've started with some lore about the House of Vol and the Queen of the Dead, Lady Vol. The lore regarding her whereabouts and what she has been doing the last 3000 or so year is a bit thin. However, I stumbled upon this post asking for help with an Eldritch Machine concept. The last post got me thinking. What if Lady Vol was vanquished by a band of hired mercenaries/adventurers sometime within the last few hundred years. Any remaining cultists of the Blood of Vol and Emerald Claw were determined to rebuild her... as an Eldritch Machine of Death! (Think Borg Queen, part lich, part machine).

I was thinking of running the adventure "Grasp of the Emerald Claw", which deals with hunting down patterns of creation. I'd modify it so that the patterns can create Eldritch Machines of unimaginable power. At each turn, the Emerald Claw would get away with the various parts of the pattern and begin to work on reviving their Queen as part machine.

The trail would go stale and the players would be given an interlude adventure before being drawn back into the story of the Queen of Death. By that time, word would have traveled to people of high standing, that Vol is alive and hell-bent on reasserting her dominance in Khorvaire.

So. Here are my questions:
1. What do you think of this concept; can you offer any additional ideas?
2. Is it outside of Erandis Vol's character to be so bold as to bring physical war to Khorvaire?
3. I know nothing of Eldritch Machines and my Googlefu has failed me. Where can I find info about them?
4. What should Vol's cultists be doing after they assemble her (other than being speed bumps for the players)?

Other comments welcome.

I think it's out of print now, but assuming you're doing 3.x or similar, I'd like to direct your attention to Monte Cook's Chaositech. I think this would be a perfect fit for such a game... adding sci-fi elements to D&D while maintaining D&D... ness.

I've used it to great effect, but people who hate Reese's cups might grind their teeth.

I've altered Eberron to be slightly ahead in time, so there are steampunk aspects to the campaign. So, Chaositech sounds like it's right up my alley. Good find!

Now, my biggest problem is trying to quantify Lady Vol. She seems like the type of person that would try a political coup rather than an all-out assault on a continent. Has anyone actually played Vol in a campaign? How did you player her?

RealMarkP said:

I've altered Eberron to be slightly ahead in time, so there are steampunk aspects to the campaign. So, Chaositech sounds like it's right up my alley. Good find!

Now, my biggest problem is trying to quantify Lady Vol. She seems like the type of person that would try a political coup rather than an all-out assault on a continent. Has anyone actually played Vol in a campaign? How did you player her?

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I've always viewed eldritch machines as a focus for some kind of super ritual. Make it a world altering spell - printing her dragonmark on a new breed, destroying all other dragonmarks, annihilating all traces of her enemies, reordering the heavens.

Make the all out assault the feint while the real goal goes on behind the scenes. Only true villains will plunge a continent into a giant war as a distraction.

PS

This may be just as cliche as anything, but what if Vol is trying to grant herself the power of Dragonkind by transferring her essence into... you guessed it... a Mechanical Great Wyrm Dragon. And if you go for epic cheese, might as well make it a transformable one.

Also, if you're going to look into Chaositech, there are suggestions on how to make creatures with mechanical grafts, as well as 'gestalt' creatures... two creatures surgically grafted together to create an abomination.

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