(Calling all Rat Bastards! It's CRUNCH time!) Adventure ideas on the Lightening Rail

[Pbartender]

RG suggested, "3. Think cruise ship, more than train," which got me thinking. I've not really looked at Eberron, but from what I've heard, the population is pretty sparse and scattered... Wide expanses of essentially wilderness, yes?

Consider a train-wreck.

The cause could be anything... Ill-kept rails. An poorly-timed accident by the conductor. Bandits or rebels hoping to stop the train for robbery or ransoms (but stopping it more effectively than they expected. ... whatever. The comes to a cataclysmic stop, and no amount of field repairs will get it going again.

On top of it all, the crash happens along a rarely-traveled spur line, and in an exceedingly dangerous piece of wilderness. The battle for survival begins.

The best thing about it is that you can toss it in as a complication on top of some other plot... Robbery, murder, etc.

 

[rkanodia]

Radiating Gnome, I see what you mean about Dolurrh; I can see that a reasonable person could also view the memory-draining effect as only applying to living beings that travel to Dolurrh via some form of planar travel. However, Keith Baker's decription of Dolurrh specifically mentions the souls of the dead being wiped clean of memories.

As far as the cultural taboos, I must admit, they aren't ever really mentioned in the campaign setting; the only offhand thing I can think of (and I'll admit this is flimsy) is that the Church of the Silver Flame teaches its members that the pure will merge with the Silver Flame in death - but no one knows for sure. If it were common for their heroes to be ressurected, then this would surely be a solved issue, the way that mortals know what Dolurrh is like by hearing of it from those souls who have been fortunate enough to return with their memories intact. Most of this information I'm getting, again, from various posts from Keith Baker. For instance, on the WotC boards, he mentions that a non-divine raise dead should call for a roll on the 'Dolurrh coterminous raising' table because only divine casters seem to be able to avoid spiritual disasters in extreme situations, which would make people (rightly) afraid to be returned from death.

Now I realize that, as something not printed in the official book, that isn't canon, but I think that, for a book that's had as much editing as Eberron apparently has, the author can be considered a fairly reliable source for flavor information.

About the warforged and messing with life and death: yes, they did make a new life form, and then after everyone thought about it for a while they realized it was wrong and destroyed the forges.

About the deathless: they are honored leaders - in Aerenal. The Eberron Campaign Setting states that most humans view Aerenal as a "land of vampires and zombies". Not everyone understands the beauty and tribute to mortal life that is a Deathless.

About 'death insurance': If there is such a thing, it's probably just getting started. I doubt anyone was selling it during the Last War. Perhaps the establishment of a death insurance firm operating as a Sivis/Jorasco/Kundarak venture could be an exciting adventure, in and of itself!

 

[diaglo]

Rkan -

All very good points. Still, in a world where the axiom "dead men tell no tales" is not always true, murder does not have quite the same weight for me as it does in ours. But, I have to admit, you've clearly read more deeply in the setting than I have . . .

-rg

yeah... what level are the PCs? raise dead is a 5th lvl spell. which requires at least a 9th lvl cleric to cast. with multiclassing as popular as it is... this usually means higher than 9th lvl PC class.

and what 9th lvl NPC cleric are they gonna find on the train... it isn't a temple.

same holds true with other spells the PCs may try to seek for castings. what NPC will agree to speak with dead for them on their word alone? even if the PCs do pay well.


but that's not new to Eberron either.


what you need is the specifics to Eberron... like Warforged, changelings, and the guys who make cool items.

perhaps one of the crew of the train tries to sabotage the train. his group has a thing against one of the passengers. and to throw the trail off attacks the whole train.

 

[Henry]

(Quick side note: According to the Core Books, most clerics in Eberron are adepts, who need to be 16th level to cast a simple raise dead.)

As for other Lightning Rail ideas, how about RECOVERY of an express? The PC's must journey into the Mournlands (or, more safely, a remote area in Breland, the Talenta Plains, etc) and recover a Lightning Rail Express car or cars that have derailed, and lost? What if someone else got to it first?


What if the PC's are passengers, and are suddenly stuck in the middle of nowhere, with a section of destroyed conductor stones, and the passengers (the PC's and other rail-riders) must work together to locate enough stones and a means to get a multi-ton rail car back on track?

 

[OurManMute]

Some more ideas...

1) The PCs are in a race against the clock to bring an object to a faraway city. The fastest way to get there is the lightning rail, but it doesn't leave until tomorrow morning. Ergo, the players have to hijack one and try to control the bound elemental all the way to their destination. As for the object, it can be anything: the cure for a disease, a doomsday device that will cause a second Mourning unless it's disarmed by a high-level NPC artificer, or something rattier.

2) As above, but now the PCs have to retrieve said object from a villain who is on the last lightning rail scheduled for the day. Train chases are always good fun.

3) Some miscreant has been messing with lightning rail schedules, causing a couple of train wrecks. This can of course be combined with 1) or 2)...

Have fun!

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

The Menagerie

The train is transporting a collection of magical animals (blink dog, owl bear, displacer beast, ect). The animals get out of their "magical" cages.

Can the party recapture the animals, without killing them, before any passengers are killed? Can they figure out How the animals got loose (or who set them free?)

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Most of this information I'm getting, again, from various posts from Keith Baker. For instance, on the WotC boards, he mentions that a non-divine raise dead should call for a roll on the 'Dolurrh coterminous raising' table because only divine casters seem to be able to avoid spiritual disasters in extreme situations, which would make people (rightly) afraid to be returned from death.

Now I realize that, as something not printed in the official book, that isn't canon, but I think that, for a book that's had as much editing as Eberron apparently has, the author can be considered a fairly reliable source for flavor information.

I thought that this might be the case -- I don't spend much time at all on the WOTC boards, so I've missed a lot of the flavor and clarification discussion that Baker has been providing over there. I've spent so much time with the book over the past month and a half or so, I was really afraid for my sanity if there were flavor things like the cultural taboos you mentioned that I'd missed.

(and, of course, you're right, I was overstating the Aerenal Deathless ancestor, misrepresenting them, to try to make my point. My bad).

I'm going to have to spend some time getting caught up on Hellcow's posts over on the WOTC boards.

But, still, none of this changes my basic dissatisfaction with murder mystery as a Eberron adventure. And more than anything tied to the Eberron setting, this is based on the sense that a murder mystery is the default plot for anything that a writer wants to make interesting -- and mostly I'm talking hollywood here. I mean, someone comes up with a half-way interesting idea for characters or setting -- like a couple of funny garbage men -- and then they try to come up with an exciting plot for those two guys to be funny and interesting in. And almost every time, the plot they come up with is a murder mystery. They find a dead body in a garbage can, and they have to solve the mystery themselves. It wears me out.

So, for me, if it's going to be a murder mystery, it really needs to be somehow very closely tied to the Eberron setting -- either through he reason for the murder, or the means of the murder, or the murderer. It has to be something that could ONLY happen in Eberron. Other sorts of plots I accept a bit more easily if they're not so closely tied to the setting, but the murder mystery has become such an over-used cliche, IMO, that I would personally refrain from using unless I had an idea that would REALLY use it well.

-rg

 

[Big Jake]

I'm planning two scenarios for the lightning rail.

Scenario #1

Based on the scenario with Indiana Jones on the blimp. The party has something that someone wants. Some authorities search the train for them, asking for identification cards. A simple scenario that should avoid combat. I'm going to use it during Shadows of the Last War.

Scenario #2

Based on a scene from The Hunted (starring Christopher Lambert). A group of assassins enter the train and simply begin to kill everyone in each car. The encounter will test the party's ability to work in small confines and fight without endangering others. If I use this on in Shadows of the Last War, the group would be more warforged trying to get the schemas from the party.

 

[Lordnightshade]

Ok, it’s getting down to crunch time here, I need some ratbastardly help with this stuff.

Here is the rough outline so far. When the PC’s arrive in Sterngate to catch the lightening rail, they will see the damaged treasure car from their first train trip that was stolen and robbed. It has been recovered and is being investigated by Master Inquisitive Jax who is working for house Orien to solve the case. He will recognize the group as having been on the train and will want to question them all, especially one of the NPCs. Vanessa Grail, who’s father is loosely linked to a dozen or so other robberies including a large bank heist in Wroat a few years ago.

Master Inquisitive Jax is a debonair gentleman who is very charismatic and has a way with the ladies. He will board the train at the last minute on official Orien business and approach Vanessa, and question her in his private room.

He will of course suspect that she was involved in the robbery of the Treasure car (and he’s right). But won’t have enough evidence to arrest her.

Meanwhile, Princess Ciara ir’Wynarn daughter of Oargev ir’Wynarn from Cyre, who is on her way to Wroat to marry the Kings cousin to strengthen ties between Oargev and Boranel will have gotten drunk and will seduce Jax later that night into having an affair. Jax is a smart man, but weak willed when it comes to beautiful women.

Sometime in the night, Jax will be found dead in his room, stabbed through the chest.

What I need is:

Who did it? I would like it if all the passengers had a reason to kill him. I already have a few who have reason.

1. Ciara will want him dead so he doesn’t blab about their affair
2. Vanessa will want him dead because he’s onto her
3. Maybe someone is jealous of his getting with Ciara and that’s why they want him dead?

I need more, initially I want it to look like the Hobgoblins did it, or something.

Also the murder weapon will be… what? Perhaps a horrifically evil dagger that makes being raised from the dead nearly impossible by doing something horrific to your soul? Where will this dagger be found?

What will the clues be?

Who are all the passengers? I need more, here is what I have so far:


Passengers:

Ash (N Warforged Expert 3): A former siege engineer during the Last War, he works now as a senior armorer in the Red Hammer which is part Smithy part tavern located in the Blackbones district of Sharn (the gateway to the Cogs). He was personally delivering a large shipment of armor to the boarder guard at Sterngate. (Put him in here to introduce him to the PCs so I can use him much later when I run Steel Shadows, another murder mystery from Dungeon.)

Dargaash Tuul: Hobgoblin Ambassador from Darguun.

Hector d’Deneith: A representative from House Deneith accompanying the ambassador on his trip to Wroat. Hector is there to ensure that Dargaash is treated to the utmost luxury and spares no expense. Mining rights are on the line here.

Master Inquisitive Jax: A roguishly handsome detective who is as smart as he is Handsome. (The Victim). He is investigating the Train Robbery from my games first session before and he knows Vanessa Grail (one of the NPCs in the Party’s company) is connected to it, he will question her privately in his quarters.

Princess Ciara ir’Wynarn, daughter of Oargev ir’Wynarn from Cyre, is on her way to marry King Boranel ir’Wynarn’s cousin in Wroat. She is lithe and beautiful, strong and flirtatious. She likes to drink a lot and ends up having an affair with Jax. Which if discovered will cause a huge controversy.

Colonel Arbuthnot, a tall Brelish army officer returning from his station in Sterngate.

Hildegarde Schmidt, a middle-aged Brelish woman, the Princess's lady's-maid, is very motherly towards Ciara.

 

[Lordnightshade]

Oh, actually, it should look like the PCs did it... Thus giving them motivation to investigate the murder. As it is, if Jax dies that's good for them because they are involved in the treasure car hiest too...