D&D General Eberron: Mark of Death

[doctorbadwolf]

FYI: I was just perusing Morgrave Miscellany, and I note that Keith Baker included a Mark of Death elf subrace and three Mark of Death feats in it.

The subrace grants a +1 to Wis and Cha, a d4 on Charisma checks to interact with dead / undead creatures, and an ability to create a telepathic link with undead creatures.

The feats each grant a Cha bonus, modifies the d4 to Charisma checks, and adds some spells (e.g. spare the dying, gentle repose, speak with dead, and so on).

I actually ended up going in a different direction because of something else Keith wrote, oddly enough.

In his article on Queen Etrigani of Karrnath, Keith posits that she might have the Mark of Death, in which case it gives her a facility with spirits and with insight, and thus with necromancy. I like that, as it speaks to what the mark would do if it were the power being a dragonmarked House. IMO, that’s the way to approach developing a mark, what would a house based on it look like?

So you get +d4 with Insight. You know Spare the Dying, unseen servant, and protection from evil and good. At level 3, you get borrowed knowledge and gentle repose. (One less skill, but more spells, than most marks)

Spells of the mark
False life, augury, speak with dead, and then I’m not sure.

The idea is that the Mark of Death gives you a connection to Dolurh and an intuitive understanding of spirits and the soul, which in turn gives you a deep intuitive empathy, so the two sides to the mark are spirit-communion/binding and understanding people emotionally and quickly understanding the dynamics of any given situation, like who is afraid of who and who is loyal to who etc.

When I imagine a Dragonmarked House in the future based on this mark, I see the Church of The White Rat from the Saint of Steel books. Practical administrators and communicators who understand people and social/political dynamics intuitively and are aided by an intuitive facility with dealing with spirits. They would be troubleshooters, lawyers, advocates, social workers, therapists, and spirit healers (probably working closely with Jorasco), as well as exorcists, mediums, etc.

Anyway that’s my take, I appreciate the feedback!

 

[Gradine]

As an aside, I note that Keith says in that article that Vol would’ve been turned into a lich while she was still a teenager, so she should still look like an undead teen. I’ll have to remember that for my Vecna Vol: Eve of Ruin remix.

 

[Gradine]

Would a teenage Lich look any different from an adult one?

She was the final boss of one of my Eberron campaigns. She has several forms, from a powerful overpowering lich to a massive undead dragon. Her final form was her true form; a half-dragon teenager flailing and gnashing and cursing the destiny that was once again slipping through her fingers. My players actually kind of pitied her, in the end, which was a feat considering she also had deliberately orchestrated the Mourning and was trying to repeat it throughout the continent by murdering their PCs.

 

[pukunui]

I’ve posted quite a bit about it in the Enhancing Vecna: Eve of Ruin thread.

 

[DEFCON 1]

When I imagine a Dragonmarked House in the future based on this mark, I see the Church of The White Rat from the Saint of Steel books. Practical administrators and communicators who understand people and social/political dynamics intuitively and are aided by an intuitive facility with dealing with spirits. They would be troubleshooters, lawyers, advocates, social workers, therapists, and spirit healers (probably working closely with Jorasco), as well as exorcists, mediums, etc.

I do like this direction for House Vol, as "humanoid interaction" is definitely a missing facet to the dragonmarked houses in terms of the businesses they cover. If you look at all 12 Houses and what they control in terms of business potential, there isn't one whose Mark aids in exactly those things you mention-- law, social work, therapy, politics, and other jobs involving interpersonal relationships between intelligent creatures. Humanoids will physically protect other humanoids with the Mark of the Sentinel, and will hunt other humanoids with the Mark of Finding... but talking with them is noticeably absent. So the Mark of Death would be a very good way of plugging that hole. Granted... I think at this point in the world's history members might desire to find a better noun to use for their mark than 'Death' (as it ain't exactly the greatest advertising slogan you'd want to use for things like therapy and social work, LOL)... but what it would focus on is a great option that you'd come up with.

I've actually done something similar myself for if/when I start up another Eberron campaign, in that I changed the focus of House Medani to exactly the same things you are aiming for with the Mark of Death. I always found that the Mark of Detection seemed so niche as a business venture and trying so hard to thread a needle of "protection" between Sentinel, Warding, and Finding that it appeared superfluous to me. As it is the newest House (just in terms of it founding), it always struck me odd that they were trying to shoehorn their business ventures into a very crowded marketplace, offering services that those other three houses have all been doing to a certain extent. And yet there's a completely wide open marketplace for advisors, lawyers, social workers, communicators, speakers, therapists, translators, and other people who talk for a living without there being a House or a Mark that covers it. That's just bad business. So I decided to provide it myself by turning House Medani's mark into the Mark of Decree-- where you'd get spells like Friends, Message, Comprehend Languages and the like-- interaction abilities that make all the sense in the world for the charismatic Khoravar people that have it. I haven't done a full write-up yet of the rules for the Mark of Decree, but that's definitely the direction I'm leaning to fill in that empty space in the corporate world of Eberron.

 

[Staffan]

I've actually done something similar myself for if/when I start up another Eberron campaign, in that I changed the focus of House Medani to exactly the same things you are aiming for with the Mark of Death. I always found that the Mark of Detection seemed so niche as a business venture and trying so hard to thread a needle of "protection" between Sentinel, Warding, and Finding that it appeared superfluous to me. As it is the newest House (just in terms of it founding), it always struck me odd that they were trying to shoehorn their business ventures into a very crowded marketplace, offering services that those other three houses have all been doing to a certain extent. And yet there's a completely wide open marketplace for advisors, lawyers, social workers, communicators, speakers, therapists, translators, and other people who talk for a living without there being a House or a Mark that covers it. That's just bad business. So I decided to provide it myself by turning House Medani's mark into the Mark of Decree-- where you'd get spells like Friends, Message, Comprehend Languages and the like-- interaction abilities that make all the sense in the world for the charismatic Khoravar people that have it. I haven't done a full write-up yet of the rules for the Mark of Decree, but that's definitely the direction I'm leaning to fill in that empty space in the corporate world of Eberron.

To some degree, that's House Sivis/the Mark of Scribing. Translation is definitely in their wheelhouse (they had comprehend languages and tongues as spells back in 3e), the Speaker's Guild "offers the services of translators and mediators", and the Notaries Guild deals with legal documents and such. But that's more about formal communication, and I agree that there's probably room for a house more into interpersonal communication.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

She was the final boss of one of my Eberron campaigns. She has several forms, from a powerful overpowering lich to a massive undead dragon. Her final form was her true form; a half-dragon teenager flailing and gnashing and cursing the destiny that was once again slipping through her fingers. My players actually kind of pitied her, in the end, which was a feat considering she also had deliberately orchestrated the Mourning and was trying to repeat it throughout the continent by murdering their PCs.

She is set up to be a major BBEG that could be redeemed in my campaign. It will ultimately be up to how the PCs engage with her once they really have her attention, which is about to happen.

The ultimate final boss is a mythic red dragon, who is conspiring with the Emerald Claw, Delkyr cultists, and certain Lords of Dust, and may be the progenitor of the archetype of one of the Dark Six. He is trying to break the prophecy and restart a cosmic cycle where the cosmology of Eberron is destroyed by That Which Comes Behind (an entity/force which is essentially the ‘soul’ of Xoriat, the ultimate Delkyr). He wants to replace the Progenitor Dragons in the next rebirth of the universe. He also murdered the kobold Wizard’s gold dragon mentor.

But Vol is basically caught in a delicate game of chess with her Crimson Council, the red dragon, and the semi-deific figures of The Three Sisters (NPCs I brought into Eberron based on the idea of the Raven Queen, Red Witch, and Lady of The White Well, being immortal witch sisters). She doesn’t want to destroy the world, she wants to live, and reclaim what was stolen from her. But she will burn nations to do so if she has to.

I do like this direction for House Vol, as "humanoid interaction" is definitely a missing facet to the dragonmarked houses in terms of the businesses they cover. If you look at all 12 Houses and what they control in terms of business potential, there isn't one whose Mark aids in exactly those things you mention-- law, social work, therapy, politics, and other jobs involving interpersonal relationships between intelligent creatures. Humanoids will physically protect other humanoids with the Mark of the Sentinel, and will hunt other humanoids with the Mark of Finding... but talking with them is noticeably absent. So the Mark of Death would be a very good way of plugging that hole. Granted... I think at this point in the world's history members might desire to find a better noun to use for their mark than 'Death' (as it ain't exactly the greatest advertising slogan you'd want to use for things like therapy and social work, LOL)... but what it would focus on is a great option that you'd come up with.

I think a rebrand to Mark of Spirits would work.

I've actually done something similar myself for if/when I start up another Eberron campaign, in that I changed the focus of House Medani to exactly the same things you are aiming for with the Mark of Death. I always found that the Mark of Detection seemed so niche as a business venture and trying so hard to thread a needle of "protection" between Sentinel, Warding, and Finding that it appeared superfluous to me. As it is the newest House (just in terms of it founding), it always struck me odd that they were trying to shoehorn their business ventures into a very crowded marketplace, offering services that those other three houses have all been doing to a certain extent. And yet there's a completely wide open marketplace for advisors, lawyers, social workers, communicators, speakers, therapists, translators, and other people who talk for a living without there being a House or a Mark that covers it. That's just bad business. So I decided to provide it myself by turning House Medani's mark into the Mark of Decree-- where you'd get spells like Friends, Message, Comprehend Languages and the like-- interaction abilities that make all the sense in the world for the charismatic Khoravar people that have it. I haven't done a full write-up yet of the rules for the Mark of Decree, but that's definitely the direction I'm leaning to fill in that empty space in the corporate world of Eberron.

Nice. I also find Medani a bit…odd, in the same way.

To some degree, that's House Sivis/the Mark of Scribing. Translation is definitely in their wheelhouse (they had comprehend languages and tongues as spells back in 3e), the Speaker's Guild "offers the services of translators and mediators", and the Notaries Guild deals with legal documents and such. But that's more about formal communication, and I agree that there's probably room for a house more into interpersonal communication.

This overlap is a thing I love about the Houses. And it makes it easy to imagine a House [Death] quickly forming partnerships with several houses to the profit of all.

Also, I like the idea of the house of social workers, public servants, spirit mediums/healers, etc, also having assassins because sometimes they’re the most efficient way to solve a problem for the good of all.