ZEITGEIST Converting Zeitgeist 5th edition to the Eberron world

[Ambrus]

It was mostly the 5e conversion I was curious about.

 

[reighndragon]

So I started with running two campaigns of Zeitgeist in Eberron simultaneously. I start at 1st level with two different adventures. I'm trying to incorporate parts of the future campaign in these first two adventures.

The goal of the first two adventures is to test the characters if they are suitable candidates for the Royal Eyes of Aundair. They are approached by a recruiter to perform these missions. The team as a whole will be added to the teams of the Royal Eyes in Passage. For the first adventure I will use Fired and Forgotten by Imogen Gingell, the first adventure of the Convergence Manifesto adventure path set in Eberron. Lhara will be the recruiter of the Royal Eyes instead of the Clifftop adventurer's Guild. I changed the Sharn chicken encounter into a soapbox race from The Nettles into Central District. The second part is a warforged worker strike in a production facility. This is very fitting for the setting and the philosophical discussions. What is a warforged and should they be treated as normal employees or as tools. The item they need to pick up is in my campaign necessary for the engines of the coaltongue.

For the second adventure I want to use the Murder in Skyway adventure. A house Orien courrier is murdered late in the evening. All other teams are busy, so the group is asked to solve the murder. In the original adventure an important coded message is stolen. I'm thinking the message will be building instructions for new warforged components by Merrix d'Cannith to the local Passage Cannith heir. They are stolen in order of the Obs to use for the construction of Borne. The theft has been ordered by the Kell Guild. The murder of the courrier was not intended by the guild. I think this will give a nice link if the party can retrieve the message in the later adventures.

Anyone a better idea what the message stolen could be?

Second question is if people would be interested in the accounts of the first two adventures or do you just want to read starting with the Zeitgeist adventures?

 

[reighndragon]

It was mostly the 5e conversion I was curious about.

I've sent you a message with the conversion notes attached.

 

[reighndragon]

Because I started with extra adventures at 1st level, I also made some in the news articles appear earlier in the campaign. I already posted the article about small earthquakes in the Nettles. At the end of the session one of my players came with the suggestion, Granny Alswell was waking up and they needed to think about gifts for her to let her go back to sleep. What would be the proper gifts for Granny Alswell? I don't think the population will be very happy to sacrifice children to her. What gifts were traditionally donated to appease Granny Alswell?

 

[RangerWickett]

Broken things that used to spin. The fancier the better.

Jewelry in general.

Folk art with discarded things, especially old medicine bottles.

Fancy dolls made to look like specific real children.

Nursery rhymes in any form - sung, written down, music boxes. Yes, there are spinning parts, but they tend to wind down quickly, and they sound super creepy when they do.

 

[reighndragon]

Thanks for your reply. What would proper offerings to the other fey titans be?

 

[RangerWickett]

The Ash Wolf likes marriage curios (old wedding rings, portraits of a couple, copies of vows) especially if one person has died. Also art of young wolves, and of course meat.

The Father of Thunder loves alcohol, saddles and other farming or ranching gear that have been stomped or otherwise rendered useless, new members for his herd, bawdy songs, and the smile of a woman.

(Going to lunch. More later.)

 

[RangerWickett]

She Who Writhes likes necklaces, chains, fancy ropes, animal offerings that have been drowned or snakes that have had an eye removed, ships in a bottle or actual fancy boats that are set adrift, or beachside orgies (sex on yachts counts too).

The Voice of Rot doesn't like anything, but he is appeased by ornate weapons whose wielders died, skulls of animals from other countries, bouquets of dead flowers, animal tongues, senile parents, and items that have been touched by Risuri monarchs.

 

[paulstrait]

It's been a while, but I've been writing a Player's Guide conversion to Eberron. I've finished part 1 to 4 in its first draft version. I copied and pasted liberally from several Eberron books so I think I would violate all kinds of copyright rules if I would upload them to this thread. I did make significant changes to the conversion from the original post, due to your comments and giving more thought to everything. Long post about the history of the Obs in Eberron coming.

History of the Obscurati
So one of the problems was a history of 500 years of the obscurati and the Mourning being 4 years ago. I couldn't solve this problem, so I changed it. I made Nicodemus a person from the time of the War of the Mark (1500 years ago) having an aberrant mark. For reverence to the war of the mark, see this article by Keith Baker: sidebar-tarkanan

Before the War of the Mark there was a war of Eladrin fighting against the human start up nations. Kasvarina and her husband fought against Bregor of Wroat (current Breland). Nicodemus and Tarkanan fought against them. Kasvarina was captured and Nicodemus took care of her, because Kasvarina's daughter had an aberrant dragonmark (causing infertility) . When the dragonmarked houses started to aid King Bregor, they ambushed the aberrants. Nicodemus and Tarkanan survived, and the aberrants and eladrin joined sides. The war spread to other parts of Khorvaire, and focused against the dragonmarked houses. During the war, Tarkanan asked Nicodemus to do peace negotiations with the dragonmarked houses. Kasvarina was chosen as the diplomat for the Eladrin. They were taken prisoner, and receive the ritual as described in the adventure path, although the demon is working for Sul Khatesh (overlord of arcane might and mystery). They are taken to Metrol capitol of Cyre and deliver the ritual to the dragonmarked houses. The dragonmarked houses perform the ritual on the daughter of Kasvarina and deliver her through a portal to the final battle of the war in Sharn. She is slain, and not only are most persons with an aberrant dragonmark slain (including Nicodemus, who lives on as a sort of ghost), as well most eladrin become infertile.
This causes the eladrin to retreat to their Fey Spires, and retreating the Fey Spire to Thelanis. The leaders of the aberrants do sacrifice themselves, destroying the city of Sharn, and causing madness and plagues in the area as described in Eberron canon. Kasvarina herself survives, and returns to Thelanis with the other eladrin.

The dragonmarked houses are shaken by the effect of the ritual decide to never use it again, and to rerwrite history to blame the aberrant dragonmarks for everything that happened, and never mention the eladrin in this war. They archive this ritual with house Cannith in Eston.

After approximately 470 years Nicodemus starts a philosophical enclave in Xandrar. The city has always been known for its tiefling population due to the many planar influence from the blackcaps mountains. This is described as the Pala part in the history of the Obs. Kasvarina joins him in the city and the Jierre family are the ruling nobles in the area. His philosophy is for a big part against the at that moment huge influence of the dragonmarked houses. When Galifar I enlists the dragonmarked houses with the first version of the Korth Edicts Deneith and Cannith want to help Galifar conquer the continent but the want to destroy the philosophical heretics in Xandrar. Galifar agrees and ultimately Nicodemus is burned on the pyre. Galifar wins his kingdom with the support of the dragonmarked houses.

A couple of years later the archduke of Xandrar Jierre develops an aberrant dragonmark and together with Kasvarina and Nicodemus they found the Obscurati. If I put it at this point in time, they have almost 1,000 years to grow and be influential in all layers of society. This is the shadow cabinet behind the later foundation of the Aurum. The Aurum is used by them to gain new members. One of the main goals of the Obs is to limit the power of the Dragonmarked Houses, and possibly the draconic prophecy itself.

Enter the Last War. After 100 years of war a big battle is going on in Cyre with armies of three countries making it very difficult for Cyre. The Queen of Cyre has spend enormous amounts of money on House Cannith for Warforged armies, but it still doesn't look good. The head of House Cannith proposes to do a ritual on the Queen to give her the power of all the people living in the country. The ritual is performed in Metrol again, but the queen is immediately afterward murdered by an Obs paid murderer, triggering the Mourning. As such Metrol will take the role of Methia as described in the adventure path. The Mourning caused the Eladrin Fey Spires to reappear on Khovaire and not be able to return to Thelanis. In my Eberron elves are descendants of eladrin, that lost their connection to Thelanis. Just for reference.

So one of the issues I have is the use of the ritual later in the adventure path by multiple persons. The sacrifice of gods is also illogical in the Eberron world, so I changed it. I think this is a good fit. Anyone with a different opinion?

So house Cannith is going to be important. As suggested earlier I'm going to make Pemberton in league with House Cannith South. He is in direct contact with Merrix d'Cannith. One of my player's wanted to play a Cannith marked human. He doesn't know who his real father is, and knows it's been a scandal in Fairhaven. He has been raised in Windshire by his mother and another father. In reality he will be the half-brother of Merrix, which will make part 6 really good.

Fey Titans
The Fey Titans were original champions of Eberron in the Age of Demons. After this war ended their might slowly declined, but stories about them started to spread. As such they gained a bond with the world of Thelanis and became the Fey Titans with manifestations in both worlds. The dreaming, I call it the Feywild to have no confusion with Dal Quor, the plane of dreams, is a layer of Thelanis, which overlaps with Khorvaire, centered on the former area of Aundair. As described in Exploring Eberron archfey are the foundation of Thelanis, the force that sets a story in motion. Archfey that rule a layer are called Anchor Barons. As such, king Thisraldion of the Unseen Court is the Anchor Baron of the Feywild. So ultimately the Unseen Court handles the Fey Titans and the kings and queens of Aundair have a pact with the Unseen Court. Duchess Ethelyn of Windshire is the official emmissary of Aundair to the Unseen Court, and Asrabay Varal is the official emmissary of the Unseen Court to Aundair. Asrabay Varal and a contingent of eladrin warriors helped Aundair during some battles in the Last War, so he is known in Aundair.

The Planes
I'm also taking the advice of the planes made by @Galandris. Not using the eight aspects as originally described but giving each plane a focus of what it means for Eberron. I've not described what will happen to the world if a current plane is removed. I'm planning to do that in the coming month. The Bleak Gate will be a layer of Dolurrh, which is difficult to access. I did write down in the Player's Guide that planar travel except to Thelanis is extremely difficult, so no summoning or planeshifts in my Eberron.

I'm starting the campaign in one or two months, so fortunately I have some time left. I'm also starting with different adventures because I like starting a campaign a 1st level instead of 3rd level. Those first two levels will be used to become agents of the Royal Eyes of Aundair.

So I've been following your basic idea, started with Adventure 2. Now moving to Adventure 1. How did you approach that one?

 

[reighndragon]

I've posted my newspaper for the first adventure in the newspaper thread so you could use that one for inspiration.

I've made the duchess a cousin of Queen Aurala, so the family bond is still conform the original AP, although not as close. She's invited to the "inauguration" of the Coaltongue because of her ambassadorship of the Unseen Court. Her motivation for the attack on the ship is the possibility to kill the Queen, because her son, prince Wrogar is much more susceptible to her advice, should he become the new king. The wedding announcement is between Prince Wrogar and Lya Jierre.

In my campaign King Boranel of Breland has died and a democracy has formed. Han Jierre, archduke of Xandrar has become the speaker of the House and one of the most important persons in Breland. Lya Jierre is appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and as such visits Passage after the Duchess has attacked Axis Island. I've added islands to Lake Galifar, north of the Blackcaps, one of those is Axis Island. The Island is rich in Iron Ore and used by Breland for metallurgy research and innovative industrial design for constructing "golems". The golems do have a lot of warforged technology used in them, but are certainly not warforged. House Cannith certainly supports this effort.

The Duchess has invaded the island to show to Aundair the use of industrialization by Breland. The mining of iron clearly causes the planar instability on the island and the golems with their Khyber's Blood (Witchoil) technology are an affront to the way of living in Aundair. She hopes that by showing this to the people of Aundair, the industrialization course of the Queen will need to change.

Axis Island has been the center of the sealing rituals of the Gatekeepers during the time of the Dhakaani Empire. The temple on the map is the location the Gatekeepers performed this most important ritual. In my Eberron I changed the cosmology as such that the moons are portals to their respective planes. So you can use spaceships/rockets to fly to these portals. The technology is not yet available to fly to the moons yet. The ring of Syberis in conjunction with the ritual conducted by the Gatekeepers makes the planes difficult to access and makes all other planes inaccessible. The skyseers are a branch separated from the Gatekeepers. The Gatekeepers use oral traditions, and after approximately 10,000 years the details of the rituals conducted are lost to them.

The Icons are golden images of the planar symbols shown in Exploring Eberron. I used the Golden Icons of Daanvi, Lammania, and Mabar. I've rewritten the Icons in DNDBeyond and could make them available through homebrew. I've kept most encounters on the island as written.

Asrabey Varal is send by the Unseen Court to show their disagreement with the duchess. His order is to kill her, but he is willing to not kill her if the party is able to convince him to get the message to the Queen. During the last war the duchess has asked the Unseen Court for help, and she successfully acquired the help of Asrabey Varal and his eladrin elites for some battles fought with Thrane and Karrnath. This has made Asrabey Varal a decorated war hero of Aundair, and makes it more difficult for him to kill the duchess although the orders of the Unseen Court were clear. They need to sent a message that they do not agree with the Duchess's path to a new war.

If you have any other specific questions please ask.