Eberron, Sharn inquisitive campaign – session zero 5e

[tomBitonti]

Well, perhaps they all were in the last war, but not together, and each came into knowledge, a piece of a large puzzle, that has drawn them together. They could represent different nations, with competing motivations, but need to work together - to an extent - to pool their knowledge and resources - to succeed.

Thx!
TomB

 

[enbee75]

Would you be able to give an example of the kind of thing you mean? A puzzle that leads to the reason the mournland happened? Thanks

 

[MarkB]

"Spy" background is easy enough - just have them be a former employee of House Phiarlan or House Thuranni, who parted company with them in bad terms. They maybe still have a few friendly contacts there, but also came away knowing a few more secrets than the House is comfortable with.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I recommend that they all could have been part of a spec ops unit together in Cyre during the last war. They were on the border when the Mourning hit, and they saw their home die in a few moments of eldritch lighting and grey fog. Now, they're trying to build a new life, and find a new home.

Sharn works for that, as does Stormreach.

The characters all seem fine, to my eye. What I did in my Eberron campaign was I asked each player to read up on their chosen race in Eberron, and understand that an Eberron elf is *not a Faerun elf*.

The Gnome is the only one I could see being strange in that context, but a Gnome from one of the Feyspires would work. There is one in the Eldeen Reaches, IIRC, and that would make a great place for a Gnome druid to come from.

Next, imagine an investigation scene. What skills are used? Insight, Perception, Investigate, possibly Nature, Survival, History, Arcana, even Religion, depending on the case.

What about a chase? Athletics and Acrobatics, sure, but also Insight, Perception, and investigate to read or remember the streets for a better path, predict the target's next move, etc.

What class abilities might lend themselves to the challenges? Druids can turn into all sorts of animals, fast, small, keen senses, etc, and have access to divination magic. Warlocks make great spies, feylocks can charm or frighten, etc, and some locks can fly or teleport. Bards are pretty obvious. Sorcerers have high charisma and a good selection of spells. Artificers and Bards both get good skills and tool proficiencies.

Background can give proficiency in disguise and thieves tools, the main thing missing from not having a rogue.

I think your team will be a lot of fun.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Oh! Also check out manifest.zone which is a podcast featuring the creator of Eberron! Really informative listen, with loads of stuff about running an eberron game.

 

[enbee75]

I've been listening to manifest.zone, it's a goodun. One thing I'm a bit puzzled about, is how the PCs would have ended up fighting for Cyre, especially if they would've come from different parts of the continent (like the Druid coming through the Feyspires in the Eldeen Reaches)? Thanks for the info though, will suggest it to my druid player. He's the player who wants the spy background, so would like to try and work that in somewhere - which seems more difficult if he hails from another plane of existence (I guess he could've spent time since arriving working for different dragonmarked houses?)

One of my players is also thinking of veto-ing the Tiefling and playing a half-elf sorcerer who's been excoriated from her dragonmarked house (whichever of the half-elf houses that may be). I understand the dragonmarked houses were meant to be neutral during the Last War, though if someone of bloodline chose to fight in for Cyre, would this be a reason enough for the house to excoriate them?

Finding this all replies very helpful so thank you!

 

[tomBitonti]

The characters they’ve come up with are:
a Half-elf or Tiefling sorcerer, a Dwarven Bard, a Forest Gnome Druid (with a criminal spy background), a Changeling Warlock, and a Human or Warforged Artificer

Would depend on the players, but:

A sorcerer can be tuned to be an effective spy: Good charisma for good social skills; spells for disguise, charm, or scrying.

A bard similarly has good social skills, and is the ultimate in gathering information. And can fight in a pinch.

A druid will eventually have great scouting and infiltration skills via change shape. Druids can really push spot and listen. And can pitch in as medic or muscle.

Not sure about Warlocks, who are limited by invocation. As good if unspectacular blasters they add firepower. Changeling, if made a focus, can be improved to provide a skill at disguise and reading thoughts. (Not sure how good this can be made.)

An artificer can be a gadgets guy: Dealing with traps and locks with a good set of tools and magic devices.

Don't forget about DragonMarks. I'd consider granting bonus feats to give the PCs a dragonmark and to improve them. Otherwise, they are hard to take due to limited feat selections.

Thx!

TomB

 

[Storminator]

Breland and Aundair have pretty extensive write ups about their spy networks, and you could extrapolate a Cyran spy network from there. That give decent info from 3 of the 5 nations. The gnome can easily work for the Zilargo Trust - the gnomes of Eberron are actually key players in espionage. There's the half elf spy Dragonmarked houses as well. Add in that everyone had mercs and double agents and most any PC could tie in to a spy game. Add in a non-spy detective or reporter and you've got a lot of options.

PS