I want to give Sharn the Atlantis treatment

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

...sort of.

What I really want are ideas on how to move Sharn.

I don't mean like, it annoys me that I'm annoyed with where it is and I want to redraw the map.

I mean I want it to move and I want other people to have to redraw the map.

As in something really awful happens, and suddenly the people of Sharn and a good bit of surrounding land realize they are in a very different place.

Maybe they end up in Faerun, maybe underwater, I don't know where all of this will end up.

But I want Sharn to start jumping around and I would love ideas about what in Eberron could do this. Now I'm accepting that Eberron is as it is in the books except that in the Mournlands there is a gate to the Plain of Glittering Stone from the Black Company series, but if threats come from outside of Eberron I want them to have appropriate insanely powerful Eberronish allies.

Now who could pull off banishing Sharn, how would they do it, and, potentially, why would they do it? What would it look and feel like?

If you have to rewrite the campaign a little than do it, just don't bring in anything new unless it's a cool idea for an appropriate Eberronish artifact. So you can level someone up or make them more of a threat but you can't have a Faerunish god do it without there being an Eberronish guy around to make it work as well.

If it happens, what would happen inside the city?

Let's assume the city survives relatively intact and that even if the planes they port to are hostile the city itself stays relatively safe environment wise. Further, let's assume that there is some means by which Sharn can achieve additional ports but that getting home will be long and terribly arduous.

Who runs the joint in the crisis? Who attempts to grab power? Who would be the first people to figure out additional porting means and how would they discover it?

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

It began when the elven man-o-war crash landed. Agents in the employ of Merrix d'Cannith (perhaps the PCs, if this is for a campaign) found the wreckage and dug from it two items of incredible value: an elven survivor, and a still-functioning major spelljamming helm.

Using his illegal creation forge, Lord Merrix was able to reproduce the spelljamming helm, something the spelljamming nations couldn't imagine. Furthermore, his artificers, applying Eberronic practicality to a problem addressed with wonder-blinded mysticism, were able to link the helms. Within two years, a secret project to launch ships into the Siberys Ring to harvest shards neared completion in the depths of Sharn.

Then something went wrong. Very wrong.

Some whisper that Sharn's planar ties interfered with the test run. Others, that the replica helms from the creation forges were somehow tainted. Others, that the powerful 'wizards' hired by House Cannith were actually disguised Rakshasa. Still others, that Lord Merrix planned all along the unfathomable eventual result.

Regardless of the reason, Sharn itself was transported into space, wrenched out of Eberron's atmosphere by the massive magical forces at work upon it. The city became, in effect, a self-powered but apparently uncontrollable spelljamming vessel, larger even than the Spelljammer itself.

Sharn's connection to Eberron's plane of air provides it with a suitable atmosphere, but its lower spires now suffer from a reversed gravity plane.

Even as the inhabitants struggle to adjust to their new surrounds, spellcasters both in the city and on Eberron seek to establish stable portals through the magical interference of the Siberys Ring.

The powers of wildspace eye this source of unimaginable power with fear, envy and ambition. The arcane, whose monopoly on spelljamming helms is threatened, want Sharn destroyed. The neogi want to harvest it for legions of unsuspecting slaves. The elves want it gone so it doesn't tip the status quo into another Unhuman War, the goblins want it to do exactly that.

And Merrix d'Cannith realizes that wildspace is full of mystery and opportunity... and that Khorvaire's kingdoms have the power to rule it all...

 

[Liquidsabre]

OMG moogle, that's just plain awesome!!

 

[Gez]

Sharn is already in planar manifestation zone, so it's, in a way, linked to a plane: Syrania the Azure Skies.

What if something akin to the sealing of Xoriat or the desorbitation of Dal Quor happened to Syrania, sending it in a chaotic orbit around Eberron, with irregular and unpredictible conjonction times. As a side effect of going out of synch, Sharn itself, along with other Syranian manifestation zones, may be pulled out and back into Eberron, appearing at random places in other planes, or instead of some other landscape in a former other Syranian MZ.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Both of those are awesome ideas!

This, this is why I love ENWorld over all else on the internet.

I'm having the PCs go through the d'Cannith matrix story even now, so I like ties ins with that.

Let's see,

Plane of Shadow related ideas would be awesome.

Something that could actually send it to Toril would be neat.

Anything that used Eberron's dragons would be particularly neat for my purposes.

But man, I do love the idea of the PCs going to deliver the matrix and seeing something that is obviously the wrong sort of ship underneath Sharn.

Gives it a whole wicked x-files style air, at least for the day before it turns into a bizarre cross of Voyager and Stargate Atlantis.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Sharn is already in planar manifestation zone, so it's, in a way, linked to a plane: Syrania the Azure Skies.

What if something akin to the sealing of Xoriat or the desorbitation of Dal Quor happened to Syrania, sending it in a chaotic orbit around Eberron, with irregular and unpredictible conjonction times. As a side effect of going out of synch, Sharn itself, along with other Syranian manifestation zones, may be pulled out and back into Eberron, appearing at random places in other planes, or instead of some other landscape in a former other Syranian MZ.

Ooo, tell me more! Who would or could do this? Why?

 

[Gez]

Those are both good questions. Possibilities include the Inspired and their Quori spirits, and the Daelkyrs. Both are common "metascapegoat" for anything bad in the setting, and both would have reasons to experiment on large scale planar magic -- so as to be able to reverse the magic that severed connection with their home plane. Another possibility would be enemies of the celestials living in Syrania, that want to remove them from the scene while they elaborate some sort of fiendish plot. There, I find it a bit harder to elaborate, since the Syranians don't have much reasons to get involved with anything in Eberron to begin with.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

If the Syranians are air-based might they develop some sort of grudge against the elemental enslaving shards?

It's also always cool to work in something awful with the dragonmarks.

 

[hexgrid]

Just have the SDF-1 execute a space fold directly above the city.

Oh, wait...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Sharn is already in planar manifestation zone, so it's, in a way, linked to a plane: Syrania the Azure Skies.

What if something akin to the sealing of Xoriat or the desorbitation of Dal Quor happened to Syrania, sending it in a chaotic orbit around Eberron, with irregular and unpredictible conjonction times. As a side effect of going out of synch, Sharn itself, along with other Syranian manifestation zones, may be pulled out and back into Eberron, appearing at random places in other planes, or instead of some other landscape in a former other Syranian MZ.

Heh, I was going to suggest this exact thing. I think this is the winner.