SCS (My players out!!)

[Crothian]

I'm not too familiar with Eberron, but I was under the impression that Sharn was a rather large city. Control Water is a 4th level Cleric spell. How hard would it be for them to get some 7th level (or higher) Clerics to cast the spell?

There are very few characters of that level in the setting and most of them are not clerics.

Also a lot of wealthy and/or powerful people would find it in their interests to simply get someone to teleport in some Wands, Scrolls or actual casters to help with the problem.

Teleport is very rare as there are even fewer characters with it.

 

[Kaodi]

Iconic Sharn (the Towers) is not in danger from flooding. Industrial Sharn (the Cogs) is. I cannot imagine the workers of Sharn being overly impressed by being boiled to death by steam from the floodwaters mixing with the lava.

 

[Crothian]

Anything else besides the flood adventure that may have issues?

With the flood issue. Sharn is a huge city so even a few lower water spells will not help it that much. That will be a concern. Also, it is possible the flood waters could damage the towers and even cause one to collapse. That would be a big concern for everyone.

 

[Erywin]

What if the flood waters manage to damage or tamper with the Manifest zone that holds all of Sharn's towers up. I don't know the reason why the floods are happening, seeing as I haven't read any of the Shackled City path. But you might be able to work in some tampering from other planes that might endanger the Manifest zone. Dunno if that helps at all.

 

[Solarious]

Manifest Zones are inheritly intangible. Floods would have happened before, and it's been here for a long time now. The reasons behind Manifest Zones appearing or disappearing are not well understood, but this one is apparently incredibly stable: the ECS says the towers have been growing for over two millennia, and the current Sharn has existed for 700 years (although that might change with an extra-bad conclusion to The Thirteen Cages ). It did, after all, take multiple artifact-level seals to shut down all the Xoriat Manifest Zones at the end of the Age of Monsters. The entire point of the adventure, after all, is that the floods are an annual occurance and the churches have ceased to produce the wands this year. Also, the towers aren't kept up by anything as mundane as foundations or something like that. The floating buttresses that are powered by the zone are what keeps them going up, not the ground.

Speaking of Teleport, that's also a Dragonmarked power, Orien's Greater, as well as Greater Teleport as the Syberis. In addition, the ir'Tains (hosts of the famous monthly Tain Gala, and perhaps the most influential of the noble houses) have industrial holdings down in the Cogs. They, at the very least, would move to protect their cash cows.

PS. The speed of delivery involved with the Airships and Lightning Rails also have to be considered. Although relatively speaking, by the time emergency order wands are done, it is probably far too late: it takes 3 weeks to make one, or 16 days with Exceptional Artisan. But still, I think you should arrange for something else small, vital, and magical to go missing.

 

[Crothian]

What are some good ways to introduce the characters to the thirteen main bad guys before the modules actually do it?

 

[Crothian]

So far the first part is going well. Those automatons have a high AC so louckily they had a wand of magic missiles. And the Dragon Shaman in the group keeps everyone at half hit points easily. Too bad they don't have another healer.

I'm planning a separate adventure next that won't directly tie in to the plot but hope to use it to introduce some of the later NPCs and places.

 

[Crothian]

Chapter one is over. They where really upset with the beholder at the end so that worked out really well. They had their aberrant dragonmarks revealed by the salvers since the group got captured. But they escaped and armed the slaves as much as they could. Many slaves died but the kids were freed. They were thinking of killing everyone who learned of them, but the kids learned of the marks and they didn't know what to do then. So, they got the kids out of there and just plan to deal with it.

I'm not jumping to Chapter 2 just yet. I am running a low level dungeon crawl classic that is city based and really not much of a dungeon crawl. The group needs a little extra XP since we only have three PCs and the classes are a little off. We have a Ninja, Dragon Shaman, and Sorcerer. They are also a little under equipped. They have a large amount of one use items.

 

[Crothian]

We start Chapter 2 this week. We have taken our time getting here. I ran the Ripper DCC and that worked out really well. I'm using the module to make sure the Flood happens in Chapter three. I also had them spend a realizing evening at the Lucky Monkey. They meet some important NPCs from later in the adventures and with a bit of a slower pace I'm finding I can foreshadow things a lot easier. They are third level now and no one has a magical weapon or armor. They had a chance at a cool dagger but the left they dealt with the Ghost in the Ripper module a differnet way. I'm seeing how long I can go with no Big Six items