Suggestions to Keep Eberron Campaign From Getting Stale

[Hadrian the Builder]

Here's the idea:
My campaign is built around gathering about five items and resurrecting an ancient hero. So far they are opposed by one Dhakaani Clan that is trying to get the same items. At stake: Freeing a Rakshasa Rajah from his prison. There is an unexplored sub-plot of corruption within the Church of the Silver Flame, which is suggested to relate to the main plot.

So far, each adventure has been pretty similar to an Indiana Jones movie:
Travel someplace, find the item, and fight the bad guys.

I need ideas for ways subvert this pattern, introduce new bad guys, and twist the plot some.

 

[ajanders]

Indiana Jones is not a bad model to follow in Eberron campaigns, but if you want to ring a few twists in the plot, consider these:

Relating to the five items
1.One of the items is holding back an evil force or protecting someone: taking it for use in the party's heroic quest frees the evil or hurts someone, so the party must find a cure or reimprison the evil before going on to the next bit.
2.The items (one or more) are only metaphors for a quality.
3. One of the items is broken and must be recreated.

Relating to the resurrection:
1. Resurrection magic is very rare in Eberron: a lot of people may have ancient heroes they want to bring back from the dead. Some of them may not be ones the party wants to bring back, some may be villains, at least from the party's perspective.
2. The Church of the Flame (or the Host, for that matter) may suggest that the magic involved in raising the dead is necromantic and illegal...possibly evil.
3. Finding the body of the ancient hero may be a good bit of a task in itself.

Relating to the Church of the Silver Flame:
1. It is very possible to view the Church of the Flame as a Lawful Evil organization with good PR. In such a case the "corruption" might be a cabal of Chaotic or Neutral Good priests trying to stay in tune with Tira Marron.
2. The bog-standard Church of the Flame run by Cardinal Richelieu opposed by Dartagnan and the Three Paladins is a standard side plot as well.

Now, if I was going to combine all these into an interesting subplot?
Let's see..
There is a renegade faction of Chaotic Good priests in the Silver Flame.
Although their hearts are in the right place, their methods leave much to be desired.
By collecting the five mystic items, they hope to resurrect Tira Marron. She will cast out the evil in the church with her own perfect hands and lead the church to perfection forever.
Unfortunately they've forgotten that means TM is not assisting the couatl in its battle with the rakshasa lord. That in turn means the rakshasa lord wins and a general apocalypse ensues.

Somehow the PC's must stop or outrun these folks in order to get the remaining four items.

Yeah, the renegade Flamers had the fifth item: it's the holic relic of their order.

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

I should have also pointed out that this campaign is ongoing, so some details are fixed.
The five items are the bow, sword, shield, armor, and body of an ancient hero.

The basic story is that this hero died while fighting one of the claws of Khyber, but a mysterious ritual tangled his soul with his gear and with his enemy. The hero's soul is stuck in limbo, but the bad guy can't die either. As a temporary solution, the good guys petrified the bad guy. But all five items must be present, along with the bad guy, to perform the resurrection ritual and correct this mess.

My Silver Flame church is decidedly good, but with an evil cabal dedicated to the Voice in the Darkness. But this cabal has manipulated events to accuse one of the PCs of Heresy. So a safe return home to finish this is dubious.

I wonder if there is a reasonable way to bring a group of Dragons in as a third party, working against the PCs?

 

[Stormborn]

The old pulp cliche is when things get boring two guys bust into the room with guns. Work for Eberron, or just about anything, well. The PCs may have crossed someone who wants them dead at any given point in your campaign, it need not have anything to do with the metaplot. Think on any concievable reason that someone might be offended by the PCs, give them the means to oppose them, and there you go. If you don't want it to derail the metaplot just have this someone give up because its to much trouble, or maybe have the PCs hurt them so bad they have to reschedule their revenge for when your plot needs a bit more pepping up. The best possible someone is a figure that the PCs cannot immediatly recognize they have bothered. Maybe generic guard #4 was the only child of the captain of an unit of eliete commandos from Cyre and his "aunts" and "uncles" want revenge in the name of their fallen Captain. Maybe when they acquired an object they upset the plans ofthe god-son of a high ranking member of the Halfling Mob in Sharn. Maybe the House Cannith wants to study the unique magical properties of one of the items, but doesn't want their name dragged into it so heirs a team of bounty hunters to go after the PCs.

Or if you want Dragons, maybe there is something about the ressurection of this Hero in the Draconic Prophecy and their is a group of Servants of the Prophecy, all very good beings, who want to stop it while there is a group of thralls to an evil dragon who want to guarantee it happens. All because the most popular interpretation of this ressurection just happens to be wrong, or right depending on how far into the future you want to play it.

 

[Noumenon]

ajanders, I didn't even start this thread and I'm giving you XP for that answer. You are the master of the plot twist.

 

[ajanders]

I'm very grateful for Noumenon's support.
Of course, now I need to take this thread to a higher CR.

With more information comes more plot twists.
1...The hero was losing. The desperate ritual just forced a two-millennium round break. Resurrecting the hero is only half the problem and may be very easy, but if the PC's don't back the hero up, he's going down hard.
Extra twists
a. The hero didn't/doesn't know he was losing and doesn't want to be helped.
b. Some of the forces of good still don't think the hero can win, even with the PC's help. They won't kill the PC's, but they'll throw up every obstacle they can find in the PC's way.
i. Subtwist of b: some of the forces of good want to make sure the PC's are tough enough to help the ancient hero in his fight. They want to throw up every obstacle they can to make sure the PC's "have enough experience fighting evil" to be real assistance (or maybe do the job themselves).
ii.Sub-subtwist of b. The forces of evil don't think the hero can win either, even with the assistance of the PC's. They'd like to see round three start, and will help the PC's in their quest. (You may not want to go this far down the rabbit hole)

Ultimately this leads to the following.
Q: What does it mean when a kyton is using aid another to shield a paladin from a guardinal?
A: It means you need more Sense Motive.

Recurring villains: anyone accused of heresy needs witch hunters or inquisitors.
Build Eberron's version of Solomon Kane or Gregor Eisenhorn and set the hunt afoot.
Stormborn is quite right about the two guys with guns, but I always like to know why those two guys are there. Extra points if it's directly related to something the PC's did, though young guns looking to become known as the fastest wand in the Marches can be very good for setting a theme.

I'd still be inclined to consider having one of the items being metaphorical.
You will, I believe, find the quote in one of Paul's letters...Corinthians?
Or, if you prefer psychic powers...the ancient hero was a soulknife (or psychic warrior). How, then, do we get his sword? Well, he passed his wild talent down through his bloodline: if one of his descendants became a soulknife, his presence would be sufficient for the ritual. (and helpful in any rakshasa-muggery thereafter). If you don't like psionics, you might try a duskblade, hexblade, melee oriented warlock, or spellsword.
Subtwists:
The PC's must find a young descendant and help him become aware of his true potential...possibly also protecting him from the army of Thrane, which is slowly being corrupted by an evil cabal. If you decide to do this, observe strict limits: you can either have a yellow warforged bard with high diplomacy or an airship obtained from the Lyrandar under dubious grounds informally nicknamed the Falcon. Not both.
Second subtwist: the descendant is already a soulknife. He's just not interested in being used as a component for a resurrection ritual.
Sub-subtwist: the descendant has good reason. His ancestor's soul needs a physical vessel...and he will be it.

Chew on those for a bit and let me know if more is necessary.

 

[Hadrian the Builder]

Ahhh....Thank you for the ideas, I feel my writer's block crumbling.

So I've also had an adventure idea to "break things up"--- Seven Samurai.
En route to recover yet another item, they get cajoled into helping a town defend itself against Valenaar Raiders.