Writer's Block! Looking for help with story for an Eberron Campaign!

[adventuresineberron]

So, I'm running a D&D 4e Eberron campaign that has recently entered Paragon Tier. I have some basic ideas on what I want the major story to be, but I'm having trouble getting to the story points and adding more than just "Go North to win!" kinds of situations.

Here's a basic idea of what I have so far.

The players right now are going through the adventure "Dead for a Spell" (Dragon Magazine #206) where the spellbook they will find contains information that would help the Dreaming Dark reconnect Dal Quor and Eberron. The book is mostly in an arcane code designed by the archmage who wrote it, so that's a good way for me to feed the players information at whatever pace. Also, when they first come in contact with it, the spellbook will "react" to one of the players, specifically either the kalashtar psion (best case scenario) or the warforged artificer (magic book + magic robot) to give out the start of the Prophecy (which will be slightly familiar to them since I had some random person in Xen'drik tell them the first 4 lines of it during Heroic Tier!).

The main enemy in this venture is a kalaraq quori who leads a significant portion of the Dreaming Dark. The first connection is an agent of the Royal Eyes of Aundair who is actually an agent of the Dreaming Dark and is possessed by one of the kalaraq's underlings. He's trying to get the spellbook because of the information it contains.

The spellbook and the Prophecy hint at an ancient artifact that could be used to stop the plans of the Dreaming Dark: a key said to be able to "lock the planes." This artifact is, of course, the Keyblade since all my players are huge Kingdom Hearts fans and I just finished playing the series (Stop laughing at me!). That's one quest they'll have to complete by traveling to Xen'drik and in some way interacting with the native Drow and maneuver through their complicated political and social system in order to find out where the Keyblade could possibly be. I was thinking of instead using the Thri-kreen since they would be much more "alien" than the Drow, but either works. Still have to work out the kinks in this plot area...

Any other major quests in this are up in the air right now. I'm thinking the players will need to find out information about the Dreaming Dark's plans through some other quests and mini-quests, but the exact specifics are eluding me.

At some point they meet a woman who has lots of knowledge about the Prophecy and keeps showing up at random times (spoiler alert, she's totally a silver dragon) to assist the players. They'll meet her at the Library of Korranberg where she is an expert on the Draconic Prophecy (for good reason). She goes with them, but is also their guiding light/slight manipulator. She wants this prophecy (Dal Quor being defeated and the planet is saved!) fulfilled for the sake of Eberron and will steer them in directions, good or bad, to make it so since the ends justify the means to her.

Anywho that's my ramble. Specifically I'd like help on the events leading up to the ending. All I really have is "Find the Keyblade!" but I want a few other quests to prepare them for the final battle at the end of the campaign. Also, as I mentioned above, my players HATE dungeon crawls unless they have a really good reason to go there with more story to be given besides just "The MacGuffin you need is in there!" I'm lookimg for more political, stealth, subterfuge, and intrigue style things. Even mysteries are great!

Any suggestions on what kinds of quests I should send them on related to the problem at hand?

 

[Razjah]

I'll come back to this later, when I can highlight and read it. But right now, your font is really hard to read using the Legacy skin for the forum.

 

[Razjah]

You could have the Keyblade be a scepter or something the Drow use for the ruling group. They would be resistant to giving it up since it would remove their symbol of authority.

You could easily have a side quest just to secure passage to Xen'drik where the captain has some debts to pay and the mafia-like crime lords who control the ports of Sharn aren't willing to let his ship go and risk him running. While they try to clear up the debt, the agents of the Dreaming Dark draw closer. If they party takes too long for the debt issue, the agents can assist the mafia or find other ways to harass the party.

Perhaps the silver dragon lady could be cursed? She is stuck in her "human form" and is significant weaker in both might and magic. The party can spend time researching her curse and perhaps the book they found has some bits of text that could lend to removing, or partially removing the curse. This would allow the party to need to go to Xen'drik for two reasons. 1) Keyblade 2) help the silver dragon lady get back to being a dragon

Oh, giants can be brought in all sorts of cool ways. Like some giants chasing the party all the way back to Sharn and having a knock-down drag-out fight that wrecks whole neighborhoods. Parts of the city could look like NYC at the end of the Avengers movie. The drow could be convinced to aid the party, and stall the giants in Xen'drik through various political maneuvers.