I recently started a new campaign with my group. It’s one I’ve wanted to do for ages, since I actually sat down and read the Eberron setting. Eberron is a setting which looks to answer the question “What would technology look like if it were made of magic?” There are trains and long distance communications and airships and magical robot soldiers and wandslinging wizard soldiers. The setting introduced the Artificer class to D&D, a class based around creating magic items using ‘Arcane Science’.
While the new version of the Artificer, and in general new material for Eberron itself, hasn’t yet been released, my group was excited about their new D&D 2024 Player’s Handbooks and asked if we could use the 2024 options for their characters. With my own Tea Dragon cover sitting on my desk when that email came, I decided to try the new rules out.
We’re beginning in 998YK, the default starting point for Eberron Campaigns. We are only 4 years out from the Mourning that destroyed the nation of Cyre before mysteriously stopping at its borders. We are 2 years out from the Treaty of Thronehold that ended the 100-year Last War and established the current status quo of the “Five Nations” of Khorvaire.
Not all are happy with the way things ended with the Last War. Many blame the ir’Wynarn family, the Royal Family of the Five Nations, for their sibling squabbles that dragged the continent into war. Some look to the enrichment of the Dragonmarked Houses and ask “why do they get that monopoly?” Some asking the questions even have the money and the connections to start planning to do something about it.
These are the political conditions surrounding the start to our campaign.
Our unlikely heroes are:
– The Duke of Dirt Town, a harengon fighter and part of a trio who smuggle arcane goods
– Fillip Kento, a warforged rogue, would-be inquisitive (or detective) haunted by the wrongfully convicted friend he failed to save
– Ahshalla Elgolor, an elven cleric of the Silver Flame, adventure seeker who avoids direct conflict however she can
– Jed, an orc fighter whose farm was pillaged by orc raiders and just wants to find a new place to put down roots
So yeah, we don’t have casters mostly. That was something that was on my mind to see how it played out, given that I decided to start off at Level 1.
26 Rhaan 998YK
Our adventure begins with the adventurers leaving the lightning rail at the station in Passage, a large transport hub and home to House Orien, who run the trains, caravans, and virtually all land-based trade throughout Khorvaire. The pale blue dot Rhaan, one of Eberron’s 12 moons, hangs full in the sky.
Immediately as they leave the station, they hear cries for help. A man in torn and dirty white cook clothes is running from two elves cloaked in shadow.
The adventurers step in to help the man, interpreting themselves between him and the elves and fighting them off. The combat really showed off the new Weapon Mastery table of the 2024 rulebook as the two fighters kept inflicting conditions on the elves. Vex and Sap were great aids to the fighters. They really added some momentum to the fight, that could shift and sway as different characters applied their mastery effects. Reminded me that I should take a look at monsters I use, consider whether they’d have a mastery trait and apply the proper one in the future. Loads of fun to hear the players cheer for the advantage from a vexed enemy make a difference.
As the fight ends, they are surprised by the fact that none of the other people in the street seem to have reacted to the fight or the man calling for help. The surprise is compounded when they look again and the corpses of the elves are nowhere to be seen.
The PCs introduce themselves to the man they’ve rescued who introduces himself as Simon Baker. He glances back at the road he ran down into town and begins screaming when it is nowhere to be seen. He explains that he was chasing after his neighbor Rhaani, who ran away after she said that her fiancé claimed to have forgotten her on the night of their rehearsal dinner. He tried to console her but she ran down a road out of town and he was chased and accosted by fey when he tried to follow.
A couple knowledge checks later, the party makes the connection that the month is Rhaan and the full moon is Rhaan and Rhaan is the moon tied to Thelannis, the plane of the fey. As our Orc Fighter put it, “Great, it’s fairy bullshit o’clock.”
The PCs continue talking to Simon about Rhaani and her rich fiancé, Jessek Weaver, who seems to have suddenly in the last day or so had an increase to his fortune and is wearing the rings of the Aurum. The party starts talking about whether he sold off his memory or even sold off Rhaani to the fey. Since they figure that there are probably fairy rules afoot, they decide to hurry up and save Rhaani first in case the full moon is a key to getting where she is.
They also drag Simon along, because he’s admitted some unrequited love for her by blushing when asked. By fairy rules, that might make him a key too. Can’t waste any possible key when fairies are involved.
They try to experiment for a while with the road out of town, seeing whether they can summon the fairy road. Eventually Jed just grabs Simon and continues walking down the road saying “We’ll get there however I have to figure the way.” Slowly, and without any clear indication when, the party finds themselves walking a road through Thelannis instead of out of Passage.
The road is cluttered with boxes offering puppies free to good homes. Some canine creatures are off in the distance but seem curious about the party. Food and scratches are offered to one of the more curious individuals, along with a fantastic Handle Animal check by Jed. The dog is offered a sniff of a ribbon that fell from Rhaani during her run and then it blinks down the path to lead them. The party follows the blink dog toward a castle in the distance.
Impression of D&D 2024 and the Session
I had a lot of fun with this session and with the new rules. Like I said while talking about the fight, there was a lot going on that the fighters’ hits were meaning something to the pace of the fight more than just making hit points go down. They could sap an enemy going after a weaker ally to give protection, they could vex an opponent they were one-on-one with to secure themselves advantage.
This was the first self-written session I’d done in a while and the pacing seemed to work. Shout out to Sly Flourish and Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master for the prep method I’m using to figure out just what I need prepped and set aside to roll with what the players decide to do at the table.
These people are my usual group so mostly I got to throw a clue to them, then sit back and watch them work out the next three clues I would have given and run off to EXACTLY the scene I thought would come up. That’s the nice thing about a familiar group who you gave an idea of the themes you wanted, they’re pretty well bought in to the same things you think you’ll need to prep and your prep mostly hits the table.
I’m looking forward to the next sessions, and also to figuring out some adaptations of Eberron stuff I can use to make the game better for the players.
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