Eberron - Rising from the Last War

(Joyce) #1
ROLEPLAYING ALDEN
Alden, normally charming and inviting, is exhausted,
guilty, and worried about his son Caden. He has not yet
informed his wife, Iyana, that their son has been kid­
napped. Alden and Iyana are separated, and Iyana lives
in distant Fairhaven with her sister.
Alden is terse with the characters and wants them to
leave him alone. The moment they bring up Daask, the
Sham Watch, or Coal, he becomes agitated, placing his
hands over his face and emits a strangled scream. Use
the following to guide the party's interaction with Alden:
Alden badly wants to rescue his son but is terrified of
taking action and seeing Caden harmed.


  • Caden was abducted almost a month ago. Alden
    tucked him in one night, he was gone the following
    morning with a message in his place.

  • A hulking half-ogre met with Alden in the following
    days, explaining she needed expendable labor and
    easy transit of said labor and goods. As long as he
    complied, Caden would be returned unharmed when
    her business was done.

  • If Alden backed out of the deal, the half-ogre said she
    would visit horrors on Caden that would make the
    Mockery sick.

  • Alden breaks down sobbing after relaying this infor­
    mation and staggers inside.


ROLEPLAYING VISHTAI
Vishtai is Alden's confidant and knows all about the situ­
ation with Daask. He hates bullies and pushes for Alden
to try to rescue his son rather than to keep giving in to
Daask's demands. After the characters speak to Alden,
Vishtai telepathically relays this message to them before
hurrying to follow Alden inside:


"I have no doubt that Caden will die, regardless of Al­
den's actions. Please, save Caden and return him to his
father. House Orien would owe you a great debt, and
you see how broken the man is. There is an enclosed lift
five buildings north of this estate. Look for the medusa
inside. Make sure you're alone, as this lift will take you
down to the dig site and, hopefully, Caden."

If the party wishes to speak further, Vishtai will hur­
riedly offer the following bits of information:


  • The kidnapper asked for warforged laborers, prefera­
    bly immigrants. These laborers are digging for some­
    thing in a sparsely inhabited area of Old Sham.

  • The lift the characters must use has been modified in
    some way to reach Old Sham.

  • If the characters rescue Caden, Vishtai is certain that
    he and Alden can help them track down the kidnapper.


ENCLOSED LIFT
If the characters follow Vishtai's directions, they find a
lift with an enclosed car that Daask uses to reach the
ruins of Old Sham. Anyone wishing to use the lift must
open a hidden panel and hot-wire it. An "out of order"


CHAPTER 4 I BUILDING EBERRON ADVENTURES

sign hangs above a nearby button which opens the lift's
doors. When the doors open, read or paraphrase the fol­
lowing boxed text to the players:

The double doors on the enclosed lift car open to reveal
the inside of a 15 -foot cube made of stone with etchings
of unicorn patterns covering its walls. A magic orb in the
ceiling illuminates the lift. Two young adults-a shifter
and a well-dressed human-talk nose to nose, cradling
each other's faces in a corner of the elevator, absorbed

l fully in each other and taking no notice of you.

Luna (chaotic neutral female shifter; see chapter 6)
and Vonnie ir'Cardwan (neutral female Brelish human
noble) are having a secret date on the lift. This is where
they first met, so it's a frequent rendezvous. They are
bemused by the interruption and politely ask the party to
leave, pointing out the lift is broken and growing more
insistent and annoyed if the characters don't comply.
Any character who succeeds on a DC 12 Charisma (Di­
plomacy or Intimidation) check convinces the couple to
leave the lift. If a character fails the Intimidation check
or removes the secret panel (see "Medusa Panel" below),
Vonnie gets upset and plainly states she is summoning
the Watch and stalks away with Luna. Two minutes
later, Vonnie returns with three city Watch guards and
accuses them of harassing her, vandalizing the lift, or
both. The guards arrest the party if the lift appears tam­
pered with. Presenting Vilroy's writ and explaining the
situation causes the guards to back off. Hostile action
toward the young lovers or the guards results the guards
attempting to subdue the party.

MEDUSA PANEL
Upon entering the lift, the characters notice that the
head of a medusa engraved amid all the unicorn heads
hides the seams of a secret panel. A tool or weapon can
be used to pry open the panel, behind which are several
wires connecting the lift car to a small Eberron dragon­
shard. Each wire is connected to an individual pin-sized
hole in the dragonshard. A character who is proficient
in Arcana knows the dragonshard and wires control
the movement of the lift. A character who makes a suc­
cessful DC 13 Intelligence (Investigation or Arcana)
check finds a loose wire among those attached to the
dragonshard and a hole in the dragonshard with no wire
attached. A character who attaches the loose wire to the
dragonshard causes the lift to descend into the ruins of
Old Sham. While that wire is attached to the crystal, the
lift cannot be called anywhere else in the city.

BUGBEAR GOING DOWN
If the characters can't find the hidden panel or figure out
how to get the lift to Old Sham, eventually the lift goes
down, called to the tavern district of Olladra's Kitchen
in Lower Central by Orgon, a male bugbear working
for Daask. Orgon wants to go down to Old Sham's
ruins to help guard the relic excavation site. If Luna and
Vonnie are on the lift when Orgon enters, they leave
immediately.
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