Eberron - Rising from the Last War

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.