Recap & Character Sheets

Before the next stage of the story begins, a quick recap is in order. I want to show the adventuring party’s up-to-date character sheets together in one place. First, I want to do a quick glossary of important information about the setting that is relevant to the story currently.

Glossary

The year is 997 YK.

The Silver Flame

A disembodied force of pure goodness and law. It is concerned with the struggle against evil and corruption, particularly against the demons released by Khyber eons ago. It has little interest in the struggles of mortals, but has learned to communicate with the sentient races of Eberron within the last thousand years.

The Church of the Silver Flame

A religion that worships the Flame, practised mainly in the human nations of Khorvaire. Symbolised by a silver-blue flame sigil.

Purified

The followers of the Church.

The Keeper of the Flame

The head of the Church.

The Templars of the Silver Flame

Militant arm of the Church. The longbow is the favoured weapon of templars. Symbolised by a silver arrowhead covered in blue flame.

Khyber

The underworld of Eberron. In legend, one of the Progenitor Dragons, that slew her sister Siberys and was imprisoned within Eberron as punishment; hence also The Dragon Below. Many demons and worse, created by Khyber, are imprisoned in its depths.

Overlords

The most powerful of Khyber’s creations, and indeed the most powerful beings known in Eberron itself, with almost godlike evil powers. They ruled Eberron in the Age of Demons, but were imprisoned in Khyber by the couatl and bound there by the Flame hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Khorvaire

The most populous continent of Eberron.

The Five Nations

The human nations of Khorvaire, though their population is only around 70% human. Aundair, Breland, Cyre, Thrane, Karrnath.

Thaliost

A city in the north of Thrane. Formerly part of Aundair, it was captured during the Last War. Its citizens still view Thrane as occupiers, and there is a substantial rebel movement in the city that has recently escalated into open conflict.

The Last War

A war between the Five Nations that lasted over 100 years, ended in 996 YK.

The Mourning

The cataclysmic event that destroyed the entire nation of Cyre in 994 YK.

The Twelve

The twelve principle Dragonmarked Houses of Eberron. These are multinational corporations rather than hereditary families; it is shared business interests and the technology made possible by the dragonmarks, one for each house, that bind them together.

Dragonshards

Crystals with magical properties. There are three types: Siberys, Eberron, and Khyber; legend says that they are the crystallised remains of the Progenitor Dragons. Dragonshards are a key raw material used in the magical technologies that The Twelve produce.

House Phiarlan

One of the Twelve, House Phiarlan is an elven house that carries the Mark of Shadow. Its business interests lie in entertainment and the arts and, less openly, espionage. Its sigil is a five-headed hydra.

House Tharashk

One of the Twelve, House Tharashk is a half-orc and orc house that carries the Mark of Finding. It is a somewhat loose affiliation of different clans from the Shadow Marches—Tharashk is Goblin for “united”—and different families within the House follow different traditions, including some that worship the Khyber cults dedicated to Xoriat entities. Its sigil is a golden dragonne over a warhammer. Its main businesses are the hiring out of mercenaries recruited from Droaam, and the harvesting of valuable dragonshards from the Shadow Marches and Q’barra.

House Ghallanda

One of the Twelve, House Ghallanda is a halfling house that carries the Mark of Hospitality, and is known to own or license the best inns and hostels throughout Khorvaire.

Q’barra

A frontier region outside of the old bounds of Galifar, beyond the Endworld Mountains. It is mostly jungle. Also the name of the human nation in the south-west of that region, a feudal frontier nation outside of the Five, formed by refugees fleeing the Last War. The humans control only a small part of the land area, however; most of the jungle is still wild, and the main civilisation there are lizardfolk tribes.

Cold Sun Alliance Lizardfolk

Tribes of lizardfolk that were blessed by the dragons as the protectors of the jungle of Q’barra long ago, and have stuck to that tradition; they worship the Silver Flame (though they call it the Silver Fire, orn ixen in their tongue). So-called because their alliance exists to prevent the release of the Cold Sun from its imprisonment.

Blackscale Lizardfolk

A rival grouping of lizardfolk, that has rejected the traditions of the orn ixen and now worships the black dragon, Rhashaak.

Masvirik, the Cold Sun

An Overlord, imprisoned in Khyber under Haka’torvhak in Q’barra.

The Party

Anaya - Cleric(5). Damage d6, hit points 17.

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
9 0	13 +1	9 +0	15 +1	18 +3	13 +1

Alignment: Good: Endanger yourself to prevent the spread of evil.

Race: Human (Church of the Silver Flame): Damage against fiends and lycanthropes is d8

Moves: Commune, Cast a Spell; Turn Undead; Divine Guidance; Scales of Life and Death; Serenity; Devoted Healer; Penitent

Equipment: Bow, short sword, chainmail, shield

I have adjusted Anaya’s alignment goal to something that is easier to pursue; I had noticed that she sometimes did not get an opportunity to invoke her previous goal (endanger yourself to heal another) even in combat sessions, and that goal was just the generic cleric goal from DungeonWorld , not specific to her faith at all. The alignment goals matter more at higher levels, since more of the characters’ experience comes from goals and less from failures (since the characters fail less as they level up).

Physical description: 27 years old, 5’6”, brown hair. Always appears in her Templar uniform: chainmail covered by a white tabard bearing the arrowhead sigil of the Flame, and a bow slung at her back.

Background: Anaya is the younger daughter of a noble family of Aundair. She gave up that life to become a Templar due to feeling a personal connection to the Flame.

Esthana - Fighter(3)/Exorcist of the Silver Flame(1). Damage d10, hit points 25.

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
13 +1	17 +2	16 +2	9 +0	13 +1	8 -1

Alignment: Good: Defend those weaker than yourself

Race: Half-elf: Precise with short swords

Moves: Bend Bars Lift Gates; Armoured; Signature weapon: Short sword & Weapon of the Exorcist: sharp, unblemished, cannot be lost, wreathed in silver fire

Equipment: Flametouched Iron short sword, plate mail

Description: 29 years old, 5’6”, can pass for human if her ears aren’t visible. Strong and nimble, but scarred by conflict: she lost her left arm in a battle with a flesh render, and as a result no longer uses a long bow or shield. She wears plate mail emblazoned with the symbol of the Templars of the Silver Flame; the mail has been adjusted for the loss of her arm.

Background: born in Eston in Cyre, Esthana joined the army at 17, and served for nine years during the Last War, primarily on the front line against Karrnath where she faced both human and undead enemies. She lost her home, (we presume) her family, and her nation on the day of the Mourning. A follower of the Silver Flame, she made her way to Thrane and, due to her faith and military experience, was accepted into the army there. After having a near-death religious experience, she is now called to fight for the Flame against the cults of Khyber; as a result she deserted from the army.

Vaalyun d’Phiarlan - Dragonmarked(4). Damage d4, hit points 17.

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
8 -1	14 +1	9 +0	16 +2	13 +1	16 +2

Alignment: Neutral: Use your house’s reputation to help yourself

Race: Elf, Dragonmark of Shadows: Shadows and Darkness

Moves: Favoured in House; All in the Family; By Hospitality Sustained; Summon Living Dragonmark; Hireling: group, loyalty +1, beautiful, stealthy, athletic; Dragonmarked Prodigy; Life of the Party

Equipment: Concealed dagger, tailored leather armour, image projector, scrying stone, valuable rings, eternal wand of magic missile, fuel shard (hospitality), 1000s of gold pieces banked

Description: 50 years old, 5’5”. Either wears a formal green robe embroidered with red hydra’s heads (the symbol of his house); or a less ostentatious green jacket of similar design, worn over tailored leather armour and under a dark cloak.

Background: He serves as a Shadow, one of House Phiarlan’s spies; he seeks valuable information that he can trade for influence within the House. He spent five years as its agent in Thaliost, doing work for the garrison commander there, but helping Esthana escape from the jail has tarnished his reputation there. His information about the rebellion in Thaliost advanced his standing with the House, though.

Nyseris - Ranger. Damage d8, hit points 20.

Str	Dex	Con	Int	Wis	Cha
16 +2	16 +2	13 +1	9 +0	13 +1	8 -1

Alignment: Good: Endanger yourself to combat an unnatural threat

Race: Lizardfolk (Cold Sun): When you keep still in natural surroundings, enemies never spot you until you make a movement.

Moves: Command (Snake companion: Ferocity +2, Cunning +2, Instinct +1, stealthy, keen senses); Called Shot; Hunt and Track; God Amidst the Wastes; Familiar Prey

Equipment: Hunter’s bow, Spear, Leather armour (actually their scaly skin), Adventuring gear

Description: 6’2” tall lizardfolk. Wears no clothes—only a baldric to strap their spear to, and a small pack for supplies; they have grey and white scaly skin mottled with blue-grey flecks. No gender apparent.

Background: a worshipper of the silver fire, in common with many of the gul siksta (Cold One) lizardfolk of Q’barra. Nyseris has ranged widely in the jungle of their homeland. They have only occasionally gone into human or lizardfolk settlements, so the only settlement in which she has spent much time is in her own tribe, the Eternal Fire tribe. Nyseris left their tribe to try to find a solution to their problems: humans and orcs (Nyseris doesn’t distinguish elves, dwarves, half-orcs from humans) come in ever greater numbers into the lizardfolk’s jungle, seeking the dragonshards there, bringing danger and death; Nyseris has been wandering, hoping to come upon a solution to deter these intrusions, and has now made common cause with Anaya’s party.

Languages that the party speaks:
Vaalyun: Common, Elven
Esthana: Common, Elven
Anaya: Common, Celestial
Nyseris: Draconic, Common.

Plot Synopsis

Anaya recruited Esthana and Vaalyun to aid her in tracking down a vampire in Thaliost (a city in northern Thrane). They managed to corner and kill the vampire, but Esthana fell in the fight and experienced a vision of the Silver Flame, warning her that Khyber’s creations were stirring and its worshippers were seeking to free its demons from imprisonment. The Flame returned Esthana with the mission to prevent this.

The party travelled to Flamekeep, the seat of the Church of the Silver Flame, where Esthana was accepted into the Templars. Their commanders were able to provide a little information that the Church had gathered on Cults of the Dragon Below, and a lead from this information led the party to Q’barra.

In Q’barra, they uncovered a cult led by one Count Zuokas. Our adventurers prevented an attack by the cult on a lizardfolk village, which had been intended to start a war between rival groups of lizardfolk tribes. The party went to Count Zuokas’ manor house and found him, and many of his cultists; after fighting the demons summoned by his high priestess and killing the remaining cultists, they captured Zuokas himself. On questioning him, it became apparent that he was being manipulated by his steward, one Elisea, whose motives are still unknown. The party executed Zuokas and the high priestess for their crimes.

In the course of this, the party also learned that the dragonshards in the jungle of Q’barra are imbued with the Silver Flame, and form part of the seal that prevents one of the Overlords, Masvirik, imprisoned in Q’barra from escaping. They also learned that House Tharashk is engaged in harvesting these dragonshards, unaware or uncaring of their purpose; if allowed to continue, Masvirik may eventually be released, with dire consequences.

Significant NPCs

Taliesin Neritoris

Introduced himself as a royal advisor to the court of Q’barra, though Anaya suspects him of being something more than that. He provided the party’s lead to Count Zuokas.

Bertram d’Ghallanda

Dragonmarked scion and proprietor of The Dragon’s Bounty, a hostel in Newthrone.

“Elisea”

Formerly Count Zuokas’ steward, she met the party only once when they did not realise her importance. She controlled the important actions of Count Zuokas’ cult, using them to try to start a war between lizardfolk tribes. Her true nature, name, and purpose are unknown.

Rhashaak

A black dragon, leader of the Blackscale lizardfolk.

Tassis

The Templar’s Commander of Foreign Lands, Anaya and Esthana’s commander, though the templars are authorised to act independently so they merely report their activity to him.

Derkrkaza

The wise one of the lizardfolk tribe that Anaya & party saved from attack by Zuokas’ cult, who revealed the nature of the Q’barra dragonshards to Anaya.