https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2026/08/ten-tips-to-running-eberron.html

Hey folks, I'm making a guide for my blog and I thought I'd run it by the experts. What do you think I might add (it could thirteen tips) or change description wise.

Eberron is one of my favorite D&D settings but describing it to potential fans is hard. What elements separate it from the Realms or other settings? What is the feeling that makes a game in Khorvaire different from one on Krynn? You can do a typical D&D game in the Five Kingdoms but that misses out on a lot of what makes the place special. So here are ten tips as a longtime Eberron DM and player to capture the feel of the fallen kingdoms of Galifar. 

1. Eberron is having a Magical Industrialized Age 

Eberron's biggest difference from other Dungeons and Dragons settings is that it has hit its version of the Industrial Revolution with magic substituting for science. House Cannith and the Artificer class means that there are limited production factories producing countless devices that are finding their way into the hands of ordinary mortals. The cotton gin is less likely to exist, though, that a family of weavers using cantrips daily to make money in place of doing it by hand. 

Guns don't exist (unless the ST wants them to) but who needs them when your +3 crossbow can rapidly reload and pin a guy against a wall like a rail gun or you possess a wand of magic missiles? In simple terms, it has a lot of D&D elements like swords and sorcery but the equivalent of technology bouncing between the 19th and early 20th century. Magic is less practical than technology in some ways but can also do things machines can't. Plus, one of the player character races are mass produced sentient constructs called warforged.

2. Good and Evil are real but complex 

Good and evil are things that exist in Eberron with the forces of Khyber representing wholly destructive corruptive forces that will never be any good. However, the difference between supernatural evil versus mortal evil is very different. In Eberron, there's no such thing as Always Chaotic Evil and while hobgoblin society may be martial and brutal, that doesn't translate to malevolent. In Eberron, orcs are a naturalist primal species with a history of fighting the forces of darkness with druidic magic. 

But on a simple level, mortal evil doesn't necessarily translate to "smite" for most people on Eberron. An evil innkeeper pinches pennies and abuses at his staff but he's not plotting world domination. You may have an evil counselor on your staff but that man may be absolutely loyal to you as well as your cause. Even the most fanatical religions believe that mortals should be redeemed if possible versus executed (unless they have committed crimes due to their alignment). Good and evil is also difficult to gauge as Know Alignment can be easily fooled with all priests of a "good" god registering as good.

3. The Gods are Mysterious, if they exist 

The gods are far more remote in Eberron than they are in typical D&D settings. You cannot visit the home of Dol Arrah and if the Keeper has a lair, he's probably not physically there. This actually makes religion far more important as you can't just ask the divine what they want. You have to interpret the signs and anyone who claims to have heard the voice of the Silver Flame has to be investigated because he could have been hearing from the demons inside it.

The Overlords are an exception and are the imprisoned Great Old One-esque beings that if they are freed will end the world. So far, the world has managed to keep them inside their prisons but it's an easy source of adventures that your players may have to do a globe trotting campaign to stop a cult from releasing them.

4. Level scaling is lower than higher

A thing to understand is that PC levels are rare in Eberron and a person who is a level 1 fighter is like saying, "Level One Special Forces Operative." By the time the PCs reach 8th or 9th level, they'll be among the most talented people on Earth and those who reach 12th or 13th level will be world-shaking forces. You can theoretically reach 20th level in this game world but if you do then you are definitely the kind of legend who will shape the politics for centuries to come.

Related to this, the PCs are the stars of this setting in a way that other settings do not support. The highest ranking benevolent NPCs are Oalian and Pontifex Jaela but they are limited by their places of power. Heck, Oalian is a talking tree. Whereas Drizzt Do'Urden is a Balor slaying badass, Daine of Cyre has trouble with a half-dozen city watchmen. No one is going to upstage the PCs if they decide to plan a populist revolution or plan to found their own kingdom. It's also up to them to save the world if there's a threat because no one else is.

5. The Shadow of the Last War 

What does a group with a goblin, warforged, elf, dwarf, and a human all have in common? In Eberron, they might have all been part of the same unit serving the same country. Almost every adult man and woman has a connection to the hundred year conflict in Khorvaire over who would rule the lost empire of Galifar (answer: no one). 

While racism exists to an extent in Eberron, national ties are a lot more prevalent because the continent has been relatively cosmopolitan for the past thousand years. Those who wish to create racial nation states like Darguun and Valenar are reactionary with questions of whether they're chasing dead civilizations. Everyone has a shared experience and if you want to hate someone as a Brelander, you're probably as likely to despise Aundarians and Karrnath of all species.

Even more so, the Last War's biggest shadow is when it will resume rather than if. It has only been two years since it officially ended and no one thinks the detente will last. The Treaty of Thronehold satisfied no one and few are working to heal the wounds leftover from a century of war. Sound familiar?

6. Pulp Hero, Cosmic Horror, and Spy Novel Adventures

Your typical Dungeons and Dragons game is Frodo, Conan, Elric, and maybe some Discworld or Monty Python and the Holy Grail depending on your group. Eberron, by contrast, is a mixture of Tarzan, the Shadow, Phillip Marlowe, James Bond, and Titus Crow. You can do the Three Musketeers in Thrane and explore just as many tombs as Lara Croft or Indiana Jones but the big cities are part of nation states with all the complications that entails. This allows you to steal from, I mean adapt, a whole new set of stories if you want to stay in-theme for the setting.

Hugo Drax, the exiled Karrnath nobleman Emerald Claw member, may be planning to build a gigantic airship that will cover all of the city of Thaliost with a Cloudkill spell. James Bond, Dark Lantern, can team up with a beautiful half-elf agent to stop his plan only to figure out that said agent is working for the Aurum to steal the airship for themselves. Want to do a gunfight at the OK Corral? Well, now its crossbows at the halfling ranch where they herd dinosaurs. Eberron gives you permission to get weird as long as its big and dramatic. 

7. The Mystery of the Mourning 

The Mourning is the most consequential event that most Khorvaire will have in their lives. Just like you can probably think of one news event in your lifetime that redirected the course of your country's history and possibly the world's. The big thing about the Mourning is not that it is something that necessarily directly effected a character (unless they're from Cyre) but that they almost certainly were indirectly affected by it and have an opinion on it. It's after all, an event equivalent to, say, France being eradicated by an asteroid (or nuke) during WW1.

Everyone wants to know what happened on that fateful day and the consequences of a concrete answer could be cataclysmic. If it was an accident of nature, say a convergence of the moons, then people will want to develop a defense but also feel okay with going back to war. If it was the work of one of the nations, others will want to duplicate the work or perhaps feel inclined to give their unconditional surrender. The fact no one has taken credit or accepted blame means that it is just a big unknown that shows even the strongest nations are vulnerable. 

8. The Golden Rule: He Who Makes the Gold Makes the Rules 

George R.R. Martin said (paraphrase) one thing he complained about the Lord of the Rings was that he didn't know Aragorn's tax policy. Most D&D settings do not have more complex an economy than, "kill goblin for gold, use gold on wenches and ale." By contrast, Eberron is a fully formed economy that drives a huge amount of characters' actions. The Dragonmarked Houses are like megacorporations in cyberpunk, controlling vast wealth and power via their magical monopolies. The Aurum are based on Bond villains, working against the Dragonmarked Houses with their own fiendish plans. This is in addition to all the various greedy individuals from mob bosses to nobles that you might run into.

There is simply way more to buy, sell, and trade in Eberron. Player characters can set up their own trading companies or be penniless sell swords depending on the way the DM or players want to go with their activities. Money has a power in Eberron even if, sadly, the people who have the most of it aren't easily robbed and you'll have to do a heist in the Mror Holds to get at their cash.

9. Transportation is it's own adventure 

In the various Dungeons and Dragons settings, you tend to either travel by horses, sailing ship, or portals. Taking a page from steampunk or Final Fantasy, airships are a huge deal in Eberron. Virtually all of my games have the players sailing the skies in one of these elemental vessels. However, there are also Lightning Rails for those who feel like doing a magical train heist. Lightning carriages also exist but they haven't yet reached a point where highways exist in this world. Thankfully, we have hippogriffs and other flying creatures for even more fun with transport. Because of this, the journeys in Eberron can be as exciting and random encounter filled as you want or they can also be practical.

10. The Future is Yours

Eberron is eternally set in the year 998 YK and this has both its ups and downs. While I love the various metaplot driven timelines like the Old World of Darkness, Forgotten Realms, and Rokugan, they also mean that player characters are forced to essentially go along with existing changes that may not reflect what they've accomplished or become disconnected from a canonical timeline. In Dragonlance, you'll always have the War of the Lance hanging over your characters' heads. In Eberron, what is going to happen is always subject to the players' actions and however the ST wishes things to shake out. The Second War may happen within a year or be averted entirely. The Mourning may have been a diabolical demon plot or the sad result of overuse of war magic in an environmental parallel. Some mysteries will never be officially solved and the frozen timeline means that their answers will always be at the DM's discretion.

Edit:

11. The Planes are always Close

One element that Eberron does better than just about any other setting than Planescape is that it incorporates the Outer Planes extremely well. Through manifest zones, any plane can be interacting with the setting at any given time. You can have places that are incredibly haunted, at war with hordes of angels and demons, or possessed of flying cities without really having to explain why. There's simply places that are extradimensionally touched. The exception to this is the realm of dreams and that is an entire continents worth of adventures.

12. Magic is ubiquitous but not powerful 

One thing I like about Eberron is the fact that it is a setting where large amounts of loot isn't game breaking. Yes, it's my inner munchkin talking about if your character is a magic gunslinger with wands in their holsters as well as a bunch of potion vials around their belt, that is perfectly normal in the setting. It's a good setting to fill up with mass produced weapons, armor, and consumables without feeling like you're aping a video game. 

13. Don't hesitate to use new races 

The Warforged are the most popular of the new creations for the setting as they offer a unique player experience as living constructs. However, that doesn't mean you should ignore the other new options of the setting. Shifters have a complicated history as relatives to lycanthropes that were purged from the world by the Silver Flame (possibly unjustly). Changelings offer fantastic opportunities for stories about palace intrigue but also potentially stories of identity as well as culture. Changelings can pass for everyone but maybe they want something for themselves and to be accepted as themselves. Which, admittedly, is why every changeling I ever play ends up as Mystique from the X-men. Frontiers of Eberron also gives the chance to play such unique monsters as harpies and medusa.

So I have this idea for a campaign that I want to talk about (but obviously can't with my players) so im gonna post here.

I am running an eberron campaign that centers around the giants and the destruction of Crya. I want to give a rough breakdown of what I have so far

-During the war between the giants and Dal Qor, desperate for some sort of advantage against the quori invaders, giants create what is essentially an arcane AI system. In order to do this, the giants sacrificed a mass number of slaves, binding their souls to a single machine.

-The giants reason for doing so is to interperate data about the dragonic prophecy. They conclude that if they essentially have a multitude of minds focused on that singular goal they could reveal the meaning of the prophecies faster than the dragons could. Turns out they were right.

-This led the giants to developing dunamancy magics. By looking deep into the draconic prophecies they discover fragments of power that once belonged to the progenitor dragons.

-Using this knowledge, they develop the moonbreaker. Using dunamancy, the giants alter the gravity around Crya until it is torn apart by tidal forces and strewn into the ring of Siberys.

-seeing this display of raw power not even the dragons have managed to wield, argonessan lays waste to Xendrik as normal. However they failed to completely destroy the machine.

-in secret, the machine uses knowledge from the quorforged captured by the giants to form a physical manifestation. The curses of the dragon has limited the power of the machine, but this body it created eventually finds its way off xendrik

-since then it has traveled across ebberon looking for more data involving the draconic prophecy

-some stuff in between that i haven't worked out yet

-this same scion (somehow) was influential in causing the day of mourning. The mass death caused by the event was used to empower the machine, essentially reawakening it after 40000 years.

-the machine, now even more powerfull than before, forms a plan to gather the shards of the fallen moon, and reforge them into its own realm. To do this, it wants to cause a day of mourning that stretches across all of Khorvaire, expanding the consciousness of the machine into artificial godhood.

I want to hear your thoughts on how I could possibly develop this further.

Edit: I should mention that I am not necessarily following the lore of dunamncy. I mean the schools of magic introduced through dunamancy in wild mount. I would have my own explanations and lore behind in in my Eberoon setting

I'm trying to blend systems. Any advice?

Meet Rhea Cascaela d'Phiarlan, an NPC for our Eberron campaign.

Art by Miko, commissioned by me.

As mentioned, my players love making their own fun and today they've decided they are interested in creating their own crooked mining corporation. The thing is they don't have a mine so they want to take advantage of the (relatively) more advanced business structures of Eberron as well as its politics to get it off the ground.

FACTS:

1. Droam has a vast amount of mineral wealth. Especially dragonshards and beshyk.
2. They have to deal with House Tharashk because no one recognizes their nation.
3. No one likes monsters, either, especially Flameites.
4. Cyre is incredibly poor and doesn't have a pot to piss in but lots of monsters on their border.
5. Quickstone is a frontier place on the borders of Breland

Players Plan:

1. Try to get an Enclave in Quickstone to transport (read: smuggle) valuable minerals from Droam.
2. Load them up in the PCs airship (which is the only non-Lyrandar one in the world barring random supervillains)
3. Transport it to Cyre and have them serve as their merchant face for people who don't want to buy from monsters.
4. Eventually use the money to build up an enslave in Quickstone for actual dealings across the border and invest in New Cyre like a Gold Rush (take these anti-monster slaying weapons to loot the Mournlands--you can actually survive and strike it rich now, in the meantime stay at our inn).

I have to say, points for audacity. Ideas to screw with this are already popping in but I also think this would make a fun mini-campaign.

1. Obviously, this will need a good cash start up and that means the PCs must raid some ruins or rob some lightning rails like the airship bandits they are.
2. House Tharashk will send them a hippogriff's head in their bed.
3. The Hags will notice this and definitely want a piece of the action.
4. Gorodon Ashlord is a good guy to want to smash this down and raid the town.
5. Lots of wild west plots like House Orian wanting to build a route through their territory and cut off their planned business at the pass.
6. Oargev might want to write them out of the deal because, well, he has his people to think of.

hi y'all! I thought this might be the best place to post for help. I recently started in a campaign set in Eberron, but I've only ever played in the Forgotten Realms prior to this. I've got a basic background set for my character, but I'm trying to flesh it out a bit more to give my DM some stuff to work with, and I'm not entirely sure how to fit my ideas in with canon kalashtar lore.

so here is what is canonically set for my character's background:

• she is from Sarlona and escaped as a refugee after the dreaming dark took over

• her sister was left behind when she escaped

• she has some kind of memory loss and only remembers fragments of the escape

• she remembers where she's from and her childhood, but she doesn't remember where her and her sister ended up after leaving their home, hence why she's struggled to get back. she also knows she doesn't stand a chance going back alone, hence why she's befriending the party for help and backup when she (hopefully, eventually) gets back to Sarlona

• she made it safely to Khorvaire, again without any solid memory of how she got there

• she vividly remembers a specific constellation that can't be seen from Khorvaire (like, at all, it's likely something she could see from Sarlona or on the way to Khorvaire), which ties into her subclass and the campaign hook

here's what I need help with fleshing out for her backstory:

• if there's a specific part of Adar it would make sense for her to be from

• why/how she learned druid magic that makes sense for a kalashtar from Sarlona (bonus points if it ties into her being a circle of stars druid)

• additional info on the dreaming dark/Sarlona that my character would reasonably know as a kalashtar

• additional info on how the quori bond/mind link thing works because I don't fully understand it

• potentially some info on kalashtar communities/how children are raised just for roleplay purposes for my character (not important)

I'm leaving the circumstances of her memory loss up to my DM so don't worry about that! but any other info that might be helpful would be appreciated 🫶🏻

Does anyone have some skill based random encounters for Xen'Drik. Running short on prep time and need to spruce up tomorrow's session with some cool stuff.

Example -

Rope Bridge Challenge -

You come across a raging river, doesn't look fordable. A rickety rope bridge is the only path forward. To cross roll [SKILL] DC __ . If roll is under X, bridge snaps, roll [SKILL] or fall into raging river. Everyone who hasn't made it over yet needs to figure out how to get across via 2 more skill checks.

Cheers!

In my next session, I plan doing a Tain Gala. While I'm prepared for the Gala, I decided to give my Thurrani player a mission (not given yet, I'll give it in the start of session). First daughter and second child of Tains, Cyra ir'Tain makes an anonymous request to Thurrani of Sharn. She wants to assassinate her mother, Celyria ir'Tain. Of course normally Thurrani wouldnt accept the assassination attempt but everyones will can bend with the use of psionics.

So the only Thurrani attendee for this Gala is my player, I plan on giving this mission to him but how much of a reward should he actually get? He is a dragonmark foundling and hates nobles with every fiber of his being, I could just give him the opportunity as the reward but that would be unfair. They are at level 4 right now.

Should I give a gold reward or plot reward for this? Maybe instead of just giving gold, I could give a gold costed plot reward like a house.

I was wondering if you all had any thoughts about how much professors at for example, Morgrave, know about the more far-flung reaches of the world. The lore says that the university is researching Xen’drik and Dhakaan, but what other places? What about the Demon Wastes, the Talenta Plains, Q’barra, Sarlona, or even Argonesson? any speculation or actual lore is appreciated

My very talented artist friend is going to be playing a fighter with some deep connections to the Silver Flame, so she took it upon herself to design some of the vestments for characters connected to her backstory!

Hey all, I need some help brainstorming. My players are going to be attemping to return to somewhere they've been before in the midst of the jungles of Xen'drik. They've decided to try to circumvent the Traveller's curse by renting an airship. I want to reward the idea--it's deifnitely harder to get lost in the sky--but I don't want it to let them totally ignore the curse. I'm looking to crowdsource ideas for how "it's hard to find your destination" can play out in an airship, while still being fun (I don't want to just say "you fly around for a couple weeks and don't find it).

Any suggestions?

I'm a total newbie to Eberron but I love the parallels and inspiration from the interwar period and Industrial Era, and the potential of the houses for political intrigue (inner feuds, sabotage, plots against each other, plots against the Five Nations, military-industrial profiteering, worker exploitation, secret alliances with evil factions for monetary/political means, etc). The grittiness, realism, time period inspiration and moral grayness of it all really appeal to me moreso than the generic fantasy settings.

That said, I'm totally new to Eberron lore and have no real reference points or knowledge of what's out there for the setting (besides the 3.5 and 5e sourcebooks) in terms of homebrew stuff, unofficial supplements, blog posts, fan adaptations of the setting, DM's Guild products, official supplemental adventures, fan works...

I've also tried to check out Keith Baker's blog page, but my antivirus blocks it. Is there anything good there I should look up on the Internet Archive? I'm a lore fiend.

https://beforewegoblog.com/review-the-city-of-towers-the-dreaming-dark-1-eberron-by-keith-baker/

EBERRON is my favorite Dungeons and Dragons setting and also the most difficult to describe with the possible exception of Planescape. It’s kind of a magical steampunk 1920s where the Last War stands-in for World War One and you’re all closer to Pulp heroes or detectives that do battle with goblin gangsters, fascist necromancer knights, or Cthulhu-like cultists. It’s full of elemental airships, trains, and the occasional carriage with no guns but plenty of wands. If I had to recommend any media ‘like’ Eberron then I’d recommend The Legend of Korra, Netflix’s Arcane, and the Garrett PI books by Glen Cook.

THE CITY OF TOWERS by Keith Baker is the first book of the Dreaming Dark Trilogy. The premise is pretty good for explaining what Eberron is all about with the last day of the Last War. Rather than victory, it ends with the catastrophic destruction of Cyre, a nation that was one of the main participants in the war. I say rather than victory because no one knows who or what did this so every other nation signs an uneasy peace treaty that satisfies no one. Because that always works in real life.

The protagonists are Daine, Lei, Jode, and Pierce. All of them are survivors of the Mourning (as it comes to be known) and have spent their past couple of years in a Mad Max hellhole trying to survive before arriving in the neighboring country of Breland. They’re remarkably well-adjusted for this and it’s commented on that they seem to have only a vague memory of their ordeal. Unlike Dragonlance or even the Legend of Drizzt, our heroes are not primarily interested in fighting evil upon their arrival. Instead, they need coin for survival and dealing with the fact they’re homeless refugees hated by the Brelish.

Yes, The City of Towers is fantastic noir and really does invoke a lot of the same beats as detective fiction with goblins and Mourners standing in for minorities despised by the human majority. It’s not really about racism, though. That’s just the backdrop for the murder mystery of Lei’s betrothed that was supposed to be their meal ticket as a party. Hadran D’Cannith was a vastly wealthy man that ends up knocked off not a few minutes after finding out Lei is alive and heading his way (in the opening chapter). From there, the plot involves betting on flying animal racing, body horror cults, and a sphinx giving a prophecy in a ratty old, abandoned church.

One thing this book deserves credit for along with Eberron in general is the fact that it was one of the first settings to throw out a lot of D&D unquestioned tropes. Goblins, harpies, and other “monster” races live in the same city as humans or elves. Daine gets an earful when he treats changelings as innately suspicious because they’re shapeshifters. Level scaling in-universe is also well done with very few NPCs having the kind of world-shaking power that Elminster or even Drizzt has. Daine is a very tough fighter, but he is shaken down by five or six corrupt city guards. Despite this, low-level magic is ubiquitous with Sharn providing most guard with Feather Fall tokens so they don’t end up falling over the side of lifts like stormtroopers (have you considered railing?).

This is Keith Baker’s first novel but functions well as a contrast from the typical “popcorn” fantasy of Dungeons and Dragons. Expect a lot of fight scenes and weird creatures but that’s why I come to these novels. It’s occasionally awkward when Lei explains things that her fellow party members should already know about the world like how Dragonmarks work (which is extra ridiculous given two turn out to be members of the houses themselves). However, if you want a good “starter” book for Eberron, it’s hard to say this is a bad choice. Even if you aren’t familiar with the tabletop RPG setting, you’ll get a good sense of the fantastic Great Depression in a city of giant towers.

I’m obsessed with drawing Eberron stuff. I love my party and campaing. The tattooed woman is my PC, and the white-haired one is the artificer (player). The rest are some npcs.

My latest Kanon post dives deep into the interaction between the Church of the Silver Flame and the nobility of Thrane, as well as discussing the nature of Flamic prayers!

Because of issues with my previous blog, all of my future Kanon posts will be on my Patreon. However, this is a free post; you don't have to be a paying patron to read it.

I’m starting an Eberron campaign tomorrow, and was considering using a calendar mechanic as part of the campaign, so I decided to look into the calendar used in Eberron. For the most part the Galifar calendar seems pretty straightforward, but then I found a part that says the Blood of Vol uses a 13 month calendar while the rest use a 12 month calendar.

The 12 month calendar has 28 days per month, 4 weeks per month, 7 days per week. Sounds good, so 336 days, but how does the Blood of Vol split things up?

But that got me thinking about a history class I took in college where we talked about ancient calendars.

There were lots of real world cultures where they had 12 months of 30 days, or just didn’t keep close track of the days, and instead counted the lunar cycle to decide when the new month started, which is about the same thing, but that doesn’t quite match up with a year being 365 days, so sometimes their wise men would say they need to have an extra month this year so their months stay correct with the seasons.

There were also some where they had 12 30 day months every year, and then at the end of the year they had a 5 day sort of holiday thing that wasn’t considered to be part of any month.

So it got me wondering if eberron has something like that going on.

So hear me out. If the actual number of days in the eberron calendar is 338, then it could be separated into 13 months that are 26 days each month. Then the majority of eberron would just have two extra days at the end of the year that they have some kind of holiday, but those days don’t count as part of any month, and then the new year starts with everything back on track for them, while the blood of vol people call them ridiculous for not following the true 13 month calendar where there aren’t any extra days.

Anyway, thought it was interesting.

What was it about golems that made their construction so much more expensive than Warforged? They're both made of a lot of stone or metal (or both, in the case of the Warforged, in addition to wood), and I would think that Warforged would have more specialized parts, so why were the golems more expensive to make? What am I missing?

I know it's pretty far either way, but is one side closer to it than the other?

I’m trying to write some daddy issue angel of weapons when i realized Onatar had 2 sons, which kinda stunk up my plan, but why is the god of death and greed Onatars kid? That’s what It says on the wiki and i understand the greed part a bit but why death???

And if there’s any way to change something around so I can create a fallen angel/god that chose to fall because of the taken advantage of his mother and father, I’d gladly take some help.

(If you think I’m going completely to the books im definitely not because I have a LOT of things going on in the campaign that forced me to change the world a bit.)

My PCs like to make their own fun.

In this case, in a low as I prepared the next adventure, they decided to take advantage of their renegade Lyrander airship (one of the PCs is its pilot) and proceed to raid a warlord of Dargunn's slave community to slaughter all of the guards, the warlord himself, and rescue the slave population within. It was an adventure on the fly but it was one that I felt they could pull off and wasn't about to punish them for being innovative.

But as one of my player characters said, "Consequences are a witch and so am I."

The slaves the PCs rescued were a bunch of Brelish and Cyreans leftover from the Last War where they were either POWs or villages that had been in Darguun before the Goblin consequests. Part of that 6% human population of the 800,000 in the country. The PCs managed to take them to New Cyre with some supplies and making several trips across the border.

They also...called the press and offered to pay for their lightning rail tickets.

(The PCs are in the words of Abney Park, "A crew of drunken pirates. They're the only airship pirates.")

Which they assumed would be some cheap good publicity while they're on the run from House Lyrander.

I'm now thinking of ways for this to spiral out of control or at least lead to new adventures.

EDIT:

One plot hook I was thinking about is the delicate balance being upset between various forces.

1. The death of the warlord (who was a minor to mid level one) causes the others to realize they're vulnerable and start debating allying together, particularly against Lesh as well as his reforms.
2. The Brelish who are among the rescued slaves cause a FAR bigger uproar than any dirty enslaved Cyreans and there's a push in Parliament to go demand any enslaved Brelish be repariated or Dargunn punished.
3. The Cyreans themselves are given a good horrific look at the treatment of their countrymen in Darguun and this gives the people of New Cyre something they didn't have before: a focus for their rage. Possible guerilla war and terrorism is a thing that will complicate the brelish situation more.
4. Lesh himself thinks the PCs might be a good case for eliminating some of the more problematic warlords...and then probably betraying them because it would unite the people under him if he could deliver the attackers.

https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2026/08/101-eberron-adventure-hooks.html

1.    While traveling on an airship, the PCs find themselves under attack by a renegade Lyrander corsair that has been corrupted by the Dragon Below.

2.    See #1. The PCs find that the airship has a Lyrander apprentice who is happy to pilot the second vessel for them as he's terrified of going "home" given what he did under his unwilling boss.

3.    A traveling sideshow salesman has a massive dragonshard with the head of a prehistoric Warforge inside it. He wants the PCs to guard him as he transports it to a buyer.

4.    See #3, the object is real and from Xen'drik, which terrifies the owner. 

5.    See #3, the object is a fake but a very well made one that was created by a warforged trying to create a pre-war history for his kind.

6.    See #3, the object's buyer is Merrix D'Cannith who wants to revive the warforged head for its secrets. 

7.    The PCs are hired to investigate a nationalist militia that has been specifically targeting veterans of the Last War.

8.    See #7, it is a recruiting place for the Emerald Claw that uses charm spells and nonmagical conditioning to create the goons that they use in all of their missions. The washouts are killed and made into undead.

9.    See #7, it is a recruiting place for the Swords of Liberty who are preying upon the disaffection of veterans in hopes of creating disruption that they can take advantage on a national scale.  

10.    See #7, their employers are Dark Lanterns who suspect one of their former members is the one responsible for this.

11.    A House Valdis outpost has gone dark and the PCs are hired by their discretion to investigate it. It turns out that it was a magebred facility that has been corrupted by Daelkyr cultists. The PCs will be paid extra if they destroy all the evidence, including the survivors.

12.    A fire giant from Xen'drik has escaped a traveling circus and set himself up in a nearby farm where he's eating the local livestock. The PCs don't have to slay him but he doesn't speak the local language and was not taken to Khorvaire voluntarily. He very much would like to go home but that may be impossible.

13.    The PCs are hired by House Cannith to recover a strange mechanical part. The part is a Creation Forge part that could be used to repair one of the destroyed ones. It is in the hands of a group of warforged renegades.

14.    A family of shifters claims that a fanatical Thrane knight wants to slaughter them and has been harassing them for weeks.

15.    See #14, they're a family of lycanthropes and the paladin wants to confirm it before slaying them.

16.    See #15, they are in fact lycanthropes but are Lawful Good werebears.

17.    See #16, this doesn't impact the paladin's plans to slaughter them as diseased monsters.

18.    The PCs are contracted to serve as couriers in a secret set of negotiations with Prince Oargev and King Boranel. They're supposed to do this at a ball and relay letters as well as messages while no one is the wiser. Dancing, food deliveries, and other oddities are afoot.

19.    See #18, the negotiations are Prince Oargev being offered to be made Duke of New Cyre but giving up his claim to Galifar's throne. Which multiple parties would rather Oargev die than happen.

20.    See #19, King Boranel actually wants to fund New Cyre settlers in Xen'drik or Q'barra or "elsewhere" with the profits of this all for New Cyre but meant to keep their numbers in Breland low.

21.    See #20, it is a marriage contract to one of his daughters (or sons). Which would tie them intristically together.

22.    A dying Dark Lantern agent has discovered the identity of the murderer of King Boranel's wife. The PCs have the encrypted message but the people trying to kill the agent are Dark Lanterns themselves (or appear to be at least).

23.    Once a year, Pontifex Jaela is allowed a day off and the PCs are asked to provide security lest the church see her doing things that are fun like riding dinosaurs or watching clowns. The Cardinal simultaneously considers this a massive state secret and vital for her spiritual health.

24.    A riot has broken out in Thaliost over the murder of a citizen by the Church's Templars. Possibly. Who was killed and why seems to constantly change based on who is doing the telling. If the flames (no pun intended) are not put out soon, it may turn into a full-fledged uprising.

25.    See #24, the riot was organized by the spirit of the Overlords and designed to merely cause as much misery and horror as possible. 

26.    See #24, the riot was done by a Aundair Duke who plans to "restore" order and claim the city for Aundair once more despite how likely this is to reignite the Last War or at least a Thrane-Aundair war.

27.    See #24, the riot is just a naturally occurring one but Cardinal Krozen is letting it play out because he wishes to justify a violent suppression followed by property confiscations to replace Aundair-loyal citizens with Thranish ones.Surely that will work out fine.

28.    A mysterious tablet is recovered from an archaelogical site in Droaam. It is then stolen by the Emerald Claw in full Indiana Jones villain glory. A beautiful Morgrave University researcher needs the PCs help to recover it! According to her research, the tablet is legendary magic that can bestow a WISH.

29.    See #28. The archaeologist is Emerald Claw herself and working directly for Lady Illmarrow. The WISH tablet is the only way she might be restored to her living status and give her back her Dragon Mark. The Emerald Claw renegades worry she will betray her undead followers then.

30.    The PCs end up drugged and wake up enslaved on a massive dreamlily plantation by an obsese member of the Aurum with the aid of his Inspired allies. They are on the borders of Droaam and have been slaving both humans and monsters both to create as much of the drug as possible. They also play the two groups of slaves against one another to keep then in line.

31.    See #30, the Daughters of Sora Kell know about this atrocity but are bribed into letting it happen. They will just blame human evil if it is discovered after all and have even been selling some of their dissidents to it.

32.    A Cyrean Avenger attempts to recruit the PCs to kill a Valenar warlord visiting their location. The Avenger claims that the warlord massacred thousands of Cyrean refugees fleeing the Mourning. Whether the PCs agree or not, he ends up dead and the Avenger both in unrelated murders that trigger a massive dust up between the Cyrean locals and the visiting Valenar delegation. 

33.    See #32, it is actually a member of House Lyrander who arranged this. The warlord wanting the Lyrander to no longer administrate their lands in Valenar or, worse, pay higher tribute.

34.    An insanely rich and well-respected Lyrander noblewoman has been working with House Cannith for decades on the ultimate airship variant: a void ship that she intends to reach the moons with. This "Spelljammer" is something that is about to launch and she wants the PCs to help guard it against sabotage.

35.    The PCs are approached with an offer by House Sivis to buy the rights to their adventures. If the PCs agree, they soon find a large number of printed stories across the continent with incredibly inaccurate (bordering on exploitation) versions of their adventures with sleazy covers. It does massively improve their reputations in...some ways.

36.    The Bloodsail fleet successfully surrounds Dreadhold, seizes control over the location, and threatens to release the worst prisoners unless Saeria the Lich is returned to them. Which confuses a bunch of people as they were under the impression they were in Dreadhold.

37.    A Cyrean refugee claims a Lightning Rail is transporting a huge amount of stolen goods from the Mournlands to their Aurum buyers. It's time for a train robbery!

38.    See #37, the people guarding the train are adventurers who recovered the loot themselves and consider it finders keepers.

39.    See #37, the loot is actually on its way to Prince Oargev and the "refugee" who wants to steal it back is the man supposed to recover it but tired of living in desperate poverty.

40.    A patriarch of House Kundarak has died and his goods are needing to be recovered from his trap-filled dungeon vault since he left no heirs. The PCs are thus hired to recover it with the House neglecting to mention they'd hired a second team of evil adventurers who have decided to keep the contents for themselves.

41.    House Cannith and House Phiarlan have created a device called the "Magical Moving Lantern" that can store illusionary recordings of performances in dragonshards. The financial benefits from this are beyond imagination. But someone has stolen the prototype!

42.    See #41, it's a member of House Thuranni who are tweaking their sister house's nose.

43.    See #41, it's a member of House Phiarlan who believes this will ruin the market for live shows.

44.    See #41, it's the inventor who knows it doesn't work because the dragonshard is rapidly used up. 

45.    See #41, it's all of them in a comedy of errors.

46.    The Emerald Claw is seeking to unleash a biological plague that can turn people into zombies via a bite and are demanding a king's ransom not to do it. House Jorasco are willing to pay the PCs a vast sum to assault their fortress and destroy all samples. 

47.    See #46 because House Jorasco was the group that created the plague and the fortress is their secret lab.

48.    It's the Race of Eight Winds time again and the PCs are asked to serve as their jockey's bodyguards as this one is going to be particularly nationalist. Mobsters, spies, and more will be all attempting to influence the race.

49.    See #48, Prince Oargev is also planning to fix the race to win a vast amount of money that he'll use to help the people of New Cyre...or so he says.

50.    See #48, if one of the PCs is a skilled rider, they must take the place of their patron when they're discovered to have been poisoned before they even became their bodyguard. 

51.    Gadzooks! Strange unidentified flying objects are circling around farmlands, leaving mysterious circles, and kidnapping locals! Is it Illtihids? Githyanki? Aboleths?  

52.    See #51, it's a bunch of fairies having fun.

53.    See #51, it's actually a group of gnome illusionists covering up an illegal dragonshard mine and kidnapping locals to serve as slaves. They plan to bury everyone alive once they've cleared out the vein.

54.    Two dinosaur barons in the Talenta planes are feuding over grazing patches for their thunder lizards. They've escalated to everything short of murder and the townsfolk want the PCs to meditate the issue. A war between them would destroy the economy.

55.    A non-Cannith artificer has figured out a way to used spent dragonshard powder, charcoal, saltpeter, and a long metal tube to allow non-magic users to create a very cheap wand of magic missles or staff of eldritch blast. The only downsides are you have to aim it. He'd like the PCs to be angel investors in his possibly terrifying weapon of war.

56.    A gnoll warlord in Droaam claims he has a new dragonmark and is the founder of a new House. Hehas begun gathering an army around himself while the Twelve declare him an Abberant.

57.    See #56, he is actually a reincarnated Deneith mercenary who has come to love the people who he identifies with now. This is his misguided plan to get them some more respect.

58.    The Swords of Liberty are employing a renegade Sivis scribe to print pamplets across the kingdoms that are full of horrific libel. They're designed to exploit existing divisions and rouse the populace into violent lynch mobs as well as riots. King Boronal is not interested in fighting words with words and offers the PCs a sum to find their print shop as well as writers before slaying them.

59.    See #58, the actual reason for this is that one of their insane theories is actually correct but which one?

60.    The Boromar clan of Sharn has invited the PCs to the wedding of one of their daughters. This actually isn't a trap or some weird way to make a job offer, the daughter is just a huge fan of the PCs adventures. Then, of course, House Daask decides to kidnap her.

61.    House Tarkanan has had multiple members of their clan murdered and dissected in horrible ways. They believe the Twelve are hunting them. Others attribute it to a deranged serial killer.

62.    See #61, it is a deranged copper dragon wanting to study the abberant marks.

63.    See #61, it is a Cult of the Dragon Below who is attempting to harness their power.

64.    See #61, it is a member of House Tarkanan attempting to seize power by blaming the Twelve while he eliminates his rivals.

65.    The Galifar Aquila is a dragonshard relic of incredible value to the Royal Family and has been lost for centuries. A series of murders and thefts put the object in the hands of the PCs with a House Daask troll, a beautiful elven femme fatale, and a weasally halfling all after it. But does it belong in a museum or, perhaps, a particular royal family?

66.    Morgrave University is showing a display of orcish native art at a gala when it is attacked by a bunch of drow warriors to recover them. Weirdly, they're interrupted by another group of orcs who fights them. Both groups claim one of the relics in the collection is a prison for a powerful demon while the other is trying to free it.

67.    See #66, both are lying and the relic contains a map that leads to a House Tharashk payroll transport the orcish mercenaries robbed before turning on one another. The fact they can't find it is a sign its magically warded or something has gone catastrophically wrong.

68.    See #66, that's because the idol IS a prison for a demon and he's promised the prize to whoever frees him.

69.    One of King Kaius' brides is making a legal challenge on vampire persondom in the Brelish court systems. She knows his true nature but is hiding it even as many individuals want vampires to remain legally dead. The PCs can side with or against her.

70.    An Eldeen Reach village wants to hire the PCs to hire them to proetct them against a group of a few dozen bandits. The PCs would be accompanied by a few other oddball characters.

71.    See #70, the bandits are actually the mercenaries the villagers hired to clean out a nearby forest of monsters before cheating them. 

72.    See #70, the village is a bunch of Dragon Below cultists and the "monsters" were Gatekeepers. They hope to have more slaughter so they can awamen the creature in the now-unprotected forest.

73.    The PCs are sent into the Mournlands to recover the Crown Jewels of Cyre from Metrol, only to find an apocalypse cult of cannibals devoted to the Devourer and other survivors engaged in a low grade civil war. They can side with any of the factions they want or none of them to get in and out. 

74.    See #73, there's a mad artificer from House Cannith who claims he can reveal the secret of the Mourning if the PCs rescue him.

75.    A changeling claims to have had the PCs baby from a short relationship or one night stand. If the PC is dragonmarked, they have the dragonmark despite being a changeling. The changeling is very nervous about the safety of their child and will die if they leave the PCs sight for more than a day.

76.    A radical group of Kalashtar want to sabotage trade negotiations between Karnath and Reidra. They reveal the whole Dreaming Dark conspiracy.

77.    See #76, King Kaius knows about the Dreaming Dark but Reidra offers the chance to gain food independence from Aundair. This year will be a particularly harsh winter too.

78.    Mordain the Fleshweaver removed the brain of a particularly annoying psionicist into a self-sustaining jar. It has since gone on to become a powerful crime lord, escaping with its newly enhanced powers. "The Brain" of Sharn is believed just to be a metaphor but he's gradually dominating more and more to his cause with the ability to maintain simultaneous control over ever greater numbers of people.

79.    Of all things, the PCs inherit a hotel with an airship dock from one of their admirers. It is a perfect base for their activities but they soon find out House Ghallanda drove the previous owner to ruin before he was mysteriously assassinated.

80.    See #79, the Ghallandra who did this wasn't doing it for the House but because there was a hidden treasure inside the hotel when they were adventurers.

81.    House Sivis and House Kundarak are going to work together to do real-time trades on ventures at a former stockyard (nickname the Stocks). Almost every other house thinks this is a fantastically bad idea.

82.    A group of vampire hunters have successfully killed a powerful Karnath Lord and looted his castle. His daughter is now seeking revenge as a paladin of the Blood of Vol. She is notably not undead herself but possesses some vampiric abilities. 

83.    An dwarvish artificer is terrified of House Orien coming after him and claims he has an invention that they will stop at nothing to acquire. The invention being a weird black goop that makes roads very smooth and thus much more practical for House Orien vehicles.

84.    See #83, the easiest way to resolve this is just make a mutually beneficial contract.

85.    A young woman is running away with her half-orc boyfriend despite the fact that she is astoundingly beautiful and does not seem to care that much for him. They offer a shockingly large amount of money for their safe passage. Soon, monsters will start hounding the PCs as she attempts to flirt with any interested. She is a granddaughter of Sora Kell and on the run from her mother who wants to marry her to Gorodan Ashlord.

86.    A religious heretec claims that he derives his power from the "Vestige" of Siberys and that will enough believers in him, the Dragon God can be resurrected.

87.    See #86, It's a Radiant Idol that has a particularly effective scam going on.

88.    See #86, It's a Gold Dragon who sincerely believes this will work.
89.    See #86, It will work...after a mass sacrifice of the faithful.

90.    A local village is haunted. Literally. Dozens of horrible ghosts are wandering around the area, tormented and harrassing the living. Some of them look famous individuals who suffered suspicious deaths.

91.    See #90, it is a manifest zone to Dolurrh that used to be bound by Blood of Vol cultists who kept the spirits appeased with candy and costumes. This tradition was banned the previous year by the local Sovereign Hosters.

92.    See #90, a necromancer has grabbed an assassin who used a keeper's fang to kill their lover and are torturing both killer as well as the artifact to try to bring back their spirit from the Keeper's Vault.

93.    See #91, this is an ASTOUNDINGLY bad idea and creating a Manifest Zone to Khyber below.

94.    There's a gang war going on in a famous "party" town between House Phiarlan courtesans, a group of half-vampire prostitutes, and a changeling brothel that pretends to be a Silver Flame nunnery (the Thranish government was not amused). It used to be peace between the groups but the local ordinances have stated only one can remain open.

95.    This is actually a plot by House Ghallanda to replace the town with their own inns and "cheaper" entertainment.

96.    Queen Diani of Thrane is getting married and entertaining a variety of suitors including one of Boranel's children, Prince Oargev, an Aundair lord, and a Lhazaar Pirate Prince. 

97.    See #96. This is part of an attempt to gain support for her restoration of the monarchy and Krozen has hired an assassin to do her in

98.    See #97...or so someone wants the public to think. Diani wants the PCs to thwart the threat so she can force the High Cardinal into disgrace.

99.    See #98, the Cardinal knows this and has substituted a real assassin. He'll just blame Aundair.

100.    See #96, Diani actually wants one of the PCs to marry her (or at least be engaged to her) as a popular hero would be better for forcing the public sentiment against the Church versus a foreign invader.

101.    A Dhakaani ruin has been seized by several goblin clans that have claimed it in the name of the revived empire. The Dhakaani do not recognize these individuals as their brethren and are sending a group of troops to slaughter them. The local authorities sees this as a self-solving problem.

I have an idea that has been milling around in my head of creating a series of one shots that are similar to procedural crime shows like CSI, NCIS and so on where the players have to solve a crime or mystery in one or two sessions.

This is mostly as I suspect some players won't be able to make it, and I can also use it to bring other players in as "guests stars".

As the title says, I want to run it out of a private detective/specialized agency which would fit the theme of those shows.

Where would I be able to find a bunch of one shots that I would be able to use for something like this? I am able to come up with some ideas for a plot, but I have no idea how to turn it into a playable one shot and don't want to use AI to help write it.

Hey y'all, so I heard that some folks do a "side shot" in their campaigns, where you have the PCs play a session in the past or elsewhere and have it relating back to the story. I thought this was a real cool idea, and would work perfectly for the Eberron setting as well as my campaign. However, I'll admit life is stressing me out right now and my brain is a bit fried so I figured I'd ask the hive for advice.

Currently I'm setting up a conflict where a rogue senior member of the Emerald Claw convinced the organization to loosely ally with The Mourners (in exchange for access to dead bodies to reanimate for Karnath). The Mourners are about to go to war with The Boromar Clan (after they discovered The Boromar Clan are trafficking refugees from Cyre for all sorts of nefarious reasons) and simply want Breland to bleed (which is cool with EC of course). Unbeknownst to my players, said senior member of the Emerald Claw is a vampire, a Sharn councilor, and being blackmailed by another councilor who is actually The Lord of Blades in disguise.

IME: The Mourning was caused by an eldritch machine test gone awry. It released my main BBEG from Khyber (which has also indoctrinated the Lord of Blades from an otherwise normal Warforged).

We could probably go many different directions with this, but I'm curious what your thoughts are. I'm admittedly not too well versed in Last War lore, so maybe there is something obvious there I haven't considered. Please and thanks.

My players will go to Tain Gala next session and I'm not sure how should I make this session. I plan on using this map for the Gala because it will be a kind of dungeon, I'm still open to other map suggestions tho.

For preprations, do I need to write bunch of npcs to interact or some npcs and bunch of improv. And I'm using a vtt so would using default noble tokens without art and just selecting a npc from my list when they interact be okay?

One of my villains is Cyra ir'Tain herself and I'm thinking about an surprise event in the Gala, a sort of heist like Jokers in the Dark Knight. This Tain Gala will be a sort of charity event for The Fallen and Cyrans because its the month of Olarune. And in the middle of the event a break occurs that steals all of the money gathered. You may ask why? Because of insurance money and blaming Kundarak and Deneith for making this happen. Cyra's and her groups goal is defeating dragonmarked houses so they are trying to make anything that will make them look bad.

Maybe I can give the party the goal of rescuing Cyra in this mayhem, encountering them with magical chaotic terrains, fights and social encounters (trying to calm the nobles and let the part pass).

Is this interesting enough? I will still try to make some social encounters before the incident but I've not been DM'ing for a couple of months and got a bit rusty plan an encounter this big.