If you're not interested in reading and just want to skip straight to the audio then go right ahead and you can pick up the Order's adventures in Xendrik. If you'd like some background on the Order's adventures or enjoy my despair as my plans are torn to shreds over and over again then read on!
The Order's First Adventure
So, the adventures of the Order of
Magnitude in Eberron. By the way, I should mention that this is when the
Order was officially named. As part of the introduction to Eberron's
slightly more "civilized" theme I decided that the first plot would
revolve around the party's attempts to join an adventurer's society to
get access to more resources and high-paying jobs. The first step was to
get paperwork drawn up recognizing them as an official adventuring
group and that required a name for the team. After a fair amount of time
staring into space and lots of "ums" and "errs" Magnus's player pipes
up with "The Order of Magnitude" (named for Magnus of course). Lacking
any better options the group went with that. We decided that they had
met in a tavern, gotten roaring drunk together and spontaneously decided
to form a team. Magnus, being the only sober one, handled the paperwork
with the local house Sivis agent and therefore got to fill in whatever
name he liked.
I explained that the next step
for joining an official adventurer's society would involve either a
large cash donation or getting a patron to recommend them. The Order
decided they'd figure that out in the morning and began to wend their
way (still fairly tipsy) back to the inn where they were staying. On the
way they stumble across what appears to be a murder in progress. Two
hooded figures on a bridge leaning over slumped form in a pool of blood,
sifting through his pockets. The group yells for the guards and charges
forward to do battle. The two attackers turn out to be warforged,
unfriendly warforged. After a couple of rounds the Order manages to beat
one and the other flees. There's a short chase down narrow alleys
before they manage to land a killing blow releasing a magical, flying
talisman that zooms away: a final messenger.
While Nolan and the more
honorable party members were chasing the fleeing warforged Magnus
decides he wants to see what their opponents were looking for. He sorts
through the man's pockets and finds some identification papers (showing
him to be a professor from one of Sharn's universities) and a large book
full of blank pages that detects as magical.
As Nolan and the others return the town guards show up, eager to find
out who left a dead body just lying around. With some quick talking they
manage to convince the sergeant that they had nothing to do with the
man's death and that there's no need to detain them.
The next day they learned that
someone had been asking questions about the murder the night before,
looking for any witnesses and paying well for information. They decide
to see what's up and learn that the person investigating the murder is
Lady Elaydren, a scion of house Cannith. Elaydren explains that she had
been working with the murdered professor and was trying to find some
objects of importance that he was carrying that night (namely the book).
Magnus, being a paragon of subtley, blurts out something along the
lines of "YOU MEAN THIS BOOK! OH WAIT, FORGET YOU SAW THAT! IGNORE ME!"
Fortunately Elaydren is willing
to overlook the fact that Magnus snatched the book and even paid a bit
extra for its return. In exchange for not getting the Order arrested she
asks that they hear a proposal from her. The book contains information
on the secret laboratories of one of House Cannith's founders and one of
the greatest artificers in history. She wants them to find this (by now
abandoned) lab and get a special magical key she believes is located
there. In exchange she offers a fair reward and the players bargain with
her to agree to act as a patron for the Order and get them into a
guild.
So far I've been using the
adventure in the back of the core Eberron book with some slight
modifications (set in a city in Northern Breland rather than Sharn,
upped the challenge of the warforged encounter) but at this point I
start to blend it with the first adventure in the Rise of the Runelords
adventure path. Essentially the Order arrives at the little town that
now sits atop the hidden laboratory only to find it in the middle of a
savage goblin attack. They help fight off the goblins and learn that
although the laboratory is definitely around here somewhere the original
entrance has long since been sealed. While they are sticking around to
find another entrance they get involved in the local goblin attacks.
They eventually find a pack of goblins hiding at the local glassworks.
They battle their way through the the mini-horde and battle with the
half-elf leading them. They defeat the half-elf and the rest of the
goblins retreat through a hidden tunnel leading underground...
They
investigate, planning to chase the goblins back to their lairs, but a
slight earthquake causes the collapse of a portion of the tunnel. The
party makes their saves without any trouble but Glorin impetuously
declares that he'll dodge forward deeper into the tunnel.
Unfortunately he was under the impression that the rest of the team
would follow suit. That was not the case.
Glorin
ends up on the wrong side of the cave in, fortunately as a dwarf he
can see in the dark and navigate fairly well. He even manages a
surprisingly effective Stealth roll when a couple of goblins back track
to see what the heck that noise was. While he's dispatching them the
rest of the Order heads upstairs to recruit some townsfolk to help dig
their teammate out. Glorin scouts the tunnels ahead, finding an
intersection of several paths, a huge pit deep, deep into the depths of
the earth and a pair of hefty double doors before heading back. With
some decent engineering skill rolls from Magnus and Glorin they manage
to shore up the roof and clear enough rubble to get Glorin out.
Now, at this point the team
gets into a conflict with the town's sheriff. He, shockingly, doesn't
approve of a huge tunnel leading goblins into the center of town and
wants the tunnel shut down. The Order (realizing the tunnel probably
leads to their lost laboratory) argues that it should be left open so
they can investigate and locate the goblin's lair. They eventually
bring the matter before the town's mayor who rules that the Order has a
full day to investigate the tunnel before the sheriff gets leave to
collapse it. They patch up a bit and head back down. They decide to
leave the giant pit alone and instead open up the door to the antique
Cannith lab.
For the most part the
exploration of the lab is uneventful. They find and do battle with a
horrifically mutated goblin. They poke around and make a couple of
messes. They stumble on a magic-item forge with a sword still half-way
through the enchantment process. Magnus uses a scroll of shocking grasp
and a good Use Magic Device check to turn it into a +1 Shocking Sword,
the party's first magic weapon! Still being used by Shara to this day.
After thoroughly making a mess
of the lab they find it's current owner: the still-active homunculus
belonging to it's original creator (with a couple of Wizard levels added
on). The homunculus is none too pleased with these intruders and
attempts to drive them off with a wand and its spells. However it
quickly realizes that the crew is too tough for it and uses an
invisibility spell to disappear. However the party quickly blocks the
doorway, trapping them in a stalemate. They strike up a conversation
with the still-invisible homunculus in an attempt to learn what's going
on. The conversation quickly degenerates into Magnus shouting insults at
the empty air.
Fortunately Nolan manages to
talk them both down and strikes a deal to leave the lab in exchange for
the key they're looking for. It turns out the homunculus has given the
key (an amulet) as a gift to the goblin's current leader: an assimar
named Nuala who's been plotting against the town and trying to strike
dark bargains with beings from Khyber. In exchange Nuala has been giving
the homunculus company and some goblins to experiment on.
So the group heads out of the
lab and tracks the goblins through the tunnels to find their lair: a
ruined tower overgrown with thornbushes. One of the goblin leaders, a
druid, encounters them as they try and force their way through the
twisting paths carved into the thornbushes. The goblin uses his ability
to move through the thornbushes to hassle and sting the party from thick
cover. However after trading some blows they try and use some more
diplomacy and end up finding that the goblin hates Naula and with some
good Bluff and Diplomacy rolls the party manages to convince him that
they'll kill Nuala and the goblin chief who is currently in her thrall.
So, being let through to the
inner portion of the lair they find a large clearing in the thorns with a
large hole in the center. Magnus, for reasons known only to Magnus,
leaps down the hole to see what's at the bottom (this will become a
running theme for the character). The hole leads to a flooded cave open
to the nearby lake. Magnus can't swim worth anything but fortunately he
has no need to breath either. Investigating the cave he finds what
appears to be a sunken chest and proceeds to break it open finding some
loot and what appears to be a decapitated warforged head.
Meanwhile Nuala and the goblin
chief Ripnugget shows up and engages the other players. They manage to
kill Ripnugget and Nuala leaps into the hole herself to escape.
Unfortunately she's a much faster swimmer than magnus and quickly
disappears into the back portion of the flooded cave. Magnus plods after
her and discovers that there's a hidden tunnel in the back leading
underground. He communicates this to the rest of the party before
plunging underwater again to follow Nuala.
At this point the party has
exceeded the time limit set by the sheriff and expect that they'll be
unable to get back to town but they do reason Nuala may try and get to
her hidden shrine beside the giant underground pit. Not willing to
follow Magnus underwater they head back to the regular cave entrance,
hoping to catch up.
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