Eberron Campaign - Wartorn submission synopsis (August 2004)

The Lost Moon of Eberron

The Great Druid Oalian has commissioned two Wardens of the Wood to accompany and protect the loremaster, Araelethe on his journey to the thirteen-tiered tower of the Twelve which floats above the Karnnathi city of Korth in central Khorvaire. After returning from his conscription to a division of Battle-Mages specializing in warspells during the Last War, the loremaster Araelethe has committed himself to astronomical, cosmological, and planar research into the vanished thirteenth moon of Eberron and its relationship to the lost Dragonmark, the Mark of Death. Hinge, a warforged druid, with organic moss and lichen growths covering his House Cannith markings dating from his inception during the Last War, and Niai, a female weretouched master shifter embark from an ancient druidic observatory containing an archaic orrery of the planes with the loremaster for Sharn, the City of Towers, where agents of the erudite Twelve wait. While the Twelve seek the knowledge of the loremaster, agents of the Blood of Vol and the Order of the Emerald Claw, advised by a clandestine source within the Twelve and directed by the ancient lich, Erandis d’Vol, have begun their search for the loremaster for their own nefarious purposes. Similarly, the Aerenal elves, represented by a strikeforce of the Deathguard, and the Valaes Tairn elves, of Valenar, have set out to capture the loremaster for the leadership of the Undying Court in Aerenal. Unknown to the Undying Court, members of the line of Jhaelian, the vampiric Stillborn have conspired with Vol to obtain the secrets of the Loremaster and seek to undermine the Court’s attempts to seize Araelethe before he reaches the Twelve in Karrnath.
Crossing the southern Eldeen Reaches and passing under cover of darkness through the border regions of Droaam along the Orien trade roads, the Wardens, pursued by the Order of the Emerald Claw, guide Araelethe into Brelish lands and cross the Dagger River near the city of Wroat. Traveling by lightning rail on the Sharnline Slinger, the three encounter the master inquisitive changeling, Lok in the guise of a half-elf of House Lyrandar Windwright’s guild. After serving as a counterintelligence agent during the Last War, the opportunistic changeling has frequently associated with the Dark Tower Gang in Sharn and dashes into the taverncar of the Slinger after a discrepancy during a game of chance with two half-orcs. Transmuting into the form of a shifter, Lok hastily takes a seat with the loremaster and his guardians, tossing a handful of coins onto the table in an attempt to purchase their friendship. The half-orcs, entering the taverncar after Lok, are reluctant to harass the shifters and the intimidating warforged and pass into the adjoining car in hopes of finding the thief. While Hinge is unimpressed with the changeling, Araelethe notes the potential of such a being in their journey and the changeling accepts an invitation to join the traveling party.
In Sharn, the Twelve are now aware that certain factions seek the loremaster and have arranged surreptitious passage aboard the House Lyrandar airship, Aetherwing docked outside Sharn. The Aetherwing is operated by members of the Windwright’s guild and is conveyed under illusionary magic to protect the craft during the voyage across potentially hostile territory and from others that desire the loremaster. Accompanied by Bispen d’Sivis, a gnome artificer of House Sivis skilled in the arcane arts and translation, and N’ffrond Vaeryym, a veteran fighter of the Last War of House Thuranni assigned by Baron Elar d’Thuranni to assist the Twelve, the party sets out for Korth. Unbeknownst to the Twelve or the companions of the loremaster, the veteran fighter, a warforged-hunter of sentient constructs fleeing oppression during the Last War, bears the Mark of Shadow and is in liege with the Blood of Vol.
Assaulted by the Stillborn over the Mournland and driven off course, the Aetherwing crashes into the Talenta Plains, not before the group is rescued by halflings mounted on glidewings and Hinge slays the deceitful warforged-hunter. Enroute to the halfling city of Gatherhold, the dinosaur-borne party are ambushed by the Deathguard and Valaes Tairn during a sandstorm in the Blade Desert and captured. After a journey across the fungal forests beneath the Endworld Mountains, their elven captors are besieged by forces loyal to Elder Nevillom, a Silver Flame evangelist from Wyrmwatch, who want the shifter, Niai. The party escapes during the skirmish and flee toward the shores of Adder Bay, where the Stillborn and corsairs, including Dolgrim mercenaries and a weatherwitch, from the Lhazaar Principalities intercept the group. Delivered to Illmarrow Castle on Dreadhold, in the frozen north of the Lhazaar islands, the stronghold of the lich Vol, the party are imprisoned and await torture by the evil undead priestess. As their situation deteriorates, Araelethe uses polymorph to assumes Lok’s current guise, while the changeling transmutes into the form of the loremaster. Lok is then taken to Vol, while the party remains in the hands of her legions. When the party is liberated by Karrnathi skeletons and zombies sent by the Twelve, Lok is not to be found and the party must depart for Korth and sanctuary without their companion. Arriving in Karrnath, the loremaster delivers his research to the council and the grateful Twelve reward the party and begin to examine the loremaster’s valuable research into the mystery of the lost moon of Eberron.