Siege on Ebonring Keep

SPOILER

[edit] DM notes on the adventure

The adventure is meant for a group of players new to Arcana Unearthed/Evolved. It introduces important themes like Oaths, Rituals, The Green and The Dark, and shows the players what happens if you do not respect these aspects of the world. It is a mostly travel adventure with the players trekking from one site to another over the course of the adventure. It's fairly linear which makes it good for younger players as well - it may not provide enough of challenge for very experienced roleplayers.

The adventure contains Interludes which can be interjected into the adventure whenever the DM sees fit - sometimes the same interlude can even be used more than once. Some of the interlude even changes motivations for core characters twisting the plot in new and interesting directions.

The adventure contains a lot of Sidebars providing helpful information on how to scale the Challenge rating up or down, prepare for flying characters, and other things. This works very well.

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[edit] Fitting together Siege on Ebonring Keep & Plague of Dreams

These are suggestions that may work better for you than what is suggested in the modules. They create a stronger link between the two adventures, so they must be run in cohesion now.

• Nefenr is after the Ebonring which is also detailed in the Imagus Libellum, a book describing the malus morphaera sphere.
• The Jaren didn't care much about the Malus Morphaera, what they really wanted was the Imagus Libellum to get to the Ebonring. They hired Iriana, or maybe just manipulated her to go after it. If the players return the ring to her, it will be in the possession of the Jaren when the adventure concludes.
• The Giants had kept the ring in the keep for eons, but were recently ejected by the Rhodin from keep. This made the magical memory diminishments of the Akashic Memory fail, and suddenly the world became aware of the ring again and how important it is. (This makes Kainen the mysterious magister, Abrekin the mojh, the Consortium and the Warlord Chorrim all decide to descend on the Ebonring fortress at once - like in the original adventure).
• The Giant's originally held the keep, not the Rhodin. The giants wanted the adventurers to believe this since the truth is too embarrassing. Yes, giants fail as well.
• The sphere was actually a powerful weapon used against the dramojh by the residents of the ancient town that is nowadays the lake of lost voices. The priests managed to lock a dramojh consciousness within the sphere - great weapon, but there was a price. Gradually the locked dramojh Zatogzar poisoned the mind of the priests who constantly meditated with the sphere. Eventually he managed to get them to destroy the town and create the lake of lost voices. Nowadays, Zatogzar, who is quite crazy after so many years in the sphere, convinces Nefenr to go after the ring.
• Nefenr works with Abrekin and has tried to get the ring from Kainen already, but he refused and suggested that they pass the tests like the others. Just to be sure of their failure, Kainen mentally tortured the minotaur at the end of the test with images of Verrik and Nefenr, to install a burning hatred for Verrik and Nefenr into the creature.
• The sphere will try to convince anybody meditating with it or being in close contact with it to pursue the Ebonring. Upon contact between the ring and the sphere the dramojh believes that it will be set free from the sphere. Whether this is true is up to you and your campaign. Here is a few other suggestions:
  • The sphere is destroyed and the area around it undergoes the effects described in Plague of Dreams. The ring is intact, and protects the people in the immediate vicinity.
  • A dramojh, Zatogzar, is released from the sphere into the world - quite insane.
  • The sphere is destroyed, absorbed into the ring, the Dramojh mind is moved, and the Ebonring is supercharged and even more powerful.

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