Ep. 4 Inside Eberron Renewed: Dancing With Shadows

## Listen

Ep. 4 Inside Eberron Renewed: Dancing With Shadows

—Jeff

This is the first episode of **Eberron Reviewed**, where some of the cast sit down and discuss the past arc and character motivation.

## Synopsis

### The World of Eberron

The campaign has come all from Eric's head, but Keith Baker provided the perfect world to put it in. Places like the Faded Forest and Mistmarsh, and characters like Alben and Ruken ir'Clain already existed, and Eric took the little information about them and molded them into fully fleshed out people and places.

### Dragonshards

When Acko's holy symbol was crushed and the image of a dragon with a dragon's scream came out, the player may have been able to figure out that was a dragonshards, but the characters probably didn't. In fact, all of the items found in the tomb are powered by dragonshards; Dex's ribbonweave, Beric's amulet, and Drac's/Therudak's armor. The players know much more than their characters do.

### Gram's Locket

In the third episode, there were supposed to be four rooms with the goblins; the corrupted goblins, an empty room, a room with the shadows, and the room with the archway. It was cut short because of time issues, but they players were meant to find Gram's locket in the second room with a perception check. Because it was forgotten about, Eric was able to think of something way cooler to do with it. In the arch that Jacob comes back we find it's been with him the whole time and has helped him survive in Mabar.

### No Combat, Please

The reason for the lack of combat in the first episode was because Jeff wanted to spend that episode developing characters, and avoided every fight Eric threw at them. Instead of spending that time rolling and adding damage, they created personalities for their characters right from the beginning.

The second reason is that Jeff had only played a tank with Hugh, his Geek Pantheon character, and Dex is very squishy.

### *"Dammit, that's canon now!"*

One of the great things in D&D is when players make a mistake with their characters and rolls with it - like when Trevor speaks for the first time in character. He gave Draconos a hard past and was going to play him as a serious guy with a gruff voice, but then cheerfully asks for a beer after his fellow deputies have just broken up a bar fight and decides Drac is happy and fun.

### Everyone Loves Tinsel

Tinsel was Trevor M's character on The Geek Pantheon, and an immediate fan favorite. He's weird and crazy, and according to Jeff, exactly what Trevor would be if Trevor had magic: weird, kind of scary, very impulsive, generally safe and fun to be around? According to Eric there's the possibility of Trevor coming back for an episode, so fingers crossed.

### What. Is Up. With Beric?

Starting out, none of the players knew much more about each other's backstories than the audience. Why is Beric so weird? At this point in the story we're not sure, but he's crazy powerful. He deals the most damage, but he also gets pretty low on hitpoints. Since he's using the Hexblade from Unearthed Arcana, Philip had said he would adjust his sheet accordingly when the official subclass came out.

### The Artifacts

Dex's ribbonweave, Beric's amulet, and Drac's armor that were all found in the tomb of the hobgoblin are special items created for them that will level up as the characters do. The thought is that they won't outgrow their items, the idea of which was introduced in 3.5's Weapons of Legacy. Eric uses the comparison of Aragorn never throwing his sword to the side and picking up a battleaxe of an Uruk-hai he's just killed; nothing like that ever happens, so why should it happen with D&D characters?

### Changelings and the Ribbonweave

Mechanically, everything about Dex's changeling abilities is 5th edition. There are no pluses for bluff, or anything else from 3.5 except for the story elements. Dex has gotten quite lucky with his ability rolls, though, and is starting with a 19 in dexterity and a 16 charisma. As for the ribbonweave, that was something Jeff found while researching for his character and immediately texted Eric, *"This thing is cool af and I want to use it,"* to which Eric responded, *"Yes it is cool af, we need to make it work though."* Before even the beginning of the campaign Jeff started pestering Eric relentlessly about the ribbonweave, and continues to bother him to let him get away with as much as possible with his attacks.

In 3.5 ribbonweaves have a crit range of 19-20, but crit ranges in 5e are unlocked through class, not item. So that was done away with, and in its place Eric gave it the ability to cast Daylight once per day.

### Dex's Backstory

Most of Dex's backstory was built to get him from Sarlona to Breland. Changelings usually come from Sarlona, so he needed a reason to leave there and join with the party. The backstory he gave them originally was meant to mirror his real one, how he left his family and and fell in with the thieve's guild. He had been with the thieve's guild for a while and built up trust with them, so he revealed himself as a changeling, thinking it would help with heists and whatever else they had going on. Instead they disowned him for being a changelings and he left, eventually becoming Lyle and finding Mistmarsh.

There are three main ways changelings live: passers, who take one form and try to fit into society as best they can; becomers, who live as several different people at once; and seekers, who think that there's some great truth which only the changelings can discover. When Dex found Mistmarsh he considered living as a passer, but he's a becomer at heart and couldn't do it. There are other people in Mistmarsh who are actually Dex, but no one but him knows who they are.

Eric had planned on making the lich at the end of the first arch to force Dex's polymorph to drop, thinking Dex wouldn't be able to trust his companions enough to tell them himself. When he saw the ribbonweave though, he let slip that he was something different and explained it to Beric and Draconos. It wasn't something he meant to do.

## Trivia

* Jeff has rolled his second character in preparation for when Dex dies.
* Eric, Trevor, and Jeff all have theater backgrounds.