Ep. 21 Eberron Reviewed Chapter Five

## Listen

Ep 21 Eberron Reviewed Chapter Five

—Eric

Jeff and Philip gather together to hassle Eric for what he did to them in Vvaraak's hoard. There's also some discussion about the past arch.

## Synopsis

### Shadow Werebears

The shadow bears that the party fought were a bit of on the fly thinking from Eric's part. He wanted some form of corrupted bears that were more dangerous than regular bears, and the statblock for werebears fit. As the battle progressed and Therudak got bit he decided to roll for some form of the corruption to affect him. They players reacted in such a strong way that when Dex failed his he decided to stick with lycanthropy.

The alignment change from Chaotic Good to Neutral Good didn't matter as much as with other settings; even the characters alignments are pretty nebulous. Dex was originally Chaotic Neutral but was changed through the narrative to Chaotic Good, and Beric is constantly in a battle between his religious teachings of Lawful Good and his impatient behavior which makes him lean towards Chaotic.

### Eric's Love of Random Tables

In the wonderful world of Dungeons & Dragons is the random table. Some things, like the Gibbering Mouther they fought in this arch, has it built into them. For other areas there are resources for random tables, like the Dungeon Master's Guide. These are useful tools for giving the world a sense of realism; sometimes you just run into a bear.

There are other uses for it, too; in the first game Jeff DMed there was a room with walls of potions and all the players rolled for which potion they got. Everything about it was random; color, taste, smell, and effect. Someone even ended up with an instakill potion that tasted like strawberries.

### The Gatekeepers

The ancient order of druids is published Eberron material. The Gatekeepers are responsible for keeping all other planar beings out of Eberron. For the hierarchy, Terralen is the leader and everyone else is equal. So when Shayana stepped in when Dex and Farlan were bickering, it was only because she could see he was letting his emotions get in the way of good decision making and she could be un-biased.

### Therudak's Stone

After Oalian tells them they need a sacrifice to get into Vvaraak's hoard, Therudak pulls out his stone with no hesitation. It fit perfectly because the requirements to get in was that it had to be a personal sacrifice; they had to demonstrate that they understood the heart of the Gatekeepers. Unlike some moments like after the battle with the lycanthropes where there's a lot of dead air(minus Jeff giggling with joy), there was no editing; Randy just did it without question.

### Vvaraak's Hoard

Philip argues that Terralen warned them not to take anything Oalian told them they needed to prove themselves worthy, so surely this was a test? It wasn't a test, though; if they'd chosen to partake in any of it, it would be Vvaraak's gift to them. The rooms were also not designed for each character, which the players started guessing when the third room didn't seem very specific.

#### The Feast

After all the worries of resisting the temptations in the dragon's hoard, it turns out everything would have been fine after all. The first room had a feast that, had it been eaten, could have not only gained them a level, but they would have had the choice to relearn their class or shift any stats around that they wanted; Vvaraak's way of preparing them for the coming war.

#### The Library

The great library, which had all the knowledge Vvaraak had attained; turned to ash when Dex pushed the door open. In the moment, Philip's thinking was that it could be possible to take and read the books and the consequence might be that they fail to get the keystone, and he was deciding whether Beric would be willing to sacrifice that in exchange for all he would learn with even an hour in the room. Before he could reach a decision Dex intervened and pushed the the door open, causing all of the books to crumble to ash.

From his time across Khorvaire Dex has learned to not trust people and assumed this was a test, and he thought even touching a book might make them fail. To spare Beric from making the choice, he did it himself. Eric had Beric's whole backstory ready for him if he *had* decided to pull some books down - everything about his dad, his pact. Any question Beric had would have been answered.

#### The Basin

In the third room sat the water of basin, in which they could have looked into it and asked for anyone they wanted to be safe. They could have gotten Draconos, or Jacob, seen where the Red Owl was, or even rescued Dex's family. One of the things brought up was Beric's mother, which Philip clarifies wouldn't be something Beric wanted. Those who join with the Silver Flame strengthen it, and it would go against their beliefs to weaken it by resurrecting someone.

### Jacob's Return

Very early on, it was decided that Jacob would come back. The whole scene of him exiting the archway from a portal the druids had created had been in Eric's head for a while. The party was never meant to save him in the first arch. They were surprised to find out that time works differently in Mabar; one day on Eberron equals about a year in the other plane, which does not bode well for Draconos.

End of episode.

## Quotes

"I love me a random table."
*—Eric*

"If I remember correctly, Gro' explicitly said, 'This is a 100% fact, there is no way around this; if you touch anything besides the keystone everything will die.'"
[Eric's noise indicates Jeff is wrong]
"It *was* something to that effect."
"That's what I remember."
"No, no, no. He said this place is sacred to us, and we would ask you to not take anything other than the keystone. That is what he said, there was no doom and gloom about it."
"Yeah, and then I made some comment about how I was disappointed that we wouldn't get any loot and you said, 'Well, you *can*.' [Evil plotting laugh]"
"Yeah, exactly."
[Talking over Philip] "No, I did—I did not have an ominous laugh. I said, 'You *caaaan…* '
[Talking over Eric] "Yes, that is exactly—you laughed exactly like that, I listened to it last night, you laughed in *exactly* that way."
[Silence]
"That's how I remember it."
*—Jeff, Eric, and Philip*

"In the context of the world I feel like it all makes sense. It's not a swerve for the sake of a swerve. Now, if Philip wants to say no, I'm wrong, that's fine…"
"Philip does want to say that."
"Well, do you actually believe that though?"
"Philip wants to *scream* that."
*—Eric, Philip, and Jeff*

"With sufficient power…"
"Comes sufficient responsibility…"
*—Jeff and Philip*