Ep. 17 Eberron Reviewed Chapter Four

## Listen

Ep. 17 Eberron Reviewed Chapter Four

—Jeff

Eric and Jeff sit down once againt to discuss the past arc, which introduced some important characters like Therudak and the Red Owl.

## Synopsis

### Dark Lanterns

Based on how the story was progressing and that the party had aligned themselves with Crast and the Dark Lanterns, Eric decided that Randy's new character had an easy in if he was being trained under Crast. So Randy created Therudak and worked it into his story that he was a Dark Lantern.

Therudak and Dex had met in the past, and Jeff was given the decision of if they'd met before and decided they didn't because that might be easier on them both.

Having avoided the Swords of Liberty in the Seeking the Teacher arch, Eric wanted a reason for the party to get involved with them and caused an explosion in Sharn. What he wasn't counting on was Beric reacting so strongly to it the following episodes, but it did get them to work with the Dark Lanterns.

### Ignoring the cry for help

When the party is running towards the escaping Swords of Liberty, a scream is heard from the woods of someone clearly in danger. Beric doesn't hear, Therudak wants to stop and help, but Dex is adamant that they need to continue their chase. Dex is good at quickly deciding what action will not necessarily be the greater good, but have the greater effect. He knew that doubling back for a single person was not going to yield the same results of chasing down a member of an organization as large and dangerous as the Swords of Liberty.

Jeff comments that this was probably the first time he's made a conscious distinction between what he wanted to do and what the character would have done. As it turns out, the scream was a ruse put on by the Red Owl herself. If they party had veered and "saved" her, her men would have gotten away and she would have asked them to take her to a safe place, and they wouldn't have caught her for a long time.

### More goblin riddles

Everyone grumbles when they come across yet more goblin writings in these Dhakaani ruins. Even more groans follow when Crast reads it and they discover it's another riddle. There was a lot of silence and muttering and cursing and saying a lot of bad words to Eric that apparently didn't make the final cut. Philip and Jeff were demonstrably mad, while Randy was sitting over there like a duck; an air of calmness, but underneath those feet are kicking. Jeff insists that fishing lure and fishing net should have been acceptable answers, but Eric chose not to accept them because he wasn't sure if a fishing lure would exist in a fantasy setting. (Jeff is pretty sure it's actually because Eric hates Jeff.)

Also cut was the 5–7 minutes silence of Eric looking up the riddle right there on the spot. In order to create a truly sandbox adventure, he planned out his major story beats, but nothing else past their landing in Xandrar.

### In the Red Owl's lair

The thing about some NPCs is that they're squishy. So even a big, burly blacksmith like Trant is going to get knocked out from 8 hitpoints of damage. Jeff didn't really think about that, being used to how strong their characters are. So even the technically level 1 townsperson isn't going to be able to stand up to them, and he goes down *hard*.

Once they apprehend the Red Owl, Dex moves in to search her desk—without checking for traps. Which he could have found, but instead just activated the bomb instead. Therudak didn't seem very phased by it, at least—he stuck around after the party was hauling butt out of there just to confirm there really was a bomb.