I am currently running a weekly Dungeons and Dragons campaign which follows the Tyranny of Dragons published adventures. Instead of using the base setting for DnD (and the campaign as written), I am converting it to my favorite setting: Eberron!
(This series of posts is SUPER spoilery. Don’t read this if you are going through as a player and haven’t yet, especially if you’re one of mine!)
I have previously laid the groundwork for the Tyranny of Dragons by exploring the locations, the factions, and session zero.
After doing the work outlined in previous posts, I read the breakdown of the chapter from one of my favorite DM sources: Sly Flourish. While the entire post is super helpful, the most important part of the article to consider for an Eberron campaign is Lennithon’s Motivation. Since Lennithon is working for a cult actively trying to summon Tiamat, a discussion could very well be in order– but an important change needs to be made to his character in order to make it so that he doesn’t want to bargain with the players and the players don’t want to work for him: Lennithon enjoys this.
Tiamat is the draconic Overlord of Eberron, the nearest thing to a direct daughter of Khyber, the progenitor dragon who is most associated with evil. As such, her draconic followers ought to enjoy the darker aspects of being a dragon, especially greed and destruction. As such, the dragon is not so much serving the cult as it is a leading cultist. This means that the cultists are leading an assault on the village with their leader, not merely a flying seige weapon.
Marketplace
With that knowledge out of the way, it is a good idea to think of what it does to have this location be at Marketplace, Aundair. For one thing, Aundair is the most arcane magical nation of the setting. This is the home of wizards and it should show. Street lights are floating magical globes. There are large stones which you can tap with your foot to prestidigitate the dirt off your clothing.
Marketplace is also, as the name suggests, a major trading hub. A lot of merchants and wares. By the end of the chapter, or at the start of chapter two, the players should have access to pretty much any wares they might want. Everyone was just robbed by cultists, so pickings would just be the common things (looked over as less valuable by the raiders).
I’ll go ahead and note that Marketplace is a well connected location on the border of three nations. It has a major road from Breland into Aundair and a lightning rail station. If you’re like me and add a bit of early 1900s noir feel to Eberron, this would be an ideal location for a guard to demand, “Papers, please.” While this might not be important now, it could be important later, especially when the adventurers seek to travel elsewhere.
Introduction
When trying to think of how to introduce the adventure in Eberron, I wanted to make sure that it evoked the kind of world that stood out from the Forgotten Realms– even if Aundair feels a lot like the Forgotten Realms itself.
One of my favorite set pieces for everything Eberron is the Lightning Rail. For one reason or another, all the characters are on the lightning rail or at the station when the first spout of lightning comes from the sky, blocking the tracks and trapping the train. Even if player characters want to take off, there’s nothing they can do if the platform collapsed in front of them. This is when someone shouts “To the keep!”
It’s the only point of safety as raiders begin to attack the station and the town– and the dragon’s shadow comes around for another pass, eliminating another route of escape…
The Long Game
Tyranny of Dragons is a long campaign. Trying to keep up with everything would be exhausting. Trying to info dump everything in these first sessions would be far too much.
So what do you need to know about the long game? What do you need to share with the players?
- There is a big blue dragon in the sky. Though it is listed as an adult, you should upgrade it to an ancient since it will be a big bad toward the end of the game– and you should make it clear at all costs that the players SHOULD NOT TRY TO FIGHT THE DRAGON AT THIS POINT.
- The raiders appear to just be raiders for all intent and purposes. Describe them ransacking houses and running out with whatever valuables they can carry. They kill some, they capture some, but the townsfolk are incidental. The point of this is to raise a hoard for their Queen. (But don’t introduce too much about the cult itself at this point. As far as the players need to know, these are just jerks who work with/for a dragon.)
- The raiders appear to listen to people wearing purple robes (if they’re seen). There is a black dragonborn and a blue dragonborn who stand out. The blue (Langdedrosa Cyanwrath) appears to be the commander of the raiders. He’s the one who seeks a duel at the end of the chapter.
- Though the raiders have a variety of ways to travel out of the city, they choose the most difficult and unlikely, possibly to limit the threat of followers: they choose to escape to the east, through the area known as the Crying Fields. (Which will come up later.)
Advancement
Whether you use XP or milestone advancement, your player characters should be level three by the end of this first chapter.
Thank you for reading!
That’s everything you need to know to adapt this chapter for Eberron! What do you think? Is it worth the change? Is there something you would do in particular to make it feel more like an Eberron game? Let me know in the comment below!
I am working on a full conversion supplement that this is a part of me reasoning out. When it’s out, I will let you know here!
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