Dreaming Dark Mindkiller

The Dreaming Dark

The sinister and mysterious Dreaming Dark — a metaphysical force trying to prolong the current age of despair and violence — seeks to extend its reach toward Khorvaire. Over a century ago, the Dream Dark compromised House Deneith's enclave in Upper Tavick's Landing. Although the enclave seems normal to outsiders, and even to many in House Deneith, it is now a stronghold of shadows. Under the tutelage of the Dreaming Dark, the Sharn Deneith have become masters of intrigue and subtlety. They carefully conceal their psionic power from outsiders while using it to gather information from the wealthy citizens they ostensibly guard.

While the enclave serves the Dreaming Dark, most of its members have no idea they are in league with the Inspired. Over a century of indoctrination, the Inspired dominator Tirashana has taught the Sharn Deneith to see themselves as superior because of their dragonmarks and raised above the other dragonmarked houses by their psionic abilities. Even members of the house who work directly with the Inspired believe that the Inspired consider them equal partners, but in fact the Inspired view them merely as useful pawns. Now quori spirits have possessed fifteen members of the house.

In addition to the leaders of House Deneith in Sharn, the Dreaming Dark has agents strategically planted throughout the City of Towers. They include one member of the Sharn Council (Bestan ir'Tonn, who also has close ties to the Boromar Clan) and a leader in the Sharn Watch (Warden Maira ir'Talan of the Blackened Book). The Dreaming Dark also commands the allegiance of the Riedran ambassadors in Sharn.

Goals of the Dreaming Dark.

Building from the description in Eberron: Rising from the Last War, the Dream Dark has three objectives in the City of Towers:

• To cause chaos and strife by undermining what little faith in law enforcement exists in Sharn — turning the forces of law and order against one another, fueling the feuds between criminal organizations, and spreading fear among the populace.
• To promote their chosen champions, which in Sharn means the subverted and possessed agents of House Deneith.
• To undermine the kalashtar throughout the city — especially in the Overlook district of Upper Dura and its Path of Light temple.

A Dreaming Dark Arc.

The Dream Dark poses a significant threat, which might not manifest fully until the characters can handle the danger. The conflict could play out according to this outline.

• Levels 1–4. Early in their adventures, the inquisitives have vivid dreams that reveal key details about cases they're working on — easily interpreted as subconscious insights bringing overlooked information to light. (The discussion of the Dreaming Dark in Eberron: Rising from the Last War includes suggestions for incorporating dreams into your game.)
• Levels 5–10. Investigating a series of grisly crimes, the characters are aided by a Sentinel Marshal of House Deneith. When captured, the criminal insists that recurring dreams led to the crimes. The Sentinel Marshal dismisses this claim. If the inquisitives investigate further, they find themselves drawn into a nightmare scenario involving a quori. In the course of that adventure, they glean clues that the Sentinel Marshal played a more sinister part in events than previously suspected.
• Levels 11–16. The characters experience increasingly frequent nightmares, individually and as a group. Meanwhile, the Sentinel Marshals and other members of House Deneith interfere with their investigations.
• Levels 17–20. The inquisitives uncover the corruption at the heart of the House Deneith enclave in Sharn, which reaches all the way to its lord, Sadran d'Deneith — a human man possessed by a powerful quori spirit. Their investigations lead to confrontations with Deneith leaders in the waking world, but eventually the inquisitives must fight the quori in the dream world of Dal Quor.

Dreaming Dark Agents.

Anyone can be seduced into the service of the Dream Dark, and a normal person possessed by a quori (see the quori stat blocks in Eberron: Rising from the Last War) uses their normal stat block. The two agents presented here are Inspired agents of the Dark who wield terrifying psionic power.

Dreaming Dark Mindkiller. Mindkillers are the assassins of the Dreaming Dark, sent to terrify their foes before striking to kill. Mindkillers force foes to attack their own allies, causing physical and emotional devastation to grow the power of the Dreaming Dark.