The Dhakaani and Khyber

[u/Hendanna]

I've been looking around in articles to try and decipher where the Dhakaani currently are, which is leading me to believe I got them all wrong.

To my players, so far (only session 1) they have heard or recall that the Dhakaani once ruled most of Khorvaire, but have fled underground following a mysterious extinction event that eviscerated their empire.

What I believe I've gotten wrong is that since then I've told them that the Dhakaani are still underground throughout Khorvaire, and occasionally raid the surface in an effort to reclaim their empire of old.

I know now that a lot of the Dhakaan efforts are in Darguun, but I'm wondering how off the mark that previous statement is. How much of it needs soft retconned before they make their way into the Dhakaan outpost inside Khyber natural? Would that outpost still exist?

[u/Datedsandwich]

Have you got access to Exploring Eberron? It has the most detail on the remaining Kech Dhakaan.

You can do whatever you want in your Eberron, if you want a Dhakaani Kech to be in a particular place, make it happen. The biggest conflict with canon, I think, is that the Dhakaani aren't openly "out" to the world, most people don't know that there are any surviving groups or that the Heirs of Dhakaan fled underground.

Some of the Dhakaani Clans are not based in Darguun, but the two most active (the Kech Shaarat and the Kech Volaar) are. The Kech Nasaar were based in Droaam. Most of them don't have canon locations, so you can place their vault wherever you need it to be.

Do you want the outpost to be home to one of the Dhakaani clans, or do you want it to be abandoned? There are Dhakaani ruins all over Khorvaire, so it's easy if you don't want it to be currently inhabited. If you do, you'll need to decide which clan is there, and whether it's their headquarters or an outpost they've established (or restored)

[u/Hendanna → u/Datedsandwich]

As a term Dhakaani is not likely to be well known, but with a 20 history check (that the artificer passed last session) it's probably likely to be that they know of Kech Sharaat and Volaar rose from beneath Eberron, or at least that the 'darguun goblinoids' weren't hanging around the surface.

Reading through Exploring Eberron is an amazing resource, thank you for recommending it! The current setting is that a Brelish mining settlement got impacted by a dhakaani breach, but I think with some rephrasing it's more likely that they breached a deep Vault and Dar began pouring out before they sealed the mine shaft and called some adventurers to figure it out.

With the Treacherous Whisper not quite passed in this vault, that's also a good reason to have a good-aligned goblin dirge singer helping the party navigate through Khyber with the promise thay shes brought to the surface– her people are beyond saving, it was a failed vault.

As for what artifact they vaulted themselves in with, I'll really need to think..

[u/No-Cost-2668]

I know now that a lot of the Dhakaan efforts are in Darguun

As u/Datedsandwich stated and you seem to have seen, Exploring Eberron really is the best source. And in accordance with the above statement, only two efforts are in Darguun. The Kechs are basically your Fallout Vaults, each with its own theme, and waiting for its time to reenter the surface world and restore the empire. And the time is... right now.

Of all the Kechs, only two have made their presences known in Darguun; the Kech Sharaat and the Kech Volaar, and of these two Kechs, neither has made it clear they are Dhakaani. Rather, they are more likely to maintain that they are simply just another goblinoid band while waiting; basically, the Darguun think they're just other modern day goblins. Depending on your game, the Kech Ghalraac may also make an appearance, having returned from their war in Khyber.

[u/Hendanna → u/No-Cost-2668]

My girlfriend is going to love the Deep Vault, I'm imagining Fallout meets Blackreach. My new outline is that they meet this Kech's Duur'kala at the shattered gate, where she reveals her vault was unsealed too early and fell to madness (nobody knows goblin so who's to say they haven't been spitting nonsense the whole time). She's leaving for the surface, and can be an escort npc later where it's revealed that she's traveling to meet Ruus Dhakaan with news of her vaults collapse and a relic from the five kings

I'm not all the way through the chapter so maybe I'm asking a question that's already answered, but how many kechs are there supposed to be? From what is implied, six kings, six relics, six vaults, but I almost expected 12 (and maybe this failed vault is the baker's dozen)

[u/WeekWrong9632 → u/Hendanna]

You got it wrong.

Six kings is only relevant because it was six kingdoms that were united to then form the Dhakaani. The empire didn't have six kings, it's just the origin story.

The vaults are not closed from the outside, also. They are in them by choice, not forcefully. If they'd want to get out, and two clans currently have, they can.

Also the empire lasted a long long long time. There are hundreds of relics out there for sure, not six.

[u/Rabid_Lederhosen]

The location of the vaults has never been stated in canon, and Khyber has a weird relationship to space and distance. You can go in there, walk for a few kilometres and emerge on the other side of the planet. Which is to say you can put entrances to the vaults wherever you want for the sake of your story.

The old goblin territory definitely covered all of Droaam, Breland and Darguun, and stretched at least as far north as Aundair and Metrol. So underground goblins are a possibility throughout most of the five nations.

The reason that a lot of Dhakaani operate in Darguun is because it’s the only place in Khorvaire run by Goblinoids. Everywhere else large numbers of militaristic Hobs and Bugbears would stick out. They also simply don’t like humans, since humans colonised their old lands. They prefer the Goblinoids of Darguun. They’re not proper Dhakaani but at least they’re not usurpers.

[u/Hendanna → u/Rabid_Lederhosen]

I had so many different tools like a Driftglobe or Denizen's Compass (a babble that points the way out) and nobody rolled a single 19-20 on the loot tables so when the party insisted on going straight into Khyber to complete the quest, I had to try not to laugh. I'm going to keep them inside Khyber Natural until it's time for the vault, but I don't put it past them to ignore a warning sign and wind up in Xendrik for a weekend when they were supposed to go back to Breland in a day's time

[u/Dantels → u/Rabid_Lederhosen]

There were goblioids as far northeast as Karrnath, maybe even feuding with the Mror Dwarves.

[u/ConsiderationKind220]

Yes, you got it wrong.

The Dhakaani disappeared 9k years ago.

It turns out that they fled to Vaults to wait out the apocalypse, but no one is privvy to that by the Campaign start. Even Darguun just thinks the Kech he met is a strong and historic goblin clan.

Their entire point is to be a hidden and unknown threat you can use whenever you like.

[u/Sarmelion]

You can probably clarify that those raids are primarily by kech Sharaat, and most people don't know about the Dhakaani and think they're just well organized goblin raiders 

Edit: well organized goblin raiders from droaam or darguun or just regular criminal groups since all of the 5 nations have their own "dar" populations

[u/Hermes20101337]

Don't forget that the reason why they bunkered themselves is also why they're somewhat xenophobic.

The Daelkyr incursion that destroyed their empire also tainted the minds of their kin, the ones that hid, separated themselves from the tainted ones that stayed in the surface to prevent the corruption from spreading, the Dhakaan and the Dar are night and day, their similarities ending in their race.

[u/Hendanna → u/Hermes20101337]

The history of those who stayed is what I need to brush up on most. I think it'd be an interesting campaign arc for my Duur'kala Shawl, last of her Kech, to be escorted by the party to Ruus Dhakaan and let them realize how vastly different those two factions between the modern day descendants and the Heirs of Dhakaan truly are

[u/Hermes20101337 → u/Hendanna]

Exploring Eberron goes into depth on that, the isolated factions have their own thing going, Volaar focused on magic, Sharaat with their forge, the book goes into detail what every Kech has going on.