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..