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+====== The Kech Ghaalrac ======
+By Keith Baker
+Illustration by Wayne England
+Pas sure
+The Clan of heroes
+The Kech Ghaalrac—literally “the clan of mighty sol- diers”—is more broadly translated as “champions” or “heroes.” They are an alliance of Gatekeepers, Dhakaani soldiers, and Khesh’dar assassins that has been fighting the daelkyr continuously for thousands of years. The founders of the clan were the great- est heroes of the Daelkyr War, and the stories of these heroes are still told today (see “Heroes of the Empire”).
+While the Kech Volaar and their rivals have done their best to preserve Dhakaani traditions and culture from millennia ago, the people of the Kech Ghaalrac have been locked in a bitter struggle for sur- vival and the clan has continued to evolve as a result. Kech Ghaalrac forces have blended the techniques of Dhakaani, Gatekeeper, Khesh’dar, and the daelkyr, and the result of this blending has produced a force more powerful than anything seen in the region since the Age of Monsters.
+The Kech Ghaalrac originally went into Khyber to protect the empire and reclaim the so-called First Crown—the crown of the First Emperor. The clan believed that it couldn’t restore the empire until it could reclaim the crown. On 20 Olarune in 994 YK, when the Kech Ghaalrac warlord Khaas won a decisive victory over the daelkyr known as Dyrrn the Corruptor, the warlord seized the crown from Dyrrn’s vaults. In the years that followed, the Kech Ghaalrac has been hounding Dyrrn’s scattered forces and securing victory—but it has also been preparing to return to the surface and rebuild an empire.  Khaas now leads the small force that has taken over the Deneith fortress with the goal of seizing it for good. The Gathering Stone historically is the site from which Dhakaani leaders issued proclamations to the empire. When he is ready, Khaas intends to demand that all goblin leaders come to him and swear oaths of fealty. The Gathering Stone will be the base from which he will rebuild the legions and drive humanity back into the oceans from which it came. But for now, Khaas has much to learn about the modern world. The bulk of his forces remain in Khyber while he evaluates the situation.
+A quick and decisive assault by those who would reclaim the Gathering Stone could contain this fire before it spreads. Even if the Kech Ghaalrac cannot be destroyed, the loss of the First Crown would handicap Khaas’s ability to compel the loyalty of the modern goblins.
+Ur’Taash, ThE FirsT Crown
+The First Crown, called Ur’Taash by the goblins, was the final work crafted by Jhazaal Dhakaan, the mighty dirge singer who united the warring kingdoms into an empire. Her spirit is bound to it, and between her advice and the ability of the crown to facilitate communication, Ur’Taash was a key to the empire’s prosperity.
+The crown has the following basic capabilities, with the details of each of these qualities to be defined by the needs of the campaign.
+ Protection: The crown shields its wearer’s mind from mental attacks and effects.
+ Diplomacy: The crown allows the wearer to speak and understand all (or many) languages, and Jhazaal’s advice provides bonuses to Insight checks and Diplo- macy checks.
+ Communication: In the age of the empire, Dhakaani officers and governors wore crown rings encrusted with Khyber shards. The crown allows the wearer to establish a mind link with anyone wearing such a ring and to link to multiple minds at once. This abil- ity enabled the emperor to direct strategy for forces across Khorvaire, and today the warlord Khaas uses it to coordinate the actions of his clan. The smiths of Kech Ghaalrac haven’t yet learned how to make new crown rings, but they have a large supply recovered from daelkyr hoards.
+ Coercion: The original crown had no powers of domination. If Tuura Dhakaan is correct (see “Adven- ture Ideas”), however, the item in Khaas’s possession might not be the true crown—in which case it could be imbued with an enchantment to lure goblin fol- lowers and compel them to fight for the wearer.
+ The use of any of the First Crown’s powers requires the consent of Jhazaal’s spirit, so a non- Dhakaani is unlikely to receive any benefit from wearing the crown unless he or she can convince the spirit that its cooperation will help the Dhakaani clans in the long run.
+Weapons of sTeel and flesh
+The Kech Ghaalrac clan has taken the greatest tra- ditions of its people, blended them together, and improved upon them. Its soldiers are disciplined and hardened from generations of battling aberrants in the depths. Its duur’kala (dirge singer) bards have devised new techniques for inspiring troops and instilling terror in foes. Druids provide elemental fire support, and goblin assassins sally forth to slay enemy leaders before a battle is even joined.
+The Dhakaani clans have always excelled at metal- lurgy and weaponsmithing; not even House Cannith can match their techniques. The members of Kech Ghaalrac have continued to improve upon these tra- ditions, and even the rank-and-file Kech Ghaalrac soldiers are equipped with the equivalent of adaman- tine arms and armor. But such items are the least of their creations. Working together, the Kech Ghaalrac smiths, bards, and druids can create artifacts. These objects cannot be mass produced; each one is unique and requires rare components to create—the blood of a daelkyr, slivers of Khyber dragonshards imbued with a demon’s essence, and the like. So the num- bers of such artifacts are limited, but over the course of thousands of years Kech Ghaalrac clan members have produced many amazing devices. The ward that shields the Gathering Stone from scrying or teleportation is the product of one such artifact, and the clan has many other tools waiting to be deployed.
+The Kech Ghaalrac tribe has another advantage that is far stranger. The Gatekeeper druids who joined the Kech Ghaalrac knew the secret of breeding horrid animals by blending dire beast and dragon. Over thousands of years, they have seized many sym- bionts from the daelkyr and combined their breeding techniques with daelkyr fleshshaping. This effort has produced a host of strange and terrifying results. The clan uses symbionts of its own, ranging from fleshy constructs like those of the daelkyr to weapons that thirst for blood and secrete acid or venom on com- mand. Clan members have crafted symbionts that interface directly with the nervous system of the user, granting enhanced strength, speed, or regenerative powers. They have even developed a form of resur- rection, in which a new body is grown for a hero and memories transferred into it after death.
+In addition to these tools, the druids are employ- ing their magebreeding techniques on their own soldiers. The Kech Ghaalrac heroes are physically far more imposing than their normal kin. Although still recognizable as members of their original spe- cies, these champions have tough, armored skin with bony protrusions. They heal with remarkable speed, and they have vicious fangs that secrete acidic bile. A single Kech Ghaalrac bugbear is a match for a host of Brelish warriors.
+ As if this weren’t enough, the Kech Ghaalrac clan has one more form of living weapon in its arse- nal: bound aberrants. In the long struggle with the daelkyr, the Kech Ghaalrac developed tools and tech- niques to dominate aberrants, and the clan’s forces often include packs of enslaved beholders.
+ Combining exceptional skill with peerless tools, the Kech Ghaalrac is one of the most powerful fight- ing forces in Khorvaire. The clan has yet one more advantage: familiarity with the paths of Khyber. The world within Eberron is more than just a system of caves. Tied to the Elemental Chaos, it is a place of raw magic. Natural laws don’t always apply in Khyber, and those who know its paths can cross great distances on the surface world in a bizarrely short time. If the Kech Ghaalrac begins aggressive action, knowledge of Khyber can allow its forces to move swiftly, strike by surprise, and flee quickly. Anyone who doesn’t know Khyber at least as well as the clan does will have a difficult and dangerous time pursuing the Kech Ghaalrac through the depths.
+heroes of The empire
+The champions who founded the Kech Ghaalrac are long dead, but the greatest heroes of the modern clan have assumed the names and the trappings of the clan’s founders. Although this practice bears a surface resemblance to the customs of the Valenar, the name taking is an honor granted to a single exceptional warrior as opposed to an act carried out by every member of the clan.
+ When a hero is granted an ancient name, that hero also takes up the arms and armor of the cham- pion. In the Ghaal’dar tribes, doing so creates an illusion that the heroes themselves have returned— because there stands mighty Korrga with blood dripping from Laar’shaarat, his laughing sword! Since many Darguuls know these heroes from story, the powerful impact that this naming practice has is similar to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table returning to reestablish Camelot. A few of these heroes are described below.
+Khaas
+The latest individual to bear the name of Khaas is the hobgoblin warlord who commanded his people to victory over Dyrrn, and who has now seized the Gathering Stone and aspires to be the leader of all
+goblinkind. Khaas wears Ur’Taash and wields a spiked chain that sings as he spins it.
+ Khaas is furious that the empire of his people has fallen so low, with human cities now standing on the ruins of proud Dhakaan, and he blames clans such as the Kech Shaarat for standing by and letting things come to this. He truly wants what’s best for his people, and he believes that he is the only one who knows what that is. He feels that if Tuura Dhakaan and Lhesh Haruuc know what’s good for them, they will fall in line and let him rebuild the empire.  The leader of the Kech Ghaalrac inspires tremen- dous loyalty in his troops, something now enhanced by the First Crown. Even if the other goblin leaders resist him, many of their followers will be won to his banner by the strength of Khaas’s charisma and the influence of Ur’Taash.
+Torrm
+The first Torrm was the high druid of the Gatekeep- ers, and her family preserves the old traditions in the Shadow Marches today. Torrm’s legendary weapon is a staff studded with Khyber shards, channeling the power of spirits she has bound. The current Torrm wields this weapon, plus wears armor made from the hide of a beholder.
+ The practices of the Kech Ghaalrac druids have drifted from those observed in the Marches, and the Marcher druids will be dubious about the use of living weapons and bound aberrants. These changes have come about due to the latest Torrm and her people, who have been fighting the daelkyr directly, whereas the present-day Gatekeepers have chosen only to maintain crumbling seals.
+ When it comes to a wider war, Torrm intends to call on the Marches to ally with Khaas. If the player characters don’t interfere, she might convince her clan mates to join his cause.
+Korrga
+The mightiest champion of the Kech Ghaalrac forces, Korrga is a bugbear barbarian who never flees from battle until the last enemy has fallen. The current Korrga was magebred to be all but indestructible. He has astonishing regenerative powers, such that he can recover from almost any injury within seconds. There is surely a form of damage that he cannot heal, but the characters need to discover that truth through trial and error. He is in the vanguard of any attack, his living greatsword laughing as it drinks the blood of Korrga’s foes.
+Khesh
+A master of assassins, the goblin named Khesh wears a cloak of shadows and never speaks unless she must. It’s said that she can pass from one shadow to another, and that she can steal a person’s secrets just by look- ing at him or her.
+ Though Khesh is less outgoing than the Kech Ghaalrac leader, she believes in Khaas’s mission to restore the empire and is prepared to kill anyone who gets in the way, whether that’s Lhesh Haruuc or King Boranel. She will do her best to convince the current Khesh’dar to abandon its neutral stance and join with Khaas as the group’s ancestors did.
+{{tag>DM}}