Dragons

The dragons of Eberron are much more than mere monsters; adventurers will rarely barge into a dragon's lair in search of its treasure horde. Dragons in the world are either aloof and unapproachable, or they are curious and manipulative, pulling strings behind the scenes or trying to influence the world in arcane ways.
Most dragons live on the mystery-shrouded continent of Argonnessen and avoid contact with those they see as lesser creatures. They are obsessed with the Draconic Prophecy, which is a map of possible futures rather than a clear-cut prediction. Its paths are revealed in the motion of planes and moons, in the actions of the dragonmarked houses, and in dozens of other more subtle manifestations. Most dragons that are active in Khorvaire are part of a cabal known as the Chamber.
A dragon in Khorvaire that isn't part of the Chamber could be an exile driven from Argonnessen for some crime or a scholar pursuing independent research. Some orphaned dragons grow up in Khorvaire without contact with Argonnessen, and some dragons have been twisted by the daelkyr or corrupted by fiends; any of these could be an antagonist if the adventure you're crafting calls for a cruel dragon.
The dragons of Eberron aren't restricted in alignment—good red dragons and evil gold dragons are equally common. Most dragons tend toward neutrality. Even those with good alignments often don't consider the impact of their actions on lesser beings; if a Chamber dragon must destroy a human village to foil the plans of a demon, it will do so without hesitation.
The Chamber Conspiracy theorists insist that a network of dragons is hidden in Khorvaire, and these mighty creatures use powerful magic and humanoid agents to work their will across the continent and beyond. These claims are usually dismissed as madness, but they are in fact correct. The Chamber is a cabal of dragons that have monitored Khorvaire for thousands of years, treating humanoids as pawns in an ancient game.
First and foremost, the dragons of the Chamber are observers, gathering information about new aspects of the Prophecy and sharing it with their elders in Argonnessen. They are also charged with stopping any creature that seeks to use the Prophecy for its own ends. This responsibility sets them against the Lords of Dust, who must manipulate the Prophecy in order to release their fiendish overlords. It also leads them to recruit or eliminate any humanoid who learns too much about the Prophecy.
The Chamber is loosely organized. Each dragon monitors its own small corner of the world and maintains a network of humanoid agents. Although the mission of the Chamber is one of observation, individual dragons often have their own agendas. Some seek to manipulate the Prophecy personally, directing the future along a particular path. Others conduct experiments on dragonmarked humanoids, trying to understand the connection between these creatures and the Prophecy. Still others are obsessed with the Lords of Dust engage in century-spanning games of cat-and-mouse with their fiendish counterparts. In general, the Chamber seeks to maintain the status quo and opposes demons, so agents of the Chamber can often be useful allies or patrons. But ultimately humanoids are just pawns in the dragons' eyes, and they readily sacrifice any of those pawns to ensure the sanctity of the Prophecy and the defeat of the Lords of Dust.
The Chamber and the War The lives of humanoids and the welfare of their nations mean little to the ancient dragons. A member of the Chamber who is friendly now might turn out to be little more than a war criminal, responsible for horrible atrocities while directing critical events of the war to ensure that a skirmish or an untimely assassination didn't derail some crucial stanza of the Prophecy. An even more disturbing prospect is that the Mourning might have been orchestrated by the Chamber, either as part of its struggle against the Lords of Dust or even directly in response to the dictates of the Prophecy.
Whatever the truth, the Last War's impact on the Chamber was small in the grand scheme of things. Planar observatories were damaged here and there, humanoid servants died in droves, and the clash of armies derailed short-term plans. But even the effects of a hundred years of war are minor in the context of plans that span continents and millennia.
Planar Observatory A planar observatory is a structure at the heart of the Chamber's efforts to divine the meaning of the draconic Prophecy. The observatory consists of great chambers of crystal and metal, lined with huge orreries that track and align with the planes and the Ring of Siberys.
Planar Observatory Features Map 4.2 shows what a planar observatory might look like. These immense locations are constructed by and for dragons. The orreries that surround the central space track the courses of the planes as they shift toward and away from Eberron. All about the observatory are enormous dragonshards of all three kinds (Eberron, Khyber, and Siberys).
Each observatory must be built in a location that is balanced between Siberys and Khyber; finding such a site might take years of careful study and surveying, and these places are typically remote. Several are located in Argonnessen; those in Khorvaire are usually found in mountain ranges and hidden forest clearings. Many have crystal roofs, or domes that open with the aid of great mechanisms to allow an unobstructed view of the night sky, since the movements of Eberron's moons are thought to correspond to the shifting relationships among the planes.
Planar Observatory Adventures The characters might find their way to a planar observatory as unwitting minions of a Chamber observer, as a destination in their struggles against servants of the Lords of Dust, or even accidentally. The Planar Observatory Adventures table presents some possibilities.

Map 4.2: Planar Observatory
(Player Version) Planar Observatory Adventures d8 Adventure Goal 1 A disguised dragon requests assistance repairing a damaged orrery within the observatory. 2 One of the character's contacts is secretly the servant of a Chamber dragon observer. When the contact goes missing, their notes point toward a hidden "library" in the mountains. 3 The planar observatory might offer a way to prevent or at least predict what seems to be an epidemic of destructive manifest zones. 4 An observatory has been taken over by demonic cultists, and the characters must reclaim the facility or destroy it before the cult makes use of it. 5 A dragonmarked character has recurring nightmares that lead them to the observatory. 6 A thief or assassin has been using a derelict observatory as a hideout, occasionally selling bits of the observatory's dragonshards and equipment. 7 A scholar hires the characters to assist with studying and restoring a rediscovered observatory. 8 Several observatories across the region will produce a powerful effect if each is brought into a specific, simultaneous alignment. Chamber NPCs The dragons of the Chamber typically use magic to disguise their true nature and move unseen among humanoids. Although their goals of acquiring knowledge and opposing the Lords of Dust can make the dragons suitable as allies, their devotion to their long-term interests can blind them to the short-term impact of their actions.
Chamber NPCs d6 NPC 1 A wizard agent of the Chamber seeks to eliminate all the people they worked with in the past to cover their tracks and preserve the Chamber's secrecy. 2 The Prophecy requires the eventual destruction of a humanoid city. A disguised silver dragon, cunning and subtle, works to destabilize the city and bring about its ruin. 3 A local librarian is a disguised gold dragon in the service of the Chamber, who provides useful leads to send the characters down paths vital to the Prophecy. 4 A dragon becomes convinced that the dragonmarked houses are corrupting the Prophecy. It might specifically target dragonmarked heirs, or start a popular movement that seeks to destroy the houses. 5 A royal advisor or prominent noble, secretly a servant of the Chamber, guides the leader in a direction vital to the Prophecy but disastrous to the region. 6 A disguised dragon is convinced that an adventurer has a critical role to play in the Prophecy, but an agent of the Lords of Dust is determined to drive them down a different path. Chamber Campaign Themes In a campaign featuring the Chamber, the adventurers might initially carry out simple tasks on behalf of a disguised dragon or secret Chamber agent, not necessarily doing anything shady or villainous, but maneuvering pieces into position so they can play their designated parts. As the campaign unfolds, the dragons of the Chamber might reveal that the adventurers have their own part to play—in particular, perhaps, any member of the party who bears a dragonmark. The Chamber begins interfering in the characters' activities, for good and for ill, and the Lords of Dust might also get involved. Unfortunately for the adventurers, the dragons are not necessarily any more concerned for their well-being than the Lords of Dust are, and the characters might have to consort or cooperate with demons in order to escape the clutches of the dragons.
Throughout the campaign, the goals of the Chamber might not be readily apparent. Locations such as the planar observatory described here might be able to give the adventurers some insight into the substance of the Prophecy they have become tangled up in, and seers and sages might be able to offer further insight into the different ways that the demons and the dragons could be interpreting those words. Ultimately, the adventurers might be in the position of having to choose between an outcome that is bad for them but good for the world in the long term, or a short-term triumph that carries tremendous risk for the world in the distant (or not too distant) future.
Another possibility is that the adventurers are openly working with the Chamber to gather information on the Prophecy and fight the Lords of Dust. In this case, the Chamber could act as a group patron; see the "Immortal Being" section of chapter 1.
Chamber Missions The Chamber Missions table suggests several ways that adventurers might (knowingly or unknowingly) be asked to advance the Chamber's agenda, while the Chamber Adventures table offers a few more ways in which the activities of the Chamber could lead to an adventure.
Chamber Missions d6 Mission 1 Gather pristine dragonshards to expand or repair an observatory. 2 Seek out a group of people who must be eliminated in order to bring about the fulfillment of a stanza of Prophecy. 3 Discover who killed another minion of the characters' dragon patron. 4 Defend a Chamber safe house against a rival draconic attack. 5 Steal a local sage's research to prevent them from discovering the Chamber's activities. 6 Recreate an ancient ritual that will bring a new piece of the Prophecy to ligh