The trouble with running a scratch D&D session is that it is wholesale new and that means you have to have a follow up adventure in the planning stages before you even run the first adventure.  The first adventure runs this Sunday.  If you are playing in that adventure, you can STOP reading now!!

I have setup the area for the initial adventure to be in a region that has been farmed for thousands of years.  There is a very large and mature river dominating the area and a very large Mountain range.  The land is very flat.  I put elevation lines on the map the area that the river floods regularly is hundreds of kilometers wide.  There are ruins of cities over a thousand years dead.

The area is claimed by one of two nations and they tax and patrol these regions and lately they send military in to fight the roving bands of marauders. The initial invasion is over, that was a few months age when the Adventurers were born in a trial of fire.  The nation's leaders have called for help identifying locations of raiders.  And to this end the Heroes of Ricket's Hollow have been called.  

In a ruin far from the city, the militia leaders have suggested a lot of raiding has been coming from.  They explain that the region is distant enough that moving forces there to quash the raiders might leave other areas closer to the city vulnerable.  They will move against the raiders once they have been identified and located with proof.  And that is what the leaders want them to do

The ruin is the city of Awsland, the city that King Awsland built, it was renamed after him years after his death.  The ruins are not as vast as the city was, much of the city was carted off and used to build other cities, many of which became ruins themselves.  But there is a fair amount broken places in this ruin, and even one intact building,the central dome of the palace.  

In the central dome there is a camp of a kobolds.  The Blood Claw Clan has quietly set up there.  There were 60 of them when they moved in.  There are 40 now, with six Dragonborn leaders.  They ran afoul of a wight and now it has a bunch of Kobold specters too.  There is a Minotaur that was using the the ruins of the Palace as is lair and there is a medusa living in the chapel.  The chapel has some stone Kobold statues and some warning signs on the walls.  The Minotaur has dined on a few kobolds, but his lair has suffered from having the kobolds being here; they have walled up a few of his exits and trapped others and there are signs by the Kobolds.  

In addition to these threats, there is a small enclave of Goblins already living in the ruins.  They had been using the area as a raiding base for years and they see the winds of change and are making nice with the Kobolds and preparing for an alliance.  There are thirty goblins and five hobgoblins.  Right now the alliance is very shaky and anything could disrupt it.  

There is a small outpost outside the main set of ruins with about fifteen goblins in it.  They were associated with the other groups but that was before the Hobgoblins came in.  Their chief and a few loyalist went with him.  They are held up in a abandoned mostly ruined crypt/chapel for the Knights of Awsland.  The chaple would provide a great base as it is defensible.  There are two secret doors in the Chaple.  One leads to a crypt with five ghouls in five of the sarcophagi and five skeletons outside.  The temple is dedicated to a forgotten goddess, actually another variation of the Green Sun goddess.  The second secret door leads into a passage that heads 100m to a spring and out past the chapel. There is another secret door leading to the spring and there is signs that farmers and shepards have used this as a shelter in the past.  The language in the Chapel is an Archaic version of The River Trade tongue.  Still readable just archaic.  The main area has frescoes showing knights respecting their commander at the alter and grasping his hand in comradeship. There are words beneath each caption.  The pictures are out of order, the phrase must be reordered and spoken to unlock the statue to open the secret doors.

The local Dwarven Empire survived on trade with the mountain kingdoms five hundred kilometers to the south where they have access to the great plateau and it's farms. Tthat is a long way to bring produce, so they made use of the Humans and the Elves in the lands adjacent to their empire.  The free city on the mountain made an ideal trading post.  The city was large and wealthy.  There were a permanent population of Empire Dwarves, about ten thousand, they mined and smithed the interior of extinct volcano into great cathedrals and halls.  A population of Grey Elves fashioned the exterior and interior so that the beauty of the city became renowned throughout the many lands as a place of wonder and wealth.  The Empire Dwarves brought their goods here to be sold and the money from that sale was used to purchase food stuffs.  Everyone made money and the goods purchased there went half way across the continent, thanks to the Great River.  

That changed when the dragon arrived.  It came quickly and remorselessly.  It came on a night with no moons and it was strategic.  It burnt the gates shut, their ornate metal welded in place.  It feasted for ten days upon the inhabitants and then all was silent.  About ten percent of the populous escaped, scattered to the towns and cities nearby.  They escaped through sewers and hidden doors and magic.  Reliable eye witnesses claimed that the beast was between one hundred and one hundred fifty meters long.  A giant among dragons, and thought to be a gross exaggeration at that. 

Everything has been quiet for a generation now.  Humans with short memories farm the fields near the city walls—not too near, but close by.  Last year this changed.  There were quakes and tremors and the peak of the mountain began to smoke.  Springs close by became hot.  A dormant volcano that was dormant longer than the memory of elves has started to come to life.

There are two human nations in the area.  To the South a heretical monarchy  of sorts that lays claim to the plains south of the Free City to the Elven wood and to the Great River.  The Earldom of Causnought.  Before the fall of the Free City of Dhewtudum, it mainly traded the foodstuffs and used its position to as an intermediary.  In the past twenty years, the Gwendyl river HS been a minor route to acquire food directly from the Earldom and the cities wealth has increased.  

To the North of the Free City of Dhewtudum, was an Oligarchy of merchants.  The city of Trandle's Stand, before the fall it handled the majority of trade with  Dhewtudum, as it was closest to the the city and was on the Bright river.  Since the loss of the Free City, it has taken over the majority of the trade with the Empire.  The oligarchs have become powerful gaining greater influence on the lands surrounding the city and much of the wealth flows into their hands.  The river was always the easier way to bring goods of the Empire into the world, but the Free City, gave them the better position.  There is not much that e Empire can do about the situation now, as it has many mouths to feed.

Gwendyl Wose is the Elven kingdom between the Empire and its Mountains and the Earldom.  It has never depended upon the Free City for its prosperity, except for the occasional trading.  The increase in trade along the Gwendyl river has caused much strife with its people, but they recognize at the Empire might starve, and starvation would bring war, so they permit it.  The population is mostly High elves, but there is about 30% wood elves too.

The Empire is of course the giant that sleeps next to everyone else invisible in their mountain halls, over a million Dwarves live and work in its halls, for now they are trading for the food that they can get.  They are on the verge of starvation for the last twenty years.  Something that if the Oligarchs of Trandle's Stand really knew they might be more lenient on their trade policies, but perhaps not.  The dwarves are proud people and would rather tighten their belts than admit their vulnerabilities.  

The plains in between.  The plains are claimed by the Oligarchs and by the Earl, but in reality they are mostly free.  There are many isolated communities of Hobbits and gnomes out making their living.  There are towns of humans living and paying their taxes to the nations that pass trough them. There are five nomadic tribes of Yellow Elves that move thought the area at will, going where ever they wish traveling a thousand km in a year.  

Each of the cities in the two nations have a small population of Lowlander Dwarves.  Particularly in the docks area of the cities.  About ten percent of the merchant marines are Lowlander dwarves.  

There is another region that the Oligarchs and the Earl lay claim. The flood plains of the Great River.  The lands are often flooded for months at a time, but they are the most fertile lands anywhere.  They routinely produce bumper crops of rice during the floods and wheat when they are dry, but the area does not lend itself to permanent structures and the longest that a community can expect last is a generation but frequently no more than five years.  The communities are built upon stilts that are high and dry up to three meters in the air when the land is dry.  When the floods are greater or when the river moves, they get swept away.  The people at farm this land are a mix of Humans and River Elves.  The latter pretend that the river that is their home does not support more than all the human lands on its edge.  Many of their people go on Swimabout as part of their roaming lives, there are no cities in the river, because the river moves so often and is so murky.  

The far bank of the river has tributaries that reach deep into the Plains of Caranus there is one empire on the other side.  It is said to cover a millions of square kilometers and its prime city sits off of the Great River.  Gutral Mastekeena.  There are many nations of people in its control.  

South of that Empire there are the great plains that it is said a thousand tribes of Yellow Elves roam.

The Races:

The Elves:  +2 Dex

• speed 30

• Darkvision 60'

• free Proficiency Perception

• advantage on saving throws to be charmed and immune to sleep

• do not sleep, meditate 4 hours a night

Languages one common tongue and Elvish 

High Elves +1 int

• proficient in Longswords, Shortswords, and bows

• free cantrip

• extra Language

Wood Elves +1 wis

• proficient in Longswords, Shortswords, and bows

• speed 35

• can attempt to hide when lightly obscured

Mountain Elves. Where Mountain Dwarves prefer to mine and construct magnificent large halls in side the mountains, the Grey Elves nurture the rock and prune it to their desired shapes.  The sculpt the mountain to their desired form and chisel the rock perfection.  The mountain dwarf uses a pick where the Grey Elf uses a fine chisel.  Instead of +2 dexterity, they get +2 intelligence and +1 dexterity.  They all have proficiency in stone Masonry and a free cantrip.  Additionally they are able to work stone with their barehanded with a a free cantrip that softens the stone just under their hands until they release the stone.  They are exceptionally long lived and do not consider an elf an adult until after 200, when they are expected to have built a house that suits their taste from the mountain of their home.  Grey elves live on the surface of the mountain, another difference from their Dwarven neighbours.

• Dex -1 from 2 to 1

• Int +2

• proficient in Stone masonry

• two free cantrips, one player's choice, one stone related

Yellow Elves do not build permanent structures.  Anything that they build, they can take apart and move it when they leave the area.  They breed animals as their lasting legacy, but not for food, these elves are vegetarian gatherers and range widely with their herds.  They receive the standard elf improvements, but additionally a movement of 40 and natural stealth in grasslands.  They receive animal husbandry for free and they can use all elf weapons while mounted, longbow, scimitar and lance.  Lastly they add their proficiency bonus to their AC, when wearing light armour, while mounted.  

• proficient in Animal Husbandry

• speed 40

• proficient in mounted combat bows, scimitars, and Lances

• add Proficency bonus, when in light armour, to AC

River Elves +1 cha.  They are born in the Great River and its tributaries.  They are related to aquatic and land dwelling elves and may spend up to a year out of the water before needing to submerge themselves. The habitat of the Great River is very specialized, it is very deep in places and in any case very murky meaning it is impossible to see more than 5' in places, as such they have honed a number of senses that allow them to have Truesight underwater out to 30'.  They have water weapons training in Nets, Short swords, and harpoons.  These elves spend a lot of time dealing with the people along the banks of their home and those that sail upon it, as such they get a bonus proficiency in Persuasion rather than Perception.  Being at home on the river means that they spend a lot of time on water craft and have developed an affinity with them and know how to use them intuitively

• Cha +1

• water breathing

• Truesight 30' underwater

• proficient nets, Shortswords, and harpoons

• replace Perception with Pursuation 

The Dwarves: +2 con

• lawful alignment

• speed 25'

• Darkvision 60'

• Dwarven resilience advantage on saving throws vs Poison, and resistance to poison damage

• proficient in Axes, and hammers

• proficient in one of, (smith's tools, brewers, or stone masonry)

• Stonecunning, can make a history check to know age of stonework

• Languages, Empire Common and one other language, but not River Common.

Hill Dwarves +1 wis

• Dwarven toughness, +1 hp per level

Mountain Dwarf extremely rare, replaced by Empire Dwarves

Empire Dwarves add +1 intelligence and can learn any artisan trade.  And they add double the proficiency bonus in that trade, due to the excellent schools in the empire.  They are also know for the shrewdness in trade and have advantage on persuasion rolls when dealing with their trade.  Many guilds in cities near the mountains do well when they have an Empire Dwarf in control.  

• +1 Int

• Empire schooling, substitute Dwarven career with any artisan tools and gain expertise in that trade (2x proficiency bonus) and gain advantage in Persuasion checks dealing with that trade. 

Lowlander Dwarves are the second class citizens of the Dwarven world.  Often called a Half Dwarf, they are true dwarves, but they often wear their beards short.  Lowlander do not get the standard ability bonuses of other dwarves, and instead receive +1 in constitution, dexterity and wisdom.  As a bonus proficiency they can chose any trade and they double their proficiency bonus in background skills and trade.  They still are able to recognize the age of stonework and are trained with dwarf weapons

• no standard racial bonuses, get +1 in three abilities.

• Gain expertise in Background skills

Hobbit/halfling: +2 Dex

• most Lawful Good

• small 3'

•Speed 25'

• lucky re-roll 1s once

• brave, advantage on fear saving throws

• nimble may move through spaces with larger people in it

• language Halfling and a common tongue

Hairfoot

• +1 cha

• may hide behind larger creatures

Stout

• +1 con

• resilience to Poison, advantage on saving throws and resistance to poison

Urban hobbits are creatures unlike their fellows, most of the others insist that they are not hobbits at all.  They live in any city, almost every city has a presence.  The believe they are more sophisticated than their rural brethren.  Living can be harder in a city than in the country, since they are not farmers and ranchers.  They survive picking up the crumbs of society.  In this they are spectacularly successful

• free feat-Scrounger, advantage on sleight of hand checks, 50% chance of having basic item on person (string, chalk, candle, feather, purse or nobleman from over there etc,)

• free proficency sleight of hand;

• free cantrip Vicious Mockery without the damage, if they ever get the cantrip, they are especially potent d6 damage.

Human

• +1 in every stat or in two stats and a free feat

• speed 30'

Languages a common tongue and one other, Empire Common and River Common

Gnome +2int

• good

• small 3-4' tall

• advantage on all saves vs magic Cha, Int, Wis

• Darkvision 60'

Languages Gnomish and a common tongue

Forest

• +1dex

• free cantrip minor illusion

• speak with small animals

Rock

•+1con

• artificers Lore, expertise in checking magical items, mechanical and alchemical

• tinkers 

Half elves

• Cha +2 and +1 in any two others

• speed 30'

• Darkvision 60'

• fey ancestry, advantage on charm saves, can't be put to sleep

• two proficiencies for free

Language Elvish, A trade tongue and one other language

Half Orcs:

• +2 Str, +1 con

• chaotic

• speed 30'

• Darkvision 60'

• menacing free Proficency in Intimidation

• relentless endurance, once per long rest if you die, you are instead reduced to 1 hp

• savage attacks +1 die for all critical attacks

Languages Orcish and a Trade tongue

Setting overview

Explanation on the setting

There are a few things that I must cover:

The suns and the moons 

Theology

Astrology

The multiverse

The three continents

The Old Ones

Dragons

Orcs

Mutations

First of all there are two major effects at work in this setting:  Science and Magic.  Where at all possible everything has a scientific explanation, where it does not there is Magic.  Normal settings have a power level of spells that cap at ninth level spells, this world caps at twelfth.  Not that anyone has been strong enough to cast that type of spell in many thousand years, but it exists and the world has been affected by the few times that these spells were used.  There are mountains that have been sheared off, deserts of glass and effects that have changed millions of square kilometers of terrain, forever.  There is also technology that has done the same thing.

But everything is based in science, magic is based in science, the parts that can be explained that is.

The Suns and the Moons.  

There are three.  At the center of the Solar System there is a single star.  A large blue star.  It produces a lot of light, but it is all on the upper end of the spectrum, in the blue and ultra violet wavelengths.  It is sentient.  It has two sisters, a binary group of stars a red and a green star, they orbit the central star at a distance of one AU and they orbit themselves as well.  It does not matter how hot they are or any thing like that.  The two stars are also sentient.  

The planet where the setting is based is ten AU from the main star and it receives most of its light from that star, but it also receives light from the other two.  On the planet the atmosphere scatters light, blue and green light, so the Blue sun is invisible from the planet at all times.  The green sun appears to be yellow, and the red sun is still red.  But the sky is blue almost all the time. 

Time: the two suns rotate around each other once every nine days completely.  The two stars rotate around the central star once a year, the planet rotates around the blue star once every twenty five years, sidereally.  However, from the planet, it appears differently.  From the planet there are twenty-four orbits of the two stars around the main star in a year.  There is an axial tilt to the planet.  So each season on the planet lasts for six years, if a year was the time it takes for the two stars to rotate around the main star.  Six years of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.  The variation in light levels from the two suns adds to the effect.  More light more heat, less light less heat, but the variations are not as great as the tilt provides.  In some climes this does result in snow in a summer year, like when the two suns go behind the main star or the main star is eclipsed by the two.  

The three suns are greater gods in the setting.

The three moons are greater gods.

The three are worlds in on themselves, one is overcast nearly all the time, one is a water world with a lot of clouds, and the last is a forest covered world with clouds.  The green world is the closest, the blue moon is the middle one and the white one is the furthest moon.

The green moon is the place at the Faerie folk and their ilk are from.  The moon is locked into position, meaning one face is always toward the planet and the other is always away.  The weather patterns are a little chaotic but it works.  The land is very chaotic in every sense of the word.  The blue world is a water world filled with tiny islands across its surface.  The vast majority of this world is water and it is filled with the elder races, Illithid, Aboleth and the such.  The last moon is a planet of extremes, mountains and volcanoes everywhere, the cloud cover is almost complete.  It is a land of battling demons and devils along with all the rest, devas and everything, not a place that anyone would want to travel to.  Because of their different albedos, than the moon of Earth, these moons reflect more light at night than our own moon, so night can be filled with more to see.

There may be other planets out there, but if there are, the Old Ones are not saying.

Theology

There are six Greater Gods, different cultures give them different names and weave different stories around them, accentuating different aspects of their domains, but all six are consistent with:  which domains they control, their celestial body, and their alignment character.

The Blue star is the hidden goddess and she is neutral

The Green star is the god of law

The Red star is the god of chaos

The Green moon is the god of evil

The Blue moon is the god of neutral

The White moon is the god of good

The greater gods all have three domains as well as Light or Darkness

The priests of these gods chose one domain as the aspect that they follow and they get a bonus domain spell for one of the other domains of their god, just one.

The lesser gods are many and they are different in every culture and there is no shared gods from other cultures with different names.  Each of these gods has two domains and they are a mixture of the greater gods.  One domain from one and one from another.  The alignment is closely linked to one or both of the parent gods, but there is some variance.  

Demigods are not rare.  They are the result of local heroes that are imbued with  glory and they are local.  When they receive a degree of veneration and have moved outside the local area they become a lesser god, but they follow the rules of the other lesser gods then.  Demigods have only one domain.

Astrology.  It is real.  It has impact.  It works.  It is dependent on the star that the person is born under (Constellation) and the stars that the three suns are in, the three moons too, and their phase.  And then you need to then make a chart for the location at the present time as well and then compare them.  There are texts that say the old ones have superior knowledge and could forecast perfect predictions.  If there were other celestial objects that affect a prediction, they are lost with them.

The Multiverse.  There is no multiverse.  In other D&D games there are outer planes and inner planes and the other stuff like that.  There is none of that here.  However, there was a spell cast at the end of the Old Ones time that may be important to this idea.  The spell opened up new places for the people to go when a disaster that they could not defeat set upon them.  The spell ripped open a realm in the space and there were worlds, new worlds opened up to them which they could exploit.  The new worlds contained a mix of everything in the world and were capped in power, only magic of e ninth order functioned within these pocket dimensions.  

The beings that occur on alternate planes exist within this world or on its moons.  There are pure sentient elements existing in pure elements.  A pure lake might have a water elemental, a space of pure air, a pure chunk of granite with no aberrations, a flame in a flow of magma.  Deep under the ground, or high in mountains there are demons living and hunting.  Some are summoned from their prison like moon, and when they are a jailer might come looking for them.  

There are three continents and one pact.  There was the continent of Humans kinds, the continent of Elven kinds, and the continent of Dragon kind.  The pact was that none would violate the other lands.  The continent of humans was a rough and tough place, there was constant warfare and then finally one nation rose to dominate the rest and they flourished and grew to believe that the pact was a mistake, or they forgot the pact because it was a pact from beyond memory.  They mounted expeditions and went out and discovered new lands.  The new lands had much in the way of riches and they began to exploit them.  One such continent was Caranus, which is that land of Dragons.  At first the intrusion was not noticed.  The humans grew powerful in that land.  When they did take notice a great and horrible war was raged between the mightiest of those races.  When it was over the Old ones abandoned the continent and promised to repair the pact as best they could.  The damage was done however and even the Elvenkind continent had been invaded and the elves had come to this continent as refugees.  The humans that had arrived afterwards were from the Elven continent, and none were allowed from the Human continent again, until recently.  The Old Ones place a great curtain around the entire continent that turned all humans away from exploring the lands far away across the oceans.  

The Old Ones.  They refer to the ancient culture of e great old ones in the South of the continent of the Dragons.  Those ruins date past beyond three hundred centuries ago.   It was about that time that they rose as a power and conquered much of the land, since it was devoid of other empires, or indeed people, this was an easy thing.  When that was completed in less than a century they devoted themselves to exploitation and magical research.  The brought the sciences of astrology and magic to its peak in only a few centuries.  When they did they discovered two things, the first that Dragons were of three general types, pre-sentient, sentient, and godlike.  They thought nothing of the former types, but the later was more powerful than they were.  The second thing was that their astrological predictions all ended in a short generation from then.  The connection between the two facts was realized.  Having the power to lay waste to a million kilometers of land with a single spell and discovering that there were beings that still thought of you as a insect to be squashed was troubling.  The masters of magic then began a hurried attempt to make peace and evacuate.  The truth about the multiverse was discovered and that the entire population could be scattered through these portals in only a few years.  They began to do so and soon the continent was devoid of people again.  Those that chose to take their chances died.  

A couple of thousand years ago a group of mysterious solitary individuals began moving through the land the used great magics and set up observation posts.  They did nothing to interfere except when they said laws were being broken and one of them arrived on scene and set everything to rights.  Mostly no one knows when they are around.

Dragons.  In other worlds they are hatched from eggs and grow to be the apex predator in a few years.  After a few centuries they reach maximum size and they die, usually of violence.  They are lesser cousins of dragons.  Dragon eggs are seeded in the wind and they fall in rain or snow.  They hatch and they fight all the other little dragons near them, the kill them and eat them and they grow.  At each stage they eat and fight.  That is all they do.  When they eat a dragon, they grow in power and when they eat something else they just sustain themselves.  Mortals see clouds of fire fly duels, they see fire birds fight.  They see the cat lizards and the wolf lizards and the bear lizards fight.  The see the dragon hawks fight, the kites fight and the Wyvren fight.  Then the dragons get sentience and things change.  They develop language, it is inborn, and they begin to learn others.  They begin to cast spells.  They differentiate into various subspecies and various alignments and cultures.  They are intensely territorial and will not suffer other dragons inside of their territory, but they also do not view different size orders and prey, they recognize that to the young dragon, a cat or wolf lizard is not big enough to sustain them and will wait until they grow to bear lizards or Wyvrens.  An old dragon sees a young dragon as too small, and a great Wyrm sees an old dragon as too small.  Elder Wyrm cease to eat at all and by then they are often mistaken for clouds, their seed fills the air and from them the cycle begins again.

Dragon young are voracious and deadly, mature dragons wield spells, they all wield spells, they use the charisma trait like Sorcerers, but they can cast even divine spells.  They cast spells as a Sorceror equal to their hit dice - 8, though they more spells than normal casters, they get their charisma modifier in additional spell slots.  They can cast any spell but prefer spells that mimic their colour type.  When they hit 30 hit dice or more they begin to grant spells to followers as a god grants them.  Dragons get bigger than their lesser cousins.  Dragons are a force of nature, full stop.  Their legendary Lair effects grow the longer they reside in one spot.

Ages of Dragons  hit dice

Wrymling               9d8 medium +9

Juvenile                11d8 medium +22

Young Dragon.  14d10 large +42

Adult.                    17d10 large  +68

Mature.                20d10 large. +100

Old.                       23d12 huge. +138

Venerable.          26d12 huge. + 182

Ancient.              29d12 huge + 232

Wyrm.                  32d20 gargantuan +288

Great Wyrm.     40d20 gargantuan +400

Grand Wyrm.    45d20 gargantuan+ 450

Orb of Dragonkind is an artifact from the First Ones when they thought to challenge the greatest Dragons on the continent.  It was locked away deep in the tropical Fortresses that they lived on the north tip.  The powers of the mighty orb were such that the creation of the device, caused the dragons to take them as a serious threat. The resulting brief war ended with the Old Ones evacuating the continent.  Amongst the reported powers was the ability to hijack the mind of a dragon and assert mental control.  Merely handling the orb requires a Wish spell to hold it just once.

The Dragon Slayer is a weapon of great power.  Every Dragon that sees the sword, reacts to it negatively, and will seek to destroy them.  They do not become reckless, they use their will to arrange for many difficulties and obstacles to overcome the owner before they confront and destroy the owner and ten typically cast the weapon into the deepest part of the ocean.  The wielder of the weapon chooses the form of the weapon.  Most often it was used as a lance and was supposed to mounted on a dominated Dragon.  The effect of the weapon was to cause immense damage to the attacked dragon by syphoning the energy from soldier and mount.  To do this they would need to control the dragon with the Orb of Dragonkind.  

Orcs.  Orcs are not native to the world.  They crashed here ten thousand years ago.  Somehow, a spacefaring civilization of orcs came here accidentally and their ship crashed in Caranus.  Escape pods landed all over the planet, but the bulk of the ship landed here, mostly crashed.  The technology sustaining the engines failed just a few hundred meters off the ground.  And it failed to work ever after, except one last time.  Proto-Orcs use the human template for character creation.  There is none of the proto-Orcs left.  They are not all the Chaotic Evil monsters of the other realms.  Most orcs are, but some in isolated pockets still hold to their ancient civilization, the ideals if not the technology.  The orcs spread wide and far on all the continents and remain intact on two of the continents of the world.  Not so on Caranus.  The ship remained the center of their culture for a thousand years, a vast empire radiated out from it.  The technology remained viable for the most part for centuries, augmented by the arts they discovered on this planet, magic and divine power.  A schism occurred after centuries and the two sides battled for possession of the ship as either the center of science or as the icon of devotion.  The result was that the drives of the ship were reinitialized with magic and an overload occurred ending the schism entirely.  The explosion destroyed the Orcish technological empire and created the Mountains of Glass and the Burning Plains.  

Mutations.

The end of the Orcish technocracy brought change to the continent.  Almost every species was affected in some way.  Luckily the explosion occurred just after the first of the Caretakers arrived in the continent.  They sent the radioactive dust against the wind away from the greatest population on the continent, the Great River.  Still a third of the continent was affected and the people there all changed.  The refugees from these regions brought with them lizard men, salaad, Kuo-Toa, ogres, gnolls, goblins, kobolds, Treants, and hundreds of others.  It is thought that within the wilds there is yet more.  Dragons in the presentient stages were locked in that state and began to breed true.  

Ages of Dragons  hit dice

Bite is d10 per size level, claw is d6 per size level, tail is d8 per size level, wing attack is 2d4 per size level; referring to after it gets that option.

Armour class of the dragon does not include magical items or spells that it might have or use.

Spells as a sorcerer of level (hit dice -8), with extra slots equal to charisma and any spell category if it matches their colour motif

Wrymling               9d8 medium +9 proficiency modifier +2

HP 50.  BW 7d6 (25)

Damage modifier +1

bite 1d10

AC 16.               CR3

Sorcerer level 1   Spell save DC 11; spell attack modifier +3

Juvenile                11d8 medium +22 proficiency modifier +2

HP 72.  BW 9d6(32)

Damage modifier +2

bite 1d10

AC 16.                 CR4

Sorcerer level 3   Spell save DC 12; spell attack modifier +4

Young Dragon.  14d10 large +42 proficiency modifier +2

HP 119.   BW 12d6(42)

Damage modifier +3, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 2d10, claw 1d6

AC 17.                CR7

Sorcerer level 6.  Spell save DC 13; spell attack modifier +5

Adult.                    17d10 large  +68 proficiency modifier +3

HP 162.   BW 15d6(53)

Damage modifier +4, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 2d10, claw 1d6

AC 17.          CR8

Sorcerer level 9.  Spell save DC 15; spell attack modifier +7

Mature.                20d10 large. +100 proficiency modifier +4

HP 210.  BW 18d6(63)

Damage modifier +5, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 2d10, claw 1d6

AC 18.              CR11

Sorcerer level 12.  Spell save DC 17; spell attack modifier +9

Old.                       23d12 huge. +138 proficiency modifier +5

HP 288.  BW 21d6(74)

Damage modifier +6, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 3d10, claw 2d6, wing buffet 2d4

AC 18.                CR16

Sorcerer level 15.   Spell save DC 19; spell attack modifier +11

Venerable.          26d12 huge. + 182 proficiency modifier +6

HP 332.  BW 24d6(84)

Damage modifier +7, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 3d10, claw 2d6, wing buffet 2d4

AC 19.                      CR 19

Sorcerer level 18.  Spell save DC 21; spell attack modifier +13

Ancient.              29d12 huge + 232 proficiency modifier +7

421.  BW 27d6(95)

Damage modifier +8, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 3d10, claw 2d6, wing buffet 2d4

AC 19.                      CR 21

Sorcerer level 20.   Spell save DC 23; spell attack modifier +15

Grants cleric level 1 spells

Wyrm.                  32d20 gargantuan +288 proficiency modifier +8

624.  BW 30d6(105)

Damage modifier +9, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 4d10, claw 3d6, wing buffet 4d4

AC 20.                       CR26
Sorcerer level 20.   Spell save DC 25; spell attack modifier +17

Grants upto level 4 cleric spells

Great Wyrm.     40d20 gargantuan +400 proficiency modifier +9

820.   BW 38d6(133)

Damage modifier +9, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 4d10, claw 3d6, wing buffet 4d4

AC 21.                     CR28

Sorcerer level 20.   Spell save DC 27; spell attack modifier +19

Grants spells as a God, including Domains

Grand Wyrm.    45d20 gargantuan+ 450 proficiency modifier +10

923.  BW 43d6(151)

Damage modifier +10, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 4d10, claw 3d6, wing buffet 4d4

AC 22.                        CR30

Sorcerer level 20.    Spell save DC 29; spell attack modifier +21

Grants spells as a God, including Domains

As soon as they gain spell abilities they gain the speech and sentience.  They gain the ability to speak multiple languages at large sized and above.  They also begin recruiting followers at large size.  At huge size they begin to create minions, by taking allies or prisoners they can mold them into creatures of their own design.  By the time they reach Gargantuan size they count their minions as hosts, armies in the thousands, additionally they can grant their worshiper's prayers.  They have clerics and those clerics have domains

The trouble with running a scratch D&D session is that it is wholesale new and that means you have to have a follow up adventure in the planning stages before you even run the first adventure.  The first adventure runs this Sunday.  If you are playing in that adventure, you can STOP reading now!!

I have setup the area for the initial adventure to be in a region that has been farmed for thousands of years.  There is a very large and mature river dominating the area and a very large Mountain range.  The land is very flat.  I put elevation lines on the map the area that the river floods regularly is hundreds of kilometers wide.  There are ruins of cities over a thousand years dead.

The area is claimed by one of two nations and they tax and patrol these regions and lately they send military in to fight the roving bands of marauders. The initial invasion is over, that was a few months age when the Adventurers were born in a trial of fire.  The nation's leaders have called for help identifying locations of raiders.  And to this end the Heroes of Ricket's Hollow have been called.  

In a ruin far from the city, the militia leaders have suggested a lot of raiding has been coming from.  They explain that the region is distant enough that moving forces there to quash the raiders might leave other areas closer to the city vulnerable.  They will move against the raiders once they have been identified and located with proof.  And that is what the leaders want them to do

The ruin is the city of Awsland, the city that King Awsland built, it was renamed after him years after his death.  The ruins are not as vast as the city was, much of the city was carted off and used to build other cities, many of which became ruins themselves.  But there is a fair amount broken places in this ruin, and even one intact building,the central dome of the palace.  

In the central dome there is a camp of a kobolds.  The Blood Claw Clan has quietly set up there.  There were 60 of them when they moved in.  There are 40 now, with six Dragonborn leaders.  They ran afoul of a wight and now it has a bunch of Kobold specters too.  There is a Minotaur that was using the the ruins of the Palace as is lair and there is a medusa living in the chapel.  The chapel has some stone Kobold statues and some warning signs on the walls.  The Minotaur has dined on a few kobolds, but his lair has suffered from having the kobolds being here; they have walled up a few of his exits and trapped others and there are signs by the Kobolds.  

In addition to these threats, there is a small enclave of Goblins already living in the ruins.  They had been using the area as a raiding base for years and they see the winds of change and are making nice with the Kobolds and preparing for an alliance.  There are thirty goblins and five hobgoblins.  Right now the alliance is very shaky and anything could disrupt it.  

There is a small outpost outside the main set of ruins with about fifteen goblins in it.  They were associated with the other groups but that was before the Hobgoblins came in.  Their chief and a few loyalist went with him.  They are held up in a abandoned mostly ruined crypt/chapel for the Knights of Awsland.  The chaple would provide a great base as it is defensible.  There are two secret doors in the Chaple.  One leads to a crypt with five ghouls in five of the sarcophagi and five skeletons outside.  The temple is dedicated to a forgotten goddess, actually another variation of the Green Sun goddess.  The second secret door leads into a passage that heads 100m to a spring and out past the chapel. There is another secret door leading to the spring and there is signs that farmers and shepards have used this as a shelter in the past.  The language in the Chapel is an Archaic version of The River Trade tongue.  Still readable just archaic.  The main area has frescoes showing knights respecting their commander at the alter and grasping his hand in comradeship. There are words beneath each caption.  The pictures are out of order, the phrase must be reordered and spoken to unlock the statue to open the secret doors.

D&D2

The back story is simple enough, any demihumans in the group will have memories of the attack and the destruction of the mountain city to the South and East.  Otherwise the sack of the city would have entered the folklore of the nation and such.  There is an uneasy feeling because everyone in the nation can see the mountain every day.  Appropriate characters will remember the assault, and have family members that were devoured.  In recent months the mountain began to erupt, something that has not happened since before the lands were settled.  The thick plumes climb high into the sky and every one is feeling on edge.  But it is over a hundred kilometers away, so it is mostly just a curiosity.  Because dragons this size are not that common and no one remembers what happened the last time. 

The idea for the start is to through the players into the adventure with only a few things chosen from their chosen character careers. Their race, their background and their stats; basic stats and by that I mean really basic: 4 12s a 10 and a 8, plus their racial stats.  I would ask them to pick one or two gods that they venerate.  I would pepper the story with weapons and objects that would confer bonuses to their stats at the end of the adventure.  And that would be their new class and such.  They would have the minimal amounts of things that their background had, but most of that stuff would have been lost when the adventure starts.  

There would be a book of cantrips, a collection of holy symbols, a bunch of weapons, some armour and a bunch of miscellaneous bits of stuff.  I would give them twelve stat bonuses at the end of the adventure.  Then they would have higher stats and could decide on that basis, what class they want to take.  There would be additional effects like if they picked some item that gave them a couple cantrips, they would be able to hose a different class and still have the couple of cantrips to use, even if they are not normally open to their class.  They might chose a paladin, but could sing cantrips like a bard, or preach them like a cleric.

Weapons +3 

weapons add 1 strength each, finess weapons add 1 dexterity each

Two handed weapons add 2 strength 

Every one can have a weapon for each hand and a ranged weapon

Thrown weapons add to strength, others to Dex.

Armour +3

heavy armour adds 2 strength And 1 constitution

medium armour adds 1 to strength, dexterity and constitution

light armour adds 2 to dexterity and one constitution

Cloak adds 2to dexterity, constitution 1

Spell book adds 2 to intelligence, and 1 to constitution

Crystal ball adds 2 to charisma and 1 to constitution 

Shields +2 no Dex or Str

Tower constitution

Metal  wisdom and constitution

Wood wisdom

Buckler intelligence and wisdom

Heavy robe Charisma or intelligence

Helmets +2

Leather skull cap intelligence or charisma

Chain coif constitution

Helm with holy symbol constitution and wisdom

Silver Dragon helm charisma

Hat constitution

Miscellaneous +2

A belt of pouches, adds 2 to the lowest of Charisma or Intelligence.

A song book of cantrips adds charisma 2

Prayer book of cantrips adds to wisdom 2

Tabard white with shield covering with coat of arms Charisma 2

The adventure is simple the characters wake up in an inn that has a whole bunch of wounded people in it.  The town was attacked the previous night and you know that the town is surrounded by a force of kobolds.  There were a group of adventurers in the town and that is the only reason why the kobolds did not over run the town last night.  The characters were all in the fight too, but through a series of tragedies, they were knocked unconscious when the buildings they were in collapsed.  You have just regained consciousness in the Jolly Red Wyrm the sole remaining Inn here, the other two, the ones you were staying in were burnt to the ground with all your possessions.  Why the kobolds did not finish off the town last night is not known, perhaps the bright sunshine was the reason, and the strong defense last night.  There are only twenty farmers and towns golf left alive in the town and they are all here with you.  

The Jolly Red Wyrm is an old inn that has the reputation of being here for hundreds of years.  After the first hundred years it became lucky for great adventurers passing through to leave a token of their passing.  They left weapons, armour, books, and many other things.  All these items have been lovingly taken care of.  There is a dedicated staff member whose only job is to maintain the collection.  Many of the heroes of centuries past left their first swords and armour as a testament of their greater deeds.  

All is not lost, you have an assortment of equipment before you and you must now gear up for the coming night, you only have an hour or so before the sun sets, and maybe and hour after that before full dark, you know the kobolds will attack then.  

(Characters that want to play a specific class in the game will be allowed to arm up how they wish, but characters that don't know what they want to play will be allowed an more organic form of character development.)

There will be series of out buildings and a series of spaces.  There will be a store close by and untouched.  There will be a bunch of mounts and two wagons and one cart.  Three barrels of thick pitch, and a small barrel of lamp oil in the inn.  There is a barrel of fifty torches in the store, a bin of nails, and a rack of boards out back.  There are five sacks of flour. Anything else that makes sense.  If the players ask about something, get them to roll a d6 on a 6 there is none, on a 4-5 there is something else like it, on a 2-3 there is some, on a 1 there is a lot of it for some reason.  If it is a cool on item roll at -1 each search takes ten minutes.  But they have twenty people to put their plans into action.  The planks, the nails, the oil, and the torches are what's on hand right away.  The other stuff in the store must be search for.

The inn is a two story affair with a larger ground floor and a balcony in two of the upper windows. The roof is made of clay tiles and the walls are stone, so it did not burn in the previous night.  The store had a thatch roof and it burned but the stone walls meant there was salvage.  The other buildings near the inn were stone or wood and were destroyed, but have a nearly intact wall

They have two hours to gear up and fight

There are ten kobolds for every player, but they can arm the villagers too, but they won't be as effective.  They are all wounded or infirm, but kobolds don't care.  

If they handle the kobolds too easily, then add another wave, just ten kobolds. There will be one last wave of kobolds with a dragon born leader, a ranger in scale-mail with a bow.

If the characters win, then the way is open for them to take the survivors to the next town or the city.  There they will get initiated into the class they have chosen and they will have already met.  

The next steps of the group will be plentiful.

This was an isolated attack, deep into the empire's under belly, but there have been many attacks closer to the mountain.  The emperor wants information on the dragon and the city.  They will have to get closer to make observations and they will need to find a map of the city too.  This will mean going to the city to look at the dragon and do some quick measurements and going to look for a place that had the city maps either in the city or if they can find someone who survived the attack and get them to recreate one.  They may have to go to the Mountains and seek an audience with the Dwarven Emperor.  And do a side quest.  Learn about the Orb of Dragonkind and the Dragon Slayer sword.  

The dragon just for starters is equal to a 20th level sorcerer with a few clerical powers as well.  It can grant spells to followers like a god, it's cleric can choose light or war domains.  It has a legendary domain effect that stretches hit dice kilometers away growing one kilometer a day. 

Races:

The Elves:  +2 Dex

High Elves +1 int

Wild Elves +1 wis

Mountain Elves. Where Mountain Dwarves prefer to mine and construct magnificent large halls in side the mountains, the Grey Elves nurture the rock and prune it to their desired shapes.  The sculpt the mountain to their desired form and chisel the rock perfection.  The mountain dwarf uses a pick where the Grey Elf uses a fine chisel.  Instead of +2 dexterity, they get +2 intelligence and +1 dexterity.  They all have proficiency in stone Masonry and a free cantrip.  Additionally they are able to work stone with their barehanded with a a free cantrip that softens the stone just under their hands until they release the stone.  They are exceptionally long lived and do not consider an elf an adult until after 200, when they are expected to have built a house that suits their taste from the mountain of their home.  Grey elves live on the surface of the mountain, another difference from their Dwarven neighbours.

Yellow Elves do not build permanent structures.  Anything that they build, they can take apart and move it when they leave the area.  They breed animals as their lasting legacy, but not for food, these elves are vegetarian gatherers and range widely with their herds.  They receive the standard elf improvements, but additionally a movement of 40 and natural stealth in grasslands.  They receive animal husbandry for free and they can use all elf weapons while mounted, longbow, scimitar and lance.  Lastly they add their proficiency bonus to their AC, when wearing light armour, while mounted.  

River Elves +1 cha.  They are born in the Great River and its tributaries.  They are related to aquatic and land dwelling elves and may spend up to a year out of the water before needing to submerge themselves. The habitat of the Great River is very specialized, it is very deep in places and in any case very murky meaning it is impossible to see more than 5' in places, as such they have honed a number of senses that allow them to have Truesight underwater out to 30'.  They have water weapons training in Nets, Short swords, and harpoons.  These elves spend a lot of time dealing with the people along the banks of their home and those that sail upon it, as such they get a bonus proficiency in Persuasion rather than Perception.  Being at home on the river means that they spend a lot of time on water craft and have developed an affinity with them and know how to use them intuitively.  

  

The Dwarves: +2 con

Hill Dwarves +1 wis

Empire Dwarves add +1 intelligence and can learn any artisan trade.  And they add double the proficiency bonus in that trade, due to the excellent schools in the empire.  They are also know for the shrewdness in trade and have advantage on persuasion rolls when dealing with their trade.  Many guilds in cities near the mountains do well when they have an Empire Dwarf in control.  

Lowlander Dwarves are the second class citizens of the Dwarven world.  Often called a Half Dwarf, they are true dwarves, but they often wear their beards short.  Lowlander do not get the standard ability bonuses of other dwarves, and instead receive +1 in constitution, dexterity and wisdom.  As a bonus proficiency they can chose any trade and they double their proficiency bonus in background skills and trade.  They still are able to recognize the age of stonework and are trained with dwarf weapons

Hobbit/halfling: +2 Dex

Hairfoot +1 cha

Stout +1 con

Urban: feat-Scrounger, advantage on sleight of hand checks, 50% chance of having basic item on person (string, chalk, candle, feather, purse or nobleman from over there etc,) proficency sleight of hand; free cantrip Vicious Mockery

Human

Gnome +2int

Forest+1dex

Rock+1con

Half Orcs: +2 Str, +1 con

Dragon born and teiflings are very rare as they are mutants in a stable region.

This region has two common trade tongues, most people in the cities know both. The first is the River Trade tongue and the second is the High trade Tongue.  River is also River Elf common, and is spoken from the Jungles in the North to the Swampy delta in the Deep South and along the Main tributaries through the plains.  High is Dwarven Common of the Empire and it is spoken through the mountains with little change.  Dwarves often refuse to teach any other language.  Only the half dwarves learn River as well as High Trade.  Notably, the river elves learn both, as well as their racial dialect.

The ruins of Gladen the Domain of Relic the Thief a kingdom that rose because of the power vacuum when The city of Aswland was Sacked by the warlord Grumak'rak and his Orc Horde.  The city first grew from the refugees that fled the Warlord's path.  Then the river luckily stayed close to that side of the valley for years and the resulting trade allowed the city to grow in leaps and bounds.  The fortune of the city held out further when the river did move by building a canal that lead to the river.  The city stayed relevant to the area thanks to the King of the city who was able to fund great public works, after his death it was revealed at he was the notorious Thief named Relic.  He had played many of the powers in the region off against each other while gathering great artifacts to manipulate the flow of the river and later dig and reinforce the canals.  So great was his influence that the city lasted some fifty years before being absorbed into the new nation to the South.  The Earldom of Causnought.  The city has been cannibalized of stone and marble.  But there are some structures that were left relatively intact.  These are the homes of monsters, and other such creatures.

The other large ruin is the Ruined city of Stuj, named after that warlord that defeated Grumak'rak and his Orc Hordes.  The treasure allowed him to set up his city on the banks of the Trandle River and attract many of the people from Aswland.  The proximity to the Dwarven city did not hurt the town.  It soon grew and expanded.  One hundred years after its founding, there was an especially wet year in the continent and the River flooded its banks high enough to top the walls of the city.  When the flood subsided, the city was destroyed.  Silt had settled ten feet deep inside the walls and the sturdy walls kept the water inside for several years.  The people fled with the largest and most influential merchants and settled at Trandle's Stand, the point that marked the high water mark of the river in that flood.  By city ordinance, no living structure is allowed between that mark and the river.  By design, all the warehouses on the river have an entrance that is above that high water mark and none below.  There has been no flood that high since, but it happened once so the city fathers are intent on it not happening again.  Stuj Is a different kind of Ruin.  The ruin is four hundred years old, but it has remained un-looted.  Partially this is because the entrances to many of the buildings are deep under ground now and buried deep, but the other reason is that many of the buildings are haunted by undead.  The locals refuse to come as close as to touch the walls and none will spend the night near the walls.  Boats traveling down the Trandle have no difficulty of passing by the city if they leave at first light.  Going up the river is another thing altogether.  There is a town that has grown up at the spot down river of the city where boats have no problem passing the city if they leave it at dawn.  There is a rumour that there is a powerful Vampire that lives in this ruin.  There is known to be powerful demons also living here.  As well as a plethora of undead.  There is treasure here too.  There may even be a dragon living here too.  It was a small city and very wealthy too.  

The City of Causnought is only three hundred years old.  It grew quickly after the fall of Gladen, two hundred years ago.  It is situated on the Gwendyl River, above the high water mark of the flood of hundreds of years ago.  The city grew first as a holding of the kings of Gladen and later with the blessing of the Elves of the Wöse.  When the city of Gladen finally dwindled down to nothing it was Causnought that picked up the slack.  It was used as a minor trade port of the Dwarves and of the Elves.  It was of minor importance until the Dragon attacked the Free City, then trade from e Empire increased through the Elven Wood and the city began to grow.  The people feel much safer so far from the Dragon, but not so safe as to not be vigilant.  The forces of the Dragon Carved out a larger portion of the land between the free city towards the Earldom and the patrols have increased proportionally.  As have the number of Dragon sized weapon installations on the city walls.  

The oligarchs of Trandle's Stand.  The city has been ruled by a council of Guildmasters for as long as anyone can remmeber.  They are more concerned about money than anything else, but this does not mean that they do not worry about the defence of the city.  There is close to twenty different guilds but a seat on the council is dependent on income of the guild, so there is much concern about that.  Things have changed in the past generation.  Increased trade with the Dwarven Empire has meant that money is higher than in the past, so there is more money over all so more trade and more Councilors.  The city does not have a guard or a army, but it does have laws that say that mercenary armies must contribute ten percent to the city in times of peace and a third in times of war.  The Dragon taking the free city has increased the numbers of mercenaries in the city and the increased control of the area after its fall, and now when the Dragon has made a push for control too.

One of the darker sides of Trandle's Stand is slavery.  The practice of slavery is not well known, there is no slave market in town.  It is complicated.  The practicing of a guild trade is often expensive and the Oligarchs understand this; they make it that way.  One method of paying the fees is to sell the guild an offspring and attempt to repurchase them after five years.  Selling someone allows is payment for a period of five years.  The gamble is whether the family can make back the guild price of five years, plus interest of one year in the five years.  Often the guild will train the slave in the guild trade during that 'indenture' period and if the child can be bought back, the family will have a well trained guild worker.  However, not all children are suitable to the trade they are sold to.  In these cases the child is sold to military applications or hard labour, or more likely in the slave markets of Gutral Mastekeena.  Some families make it a habit of selling their children to pay for guild fees.  But this can be a dangerous practise, if the guild does not make its money back because of substandard merchandise, they have been known to declare the family in breach of contract and enslave the whole family.  It is a story that is circulated widely enough that most people make sure that the children that they sell are old enough to be useful or with full intention to pay the guild back.  Another form of indenturtude is failure to pay taxes.  There are laws that say that the guild slave may buy back their freedom by earning the original debt plus interest as well as the price of board, but since the Guildmasters has the final say as to the value of the work that the slave does, in practise few well trained slaves gain their freedom.  Many guildhalls have a number of slaves in residence, this causes a fair amount of resentment as it limits the numbers of apprenticeships availible.  Slaves are marked with solid neck coffel with the guild mark prominently displayed.  The material of the coffel denotes rank, iron, copper, silver and gold.  

New Background Slave.  

Proficiencies, Athletics, Insight

Tool Proficiencies: one set of Artisan tools or one Martial weapon and medium Armour.

Equipment: set of common clothes, a token to remember of your parents, a small knife, a belt pouch with your Master's insignia, and a tally as to how much is left on your indenture.  

Feature:  Valuble Property

Because you wear a coffel people who might be inclined to rough you up become disinclined, knowing that the penalty for damaging Guild property is quite steep and that killing you might result in their enslavement.  Also because of your coffel, you represent your master and you can get away with small purchases by saying that they are for your master, however, when your master finds out you may be in some trouble.  

Exploring The ruins of Gladen, close to the city of Cosnaught, is a more deadly encounter well no Minotaur, and no Medusa, but more deadly because there are no kobolds and it contains a community of gobinoids, like goblins and kobolds and bugbears.  Fun.  Also the lost treasures of Relic and his planning room.  There are rumours that there are many false chambers within his palace that no one found after his reign nor since the city collapsed.  And if that were not enough, his stash of treasure is thought to contain plans of the major cities and the palaces and treasure vaults of many of the cities of his day.  Good place to introduce a couple manuals of stat increase, and a few treasure maps that are a couple hundred years old.  Perhaps one of the maps leads to a hidden stronghold in the mountains that Relic used as a cache— cool Jules Verne shit like using astronomy stuff like from the perch of he mountain with three boulders at the summit, stand by the light the light of the Darkest Darkday in High Summer, the peak in the Drake points the way at noon. 

So the Darkest Darkday in the high summer corresponds to the time when the blue sun is eclipsed by the red sun, while it eclipses the green sun too, the sky becomes less deep blue in this week and takes on a more green hue.  When the Darkday occurs the sky becomes like night and the land is cast in red light.  And the stars are visible.  Very eerie.  Add that you need to have the light of the Red sun in darkness to show the correct way into the hideout meaning that you have to do it on one specific day of the year or have a priest or the red sun to cast a light spell at night to find the correct entrance.  Or a priest of the Hidden Goddess, because it is hidden and coolly done at that.  So the question is from the three boulder mountain summit which mountain is in the constellation of  Gull, Drake, Serpent, Rabbit, Hearth, or Hammer; it is a directional question.  Then the next part is a question of where the shadow of the peak will reach on the the Darkest Darkday of the year on High Summer.  That is at noon the peaks shadow will cross a cave mouth, or it will point directly at the mouth of the cave.  If they do it at noon on the correct day they will see a sparkle, but that is a special case, not very likely.  But if they do the math correctly, make a astronomy/astrology check and the closer to 20 gives a more accurate result.  Each point of failure is off by a kilometer, every point over a 20 increases the accuracy.  If they use a light spell from a priest of either the red sun or the blue sun they get a bonus to find the door, as it reflects that pure light magically.

Complication, about a century some enterprising group cleared the boulders off the mountain, because it interfered with something.  They will need to find someone who remembers which mountain had the boulders on it.  There are two possibilities.  There is a enclave of Grey Elves in the region and they know of the mountain in question.  There is also a small isolated Stone Giant clan that know about it.  If they find the correct mountain at the summit they will discover an entrance to the Dwarven Empire, a crew masons removed the boulders and turned them into building material, as the stone was of superior quality, but the local dwarves are used to looking at the inside of a mountain and don't concern themselves with the outside.  Hell, the players may have climbed the mountain in question, but the dwarves moved there fifty years ago and know nothing about the mountain.  

Additionally there is a a group of outcaste Stone Giants in the region of the cave entrance and a Dragon.  There is always a dragon in the region, probably red because of the mountains, but there is a substantial forest at the base of the mountains, so it could be green, appropriate challenge rating.  It is a smart creature it may bargain with the characters if they reveal what they are looking for, the dragon may remember the mountain with the three boulders too.  There might be two dragons in the area if the characters are sufficiently low level.  The Green living in a different biosphere than the Red, and sufficient distance.  Either will bargain for the death of the other.  The green will bargain in good faith, requesting first pick of the treasure and such.  The red would betray the characters at best opportunity, preferably after they defeat the Green.  

That is one treasure map.  There will be others.  Perhaps one of the treasure vault of the emperor of Gutral Mastekeena.  Why would Heroic characters seek to break into the treasure rooms of emperor?  It might be that the Emperor has let the people know that it has something that they need to defeat the Dragon, perhaps a manuscript speaking about the Orb of Dragonkind.  The emperor is willing to part with it for a price, a thousand Dwarf trained artisans to be made personal slaves of the emperor.  The PCs have a clear planned path to the vault thought the palace, but it is through the palace!!  If they manage to scout out the city they will spot an easier route, through the sewers.  The sewers have their own issues, like the chambers with oytoghs and wandering undead.  There sewer entrance is quite close by the not quite royal crypts; the royals are buried in a more regal crypt outside the city, but the lesser royalty and royal servants are in the crypt and they are part of a elaborate trap, after the more mundane traps like dart throwers and swinging blade traps and blade barrier type traps.  The last is a block trap which opens up into the crypt, if they survive their saving throws.  The crypts are filled with a combination of lesser mummies and wights and ghouls.  As soon as the PCs activate the last trap and enter the tombs an alarm goes off in the Palace and guards begin to move to engage the PCs.  The guards vanguard includes six Shield Guardians and the vault includes stone golems.  The guardians will not enter the crypt unless the PCs steal some of the greater treasures.  A single golem will chase the PCs down if they take the manuscript, though.  If they get into the sewers again they will notice that exits to the city are heavily guarded including the entrance they used.  If they stay in the sewer, genies will chase them down and report their location.  The only way they can leave is if they have planned an escape route that leads into the river and out.  Breathing underwater and all that in the plan.

Trandle's Stand is an Oligarchy that has grow significantly in the last Generation.  Closest to the Free city, the majority of the populous sought refuge here.  The humans felt at home, and the artisans were welcomed with open arms.  The rest, many labourers were needed too.  The city has grown.  The walls, such as they were have been extended out, against the original town's charter, towards the river.  The canal has been widened and more were built.  The best real estate is within the old walls.  The warehouses outside the wall are still built the old way, the entrance one store above the ground, no openings at ground level.  But many of the dwellings do not heed the old ordinance.  

The guilds have changed too.  Small guilds that were unimportant a couple decades ago, now have a lot of pull in the life of the city.  The Guild of Arms, the guild where mercenary companies register formerly the guild of the watch has expanded and grown several times over and now forms the primary defense of the state as well as caravan guards and such.  The Confectionary Guild used to just hold sway over the culinary needs of the city and the acquisition of food stuffs, but now it controls all the food exports to the Empire, meaning it has gained a promotion to the Guild Council that controls the city.  The Weapon and Armour smiths were formerly just a small part of the Smithing guild, but now they have grown to justify separate representation, but they can't because of the original Charter.  There were twenty-four guilds after when the city was founded, Alchemist and healers, Brewer, Notary, Carpenter, Cobbler, Culinary, Glassblowers, Jeweler, leatherworker, Mason, Potter, Smith, Weaver, Fine-arts, Mercenary, Navigator, Cooper, Astrologer, Mages, Thieves, Assassins, Moneychangers, Labourers, and Hunters.

The Inner Council is composed of the six largest earners of the past year and three guilds that keep Trandle's Stand running: the Navigators, Masons, and Astrologers.  The Six typical of the last century were the Brewers, the Smiths, the Jewelers, the Fine Arts, the Mages, and the Leatherworkers.  But in the last couple of decades there have been a few changes after the distruction of the free city of Dhewtudum by the dragon: the Mercenaries, the Coopers, the Moneychangers, the Smiths, the Culinary, and the Notary guilds.  The Guild The Trained Protectors controlled the city watch in the years past, but now they control that and the protection of all caravans and patrols of the outer lands; the recent attacks has given them even more power as they are charging even more.  The Guild of Extraordinary Confections and food stuffs, has expanded its control over farmers and has increased its profits by dealing directly with the Empire.  The Guild of Wheel Wrights, Barrels and Creates, is going through another decade of increased profits as everything that goes to the Empire must be crated and placed in barrel for the journey and the lack of wood products onather the end of the journey means that this is a one way passage and more profit.  The Order of Weights and Balances usually changes money from one currency to the other and back again when they leave; the charge is applied to both transactions, depending on the year, this guild will switch with the Brewers guild.  The Auspicious Order of Contract Writers makes its commission based on the value of the goods that are being contracted— as the prosperity of the city increases, the more money that this guild brings in.  The fee is typically pegged at 1%, but this a measure of all the trade in and out of the city in addition all the contracts written during the course of the year.  The Guild of Ironmonger was always small, but when the Free City

There is a fair amount Conflict within the council chambers because of the long  control of one group out of control now and the new ones in control.  A lot of the taxation rules favoured the old guard and the new are starting to strip power from those guilds.  There is concern that the Culinary Guild has gotten too big and the Smithing guild too.  The City charter says that should any guild exceed 1/6 of the net worth of the city it shall be broken into two or more smaller guilds and should any guild be worth less than a 200 share of the business it will lose charter.  The smithing guild and the culinary guild are both skirting the upper limits of the law and the notary guild is trying to split them up along with the older control guilds, there is some concern that they are inflating the navigator's, mason's and astrologer's guilds to keep their numbers down and buy their support against splitting the guilds.  There is a move to willingly combine the Jewelers, brewers and Fine Arts to form and Artisans guild that would be big enough to gain power of the council.  Meanwhile the Alchemists, Hunters, and the Mages guild are thinking of a similare alliance, but this is all contingent of splitting the largers guilds up into Armourers, Smiths, Weaponers, Confectionary, farmers, Cartographers and Notary guilds.  To defeat the Inner council rulings required a 2/3 guild super majority with atleast 50% of value of trade.  Since 2/3 means 16 guilds and there are 24 and the inner council is nine this has rarely happened now with two builds skirting 1/3 of all the wealth this seems very unlikely.  The permanent members of the council are not affected by these machinations but they are profitting nicely from the wealthiest guilds to keep financial dominance down.  

Guilds:

The Destination Lodge

The Celestial Design Lodge

The Masonic Lodge

Intro D&D 

The weeks long party that was the end of the year is over and today is a New Year.  Some of you spent the week in this provincial town of Greysteel, with it's provincial attitudes, particularly on race.  For the most part they have not been rude, just not helpful.  But even then some of you chose to spend the festivities out in the wilds or locked safely in your room, out from under foot.  Some have found employment in the town, your skills in demand, but sometimes other people clutch at their children and cross the street, and that makes you feel a little unwelcome.  Only a few have been more outspoken.  It is not like this in Jarda; the city is welcoming of all and decadent with wealth, but poor in the employment that you seek, unless you want to be a bodyguard in some retinue.  Adventure!  That's why you are here.

The Green Griffin Inn is a four story affair, reminiscent of Jarda; it is the tallest building in Greysteel outside of the keep itself.  The common room is part feast hall and part concert hall; the past week most of the inhabitants of this town have filtered through crowds that were standing room only, but normally has a seated capacity of about a hundred, but this evening, only half that.  Off duty members of the guard frequent this establishment as well as the Blooded, a group of bounty hunters that have successfully returned with trophies more than a few times, their names and tallies are featured on a chalkboard on the second floor balcony.  

All of you surrendered your weapons at the town gate, hand axes, staves, and knives included.  The Bloodied, respected for their contribution, are still armed with a Peace bond on their weapons.  The Guard and the Watch are armed, the former with swords and the latter with clubs.  At the gate you were told that carrying a weapon was a 100gp fine, drawing blood with a weapon, a 1000, and murder, death.  

()()()()()()()

Goblin Ears; pair-----------------1sp

Toglodyte Ears; pair-------------5sp

Gnoll Ears; pair------------------1gp

Hobgoblin Ears; pair-------------1gp

Orc Ears; pair-------------------1gp

Ogre Ears; pair------------------5gp

Giant Ears; pair-----------------25gp

----------------------------------------

+*Baloc's Crew 234gp

+*Freaky Bean Dip 106gp 7sp

*Falnder Orcbane fellows 29gp

*Jard's Jolly Jacks 27gp

*Quaros's Guard 20gp

Csane's Bounty 10gp 10sp

Earth Dragon's Claws 5gp 19sp

Turkey's Tetrade 5gp 1 sp

*Blooded

+Honoured

Duke's Bounty

Earth Dragon Head--------------10gp

Wyvren Head--------------------10gp

Live Fire Flies--------------------1cp

Live Dragon Flies----------------5cp

Live Fire Bird--------------------10gp

Live Dragon Cat-----------------50gp

Live Dragon Wolf----------------100gp

Live Earth Dragon---------------1000gp

Magical Wonders----------------on inspection

Moat house near Hommlet.

Juvenile                11d8 medium +22 proficiency modifier +2

HP 72.  BW 9d6(32)

Damage modifier +2

bite 1d10

AC 16.                 CR4

Sorcerer level 3   Spell save DC 12; spell attack modifier +4

Cantrips  acid splash, Mage hand, minor illusion, blade ward

Known spells 4

1st 4 magic missile, shield, Charm Person wis save adv

2nd 2 invisibility 

The dragon can be heard with a DC 15 Perception Check (hearing) from well outside where it is, rooting thought the dungeon entrance, it has only just arrived and it has cleared the top level, except for the frogs outside.  

The dragon will make a perception attempt +4, or be surprised.  It will lead with acid, and will use the shield spell at first attack.  Attempt to Charm the ranger, "Protect me!" which should cause some personal muddying of the waters.  It will use Magic Missile twice with 1st spell slot to target the strongest fighters so far, twinned with sorcery.  it will cast Magic Missile once with a 2nd spell slot with four darts.  It will use invisibility to escape, but will return and use its breath weapon and fight to the death.  Hunter's mark will betray this.

The temple of Elemental Evil, considered to be unplayable is an evolving adventure.  For this group, it is an army that is being built to destroy the City of Jarda to the North.  The temple was all but destroyed a century ago when it was revived about fifty years ago by the current ruler of Greysteel in an attempt to perform a coup against his father and the rest of his family.  The coup was successful, but then the new Duke turned on the Temple and tried to eradicate it.  The Temple survived barely, and took years to revive more fully but it has an ace up it's sleeves; one of the survivors of the family, a paladin and true heir to the city was kept alive and in stasis.  The temple staff have been blackmailing the current ruler and it has stymied his advances.  But he has a plan, he will get some adventurers to attack the temple and take out his enemies so he can launch his War.  

If the characters mention the taxes, he will say that he is trying to raise an army to deal with a threat to the south, a hoarde of Orcs that is gathering on the edge of the Dukedom.  He says they have been raiding these lands for years and they have been increasing.  They are enslaving the populations.  He needs the threats within his bourders to be taken care of elsewise he will come back from the battle with no nation at all.  Please investigate these rumours for me.  He mentions that there were a number of observation forts built a while ago.  That is a good place to start.  He also mentions that he will buy any surplus magical items they recover and any unusual monsters too.  

Encounter with the Baloc's Crew, who has the lead with 250gp with the Orc Ear Challenge, but the reason is because they have been waylaying adventurers and killing them for their ears that they have collected.  The group consists of a number of fighters with the support of a Cleric Stromida Light cleric level 6 or 7, an Invoker of level 5 or 6, a Bard level 6 or 7, a rogue assassin level 4 and four fighters level 5 and one level 8, Baloc himself.  They do not like a fair fight, as such they will release a Dragon Bear at them and come to their "aid" as the fight is ending, after hopefully they have expended their best attacks.  The Dragon was charmed and released to attack the party.  Perhaps it might be best to make the attackers lower level, the cleric 5, the Mage 4, the Bard 4th, the three fighters level 4 and Baloc 6th., they are going to be attacking from surprise.  

The location has been used several times for this purpose.  The there are signs of a recent circular burn patch and trace blood, if they think to look the party member coming in will be seem to be saying that they are attacking.  But to target key individuals.  The Crew will have Forty-two Orc ears, 23 goblin ears  and three Ogre ears, in their possession. As well as a purse of twenty gold and five platinum apiece.  

If the characters go via Sunnydale they will encounter a tree fall over the road and a group of eighteen Orcs, with an Orc sub leader and a cleric to a storm god.  

If they approach from the other way they will encounter a similar tree fall and a group of gnolls that have attacked some farmers already.  

Both these encounters will have occurred in the early morning before the attack on the party by Baloc's Crew.  

They will be given a map of the area and the location of the temple and the observation posts.  

Observation of the Duke one might see an artifact that he carries with him.  

That was the Plan the initial result was that the players decided to head to the village of Hommlet, because they had not been there before.  The result was that I was unprepared, because I was working all week and watching Babylon5 at night and not doing prep work.  Also I thought that they would not investigate the village as deeply as they wanted to.  Luckily I knew enough about the area.  But still there were holes.  Many of the characters had purchased mounts or more mobile means of carrying things which means they were not slowed down much by treasure and stuff.  The mounts cost more because of taxation.  The costs were moved up a bit, just a bit.  The characters also paid a 25% income tax on goods they looted from the temple. Some of them paid the tax, some did not.  They found about 1200go and so they each owed 300gp, steep I know, but the point is that they should begin to resent the ruler, he is Lawful Evil, how do you portray the leader of a country's alignment, Good leaders might impose an import tax and a tax on the land, because the ruler owns all the land and everyone rents from them.  The income tax is in addition to all that.  He uses the taxes to build barracks in each town and places a tax collector there who oversees the town.  The barracks house troops and keep the people safe, but not so safe that Adventurers are not needed.  He is planning to build up troops to a level where he can then launch an attack on the temple, but knows that if he does that, they might reveal his complicity in the deaths of his family, so he is held in check.  His story line for the build up of troops is to stop the Orcs invading the lands.  If someone deals with the Temple, he will make good on his plans to invade the Orc nation to the south.  But right now the taxes are an unfair burden on the people, ala king John and the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Some of the characters paid the tax outright, the lawful ones, two of the characters did not pay it fully, the tax tab sits 1320gp. One of the characters says he will disperse the tax money to the common people and began spending lots of money on lavish dinners and such.

He then went on to seduce the Innkeeper's daughter, so he was just throughing around cash to feed his own ego, whatever.  He will be back to the area frequently, it may take a year to completely vanquish the temple, so it may become an evolving situation there.  They actually managed to hit four of the evolving locations of the village.  The Inn, the Trading post, the Temple of Scoria (St. Cuthbert), and the Driud's grove.  The villagers will be as secretive as the village of Neloar, but with that adventure under their belt, a hero status will catch up with them soon enough.  The people are more cosmopolitan than Neloarans, they are at a crossroad between Greysteel, Neloar, and the two smaller villages of Nulb and Saltmarsh, so they see more travelers than Sunnydale and Neloar.  Indeed, because of establishments like the Welcoming Wench, more people travel that route than the route through Sunnydale.  So the Six freaks will feel more welcome in town.

They ran into the twenty gnolls and defeated them, but the fight was the most difficult encounter that they have had to date, the paladin almost died and the DM was rolling where his dice could be seen and I should have been in a casino, because I rolled, well a statistically slightly higher number of critical hits.  I mean I was rolling for twenty critters and many of them had advantage so that I was rolling thirty dice and getting a lot of criticals is not unexpected, rolling five attacks against one player and getting three criticals and one normal hit was odd especially because the character had the highest armour class, which meant that the gnolls needed a 19 to hit her.  The characters defeated the gnolls and I did not cheat for them to win.  The gnolls were carrying some serious wealth for gnolls, 5gp apeice and the leader had a ring for the temple on his finger, they were fresh recruits.  

They did not get to the second encounter, but that was good because I had not finished making the NPCs for it.

Baloc 8th level fighter AC 16; HP 68; two attack per round +8 to hit, +5 damage, 1-8+5 and hand axe 1-6+5. He holds the ears bounty.

Baloc's Bard 4th level, AC 16;  HP 35, +5 to hit, +3 damage, 1-8+3

4 level 1 spells, 3 level 2 spells

And a few others.  The combat went well the characters were depleted of spells and of many effects but they defeated the challenge with difficulty.  Mostly because I was not playing the NPCs with the certainty that the encounter deserved, but then if I had, the players might have lost.  But there were a number of lessons that they learned from these encounters.  The first was that when they encountered the priest of Stromida and he was an enemy, and the Half Orc player, priest of Stromida, was confused, how could this be happening . . ..  Like they conveniently forgot the religious wars of Europe where Protestant and Catholic fought and killed each other over differences in doctrine….  The connection did not stick though.  The paladin was happy that the leader of Greysteel was a follower of Scoria just like he was but Scoria is a lawful deity, not necessarily a a good deity….  That is the point.  

Xeric is a god of balance, Drogath and evil deity, Hestium a god of good; the Greater Divinities are Gods and Goddesses of extremes: Law, Chaos, Good, Evil, Balance and, No Side.  D&D is a battle of Law over Chaos; Civilization over Wilderness.  

The Tax total for the party has gone up again.  The defeat of Baloc's Crew added 70gp times 7 NPCs, and Baloc adds 250, so about 750 gp, or 125 apeice, the ones that pay their taxes and the ones that don't total to about a full share of the loot, so 125gp added.  1320+125=1445gp.  The taxes are becoming a sore point among some of the characters, but that is design.  The prices are inflated in the Dukedom; a 75gp purchase is now a 100gp purchase, because the taxes affect everyone in the nation, so the salesmen  pass it on by raising prices by a third.  

How do you show alignment of a leader without telling the characters outright?  Through their actions.  Through the the policies of the nation.  Typically taxes were raised in mideval nations through import duties and plunder of other nations, threats etcetera.  Income Taxes, never.  So stealing from the people through legal means, to fuel a war of revenge against a fictitious enemy built on a lie, so he could gain power, that none of the characters know any of this but they feel his claws in their purses every day.  And there is resentment.

I think when the tax take for the characters hits 2500 gp, the next stage of his oppression will start, pressing young men into the army, maybe controls about who the farmers can sell their produce to and for how much….  The claim will be to fight the war.  The War on an Orc nations to the North.  

The village of Hommlet

The key is to make the town come alive.  It is a small town, smaller than Neloar, but bigger than the town in the module.  The area has been settled longer than any area except Greysteel.  It has kept its charm, but it is more provincial. The area recieves more trade than any village other than Greysteel.  Many of the people in Hommlet have connections to Jarda, which is different from even Greysteel.  They are more worldly than those others.  They still stare at elves and gnomes, but they have seen them from time to time, they do not discriminate.  When Jarda stopped sending tax men to the area, they did not cease to pay attention to the area, they recruited locals to the task; an order called the Watch.  

There are more temples in the area than just Scoria (St Cuthbert) and Xeric, the Grey Warder, and other nature deities (Old Faith). There is a shrine to the Hidden Goddess, there is a temple to Stromida, a temple to Xeric, Jard, Auristia, Hestium too.  The keep is completed and old.  The keep includes a detachment of the local troops, the taxman and money changer, and it includes the new council chambers.  There is a company store in the keep as well where farmers can sell their produce for a guaranteed sale, lower prices but a sale.