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.

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.