Sandbox Encounters (Sandbox)

So what makes for good sandbox encounters? Like everything else in the sandbox, it springs from the environment. My own sandbox campaign is based on the Isle of Man, expanded to ten times the normal size.

Why? Because reality lets me cheat. The geography is always right. Settlements are there for real reasons. The natural resources make sense. Unless you're a geologist, it's going to be kind of a crap shoot to place a mine or the proper type of rock in an area. Reality lets you cheat with details. It's amazing how many campaign ideas can spring from these details.

My real-world map gives me a starting point. From there I can work outwards and ask "why" questions. Why are people in the town of Tara? Well, there's a source of fresh water, a natural port, a nearby iron mine, and a valley protected by hills. That's really boring stuff, right? Well now lets add the fantasy elements. My most used magical motif is ley lines.

Tara is on a ley line that leads up through the hills, allowing for wards that protect the region and teleportation circles for arcane travel. The power from those ley lines make it convenient for others to tap that power, like a power line running through the valley. So we have a cultist temple in the hills, a closed portal to the Far Realm in the forest, and other shenanigans that makes this a place of power. This ley line motif works its way throughout the island, giving reasons for strange things in unusual areas.

The next step beyond the environment forming ley lines was the magic from these ley lines changing the environment. In several cases, powerful wizards tapped these ley lines for seemingly unlimited power. That kind of power warps the environment, creating unusual terrain types (I have a volcanic region where there shouldn't be one), distortions of time and space, and regions of planar creatures that warp in and out of reality.

My ley line conjunctions were often places where the material world and the planes formed a conjunction. So the Fey Woods to the north had a conjunction with the Fey Realm, which naturally meant there were a lot of fey living there. Each plane had representation, which allowed variety in encounters and some very odd problems to crop up with other local settlements when people started meddling with standing stones on ley lines.

Regular things can be made fantastic. As much as I want my iron mine and quary to be just some natural resources to plunder, you can bet there is trouble there as well. The iron mine had a haunt that needed put to bed, a poor miner who died an unjust death on the road to the mine. The quarry manager was murdered and his body never recovered. Those who venture too close to the watery pit might learn more about that.

Much of the area has issue with hauntings. As the old Northman culture abandoned this area to the Celts, they settled a lot of scores. A murdered official haunts the local castle as a spectre, along with his ghostly dog. The men stationed on the wall to the north were left to die of starvation. The salt mine is full of prisoners who were abandoned.

Besides that, you have the usual encounter locations. Cairns dot the hills, often protected, since it was tradition to bury warriors with their gear. Broken castles, towers and lighthouses dot the coastal road, the perfect home for bandits, cultists, and monsters. As the characters clear and repair these locations, the region begins to grow and improve. The town population increases. There are no more random encounters on that particular road (for a while). They can create additional bases from which to push outwards in their exploration.

Although you could have a mega dungeon or special delving location, it's not really necessary in the sandbox. There are many locations to explore that make ecological sense. Most "dungeons" are no bigger than they needed to be for their intended purpose. Make sure they had a purpose and feel free to re-purpose them with the new residents. I try to keep these locations naturally small, no more than 4-5 encounters in perhaps a dozen keyed locations.  Too much dungeon crawling and the players will stop caring about the sandbox.

The Random Encounter (Sandbox)

In a standard game, what's the role of a random encounter? It plays a few roles. It's window dressing to show a region or dungeon is dynamic. It's incentive to get a move on, a plot device to create a sense of urgency. It's also a punishment of sorts. If you aren't going to be quick about it, we'll make you expend your resources on this meaningless encounter. Most players hate random encounters. I know I do.

The sandbox is different. The world is in motion, so a random encounter demonstrated this motion. A random encounter shouldn't be a haphazard chart of monsters from the back of a book the DM rolls on to come up with a fight. It should be an unexpected thing that happens, tied in with the environment. This is where the traditional random monster chart comes in handy, but with some tweaks.

First, all the monsters on that chart are hand picked. I know where they live. They're part of the campaign region. My campaign region doesn't have orcs, so you won't find orcs on the chart.  If it's close to civilization, the various bandits, cultists and other impeding groups are included. Don't forget the people.

Whenever the party encounters one of these groups, I either cross it off or put a check mark next to it. Kill enough angry bears around town and eventually you won't be fighting any more angry bears. The bandit groups only have so many people in them. There might be only one bugbear, and you just defeated it. That's part of the dynamism of the sandbox.

I make my chart in a spreadsheet so I can sort by CR and get an average when I'm done. I want my concentric circles out from civilization to get increasingly dangerous. So my local forest encounter chart (below) is dangerous for low level characters, but hopefully not lethal with an average CR3 (The default Pathfinder forest table has an average CR5). Head into the hills or forests farther from town and I'll probably have a chart around CR5. Head deep into the mountains and it might be CR 10. The ocean is naturally dangerous, with most encounters in the CR 7+ rating, although I suppose you could make it easier with some work.

Also don't forget animals. Understand your local ecosystem and try to include as many as possible, especially the giant kind. For Pathfinder, Tome of Horrors was a godsend for its huge number of animals, along with monstrous plants. The new D&D 5 Monster Manual has a satisfactory number of these.

Second, what are they doing? if you have an encounter, it doesn't necessarily mean you're having a showdown with a monster. It's not always Perception checks and Initiative rolls. What is the "monster" doing? They might be returning from a hunt (possibly injured), on their way to a hunt, looking for food (or victims), building a shelter, or even fighting another monster. They might even be dead. Who killed the bandits? Hmmmm.  If alive, they might not want a fight.

One of my favorite encounters from my last campaign was two Rocs fighting over a shark one of them nabbed from the ocean. The Roc was randomly rolled, along with fighting another creature. To make it more interesting, all the party could hear from the cloudy skies was the fight, followed a moment later by a shark, plummeting to earth (roll scatter dice). The victor came down for his shark and the party fought it and won (surprisingly).

From Telecanter's Receding Rules blog

Third, maybe it's not a monster at all. my highest numbers on my chart (95-100 rolling percentile) is not a monster at all. It's a random thing. There are various charts people have made out there, but they're pretty easy to come up with. You find a medicinal plant, there's a hazard, the road is washed out, the path is somehow lost, or signs of a battle. Perhaps a party member gets sick or loses something, or they notice they're being followed. Look online for other peoples charts, along with your own ideas (I stole mine entirely, and can't remember from where, so I won't post it).

Should you roll this in advance? It's up to you, but if you use miniatures and need extra work learning about a monster because you're new at this, then maybe yes. I don't like in media res (in the middle of things) encounters in the game, with that goblin fighting that elf, perpetually stuck in time. However, this might be a conceit worthy of that.

How often should you roll? II like to do it once during the day and once at night. I'll roll a D6 and something happens on a 1 or 2. I'll often not roll if we're in the process of doing something interesting, but when we're hex crawling, it might be the only possibility of action for miles.

Encounter Regions (Sandbox)

Discussing the last post on Facebook yesterday, Ken mentioned the big problem with designing a sandbox game with the D20/Pathfinder system. Characters advance too quickly. A game world that might have taken a decade to explore in previous editions, finds the characters incredibly powerful after just a couple of years of real time, even god-like in a matter of months in game time.

For example, In my sandbox campaign, two years in, they were 12th level, and had explored about a third of the island.  Coming up with challenges at that point was difficult without the verisimilitude of the island falling apart. The campaign was pretty much over. There were only so many dragons and lichs to fight before the whole thing started looking silly. Plus, going back to regions closer to their starting point put them into far less dangerous zones, trivial levels of danger, really. This is because of the linear nature of the D20 system, which makes high level characters impervious to low level threats.

Players stitched this explored area together from the maps I would give them

This linear nature also means creating regions of sandbox encounters is both easy, but also fragile. I want to go over the process to show how this is a problem and also why I hope 5E solves this.

Here's how I do it:

You have your base of operations for low level characters. It's assumed that threats to this base are easier to handle by low level characters because the town would have either dealt with mid level threats or would have been wiped out already. It's also good to have a power base of "good guys," who can keep the mid level stuff in check, but also have some indifference towards the plight of the PCs. I have druids, rangers, and the forces in town keep the local threats in check, while some powerful boundary magic thrown in gives some justification for why a civilization hasn't been overrun. My good guys are actually neutral, have plans and designs of their own, and generally don't want PCs upsetting the balance. Really, don't rock the boat or bad things will happen. And they did rock the boat. And bad things did happen to the town.

So here we have a region of low level stuff, enough to get the PCs to that sweet spot of around 5th level or higher. They might be told not to go over the hills or not to explore the ocean because of the danger. Eventually they get their courage (and levels) up and take the plunge.

My mid-level regions (encounters for 5th-9th level characters, more or less), are far more dangerous. They're characterized by a balance of power. There probably aren't any good guys in this wilderness, but there are tribes of neutral and evil humanoids kept in check by bigger monsters. Evil wizards are kept in check by dragons. Combinations  of several forces live on the edge of war with their own problems and motivations.

This allows PCs to allie with groups, gain passage for favors, take on missions, or whatever. Going in and squashing a tribe of goblins or killing a dragon is likely to have repercussions. Who was that dragon keeping in check? What kept the goblins tribes from invading the town? Perhaps the legion of undead from the lich kept the big bad guy from overrunning the island (they did). The enemy of their enemy is their friend. This was hard fought wisdom that had them questioning the situation every time they came into a new power dynamic. You know, role playing.

Deeper into the wilderness you can get even more epic, with lost cities, fallen civilizations of cyclops or giants, powerful magics run amok, and mountainous regions that are generally inaccessible (a good boundary). In my campaign, the mountains hold treasures and secrets that all the powers on the outskirts would like to control. That is, if they could conquer the center from the periphery.

This is all very linear. However, players don't explore in a linear fashion, in concentric circles out from home. They tend to do that in the beginning and then they start picking a direction. This leaves a lot of content on the table that will never get used, a reason why a key sandbox rule is to not go nuts designing everything. Again, the linear power levels of Pathfinder PCs means the sandbox becomes its own "adventure path" whether you like it or not. Some stories will fall by the side as they obsolete them with their power level.

The hopes of D&D 5th edition is we see a flatter power curve. The promise that a tribe of goblins can kill high level PCs is one sandbox DMs should hope is true. I see some of that now as I design those mid level encounters. The higher CR monsters don't seem significantly more powerful than low level guys. It's actually deceptively deadly when I run it through this most excellent online encounter calculator. Give a necromancer a couple of skeletons or a hobgoblin some goblin mooks, and suddenly the encounter goes from average to deadly as the action economy plays a role not seen in D20.

If this is true (and I have about 4 hours of D&D 5 play experience at this point), it will make D&D 5 the ideal sandbox game system. Just as Ken points out that back in the day, a solid sandbox campaign could go on for a decade or more with the same party. Let's hope that's true with 5E.

World in Motion (Sandbox)

If you were to explain the big difference between a regular campaign and sandbox campaign, it would be the world is in motion. In a regular campaign, there is likely a group of villains plotting or some sort of event that will happen unless the characters stop it. That thing that will happen is likely to happen as a result of their failure. It's likely to happen off screen. It's also likely to happen without being part of the game. It's failure. Perhaps we'll role play the aftermath, but more than likely we won't.

Early days of our sandbox hex crawl

In a sandbox campaign, the world is in motion. Bad guys have plots. Good guys have plots. Good guys have bad plots. Heck, even bad guys can become allies. In my last campaign, every region had a complex balance of power. If you go kill the dragon, who was the dragon keeping from realizing their plot? Is it someone worse? You better find out. 

With the sandbox, the players may come back to find the town has changed dramatically. Plots have come to fruition. Perhaps bad guys have exacted their revenge or good guys finally got what they wanted. This is not unlike real life, and it's not failure. It's just some things that happened. The characters may shrug or they may decide to work against change. There's no wrong answer.

Everyone has a plan and a timeline in the sandbox campaign. The PCs may destroy a group, slow a group, or accelerate the plans of a group. In my last campaign, the PCs destroyed the evil satyrs that burned their town down each year. They took the battle to them, along with their allies, and wiped them out. That threat was no more. Meanwhile, it took them until around 12th level to take the fight to the evil Cyclops necromancer. During that nine months of game time, two "undead apocalypse" scenarios unfolded in the region, leading to death and destruction as the party tried to figure out what was going on. They were busy elsewhere at the time. When it came to the Big Bad Guy, they never stopped him, but they slowed down his plans, pushing his schemes outside the window of the campaign (now we begin the second campaign). 

Besides schemes and timelines, in the sandbox, there are repercussions to actions that we don't see in a standard campaign. If you annoy the mayor, expect long term trouble getting people to work with you. If you raid the rakshasa's lair and don't kill him (as happened in the first campaign), he will most definitely be screwing with you. The world is in motion and people are not dungeon mooks. They have friends and allies and resources to bring to bear on those who hurt them. This might also mean that a group of mercenaries who mercilessly kill and silence their enemies while rising in power, might be seen as a threat. Politics and social interactions go a long way in keeping a positive narrative. Suddenly the bard is incredibly useful.

What's lacking in the sandbox is usually a long path of adventuring that precludes understanding these various interactions. If your characters just spent five levels of adventuring out in the hills in a dungeon, do they really care what's happening in town? Their life is in that dungeon. That means adventures, as normally understood, are short. Half a dozen encounters is a long adventure in the sandbox. Mega dungeons will derail a sandbox. A disappearance of even a few weeks means a lot can change back in town, a strategy a bad guy should consider. I don't need to kill you, how about I send you on a wild goose chase or trap you on a time dilated plane (the rakshasa again). Being sidelined in a world in motion is a terrible thing, as all the work to understand various factions and schemes becomes entirely irrelevant. It's like leaving your Sim City computer game on auto pilot over the weekend. In a standard campaign, plot and schemes usually just point to the location of the next hobo murder.

Get Your Ass in the Dungeon

Donkey mini from Otherworld Miniatures (they have 4
variants).  You'll need to put them on a medium base.

Eventually, a Pathfinder player will want to bring his jack or jenny (male or female donkey) into the dungeon. It makes sense. The basis for this desire is the explanation of how these animals behave in the game:

Donkeys and mules are stolid in the face of danger, hardy, surefooted, and capable of carrying heavy loads over vast distances. Unlike a horse, a donkey or mule is willing (though not eager) to enter dungeons and other strange or threatening places. Donkeys and mules have the same statistics as ponies.

The mantra for the donkey is "donkey don't care." Faced with danger, dungeons, strangeness or heavy loads, the donkey does not care.

The key then, is getting your game master on board with the use of livestock in their dungeon. The donkey has been bred as a pack animal for difficult situations for 5,000 years in the real world, so there's no reason it should seem inconceivable in a fantasy setting. Assuming you have honorable intentions, and aren't looking for an extra combat advantage with a cut rate guard dog replacement, the simple question of "Are you gonna mess with my donkey?" should start that conversation.

The Objective Facts

The donkey uses stats borrowed from the pony. That, first and foremost, means a donkey is a medium sized creature. Size is critical, because a large creature in a dungeon is difficult to manage and tends to become a nuisance. A medium based donkey is ideal for a caster, especially a wizard, who tends to stick in the back, avoiding harms way. You can't really manage a donkey remotely (see Handle Animal below), so it's not a great fit for melee characters. Donkeys also don't make the list of familiars or animal companions.

Encumbrance: The donkey has a light carrying capacity of 75 pounds, which allows it to move its full speed of 40. At the next level of encumbrance, 150 pounds, it moves at 30. Bumping that up to 225 pounds doesn't change your donkey's speed, so that's roughly your target (beyond 225 pounds your donkey can't move). You will encumber your donkey to some degree, because there is no food in the dungeon and the donkey must carry it in. Claiming the donkey eats grass and such outside is fine (donkeys have a far more robust gastrointestinal system than horses), but in the dungeon you'll need to hoof in the bags of feed it must consume (more than likely a big 50 pound bag like the one below).

Food is 10 pounds per day, so a week of food is already half his unencumbered weight. My ideal donkey weight is right under 225 pounds, so he's encumbered, but still moves at 30 like most of the average adventuring party. Medium and Heavy encumbrance are both going to knock the donkey speed down to 30 from 40, so load him up to Heavy.

Loading up your donkey with his own provisions, is going to be much of what the donkey carries. Beyond that, you can grab from an enormous list of equipment you would rarely bother with, but might come in handy or add flavor to your character. This is inexpensive and useful at low levels, but loses its charm once you can afford magical bags and the like.

For example, here's what my donkey is carrying:

Air bladder, ale (gallon), animal glue, block and tackle, bread (2), bucket, candle (10), canvas (sq. yd.) (5), chalk, cheese, coffee (per cup) (16), coffee pot, earplugs, feed (per day) (7), firewood (per day), folding pole, grappling hook, grooming kit, honey (per jar), meat (3), mess kit, miner's pick, mug/tankard, oil (7),  pack saddle, piton (2), pot, saw, scrivener's kit, shovel, silk rope (50 ft.), skillet, survival kit, tea (per cup), torch (3), trail rations (14), travel cake mix, twine (50'), waterproof bag.

HeroLab is your friend when it comes to this type of fun/tedium. I've got a bunch of useful dungeoneering supplies along with flavorful items like pots and pans and cake mix. You can certainly live off trail rations, but why not bring some firewood and bake a cake? The total value of this gear is 52gp, and along with 8gp for the donkey, the total replacement cost is a measly 60gp. You could do this at first level with many characters.

Of course, the most hopeful reason to bring a donkey into a dungeon is to carry out vast quantities of loot. Although, the GM is more likely to ding you on encumbrance on your way in, it's nice to have a means to justify your loot carrying capacity on the way out. If nothing else, your donkey can carry the corpses of your fallen companions. As your donkey consume donkey chow, you'll be making room for your inevitable success ... or failure.

Handle Animal: "But what about the Handle Animal skill," you ask? If you're not going to command your donkey to perform a task or push it to do something it doesn't normally do, then you don't need it. Assume the stalwart donkey goes wherever you lead it, on the lead. When you're not leading it, it stands there.

Combat Training: This is not a combat donkey, something to stress to your GM. However, it is safe to fall back on your mantra of "donkey don't care." Combat won't startle or spook a donkey, but neither is the donkey likely to attack unless attacked first. Donkeys were used in WWI by Italian fusiliers to carry their gear, so if modern combat won't spook a donkey, some measly kobolds certainly won't.  As an aside, the donkey was used for food when stores were low, adding one more use for your donkey.

Skills (really Perception): Your donkey has a +5 Perception check. Part of "Donkey don't care" will likely be donkey don't care about Perception checks. If there's something especially disconcerting, your donkey won't communicate it, but might become fidgety or balk when entering an area.

Perception is your only donkey skill of note, and with encumbrance, every other skill on my donkey is zero or worse.

The Subjective Facts

Some basic donkey research reveals a few details:

Animal Relationships. Donkeys and horses get along splendidly, unlike the stories you hear about say, horses and camels. They can interbreed in fact, if you want a little dungeon drama. Donkeys will protect herd animals like sheep by stomping smaller predators, like wolves. Donkeys do not get along with wolves or dogs, and it's safe to say they'll donkey stomp anything small that threatens them. 

Eating, Pooping, Sleeping: Donkeys eat a lot and poop when they eat, so you shouldn't expect donkey scat scattered around the dungeon. Donkeys also sleep lying down, preferably in a clump of hay you've just tossed down for them. Expect to unpack and pack your donkey each day, if such details matter to you.

Stairs. Donkey don't care. Watch videos of tourists riding donkeys down vast stairways in the Grand Canyon. Assume donkeys can manage difficult terrain without trouble.

"Donkey don't care" really sums it up. Sure, a donkey is quickly outperformed by even the lowest level, Type I, Bag of Holding, but that should reassure your GM that you're not trying to get away with anything. An 8gp donkey versus a 2,500 gp magic items certainly seems like a bargain to me.

Spyridoula

Nobody has ever survived the night in the Three Valleys Bog.

Until now.

Attacked by waves of zombie hordes, the party's tiny hut was eventually overwhelmed. Not just a bunch of zombies, but hordes of them bit, scratched and pulled at the heroes, at one time slaying the lizardfolk rogue before the druid finally had them under control on a variety of fronts.

Before the attack, the Heroes of Tara discovered standing stones. In fact, they discovered a number of them, in what was later determined to be a semi-circle.

Each set of stones were carved with the cyclops princess Spyridoula and her devotions to her hounds. The monoliths formed a circle, with cross members linking them to a central pillar and a statue of an angry cyclops, it's mouth open in a roar. It was determined that hot air was venting out of the mouth of the statue, smelling of peat.

As the party searched further, the discovered additional standing stones every few miles, usually situated in an especially boggy location.

As the undead roamed the land when the sun fell, something else peculiar was going on. One in five of such hordes was a work party. They would dig up peat moss in big clumps and leave it to dry, but also taking dried peat from what was likely previous evenings. They all headed back to the center of the circle formed by the standing stones. Here they heroes discovered some sort of funerary building.

Additional undead could be seen coming and going from the building, including quite a few "free willed" undead, like spectres and talking zombies and skeletons (lords more than likely). Atop the building was peat and other bog debris, dripping down the side, as if the structure had just emerged from the bog itself.

This is more than likely the Tomb of Spyridoula, legendary guardian of the cyclops people, who they say gave her life to defend the island from revolting humans.

Four Streams

This druidic site is perpetually shrouded in fog as it sits on a small hill in the middle of a bog. The bog is the site of an ancient battlefield, a long running war between the cyclops and man.

The site is surrounded by a tall, wooden, circular wall with a small path leading up to a door. Inside the structure, in the center, stands a giant, four sided obelisk. Various runes and writings cover the obelisk, but rather than usual druidic script, the inscriptions are even older, thought to be the writing of Mannanan Mac Lir himself. Or as the caretaker, Pholus, refers to him, The First.

A pathway surrounds the obelisk and winds around it, sloping upwards as it spirals around. Off the path are various dwellings, and although only Pholus lives here now, it's possible to conceive of a large village once calling this home.

 The obelisk appears to tap directly into the elemental planes, based on the runes inscribed upon it. Activating it controls weather in a 24 mile (four hex) radius. Each additional standing stone controlled, increases the radius by an additional 6 miles (one hex). Activating the obelisk is risky, as the electrical charge projecting the magic is unstable. Pholus also speaks of a key required to use the obelisk, a key he'll provide once his quest is fulfilled.

There are no standing stones here, nor does Pholus believe there to be any in the Three Valley region.

Tower of Sakarbaal

Centuries ago, the wealthy Phoenician wizard-merchant Sakarbaal traveled to the Island of Redstone after hearing of the rumor of a Font of Youth. He brought his young apprentice. The boy knew he would not see his family again and might spend the rest of his short life in the wilderness with his old master. They sailed the long distance in the wizard’s opulent ship and traveled to cyclop ruins in the north, where they found The Machine of Creation, rather than the secret of youth the wizard desired.

Sakarbaal had an idea for his immortality. What if he could make the Font of Creation create a permanent, infinite plain instead of demiplanes? He could populate this realm with followers and achieve immortality through godhood! But such a plan would require enormous, near infinite power.

He carefully removed the artifact and brought it another site he had investigated, The Sea of Grass, where he recalled standing stones in the middle of nowhere on a planar conjunction to the ethereal plane, the plane of creation. He sold his ship to pay the cost of re-installing the artifact directly in the circle of stones, and over the years, found a way to tap the standing stones to power the artifact in an
infinite loop of creation.

The Tower is constructed of stone with a metal skin on the outside made from plates of Umbrite, which cloaks the tower in shadowy darkness, extending out into the lake. As Sakarbaal was about to realize his dream, the forces of nature revolted and performed rituals to bypass his source of power along the ley lines. Nature would not be hijacked for the sake of one man’s immortality. Life within a mile was destroyed and the artifact was badly damaged. The artifacts destruction resulted in a dweomersink in the area. The machine sucked the natural energy from where it sat, creating a ground sink that eventually filled up with water. The bottom two levels are now completely submerged,
and a lake has formed around the tower.

An arcanoplasm dwells in the lake, feeding on the residual magical energy and anything that stops by.

His assistant, who wished to obtain immortality with Sakarbaal attempted to turn himself into a lich, and failed. He’s also here.

Also see The Annals of Denbacan for more about Sakarbaal's quest.

The Three Valleys (History)

Around 1,000 year ago, the Axial Age was at its height. The cultures of the Yan Ki, Northmen, Phoenicians and Early Men reached maturity, right as the Cyclops civilization began to fall into disarray. Such high cultures could agree on one thing, slavery at the hands of the Cyclops could no longer be tolerated.

The center of Cyclops civilization was Redstone Island and the region most contested was the bogs of the Three Valleys region. Here, the Early Men made their home and the Northmen held sway. The Cyclops were hindered by the mountains protecting the Three Valleys, which made it difficult for them to defend it. Thus. many battles were fought here and the Cyclops made it a point to leave their mark so there was no confusion who was in charge.

Dozens of Cyclops standing stones were placed in the bog region, a show of their power, but otherwise not of magical significance. It's also said, the Cyclops lich, Thunderer, made his home somewhere in the valley region. Undead began appearing shortly thereafter, to the point nobody has ever survived the night in the open in the Three Valleys.

Towards the end of the Axial Age, the Battle of Three Valleys took place. The Northmen General Habgard had build a wall defending the region from the Cyclops. The Cyclops breached the wall, defended by the Northmen and Early Men warriors. In an act of betrayal, the Northman leader now known as Bloody Erik, allowed the Cyclops through to decimate his Early Men allies. He believed The Northmen would one day take Redstone Island and eradicate the native inhabitants, a view that it was later learned he received from his spiritual guide, the Cyclops lich Thunderer.

The Three Valley region remains in turmoil today. Slavers and goblins harass the Early Men tribes. The Early Men civilization is long gone and they hide in the cracks of the earth from their enemies. Undead run rampant through the region, with different groups acting in different ways. Those in the north of the region only come out at night, killing and dragging off their victims. Undead from the south rampage at all hours, often kidnapping who they find. The red dragon, Flameworm, considers everyone in the valley a trespasser, including the forces of Crannog. The druid Pholus works to maintain a balance, although his feud with Flameworm often keeps him gone for long periods. It is the chaos of the Three Valleys that keeps Tara safe from invaders from the east of the island, but that safety may end one day soon.

Tomb of Bonebreaker

Pursued by Ragna, a gargantuan Roc the size of a house, the party entered the "forbidden place," sandstone canyons leading to the Tomb of Bonebreaker. The Roc had crushed two cyclops the party had brought along, but it could not fit in the narrow canyons. Along they way, they discovered standing stones and a portal leading to the Negative Energy Plane. Negative energy permeated the area, as the portal was in a "bad state," nether open nor closed. A skeletal figure lay next to the stones, a hapless wizard who attempted, unsuccessfully, to utilize the powerful magical artifact.

Upon correcting the artifact, the portal was opened. A few minutes later, a badly injured lich emerged. The party parlayed for a few moments, but on his heals were five, gargoyle like creatures, their bodies made of a purple crystal. The evil sceaduinars killed the lich and began attacking the party. Calderon, the wizard, closed the portal, sending back two of the five creatures, as they hovered above the platform. A third cast a powerful spell at Calderon and killed him in a blast of negative energy, enough to destroy the wizard three times over.

The sceaduinars were eventually slain without further mishap and the portal was successfully claimed by the party. The wizard, now reincarnated as a vanara, was able to get the once dominated assassin back under his control and used the portal to alter his memories as a means to make him serve the party without magical compulsion. 

Proceeding on, the party found headless skeletons as they approached the tomb. These were once animated, before the portal was de-activated, but they now were piles of bones, the negative energy that dominated their feeble forms no longer flowing through them. The door of the temple held a nasty decapitation trap, which the party was able to disable.  

Within the temple, they found a large sarcophagi with the remains of bonebreaker, along with a 40 foot tall flagstone golem that attempted to pound the party into mush. Eventually the golem was destroyed and the party moved on, exploring the queen's chamber and discovering a secret staircase down to the treasure chamber.

Herein lies Bonebreaker the Bear, King of Aparnisi, jewel of the forest, and defender of the empire. May the full protection of all abjurations protect our great king.

Within the treasure chamber are various chests, additional sarcophagi of human servants, a reflection pool and a large platform where a servant of the empire should have been located. The plaque read:

The great Galanos, friend to the empire and keeper of men. For 500 years, great structures were built, order maintained and life preserved through the diligent effort of the great guardian from the East.

That's when the great Galanos, now an animated dragon skeleton, emerged from the pool to attack.

Order of the Silver Wolf

After defeating the corrupted bulletes in the farming region of Codaver. The Heroes of Tara headed back to town in hopes of discovering the location of the Tomb of Bonebreaker and the magic cloak that could lead them to a cyclops city. As they walked back to town, One Ball the druid discovered wolf tracks, right around the time the weather turned bad, with wind blowing and storm clouds overhead. Calderon the wizard confirmed that this was no normal storm, his last words before his death.

From atop a bluff, the bumbling soothsayer from the village shot powerful lightning from his hands. It hit One Ball and arced to everyone else, which is when Calderon was slain. The cleric quickly revived the wizard, but the battle raged on, with lightning bolts falling from the stormy sky. Attacks on the soothsayer revealed he was protected from both fire and electricity. Two wolves, perfect specimens, assisted the soothsayer in attacking the party. Eventually the soothsayer, who turned out to be a powerful werewolf druid of the highly secretive Order of the Silver Wolf, was defeated. Towards the end of the combat, a crowd of townsfolk had gathered to witness the spectacle.

Upon returning town and investigating further, the party discovered elements of The Order of the Silver Wolf amongst the people. When pressed, Verdandi the bard, admitted his membership and agreed to assist the party if they brought the werewolf druid back to life. He was too important to the order to be defeated in such a way. Verdandi explained his motivations to the party, and it was agreed they should work together. Meanwhile, the townsfolk venerated One Ball as their new druid, as it appeared he had defeated the soothsayer in mortal combat, a valid challenge under druidic law. One Ball had found a territory by defeating the old druid, his blade having dealt a decapitating blow to the werewolf.

After reincarnating the werewolf druid, who was now no longer a werewolf, and was, in fact, a goblin, Verdandi spilled some of the secrets of the order. The ancient order was created to prevent  robbers and adventurers from discovering the Tomb of Bonebreaker. Once such a discovery was made, it could eventually lead to the hidden location of the cyclops vault of artifacts. The vault contains the most dangerous magical items from ancient times. After the last great war, the order believed humanity could not be trusted with such power.

Verdandi arranged a meeting with the top members of the order. The party argued at the meeting that the malevolent Tuatha, Crannog, posed a great threat to humanity and was after the key in Bonebreaker's Tomb already. It was only a matter of time before he found a way in. The order knew of Crannog and some of his plans, so they listened intently as the party laid out their thinking.

Asked how they were different than Crannog, the party identified themselves as Heroes of Tara, and Verdandi was able to confirm this fact by quizzing them about details of their adventures. The bard had sung enough songs in praise of the band of heroes to be sure they were legitimate. The party argued they could permanently hide the ancient cyclops artifact on another plane, which seemed like an ideal solution to the order, and well beyond their power to achieve.

The Order of the Silver Wolf agreed to allow the party to enter the Tomb of Bonebreaker. Although they had no experience breaching the tomb, they agreed not to attempt to stop them. The horrors of the tomb would be theirs to overcome.

As for the mystery of the disappearances, or "curse," in Codaver, the order was responsible for that. Those of great strength and good heart were convinced to join the order. They left their old lives to defend the tomb, taking on the gift of lycanthropy with their brothers. Those powerful adventurers who were not of good heart or who only wished to raid the Tomb of Bonebreaker, were strongly encouraged to leave, while those who refused to heed the warnings, died at the hands of the order. The party found such tactics very much in line with their own and suggested they combine their organizations.

On to Codaver

The Heroes of Tara set sail for The Wall Lighthouse, an anchorage point half way between Tara and Codaver. They witnessed a caravelle following them from afar with likely bad intentions, but it was too heavily laden to catch the small, fast, empty ship of the heroes. The heroes made their anchorage and left the boat to proceed on foot. The Wall was now heavily defended by soldiers, thanks to income from the nearby salt mine.

They made their way through the badlands without trouble, arriving at Khu Sim Sim in the afternoon. The village in the badlands is in a lake valley, their homes on tall pillars of rock with wood suspension bridges in a semi circle. In the center of the lake is an island with standing stones. The stones draw the salt from the lake and are placed on a conjunction with the elemental plane of earth.

The party was at Khu Sim Sim because Maedoch wanted his follower, White Feather, to visit his home village. White Feather was now a half elf but even more shocking was no longer deaf, as the villagers puncture their ear drums to avoid their top predator, harpies. After much discussion in sign language, the village elder, Black Feather, decided White Feather could go through the ritual when he decides to return to the village for good. A party was thrown, and as is the tradition, new seed was sown, so to speak.

The next day the party returned to their ship and proceeded up the coast. As they slowly threaded the needle of treacherous rocks along the coast, the ship was attacked by an enormous octopus, a giant spyglass. It plucked several crewmen off the deck, including the captain, and submerged in an inky cloud as the party attempted to destroy it. It jetted away, badly injured, as Calderon jumped into the ocean and dove beyond the cloud. His Magic Missile spell, at the far extent of its range, was just enough to kill the creature. Aedh also dove into the water from his position flying over the battle and administered Water Breathing potions to the badly injured crewmen.

With the crew back on board, the ship continued north and again, the caravelle was following far behind. Halfway through the day, they came upon what appeared to be a castaway, an old man on a piece of flotsam off to their left.  As the ship came into range, Calderon, ever suspicious, cast a Detect Magic on the man, finding he indeed radiated magic. With enough time it was determined to be a Transmutation spell, and as the ship got closer, Calderon cast a Dispel Magic, which immediately submerged the bit of flotsam as the man transformed into a large bronze dragon.

 "Well, that's never happened before." Bruneus said in surprise. The dragon went on to tell the party how he patrols these waters for pirates and evil doers, punishing them as warranted. As he's fairly young, he's only been doing this for a hundred years or so.

When told of the caravelle and their clearly evil intentions, Bruneus asked the captain to take the ship further out to determine if their being followed might just be a coincidence. When the captain did so, the caravelle made clear course adjustments to follow and Bruneus became perturbed. He jumped overboard and a moment later a cloud fog could be seen in front of the caravelle. As the ship entered the cloud, flashes from within the cloud and shouts of surprise could be heard nearly a quarter mile from the ship. As the caravelle emerged from the fog cloud, it could be seen both its masts were in shambles, hanging off the side of their ship.

Bruneus appeared back aboard the ship and Calderon insisted they take the caravelle. Bruneus believed the damage done was punishment enough and would not assist in such an act. After much argument the party agreed with Bruneus and they headed to Codaver, albeit at a much higher speed, which Calderon believed was due to dragon magic from Bruneus.

As the party approached Codaver, a small ship came out to great them. It was the young sheriff, Kelda Skeen, and two of her deputies. She warned the parry not to land. Codaver was unsafe. Visitors were not welcome and many people who have visited have simply gone missing. Still, if they wished to dock, she wouldn't stop them. The party thanked the sheriff for her advice and decided to dock anyway.

Codaver turned out to be an insular community, a mixed race group of Northmen and Yan-Ki who cared little for outsiders and who exhibited outward signs of racism, except for Verdandi, a token half elf bard at Seamus' Tavern. The entire town smelled of rotting fish and exposed shoreline and it cloyed on clothing and in nostrils even when left behind. The party was greeted by Strom, the town grumpy soothsayer, who smelled horribly of dog, who threatened bad things if they did not leave.

Everyone told the party to leave, that they were in danger, and when the party discovered a problem with local farmers gone missing, they decided to take up the challenge. People thought they were crazy, except for Strom, who thought it was an excellent idea. He mumbled something about "two birds with one stone."

The party left town and headed to the nearby farms. Two farms were situated next to each other with a cairn on the hillside above. Giant holes in the fields led the party to believe familiar monsters were around, likely bulettes, common nuisances in the badlands. Entering the farmhouses, they discovered large holes in each, with blood around the holes where the hapless family was likely killed.

Rather than jump into dangerous holes, the party investigated the cairn on the hill above. Calderon used magic to open the door and Sfiri used her tracking skills to determine the caign had been entered before, but perhaps decades ago. The door had a name in Northman engraved on it, Solveig. History spoke of this Northman warrior priestess of Hel. She was a hero of battle who led her troops to victory over the cyclops of Redstone Island. She had little regard for her own men, the legend told, but she was an excellent general. This was likely her tomb.

The party proceeded down the subterranean passage, passing various graves, robbed long ago. As the approached a curve, they noticed a breach in the wall, with debris in the corridor, as well as a flickering red glow next to it, on a solid steel door. A malfunctioning magic mouth asked them to speak the name of the fallen warrior, but refused to open when the password was given. The red glow was a powerful protection ward, infused with infernal energy. The debris pattern indicated whatever came through the wall attempted to bash the door, despite the magical protections.

Proceeding down the breach passageway, the party came to a four way intersection. A loud chirp could be heard as two bulette's emerged from the side passages and a small one appeared ahead, apparently giving orders to the first two and rushing forward heedlessly itself. The small bulette had a red glow about it and exuded a powerful acid. It also turned out to have a poisonous bite, as Aedh, the cleric spent most of the combat attempting not to die from its toxic poison.

Calderon was later able to surmise that the infernal bulette was likely effected by the magic in the cairn. As bulettes are thought to be the creation of a mad wizard, they are perhaps susceptible to magical mutations.

The battle was furious but the bulettes were finally defeated, the small one charmed by Calderon, but not after being enfeebled by Sfiri. With a charmed bulette, Calderon was able to get it to breech the tomb of Solveig, after which the party was happy to loot her of her belongings.

Treasure: +1 Chainmail, +1 Flaming Giant Bane Morningstar, Masterwork Dagger (2),
Belt of giant strength +2, Iron unholy symbol of Hel.

The Month of Tinne

As Tara grows, and your influence spreads, various events occur with your projects in town. There are also new magic items available.

In Town Events

Tower of Math
A desperate young man arrives at the tower. His clothes are salt encrusted and his lips are blistered. He claims to have powerful arcane knowledge he can offer in exchange for sanctuary and a place at the school.

Tara Keep (Maedoch's Guildhouse)
One of the men, a talented and enterprising brewer, has been caught diverting kegs for his own purposes, mostly divvying them out to friends and family but selling a few as well.

Shipyard and Temple of Mannanan Mac Lir
A plainly dressed warrior arrives and identifies himself as a Son of Mannanan. He pulls a set of very old, silver items of worship from what's clearly a bag of holding. There are candelabra, bells, incense dishes, and a silver torc encrusted with small emeralds, a clear symbol of the faith. He tearfully presents them to the temple and expresses gratitude that it still exists.

Calderon's Skunk Works
No new activity.

Magical Threat Authority
Training Drill: The MTA engages in a threat take down drill and Sfiri needs to make a successful Diplomacy, Intimidate or Profession (soldier, or other) check to pull it off.


New Magic Items
Tara is a small city and there is a 75% chance that any magic item up to the Purchase Limit price (25,000 gp) is available.

Minor Items:

Ring: Ring of swarming stabs; 6,000 gp

Wondrous Item: Bag of holding (type III) (Slotless); 7,400 gp

Ring: Ring of maniacal devices; 5,000 gp

Wand: Aspect of the bear (2nd Level, CL 3rd); 4,500 gp

Wondrous Item: Belt of incredible dexterity +2 (Belts); 4,000 gp

Wondrous Item: Cloak of resistance +2 (Shoulders); 4,000 gp

Wondrous Item: Headband of fortune’s favor (Headband); 7,700 gp

Ring: Ring of swarming stabs; 6,000 gp

Wand: Heat metal (2nd Level, CL 3rd); 4,500 gp

Wondrous Item: Ghostvision gloves (Hands); 4,000 gp

Medium Items:

Wand: Invisibility, greater (4th Level, CL 7th); 21,000 gp

Wand: Invisibility (2nd Level, CL 3rd); 4,500 gp

Wand: Wood shape (2nd Level, CL 3rd); 4,500 gp

Wand: Magic circle against law (3rd Level, CL 5th); 11,250 gp

Wand: Summon monster II (2nd Level, CL 3rd); 4,500 gp

Wondrous Item: Amulet of mighty fists +2 (Neck); 20,000 gp

Wand: Restoration (4th Level, CL 7th); 26,000 gp

Wand: Invisibility (2nd Level, CL 3rd); 4,500 gp

Wand: Bear’s endurance (2nd Level, CL 3rd); 4,500 gp

Wondrous Item: Mask of the skull (Head); 22,000 gp

Wand: Cat’s grace (2nd Level, CL 3rd); 4,500 gp

Major Items:

Wand: Confusion (4th Level, CL 7th); 21,000 gp

Staff: Staff of spiders; 30,200 gp

The Annals of Denbacan

Translated from the ancient language of the Early Men

Centuries ago, the wealthy Phoenician wizard-merchant Sakarbaal travelled to the Island of Redstone after hearing the rumor of a Font of Youth. The aging wizard was willing to travel any distance, compromise any principle, sacrifice everything, to prolong his natural life. The exception was necromancy, as becoming a lich, he would explain, was to give up most of the earthly pleasures Sakarbaal loved.

Speaking of which, Sakarbaal brought his young apprentice, Urumkiiki. The boy knew he would not see his family again and might spend the rest of his short life in the wilderness with his old master. Regardless, he thought himself lucky if he could partake in immortality at the side of his master. They sailed the long distance in the wizard’s opulent ship, selling the gold plated pleasure vessel, a family heirloom, in Northman controlled Tara to fund their expedition. 

The two enlisted Early Men explorers in town to take them to cyclop ruins in the north. There was ambush and betrayal as the unscrupulous guides misled the explorers. However, they had not counted on the cleverness and ruthlessness of Sakarbaal, and when the wizard arrived at the Early Men village where the scouts originated, fire claimed the lives of half the inhabitants, with one slain every hour until a true guide was brought to him. 

That is when I, Denbacan, stepped forward. As I write this, I wonder if history will view me as a brave explorer or betrayer of my people's heritage. In any case, with my help, we headed for forbidden lands. Since gaining our freedom from the cyclops centuries ago, it has been forbidden to enter those lands, for fear that unknown horrors may be awoken. The admission that I knew the lands well would forever cloud my peoples view of me, and perhaps this is why Sakarbaal allowed me to live. We are maybe not so different from each other.

We took to the mountains and over the next several months, half of the explorers died along the way, either through illness or attacks from monsters, especially the vile green dragon, Chrysox. Sakarbaal eventually parlayed for safe passage with Chrysox, offering him a magical sword of some sort. With the dragon allowing passage, we soon discovered an ancient Cyclopean city, and in its center, a powerful artifact. It was not the secret of youth, as Sakarbaal had desired, but a device rumored to be far more powerful, The Machine of Creation.

Sakarbaal was angry and despondent, but thankfully did not take out his frustration on me or the men. Eventually he came up with an idea. If he could not be immortal through some font or elixir, perhaps there was another way. 

The Font of Creation, according to Sakarbaal's research, could create a demiplane, if given enough energy. A demiplane was nothing to Sakarbaal, but an infinite number of demiplanes, populated by worshipers, would be something else entirely. Sakarbaal could populate these realms with followers and achieve immortality through godhood!  But such a plan would require enormous, near infinite power. 

On the way out of the mountains, Sakarbaal convinced his men of the merits of the plan, joking that each would be a high priest in the faith of Sakar, the reference to his family god Baal dropped completely at this point. And where would he find these people to worship him?

I snuck out of the camp that evening, leaving the crazy old man with his enormous machine, small army of porters, and his high priests. How and where they would go to harness such great power will remain a mystery to me.

Gebel of the Phoenician Acadamy

Over 6,000 years old, Gebel is the oldest city in the world and the first Phoenician city, although it may have started as a Badaran colony. The city worships the mother of Gebel, Ba’alat Gebel in The Great Temple overlooking the sea. She’s a god of the sea, love and beauty, and the women of the town are known regionally as the most beautiful.

The town’s scenic beauty, openness to ideas, embracing of nature and worship of the goddess of love, and a population with a lot of young students (and a ‘non-lawful” alignment), has resulted in a “romantic” reputation.

The city exports cedar and pine, along with salt and red pottery. It has a large number of farmers who wish their children to one day attend the local Academae, so there is an abundance of food in the town, much of which is exported. Its primary draw is The Phoenician Academae, an academy focusing on practical magic.

The Phoenician Academae is the most respected arcane school in the region and builds up slowly in its study from what was lost in Barothai, teaching ethics and philosophy along with magic in hopes of avoiding past mistakes.

Purple robed wizards study arcana, along with history, nature and nobility, with expectations they will one day be advisors to kings throughout the world.  Students are required to take a level in druid through their training, and are brought into the druidic mysteries as well. To be admitted to the Academae, students need to be neutral somewhere in their alignment or flexible enough in one axis that they can be “turned” through study.

Those of the academy believe their teachings have appeased the various forces of nature who hunted  other cultures for their past transgressions.

GEBEL (Gebal)

NG Large city

Corruption +0; Crime +1; Economy +3; Law +3; Lore +8; Society +4

Qualities abdundant, academic, peacebonding, religious tolerance, romantic, well-educated

Abundant

The settlement has access to extraordinary natural resources: rich farmland, a deep lake, excellent hunting grounds nearby or even a convenient source of magical sustenance. The local food surplus makes the settlement a major exporting hub, and increases the standard of living for its inhabitants.

Reduce the purchase price of most forms of locally-grown food and livestock by 25% or more.

Peacebonding

By local law, any weapon larger than a dagger and all wands and rods must either be peacebound or stored at the local sherrif’s office or jail (at the settlement’s option) for the duration of the visit. Peacebonding a weapon involves winding a colored cord tightly around the weapon and its scabbard, and then impressing the local seal in wax. Removing the peacebond requires a full round action before the item can be drawn. (Disable Device DC 12 to untangle the bond as a move equivalent action; bond HP 5, no hardness).

Religious Tolerance

The settlement is known for its widespread religious tolerance, and many faiths have temples, cathedrals or monasteries here. Religious debates in the public square are common.

Romantic

The settlement’s inhabitants are renowned for their stunning beauty and charm, and the location has been made famous in dozens of romantic songs, poems and bawdy limericks. Affairs of the heart are common here, among the town’s hotblooded, lusty inhabitants.

Increase Society +1. Double the amount of minor magic items available for sale in the marketplace. Such trinkets are a popular, if expensive, token of affection here.

Well Educated

The settlement’s inhabitants are incredibly well educated and known for their sharp wits.

Danger +10

DEMOGRAPHICS

Government Magical

Population 24,000 (90% human, 5% elves, 5% other)

Noteable NPCs

Grandmaster Tanith
Mistress of the North Wind, Unmashtart
Adad the Groundskeeper

MARKETPLACE

Base Value 8,000 gp; Purchase Limit 50,000 gp; Spellcasting 9th
Minor Items 8d4; Medium Items 3d4; Major Items 2d4

Magic items for the Month of Duir

Since Tara is now a small city, there is a 75% chance that any magic item up to the Purchase Limit price (25,000 gp) is available.
 
 

divine scroll of stabilise (caster level 1)	12 gp
arcane scroll of true strike (caster level 1)	25 gp
divine scroll of hide from undead (caster level 1)	25 gp
potion of cure light wounds	50 gp
divine scroll of reduce animal (caster level 3)	150 gp
potion of undetectable alignment	300 gp
potion of lesser restoration (2)	300 gp
potion of scent trail [APG]	300 gp
arcane scroll of phantom steed	375 gp
arcane scroll of hydraulic torrent [APG]	375 gp
arcane scroll of solid fog (caster level 7)	700 gp
wand of bless water (caster level 1), with 47 charges	705 gp
arcane scroll of level 5 spell, dismissal	1,125 gp
+1 small sized heavy wooden shield	1,157 gp
Medium sized heavy mace, +1	2,312 gp
golembane scarab	2,500 gp
wand of fester [APG] (caster level 3), 35 charges	3,150 gp
druids vestments	3,750 gp
+2 medium sized heavy steel shield	4,170 gp
horseshoes of the zephyr	6,000 gp
ring of forcefangs [APG]	8,000 gp
stone golem manual	22,000 gp
rod of splendour	25,000 gp
+5 medium sized heavy steel shield	25,170 gp
ring of protection +4	32,000 gp
tome of leadership and influence +4	110,000 gp