Short fur and whiskers, fangs and a long flicking tail, large tawny eyes shining with mischief. Standing 4’ tall at the most they hide easily among the tall grasses found in the plains and pass as small children in cloaks when skulking around settlements or luring travelers into traps on the road.
This variety of goblin found amongst the Daybreak Plains can be quite sociable, although incredibly easy to influence and often they find themselves falling in line in the presence of Trolls. Doing their bidding waylaying travelers and stocking secret stolen item caches all throughout the plains. They rarely have any strategic understanding of why they are being forced to do this, but they know all too well the Trolls are uncaring and will gut and eat any goblin who disobeys their commands.
A Field Goblin nearly always carries at least one “map” of where their caches are. Often mislabeled, misremembered,indecipherable or just flat out incorrect.
Clever goblins will barter these maps and keys if they get into trouble while sneaking around a city like Garradem.
Most are rightly suspicious of the validity of these “treasures” but there’s no denying the allure of riches out there somewhere waiting to be collected…
The process was invented and performed by a small sect of dragonborn sorcerers atop the volcano in Cragswatch village. Easily identified by their gleaming green eyes and thrumming aura.
From what rumors could be gathered and verified by scribes at Zino Monastary, the process involved removal of one or both of the participants eyes and replacing them with specially prepared translucent green Vaporglass gems. Crafted from the very fumes given off by the nearby volcano, Vaporglass is an especially delicate substance and nearly impossible to work with without destroying it.
Once the grisly ritual is completed however, the Vaporglass eye grants the wearer some sort of everpresent insubstantial armor. A faint green glow outlining the body remains even in death until the Vaporglass eye is shattered.
Seemingly ineffective against blades, the “shroud” blunts harmful magical effects quite well.
17 CRAGSWATCH (A volatile village set in the mouth of the volcano, arcane discoveries and astral projection provide a strange link between this place and its sister village within the astral realm)
Clusters of smooth black stone hemispheres hover in place above the surface of the bubbling lava. Thin green hued Vaporglass pathways connect the areas of the village. The black stone huts are set with thick rippling glass and remain unaffected by the constant smoke,haze,and intense heat.
Often people seeking arcane knowledge or pursuing controversial disciplines find a home here in Cragswatch.
Firenewts are commonly found here, often operating the massive chains that drop and raise the black stone sarcophagi in The Crucibles.
AREAS OF CRAGSWATCH
Vapora Vaults (Large compound hemispheres and large interior, bubbling mud pits and steam baths provide space to socialize as well as a unique kind of tavern serving condensed smoke and vapor)
Tower of Ash and Smoke (Accessible only in the Astral Realm, this ethereal tower contains a collection of magic items and a very peculiar library)
The Crucibles (10 large black stone sarcophogi raise and lowered by heavy chains to be submerged completely in lava, used as deprivation chambers for astral projection or arcane contemplation)
Starwatch (Accessible only in the Astral Realm, this desolate outpost is a prison built to hold the most dangerous threats to The Scathelands)
2’ tall wooden statue carved into the form of a smiling devil reclining on a throne holding a pitchfork.
A weathered elongated skull with removable top holding potent herbs within.
A faded painting of two twin white haired girls. One is holding a rock and the other is holding a black cat with a dead rat in its mouth - expertly painted, but dusty.
A thick silver skull ring with small purple gems for eyes and crossbone motifs on either side of the skull.
A gleaming silver ring finely carved with an entire human skeleton around the entire length of the band, a large clear crystal reveals a minutely painted screaming face beneath it.
A pair of elaborately hooked and ornamented ceremonial pikes.
A very heavy dark wood chair, the back carved into the face of a bearded man, the arms ending in hands holding tree branch style legs.
A murky painting of a red haired woman in a black dress gazing away from the viewer. Looking over a gloomy and ruinous city roofline, set in a tarnished silver frame.
A painting of a stern faced man with a large reptile slung over his shoulder amidst a jungle stream, holding a heavy crossbow and sporting an exquisitely large mustache.
A wide bench constructed of some strange pitted horns and upholstered with a heavily scaled reptile hide.
The head of a red skinned creature, protruding fangs and strangely wet eyes. If removed they turn into rubies, if replaced they turn back into seemingly living eyeballs that cannot blink.
A bizarre 7’ wooden sculpture made of writhing tree limbs carved into crows, snakes, and insects, all coated with a very dark and awful smelling lacquer.
19 ARCANE ARGUMENT (social encounter in Cragswatch streets)
A wizened Firenewt mage and female halfling apprentice are in a heated exchange regarding the range, accuracy, and potential dangerous outcomes of using magic recklessly in the streets.
The halfling is arguing that she has grown confident enough in her skills to easily blast a small target from distance, in this case the target happens to be an oblivious purple bird perched atop a pumice boulder at the corner of the entrance to the bath house 150’ away from the arguing pair.
The halfling shouts to the party “Hey, watch this!” and prepares to cast some kind of spell towards the bird - what do you do?
Preventing the halfling will gain favor with the Firenewt. The Firenewt mage will in turn chastise their apprentice and happily introduce the party to any other Firenewt contacts in Cragswatch.
Standing by will gain favor with the halfling, who will promptly be released from mentorship by the Firenewt and ask the party to tag along.
Nice scene! Is there a benefit to the apprentice tagging along? Do they become a hireling or follower of one of the PCs? Out of curiosity, what sort of abilities would this apprentice have?
You’d totally gain them as a tempermental low level mage follower, eager to gain some magical skill and ready to ditch you for a better mentor to tag along with.
Trigger happy, she’s more than willing to get some practice blasting vermin and smaller foes with a bolt of flames. She will have forfeited her chance to learn more complex spells from the Firenewt by disobeying him, so her abilities will be limited to simple fire blasts and perhaps providing magical fire for a torch.
Tales tell of a 10’ tall armor plated devil who wanders wearily through the night.
It’s massive metal bulk is as silent as a shadow, the only noise that can be heard is the dry echoing of ragged breathing from within the great horned helm.
The fires of hell blaze two holes in the darkness that is its face.
The last thing a lone traveler may see before the dawn finds them cleaved in half and dead on the trail.
The most terrible part of these tales, are that there seems to be more than one of these monstrosities roaming the lands, and they are never spotted during the day.
It is thought they are enemies of the Gods in some way as sightings of these giants seem to occur in conjunction with the uprising of heroes bearing the Gods Mark.
Almost as if they are on a mission to find and eliminate any champion the Gods might call to action.
This is a small magically hidden set of rooms containing artifacts of an infamous vampire lord. The portrait of his lost mortal love, an intelligent and magical Golden Bat, and his undying heart.
The entrance appears at different places under moonlight and is invisible to the naked eye.
ROOM 1: The Moonlit Door
A mysterious ancient black wooden door with ornate carvings appears in random locations, smelling of fresh dirt.
Special rose tinted glasses are required to see the door and it will never appear during the day.
The glasses once belonged to an infamous vampire hunter who failed to destroy his undead rival.
The door is not locked but is ancient and quite stuck , a DC17 STR check will wrench it open. Opening into a lightless tunnel smelling of the grave.
ROOM 2: The Blood Fountain
Red and Black checkered tile floor. Ghoulish faces are subtly carved into the black tiles. 3 Gargoyles spew an endless stream of blood into a pool in the center. Stepping on the floor or touching the pool triggers the gargoyles to intermittently close their mouths and spray blood from their eyes. Any blood that hits a black tile sprouts brittle petrified black ghoulish vampires.
At the bottom of the pool of blood is a golden key.
Once the gargoyles are triggered roll 1d6 to determine which of the 3 will splash blood out for that round. It will summon 3 vampire wretches within 15’ of that gargoyle. The gargoyles have an AC:12 HP:25 resistance to piercing/slashing.
ROOM 3: The Bat Room
A large black iron bird cage covered with a swarm of bats with a massive lock holds a slumbering solid gold bat. Smoldering incense burners give a soft yellow glow. If released using the golden key it will become the familiar of whoever has released it.
The bat swarm will not attack if the cage is unlocked with the key, however if the cage is tampered with a cold gust will blow out the incense and the bat swarm will wake up and attack whether the key is used or not.
ROOM 4: The Mist Room
A bluish mist emanates from a still,cool, pool of water. A portrait of a young woman rests at the bottom of the pool. If the water is disturbed, the mist stops and wraiths quickly emerge from the countless jars lining the walls. They claw at the party and attempt to command them to bail the water out so they can claim the portrait. If successful they rend it to shreds and it bursts into flames. A spectral figure of the woman appears and is set upon by the wraiths.
DC 17 WIS sv to avoid being commanded to bail out the well for 1 round. The well will be emptied after 5 rounds of frantic bailing. The wraiths will only turn to attacking adventurers once they consume the spirit of the mysterious woman.
ROOM 5: The Dirt Room
Room with dirt floor covered in glowing green mushrooms. A well at the center of the room is packed with earth. The mushrooms slowly close if disturbed, plunging the room into total darkness. Zombified mushroom corpses rise up in the darkness and attack. Found under 1’ of soil in the well is a wooden box containing a monstrous leathery heart.
If a zombie is killed with a slashing/piercing weapon it will release glowing spores into the area, same effect as the Faerie Fire spell.
The wall section crumbles away effortlessly to plaster powder, revealing a dusty door.
The wall roils with activity as a swarm of perfectly camouflaged beetles suddenly take flight and reveal a secret door.
The wall shimmers rhythmically before a glistening wave of energy ripples across a section, revealing a secret door.
A portion of the wall suddenly melts away like liquid wax, pooling up on the ground before a secret door.
Pieces of the wall begin rattling rapidly before bursting into clouds of steam, when it clears a secret door is revealed.
Molten rock suddenly begins spouting from the wall, it builds up rapidly before cooling and revealing a secret door.
A stray shadow stretches into the area,climbs up a portion of the wall and pushes into it revealing a secret doorway.
A cold mist rises from the ground and settles on the wall, the droplets race down the wall faster and faster until a reflective liquid silver door shape is revealed.
At the edge of the Daybreak Scrublands, two days ride (on cockatrice of course) northeast from Garradem there is a peculiar patch of sun loving flowers that billow hundreds of black threadlike petals. On windy and especially hot days the entire area resembles tremendous waves of black silk.
In the center of these bizarre plants is a relatively well hidden shrine to the God of Hope. Mourners are often drawn to this particular well, casting in their offerings and prayers wishing for things to be different.
The God of Hope has no power to reunite a soul with a body however, so often the plea to return a loved one goes unanswered, the plea to exact revenge on the murderer of a loved one however, that’s a perfect use of their hungry incorporeal servants…
With a sour clang the brass bell can be heard faintly by the target of such a vengeful plea no matter where they are at that moment, they know it is a grim tolling.
Sail north from King’s Cove several days, hug the cliffs to starboard until the Old Man’s Head, cut due west and straight through the heart of the Ever Squall. Prepare for the fight of your life and keep your wits about you, the thrashing rain and sizzling lightning has sent many a man to their watery graves.
If you keep your head above water long enough you might catch sight of a dazzling metallic lightning strike on one of the dozens of rocky islands. Get to that spot as quickly as you can, for there embedded in the stone is a blade of exceptional power. Perhaps with such a weapon in hand you might yet be worthy enough to crew my ship.
A small waxed paper envelope containing one singular, delicately folded piece of vellum. Folded into the winged shape of a moth about 2" from tip of wing to tip of wing.
A mage of appropriate skill can use this item to seek out hidden doorways or magically altered objects within the area.
One widely told tale of such an item describes its use by a library page to help a village mob root out an evil sorcerer lairing in the town graveyard. The entrance to the underground lair was concealed somewhere within the graveyard, but had not been located after 10 days of fruitless searching.
By the light of mobs torches the young page was seen whispering a plea into an envelope at the graveyard gate. Suddenly from the envelope sprung a fluttering moth of thin vellum. The moth flitted to the far end of the graveyard and came to rest on an unassuming stone marker, under which laid the entrance to the sorcerers tunnels…
To the northern edge of the Daybreak Plains a perpetually gloomy smear of fog drapes over a dark forest. Trekking more than 100 paces in past the tree line is often enough to completely lose track of direction. A singular tribe of Barbarians occupy the Shroudwood called the Gray Foxes.
Barbarian warriors find it highly respectable to be laid to rest wrapped in silk from the Silksong Forest and slung high among the mighty pines in this forest. The individuals who do this work silently and methodically are the Gray Foxes, deftly scaling trees and leaping between branches. A warriors trusty weapon must be close at hand even in death, for that reason any warrior hung amongst the boughs must have their weapon sunk into the trunk of that tree.
The Shroudwood is an eerie place and deadly if entered without a guide. The spirits of the dead warriors often haunt the place and will wrench their blade free before gladly engaging in one more battle against any who cross them.
A vast forest stretching from the northern pass around Crownspeak mountain all the way to the southern wetlands of Dampfen.
A turbulent river cuts through the forest, born from the hills and flowing over a large waterfall out into the Blind Sea southeast of Gaproot village.
This particular forest is home to hostile owlbears, camouflaged grick nests, and blighted dryads,but is also home to the majority of spiderfolk in the Scathelands.
Through a truce with the Zino Monastery of Crownspeak a silken bridge was constructed and maintained by the spiderfolk in exchange for protection and access to the Monastery.
The traffic over the “Silkspan” vibrates the bridge softly, and the spiderfolk knew how to use this tone to influence the forest creatures. Calming them somewhat and making the place safer to traverse.
Recently however the Silkspan has fallen into disrepair, the spiderfolk tasked with maintaining the bridge have instead become bandits and are likely to rob a caravan or
toss travelers to their demise from the bridge down to the forest floor.
With the bridge not maintained, the calming thrum of its presence has warped to an irritating buzz. Throwing the entire forest into a discordant rhythm.
The natural rhythm of Silksong Forest is maintained by its 6 protectors, all fairy dragons of different colors. Several have gone missing and piece by piece the forest has become aggressive-and the monks of Zino do nothing to hold the spiderfolk accountable…
The Rats Nest is a jumble of flotsam and jetsam, wooden dock beams and a large ruined ship that has formed a partial dam upriver of the Bravura Falls where the Silksong empties to the sea.
The large mess of detritus is the result of a sea hag coven catching various ships and voyagers in a giant whirlpool in the Blind Sea. Once something gets pulled into the pool it is deposited here in the river.
Within this bulk of worm eaten timbers, a growing force of Ratmen do dishonest dealings with the spiderfolk bandits on the Strandspan and frequently harass the well hidden Teahouses spread throughout the forest.
They are bullied around by a 2 headed rat ogre who dwells in the rotten belly of the shipwreck, The Wave Breaker.
The Silksong Forest is immensely ancient. The oldest historical recordings at the Zino Monastery depict the huge and brooding forest as a serious obstacle to any travelers wishing to traverse through it in the centuries before the Strandspan bridge was created.
One particular entry in a travel log mentions the presence of some kind of powerful forest guardian. Described only as follows:
“suddenly a colorful apparition in the form of a miniature dragon flitted through the massive tree trunks. This creature carried with it a strange aura, one that caused all of the men within view to suddenly move slowly. Though moments before this incident we were frantically packing gear and preparing to escape an incoming thunderstorm - in the presence of this small violet dragon all things slowed almost to a complete stop. The spirit was unimpeded by this and moved with the scintillating slither of a gleaming fish or snake, inspecting gear, locking eyes with the horses, even snatching a small pouch of dried jerky from my frozen hand! As it came close my ears vibrated with a heavy tone, not unlike the deep voices of dwarven choirs.
In a flash faster than my eyes could catch, it vanished back into the forest, the men and horses recovered control over their bodies slowly like waking from a restful sleep. We found ourselves able to pack and push into the forest without being hurried by the thunderstorm, for the dark clouds and even the drops of rain remained locked in place in midair.
The minute dragon had given us respite from getting drenched, and we plan to follow it as closely as we can to make it through to Garradem…”
This faerie dragon is one of six that inhabit the forest. Each wields a specialized magical aura to help those who are friendly to the forest and to trick those who would harm it.
Together all six of these faerie dragons combine these auras to keep the forest working in symphony.
In the bustling streets of Garradem there are many travelers from far flung places and many pockets that may spill their contents…
A loose gang of halflings and goblins often “find” many interesting items in the streets, sometimes they’ll even return those items for a fee.
If anything of importance goes missing, a Gutterhound is often the first one to offer to go find it.
The Barbarian soldiers vowing allegiance to their king, Wind Gleam, have learned to leverage this groups services and work with them as informants or as spies.
Not all these guards give the Gutterhounds their due respect, and often find themselves hopelessly bamboozled when their belts, keys, pouches, etc. go missing while on patrol.
A chubby and pleasant firenewt who specializes in enchanting mundane items with magic light.
Is prone to give small trinkets and carved stone animals enchanted with a weak glowing light to children as night lights.
Glow Worm operates his small outdoor shop in Dampfen, but is eager to return to Smouldertop and the tunnels within the volcano. He has received a rumor that many firenewts were displaced from their tunnel homes by some terrible beast and would like to confirm that or know if his family is safe.
Glow Worm knows that there is an ancient temple in the bowels of the volcano and many sealed temple doors that are more often than not trapped.
If Glow Worm makes enough profit he will be able to afford a safe expedition back to Smouldertop.
If Glow Worm does not find prosperity in Dampfen he will set out on his trip back home alone, with a much greater chance of dying in the process.
