Taal
Taal adventure outline
Meteors, aberrations, uncontrolled armies of constructs, the zombie plague, awakened plants with levels of sorcerer, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, tidal waves, invaders from the Far Realm and demonic hordes destroyed the world's civilizations in a massive millennium long series of wars and disasters.
The adventurers were put in Temporal Stasis during one of the worst apocalypses and now centuries have passed. The adventurers help their pale descendants emerge from underground and retake the post-apocalyptic surface. So they battle the surface inhabitants, try to survive the desert, take over an oasis settlement, find another enclave of Temporal Stasis adventurers to the north.
The starting point is a long dead Arcane Hierophants secondary lair near an underground river with a permanent Mage's Private Sanctum on it, inhabited by a handful of timid pale skinned mongrelfolk. The study has three goblin skulls with a few Magic Mouth spells and Continual Flame on them, a desk and a few shelves. The shelves contain various books, grimoires and tomes on animal husbandry, demonology, a couple of spells and a few notes and correspondence between a cabal of wizards who had tried to prepare for the aftermath before fleeing to other planes, hinting that there may be others left behind in Temporal Stasis to the north. The study also has a pair of permanent Unseen Servants that keep it clean and put the books back on the shelf at the end of each day.
The only way out is up through hidden passages that the mongrelfolk know of into the sewers of a ruined city or downstream to a freshwater lake in the underdark. The ruined city is still patrolled by a few constructs obeying their last orders and a few various incorporeal undead. If they go the other way then after a wild ride and splash down there is a colony of friendly myconids on the shore where the PCs can rest up between fights. After fighting various underdark critters eventually the PCs find a way to the surface up through lava tubes or an ancient mineshaft or earthquake or whatever.
Roaming the seemingly endless deserts and ruined cities of the surface are leather and fur clad barbaric marauders, gangs of bandits, insane cultists and cannibals. The art of metal working is almost lost and scavenging ruins and raiding fortified oasis villages who have clean water and/or a blacksmith are the order of the day.
Desert roll 1d100 (subtract 10 each day without an oasis)
01 Oasis and some friendly Janni (Genie) - band
02-03 Lamia - pair
04-07 Thri-Kreen - pack
08-10 Huge Viper - solitary
11-12 Dust Mephit - solitary
13-17 Dune Hag (Sandstorm) - solitary
18-22 Wasteland Troll (Sandstorm) - tomb
23-28 Huge Scorpion - solitary
29-37 Tiny Scorpion - colony
38-39 Large Viper - solitary
40-41 Small Scorpion - colony
42-43 Medium Viper - solitary
44-55 Tiny Lizard - solitary
56-65 Giant Lizard - solitary
66-72 Hawk - solitary
73-80 Camel w/ pack saddle with misc supplies - solitary
81-86 Bandits (four human level 4 rangers on camels) - patrol
87-88 Medium Scorpion - colony
89-90 Sun Giant (MMII) - family
91-92 Forlorn Husk (Sandstorm) - gaggle
93-95 Brass Dragon - clutch
96-97 Lammasu - solitary
98-99 young adult Sand Dragon (Sandstorm) or young adult Blue Dragon - solitary
100 Ruins and Hieracosphinx - pair
Ruins
01-10 Wraith - solitary
11-20 Skulk (Races of Destiny) - pair
21-40 Stone Golem Patrol - solitary
41-65 Shadow - solitary
66-70 Ghost - solitary
71-00 Sandstorm
To the north there are two new kingdoms that have arisen after the apocalypse, they are at war due to the manipulation of a third smaller one that continually instigates it.
There is a second hidden wizards lair (with some replacement characters and/or potential allies in Temporal Stasis) with a party patron, a good aligned intelligent amulet of natural AC +2 from an ancient kingdom worn by an undead thing that is the animated body of its creator and the delusional item thinks its a lich and that the amulet is its phylactery. The patron knows of the secretive third kingdom of Taal and thinks that the lowly, good hearted, gang of PCs can reunite the other two kingdoms and restore the old empire to its former glory and benevolence.
Taal is a minor shadow kingdom of underfolk spies, ulitharid manipulators, duergar war profiteers and half drow slavers that continually instigates trouble between the kingdoms of flesh and bone keeping the kingdoms at war.
Ahuizotl the Kingdom of Flesh - 7 demon/devil worshiping kings, one of the kings is a half-fiend, psionic thought police, tieflings, fiendish people and things, lots of symbiots and grafts (i.e. fleshwarpers from Lords of Madness)
Miquiztli the Kingdom of Bone - undead aberration experiments, undead nobility, human underclass, mindless undead laborers.
