The village of Neloar was the last of the five villages built by the first lord go Greysteel. The area was a little more than planned and the clearing had just begun when he died. Immigrants from Jarda and Greysteel arrived and discovered that the land was much more fertile than other places and the settlement quickly began to grow. The land was cleared and planted and for the first decade the harvests were larger than expected and the village grew and grew. Now the large harvests merely occur every other year on average. The land proved fertile enough that it could grow grapes and other orchid crops like apricots and peaches. The wine in the region was at one time sought after from Jarda, but now most of the wine is consumed locally, but still sought after.
The prosperity of the town attracted Aurista to the town and a beautiful temple to the prosperity god was built. There are other shrines, Stomidia is present and there is a wooded area dedicated to the Grey Warder.
Cult
Encounter 2— three fighters
6 — 2 rogues, 14 humans
7 — 1 rogues
12—5 humans
13—2humans
14—2humans
15—5 humans
16—3troglodytes
18—4humans
21—2 clerics, 9 goblins,4 troglodytes,2 humans
22— 5 humans
Abandoned!
9
16
17
24
There are 125 buildings that make up the primary town area the above represents about 60% of the adventure town, so to make it seem like more of an exodus from the area, when the PCs enter the town periphery they will see a number of overgrown fields and in one case a field that looks newly plowed, plants starting to grow, but no one anywhere. A few homes look occupied, most with plowed fields, but the people run scares when the PCs come down the way. One house, with weeds growing over the wheels of a couple broken carts, has a young man sitting on the porch playing a lyre like from deliverance. Watchful parents with crossbows standing in the cottage.
The way into the village ias a patchwork of farms mostly still working, but the majority of the farm clusters, the groupings of three to five farms are affected a mix of abandoned, strange and unaffected. When they get to the town they should all be a little weirded out. ****Accented by making the description of the many farms they passed by before getting here.*****
The village has three inns one abandoned and one infiltrated, the infiltrated was also the the location of a chapter house of the Jaradanese Theives Guild. The guild was targeted a few years ago in Greysteel and they made the impromptu move here. The Greysteel chapter house was more concerned about money laundering than actual thievery and they have considerable investments in the Neloar area. A few months after the end of the fiasco, if any of the occupants of the Golden Grain have survived, that reward of 100pp and a riding horse, arrive for each of the party members. If all the proprietors died, there is an assassin sent.
In addition to the town includes a sawmill, a tannery, a grocer—that purchases extra food from the farmers, and a winery, distillery and beer maker. All of these additions are empty as the occupants were targeted by the cult and the occupants were failed to be charmed or died in later fights. The buildings are intact and there is product in various states of completion or still ready for sale. Tools are left as if their owners were about to pick them up in a moment.
Outside of town there is a large temple to Stomidia, abandoned. A small temple to Xeric and one to the Grey Warder also abandoned. Unfortunately, the Tax Assessors office is still manned.
The clerics in the temple of Aurista are now worshippers of Drogath and the walls have been desecrated with written symbols of his priesthood as an idol has not been readied, idols of the Naga also serve. There are additional priests from the temple of Stomidia and Xeric. The priest of the Grey Warder did not survive the attack.
Inside the marsh temple, the naga has less powers than a traditional Spirit Naga. Most notably her Charm is permanent until her death and her regeneration powers are absent. She is granted resistance to magic as well. She is not in fact a Naga at all but a constrictor snake that swallowed an artifact and the artifact caused her to become a Naga. The Naga is accompanied by a dozen constrictor snakes and two half Yuan-ti. One of the Yuan-ti will escape when the Naga is defeated, the other will cover the escape if it is still alive. If the PCs defeated the Yuan-ti, a third will duck through the secret door in the South and the door will shut before they can get to it, if they open it the will find the temple room empty unless they missed it the first time.
The story behind the Naga in the story is that a few years ago and artifact shard of a forgotten mythical blade appeared rose out of the swamp it was lodged. A large constrictor snake encountered the shard and the residual magic in the blade shard compelled the snake to it, the biggest creature it could affect. The snake was hypnotized by the shard of gold metal and after a few days it devoured the shard. The shard worked its magic over the course of a year and slowly the snake grew until it was large enough to compel other creatures to its service. First troglodytes then goblins joined with her. By the time the first humans were brought to her, she had reached her present form and the power of the shard had worked all it could to empower her.
The Troglodyte room will be a more involved battle with troglodytes, stirges, and either a crocodile or other lizard like creature. The troglodytes will attack with the crocodile first and the stirges will attack on their own from all directions. They will attack with advantage as they will be flanking the characters. At the first sounds of combat the troglodytes at the other end of the cave will close as quickly as they can. They have no crocodile or stirges.
Combat without light will be differently described. Shapes and sound with impressions of heat, shapes at range are indistinct. Undead and mud covered creatures as well as cold blooded creatures, appear much like the background, but different so they appear to shift, which means they can see them. Dark-vision characters can see in darkness as if it were dim light. Dim light means everything is slightly obscured, which means passive perception is reduced by 5. But that levels the playing field for everyone. For finding secret doors that is important.
Bright light spell disrupt dark vision for an instant, if they have an instant duration, like lightning bolt and some colours of fire spells. If characters clue into this and close their eyes just before, they get a brief advantage to affected opponents. The effect is over by the next turn. So if a cleric of Stomidia Storm domain, uses a lightning affect, all creatures that closed their eyes the instant the light affect occurred, have advantage over other monsters. This means they can attack or move without attacks of opportunity.
The Shard Artifacts. The finished form is a massive sword of three parts, Blade, Guard, and Hilt. The finished sword is a blade from the distant past, from a time when the First Ones ruled the continent. They battled the Dragons for supremacy and won. They wielded vast powers that none have ever been able to master since and at their height they forged a mighty artifact. The completed artifact was meant to rule the continent with undisputed power but the result was unanticipated. It brought the entire continent wide empire to its knees shortly after it was forged and allowed the Dragons to once again to gain dominion to the lands. It was dubbed the Sword of Balance.
The Sword is a blade of twenty parts that were scattered when the blade was first used to fight the greatest dragon still alive. The shards are all good aligned, but they create great evil that good must battle to gain. Once the shard creature it awards itself to the victor. To the forces of good the power only is revealed when two pieces join together, they fuse and their power manifests.
The Hilt, also known as the Rod of Conquest is also in twenty pieces, it's pieces unlike the the Sword, desire to join together and once together cause greed and evil to proliferate and desires of conquest. Each piece has power that keeps increasing as more pieces are discovered. Many of the pieces resemble rings that confer more mundane powers like protection the like, but once two are in possession they begin to gain control. Two confer an attribute increase, intelligence or strength, three another increase and a reduction in wisdom. By the time four are attained the attribute increase is by four and a lust to find more of them. As soon as consecutive pieces are discovered they fuse and the greater power of the artifact comes into play and it begins to impose a greater desire for conquest upon the possessor. The owner learns how to rise in power and achieve its goals, the conquest of the continent. Many times in the past ten thousand years has seen great empires rise and each time the emperor was seen with a partially constructed Rod of Conquest.
The third artifact is the most important one, the Guard. This artifact has been lost to time, because it has only one power and that power only manifests when both the Blade and Hilt are complete. The Guard's only power is to join the Hilt and the Blade together into the Sword of Balance. The Sword of Balance is all about knocking hills and mountains down. The Sword can be used safely to oppose great good and great evil, but the moment that the possessor becomes the greatest example of good or evil; they become the target of the artifact. The only way to keep the artifact is to not use it and to sink into obscurity. The only way to destroy the artifact is to willingly give it up. The powers of the combined artifact grant the wielder the powers of a Greater God, essentially. They unlock spells that have not been around since the time of the First Empire, Mythical 12th level spells.
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