Adventure part two
In the central dome there is a camp of a kobolds. The Blood Claw Clan has quietly set up there. There were 60 of them when they moved in. There are 40 now, with six Dragonborn leaders. The Blood Claw clan pushed into the ruin first among the rivals of the Dragon. There are two other clans present, the Feared Talon clan, ten winged kobolds and the Fire Hearts, five elite kobolds second level fighters and one third level, but they are only Kobolds and they recognize superiority of he Dragon born; they lost all of their Dragonborn leaders. So they fall in line with the Blood Claw clan, but this alliance is shaky.
They ran afoul of a wight and now it has a bunch of Kobold specters too. The wight occupied a barrow within the old city, a former temple to Scoria, a cleric who betrayed his oaths and was compelled to serve the temple after his death as a wight. The temple is mostly intact due to the presence of the Wight. Since e temple is intact, it is often the first structure that people investigate, and their last. The wight has made five kobolds into specters. The chapel contains a secret door that was unknown to priests back in the day, as it was gifted to the Priesthood Years after the structure was build. There is a secret door under the main altar that leads to a hidden temple to the Hidden Goddess. The hidden temple contains the treasure vault of the Rogue King Awsland.
There is a Minotaur that was using the the ruins of the Palace as is lair and there is a medusa living in the chapel. The chapel has some stone Kobold statues and some warning signs on the walls.
The main floor of the Palace is controlled by a medusa. She has killed a few of the Kobolds by turning them to stone and they mark the entryway of the palace, along with a number of other interlopers from the previous few decades. The kobolds are hoping to end the threat caused by the Minotaur and the Medusa by collapsing all the entrances to the Minotaur's lair except the one that leads to the Medusa, hoping that one or the other will get killed in a fight and allow the survivor to be picked off easily. They really hope that the fight kills both of them! The attempts to kill the Medusa off with dropping rocks on it have failed, mostly due to the magic Longbow she uses (once per day an arrow fired from the bow does an additional 2d6 lightning damage, otherwise it is a +1 bow). She also has a canteen that contains a liquid that she made that will turn creatures she has turned to stone back to flesh, but unless it is done within two minutes of turning to stone, they are dead. There are two doses left. If time is spent observing the medusa they will see her use the canteen.
The Minotaur has dined on a few kobolds, but his lair has suffered from having the kobolds being here; they have walled up a few of his exits and trapped others and there are signs by the Kobolds. When the Minotaur is encountered it is hungry. If the characters attempt to feed it it will offer to work with the party. If not, it will fight to the death. It guards the entrance to the treasure horde that was left of the palace, except of course the treasure was removed when the city started to die, so there is only a few things like silver and copper from the old kingdom, which are badly corroded. There is a few Electrum in amongst the horde as they are corroded too. There is an ugly necklace which is a necklace of missiles with only six gems left, 3 2d6, 2 4d6, and 1 6d6 missile left. There is a shield with the markings of the knight hood of Awsland on it +1 which adds to interactions with Awslandish descended people.
In addition to these threats, there is a small enclave of Goblins already living in the ruins. They had been using the area as a raiding base for years and they see the winds of change and are making nice with the Kobolds and preparing for an alliance. There are thirty goblins, five hobgoblins and two bugbears. Right now the alliance is very shaky and anything could disrupt it.
Okay those are the bones, what about the flesh?
What do the ruins look like? What are the notable points of the old city?there was the harbour and the lock system that raised the river up to the city. There is the dry river bed. The inner city walls, the outer city walls, the graveyard. The palace, the Church of the kingdom, other churches. Sewer system. Coliseum. Streets. Statues and columns. Monuments
Things that live in the ruins. Giant Scorpions. Dust Mephits. Skeletons, because zombies would have rotted away. Skeletal horses. Rats, giant rats, giant ants. Giant Spiders. Manticore? Dragon kin, wyverns, dragon wolves, harpies. A Blue Dragon
The grass blows in the wind, each gust for miles telegraphed on the surrounding land bowled over by it and rising back in the calm. The outer edge of the city is as plain as anything on the plain, the low hill that stretches for miles in a large circle ten feet wide and two feet high, interrupted by a taller round hill twenty feet in diameter dotted along the wall. The city gates stand ajar before you still hanging from the crumbling remains of the city wall, the only part still present. Hills rise through the ruined city to mark buildings that have fallen in and covered by the sands of time. There are intact buildings and monuments still whole, but these are rare and odd by their completeness. Beyond the old city are the mounds that mark the old inner city, the places where the palaces and the temples stood for a thousands years before being deserted, a few more of these was left unlooted of their rare marble facades and their gold covered domes, out of respect for the great kings that came before them perhaps. All is not deserted, just to the left you see a great termite mound rise from the dirt as tall as a house and beyond a small herd of antelope browse near a copse of cottonwood, and pile of bones piled neatly at the base on the gate house wall.
Encounter groups
Ant nest entering the Ant nest quickly gets noticed and a fight with two waves of ants ensues, each wave has five ants in it. The population of ants is nearly limitless but one fight per visit. After exploring the nest even a little bit the players gain access to the sewer system.
Termites Hill. Giant termites act just like the Ants only their tunnels do not interact with the sewer system. The termites hills are frequently broken into by giant rats and wolf dragons
Giant Spiders live in many of the ruins, even the ones occupied. There are trapdoor spiders living in the areas near to the Giant Ants and Giant Termites, they normally go after the insects but a stray goblin or Kobold makes a nice snack too. Giant Scorpions travel between empty ruins and these outer areas looking for food. Like the spiders they often lie in ambush to grab prey.
The sewers are filled with Skeletons move around clearing them keeping them clear of obstructions. They are controlled by a ring on their fingers that keeps them performing the tasks they were commissions for centuries ago. There are some estates in the city that the grass is kept under control and the trees pruned to perfection by a similar method. Targeting the ring, -5 to hit distorts the skeleton instantly. Interfering with the Skeleton's task will cause them all to attack the target.
There is a manticore in one of the ruins on the outer city. The grounds of the estate are maintained by a group of twenty skeletons, ten maintaining the grounds, five sweep the grass in the ruined lower level and five are dressed in Chainmail and carry rusted swords and patrol the inside of the estates ruined walls. The upper level of the ruined house is the lair of a manticore. It is very old and prefers to dine on the plentiful antelope but it is still eager to add to its horde.
The graveyard is well maintained after all these years as it has a number of Skeletal caretakers, including a couple monstrous varieties. Ogre and a bulete skeletons with normal human types. If the players kill some kobolds and leave them lying around they will find new graves for them in the graveyard unless the skeletons are disabled.
If they players travel through the ruins at dusk or dawn, they will be spotted by Kobold patrols. And they will be tracked from afar. If they cause a disruption that the kobolds notice then they will surely start looking for them. They will start with the paths that the characters seem to take a lot and build dead drops and ambush spots. They are intelligent and will not want to engage the characters on anything less than their own ground but they will fight them none-the-less. The six dragon born are third level and they are intelligent. They are rangers, Sorcerors and clerics. They will fight smartly too, sending the Kobolds out to die first if need be. But they recognize that they are stronger with minions than without. They are on a mission to get the treasure of King Awsland too. But they do not have the resources that the party has, they may lead the players into the right location and hope to ambush them when they leave. The dragon kin believe that the treasure chamber is in the vaults with the Minotaur and the Medusa, so they are not that eager to push forward.
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