The city of Awsland places of interest

Plot general outline

Get a job- routine expedition to ruins outside town

Choose a moral stance- resupply ruin expedition, mercenaries want to push prices up and have organized an ambush on the road and want to blame Kobolds

No matter what they have chosen to do, attack the caravan or defend the caravan, the guild thinks they need to go elsewhere for the time being. Luckily there is a quest that has been on the back burner for a few months and the Guild of Navigators and Astrologers has seen, literally, and they need a group of investigators to go there.  They need to establish a base camp outside the Ruins of Awsland and begin looking for the legendary Vault of Relic.  Which almost everyone has heard of akin to the lost trove of Monte Cristo, Oak Island, and King Solomon’s Mine.

Points of interest:

Outside the city there is a very large section of the ground covered with termite hills.  The hills reach two meters tall and so are noticeable at a distance.  Near this region there are a couple Ankheg ambush sites.  The bugs are hoping to attack any large animal that comes to feed on the termites.  The ankhegs have done this too. 

There are a couple of bulette in the area that is in between herds.  The area is rocky, and the sewer system has provided inconveniencing disruptions to their burrowing and forced them above ground and as such has been a popular mating site.  These creatures mate like bedbugs and if they are interrupted, they will gladly dine on the interruption. 

The wall, which is now just a low berm that encircles the city, it is about 6 kilometers from the city center.  The city was said to have filled the city and then spilled over.  There were four main gates, and these are clear as large mounds there were four roads that went from the outer walls to the city center, they are visible as wide raised mounds

The Necropolis, which is immaculately cared for even now, although there are no one living here.  There are grave markers and tombs made with stone that has not been taken to build other cities.  The grounds are kept, and the trees and grass has been trimmed.

Most of the buildings are gone, but there are a few isolated structures mostly intact, although in ruin.  Many are occupied:

Building with Manticore.  The top floor has long been ruined; the roof is gone but it has provided the current resident a good place to lair.  The home was originally a villa and they employed undead guards who still guard the lower levels.

Building with Old Ogre.  The Building was guarded by undead, but the ogre took these out and used this area as a home.  There are two older ogres here and one younger Ogre.  They are the source of the ogres in the area.  They negotiated with the local hobgoblins resulting in Half Ogres. 

On the other side of the Necropolis is a building that has been ignored by the goblins, especially when their patrols disappeared.  There is a Ettin in one of the ruins that was formally guarded by undead.  The Ettin destroyed them. 

There is a more impressive building in the outskirts of the city, it was a library and the books and scrolls were returned to locations by undead servants.  The books have mostly fallen to pieces, there area few treasures still located therein, but the upper levels of the library have been taken over by a duo of Lamia they currently have three children and will soon turn them loose.  One of the books that is intact contains pictures and descriptions of the original building of the city with Illuminations of each building.  The Illuminations make the book quite valuable.  There is a book with ancient hymns that have a bardic spell

There are a few buildings that have colonies of gargoyles on them.  The residents either don’t know about them or see them as additional protection.  The gargoyles dine on small animals and some larger and are given some treasure by the monsters where there is enough insight to see the value.

There is a lake in the center of one of the spokes and it dominates it.  There is a waterfall as it crosses one of the roads.  There are a lot of fish in this lake and some giant frogs too.  But this is the only open water in the city.  The river starts to disappear after it crosses the road.  After a few hundred meters it disappears entirely.  The area is a domain of a small water Elemental and a few mephits too  the Water elemental is content to just be.  He spawned here because this is the largest lake this close to the river and not of the river; it is the biggest lake not part of any river for hundreds of kilometers.

City Center.  There are several relatively intact buildings here.  Perhaps they were left to honour the city itself or perhaps because looters were afraid of this part of the city.

The chapel.  The Chapel is wholly intact.  There are skeleton caretakers here keeping the inside and the outside in good repair.  And there is a wraith, that protects it, with a maximum number of Spectres. 

The Palace is currently the home of a medusa. It has several rooms that are open to the elements which she farms.  The Goblins had in the past made many offerings to her, hoping that she would not hunt them.  The goblins did not tell this to the invading Kobolds, to their peril.  The North wing contains an entrance to the sewers which are mostly intact.  There is a Minotaur possibly a few in the sewers.  They have been here for many years; the first ones killed the maintenance squads and the sewers and the sewers there fell into ruin causing the lake.  They learned.

Maintenance teams.  Many of the people of this city were wealthy and they were able to buy corpses of the poor which they had animated to take care of their property, or to guard the buildings.  These guardians lasted longer than city and they are doing jobs that they did years ago.  The sewers and the Necropolis have many of these.  The goblins learned of some of these and incorporated it into their culture, for example they will drop bodies in the necropolis, and these will be buried.

A few of the buildings house minotaur families, they have access to the sewers from them, but one is the home of an aging manticore.

The City was the home of a large tribe of goblins.  The tribe included Hobgoblins and Bugbears.  The Kobolds attacked and defeated the hobgoblins and cowed the others, who joined with the stronger force if the party attacks the goblins and the kobolds head on, they will try to track the PCs down.  Their Dragonborn leaders are intelligent and well trained, some of the Kobolds are stronger than they look, and they will be deadly.

If the characters stick around in this area, they will have an encounter with a Yellow Dragon wyrmling or three. 

Yellow dragons are a mix of Red and Green.  Their Breath weapon is a cloud of gas that fills an area like a green Dragon and causes coughing and sputtering as it smells like rot, but when exposed to flame it explodes, which the dragon will provide if there is no ignition source.  Yellow Dragons prefer areas of open verdant grasslands.  They value animal above all and will often be located around great herds.  As it grows in power it will often mate with these animals to make half-dragons which they use to herd other animals.  They grow jealous of other herds and will hunt them down and kill them and those nearby.

The chapel is key, only after the wraith is cleared from the building may it be searched without harassment.  There are plenty of rare books there and there are many gilt and gold implements.  And many priceless tapestries.  A few of them show the city they way it was in the early days of the First King of Awsland, King Awsland in fact.  There is some No Sun writing on it.  No Sun writing are words that only appear when the two suns are eclipsed and the sky is blue, then the letters can be read.  It indicates the location of the Vault.  However, the Vault is an extradimensional space located on a wall in the palace.  But it requires some distinctive stonework to be placed around the wall first, stone that is no longer there.

If the characters do not discover the No Sun Writing, it will be, and the characters will be called to investigate further. 

The Characters will be sent on a quest to find the stone that was looted from Awsland.

The Old man on the hut near the city will warn them of this, if they ask why he lives close to the goblins he says he and they have a truce, they don’t bother him, and he doesn’t kill them.  If asked about anything he will give truthful answers.  He is a First One and he is watching the area and has been for a very long time  H knows about No Sun writing and if allowed to examine the tapestries, he will say so.  As a First One, he can read No Sun Writing without the No Sun part.  He is also fluent in many dead languages.  If he reads the writing, he will tell them that it is impossible to open the vault now, the writing says only a Knight of Awsland can do so.

Yellow Dragons

Wrymling               9d8 medium +9 proficiency modifier +2

HP 50.  BW 7d6 (25)

Damage modifier +1

bite 1d10

AC 16.               CR3

Sorcerer level 1   Spell save DC 11; spell attack modifier +3

4 cantrips 2 known spells 2 1^st level

Cantrips: Firebolt, True Strike, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion

1^st – Comprehend Languages, Fog Cloud

Juvenile                11d8 medium +22 proficiency modifier +2

HP 72.  BW 9d6(32)

Damage modifier +2

bite 1d10

AC 16.                 CR4

Sorcerer level 3   Spell save DC 12; spell attack modifier +4

4 cantrips, 4 known spells, 4 1^st level, 2 2^nd level 3 sorcery points quickened spells

Cantrips: Firebolt, True Strike, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion

1^st – Comprehend Languages, Fog Cloud
2^nd – Invisibility, Mirror Image

When Bloodied BW recharges

Young Dragon.  14d10 large +42 proficiency modifier +2

HP 119.   BW 12d6(42)

Damage modifier +3, multi attack bite, claw, claw

bite 2d10, claw 1d6

AC 17.                CR7

Sorcerer level 6.  Spell save DC 13; spell attack modifier +5

5 Cantrips, 7 known spells, 4 1^st level, 3 2^nd level, 3 3^rd level 6 sorcery points quickened spells

Cantrips: Firebolt, True Strike, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Blade Ward

1^st – Comprehend Languages, Fog Cloud, Identify
2^nd – Invisibility, Mirror Image

3^rd – Haste, Hypnotic Pattern

When Bloodied Breath weapon recharges, Minor Air Elemental Spawns

Has some minor magical items, 2 potions of greater healing, a bag of holding, an assortment of +1 ammunition, bolts and arrows 4 of each. Assortment of treasure, 20 gp, 30 Brass Bars, 35 brass bits, 10 Bronze bars, 405 Bronze bits, 25 sp, 203 cp, 30-10gp gems, 2-50gp gems, 1-100gp gem, 2-10gp silver earrings, 10gp brass sextant, a 100gp rosewood box with 10-100gp paper notes from Gutral Mastekeena.