Plains/Steppes

The name itself implies something unexciting, even boring. But, in the words of the imortal bard, What's in a name? The plains of Akari and Armina to the south, known as savanni, support perhaps the greatest diversity of wildlife of any place known to us. The great plain of this Empire, before it was 'domesticated' was also teeming with wildlife - and of course, with the vegetation that the wildlife needed to survive.

Mountain Encounters
The False Dragon	Survival	Stuck with the Ancestors	Encounter
Encounter	Encounter	Encounter	Encounter
Encounter	Encounter	Encounter	Encounter

The False Dragon

This adventure is best for a party of low-level fantasy characters.

A mage has managed to control an Ice Lizard (a la Fiend Folio), and uses it to his own ends. In my case, kidnapping a sage. The trick: it can appear to be a white dragon. Thus, the adventure seems very scary indeed from the all the dragon rumours surrounding the kidnapping, but Ice Lizards aren't even pale shadows of real dragons. So, it's exciting, but manageable for low power parties.

Eventually, the party may figure out that it's not a real dragon and gain confidence to attack it (if they were too cautious). The final showdown is between the party, and the low level mage and his pet. For extra excitement, add a few minions, some traps in the lair, etc.

Naturally, the lure doesn't have to be a kidnapped sage, it could be rumours of dragon raids, a fair maiden kidnapping, or whatever you please.

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Survival

This module is currently designed for 4-6 players of first and second level, with about 5 to 7 total levels in the party. It provides a way for the party to meet without resorting to the trite "you're in a bar" scenario.

The geographic setting is the northern plains of a continent with a cool to cold climate during the autumn season. The party begins in a country on the human side of a human/demihuman border. The demihumans in question can be either Goblins and Orcs or Goblins and Hobgoblins. The winter storms are expected to start sometime in the next 4 to 6 weeks, which will close down the commonly used trade routes through the mountainous plains to the northeast.

Each character, except thieves, starts as a merchant, messenger, or mercenary guard in a large caravan heading to another city further north. The winter seems to be setting in early and the caravan master wants to leave the city as soon as possible, due to a "special" package that a local temple has given into his care. The cleric(s) in the party are sent to "guard" this package. The fighters are mercenaries hired to guard the caravan on its seven to eight day journey, and the magic users are merchants (based on their nonweapon proficiencies) along for the ride.

During the first three to four days it becomes obvious to the fighters that the caravan master is taking a less traveled route (which is faster and dangerous) due to the package. On the fourth night, a group of thieves (some of which are PC's) from the main town catch up with the caravan, and plan to steal the package and ransom it back to the temple. While the attempt is in progress, the camp is attacked by a horde of the demihumans which results in the eventual disabling of all the PC's.

The PC's awaken (roughly at the same time) with 1 HP, no equipment, money, food, or water, in the middle of a wrecked camp. The PC's must "introduce" themselves, leading to a possible confrontation with the thief character(s), since no one knows who they are or where they are from. They must then gather what equipment they can find and attempt to make it back to civilization and SURVIVE. The obvious choice is to press onward toward the original destination.

Unknown to the party, the demihumans' camp is nearby. It is the only source of food and water for miles in the surrounding terrain. The party should stumble upon a patrol, and gain some additional items. From here they can disguise themselves to gain access to the camp and possibly steal food, water, and possibly horses.

When the party finds the camp, they discover it is actually the ruins of an ancient fortress. Several questions come up: Who is leading this company of bandits? What is their purpose? Are they a threat (to the greater civilization)? The party may investigate these questions. If they do, several options exist for the adventure from this point. Do they try and defeat the leaders? Reconnoiter to gather more information to answer some of the above questions? Try and find the treasure trove? Run? As they investigate the ruined fortress, they gain the opportunity to do all of the above and more. The dungeon also provides opportunities to introduce replacements for characters who may have died.

The adventure concludes with the PC's leaving the demihuman camp and finishing the 2 to 3 day trek to civilization on foot, leaving the bandits intact for a second adventure.

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Stuck with the ancestors

PCs are dealing with some nomadic tribe (in my version, they were trying to set up a trade deal with them). Problem - chiefs brother has disappeared in mysterious circumstances (surprise me) and, guess what, the tribe is mourning and is not prone to doing business - so, if the intrepid PCs can rescue the brother, everyone'll be happy.

The brother has in fact tried to visit the ancestral plane to find out loads of Good Things, meet ancestors etc. He got the instructions from a ghost in an old ruined hill fort, which he got the location of from a diary he bought from some other nomads (the PCs can sort all this out with the right clues). He went to the hill fort, summoned the ghost, and got the spell to open a gate to the other plane. Unfortunately, the ghost being a miserable bugger, and the brother being of the trusting and slightly awed sort, the ghost withheld how to get back "for a laugh". So, the brother successfully built the gate, went to the ancestral plane, only to discover he couldn't get back. The PCs had better be more ruthless when talking to the ghost or exactly the same'll happen to them,

The way this scenario goes depends very much on what the PCs do - when I ran it, the main feat was getting to the hill fort and talking to the ghost - rounding up the components for the gate and rescuing the brother were fairly simple compared to that.

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