Encounters in the Temere Wastes

The Wandering City

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The road leads the party to an impassable canyon. The canyon is approximately 1.5 km wide. As the evening light begins to shine the party will, if they did not manage to overcome the canyon, they will feel the vibrations as something truly enormous approaches. In the distance they can see Mirgon slowly approach. Between the legs of the wandering city numerous gnomes and dwarves, guarded by a legion of minotaur, are swarming. As they approach the minotaur surround the party and will demand they disarm. They are not overtly hostile, but fidgety and extremely protective of the dwarves and gnomes, especially the leader of the group, Corva fizzlespindel.
Corva and her entourage set up some large machinery with large tubes that glow red, green and blue. At the cliff edge two large cylinders are slammed into the ground by two minotaur with enormous sledgehammers. From these two cylinders giant harpoons fire, embedding themselves into the top of the opposite cliffedge, spanning a heavy metal cable over the canyon. After pulling a lever light erupts from the cables and slowly creeps together, forming a bridge.
A short celebration breaks out before they start to pack up the machinery. Corva comes to the party and finally introduces herself. She is friendly and will offer to take them into the city to at least traverse the canyon. She will tell the party of Mirgon and the wandering horde of monsters currently chasing the city.
After entering Mirgon the party a large party will commence, celebrating the successful use of the MRP, the “Mirgon Relocation program”. If they try to follow Corva they will find that she is accompanied by the two leaders of the leaders of Mirgon to the higher floor. They offer her a promotion that she does not want. Her father, one of the leaders, ends up having a large fight with her.

Dangerous Individuals

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The Temere Wastes are filled with incredibly dangerous creatures and individuals. Sometimes the Wastes seem to conspire to confront the individuals traversing it with those creatures that are not only much more powerful than the party, but also is for some reason opposed to at least one party member. These creatures include the Inevitables, creatures created on The Clockwork Nirvana of Mechanus, one of the other planes of existence, that prescribe to upholding certain aspects of order to the material plane. It is believed that when Adatia was separated from the multiverse the gods of Adatia struck a deal with the greater god Primus, lord of the modrons and the ultimate representation of order. Primus would not force Adatia to remain in the fold, but to uphold the order a subset of immortals would remain in Adatia to ensure that certain fundamental laws were not violated. Additionally one of the creatures that has began wandering the wastes are the grim reapers. It seems that due to the concentration of dead souls in the region their remaining essence coalesced into these creatures of immense strength.

The ancient Grove

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In the depths of the Temerian wastes lies the ancient grove. It is an enormous forest filled with the most poisonous and dangerous animals known to the evergrove. Multiple small alcoves exist within the grove where sentient plants that are extremely territorial. Traversing the grove is treacherous to say the least, and within there are almost always crossroads that either give the option of going deeper into the grove or leaving it entirely. At the center of the grove it is possible to either find a staircase or a waterfall. The stairwell leads up to the devil in the mist, while the waterfall, a portal to the Feywild, is guarded by a sly nymph and her retinue.

Demi Sphinx

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]In the mountains resides a demi sphinx with the head of a goat and the body of a lion. It will offer a riddle to any that pass, but is will not force anyone to answer its riddle. The sphinx will allow any group to attempt to answer its riddle exactly once and will not allow any further attempts, but will not attack a party that fails its riddle.
One riddle that twenty five illusionary horses appear next to a racetrack that can fit five of the horses. The party can race horses, finding which horse is faster than which, but can not get the actual speed of the horses, and not directly relate the speeds of horses that did not race together. The party must find the three fastest horses with the least possible races. The sphinx will change the speed of the horses so that it is as hard as possible, without changing the rankings of any horses that raced each other.

Solution:

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First race the horses in groups of five, giving a ranking in the groups. Then race the fastest horses in every group to create a ranking of the groups. Then from the first group race the second and third horse, from the second group the first and second, and from the third group race the first horse. The fastest three horses are the first of the first group and the first two horses of the final race. The final amount of races neede[d is seven.

If the group is successful the sphinx will reveal multiple magical items, from which the group may keep exactly one. Three of the items it likes to reveal are a strange black cloth, a canine tooth and a ring with a small red sphere embedded in it.
The strange black cloth is a portable hole of two meters in diameter. If it is placed on a flat surface a three meters deep extradimensional hole appears. https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Portable%20Hole#content The Canine tooth is a Dogpack tooth. It can be inserted into a willing creatures mouth. It embedded itself into that creatures mouth and allows the “wearer” to speak with any canines, including wolves and lycanthropes. Finally the Fiery Ring allows the wearer to slowly heat any liquid held in a container lifted by the user. The liquid will heat up to a boiling point, but the container will remain safe to hold.

Blast from the Past

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In the middle of an empty plains there is a crossroad, at which the group may choose where to go. There are signs that have the names of places. Depending on which way they go the group will see important historical occurrences at those locations. Two of the places that may appear are Aarlen and Karak Bitfajall.

Aarlen:

Blast from the Past: Arlen

Karak Bitfajall:

Blast from the Past: Karak Bitafjall

Hall of Armour

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At the side of the road a long hall, similar to the construction of the viking halls, but out of massive stone, stands. Inside the hall stone tables stand arrayed filled with food and drinks, but at the end of the hall, on a raised floor fit for a throne, three stone guardians stand. The middle one carries a weapon crackling with magical potential. The guardian will remain still as the hall is inspected and will act on anything short of vandalism of the structure. They will turn their heads towards anyone that dares approach them, and if they either try to steal the weapon or attack they will retaliate, emitting a concussive force before the battle commences.

Crypt Of the Blind Eye

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The path leads towards a cemetery. Above the gateway the faded letters still read “Cemetery of the blind eye”. Through the cemetery skulking figures can be seen. On closer inspection it is easy to see that the the hordes of undead within follow the orders of either a undead beholder or a eye tyrant. Also quite easy to realize is that the undead are focused around a central crypt where, through the decrepit doors, a treasure stash can be seen. There is no road around the cemetery, and as such trying to go around will lead to the group at the very least getting lost for weeks, if not actually getting separated. Within it is possible to stick to the edges and sneak past the deadly undead encounter, but also lose access to the treasures.

Wanderer of the wastes

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The party is fighting through a sandstorm as they suddenly see an area in the distance where the sandstorm is still. If they go there they find Fredrik, a friendly knight wearing an old, tattered cloak. He will ask the group what year it is. While he is not extremely forthcoming the party may talk to him to gather information. Frederik was once, long ago a paladin of Silvana back during the great purge. After about ten years he left the Paladins and made a deal with Diconom Rex. As Long as he stays within the Temere Wastes he would not age, but as soon as he left he would quickly age, having maybe a few years before he died. Frederik had only agreed because of the Prophecy.

Putrid Fields

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A Putrid mist covers the field. The party loses multiple days if they wait, but can goe through the fields suffering following effects on a d10
1: Lose 1 Str
2: Lose 1 Dex
3: Lose 1 Con
4: Lose 1 Wis
5: Lose 1 Int
6: Lose 1 Charisma
7: Lose 1 Hit Die hp (roll most common dice)
8: Lose ½ Hit Die hp (roll most common dice)
9: Succeed dc 15 saving throw or roll twice, else roll once with 9 doing nothing
0: Nothing
These Effects can be removed by a high level priest with a component cost of 500g

Scrying Swamp

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The path continues down into a valley that is covered with a thick mist. Within lies a dense swamp with a spotty and treacherous path. Soon the path becomes single file and ever more treacherous. At the next part where a jump is required the party will realize that the last person in the line is missing, even if they were fastened to a harness. Bit by bit the members will disappear as the terrain molds to block the vision of single members. If any member submerges any body part as large as a hand into the water they lose control and fall in, being pulled under even if the group holds them.
When the last member remains they will eventually look into the water and feel something probing their mind. They feel comfortable and warm and slowly fall over, splashing loudly into the water. They feel warm and comfortable as they glide through the water, seeing the world around them flow. They are transported to the person they most long to see. There they see where they are at that exact moment, and what they are doing. After every party member has seen what they wish, they will all find themselves at the edge of the swamp, their lungs filled with water, pulling themselves onto land, undamaged.