Pitch The Sky River Badlands are the end of the world, as far as civilized folk know. East, beyond the mountains, the Badlands extend as far as the eye can see. The red soil of the land supports dry grasses, dead riverbeds, ancient ruins, and ferocious monsters. Every night, the Sky River, a waving line of lights, dances across the sky of the Badlands. Recently, settlers from the Holy Commonwealth in the east, have pushed west through the mountains and begun charting the Sky River Badlands, driven forward by the encouragement of the Pontifex Aulus. The center of all of this activity is the oasis town of Salernum, overseen by the local Sacerdos, Casina. In the past few weeks, caravans to and from Salernum have been attacked by what the survivors describe as feral hyena men. Others describe attacks by animate skeletons with fur and the skulls of beasts. Casina has surmised that they are gnolls and her scouts have tracked them to some abandoned ruins north of Salernum. Casina has offered a reward of 200 Eagles (gold coins) to anyone who can end the threat of the gnolls. You and your party have answered her call and the adventure will start with you all outside Casina’s temple in Salernum just before you speak with her about the bounty. Logistics We’ll use Roll20 for the VTT and use Discord for voice chat and organizing. No prior experience with D&D is required and I’m looking for four players. In addition to having fun, I’ll also be trying out two new house rules of mine during this one-shot. The first fleshes out the exploration pillar of play by adding exploration rounds and turns. The second changes the dying mechanics to make it more interesting than just being unconscious and making death saving throws. If you’re interested, reply with your discord username and I’ll invite you to the server.
