So it Begins - a whole new world one mining town at a time.

[KyleG]

My first trek into a campaign world and so far it feels very one shot...not a bad thing but Im missing things

The Wayfinders “Making Ends Meet”
A company of adventurers/escorts who take pride in getting people/goods from one location to the next.
The party are Wayfinders - level 3

Premise: Travelling the Glass Road thru across the Shifting Sands to a Town X for a reason. (small mining town once bigger now just pulling out just enough from the ??? mine to survive.
Town cut off and surrounded by sand infested with sand spiders (giant spiders) and another strange beasts cause the party to take pause.(Tremor ripoff)

Questions: Why are the travelling thru this area? package delivery? If the town is cut off how to i get the party in? What does the town mine?
Encounter with Giant Spider in the sands on their way into town.

Heard about the town
3 nights back there was a storm without rain and the glass roads were destroyed. No one knows how they were made or by whom but they have always been there.
The mining town have been digging into the mountain spurred on by a new industrial developer (Draco Saxe).
A miner says Draco Saxe went to check on something the night of the break and hasn't been seen since
“Superstition” A local tells a tale of breaking chunk of the walkway when he dropped his pick axe years ago. Mysteriously it was repaired the next day.
“Better work stories” A local says that Alram(u) is cursing them for not giving thanks with our stories. The desert is wide and lonely and he aches for new stories.
Mo the local chronicler, is also missing along with a number of others. Daiyon, Qutil(a), and Makhtuf(on)



At the mine - a cart lies overturned to the side filled whilst a second cart sits on the tracks untouched. - an investigation/perception may turn up some blood on the side of the cart. - Encounter Mimic

Investigating the Mine they find a break in a wall near the end of a corridor. This leads to a temple clearly dedicated to both spiders and snakes.A small lab can be found with various drawings.
A snake with 8 eights. A spider with a snake head. A legless spider and a headless snake. A double headed snake and something kinda like a centipede. Likewise strange fusions of man and spider and man and snakes.
Bookcase is empty and only these drawings remain of any notes. Players with a DC20 may notice the smell of Ozone (from Draco - he is actually a blue dragon)
Another room can be found a spider silk cocoon filling the space but now empty. Smaller silk eggs can be also be found clearly ripped open. (Alien vibes)



????? So what leads them to the encounter with the spider snake and other spiders? and how do they meet Mo?
Brass dragon Mojave (Mo)
Owner of Memories. A part shop, part library, part tavern filled with books knickknacks and journals. Has been in the family for a few hundred years although in truth its been the same owner.
Partner (Alram(u)) called to Council (of Dragons) but probably got talking to old friends and lost track of time.

So the cannon in my head is that Draco's research into possibly lichdom led him to discover the temple was here and thought it might have information (books). In the attempts to dig faster/deeper the miners did break into it but they didn't notice as such. The hibernating Spider creatures come out and filled the sands around the area. Draco vanishes having destroyed the roads.
M, from her shop was spooked by Draco knowing what he was and fled to her den fearing Draco wanted her territory and to destroy her egg. She now refuses to leave her Den until her partner returns - side note he has been called (months ago) to a council of metallic dragons to discuss rumours of chromatic dragons seeking lichdom. Her and her partner have patrolled these sands for centuries and create/maintain the glass roads.

Questions: how to repair the roads? or traverse the shifting sands (ebb and flow like the sea) to continue their own journey? Although they have no interaction with Draco by time they leave town they should have encountered Mo and aware of him at least. Perhaps she also asks them to find her husband? What happens to the town in the meantime? With the sands unprotected will more creatures try to enter the territory?

Any suggestions/answer will be appreciated. I like how it sets up a bad guy without them even meeting them but its barely an afterthought. the party has no idea of his motivations. We have a powerful ally if rolls go well once we find a way to the dragons lair? Its got some spiders, a mimic and a spider/snake creature for combat.

Please help me out.

[xanxosttheslaad]

The town mines galena, a lead ore. The galena is powdered and used as kohl throughout the desert, a dark cosmetic used to reduce glare from the sand. When it was larger, the town imported oil from the People of the Sands, and smelted the lead and silver there, but now it just trades the raw ore and kohl back along the glass roads for water. The People of the Sands are disconnected from the more civilized network of towns joined by the glass road, and reside out by a field of oil sands. They travel around the desert on sand-boats, mostly small vessels with sails. At their settlement, they wear large-bottom shoes to avoid sinking into the sand, and have grown used to the waves in the ground beneath their feet. Since the shrinking of the mining town, and being cut out of the trade network, some of their numbers have turned to piracy, stealing water from caravans traveling along the road. Their leader allows this for the survival of their people, but would prefer to return to the old ways when they could obtain sustenance fairly by trading their oil. The People of the Sands also have a large yacht, propelled by a magical artifact, a brass kettle. The kettle contains a fire elemental, and pouring in small amounts of oil cause great plumes of flame to erupt from the spout. As the yacht sails through the shifting sands, flames shoot out back and up behind it. Perhaps with a good enough deal, they could be persuaded to use some of their oil with the kettle to re-melt the broken sections of the road, sintering it back together. (Perhaps the party is subject to, witness of, or heard rumors of a pirate raid while attempting to travel along the broken roads with a shipment of water, pickaxes, or food to the mining town)