The Quest for the Temple of the Emerald Goddess

A quick campaign for fantasy games by Chance Palmer.

The Heroes are starting on Turtle Island, a small island named for the bowl shaped mountain at it's center.  The Island is fairly marshy , and quite warm because of the volcanic fumaroles beneath the island.  Turtle Island's population is centered in Jade City. Jade City is named for the color of the local stones, and not for famous jade deposits.  The local stone is a lustrous , oily green colour, much prized by artisans and builders as a finishing stone.  The city is prosperous and thriving, combining much of the thrill of a border town with the developments of a metropolitan center.  Population is around 20,000.  The City is led by the guildmaster of the mason's guild Dagorath Vindal , a bear of a man with a corrupt streak a mile wide. 

The group's patron is an old , burned out dwarven magician turned enchanter/merchant known as Karlon Ironhand.  He deals in rare goods, the kind that come from the lost and abandoned places of the earth.  He stands 4 foot high and 3 feet wide with a bald head and a braided white beard.  Karlon is an autum person, with a taste for the somewhat macabre.  He owns stake in a dozen local artisan's shops and is a member of the Magicians Guild.  He is always accompanied by Thingamabob, his animated steel gauntlet, which it is rumoured is home to a powerful free spirit. He also keeps a fair stable of excellent quality dwarven mountain ponies, fiercely strong and durable if irracible beasts of burden which are ostensibly used as riding beasts.  Karlon is old for a dwarf, being nearly 220 years old, and attributes his good health to a daily regimine of martial excercises he learned from monks at a nearby monastery.  His home , Caer Lindael , is a stone keep just outside of the city walls.  Caer Lindael is half merchant storehouse half museum. 

Karlon has a human wife, his 8th human wife to be exact, named Sheeba, who is , by turns, crafty and cruel or sweet as honey mead. She is 5'7", blonde haired and blue eyed, and all of 25 years old.  They've been married for 5  years now and she has , by all accounts been a great drain on Karlon's finances.  Her father is a high ranking member of the shipwright's guild and thier marriage has thus far been fruitless.  She has a taste for exotic foods and saphire stones, and silver.  His other 7 wives are scattered across the Isles , having left him because of his eccentric ways. Sheeba is deeply in love with him , well educated and sadly refuses to see that her need to be pampered is driving Karlon into the poorhouse.

His accountant is a windling named Flutterbye, a pink haired and green winged Sylph who wear glasses with no lenses. Flutterbye suffered horrible tortures as a child and in rebellin against the cruel Windling Duke Artee turned his back on all fae tradition and became a chartered member of the Guild of Accountants. It is with Flutterbye the party must debate any additional expenses. 

His personal bodyguard is a steely eyed Dwarven ex-thief named Bones, who has ashen skin and dark brown eyes, and long, whispy hair that circles a pale bald spot.  Bones keeps a hand crossbow handy at all times , as wells as a brace of dwarven throwing axes.  He favors lorica segmentata for armor. 

He has enemies , both from his adventuring youth and his current trading companies competitive habits.

His first call of the heroes to him is," to dispose of two problems at once, a dangerous spirit that he has bound into a small idol needs to be gotten rid of , the accidental result of a failed binding enchantment, and in so doing confiming the validity of a map to the Temple of The Emerald Goddess.  There with any good fortune you can dispose of the idol at the portal of mists and if they so choose pray to the Emerald Goddess for blessings and wisdom. Plus whatever loot may be there.  The Temple was known to be in the area now known as the Tangle Vale before it was over-run by Ogres 500 years ago.  The Emerald Goddess was known as a devourer of demons so double score there as this staue and it's bound demon will certainly please her. "

The Tangle Vale is located northeast of Turtle Island , on Thurald , a largish and overgrown mountainous Island a months travel away. The Temple map is good as gold , except for being 650 years old , all the old routes it suggests have long since flooded over and will be difficult to find. The area is spare on big game , as many tribes of ogres live in the area. Thier tracks are all over the area and will be apparent to the adventures if they take the most cursory observation. The Ogres have all themselves converted to the worship of the Emerald Goddess , but in their own fashion . They have been kidnapping and sacrificing people and beasts to summon demons ... to feed the goddess, and their corrupt worship has changed the once kind hearted demigoddess into a raging evil beast. The ex-goddess should have total hit dice equal to the sum of the parties own  plus 3, with her other stats and abilities equal to that of a type 5 demon sans the gate powers. She has changed in appearance from her original beatific female form to a multi-limbed demoness.  The clues to this transformation are all over the Vale , her beastial likeness is carved into trees and totem poles, and observations of the small ogre tribes will find the original goddess's temple statues have been moved and placed before the Ogre Shaman's altars.

There are 15 major Ogre camps in the Vale , most of which border a single , somewhat toxic with filth river. The area is heavily overrun with briars and spikethorn creepers. Each of the Ogre camps houses 3d3+4 adults with 3d6 children, and several pens of boar and ponds of fish. 4 of them have witch doctors and the rest have shamans. The temple is located half way up the western valley wall .  The river is home to mudfish and snakes and a few water weirds.

Wandering Monster Chart for the Vale

Night Time
Roll encounter checks every hours on a 1-4 on 1d12
Roll 3d6
3   Leucrotta on the hunt for victims
4   1d6 Ogres hunting for flesh
5   2 Ogres trysting
6   a hunting pit lined with spikes
7   a totem pole or tree carving of the Beastial Emerald Goddess
8   an old marker of the worship road
9   2d4 wild boars
10  a forest spirit - brownie or pixie or a gaggle of 2d4 flesh eating cannibal sprites
11   2d4 Ogre children (hobgoblin stats) playing hide and seek
12   The Ogre Witchdoctor , followed by 2d4 zombie ogres and 2d4 ogre skeletons looking for rare magical herbs
13   The Ogre Shaman communing with daemonic spirit (same stats as banshee)
14  open hunting pit with squealing boar
15  a young Ogre hunter seeking game or a stuffed giant snake with a half digested ogre
16  a patch of shriekers
17  a shambling mound or a patch of rare hallucinogenic herbs
18  2d4 geonids , who are seeking to remain hidden from the Ogres, if talked to and bribed they could explain some of the situation

Day Time
Roll encounter checks every hours on a 1-4 on 1d12
Roll 3d6
3   Cockatrice on the hunt for victims
4   Game birds feasting on wild fruit
5   Bear hunting for food
6   a hunting pit lined with spikes
7   a totem pole or tree carving of the Beastial Emerald Goddess
8   an old marker of the worship road
9   2d4 wild boars
10   Poisonous snake
11   Frilled tree lizard that spits poison
12   a jungle cat on the prowl and hungry
13   an old and burnt out homestead
14  open hunting pit with squealing boar being feasted on by carrion ants
15  a stuffed giant snake with a half digested ogre
16  a patch of rare healing herbs
17  a shambling mound or a patch of rare hallucinogenic herbs
18  2d4 geonids , who are seeking to remain hidden from the Ogres, if talked to and bribed they could explain some of the situation