Page 98 - Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting

tal’dorei campaign guide

shalesteps adventures serpentine spirits that haunt its elder halls. The only
expedition to have ventured into the Ruins of Vos’sykriss
from hell’S heart
and lived to speak of it returned to Emon just as Thordak
For low-level characters: The Shalestep village of Pud- and the Chroma Conclave descended upon the city. Their
dlefoot has never had anything remarkable happen to leader, a half-orc professor of archaeology and spirit-
it. People there are quiet and simple, with no interest in speaker named Jorlund Vohr, survived the destruction of
tales of great heroics. No great adventures have ever come Emon, but all his notes and the stone tablets he recovered
to their rocky shore… until the whale. The dead whale, were dissolved along with his apartment by Umbrasyl’s
bloated with corruption, its white hide covered in oozing acid. He longs to return to Visa Isle and is desperately
green lesions, is a source of fear for the nearby townsfolk. trying to get funding from the Alabaster Lyceum.
What happened to this behemoth? And why is Rill the
Hermit ranting about seeing tall shadows spying on Pud- visa isle adventures
dlefoot from the mountain peaks?
a dormant threat
visa isle For mid-level characters: In ancient times, Vos’sykriss
was the seat of an serpentfolk empire that dominated
southern Tal’Dorei. Before the battles of the Calam-
About 40 miles off the coast of the Bladeshimmer Shore- ity, seers within the empire had visions of the coming
line, west of the Verdant Expanse, two islands belch clouds destruction and desperately sought a way to survive it.
of black smoke into the open sky. Visa Isle and its smaller The serpents constructed a magical field of perfect stasis
sister island have been surrounded by rumors and sailors’ beneath their city and chose their strongest and most
legends since the dawn of human civilization. Some say powerful to slumber and rebuild the empire when the
that every night, the island burns to ash—giving the island danger had passed. Those that perished in the Calamity
its distinctive orange glow—and every day new trees grow haunt the ruins of their ancient city as ghosts, eager to
to maturity by sundown. It is an island of fire and death. take revenge on the living for destroying their glorious
Those who have explored its dense jungles and returned empire. When Jorlund Vohr’s expedition delved into
claim only to have found find common wild pigs and—at Vos’sykriss’s deepest sanctum, they unwittingly ended
worst—unusually large fire beetles and mantises. They the serpents’ ancient spell and awakened the Sleepers.
were the lucky ones. They didn’t wander unprepared Soon, a people long thought extinct will return to claim
into the Ruins of Vos’sykriss, and did not encounter the the world as their own.

chapter 2: gazetteer of tal’dorei 97