Chapter 1: Campaigns in tal'Dorei 13become an omnipotent deity on the other side of the Divine
Gate? Would the gods of good be forced to break the Gate
and unleash another Calamity upon the world?
Dawn of a repuBli C
It was the dying decree of Sovereign Uriel Tal’Dorei II
that the continent-spanning Tal’Dorei Empire be reborn
as the Republic of Tal’Dorei. No more would a Sover-
eign rule the myriad peoples of this land, but instead
the wise Council of Tal’Dorei would enact the will of
the people and protect them from the dangers of the
world. But things don’t always go according to plan. The
nascent Republic of Tal’Dorei is suffering growing pains,
and unless some politically-minded player characters can
help, the realm may fall into anarchy and chaos.
While fantasy politics aren’t every gamer’s cup of tea,
the ills of the fledgling republic can serve several pur-
poses. Players looking for fantasy intrigue can meddle
in the internal politics of the city of Emon and root out
corruption within the Council, from the influence of the
nefarious Clasp and Myriad syndicates, to the blackmail
of a few shadowy mages within the Alabaster Lyceum.
Game Masters can also use this political element to
flavor their otherwise action-focused games. On a small
scale, corrupt margraves may hire bandits to pillage their
own villages, requiring the PCs to step in. On a large
scale, the imminent collapse of the Republic of Tal’Dorei
may force the PCs to stop a power-hungry Lyceum mage
from taking control of the land.
a lanD thriCe-DestroyeD
First there was the Calamity, and the palaces of the gods
were devoured by the earth. Then came the wars of Drassig,
and his defeat at the hands of Zan Tal’Dorei. And then
came Thordak. The Cinder King and the Chroma Conclave
shook the very foundations of Tal’Dorei. Thordak “merely”
turned Emon to slag, but out of fear, panic, and malice,
the flames of destruction were spread across the continent
by mortal hands. Today, at the dawning of the Republic of
Tal’Dorei, the ruins of three civilizations lie buried beneath
your feet, and some secrets long to be unearthed.
Every fantasy RPG has ruins for adventurers to explore.
When your campaign inevitably sends the PCs in search of
a lost artifact, consider your dungeon’s role in the larger his-
tory of the world. How does the origin of this ruin affect its
layout, its description, and its hazards? When Vox Machina
delved into an ancient ruin in the Frostweald dedicated to
the God of Knowledge, they faced off against deadly traps
and had to guess the name of a devious sphinx to find their
reward. Adventurers seeking a relic from a part of Emon
destroyed during Thordak’s occupation may have to fend off
restless spirits of their own countrymen while dealing with
lingering traces of the Conclave’s power.
mother of invention
Percival Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo
III—Percy, to his friends—wanted to take the secrets of
his inventions to his grave, especially the deadly power of
his firearms. Unfortunately, because of his now-deceased
archenemy Anna Ripley, the secret of gunpowder has
begun to spread across Tal’Dorei. Now, isolated groups
of tinkerers both noble and unscrupulous are working to
create new technologies. Some of these modern marvels
will no doubt help the people of the world—but others, in
the wrong hands, are sure to cause the deaths of thousands.
Renaissance technology, especially firearms, are not
common in Tal’Dorei. If you want to keep your fan-
tasy purely medieval, it is a simple matter to ignore the
tinkerers and gunsmiths and budding industrialists
scattered across Tal’Dorei. Otherwise, you are wel-
come to incorporate the rules for firearms that already
exist in the DMG. If you or your players want to fully
embrace the power of black powder like Percy and
Viktor of Critical Role, the Gunslinger fighter archetype
available on the DMs Guild (dmsguild.com) will help
you achieve those ends.unCharteD territory
The corners of Tal’Dorei’s maps are not all filled in. North
of the Cliff keep Mountains are the trackless Neverfields
and the northern edge of the map. South of the Verdant
Expanse is the Rifenmist Peninsula, where vast jungles
and the brutal Iron Authority prevent any explorer from
filling in the southern tips of the map.
Never forget that you are the creator of your own ver-
sion of Tal’Dorei. No one playing at your table, even if it’s
Matthew Mercer himself, can tell you that your vision of
the world is inaccurate. Consider that everything in this
book is written in pencil, especially these most distant
reaches of Tal’Dorei.Story HookSThis book is peppered with story hooks. Some are
simple, just enough to inspire your next game ses-
sion. Some are more complex, and the hook can
cascade into an entire campaign’s worth of gaming.
You will also notice that these story hooks present a
beginning, but no conclusion. Just as the goal of this
entire book is meant to provide building blocks for
you to create your own Tal’Dorei, these open-ended
plot seeds are meant to give all fans of Critical Role
a few familiar starting places to start creating their
own narratives.
These plot hooks are tied to specific locations, and
all have a level range. These level recommendations
can be fudged, but have generally been chosen either
because of the monsters involved, the lore-relevance
of the location, or to determine how epic the adven-
ture should be.
For low-level characters: levels 1 to 4
For mid-level characters: levels 5 to 10
For high-level characters: levels 11 to 16
For epic-level characters: levels 17 to 20