The Lizard Marsh

Art by David A. Trampier

In Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, the 1st-level characters are witnesses to the hanging of a Red 
Wizard, infiltrated by a rakshasa and tasked with locating the lair of a black dragon. In the Sword Coast Sandbox, none of that happens -- they instead learn of the legend of a lost temple to Amanautor hidden somewhere in the swamp. They can decide to check it out, or not. It's their choice.

In GoDC, Sir Isteval asks the PCs to find the black dragon's lair after it attacks Cromm's Hold. I don't really want the players to have to rationalize why this is a good idea for their 1st-level characters, but I do want to introduce them to Sir Isteval. He's a former Purple Dragon Knight who's been there and done that, but is now on the downside of his career. He'd make a good patron and ally for the right kind of PCs. Fortunately, Sir Isteval is a paladin of Amanautor, and locating the lost temple to his deity (and recovering its sacred relic) is on his bucket list, even if he can't be bothered to do it himself.

The Lizard Marsh is actually a super-awesome, old-school adventure location; it just might not be readily apparent due to all the "story" with which the authors have camouflaged it.

In the Sword Coast Sandbox campaign, if the PCs want to find the lost temple of Amanautor, they have to do it the hard way: They have to slog through the swamp until they stumble upon someone who can point them in the right direction. GoDC offers a nice random encounter table (1d20) -- the PCs will need to find some friendly lizardfolk (9 and 16), who will tell them about the temple; or they need to find and interrogate some evil lizardfolk, minions of the Lizard Queen Vethka (10). So that's a 15% chance for a clue whenever a random encounter is indicated. The other 85% of the time, the PCs will encounter everything from natural hazards (sinkhole), to points of interest (an ancient gazebo from the elf empire, Illefarn; a shipwreck), to monsters ranging from giant frogs and lizards to trolls and even a hydra...

Another random encounter in the Lizard Marsh is Krandon Manor and the Clotskulls tribe of swamp-dwelling half-orcs (half-dwarf!) that have taken up residence therein. I intend to play this straight, except the Clotskulls haven't stolen an egg from the black dragon and they aren't static. If the PCs spend more than a couple days in the swamp, the Clotskulls will be alerted to their presence and start tracking them. They'll try to wait until the PCs are weakest before waylaying them. Mama Booga knows the location of the lost temple, as well as the location and general situation at both Harpshield Castle and Firehammer Hold. So there may be some payoff for all the hell to which her boys can introduce the PCs. This is also a good example of a key technique for running a sandbox campaign: You don't railroad the PCs along a predetermined path, but you create lots of connections between adventure locations so they can choose their own path.

Okay, so the Lizard Marsh could be a really horrific experience for the characters. Eventually, they'll either give up in disgust (a perfectly acceptable outcome) or find their way to the temple.

The temple was dedicated to Amanautor, the sun god, way back whenever. But when Vethka the lizard queen rose to power, she claimed the temple as her palace. Vethka and her minions are afflicted with a terrible wasting disease and worship Talona, the goddess of plague and disease. Better yet, deep below the temple is the lair of a black dragon who Vethka has proclaimed the Chosen of Talona.

Now, this is one of the cool features of a sandbox campaign: Not every encounter, or every area, or every level of an adventure location is custom tailored to present a "fair challenge" to the PCs. A capable group of low-level PCs will be able to clear the temple of Vethka and her followers. They will not be able to deal with the black dragon that lairs on the lowest level of the dungeon. Instead, after accomplishing what they can, the heroes will have to run away to fight again another day. This is cool, because it means that the temple is not a disposable location: The players will remember the dragon, and they may well choose to return and finish what they started as more experienced and powerful adventurers. And, of course, it turns out that the "sacred relic" that drew them to the Lizard Marsh (I'm thinking sun blade, because it's awesome) is in that dragon's hoard. The heroes get just a  glimpse of the golden hilt with a miniature glowing sun for its pommel before they're forced to retreat. Perhaps it even flares, as if it were sentient and calling to them...