A short-term campaign running concurrent with Mystra's Landing, set in the southern Magocracy of Findallow.
In Findallow, magic doesn't bend the laws of physics — it writes the laws of the land. Arcane academies double as courts. Sorcerers draft legislation by fireball. Bloodlines and titles mean nothing. Magical might is the only currency that matters.
A once-in-a-generation deadstorm has uncovered a ruin deep in the cursed Wastes — the site of an old wizard-war. Archmage Cassius Shadowmend wants what's inside: the Staff of Ercan Kerul, a tool belonging to a centuries-dead time-bending wizard whose legend still rattles the bones of history. He wants it to aid his world-spanning feud with the archmages of Mystra's Landing and Whisperwind.
His agent Phela is persuasive. From the other side of a cell door, she tends to be.
You've been released from captivity, cleaned up, adequately equipped, and dumped through a portal into the dunes outside what looks like the remains of an old fallen keep.
The last group sent in hasn't been heard from since. Some say the ruin moves. Some say whoever put the staff in the ruin may not be as dead as people thought. The few who have seen the ruins say they can hear the faint sounds of screaming.
The clock: The portal opens once a day at high noon for three days only. A second deadstorm is massing on the horizon — strong enough to bury the ruins for another few centuries, and you along with them.
This campaign runs concurrent with Mystra's Landing. The Staff of Ercan Kerul, if retrieved, would give Cassius Shadowmend a significant advantage in his feud with Mystra's Landing's archmages. Brixley Saltweave, Findallow's ambassador currently in the Dock Ward, operates in both cities' orbit and may know more than he has shared.
All characters start at level 5. Rules: D&D 2024. Emphasis on story over strict rules adherence.