Towns/Cities on the Outskirts of the DoomFort Desert:
Calgutta: A goblin cave town. Probably the most amenable port of call near the DoomFort. The goblins have spent such a long time living in the darkness of their cave that they have become mostly albino. The cave town is ruled by a class of darker skinned goblins who are able to venture out of the cave into the harsh sunlight. The interbreeding bewtween the upper classes obsessed with maintaining their "sun drinking skin" has lead to the ruling class being mostly insane. In general, apart from an over indulgence in avarice, the goblins are a friendly, upbeat group.
The Desert Proper and DoomFort Approach:
The DoomFort is approximately one weeks walk from any location with water/food. The landscape of the desert is mostly red/yellow rock and hard, large grained sand. There is pools and rivers of black, bubbly oil. These are mostly composed of liquid refuse that flows from the DoomFort. The DoomFort possibly spins or other wise rotates as the oil rivers have threaded their way throughout the entierity of the desert. The liquid refuse/oil can not be drunk by organic life forms but seems to be the soul power/food/drink for a variety of robotic/automaton life that roams through the desert.
The DoomFort is built on to a very dark brown stone mountain that is visible from any point in the desert.
Robotic elephants with tractor scoop trunks shift the sand and rocks of the desert into dunes and and valleys. These huge beasts known as Hanophants spend all day and night pushing around boulders, debris, rubble, sand and rocks. They are mindless in this pursuit and seem to have no greater pattern to their work. The goblins claim there is exactly 20 Hanophants trudging their way through the desert. Sometimes a group of sun drinking skin goblin elites will take leisurely rides on a Hanophant, drinking and partying in the sun for days as it meanders randomly through the desert.
It is not uncommon to see a trail of Grogs behind a Hanophant, happily scooping up the smaller stones the Hanophant is unable to push forward.
Other automatons, The Hiders, stalk the desert in search of fresh skin to cover their metallic frames.
You are in The DoomFort Desert:
You See (d8):
1) Oil river
2) Oil pool
3) Grog garden
4) Rocky, dark valley (hewn by a Hanophant)
5) Field of broken, straggly bones
6) Monolithic stones
7) Salty flat plains
8) Coarse sanded dunes
And (d20):
1 - 13) Nothing
14) d6 Mutants
15) Oil refuse rain (d6 damage to anyone with exposed skin who doesn't take cover, 25% chance of destroying non metallic armor and packs)
16) Dark skinned goblin nobles riding a Hanophant. They demand adventurers complete nonsensical quests for them, such as finding an arbitrary quantity of some valueless item
17) d4 Hiders
18) d6 Grogs collecting stones
19) d8 Grog constructing a garden
20) A Hanophant
Relevant Statistics:
Alignment: Neutral, Movement: 120', Armor Class: -4, HD:20, Attacks: 3 (Scoop, tusks and stamp), Damage of Attacks: Scoop: Anything hit by the Hanophant's pneumatic scoop with an armor class less than 0 must make a Save Vs. Death to avoid being instantly crushed to death. Other wise it does d20+10 damage, Tusks: 1d10+5, Stamp: Anything in a 50' radius around the Hanophant must make a Save Vs. Paralyze to avoid falling prone to the ground, Save: As fighter level 15, Morale: 8, XP: 1500
The Hanophant are serene earth moving automaton elephants, slightly larger than a normal elephant but made completely of metal and having a pneumatic scoop instead of a trunk. Like the Grogs their only known source of nutrients is the oily refuse from Tombin's DoomFort. The Hanophants ignore everything around them except their constant quest to push huge amounts of debris around the desert. They are not aggressive and will only retaliate if hurt, or if something is getting in the way of their earth moving.
Alignment: Neutral, Movement: 80', Armor Class: 0, HD:4, Attacks: 6 (6 x Pinching claw), Damage: Pinching Claw: Each pinching claw does d4+1 melee damage and d4 ranged damage (thrown stones). If anything is succesfully hit with 4 or more claws in a round the victim must make a Save Vs. Death to avoid being completely ripped apart by the claws (death). Save: As fighter level 4, Morale: 8, XP: 300
Grogs are automaton dogs that roam the desert in search of stones and rocks for their gardens. They will know if an adventurer holds sling stones, or any other small rock based object and will take them with their spindly metallic claws. They will know if any one disrupts their garden and that person will forever be attacked by all Grogs. Grogs belch a constant cloud of oily fumes from their behind.
Hiders
Alignment: Chaotic, Movement: 60', Armor Class: 0, HD:2, Attacks: 2 (Scalpel Fingers), Damage: Scalpel Fingers: 1d6, victim must make Save Vs. Poison to avoid become stunned for 1d10 rounds, Save: As fighter level 2, Morale: 6, XP: 200
For each group of Hiders roll a d6, their flesh disguise is; 1-2) Terrible, clearly rotting flesh revealing plates of metal and wires, 2-4) Passable, slightly odd colored flesh moving in a jerky manner, 5-6) Very realistic, can easily pass as living thing of whatever skin they have stolen.
The Hiders are a group of embalming automatons who have become vaguely conscious and desire to hide their metallic bodies behind real flesh. Their fingers are razor sharp scalpels laced with needles that can inject a variety of drugs and chemicals into flesh to either stun, preserve or otherwise manipulate it. They will use their disguises to lure victims into a false sense of security and then strip them of their flesh for yet another disguise.