Spawn of Tiamat adventure ideas?

[ksbsnowowl]

I'm not looking to run Red Hand of Doom.  I've already run my group through an adaptation of that module.

I recently started a new homebrew campaign that has several elements that make it unique from standard D&D.  The biggest of these is a bit of a nod toward Darksun, and puts emphasis on psionics and other alternate magic systems over standard magic.  All spellcasting (arcane & divine) incurs Taint on the caster.  Also, almost all the gods are dead (though clerics of dead gods can still gain spells via the Servant of the Fallen feat (LEoF)).

Anyway, given the "something new and different" feel of the campaign, I'm making an effort to use a lot of the "rarely-used monsters" from throughout 3rd edition.  You know, the things that slipped through the cracks, and a DM just never gets around to using.  Last session, the party encountered an Ether Scarab (MM2) that was being hunted by a pair of Ethereal Marauders.  In 8 years of DM'ing, I'd never used either monster.  Things like that.

I've never used Spawn of Tiamat before, and they seem like a decent group of monsters to use, which departs from the overused orcs, hobgoblins, etc.  But I'm at a loss as to coming up with adventure ideas in which to use them.  Tiamat is dead (her last act just before she died was to infuse dragon eggs with the first spawn), so they aren't generally going to be moving in mass at her direction.

The party is currently ECL 2, and I'm letting them gestalt an NPC class on one side, to help compensate for the lack of traditional magic.
Githzerai Swordsage 1/LA 1//Warrior 1/LA 2
Githzerai Soulknife 1/LA 1//Warrior 1/LA 2
Primordial Giant Half-Giant Erudite 1/LA 1//Expert 1/LA 2
Half-Giant Psychic Warrior 2//Warrior 1/LA 1

They are based out of a Taint-free city (guards are spell-less Paladins with Detect Taint at will), and belong to an adventuring guild that I modeled after what Jon_Dahl described in this thread, where they can buy adventure tips, which might be jobs in the city, or might take them to areas of the surrounding mountains or countryside.

They've had a few adventures in the city, and have recently head out on their first foray outside the taint-free safety of the city.  What they are about to undertake might get them to ECL 3, but it might not, either.  So any ideas in the level 2 - 10 range would be great, and I can use them whenever they would be level appropriate.  The lowest CR of the Spawn is CR 1 for the Whitespawn Hordelings and CR 2 for the Greenspawn Sneaks and Greenspawn Leapers.  The CR 3 Bluespawn Stonegliders (Dragons of Faerun) could be inserted into an underground adventure, or even in the city, but aren't smart enough to work a plot on their own; they are basically just a pest.

Anyone have any ideas?

TL;DR:  Homebrew setting that emphasizes alternate magic systems, much like Darksun.  Trying to come up with adventure ideas for using Spawn of Tiamat instead of the tired old standbys (orcs, goblins, etc).  Party is currently ECL 2.

[Garryl]

Two ideas:

1) Tiamat may be dead, but her servants still include long-lived chromatic dragons. Maybe one/some of them have taken command of a batch of dragonspawn to enact a last-ditch plan Tiamat concocted before her death to revive her. Depending on how you want to play it, the dragon running this plan (or one of them) may be planning to alter this to take that power for himself instead and ascend to godhood in Tiamat's place.

2) Without Tiamat to guide them as a coherent whole, the most recently infused dragonspawn have hatched and split off amongst their own groups. Some have aligned with older dragons, some have taken to simple banditry and marauding, but some have banded together into the beginnings of a dragonspawn nation. The players might be fighting off dragonspawn bandits. Intelligence from other scouts might then lead them to what they think is the bandits' main base of operations, but is actually a different dragonspawn faction. The players could get drawn into diplomacy between the dragonspawn and the existing humanoid kingdoms, maybe get embroiled in factional politics and a dragonspawn civil war, etc.

[ksbsnowowl]

Thanks for the ideas.  I also posted this over at GitP, and the one reply I got there threw in the idea of Xorvintaal as an afterthought, and that seems like a great motivating factor for Spawn of Tiamat to be working in groups, toward the same, or differing, goals.  Factions of Spawn in conflict against each other because they work for different dragons.

It also provides an excellent means by which dragons can choose to give up their racial spellcasting, thus avoiding gaining Taint (and the resulting insanity).  But that means more dragons than "normal" probably playing Xorvintaal; all the more reason to have their various agents mucking around, often doing odd things in locations you might not expect them to be.

But all that will mesh well with the ideas you listed in your number 2.  Thanks 

[Garryl]

Glad I could help. If you decide to write up the results, I hope to eagerly read them. Your campaign journals have been very engrossing in the past.