Thirty items from the distant past, some are still used today in different forms, others were one of a kind and have long since been lost or sequestered within dusty old tombs, awaiting looters to bring them back to the world once more.

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When a thousand years of dust settled upon the worked stone floor of The Grey Tomb, a new sage was born. A creature, of dust, time, age, wisdom. The dust that was once the bodies of ancient wise men. It coalesced and swirled into being, small and wispy, dry as its home. It mutters words of wisdom for no one to hear. Begging its dark home for a soul to learn from.

A man-made bridge between two tall hills that began as a wonder to an ancient empire and now is turned into the final stand of a desperate kingdom. 

The Imperial city has been sucked into hell and the rest of the world has been ripped apart. And tying it all together is the Crystal Tower. The Tower lives in all realms, a needle piercing the fabric of each reality and threading them all together.

A silent vestige sits among the vine covered ruins in a forest that has overgrown who once lived here. No more towers rise among the skeletal remains of a seeming once vast city. Instead, carved into the face of a leveled statue of a man, peaceful in his dead slumber now are etched the words - Si vis pacem para bellum – If you want peace, prepare for war.

The PCs are sent to rescue the Lady Helen from the pyramid she has been trapped in...but it will not be easy.

High above the lands of the living, where frost and howling of the wind reign, the morbid monument to a faith long dead calls the deceased on a last pilgrimage.

The Elders say there was once a great kingdom here. Yes, in this field of cattle, void of rubble or debris. Now, there are just a few fences and a barn for the bovine herd. At the most, you'll find some fresh dung. No treasures or artifacts of bygone ages here. What fate could have befallen such a place, as to leave no trace? Come closer, and I will show you...

[Darn.  Missed deleting this one.  All better now.]

Some sovereigns prefer a different sort of tax from their subjects - whether freely given, or taken by force.

One of the events regularly overlooked in the history of the Cosmic Era is the Population Contraction that was concurrent with the Second Dark Age.