Its such a more harsh and unforgiving place where I think my players can truly earn everything they get. (Including the reward of another day.)
I started this thread to see if anyone had any campaign ideas or wanted to talk about a campaign that they've done before.
Or, If anyone wanted to discuss things like the environment or terrain types or the types of things one might encounter while traveling in the wastes.
I have a question to start off... What is silt shoal? I know what silt AND shoal are, but when I look at the key for the map provided with the book, there is a terrain type called silt shoal.
I was wondering what the difference between silt shoal and a dust sink is, or the difference between the sandy waste terrain.
Also how do raiders typically behave and where do they shack up?
P.S. This NOT a discussion on which setting is better (old vs new stuff) I've been playing since before 3rd ed was out and I'm plenty happy with 4e and CCL about discussions about which setting is better. : )
Well the one idea that caught my attention was that apparently, the moons of Athas, Ral and Guthay are habitable. so i want to lead my PC's to the Moons of Athas to discover some lost Diety maybe, and prevent the dragon of Try getting his hands on the raw power of the moons.
I really liked the idea of the moons being habitable too. My theory is that the Pyreen, which, if you notice, are now suspiciously absent in the world, retreated to the moons in the cataclysm that obliterated the Gods. One of the moons, however, (the one covered in mists) turned out to have a horribly poisonous atmosphere for Athasians and all of the ones who went there died. I'm tempted to have the PCs seek out the Pyreen for long lost information, and require both a hunt for a moon-gate, and long lost artifacts on the moon. Doesn't hurt that I'm a massive fan of both Lunar games. Also, silt shoals are shallow areas of silt mostly traversable by by skimmer, deeper areas are nigh impassable save for a few shifting and poorly charted shallow areas. Speaking of silt, I'm so going to find a way to work in the Dust Kraken into the story too. Athas is so inanely full of incredible plot hooks and potential adventures I'm almost depressed that I won't be able to fit it all into my campaign (which is level 3 to 30, btw).
Mine was a simple one. Im planning on dividing it into tiers like the level brackets.
The lvl 1-10 bracket of the campaign will involve pirates and raiders and most likely exploration. The PCs so far are gladiatorial slaves from Urik that escaped en route to Nibaney to be sold there for a grand gladiator game. ( I hinted that the rumor was that the slaves were definitely favored to lose.) So they escaped. (please let me know if this would really happen in DS, Im not to well versed in the setting yet)
Now wandering around in the Tablelands in search of Tyr the "free city" They found an elf slave that had escaped from a slaver compound based in a nearby ruins and was being pursued by his captors. After slaying the slaver band sent to retrieve the elf, they decide to head to the slaver compound and clear it out as they are in need of the supplies that may be there...
But towards the end of the heroic tier I want the PCs to somehow come to captain a silt skimmer and its crew and thereby giving them the status I think one would need to be qualified to take on paragon lvl quests.
P.S. Does the 4e DSCG have info about the moons? I havent seen anything so far.
For paragon tier and beyond, I'll cross those silt shoals when I get to them.
In a canyon between the cities of Raam and Urik is a carved out cave cantina known as “The Black Gaj” run by a Neogi crime lord who uses an ancient scrying device to discern where certain caravans are and what they are carrying. He in turn sells this information out to would-be bandit kings who need a big score to assure their superiority. The ranger in the campaign I’m running was hired out of this cantina by Mar Juk-Adan, who was unaware that the Neogi had sold the information of Ibn-Adan’s caravan to some Dray Slavers.
After fighting off the Dray (who had been hired to kill Mar Juk-Adan specifically) the party arrives in Raam with the Dray Leader’s bronze amulet which the Templars have been waiting for. The Templar force the party to meet with the Grand Vizier Abalache-Re who proclaims them the Chosen Ones who have been sent by Badna to root out the “evils” of Raam. In truth she was expecting the Dray to arrive with Ibn-Adan’s head, but this turn of events clearly means she can send more capable fools to do her bidding than originally intended.
Near Giustenal is a group of drayhunting, grudgekeeping, undead slaying zealots known as the Kel Taraskir (shifters) who can trace their bloodline to the ages before Giustenal fell, to when the lion-headed giant Taraskir ruled supreme. They are currently waiting for Taraskir’s “second-coming” and thus the perfect time to strike at their adversary, Dregoth.
Near the Kreen Khanates, the party is attacked by clutch warriors who are wielding strangely organic weapons that let loose a psionic resonation. They claim to be the sons of the Khan-of-Khans and that these lands are to be purified of all non-clutch, non-kreen “outlanders”. The Khan-of-Khans’s soldiers have been wreaking genocidal havoc on tribes that would not submit and none is sure how the Khan-of-Khans, who was suppose to lead the Thri-Kreen to a new glory, could be such an agent of destruction. The party eventually learns that the Khan-of-Khans is the puppet of a Psurlon who had grown ambitious and dreamed of enslaving the other Athasian races.
Tectuktitlay plots to block out the sun so that all will see his superiority, what with him being the self-proclaimed son of the two moons and being served by moon priests. Once he reigns over a domain of eternal night the people of Athas will all convert and worship him, and the other sorcerer-kings will have no choice but to cower at his feet if they ever wish to see a speck of sunlight over their fields again. He hasn’t thought this entirely through, as it would not take long before crops ceased to grow and starvation set in, everyone started to eat themselves and the world would freeze.
The Royal Mortician of Urik asks the party to steal the “Hand of Spite” an artifact of arcane power located in Yaramuke. However once they enter the salt-flooded streets of the fallen city they find that the residents have risen in undeath and follow the shade of sorcerer-queen Sielba who sees her continued existence as a curse by Hamanu. She possesses the Hand of Spite and attempts to coerce the party into joining her in a fight against Hamanu.
What "Exactly" are they. I cant find a clear answer in the book. If you look at the map provided by the 4e DSCG, See the word "Tablelands"? That's where my party is. The key says thats Silt Shoal unless I'm color blind. What are the hazards there? Have I technically been marching them through a lake of silt? Whats the difference between that and a dust sink?
In depth clarification would be GREATLY appreciated. TYVM : )
Just my 2 cp.
However I am a little cautious about running it through to Epic level. It just doesn't feel right to have epic level encounters in DS.
That is largely because the campaigns I run always tie into previous campaigns, and in epic DS you have little but SKs to fight - and i don't want the players to go knock them all off and destroy the campaign setting.
I'm almost finished my current non-DS campaign and will turn to DS once that is done. I am looking forward to it.
However I am a little cautious about running it through to Epic level. It just doesn't feel right to have epic level encounters in DS.
That is largely because the campaigns I run always tie into previous campaigns, and in epic DS you have little but SKs to fight - and i don't want the players to go knock them all off and destroy the campaign setting.
Well, what I'd do (had I a player with say the Hordemaster e.d.) would be to put the epic characters leading an army of rebels, slaves, and mercenaries and put them up against the armies of the city-states. So you can say the battle is rushing around them and have the party be at the spearhead fighting the enemy general and his soldiers, all elitely trained and ready for you. They know your deeds, your friends, your skills and they know you are the enemy.
Always capable to run an epic gladiatorial encounter. Do it up at night with only big braziers burning and the audience watching the party battle in the darkness against the most horrific beasts on Athas.
The party could always go like 1980s Conan and fight a cult atop a mountain of power. Big bad guy, probably defiling, ripping people's minds, crucifying peeps on trees of woe, and just in general being a bad jerk. So your party (perhaps even under the pay of a Sorcerer-King) could go and track him down, fight his agents, rob from his cultists and eventually confront the jag in his place of power.
Or something. Never run an epic level game.
I have something bothering me. Its super frustrating because I cant find a clear answer in the book and its kinda hindering my campaign...... Silt Shoals...
What "Exactly" are they. I cant find a clear answer in the book. If you look at the map provided by the 4e DSCG, See the word "Tablelands"? That's where my party is. The key says thats Silt Shoal unless I'm color blind. What are the hazards there? Have I technically been marching them through a lake of silt? Whats the difference between that and a dust sink?
In depth clarification would be GREATLY appreciated. TYVM : )
Well in the real-world, a shoal is just shallow water. So a silt shoal would be shallow, wadable silt with the occasional deep pocket. There is an example silt hazard in the CC.
The way the PCs get involved in all of this is that they are attacked by raiders and left stranded and lost in the desert. After days of wandering around the desert they eventually stumble upon an ancient ruin where they learn a hermit has taken up residence, who is an angel of Tempus the god of war. He recruits the PCs to help him restore the gods to the Athas.
Heroic tier is taking down settlements of Demon worshippers and other primordial persences in the world.
Parago tier is discovering where the gods are and helping them to get free, though the PCs will discover that even after the gods become freed from their restraints that all their power doesn't immediately return. The PCs also discover that some of the gods are perfectly okay with what is going on like Ghaundaur, the god of Abominations, and most of the chaotic evil gods, and have no intent of helping the PCs restore the world.
Epic tier is the actual combat against the primordials, the sorcerer kings, and anything standing in the way of restoring Athas to the blue age.
I'm almost finished my current non-DS campaign and will turn to DS once that is done. I am looking forward to it.
However I am a little cautious about running it through to Epic level. It just doesn't feel right to have epic level encounters in DS.
That is largely because the campaigns I run always tie into previous campaigns, and in epic DS you have little but SKs to fight - and i don't want the players to go knock them all off and destroy the campaign setting.
Have everyone roll new characters. That's what we did : ) I run a PC of my own even when I DM because my group is so small (1-3 Players NOT including me.)
I started my PCs off as slaves. IMO it's a lot more fun than the typical, "Ok I'm a paladin I can wear plate at lvl 1 and have 100g worth of gear at the start." (That's the typical method when starting a character as per PHB1.)
My PCs were gladiator slaves that were thankful for ANY weapons or armor they got (if any) for the fights they were MADE to participate in hehe.
They have all told me that they liked being more weak and vulnerable at the beginning. It makes them feel more accomplished when they do something.
So, what does everyone know about the SKs? My campaign started in Urik so I read all of the information I could about Hamanu. But It doesn't really go into how tyrannical he is. What kinds of things does he do to oppress his people? Is reading and writing illegal in Urik? I understand that he's very militaristic, does he institute a constant draft type program? What do his templars do?
Also if anyone has anything to add about other SKs please do : )
I'm almost finished my current non-DS campaign and will turn to DS once that is done. I am looking forward to it.
However I am a little cautious about running it through to Epic level. It just doesn't feel right to have epic level encounters in DS.
That is largely because the campaigns I run always tie into previous campaigns, and in epic DS you have little but SKs to fight - and i don't want the players to go knock them all off and destroy the campaign setting.
Have everyone roll new characters. That's what we did : ) I run a PC of my own even when I DM because my group is so small (1-3 Players NOT including me.)
I started my PCs off as slaves. IMO it's a lot more fun than the typical, "Ok I'm a paladin I can wear plate at lvl 1 and have 100g worth of gear at the start." (That's the typical method when starting a character as per PHB1.)
My PCs were gladiator slaves that were thankful for ANY weapons or armor they got (if any) for the fights they were MADE to participate in hehe.
They have all told me that they liked being more weak and vulnerable at the beginning. It makes them feel more accomplished when they do something.
So, what does everyone know about the SKs? My campaign started in Urik so I read all of the information I could about Hamanu. But It doesn't really go into how tyrannical he is. What kinds of things does he do to oppress his people? Is reading and writing illegal in Urik? I understand that he's very militaristic, does he institute a constant draft type program? What do his templars do?
Also if anyone has anything to add about other SKs please do : )
I also had this sort of idea, but that a few gods had created a sactuary on either of Athas's moons, Ral or Guthay, there they seek to restore the astral sea where they could get free, so it is upto the PC to find a way to free them and restore Athas.
I have something bothering me. Its super frustrating because I cant find a clear answer in the book and its kinda hindering my campaign...... Silt Shoals...
What "Exactly" are they. I cant find a clear answer in the book. If you look at the map provided by the 4e DSCG, See the word "Tablelands"? That's where my party is. The key says thats Silt Shoal unless I'm color blind. What are the hazards there? Have I technically been marching them through a lake of silt? Whats the difference between that and a dust sink?
In depth clarification would be GREATLY appreciated. TYVM : )
A a silt shoal is a shallow in the Sea of Silt (sandbar, rocks, reef etc.).
A dust sink is an inland depression filled with silt (sort of like a small lake of silt that is separated from the greater Sea of Silt) but otherwise behaves the same way.
A a silt shoal is a shallow in the Sea of Silt (sandbar, rocks, reef etc.).
A dust sink is an inland depression filled with silt (sort of like a small lake of silt that is separated from the greater Sea of Silt) but otherwise behaves the same way.
I was under the impression that it was the opposite; a patch of silt deep enough that a silt skimmer would be unable to cross. They are wheeled vehicles, after all, and a deep patch (or even a big enough pothole) would be enough to get one stuck.
I have something bothering me. Its super frustrating because I cant find a clear answer in the book and its kinda hindering my campaign...... Silt Shoals...
What "Exactly" are they. I cant find a clear answer in the book. If you look at the map provided by the 4e DSCG, See the word "Tablelands"? That's where my party is. The key says thats Silt Shoal unless I'm color blind. What are the hazards there? Have I technically been marching them through a lake of silt? Whats the difference between that and a dust sink?
In depth clarification would be GREATLY appreciated. TYVM : )
A a silt shoal is a shallow in the Sea of Silt (sandbar, rocks, reef etc.).
A dust sink is an inland depression filled with silt (sort of like a small lake of silt that is separated from the greater Sea of Silt) but otherwise behaves the same way.
How would you describe the area on the map that is right under and around the words "The Tablelands"?
It looks to me according to the key that, that is a silt shoal area. The sea of silt isnt even on the map its just referenced on one of the edges as its "that way" so i dont understand why they would key it out if it was an area in the sea of silt.
Someone else told me that it was just a shallow area of silt. crossable by a silt skimmer or sand skiff.
The party consists of the following:
Epoch the Blind: A Goliath Battlerager Fighter (Gladiator)
Diliax: An ElvenCunning Bard (Athasian Ministrel)
Sunsoak: A Dray Swarm Druid (Wilder)
Dregan Waters: A Human Telekinetic Psion (Elemental Priest)
Artois: A Half-elven Beastmaster Ranger (Wasteland Nomad)
Mooks Sharptooth: Halfling Marauder Ranger (Primal Guardian)
To start the campaign, I secretly slipped each player a message that was their own personal goal that they were not to share with the other players unless they were foolish. (Have a history of betrayel with this group of people haha!).
These are the secrets:
Epoch the Blind: To slay the man who sold him into slavery.
Diliax: To sell Mooks into slavery.
Sunsoak: To cut off the arms of the Drajian man who cut off his wings. (I said he was born with wings and the limited ability to fly, and had them cut off by a Drajian criminal)
Artois: Find her husband who mysteriously went missing, and possibly who killed the mate to her pet coyote.
Drejan: Cause a revolution in Raam.
Mooks Sharptooth: Find "the Golden One" which was prophesied to save his Halfling Village- possibly his race. (Two halfling prophets killed each other on exactly if it was the Village or the Race)
They were each given minimal clues like Mooks knew that the prophecy involved something to do with water, and Epoch knew that the man was high up in one of the larger trading houses etc etc.
So when it began, I had the characters Drejan, Diliax, Mooks and Artois (Epoch and Sunsoak were late) get hired in a small oasis town named Mahzdin which was wedged between Draj and Raam. Both cities were fighting a serious of clashes to try and get control over the town with spies and would overtly fight with mercenaries and militias all the while overtly denying it in political talks.
Some characters were Drajian descent (Artois, Diliax) , others were from Raam (Drejan
, Epoch) and others were independent (Mooks, Sunsoak).
The town of Mahzdin itself was run by a group of unaffiliated Moon Priests. An upstart trading house called House Upsalom heavily influenced the town, and Drajian militants had a heavy presence there as well. A band of gypsy elves had a camp nearby. Draj had recently built a fortress nearby in the Kreegill Mountains, but did not acknowledge it. It operated as a "bandit" fortress.
The campaign began when Artois, Diliax, Mooks, and Drejan got hired by House Upsalom to recover a large shipment of a strand of resilient grain seed from the Bandit Fortress. (I thought it was cool to have them risk there lives over something as basic as planting seed. All this work for a bunch of grain!!). After investigating around Mahzdin, with Mooks slaying a Drajian guard and eating him in the bushes, they finally got hired by a shady operative of House Upsalom by the name of Sprilla. Sprilla was an elf rogue-y character that always flipped a tiny silver coin.
After a social skill challenge, (I handle them a bit differently with a heavy combo of RPing to make it seem less mechanical). They gained some Survival Days, and a bunch of useful information about how to infiltrate the fortress without arousing many guards.
They traveled through the desert, had a combat encounter with the enviromnent (A bunch of house-ruled cacti, rock-slides, and each other. One of the cacti induced a psychotic craze that made Dregan act as a player-run NPC that tried to kill the others. He almost killed Artois when he force punched her into a crevasse). Skill challenged to escape a sandstorm and find the entrance to the dungeon in the mountains.
First dungeon crawl was through a natural cavern that would lead them to the supply cellars of the bandit fortress. They had a quick combat with some gigantic vultures to gain entrance. They lost a skill challenge and fell down pit into a pile of ancient corpses some of which were undead zombies. They got completely lost and the first session ended there.
The only other notable thing that happened in the cave was that I found out that the female player that played Artois was very ruthless. She got pissed off at her real life boyfriend (Diliax) and "wandered off on her own". I didn't know what to do so I had her encounter a very old and blind man sitting on the edge of a cliff, dropping pebbles into the endless chasm. When I asked her what she wanted to do, she said. "I push him off." She immediately rolled the d20!! LOL. For some reason that cheered her up and she got really into the game. I think it was the first time she realized she could do anything she wanted and it wasn't a game like Monopoly.
After fighting a bunch of random encounters, I finally just let them get through the caves to find the extremely narrow tunnel they had to crawl up to get into the floors of one of the stairwells. (The guards used it as a toilet). The halfling had to crawl back down for a short rest after getting his ass kicked by a rat minion in the tunnel. (Unbelievable string of good roles compared with comically bad choices and bad rolling by the halfling. A single minion almost kicked the tanks ass. Granted, the minion had a significant tactical advantage) They had a tough time flighting their way out of the toilet. (Sounds funny, but it was pretty serious for them at the time!) The halfling and the psion were remarkably good at clearing enough space so the rest of the party could get out without opportunity attacks.
They stumbled onto some rooms, killed a few guards. They skill challenged the guard into revealing where the grain room was , and solved a puzzle (a pretty simple puzzle I made up. Like a combo of Jenga and Roullette.) to open the doorway to where the grain was.
The room was a very elaborate encounter I had made. It was going to be the final encounter of the adventure. It involved minions, skirmishers, brutes, and a pretty sadistic Defiling controller that was protected by a hard clay partition that bolted up from the ground when he pulled a lever. The brutes were blind half-giants that were chained to opposite sides of the room. When one went towards the middle, the other got pulled back and vice versa. A group of skirmishers could pull a rope handle that any of the characters that could speak Drajian could read was an alarm. A dwarven lurker also hid in the crates. It was designed to be a VERY hard encounter as I wanted the PCs to have to expend a lot of their resources to beat them and only escape with a few sacks of grain. (They were paid by the sack, and there was like 30 of them. In my head it was going to be impossible to get all 30 sacks.
)
This complicated encounter was the easiest thing they faced. The rat minion in the toilet tunnel was harder.
They won their stealth check. Free round. They all won their initiative. All the PCs moved twice before the monsters. They all recognized the danger and blew action points. They ****ing obliterated this encounter. The coyote was in the room with the defiler before he could get the wall up. The skirmishers were boxed out of the alarm before they got a chance to pull it. One of the brutes got smoked, and Epoch had the brilliant and unforseen idea of pulling the chain (and winning strength checks with Drejan assisting him) to keep the other brute pinned to the wall while mooks and artois ranged him until he surrendered. The defiler got pwned by the ****in coyote badly, with the druid standing on a crate and blasting him.
The lurker I didn't even make come out, I just kept him hid. When they were organizing how to carry all 30 grain sacks out, i had him sneak attack Drejan and bolt out the door. He successfully escaped and warned the fortress. But the cursed PCs stubbornly stuck to getting all 30 grain sacks out!! (this was a modified skill challenge that was tedious and involved dragging heavy bags and lots of counting movement. it was a mistake to design it that way but i didn't think they would get the opportunity to move 30 bags, I thought it would be like 8. They had to do it in a number of rounds!).
They got all the bags except two through the toilet tunnel and the whole army of Drajians were on the top end of the toilet blasting magic through with the PCs poised over the bottom of the hole ready to take them all on 300 style. At this point I thought they could do it. I didn't want to spend the night having the PCs rotating fighting one guard at a time so i just had a little defiler peak his head out, blast some magic, and scurry back up. Then there was a lot of silence.
This scared the PCs so they started the arduous journey of dragging the grain sacks over to the meeting spot.
The meeting spot was a dried out well where the vultures were originally. In that cave with Sprilla, the biggest half-giant bodyguard ever seen, and Sprilla's band of other assorted ne'er-do-wells at the top with a series of ropes set up. The PCs were at the bottom. Dregan was sent up first, and the rest of the party assisted in getting the grain up. As the last sack of grain was sent up, Sprilla said that the most valuable part of their reward would be a piece of advice:
"Never trust an elf."
With that he pushed Dregan into the well. (Diliax was the most furious because Diliax and Sprilla had a prior business relationship. I RPed a quick session with that player earlier that day. It was what I call a "Prequel". It's usually when I am with just one or two playersand we are bored and want to play D&D. We have a mini-session that involve the characters past. The character is usually really weak as he is less-than level one; the Prequels are mostly RP intensive anyway. The rewards are usually either his starting encounter power or his daily power and/or a piece of his starting equipment/gold. It's basically a quick one-on-one session of the backstory of how he got to level one. In this case it was a backstory of Diliax in Draj learning the ropes from Sprilla who was selling military secrets to Raam, working for House Upsalom, selling slaves, and building a thieves guild).
Sprilla then tossed Diliax his "lucky" silver coin as payment for delivering the grain. (This referenced the backstory where Sprilla taught Diliax that in the seedy underworld, you must always pay your debts. An elvish lesson in general, particularly adhered to by rogues.") The PCs don't know, but the coin is pscionically marked so that Sprilla can track the PCs within one mile. Sprilla doesn't think there is another way out, but he is paranoid, and will pay the Psions their heavy price if it can assure him a nights rest at knowing there is not another enemy after him.
The half-giant bodyguard then seals the well with a giant boulder and the PCs are trapped with the Drajian guards looking for them somewhere behind them in the caves.
I'm almost finished my current non-DS campaign and will turn to DS once that is done. I am looking forward to it.
However I am a little cautious about running it through to Epic level. It just doesn't feel right to have epic level encounters in DS.
That is largely because the campaigns I run always tie into previous campaigns, and in epic DS you have little but SKs to fight - and i don't want the players to go knock them all off and destroy the campaign setting.
OH yaah, I'm going there. I hope, we make 1st level Pcs next Friday. Epic Pcs change the world. The focus of our upcoming DS campaign revolves arround the fall of Nibenay, what ever that may mean to each Pc. Depending on Pc choices the fallout of the fall of Nibenay, could lead to a Pc v. Pc confrontation in the late epic tier. Regardless many sorcerer-kings heads will roll before it's all over, leading to a final confrontation with the Dragon of Tier, to decide the fate of Athas. Why wouldn't you go there?
Ideas I had and am probably going to weave into a two-man campaign I'm running. Very rough. *shrug*In a canyon between the cities of Raam and Urik is a carved out cave cantina known as “The Black Gaj” run by a Neogi crime lord who uses an ancient scrying device to discern where certain caravans are and what they are carrying. He in turn sells this information out to would-be bandit kings who need a big score to assure their superiority. The ranger in the campaign I’m running was hired out of this cantina by Mar Juk-Adan, who was unaware that the Neogi had sold the information of Ibn-Adan’s caravan to some Dray Slavers.
After fighting off the Dray (who had been hired to kill Mar Juk-Adan specifically) the party arrives in Raam with the Dray Leader’s bronze amulet which the Templars have been waiting for. The Templar force the party to meet with the Grand Vizier Abalache-Re who proclaims them the Chosen Ones who have been sent by Badna to root out the “evils” of Raam. In truth she was expecting the Dray to arrive with Ibn-Adan’s head, but this turn of events clearly means she can send more capable fools to do her bidding than originally intended.
Near Giustenal is a group of drayhunting, grudgekeeping, undead slaying zealots known as the Kel Taraskir (shifters) who can trace their bloodline to the ages before Giustenal fell, to when the lion-headed giant Taraskir ruled supreme. They are currently waiting for Taraskir’s “second-coming” and thus the perfect time to strike at their adversary, Dregoth.
Near the Kreen Khanates, the party is attacked by clutch warriors who are wielding strangely organic weapons that let loose a psionic resonation. They claim to be the sons of the Khan-of-Khans and that these lands are to be purified of all non-clutch, non-kreen “outlanders”. The Khan-of-Khans’s soldiers have been wreaking genocidal havoc on tribes that would not submit and none is sure how the Khan-of-Khans, who was suppose to lead the Thri-Kreen to a new glory, could be such an agent of destruction. The party eventually learns that the Khan-of-Khans is the puppet of a Psurlon who had grown ambitious and dreamed of enslaving the other Athasian races.
Tectuktitlay plots to block out the sun so that all will see his superiority, what with him being the self-proclaimed son of the two moons and being served by moon priests. Once he reigns over a domain of eternal night the people of Athas will all convert and worship him, and the other sorcerer-kings will have no choice but to cower at his feet if they ever wish to see a speck of sunlight over their fields again. He hasn’t thought this entirely through, as it would not take long before crops ceased to grow and starvation set in, everyone started to eat themselves and the world would freeze.
The Royal Mortician of Urik asks the party to steal the “Hand of Spite” an artifact of arcane power located in Yaramuke. However once they enter the salt-flooded streets of the fallen city they find that the residents have risen in undeath and follow the shade of sorcerer-queen Sielba who sees her continued existence as a curse by Hamanu. She possesses the Hand of Spite and attempts to coerce the party into joining her in a fight against Hamanu.
That is what i am planning, have the PC's restore enough of the Astral sea so that a pantheon can be sustained, so the next step will be, who is first God of Athas gonna be?
The area around the word "Tablelands" on the map is stony barrens fading into sandy wastes. I don't know if someone copied the wrong piece of terrain for the sample of silt shoals on the key or if they just shaded it darker, but it does look closer to the light areas of stony barrens than the silt shoals. See the slightly darker areas in the Sea of Silt and Estuary of the Forked Tongue, along the shoreline and around the islands? Those are silt shoals. All the references to shoals in the DSCS are in reference to areas of silt navigable to silt skimmers, so I think it's safe to assume that's what they are. Check out pages 152, 162, and 179.
Scott, my problems are solved lol. Thank you so very much. I kept looking through the book and I never made the connection that, that was the only place were silt shoals would be because the color on the map was too dark, it kept throwing me off.
Thanx again.
Because the setting becomes unuseable unless you reset to scratch. I like events of previous campaigns to have meaning in a dynamic setting - and if you kill off the SKs and the Dragon then it really limits your options in later campaigns.
I guess it depends on ones perspective. I think the Dark Sun campaign can evolve from the events played out in ones previous DarkSun campaign. Some of the original sorcerer-kings are gone and new power players, former epic Pcs, replace them and Dark Sun continues a new. Depending on the outcome of an epic Dark Sun campaign, their can be new sorcerer-kings, new Dragon(s) and other powerful entities. I think thier is far more potential in story telling if you go epic and even beyond. I think thier are more opportunties for story telling, building on events from a previous epic tier campaign. I truly believe limiting your campaign too paragon tier, so as not to disrupt the current power structure in Tyr, is far more limiting than letting your campaign evolve out of a epic tier events that drastically change the political, social power structure of the Dark Sun campaign. The death of sorcerer-king Kalak as a major event at the start of both the 4e and original Dark Sun campaign settings, suggests the story potential inherent in heroes (Pcs) confronting and even possibly defeating a sorcerer-king.
Because the setting becomes unuseable unless you reset to scratch. I like events of previous campaigns to have meaning in a dynamic setting - and if you kill off the SKs and the Dragon then it really limits your options in later campaigns.
Unless you kept detailed notes on your last one and run the campaigns concurrently, starting from the same timeframe.
The way I plan on doing it is when my players reach epic, they will travel to other planes and other realities and battle their epic threats.
Also, you can use the rules for creating your own monsters to create more impressive versions of other monsters like the Dragon of Tyr or some of the SKs. Try working your campaign so that after your players defeat a certain SK that you would like to bring back later, Maybe someone or something found its remains and carried them off someplace to heal or reform them. Or you can have the SK after being reduced to 0 hit points, Using their extensive knowledge of magic especially powerful defiling spells, casting themselves into an alternate reality to gather power to get revenge or something like that.
The possibilities are limitless. All you have to do is be a little creative.
But again Qorvus my opinion is to create new characters upon starting a new campaign setting.
.., Try working your campaign so that after your players defeat a certain SK that you would like to bring back later, Maybe someone or something found its remains and carried them off someplace to heal or reform them. ....
The possibilities are limitless. All you have to do is be a little creative.
...
That is why I think Kalak's body dissappearing was a very smart idea by the developers.
Maybe we can introduce some real-world economics to Athas: now that Tyr's slaves are freed, the city gradually becomes richer. Other city-states will find out that economically stangling Tyr doesn't work; force must be used. (Like that will be a problem...) And the freedmen fight like, well, I've never seen the like and don't wanna ever again.
My character wants to learn to read Dwarven writing. He thinks the dwarven language has been suppressed because the secret of healing the land is to be found written in it. The sorcerer-kings want the land ruined because desperate people flock to their "protection" only when there is no other choice.
At higher level, maybe have the PCs - who have developed a reputation for not being anybody's puppet - enter Kalak's pyramid to find his body and sabotage his defiling device. Meanwhile they might pick up a few other nifty secrets and gadgets.
Really clever PCs might find a way to salvage the old ruined cities and start their own towns. Needless to say, the existing sorcerer-kings will be so pleased.
Dark Sun campaign 2: If one of the original PCs went Demigod, his Divine power can be used against undead. Finally, somebody can deal with that one unplundered old city full of skeletons and zombies.
Speaking of divinities, if a PC in Dark Sun campaign 1 can become a Demigod - and he will have to beat up several victorious epic-level primordials in the process - his doing so might begin a chain of events that ends the curse of defiling magic.
I really liked the Hordemaster ED feature about having your lieutenant take your place. Gives you a reason at paragon to deliberately pick a dozen disciples to train.
Okay so right now I’m stumped on how to twist the story that is my campaign, if anyone can give me a lil bit of help that would be great. Now: the pc’s are currently investigating a tribe of free slaves that once made a certain road clear outside the city of Draj, at one time the tribes offered through passage with wampum now however they have been charging Eyes and severed limbs, they go and talk to the leader but his little lackey ends up murdering the leader in front of the pc’s and runs with the collected limbs and eyes. So tonight is actually them squaring off with Zercay the zealous in the middle of him finishing a ritual. What the characters don’t know: is that He is being controlled by the Accursed Legion who have stumbled upon a ritual in which they believe will free them from the curse of Tecketulya sorcerer king of Draj. I have an idea that the Accurse Legion came across this tip through The Mahin’drazal the sand bride. It turns out that though the legion cannot stay in one place to long, because of the nature of Tecktulays curse, Mahin’drazal would prove to be the perfect ally being her city is mobile and moves from time to time. I guess what I need help in is the motives behind Mahindrazel and why and how the accursed legion joined forces and what does this mean to the pc’s. I don’t know, I’m at a big brain fart if anyone can give me vague ideas just to jump start my brain again that would be much appreciated. Any references or just words of inspiration would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Jon 