Does it ever rain on Athas?
That is outside of the Halfling Jungles to the far west of Tyr?
In the past I've borrowed a pals Dark Sun 1E & 2E books, but it's been some time and I can't really remember how farming took place. I mean there has to be some moisture/water somewhere somehow, or else nothing could survive at all right?
So does it actually Rain ever on Athas, or more specifically in the Campaign setting region around the City State of Tyr.
I would imagine it's sort of a once a year kinda thing, the way Arizona (least to me a a Canadian who visits there once ever few years to see family) gets REALLY HEAVY rains for a really short period of time.
I could imagine flash floods roaring down from the mountains west of Tyr, drowning everything in their path. flooding dry stream and riverbeds. Dead Canals bursting to their limits with water being channeled to massive underground aquifers in the Villages and City States. But almost as soon as it's all begun it's over, maybe 2 or 3 days of Monsoon like rains then that's it.
One amazing thing about the post rain season, of course apart from the renewing of the watertable/supply. Is the Desert would explode in a riot of colour and life for a very short time afterwards. Maybe just a few weeks of fiels of little brigthly coloured lichens and weeds. Flowers and moulds. Plauges of insects and the animals that feed on them would carpet the deserts in a flurry of life and death. It would certainly be something to see (and possibly avoid).
Worse it could go for years with no rain at all. You could even have it that the years without rain, the droughts, are becoming more and more frequent. And old time Tyr'ian could tell the players "I remember when I was a boy, it rained almost once every 2 years, but now were lucky to see rain that hits the ground every 5!
All I'm getting at is I know the World of Dark Sun is Hot, dry, arid and barren, but it has to have rain sometime, and in enough quantity to support life the other 364 days of the year that it's bone whistle dry.
Nowhere else is there this mist.
Giant mountains that have forests on one side trap cloud water (Crescent Forest, Forest Ridge), and they indeed have rain, or at least it rains on the mountains and runoff feeds the forest below.
His ultimate goal is to unleash a "supreme being of water" trapped in the black.
Nimblegrund , you could call the Mad Cleric "Wastri" and have him hop around when he gets excited (see if the players get the reference). You could even have bullywugs drop through the rainstormportal from the elemental plane of Water for added fun!
As a little segue, the villain I am planning for my DS campaign is a mad rain cleric. He first appears as an ally to the players (he gives them water when they are dying of thirst) but later shows his true madness when he "brings water" to a small wasteland village. What he actually does is use an artifact to open up a gateway to the elemental plane of rain above the village. At first it starts as a slight downpour, and then into a thunderstorm (the players have never seen a thunderstorm before!) and finally into a deluge. Creatures from the elemental plane begin to fall from the sky, encased in house-sized drops of rain, which the players are forced to fight as the village is washed away.
His ultimate goal is to unleash a "supreme being of water" trapped in the black.
I'm doing something similar to this. Very cool concept and it reminds me of the Ori storyline from Stargate SG-1
Nimblegrund , you could call the Mad Cleric "Wastri" and have him hop around when he gets excited (see if the players get the reference). You could even have bullywugs drop through the rainstormportal from the elemental plane of Water for added fun!
Don't tempt me. =p
There are a few ways this is salvaged, though.
Aquifers: An aquifer is mentioned explicitly in The Ivory Triangle, and the 4e Tyr preview mentions an aquifer that's fed by runoff from the mountains. A large enough aquifer could easily support the population of the Tablelands without much additional water input.
Runoff: Mudflats along the shore of the Silt Sea are mentioned periodically as a source of crops. Those must be fed from some source, and the topography of the region suggests runoff, moving through underground channels. This implies that a lucky (or magically/psionically guided) digger could conceivably tap one of these underground rivers for a steady supply of water.
Rainy Season: There are very few areas on Earth that receive no rain at all. In fact, I think the Chilean desert is the only one. Everywhere else, periodic storms drench the desert for a brief period, and then vanish again. Rain as a severe threat -- through flash-flooding, if nothing else -- could make for an interesting change of pace in an all-desert game.
Basically, we know there's moisture, because we know that the Crimson Savannah has enough moisture to sustain a swamp. The Tablelands are, I suspect, uniquely arid -- because of the massive cliff and the Barrier Mountains creating an enormous rain-shadow effect. Maps of the region support this, showing more scrub and grassland north and west of the mountains and west of the cliff.
Overall, my take on the place is more 'Southwestern US' and less 'Arrakis'. Which means occasional, torrential rains.
I'm of the same mindset as you Sariyel.
I just picked up the Campaign Guide, the Monster Book and the Adventure (for Dark Sun) at my FLGS today. So I'm pouring through it all right now. But apart from the Iron Triangle you mention, there really doesn't seem like enough waterfall.
I'll have it rain once a year in a massive flashflood torrent in my version of Athas. I love the idea of Flash Floods inundating the land for a few days. As it's so radically different that the rest of the Athasian year.
If anything the Sorcerer Kings can/would take credit for the rains, selling themselves to the people as the bringers of life to the dead planet.
I also like the idea of Psionic Dowsers. But on Athas they might actually not all be charlatans. In fact a reliable and successful dowser would be one of the most valuable peoples/occupations on all of Athas. You could make an adventure, even a mini campaign to either kidnap or rescue a famous Dowser.
When you look at the area as whole it is incredibly small when compared to any other setting. What is it, like only a few hundred miles across? There is so much of Athas that we have no idea about. If the Tyr region is the last bit of civilization on the planet the rest of the planet must be REAL screwed up. My thought is that the SK just have that be the message that is delivered. They are the victors so they write the history as it were. If we assume that 4e DS does have the Jagged Cliffs, Crimson Savannah, Last Sea, then that perception is only that, a perception. The SK must have some interest in the area that even we the players and DM's don't even know. Why would they stay in such an aweful place when there was a verdant area only a few hundred miles to the west?
I have used all the material ever published for DS and looking back on it, I'm glad the 4e version just sticks to the Tyr region. Once you bring all those water rich places into the picture it kinds spoils what made the Tyr region so special. This time around I'll be ignoring all that and stick to the Tyr region. There is much to do there. Again, thanks WotC!
If the Tyr region is the last bit of civilization on the planet the rest of the planet must be REAL screwed up.
Something to note: the dominant sentient life form on Athas is the Kreen. There are far more Kreen than there are humans.
but seriously, i always thought tyr region got some good storms throughout an age and the wooded areas and high elevations would probably get some good rainfall...leading to some strong flash flooding in certain areas. part of the reason the mountains may be so dangerous to travel as well.
The Ringing Moutains and the Forest Ridge to get rain on a regular basis; also, the forest between Gulg and Nibenay has to receive rain.
There's some suggestion that the Gulg forest is the result of enslaving a Spirit of the Land to keep it green. I don't have my books at hand right now, or I'd look it up.
Various Dark Sun supplements mention rain, indicating it is very infrequent. The rate is best left to the DM, but any PC should have seen rain. It should at least be a yearly thing. Without rain, there would be no plant life. Scrub plains, where you have many cacti, should see rain at least once a year. The idea of seasonal rain can be very fun for RP - you might see villagers making preparations for the rains, both to catch the water and fill cisterns and to protect themselves from the floods, rockslides, etc.
Rain often drops on one side of a mountain. As warm air rises over a mountain it loses its moisture as the air grows colder. When it reaches the other side, the air is devoid of moisture. This would be the case around Gulg, for example. So, they might have misty mornings or even rain more often than any other areas (other than the forest ridge, which has the same meteorological effect).
Sporadic rain results in species behaving in opportunistic fashion. The desert suddenly blooms and sends out seeds. Creatures venture forth to get the water (and others to get the prey). It is a time when life awakens and can be very dangerous on Athas. Life is given, life is taken away.
Some deserts have dry riverbeds that would make one scratch their head if they ever encountered such a thing in the middle of nowhere. I recall one television show that highlighted desert fauna that laid dormant under these riverbeds until the sands were wet again. Imagine the strange creatures that may lie dormant under the sands of Athas. At the least, these dried riverbeds can add terrain features to your typical desert encounters.
That same storm also dropped an inch of snow up on the mountains to the west. There were trees and a forest.
i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp289/MajorO...
However, the desiccated place provided little for
her survival. She caught rodents and lizards to eat;
she set up scattered cisterns to hoard the reluctant
droplets of water that rained down twice a year.