Revenge of the Marauders
"Revenge of the Marauders" is an adventure for characters of levels 5-7. It is set on the Dark Sun world of Athas. Although there are many characteristically Athasian features in the adventure, it could be relocated to other campaign settings with adjustments. The monstrous, crawling citadel where most of the adventure takes place, for example, would be nearly as at home on Eberron. This adventure is also a sequel to the published adventure "Marauders of the Dune Sea," but it's not necessary to have played that adventure to send characters on this one.
The raider lord Yarnath prowls the wastelands in his crawling citadel called Slither. Not long ago, Yarnath put all his energy into recovering an artifact fragment known as the Crown of Dust. Someone beat him to it. His raiders did manage, however, to locate the crown jewel of the ancient artifact. This red stone, the Blood Jewel, is the crystallized blood of a primordial. With it, Yarnath might unlock the might of an unimaginably powerful being.
What Anyone Can Learn
A raider lord called Yarnath the Skull has unleashed his forces to harass and disrupt merchant caravans operating near Tyr. The Revolutionary Council is stretched too thin to offer aid, and merchant lords are forced to hire mercenaries to protect their shipments against Yarnath. As the adventure's opening events draw near, these attacks drop off and then stop completely; apparently the mercenaries were successful at stopping Yarnath’s raids.
Using Skills
DC 15 History or Streetwise: Yarnath seeks a shrine dedicated to an entity called the Dust Kraken, which is some kind of sand monster.
DC 15 Streetwise: Rumor has it that Yarnath ceased his raids not because the merchants fought him off but because he unearthed a powerful relic in the desert, the Blood Jewel. It's not known what this relic is capable of, but it's well known what Yarnath is capable of: murder and mayhem. He may even be plotting to topple one of the city-states.
Specific Hook
Among Yarnath's warriors was an elf named Kivrin; she is a spy for the Veiled Alliance. After Yarnath found the Blood Jewel, Kivrin slipped away with that news for the Alliance. She could simply approach the characters and ask for their help. This is appropriate if the characters have had earlier dealings with the Veiled Alliance or if they played a role in the fight against Yarnath. Alternatively, Kivrin could blunder into the characters as she races to evade Templars. A third option would be to send them on an unrelated trek across the desert, where they find Kivrin dying—or already dead—but bearing a message which must reach the Veiled Alliance in a nearby city. You can then use the "Find the Veiled Alliance" skill challenge (Dark Sun Campaign Setting page 204) to pull the characters into events and set them on Yarnath's trail.
It's up...
All in all, I think I give it a 5/10. Mechanically it is fine. Unfortunatly, everything beyond the mechanics, the very things that make Dark Sun a great setting to play in, is missing.
I haven't checked to see how many monsters are new. Has anyone done that already? I need my Monster Builder update!
The premise of the plot has to do with...a lich. A cliche' D&D staple that has been around since Gygax and Arneson concieved the game. There are several undead (raised by the lich) in the adventure, and there are magic traps. Magic has it's place in Dark Sun as rare, destructive, and jealously guarded.
Here is what doesn't make sense about a lich in Dark Sun: in normal D&D, a lich is a powerful wizard who makes a bargain to gain even greater power. So, question: how did that wizard get that powerful in the first place, and how did he obtain and carry out the ritual? The only casters that powerful are either defilers who would push towards becoming a dragon, or preservers who push toward becoming an avangion. An even better question is where he learned the ritual. Who in Athas has ever become a lich?
My solution is this: why not replace the lich with a psionicist or powerful druid that summons elementals. Either of those would fit far better, and given that this story is a deep as a shot glass, rewriting it would be little to no trouble.
This wasnt a problem in Vault, the author of that did a better job of fitting things to the setting.
Its like Bruce Cordell (author of Marauders and now this) tried too hard. I rolled my eyes at it in Marauders and do so again here.
I'll make it work though since I'm running Campaign Guide -> Vault -> Marauders. The lich will become a normal defiler who works for Nibenay or the like. The beetle tower will be take some thought on what to do with it. Maybe an undead war beetle like in Dragon Kings that goes to a tower or even back to Nibenay. Will see. It will take work.
I am going to be very wary of anything else with Cordells name on it.
I am not worried about that at all. The flavor of that seems fine. Honestly, the flavor of the quest doesn't bother me at all. It is just that there is nothing there but a dungeon crawl. The Vault has an encounter with the lord of an elven nomad tribe, and negotiations. The Vault has encounters that take place near an oasis. It has tons of traveling challenges. It has lots of social and survival themed encounter to supplement its final foray into the vault. There is nothing to this adventure except for a dungeon crawl through one of Slither's castles. It is a single skill challenge to sneak into Slither, and then a dungeon crawl through one of Slither's towers. There is nothing else to it... which is really kind of meh.
Escape from the Tempest is a much better adventure. It is a player homebrew... but it is fantastic. This. Its mechanically ok. A good DM might make it into something neat. But by itself, it is just a dungeon crawl.
Maybe Cordell is not a very imaginative adventure writer, despite being a gifted D&D designer?
EDIT: I might be mistaken by the 2e precedent. But if so, it still doesn't seem out of place in the setting as written back in the 2e days. Its not like Dark Sun was ever devoid of magic, mages, or undead.
@Pennarin: I have not read up on Dragon Kings recently and would not doubt something like that existing in the source books.
Whether or not there is precedent for a liches or undead armies in Dark Sun, why include so many elements that are not unique to Dark Sun in a Dark Sun adventure? The entire appeal of Dark Sun is its unique world. A magic mobile fortress is cool in its own rite, but nothing makes it distinctly Athasian. If magic is used, defiling or preserving needs to be an integral part of that (imagine finding plants or husks of bodies used to fuel Slither). If I created a Dark Sun adventure for my players and I had a magic crossbow turret and a teleportation circle in my encounter, they would honestly wonder if I was just pressed for time that week. This lack of effort to make it feel like Dark Sun is not something I would expect from a professionally written adventure is all.
I was also dissappointed in the adventure and found it lacking DS flavor, seemed more like a FR session to me. I'd be curious what the guys at Penny Arcade could do with it considering how insanely awesome they ad libbed the opening to that turd pile Fury of the Wastewalker.
I'll make it work though since I'm running Campaign Guide -> Vault -> Marauders.
How are you bridging the gap from Level 4 at the end of Marauders and the very minimum of level 5 for Revenge?
To give a little level bump I've got some ideas- didn't quite finish 1st mauraders last session so don't know which route my players will end up taking but some ideas are:
-They couldn't get past Slither and back to Tyr so they ducked in one of the tunnel offshoots to try to find a new way back out into the desert without the raiders directly at thier back.
- One of my arcane characters defiled in Tyr and so they have either the templars or the Veiled alliance or both looking for them
-Slaves havn't been freed in Tyr yet in my setting and 2 of my characters are slaves. The slave revolution is at least 1 lvl of fun
-Shom sends the characters on caravan to be caught by slavers outside the city. They must escape and get back to Tyr
I also have some ideas that deal more with the elemental priests or the Templars' political moves if they opt for more RP and less battle after the battle heavy 1st mauraders.
I'll make it work though since I'm running Campaign Guide -> Vault -> Marauders.
How are you bridging the gap from Level 4 at the end of Marauders and the very minimum of level 5 for Revenge?
"Roleplay XP"
We are a long way from running Revenge. I'm keeping track of how XP is being awarded in the first link in my sig.
I also have a story draped over the skeleton of the modules, so there is other stuff to do. My group is all templars from Urik instead of random people from Tyr. Playing as templars lets you put a different twist on things. For now they get to see life from the view of favored servants of a sorcerer-king.
At the moment we are doing the Vault of Madar adventure. Normally you learn about the vault from some descendant who talks to a merchant who gives the hook to the players. Here the group had to retrieve the Madar descendant (he was in the tower from the Campaign Guide), return him to Urik for interrogation, and is now literally carrying around his trapped soul to lead them to the Vault.