Joining the Veiled Alliance

[ourchair]

At my primary gaming group, we take turns DMing every month. Next month, I'm scheduled to continue my Dark Sun game which ended on the events of Bloodsand Arena. If you've ever read that adventure then you know that the players are told that they can join the Altaruk chapter of the Veiled Alliance.

The question is: how exactly does one pass into the ranks of the Veiled Alliance. My entire party is made up of non-arcane characters (Human Rogue, Human Fighter, Human Warlord, Thri-Kreen Monk and Elven Seeker) so I can't conjure the whole "And now we will guide you in the ways of preserving while offering our protection," schtick.

I'm currently sinking my arms into a mix of the old 2E material and the new 4E material, with the assumption that this will still be MY Dark Sun (as one of our players is well versed with Dark Sun canon but polite enough to not be a Canon Lawyer) and I want to know what ideas you guys could suggest.

From my understanding, non-arcane characters are employed as support muscle ("Auxiliaries" as they are called) but I'm not sure how they prove themselves before they become part of the chapter and what kind of adventure hooks such a proving would provide.

They obviously have a contact in Arisphistinales (sp?), who does lead the Alliance chapter but aspects of recruitment are funky since the party is not allied with an arcane character of any kind and initiation would be nothing more than a "Test of Action," as the Green Test does not apply to them.

I'm thinking of tying in the story of The Lost Cistern of Aravek and/or making the party become escorts for a fugitive preserver from another city, though I definitely do not want to burden them with an unwanted NPC (or have to run a DMPC) for too long.

Thoughts?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A friend of mine (@TheClone) has worked out a Veiled Alliance Test and adventure. I will notify him of this thread so he can reply himself. I thought it was pretty good.

 

[TheClone]

Yay, here I am! We had a "empty session" after Bloodsand Arena and so I made up an adventure as a follow-up, because I always though "Hey, they are granted the opportunity to joined the Alliance and there is no adventure. What a great waste of a plot hook!" Luckily I just published the adventure on our blog this week. So just load it.

Adventure "Veiled Customs"

Custom Monsters for the adventure

the adventure includes the Green Test (I had an arcane caster), but you can just omit that. The adventure should be usable for you with that change only, which is really minor. Just leave out part one, let a messenger hand the characters the note of Selonius and that's it. Off to the desert!

I have made up a separate Thread for discussion about the adventure. Feel free to join in.

So after my personal advertisement, some points to your ideas. I think the idea of leaving out the Green Test and just doing a Test of Action is quite right. The Alliance has use for any competent help they can get, if these guys support preserving magic. With part 2 of Bloodsand Arena they have proven part of that. But I think you should put something about that into the Test of Action. Like killing a defiler, disturbing a defiling ritual or finding a mighty defiling artifact (not those defiling supporting items from the campaign setting, but something that is defiling as soon as it is used ans it has mighty powers) to test what the characters will do with it (handing it over or destroying would count as success).