D&D 4E My Dark Sun 4e Game Experience Updated 01/22/2013

Dark Sun: Session 11

The group begins the session having achieved 6th level.

In the aftermath of the battle, Tenpug tells the party that he wishes to follow the retreating gith to where they are coming from, and destroy them once and for all. Tonight, though, they must bury their dead and gather their forces.

As the funeral pyres light the night sky, several of the town defenders, along with a few of the party members, began gathering the enemies' weapons. Using these, they are nearly able to arm all of the town defenders with metal weapons.

Meanwhile, Treona and Allkirk approach the group. They wish to return to Nibenay so that they can find a way to destroy the dangerous artifact beneath Kiris Dahn. They will be leaving on the morrow.

The following day, Tenpug gathers the remainder of his band. The group decides to leave nearly half of them behind to protect the village in the case of another concerted attack from the gith. The remainder begin tracking the fleeing attackers, heading east into the Black Spine mountains.

Luckily, Tenpug had a ranger who was able to assist with the tracking, but even with Katries phenomenal perception, the going was difficult. The following day, a strange sand storm forces the group to take shelter behind a stoney embankment. Kratas and Katrie both agree that this storm is not natural. As they hunker down to wait out the storm, a rear guard of Gith attacks.

While Tenpug's band fights of a fairly large group, the party finds themselves attacked by a group of about 20 gith. Due to the flying grit and sand, vision is horrible. Fortunately, the party's dice were blessed. I kid you not, the party had no less than 5 crits this session.

Tor Val charges in, sweeping through the gith with his Gouge, killing a group of minions with his Howl of Fury. Dryder rushes after the Gith Drone, hoping that he can kill it before it does too much damage to the party. Kratas and Gundrek go after the Gith commander, and Katrie takes mop-up on the Gith Dust Racers. She uses Predator's Flurry so that she can daze the Dust Racers. She crits not once, but twice!! Dryder, who is busy fighting the Drone, soon follows with ANOTHER crit, and action points to obliterate the drone in one, swift, bloody exchange. Gundrek uses Momentum Swing, Augment 2 to attack the gith spearhead, killing it, then immediately charges the Gith Commander and crits. Soon, the rest of the gith are dead and dying, and the party basks in their victory. The storm, though, continues to rage.

They decide to rest for the night there until the storm abates. As the group settles down, a strange silence falls over the camp. Soon, everyone is asleep.

Katrie awakens to a strange sight. The sand storm has dissolved, but the sky is strange. The two moons hover, full and unmoving, in a red sky. The sand and grass they sleep on is black, and she can barely make out the forms of her companions. Swiftly, she rushes to awaken the rest of the party just as she hears a terrifying roar from the edge of the camp, and the screams of the dying.

Running to the edge of the camp, the party sees a terrifying monstrosity; something so horrible that there is no way that it could exist in the natural world. As it tears into several members of Tenpug's band, Kratas attempts to understand what is happening. He realizes that they are all asleep, dreaming, and that this monstrosity is some sort of psionic attack. He's sure that if they can defeat the attack, they would wake up. So, the party rushes in.

It isn't long before the group has the creature defeated. As it fades into the black sands, the party awakens in the real world to discover that those of Tenpug's band who had fallen to the psychic monstrosity were unable to awaken. They send half of their remaining group back to Kiris Dahn to protect those who are comatose, and decide to try to continue tracking down the gith, despite the sandstorm from the day before.

Weary from the previous night, they press on. Certain that the Gith are coming from the Black Spine Mountains, they continue in that direction. One more day of travel edges them ever closer, and as evening falls, they decide to rest one more night, hoping that they would be fresh in the morning.

Exhaustion forces them all to fall asleep. Gundrek tries as hard as he can to remain awake, but he, too, succumbs to his fatigue.

Again, they awaken on a barren plain with black sand. The red sky arches above them, and everything is featureless for as far as the eye can see. Tenpug's band lies around them, unable to move or awaken from their slumber. Only the party remains awake, and Kratas realizes that they are trapped within the mindscape of a powerful psionicist. The type of attack that they are being subjected to is very powerful, but also very dangerous in that it allows someone who is psionically gifted to use the mindscape to strike back at the attacker (he rolled high on his Arcana check). They begin to travel across the mindscape, searching for the enemy's mind.

Soon, the featureless plain is marred by two giant iron statues standing side by side. Both are identical statues of Gith warriors. As the group approaches, they suddenly awaken and attack.

Kratas realizes that these are the Gith Psion's mental defenses, and that if they can defeat them, then his mind would be open to attack. I leveled down 2 Iron Golems, both elites, to represent the statues.

Gundrek, Dryder and Kratas attack one of the statues, and Katrie and Tor Val attack the other. The fight is a little grindy, but not extremely difficult. It isn't long before they both are dead, instantly rusting and disolving into the landscape.

As soon as both fall, a horrible scream erupts from the land around them. The Gith Psion appears, gigantic, and angrily attacks the party.

This is another solo monster, and one I was quite pleased with. He had some interesting attack combinations that allowed him to move the party around. Also, he could attack his enemies and drain Psionic Power Points to recharge his most devastating attack, a psychic scream. If the person he attacked didn't have any power points, then they gained vulnerable 5 to psychic damage. By the end of the battle, almost all of the party is bloodied, and Katrie is close to death. But between Tor Val's 5th crit of the night and the constant barrage of attacks from everyone else, the Gith Psion's psychic construct falls.

From its decaying body, a creature emerges, something out of HP Lovecraft's worse nightmares. While the creature is terrifying, it is only the Gith Psion's last ditch effort to expell the party from its mindscape. One solid hit from Dryder causes it to dissipate. And then, a massive castle made of black stone rumbles up from the plain before them.

The edifice is shaped like the head of a giant gith, and it's mouth gapes open. The party enters and see's hundreds of glowing gems arrayed all throughout the inside of the castle. In the very center, a glowing gem floats. Kratas determines that this is the focus of the gith psion's energies, and that if they can destroy it, they would be free of the psionic attack.

Tor Val smashes the gem, and as a bright flash of light erupts around them, they see a vision of the gith psion screaming as he clutches his head in agony. They awaken soon after. The rest of Tenpug's band also awakens, and the party realizes they have struck a major blow against their enemies.

That afternoon, they stand on a hill overlooking the enemy camp. A small barricade surrounds an encampment of wooden and stone huts. Nearby, a gaping hole descends into the mountainside. It is a mining camp, and it is completely controlled by the enemy gith. But as they watch, they realize that the enemy is disorganized and unaware, and the party begins to plan their assault.

The day is now the 1st day of Wind, in the Season of Sun Ascending, in the Year of Enemy's Vengeance, 190th King's Age.

Next session: Into the Mines

That series of dream sequences is pure awesome - indeed, I think they are the best examples of such I've ever read. I would give you XP, but alas it won't let me.

Sessions 12 and 13

After spending some time observing the mining camp, the group decides to climb up the mountainside and attack from the rear of the camp. While they do this, Tenpug's band will assault the front gates of the camp.

As Tenpug's band attacks, the party sneaks into the mining camp. While the majority of the gith there defend the front gates, the party attacks from within, swiftly crippling the disorganized defenders. Soon, the battle is over with the party barely scratched. While Tenpug's band secures the mining camp, the group searches the tents and shacks. There, they find a few enslaved miners (which they quickly free...they are happy to join Tenpug's band), and then discover the gith leader in one tent. He sits in front of a shattered crystal, mindless and drooling. This was, apparently, the source of the strange psionic attacks that the party experienced. Dryder does him a mercy and puts him out of his misery.

After making sure that the mining camp is well defended, the group decides to descend into the mines, hoping to discover the source of the gith raids and also to find where all of these metal weapons are coming from. It isn't too long before they hear a sound in one of the branching corridors; the soft tinkling of bells and someone shouting blistering curses in dwarven.

They soon find a small group of Belgoi surrounding a dwarven miner. The Belgoi, realizing that their sport is being cut short, quickly attack the party.

Belgoi are fun; they are also nasty. This small group gave the party a decent challenge, though. Many of their abilities are tied together (one has an ability that dazes the party. Then, their attacks do extra damage versus dazed opponents). The caller wreaked havok among the group, forcing them to attack each other. Soon, though, the party defeats the Belgoi and rescue the trapped miner, a dwarf named Durdon.

Durdon explains about what has been going on. The mine, owned by a minor noble from Nibenay, had not been doing well. Being on the brink of shutting down production, the miners tried excavating a previously unexplored area of the mines about two months previously. Soon, they broke through into a large cavern that was rich with iron. It was also teeming with Gith. Before long, the miners were enslaved, and the Nibenay overseers were all dead. The gith began forays into the upper world while a second group used the enslaved miners to further excavate deeper into the tunnels. On these expeditions, Durdon was brought through an ancient city unlike any he had ever seen. He warns the party of the gith nest below, and explains that there are 3 gith that lead this group; a powerful gith warrior, a grossly fat gith priestess ("She frightens me," says Durden), and a third gith who fights with his hands. The party finds an area of the mine that is fairly secure and rest up for the night.

The next morning, refreshed, the party descends further into the mines. They have also achieved enough experience to grant them 7th level.
They are now easily miles beneath the earth. Several hours of descent with only their torchlight to guide their path brings them to a branching tunnel. Unknown to them, 2 gith guards are aware of their approach. They give out an ear-piercing whistle that echoes through the tunnels, then immediately spring out to attack.

The narrow tunnels force the group into a bottle-neck. While the party fights off the two gith guards, another group rushes up the tunnel to assist. A lone gith breaks off and runs deeper into the mines, warning the gith nest below. A gith drone tries to hit the party with an Area of Effect power, and Gundrek gets to use his new favorite power; Lightning Rush. He forces the drone to target just him, and the rest of the group is saved from the worst of the attack. The group easily defeats this small band of guards and follow the tunnels.

Soon, the passageway widens. Where the tunnel was only about 7 feet high (forcing Tor Val to duck through much of the passage), it now arches overhead to about 30 feet. About 10 feet above their heads, the party can see a ledge with faint light coming from it. Tor Val boosts Dryder and Katrie up so that they can investigate.

The ledge widens into a large cavern, well lit by braziers and glowing stones. At the southern end of the room, a large group of gith waits with weapons drawn. Fortunately for Katrie and Dryder, both rolled well on their stealth checks, and they were able to quickly return to the party and warn them.

Soon, the entire party is up on the ledge. While they assess the situation, Kratas decides to jump on ahead and cause a commotion. This was a bad idea.

As soon as he charges into the room, someone throws a bottle of flaming oil. What the party mistook for small pebbles littering the floor turned out to be explosive rocks. As the flaming oil hits them, they erupt around Kratas. Fortunately, Kratas uses his Warp in the Weave power to avoid the damage, but it is too little, too late as gith warriors quickly surround him.

Gundrek and Tor Val rush into the fray, hoping to pull some of the enemies off of Kratas. While the rest of the group pulls into position, the gith trapped on the opposite side of the burning section of the room start raining javelins down on the group. Gundrek, Kratas and Tor Val push the 6 gith trapped on their side of the cavern into a small guard room so that Gundrek can trap them inside. Too soon, though, the fire dies down, and the party is soon defending themselves from a swarm of gith, led by an unarmed gith named Toogo. Toogo leaps among the party, his hands and feet flashing. Kratas falls to these viscious attacks, and Tor Val, Dryder and Katrie are forced to try and defeat Toogo as quickly as they can, a task made more difficult by the fact that Toogo can leap in and out of the party. Meanwhile, Gundrek cleans up the 6 gith trapped in the guard room and turns to assist with the rest of the gith (mostly minions). This frees Katrie up to do a heal check on Kratas (who has failed one death save) and bring him back into the action. Soon, Toogo falls, and the party is rewarded with a nice, bright, shiney new toy; a Helm of Battle. This, they give to Kratas.

Undaunted, the party rests for a brief moment and continues into the nest. To the south, they find a rough set of stairs that leads into an even larger cavern, also lit by glowing stones. Several gith mingle in here, and upon seeing the party, flee deeper into the cavern. The party follows and discovers the reason the gith were fleeing; the floor of this cavern is riddled with glyphs that burst into flame when anyone gets near. The party holds back so that they can decide what to do.

Soon, they hear another piercing whistle. While Katrie starts searching the floor for the glyphs, Gith start pouring out of side passages. 2 gith spearheads head further south. The party is quickly surrounded by the gith defenders.

Katrie does an excellent job of finding and marking the glyphs while the rest of the group fights off the gith. One drone uses a telekinetic push to force Tor Val onto a glyph, but to no avail. As they wade through the gith, the party hears a terrible shout from the south. Soon, a grossly fat gith female named Zigath is seen following the 2 gith spearheads from earlier. Not only is she a powerful psion (as Gundrek discovers when he is nearly killed by her Mind Thrust power), but she is also a powerful fire priestess. She smites the party with fire, then surrounds them with a Wall of Fire. Gundrek, angry at her earlier attack, crits the creature. Before long, the battle has turned against her. As she falls, she curses the party. Katrie happily picks up Zigath's magical totem; a Flameheart Totem. With it, she is now able to do almost striker level damage while she is in beast form. The group investigates the southern area and find Zigath's sleeping quarters, which contains a large chest. Dryder finds that it is trapped, but is unable to disarm it. He decides to use the Barbarian Lock-pick (Tor-Val) to spring the trap. Fortunately for Tor Val, the trap misses him. Within are 2 healing fruits and a decent sum of gold and a strange, runed statue. Kratas determines that it is a key of some type, and the party agrees to hold onto it for later. They continue on.

They emerge from a narrow tunnel into what appears to be the gith living quarters. Here is arrayed the last of the nest's defenders. Among them is the leader of the group, a fierce gith battlemind named Haza. The party quickly arrange themselves at the entrance to the nest, forcing the gith to approach them a few at a time.

This fight was so fun. Katrie summons HypnoToad, and the party arranges themselves in a three by three formation, with a narrow 5 foot alley between their ranks. The enemy is unable to get past them because of the narrow passageway they are in. As the gith would approach, Katrie would command HypnoToad to attack one of the enemies, which would pull the enemy into the narrow alleyway, thereby granting EVERYONE in the party combat advantage. Between Katrie and Dryder, the carnage was brutal.

Tor Val waits to get a large group of minions around him, and then does his Howl of Fury, killing a large group of them. Haza hangs back, shouting commands to his troops. As he sees Tor Val take out a good number of his soldiers, he shouts and points at Tor Val. Soon, the reason for this is apparent; Haza wants his troops to focus fire on the barbarian.
Fortunately, the party's effective tactics minimizes the damage, and Haza is forced to engage. The fight is intense, and Haza is well defended and hits very hard. But, inevitably, the party is victorious. Nothing is left of the gith nest but slaves. The group finds some interesting treasure, including a set of Tembo Hide Marauder's Armor (Tor Val yoinked that as soon as he could), a golden statuette of a creature that looked very similar to the Gith, but stood straight, proud and regal.

Eventually, the party discovers a large stone door. It is here that they are able to use the key they found earlier to continue on. Within this area are more gith slaves, a few small caverns filled with rock and debris, and an enormous stone arch.

Within the arch, they see a massive dome. The floor of this cavern is covered in vegetation unlike any they've ever seen. A small city resides here, it's spires almost touching the ceiling of the cavern. Around the central spire, a large, glowing orb slowly orbits the spire, shedding bright yellow light on the inside of the cavern. Bridges and walkways criss-cross the buildings. From what they can tell, the city is abandoned. Treasure and glory awaits.

It is awesome to see the party discovering their roles and getting into them. Luck and great tactics saved them from several very difficult encounters; they all used almost all of their surges and dailies.

The day is now the 2nd day of Wind, in the Season of Sun Ascending, in the Year of Enemy's Vengeance, 190th King's Age.

Next Session: The City of Calamity

Dr_Ruminahui said:

That series of dream sequences is pure awesome - indeed, I think they are the best examples of such I've ever read. I would give you XP, but alas it won't let me.

Click to expand...

Why, thank you, good sir. Much appreciated

Just to clarify, I can't take credit for the dream sequence. This is actually from the Dark Sun module Black Spine (from 1994). I've been using it and modifying it for 4e.

Some of the modifications are quite challenging, but so far, I am quite satisfied with the results.

Wow, you are a great story teller. I wish you DM'd for me.

Dark Sun: Sessions 14 and 15

Before further venturing into the city, the group decides to return to the surface to rest up and get supplies. Also, they realize that perhaps they should check in with Allkirk, Treona and Marius Amketch. Upon arriving at Kiris Dahn, they send a message to Allkirk, then spend the rest of the time resupplying. They also take a good sum of the money they have accumulated to pay Tenpug and his band for both their services and their assistance in the previous battle.

The next day, they receive a message from Allkirk. He is very interested in this city that the group has discovered and wishes to send along an assistant to help the party. They also discover that the templars in Nibenay have suddenly and inexplicably begun to find and capture Veiled Alliance members. Allkirk is in hiding, and Treona is not to be found. Several days later, they encounter their newest member, a Half-Elven female Bard named Pa Mela. The group and the Bard do not hit it off too well.

Soon after upgrading some of their magical items and resupplying, the group (plus a bard) return the the underground city. Before moving in, though, Kratas asks the group to wait while he investigates something they saw on their way.

Next to the entryway into the underground city, the party discovers a smaller area, domelike, with a series of runes and patterns on the floor. Kratas does an Arcana check and discovers that the runes, and indeed the entire dome they are in, has an otherworldly resonance. Noting this, the group heads to the city.

As they approach the entry archway, they are suddenly attacked. Several spirits wielding glowing silver swords rushes to attack them from a nearby guardhouse.

This fight was interesting. These were customized creatures called Sword Spirits, and they came in two flavors; a long sword spirit and a two-handed sword spirit. I had realize that, while the encounters that the party had been fighting so far were challenging, I was afraid that they weren't challenging enough. So, I increased the difficulty of the encounters down here. The Longsword spirits used displacement to frustrate the party, while the Two-Handed spirits used devastating area attacks while being extremely mobile. The fight was intense, but not extraordinarily difficult. Soon, the spirits are gone, and the swords they were wielding fall to the ground, no longer glowing.

As the dust settles, Pa Mela apologizes to the party for her earlier antagonism. Realizing that this was a well organized and dangerous group of people, she confesses that her original impression of the group was from Allkirk. Mistakenly believing that the party was a group of amateurs, she treated them as such. The group is not pleased to discover this little bit of information and vow to discuss this with Allkirk when they next meet. The six of them then continue.

The city beneath the Black Spine mountains is like nothing ever seen before. Bridges and archways span the streets. The buildings are curved; no angles ot straight lines grace the habitats. Each building grows upward, and the Bard determines that it is evident that the more wealthy members of the city lived on the upper floors. Likely, there were some members of the city's elite that never once set foot on the ground level of the city. The stonework is nearly flawless. Pa Mela and Kratas determine that the buildings were carved using a combination of magic and metal tools. They decide that the central spire, which has no bridges linking to it, would be where the leader of the city would probably reside. In other words, if there was treasure to be found, that was likely the best place to look. They begin crossing the city, moving across the vegetation-choked rooftops.

Soon, they encounter a group of large lizards. To their horror, they discover that these are Basilisks.

This fight turned out to be extremely difficult. Some of the basilisks had the ability to mark their enemies, while the rest were the traditional type. I wasn't expecting this fight to be this difficult, but unfortunately for the group, the dice decided that they would not be kind. I did not expect some of the players to fail 3 saving throws...

Tor Val and Gundrek move to the front, hoping to prevent the basilisks from striking at the rear of the party. Katrie and Dryder then wade in, attacking one of the psionic basilisks. At this point, one of the basilisks uses his gaze attack, hitting Katrie, Tor Val and Gundrek (and one of the psionic basilisks). Tor Val uses one of his Barbarian powers to shrug off the immobility. Gundrek, and later Dryder, are not so lucky. They fail all three of their saving throws (over 3 rounds, of course) and are petrified. Katrie fails two of her saves, but is fortunate enough to make her third. Katrie, desperate, summons HypnoToad (All Glory to the HypnoToad!!) to help take up the slack. It is when one of the basilisks attacks HypnoToad that the party realizes that the fight is won. True to history and form, HypnoToad crits with his very next attack, and between him, Pa Mela, Tor Val, Kratas and Katrie, they mop of the last of the creatures. Realizing that they had no way to cure their petrified party members, they decide to head back to Kiris Dahn and hope that they can find a cure. Pa Mela uses a Tenser's Floating Disk ritual to carry the two of them, and they head back to the surface.

Arriving back in Kiris Dahn several days later, the group is relieved to find Treona, safe, and deep into research on a way to discover the dangerous artifact that is confined beneath Kiris Dahn. She readily agrees to cast a ritual to cure Dryder and Gundrek, and then explains some of what she is researching. Realizing that the Eye of Abalach-Re is a very powerful defiling artifact, Treona theorizes that powerful Preservation magic could destroy it. Only one type of creature has that type of power; an Avangion. She also explains that her sister, Dreus, is the one behind the attacks on the Veiled Alliance members in Nibenay, but she is unsure how Dreus is coming across her knowledge.

Kratas, during this time, purchases a Remove Affliction scroll for future use, and then moves off to do some research of his own. Realizing the strength in magic, Kratas decides to find a way to use this power to further enhance his own abilities. He secretly makes a pact with powerful outside forces to grant him the ability to use magic. This transformation begins slowly, while the party decends back into the underground city.

(Side Note: The player running Kratas wished to make several changes to his character. He wanted to keep Kratas, but also wanted to play something slightly more interesting, and that also kept in line with how he eventually envisioned his character arc. As a house rule, I allow a single character re-write for each player. This allows for inexperience and mistakes they made originally in creation. Retraining is still a viable solution, but once they re-write their character, they are stuck with it until the character dies. The player running Kratas decides to re-write him as a hybrid Ardent/Warlock. The new character will be implemented next session.)

The party returns to the underground city. Eventually, they are forced to get down from the rooftops and approach the central spire from the streets. It is then that they are attacked by a Behir.

This fight was tough. Not only were the dice rolling horrible for them, but I was hitting on almost every single attack. This was a younger Behir, which is a level 12 solo, but it was still extremely difficult for the party to hit him.

After breathing lightning on the group (and dazing a few), the behir attacks Tor Val, swallowing him. While Tor Val attempts to escape, Dryder, Katrie and Kratas try to attack the behir, hoping that they can force it to release Tor Val. Gundrek marks the creature, but is unable to hit it. Tor Val, after taking a small amount of damage from being munched on, succeeds on his escape check. Meanwhile, Pa Mela casts a Stirring Shout on the creature, which grants a small amount of hitpoints whenever an ally hits the behir. Soon after, she casts Vigorous Cadence, which grants a small amount of hitpoints the first time the behir makes an attack. So, essentially, whenever anyone hits the behir, they get healed. And, whenever the behir attacks anyone, they get healed. Bard=Good Times.

The behir attacks Gundrek and devours him. It is at this time that the fun begins. Gundrek as used Mind Spike maybe twice since character creation. However, since the behir was marked and had devoured Gundrek, it was free to attack everyone else. Which triggered the Mind Spike. After a good bit of laughter from the party, the behir decides to spit Gundrek out, throwing him into a small area of vegetation...which then proceeds to attack Gundrek and immobilizes him. Katrie summons her Elemental Spirits, and soon the party has defeated the monstrosity. Almost all of them are bloodied during the fight, and nearly all of their dailies have been used.
Tor Val helps the party ascend the central spire. Soon, they enter the Overseer's quarters; a small set of apartments that apparently was used by the city's leaders. Kratas finds an almost intact skeleton and uses the Last Sight ritual to see how it dies.

He sees the Overseer sitting at a desk, writing something in a language Kratas isn't familiar with. Hearing a ruckus outside, the Overseer looks out the window and sees a sudden flash of light, which swiftly expands outward, sweeping over the city, killing everything in its path, but leaving the buildings intact. Kratas, unfortunately, was unable to determine what type of creatures inhabited the city prior to its demise.

On one side of the room is a statue of a tall, thin, stately woman, her face covered by a hood. As Dryder looks it over, a Magic Mouth ritual is triggered, and a male voice harrangues the party in a harsh, gutteral language. Kratas uses a Comprehend Languages rituals and then triggers the Magic Mouth again.

"Beware, mortal, the wrath of the Queen. I shall bind my enemies and feed them to the Blind Dark."

Pa Mela, meanwhile, is investigating one of the exits from the room when she triggers an explosive glyph. Dryder then hears something in another room shatter, and then hears an angry, wild roar. Soon, a horrible creature bursts into the room.

This creature is a heavily modified Grey Slaad, which I bumped up to a solo. It immediately attacks the party, lashing out with tentacles of pure chaos. It is at this time that the party's dice decide to do the good deed. Kratas crits not once, but twice in one round after spending an Action Point. Soon after, Tor Val crits. All in all, there were a total of 5 crits during this combat. A creature that had almost 500 hitpoints was completely obliterated in the space of 3 rounds.

The group finds a chest that contains over 500 gold pieces; not the ceramic "gold" pieces found in the cities, but REAL gold, each imprinted with the symbol of ancient civilizations. They also discover 5 +2 javelins and a set of Scale Mail of Fire Resistance +3. In another chamber, they discover that the Slaad had emerged from an urn, a prison of some type that had been confined in the tower for thousands upon thousands of years. It was likely that the Slaad had been driven completely insane (well, more than it already was) by its imprisonment.

This was a tough session plagued by unlucky dice rolls. Since there are now 6 players in the party, I've had to increase the difficulty a bit so that they can be properly challenged. The session ends with the party achieving 8th level.

The day is now the 22nd day of Wind, in the Season of Sun Ascending, in the Year of Enemy's Vengeance, 190th King's Age.
Next Session: The Square of Gurdek.

Interlude: Kratas in the Desert

Kratas
Reborn

It was but an hour from dusk when Kratas left is companions to their Amketch employers. Quietly he made his way out of the compound, across the streams and into the sands of the encompassing desert. He had a purpose.

Kratas was a noble by birth, born and raised in Tyr, though his father had not earned his title. He never knew his mother, as she died giving him life. His father told him little of her, and he could only get half the story from his wet-nurse-turned-nanny years later.

He tracked across the sands for a few miles, coming to a small basalt formation rising from the sand like a tooth of a long dead monster. What was he doing? Images not his own flashed like lightning through his weary mind. A symbol,... ancient? Forgotten? He knew of its origin...the Far Realm. His resolve wavered as he stared at the menacing rock scar and pulled forth a shard of coal.

Leatra, his nanny, and perhaps the only friend he had for his first fifteen years, spoke only briefly about his mother. "A mind-witch from the deep desert, and you too have her Gift." She never explained further, but it was evident that his mother and father were a strange match.

He scratched the symbol onto the flat stone before him. He knew the words...for they had been whispered to him for days since the great battle with the Gith, or perhaps even the time he touched the Defiler relic. Reaching into himself, he summoned forth all of the psionic strength within him, creating countless turns in a mental maze, hoping it would protect him from what was to come...

Kratas's father was Khadhar, dominant lord of the Maktrel Ludis, or gladiatorial school. Slaves were a way of life to the growing noble's son, and the cries of men living and dying around him a constant din. Khadhar was a hard man, and would not suffer weakness from his child. By the time he was fifteen, he had seen hundreds die in and out of the fighting ring.

The lines of the Star blur and ignite, burning in inky black flame, bleeding peals of silent thunder. A connection is made as foreign and forgotten words burst forth from the Star, clouding his mind. Sweat drips from his forehead as he strains to keep the frayed ends of his sanity from leaking away like the forgotten rains of his desert world...

His father gave no ground, and accepted no excuse while Kratas trained in the Mind arts. He was to be an Adept, a powerful Psion...and Khadhar would accept nothing but perfection from his son. These disciplines came easily enough, but it was the Arcane that truly excited him. Knowing words and formula to alter the fabric of his world; this was what he really wanted.

He could feel them. The burning, faceless things that inhabit the black places between time and space. He could hear the foul piping of alien flutes, and listened in horror to the music of the spheres...

Many a night, Kratas could be found in his room, poring over arcane primers and ritual formulae. It took many years for them to take hold, as they were somewhat alien to his mental training. His friend Dryder, a minstrel and vagabond, teased him without end in those early years for his bookishness.

The gates of his mind and the doors of ancestral memory are battered down, self knowledge expands as the Star's three-lobed eye opens and dialates... There is speech, the language is thought, idea and desire. The Outer Forces make plain their aims and goals for the physical world. Kratas's will bends...but does not break. He bears the weight of the heavens, deafened by silence and foul, alien thoughts.

He remembers the day of the uprising. He remembers the bloody end his father met at the tip of a slave's sword. Dryder was insistent that he not tarry, and assisted Kratas's escape from the slave’s vengeance. He will always be grateful to his low-born elven friend; though they fight as cats and dogs, their team is as eternal as the sands of Athas.

E'saadri, his mother was Kalashtar. Knowledge of his true ancestry strikes him like a cold wind. His blood, too, is Kalashtar; one of the Estranged humans of the deep desert. Knowledge of self brings strength; he pushes back the massive onslaught of amoral insight, powered by the writhing chaos without...

For months/years after the fall of the Ludis and the death of his father, Kratas wandered the city streets. Fortune had smiled on the night he had escaped when Dryder handed him the small fortune his father had kept. This money sustained him for a while, but did nothing to lift the yoke of loss from him. He had known nothing else, and now he had nothing. He spent the last of his coin for armor and weapons and set out to find Dryder...and perhaps a new life.

It takes every ounce of his remaining will to end the connection to the Far Realm. The brand of the Outer Things burns cold on his back as the black flames die out. He feels charged with power, but knows there is a price for this bargain. No matter, he has become a weapon...Let his enemies tremble at his approach, for he does not come alone - "They" are with him.

Dark Sun: Session 16

After finishing up in the overseer's quarters, the group descends the spire and continues exploring the underground city. Unknown to the rest of the group, Kratas has finished his transformation, awakening latent psionic powers and developing a few abilities granted to him by his otherworldly patrons.

After about an hour, they hear what sounds like something tapping inside one of the buildings. They move further in, trying to determine the source. Soon, it becomes clear that the tapping is actually someone beating rythmically on a wall, which is further verified when they faintly hear someone singing. When they get close enough to make out the language, they are shocked to discover that the person is singing in common. However, the words are almost gibberish, words strung together in meaningless sentences.

Eventually, they encounter a lone human male using two clubs as drumsticks. He continues to sing, not noticing the party until Pa Mela steps forward and grabs his attention. The man drops his clubs in startlement, then cowers in the corner, babbling incoherently as the party tries to calm him. Kratas tries to contact the man's mind, but finds nothing there...as if the man had no mind. But, with Pa Mela's persistant calm, the man soon calms down. He beckons the party to follow him.

Crawling and stumbling over the rooftops and through the ancient habitations, the strange man babbles at the group as he guides them east through the ruins. Eventually, they come to a small cottage. The area around it is cultivated, farmed for what the group can only assume are nutricious plants. The man calls out as he approaches the cottage, and the group makes out a name in the incoherent gibberish; "Slate."
Soon, a man emerges. From all appearances, he's human, except that his face is gray and stoney, cracked and craggy. His piercing blue eyes gauge the party as his gibbering friend points to the group. He then turns to them and says,

"Thank you for your kindness to my friend Morlah. Perhaps you wouldn't mind joining us and telling your tale, and we will tell ours. As you can probably gather, we never have visitors here."

He introduces himself as Slate, and explains that he is the leader of a small group of elemental priests that he has named the Square of Gurdek. Within the cottage he seats the party in a large common room and introduces the rest of the Square: Pargo; a human male in his early 30's: Mefse; a burly and jovial human male in his 20's: Ari Evan; an elderly and cheerful human woman in her 60's: Ranza: a short, wirey, dour human male whose face is covered with strange, black tatoos: Morlah: the cheerful, childlike man they met earlier: and Olton; obviously a former gladiator, but she is just as childlike and insane as Morlah.

As Ari, Mefse and Pargo prepare dinner, Ranza exits out of one doorway, and Morlah, Slate, and Olton remain in the common room. Curious, the party asks late about the formor gladiator and bard. Slate explains that he showed them the glory of Gurdek, but their minds could not comprehend. They became broken and childish beings, and he feels it is his duty to continue sheltering them. The rest of his group had minds strong enough to see Gurdek in his full glory, then says that there is one among the party who he thinks would be strong enough to speak with Gurdek. He looks right at Katrie when he says this.

As they all sit down to eat, the rest of the square makes conversation. Slate remains silent, watching each of the party in turn.

At first, the party is a little nervous about eating (previous adventures have made them cautious (smile)), but as Tor Val smells the delicious aromas coming from the plates, he digs in. The fruits and vegetables are unusual, but he discovers that the meat is quite tasty. Upon asking, Ari laughs and says, "Someone was kind enough to kill a bunch of basilisks for us. That's basilisk tail." To which Mefse cheerfully replies, "Tastes like chicken!"

As they eat, Ari, Pargo and Mefse relate their tales. Slate had found each of them on the surface. All of them were unsuccessful and aimless until Slate showed them the glory of Gurdek. He then brought each of them here, letting their group grow in power and fellowship.

The group asks about the gith. Ari explains that they are safe here because the gith consider the ruins to be a sacred city.

Around this time, Ranza returns and whispers something in Slate's ear. At this point, Slate asks the group what they are doing down here.
The group explains about the attacks on the surface from the gith. Slate nods knowingly and explains;

"“Look around you, at the glory of this city. Great earth spirits like Gurdek built this city, a haven of stone for the great ones. Here they were shielded from annoying winds, unruly waters, and fickle fire. But the spirits of other elements grew envious of the earth spirits and drove them out of the city. Outnumbered and beaten by their lessers, the earth spirits took the shape of living flesh so they could propagate their kind.

Now, centuries after that ignominious defeat, they are ready to reclaim what was theirs. Not just the City of Death, but the surface world as well. With water already broken, wind and flame will prove too weak to resist earth’s vengeance, even if they unite their powers. At last order shall be restored, and the gith as servants of the earth shall reign supreme.”"

He then bids the party goodnight. Ari shows them to a large room where they can rest. Kratas, Dryder, and Gundrek guard each entrance to the room, and they discuss what they've learned.

None of them trusts the Square. In fact, each of them is worried that, some time in the night, Slate or his companions will try to kidnap Katrie. They set watches for the night and wait.

Sure enough, Pargo and Ari arrive several hours later. Pargo says that Slate would like to speak with Katrie. She says that she would gladly go if she could bring her companions with her. Ari sadly shakes her head and says, "Alone."

The group declines, and Pargo pulls out his battleaxe, saying, "She's coming with us one way or another. It's best to let her come quietly."
At this point, Kratas and Gundrek decide to defend their companion.

While Gundrek, Katrie and Kratas cover the north entrance to the room, Dryder and Tor Val remain near the south entrance, knowing that more of the Square would likely come through that way. As they wait, Mefse and Olton burst into the room. Pa Mela stands in the center of the room, firing arrows both north and south to her companions that need them. Gundrek marks Pargo and maneuvers himself to block of any retreat, and Katrie and Kratas flank Ari after realizing she's a mage. Pargo shakes off Gundrek's mark and deals a hefty blow, and Ari takes a bit of a beating from both Katrie and Kratas before she casts Dimension Door, teleporting into a better position so that she can cast a sleep spell. Kratas and Pa Mela are caught in the effect, but Kratas successfully resists. Pa Mela struggles to stay awake, but ultimately falls to the floor unconscious.

Meanwhile, Dryder and Tor Val (who crits) quickly dispatch Olton and are in the process of attacking Mefse. Mefse somehow is able to burrow into the ground, rushing beneath Tor Val and Dryder. The attack knocks Tor Val prone, and then he discovers that another occupant has been hiding; Ranza has secretly snuck in the room and attacks Tor Val while he's down, hitting him hard.

During the course of the fight, the group discovers that each of the Square of Gurdek has some type of earth-based power; some have the ability to cause spikes to spring up out of the ground, others to turn their skin to stone, or the ability to sink into the stone beneath them and spring up somewhere else. However, soon, the party is triumphant as the last of the Square, Pargo, falls.

The group investigates the rest of the cottage, soon finding a stairwell going down into a basement level. There, they find Slate standing in front of a large crevice. He looks sad as he berates the party, admonishing them for abusing his hospitality, and then for killing his companions. Kratas immediately throws out his new power, Web of Shadows, to try to prevent Slate from moving. Tor Val, Gundrek, Dryder and Katrie rush forward to engage while Pa Mela remains behind, taking pot shots at their enemy. Slate, though, has other plans. With a shout out to the elemental spirit that he worships, the ground rumbles and two Earth Elementals erupt from the ground.

This was a fun fight. These guys hit HARD, and Pa Mela was reduced to mostly damage mitigation. Kratas used several of his powers to good effect, mainly using Forward Thinking Cut to grant Dryder and Tor Val free charge attacks. Gundrek moves in to engage Slate, and Katrie tries to flank. Slate, with his main power having a reach of 2, gets an Opportunity attack on Katrie, though, and nails her for 30 damage. Slate uses his powers to separate the party several times, and the Earth elementals slide the group around with their earth stomps. But soon, the tide turns as first one elemental, then the other falls. Finally, Katrie pounces on Slate and brings him down. With his last breath, he curses the group and gives this dire warning:

"You are too late. The ritual has begun. They come!"

The party picks up their loot and heads to the crevice, where they find a rope ladder descending into darkness.

The day is now the 23rd day of Wind, in the Season of Sun Ascending, in the Year of Enemy's Vengeance, 190th King's Age.

Next Session: The Nightmare Gate

Dark Sun: Session 17

The group descends into the crevice, lighting their torches and preparing for danger. After about an hour of exploration, they come to a small, open area within the caves. The floor is littered with the bones of animals and humanoids. As Kratas leans down to investigate the strange, humanoid bones, they animate, leaping up to attack the group.

8 strange skeletons, each armed with a rusty longsword, attack the party. Unknown to the group, the gith are aware that the party is following them, and they left these skeletons here to guard their back. The masters of the gith used these ancient skeletons to delay any interlopers.
The fight wasn't terribly challenging, despite the fact that my dice were rolling very nicely (5 crits in the first combat for me. Fortunately for the party, the crit damage for these guys wasn't devastating). Soon, the party is wiping off bone dust and shards from their armor, and they continue on.

Afterward, they emerge into an immense cavern. Dim light from glowing crystals reveals a 200 foot ceiling. The center of the room has an enormous chasm, easily 400 feet deep and about 100 feet across. In the center, 2 stalactites rise up from the midst of the chasm, each large enough to stand on...if the party can get across.

The floor of this cavern is littered with bodies, most recently dead. As they investigate, a terrible creature rises from the bodies.

Some call them Oath Wights. When a dwarf dies without fulfilling his life focus, most believe that he is doomed to roam the world, bitter and angry at his failure. This creature was named Solaq, a slave captured by the gith, then killed as they destroyed the bridge that crossed this chasm. Now, he is a mindless abomination, an undead being that most people know as a Dwarven Banshee.

Oath Wights are nasty. Not only do they hit really hard, but they have the capability of dominating their enemies, turning them on their companions. The group swiftly surrounds the creature, and soon discover just how dangerous it is when he forces Tor Val to charge Katrie. Fortunately for her, Tor Val just wasn't rolling that well. Soon, Solaq falls, and as the party breathes a sigh of relief, it turns to horror when they notice him rise back up, at full health. The party quickly decides that the best way to get rid of this creature is to push him over the side of the chasm. Tor Val and Gundrek nail him with Disrupting Advance, forcing him to the side of the chasm. There, Katrie awaits with her Savage Rend. Solaq makes a few saving throws that prevent him from falling over the side, but inevitably, he falls as Katrie pushes him into the chasm.

Returning to the edge of the chasm, they can see the path they need to take descends into the distance on the other side. Tor Val throws a makeshift grappling hook across, and then helps the rest of the party swing over to the stalactite. Pa Mela and Gundrek slip, very nearly falling into the chasm, but with the help of Dryder and Katrie, they are pulled up, a little worse for the wear. Again, they are forced to swing across the deep chasm, this time to the opposite bank. Soon, they are all over, a little breathless, but otherwise ok.

For 2 days, they continue to descend. On the second day, they begin to hear distant drums, followed by faint chanting. Eventually, they find a large cavern, perfectly circular. The cavern decends down a path of carved stairs, and they can just make out that this is a city. The buildings are built on three descending tiers. They can barely see anything below, however, as a strange mist rolls through the streets and stairways. Below, at the bottom of the hemispherical bowl, they can just make out a green glow within the mist. The drumming and chanting is louder here, and the party realizes that there are hundreds of voices chanting, and they all sound like Gith.

As they move down the stairs, the fog gets thicker. They can see glints of electricity coursing through the fog, moving downward toward the center of the small city. Their metal weapons take on a strange, greenish glow the further they descend. A small breeze swirls the mist about them, until finally, they find themselves at the bottom of the city.

The central plaza is quite large. Spead around them are 200 some-odd gith, each of them chanting and singing in time to the incessant drum-beat coming from the center of the plaza. But the thing that catches their attention is the enormous archway in the center. Before it, four masked figures beat on large metal drums. The archway is made of metal, gleaming with a strange, green radiance. The carvings are horrific; as the party looks at it, their eyes can't seem to follow the strange, twisting structure. As they finish climbing down the stairs, the ritual reaches its climax. The drummers, with a magnificent crash, finish their percussion, and an eerie silence falls over the plaza.

This lasts but for a moment, though. As the party watches, a terrible burst of energy rips the air. A great gust of wind rushes past them toward the archway, swirling the mist from the city into a large vortex. The gith all begin to scream, heads thrown back in agony as, one by one, their life force is ripped from them, sucked into the swirling vortex. Finally, as they all fall dead, the 4 drummers before the archway stand up and remove their masks. These creatures look very similar to the gith, except that they stand taller, more noble, than the pitiful creatures they have just destroyed. Each watches the party, drawing weapons. Behind them, the air within the archway continues to swirl and churn, a green light illuminating the plaza as another form emerges from the gateway. He, too, looks similar to the gith, except this one has the obvious air of authority. He draws a two handed sword of gleaming silver and moves to attack the party.

These are Githyanki, and this group is considerably more powerful than the party. The leader, General Raskon, is an elite and his companions are Githanki Warriors and Githanki Blackweaves. One of the Blackweaves fires an eldritch bolt at Tor Val, nailing him and slowing him. Katrie rushes forward and locks down the second blackweave, and Gundrek charges one of the warriors. Kratas tries to tie up Raskon, but is unsuccessful. Pa Mela fires a Jinx Shot at Raskon, but misses. Her mystically charged arrow fires into the portal, and a low chime vibrates through the ground. The portal wavers, but stays open. Dryder tries to tie up the second warrior, hitting him hard. But the warrior retaliates by telekinetically paralyzing Dryder, who then uses his Void Soul armor (Genasi Soul Armor) to fade from the world for a round. The warrior then moves to attack Tor Val.

Tor Val, meanwhile, charges the blackweave, but soon finds himself facing the second warrior. Katrie continues to lock down the other blackweave, and Kratas, Gundrek and Pa Mela try to fight off Raskon and the other warrior. Dryder finally reappears next to the warrior who had attacked him earlier and uses Bat Aside to knock the warrior into the portal.

Suddenly, a shower of sparks erupts from the nightmarish gate. Everyone is thrown to the ground as the stone beneath their feet heaves and buckles. Brilliant green light pours out of the gate and a shrill rending sound fills the air. An instant later, everything goes dark.

This is a hell of a cliffhanger considering that it will be at least 2 weeks before we can play again. This last fight was deliberately difficult, but I was quite pleased with the results. Sadly for the party, the dice were not working well for them, and were working extremely well for me. They finish this session at level 9.

The day is now the 26th day of Wind, in the Season of Sun Ascending, in the Year of Enemy's Vengeance, 190th King's Age.

Next Session: The City of Spires and An Unexpected Friend