Dark Sun: The Dark Lens Campaign (Long)

First off, this post contains spoilers for the Dungeon magazine adventure Vault of Darom Madar. Ye have been warned.

A few weeks ago my group put our epic FR campaign on hiatus for a while in order to start over with a 1st-level Dark Sun campaign. The FR game was a heavily-modified H1-H2-P1-P2-P3 game which I cut out a lot of unnecessary combat encounters and added more RP scenarios, and still had far more material for the level range (the players I believe made it to 21 by the time P3 ended.
For the DS game I didn’t really have a major campaign metaplot in mind when we started, so I started up with the Vault of Darom Madar adventure from Dungeon, modifying it pretty heavily as I am wont to do.

Our party of heroes consists of:

• Torinn Scaleback, a dray archer warlord multiclassed to sorcerer (dune trader theme) who is an agent of his mercenary clan on a mission to find work for them.
• Grig Fireclaw, a dray sword & board fighter (templar theme), an ex-templar of Tyr out to make a name for himself and take revenge on his former superior officer (see below).
• Donn Madar, a human ardent noble adept and son of the nearly-extinct House Madar.
• Joo-See, an elf druid who left his tribe to become one with nature, man.
• Codrus, a minotaur (house rule: Athasian minotaurs are always male, are born of humans, approximately 1 in 1000 births, and, like muls, are usually kidnapped or bought and taken to the arenas to be raised as gladiators), ex-Tyrian-gladiator and freed slave who was recently kicked out of his small minotaur village for being unable to control his psionic manifestations.
• Carceret, a human cahulaks-wielding executioner (guttersnipe theme?) who just wants to watch the world burn.

The adventure began with the majority of the party in Tyr, finding themselves in the middle of a bar fight turned deadly. Joo-See, Torinn, and Codrus are thrown in jail for the semi-accidental death of a son of the powerful Tsalaxa noble family. Grig, the arresting templar, finds himself stripped of his office and taking the fall for the death by order of his corrupt superiors. Thus, four party members are scheduled for execution via arena combat in three days.

Donn witnessed their prowess in the bar fight and by spreading some (plot-provided) coin around, he bribes the templars to release the four, with the intent of hiring them as mercenaries to help recover his family’s hidden fortune. He then purchases a wagon and some crodlu and the party sets off for Silver Spring, having made true enemies of house Tsalaxa right off the bat. From this point forward I mostly followed the published adventure as far as encounters and skill challenges go.

I’m not really sure where the adventure intends for the valley with the vault to be located, but I put it somewhere right in the middle of the Great Alluvial Sand Wastes (which I only now realize is surprisingly close to Borys’ Citadel). After a few days of travel, the party is able to locate it with the assistance of a magical lodestone given to the party by chief Toramund of Silver Spring. During this trip, Donn reveals that he is also looking for his father, who had sent him a package with a journal with all the lore he knew of the family vault (a la Dr. Jones Sr. in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).

After several encounters inside the valley, they find the cave with undead animated by the old warding magic, including Donn’s father and some servants. This is where we left off in our last session.

I intend to place several parcels worth of treasure for the party as Donn’s family treasure, but the true prize is something much more shocking: It turns out the Madar family was charged with guardianship of the Dark Lens. If you’re not familiar, this is basically the most powerful artifact on Athas. Rajaat used it to grant incredible powers to his champions thousands of years ago, and also used it to create several other powerful artifacts. The undead Madar family elder remaining in the tomb tells Donn that the old wards are failing, and that he must take the Lens somewhere safe...

I’ve read through its background in the 2e Psionic Artifacts of Athas book, and I intend to change the Lens in the following ways:

• This item is essentially the cause of Athas’ downfall, by drawing its power directly from the sun. Rajaat was able to pull incredible amounts of energy from the sun while empowering his servants and creating artifacts. This overuse caused the sun to age prematurely and become a red giant, putting Athas in the state it’s currently in (with no small help from defiling magic).
• According to the book, the Dark Lens can only be used by a wizard/psion multiclass character. I’m going to adapt that to 4e by requiring an epic-level Arcana and Psionics (new houserule skill I created to replace Religion in Athas campaigns) skills and the ability to use both psionic and arcane powers.
• My intention is that the characters are unable to use the artifact until at least late paragon level. To discourage its use, I’m going to add the following: anyone who fails either of the skill checks required when using the Lens will first feel dangerous amounts of energy welling up inside of them. If they want to continue, they can reroll the check. On a further failure, the character is instantly consumed by arcane fire and dies spectacularly.
• To really put the fear in the party, I’m also adding the following rule: If the dark lens is ever exposed to direct sunlight without anyone nearby who is able to control it (succeed at skill checks required) then a solar flare erupts from the surface of the sun to consume everything around the lens in roughly a 1 mile radius. The party has several minutes to see this flare coming, and notice that the Lens is glowing brightly in the sunlight. If the Lens is simply covered up, then the flare dissipates. Of course, everyone else under the sun, from the lowliest slave to the sorcerer-kings themselves, also notices the eruption of this flare. The less-educated believe it’s a sign of the apocalypse, or something, but the sorcerer-kings know better—the Dark Lens is back in play.
• Lastly, it's a little more portable: only about 9" across and weighing a few pounds, rather than 3 or 4 feet tall.

I haven't done any other speculation on the item's other powers at this point--that can wait a few months.

I believe the party is smart enough to keep the thing hidden while they try to contact friendly forces who can provide assistance. I could see them possibly allying with the dwarves of Kled and/or the Veiled Alliance, and if Tithian were to find out I’m sure he would make friendly overtures with the intent of claiming the Lens for himself. There are a lot of potential adventure hooks springing to mind.

To conclude the current adventure, I'd like to have the party intercepted by House Tsalaxa assassins, who claim the Lens briefly and attempt to use it against the party, demonstrating its power by dying spectacularly to it when they are unable to control it.

What I’m looking for are a couple of suggestions on Heroic and Paragon adventures from Dungeon magazine (any edition) or published 2e Dark Sun adventures that might tie in with the theme and setting, and organizations that the party could ally with or become enemies of. I’m sure eventually they will have to face one or more sorcerer-kings, but I’m not sure which. Perhaps Hamanu, because in the old 2e continuity one of the first things that happened after Kalak’s fall was Urik marched on Tyr.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to any comments/suggestions.

Looks like a fun start for a DS campaign. An adventure involving the lense sure makes for an epic quest. My own group has the Vault of Darom Madar module still in front of them after they play through Blodsand Arena part 2. I'm using this adventure order for my campaign (well, actually the first two were switched):

I've been toying with running a DS game for awhile and this is how I pictured an approximate order.

Blood Sand pt1: Betrayl at Altaruk (Tyr-->Altaruk) ------Tellemon encourages the party to wait a few days and enter the next arena game.
Sand Raiders (Altaruk) ------While hanging out in Altaruk the party is approached by Rhotan Vor to find a lost wagon. If successful he mentions a bigger job he needs help with soon.
Blood Sand pt2: Veiled Threat (Altaruk) ------ The party enters the games and investigates the murder of Tellemon.
The Vault of Darom Madar (Altaruk-->Silver Springs-->Tyr) ------ Party helps Rhotan loot the vault and take the treasure back to Tyr.
Marauders of the Dune Sea (Tyr) ------ Party gets a fragment of The Crown of Dust and encounters Slither.
The Lost Cistern of Aravek (Tyr) ------ Party searches for cistern.
Fury of the Wastewalker (Modified to start in Tyr) ------ Be chased around and eventually deal with the Wastewalker.
Revenge of the Maraudrs (Tyr) ------ Party raids Slither for Blood Jewel.
Beneath the Dust (Open) ------ Party searches for tree of life seed.
Cruel as a Desert Wind (Open) ------ Rescue gladiator's son from House Tsalaxa.
The Isle of Death (Open-->Silt Sea) ------Party plants tree of life seed.



I believe that covers all of the DS 4e adventures. I like the round trip (Tyr>Altaruk>SilverSprings>Tyr) the first few adventures give. After Betrayl I would probably dangle other custom mini adventures besides Sand Raiders to give my group more choices. After getting back to Tyr I would dangle the hooks for Marauders, Cistern, and Wastewalker and see what route the party takes. Those 3 adventures would have to be modified to handle a higher level party by then. I've also been looking at adapting some DS 2e adventures. Freedom could be run first and end with the party being hired to guard the caravan in Betrayl at Altaruk. I would probably put Road to Urik in after the party had completed several adventures in Tyr.

I saw a DS campaign on Obsidian Portal where they had Arisphistaneles direct the party to Tyr on Alliance business after Blood Sand. Along the way they were swept up into Wastewalker. In fact I would encourage you to search for DS games on Obsidian Portal. There are several using the intro adventures. There are some great ideas out there.

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Good luck with your campaign and pleasee keep us updated