I plan on using both Hamanu and Oronis heavily in my campaign. My plans for Hamanu will involve the PC's becoming the unwitting pawns of a Vampiric Wizard /Lord of the Dead (roughly 35th level with the PrC which I found in the WotC archives) who is the lord of the Dead Land. The arch-villain will use the PC's to recover the Silencer of Bodash (I have converted this artifact in my campaign), which I believe was made as powerful as it is because Rajaat was going to use it to kill his Champions when they fulfilled their purpose.
The PC's will then find out that they have just been used in a plot to kill Hamanu, and more importantly, to further destabilize the Tyr region. If the assassins succeed, the other SK's will believe that one of them is responsible and war will break out throughout the whole area as each one tries to prevent the others from gathering the whole region under their influence. With the war waging, the Dead Lord will bring in his Legions of the Dead and hit the SK's when they are at their weakest.
The only way to stop all of that from happening is to stop the assassins, whom now have the Silencer, from killing Hamanu and maybe return to the heart of the Dead Lands to confront the Dead Lord.
This story line will cover many, many sessions.
I also have the groundwork laid to have my PC's encounter a recurring villain, a Defiler Wizard, whom will cross paths with them several times as I run the other adventures. At the end of the Hamanu storyline, the PC's will have made the acquaintance of Oronis and maybe his agents. He will want the PC's to capture the Defiler they have met before so he can be reformed, as per the Book of Exalted Deeds, Oronis will then send the PC's back in time to the Green Age to recover a book he remember seeing that he believe will help him restore a large section of the Tyr Region's life-force (but it will not).
During the ceremony to send them back in time the Defiler will escape and be caught in the spell too. As the PC's end the section of adventures in the past and are returning home, they discover that the Defiler has fallen in with Rajaat and has become one of his champions. When they return to their time the PC's will learn that the Defiler that they fought so many times was none other then Keltis, Lizard Man Executioner, the 10th Champion of Rajaat, and now their patron Oronis the Avangion. :OMG!
I LOVE BEING THE DM- muHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :evillaugh
The Terrakin are a huge tribe of nomads, a tribe of tribes really, that have been wandering Athas for the past thousand or so years, setting up camp wherever they see fit and with self-proclaimed/enforced squatter's rights. This city of tents (which they call "Terra-kai") lasts anywhere from three months to a year, with necessity obviously being the main deciding factor. Terra-kai can be on the move within hours, with each tribe gathering its belongings and heading their separate ways. This tribal migration period can last several years, or until the location of a new Terra-kai is decided upon, at which point the tribes converge once more.
Theirs is a culture based solely on trade. Aggressive masters of trading, and expert appraisers (even the young can tell whether something is junk or not), but a really friendly and hospitable people while settled. What is theirs is yours when it comes to food, a place to crash, even water, but business is business. A real "make a good deal, get a good deal" vibe to the culture.
When roaming the wasteland in search of the next Terra-kai, the terrakin perfectly adapt to the surrounding wilderness by becoming barbaric raiders/scavengers. The hunters and gatherers (the adults) ruthlessly murder and steal what they want from whomever possesses it, including the other terrakin tribes. Ironic in the sense that anybody committing such violent acts in Terra-kai are instantly put to death, but out in the wasteland it is expected, and honourable to do so. And they are as easily skilled in the art of war as they are in the art of trade. It is a sport to them; steal and defend to trade. Everybody and everything is fair game to them when wandering, and it is no surprise that they have a long list of enemies, including many elven tribes. And it is there in the open land that the ongoing feuds between the various terrakin tribes reach their bloody peak, as it is only there where it is accepted by all. Laws are for Terra-kai and only Terra-kai, anywhere else they are a vile infringement of freedom.
Terrakin youth are run out of camp at the age of thirteen so that they may answer the "riddle of steel". This is the working title and yes, it is a rip-off of Conan the Barbarian. Regardless, the children, already trained in basic warfare at this point in their lives, have to wander Athas in search of steel weapons, one for themselves, and one for the elders (to be traded at Terra-kai). There are rules to this riddle of course, but the youth are allowed to band together in groups of no more than six, and even then the "price" of their journey becomes that much higher: rare items on top of steel weapons are to be brought back to the adults for trade. Upon completion of this riddle, the youth becomes an adult within terrakin society, is then allowed to take a name, and is now able to partake of adult duties and responsibilities.
Actual tribe numbers have not been determined, as well as like I mentioned their point of origin, which I was thinking about fitting into some sort of underground Planet of the Apes-type city ruins. Problem is, I'm not all that familiar with Athas geography. I had the boxed set, but it's on the opposite side of the country.
Anyway, that's the bare bones basics of my newest Dark Sun idea. As always, I'm open to both expansion and criticism. The way I look at it, both are one and the same: help. ;) :D
1. Obsidian cutter: the PC started as slave in the obsidian quarries of Makla. I took my idea in the scenario Freedom except that they had to cut obsidian instead of building a ziggourat. It was very dangerous and deadly. If the PC didnt escape, they were sure to die since if you didnt cut your quota of 500lbs per day, you didnt have your ration of water and food. Then, there was the danger of cutting yourself on the obsidian, being crushed under a rock fall, or the usual overseer and templar with whip that executed slave not working hard enough. And the last danger, the region was infested with Tembo that sneaked in the camp during night for dinner on some slave. I had made a randon encoutner table for all the hazard and dangerous situation. It was pretty cool. The Pc escaped but one died.
2. After escaping Makla, they were in the desert and got captured by slaver who sold them to House Stel. I runned A little knowledge (from TSR) after that, with the PC being stuck in a slave caravane attacked by Jura dai elf. They succeded at saving the thri-kreen druid and the oasis and were friendly with the dwarf of Kled.
3. The PC headed for Tyr were they got hired by the Veiled Alliance to discover why Kalak builded the ziggourat. I worked hard to put a big mystery on the ziggoruat and since the PC had'nt read the prism pentad at that time, they didnt have a clue. There investigation led them to sneaking into the Golden tower were they found Kalak plan and almost got killed by the sorcerer knig himself. I nearly got a TPK on this one and the player were really afraid and nervous. Specially when they discovered what the ziggourat was about. After that, Mathias Morten, Alliance leader asked them to find a way to kill Kalak or stop it. They found that the sorcerer knig will be vulnerable during his transformation so they had to find something to protect them against the magic and psionic of Kalak. TAfter exploring UnderTyr, they learned about a book, written long ago (during the green age) by elf fighting the sorcerer king (Albeorn). That book was supposed to describe a way to build a weapons able to take down a sorcerer king. So they searched for thsi book, found it in Grak pool. The book was just a journal from an elf that visited a water temple in the Dragon bowl that had old written tablet about this weapons. So the PC headed for Dragon bowl. In the travel, they encountered Leornis, a defiler/fighter elf from Clearwater tribe. That elf would become the arch-ennemy of the PC. But at first,they were ally. Leornis asked them to recover a scrib slave in a caravan. That slave knew about an old mine were his ex-master (a defiler, the PC didnt knew that) dissapeared a couple of year ago. Leornis wanted to recover that defiler spellbook. After both PC and Leornis found were the old mine was, they runned across the desert in a race against time for the first who got in the mine to recover the book. It was a lot of fun since both Leornis and his elf and the PC made ambush at each other during the travel. Fianly, the PC arrived first and discovered the mine was an old mine from the last King age that a Urik noble had made thinking he would find copper there. The mine was haunted by the banshee of the dwarf slave that worked there in the past. The noble had told them they will be free if they found the copper vein. They never found it and died there when the noble abandonned them. 60 year later (year of the priest defiance), a noble from Balic (actually a defiler) explored the mine but never came back. Only his slave knew where he had been. So the PC tried to fight the Banshee in the mine and discover the corpse, but the banshee were too toguht for them so they had to withdraw and they found Leornis ands his gang waiting for them at the entrance of the mine. After a big battle, the PC nearly escaped alive and Leornis was still alive. The PC headed for the Dragon bowl to find the water temple. In it, they found a strange stone with written thing on it. (The temple was from the Green age but the stone is a rhullisti stone from the Blue age that the Green age priest of that temple bringed here). The stone talk about the locaiton of the Last tree. In the book the PC had previously found, it said that a weapons made from the wood of a tree dating before the Sorcerer age and Green age was able to protect someone agaisnt magic and the way. So now, the PC had to find the Last tree to make a lance from it to kill Kalak. In Urik, they found a scroll of Raise nation (see Dragon king). So they traveled to the Ringing mountain, then the Forest ridge, had encoutner with monster, were hunted by Nok tribe and nearly got eaten alive, found the last tree, took a branch from it but they then got captured by Nok. They told Nok about Kalak plan. I runned the test of Nok from the Prism pentad and then ,Nok released the PC with the branch but they had to bring him the spear made from it after that. The PC fighter transformed the branch into a spear (Hearthwood spear). They headed back to Tyr just in time for the Great game. Just a couple of day before, the templar raided the Veiled alliance hide-out and only Mathias morten and 4 PC escaped alive but lost a couple of magical item and the Raise Nation scoll. They tried to find ally to fight Kalak during his transformation. They negotiated with Tithian. In exhange for the crown of Tyr, Tithian will let them kill Kalak and free all the slave. So the PC took part in the Great game, they had to survive 6 match before Kalak transformation. They attacked the sorcerer king during his transformation in the center of the ziggourat and defeated it (half of PC died or were badly injured).
It was pretty fun to play. I runned this for about a year, took a break of 6 month playing other RPG, then we returned to this campaign with;
4. Year of Wind reverance. PC were summoned by Tithian. Hamanu was about to invade Tyr since Kalak was no longer protecting the city. The plan was to fight behind the wall and the PC had to recover the Raise nation scroll, raise an army of undead and attack Urik army from the back. The Raise nation scroll was in the hand of Fanzefir, a Tyr templar loyal to old Kalak, that escaped to Nibenay (the PC later learned Fanzefir wanted to raise an army of undead and march on Tyr to take the place of Tithian). But he needed a defiler to do this, so he allied with a defiler templar of Nibenay. That defiler to get ride of Fanzefir arrested him as spy and Fanzefir was then bound for the stone quarry. The PC searched for Fanzefir in Nibenay. They learned he was with a thousand other slave that leaved the city a couple of day ago for the salt flat (it was in fact the Dragon levy). The PC made themselve slave and infiltred the Dragon levy (they didnt know that). They were sure it was just slave going for a salt mine (that what I told them). It was pretty fun to play. They had to find Fanzefir in this big slave crowd while resisting the templar cruelty and thirst. They finaly found Fanzefir one day before the levy arrive at distination. That when, during the night, they saw all the tempalr and guard leaving in a hurry and they were in a middle of a bone desert. That when the Dragon came and drained the life-force of all the slave. The PC had to escape with Fanzefir but they lost a lot of Constitution point during that. They headed back to Nibenay with Teleportation of the PC psionic and they recovered the scroll after killing the noble. Then, they needed an old battlefield to raise an undead army. Kled was the answer since they had visited it atthe begginning of the campaign and knew about Kemalok. So they headed for Kled, recruited a pack of kreen in the process and raised an army with the dead dwarf of Kemalok. It ended with a big epic battle under the wall of Tyr and they won (but again with a lot of PC dead or mangled).
5. I then runned Arcane shadow (from TSR). After that, the PC became senator in the Tyr council. I had a political intrigue scenario where Tithian ws hiring slaver to capture Tyrian people and nearby slave village to fed the Dragon. The PC were to stop this plan, but for the first time in Dark sun, they failed the scenario. It was pretty fun tough,. I had made the description of every noble and Senator and they had to interact with Minthur, Tyrthani,Senior Templar and such. Most of the game took place in the Tyr senate building with PC tryiong to block Tithian new law and install there own law. A lot of role-playing with bribing other noble to vote for them, blackmail other, being blackmailed and almost assasinated by bard from other noble, well,it was a lot of fun.
6. Leornis kidnapped the kid of one of the PC female. The PC chased him in the desert. Leornis lured them in Kalidnay ruin were he made an ambush in the old ziggourat and stadium of Kalid-Ma. Another pretty fun scenario I made. It was just a pretext to explorer Kalidnay ruin. They succeded, the kid was recovered but Leornis escaped.
7. Mathias Morten asked the PC to sneak in the Golden tower to recover his spell book he lost when the templar raided the hide-out (see campaign number 2). Leornis with his spy knew the PC were trying to recover that big spellbook, so he tried to sneak into the Golden tower too with a group of elf from his tribe. It ended in a three way battle between the PC party, Leornis and his elf and the Templar. Lot of fun. I had put an illusion of Kalak in the tower, so the PC craped there pant when they saw it, thinking Kalak was still alive. Pretty funny. The PC escaped with the book. Leornis escaped too but barely and now, the templar were mad at the PC and they were banned from the Council.
8.The PC were with Korgunad (from Arcane shadow) exploring an old Earth temple. They discovered a protal and Kornugard got kidnapped by Dao. The PC had to travel in the earth elemental plane to save Kornugard who was kept magical-chained in the Dao city. In my campaign, the elemntal plane are like in Planescape, so they had to dig there way in the plane with pic and magic. It was really hard with a lot of monster encounter. They finaled saved Kornugard and lef tthe plane.
9. The PC exiled to Balic. I runned a gladiator battle in the Criterion. Pretty fun with the pillar going up and down as the PC were fighting three Gaj. Then, after that, they learned Androponis planned to invade the estuary and capture all the village for slave. The PC quit Balic and headed for Leopoldus south. They tried to unite all the ex-slave village and normal village of the estuary to fight the Balican army. Lot of role-play since chief of some village didnt not always trust the PC. Pretty fun scenario. It ended in a big battle against the Balican army. But the PC army got wipped out and they had to retreat. That when there second idea came. They traveled to the Dragon palate, told the Giant that Androponis wanted to get ride of them. The Giant and PC attacked Balic and Androponis had to withdraw is army from the desert to defend the city. The PC saved the village with this tactic and they made themself a new ennemy (Androponis).
We are now there.
Next campaign, a meteorite will fall near Tyr. The PC will ahve to recover the fallen star. But other group (elf, noble and merchant house) want it too. It will be a race agaisnt time to find the stone before the other.
run a game featuring cerulean wizards,
run a game featuring Braxats.
Campaign Themes: Family takes care of it's own and to a lesser extent, civilisation is corrupt.
Basic premise: The PCs are all members of a slave tribe. An NPC in the tribe is actually a high level preserver being hunted by a group of Braxats, he masquerades as someone much lower level. He has evaded their hunt for decades. Now he finds himself unwilling to leave a group that accepts him as one of their own. However, the Braxats are persistent and finally find him.
The idea being the Braxats organise and eventually lead an attack against the tribe. Mayhem ensues. The PCs eventually are given the duty of killing/leeding astray the Braxat threat.
Personal experiences:
When I ran this, the tribe was called Sevrik's Tribe. Name after the leader Sevrik, an elf who was a notorious con-artist and womaniser. Despite this he cared deeply for all members of his tribe, basically a NG elf ranger/rogue with strong Lawful and Chaotic tendencies.
The tribe's culture was dominated by many elvish ideas: The tribe was semi-nomadic herders, all members were required to 'keep up', the tribe used speed as their first defence, theft from tribe is bad, from anyone outside the tribe is okay etc.
However these ideas were adjusted to accomodate the slower tribe members ie the tribe has a lot of people with ranks in ride, "handling" tribal members belongings was a tribe sport etc.
The preserver I had was in fact a child of Abalach-Re. Upon discovery that her child was a sorcerer (the only one in the campaign I had), she had orders for his execution signed. However the Veiled Alliance hid him and snuck him out of town.
Abalach-Re then used illusion to convince a bunch of Braxat she was the goddess they worshipped and sent them on a holy quest to find her missing child. The amusing thing of course being that by the time the campaign begins (FY10), Abalach-Re is dead and the hunt is for no real good reason.
Over the 18 months the game ran, the PCs went from 1st level to 10th, from neophytes to the new leaders of the tribe (Sevrik died... conveniently, or more appropriately mythically). They visited the corrupt city of Nibenay and had several unpleasant experiences there.
They eventually convinced the Braxat (I only had 1 epic level Braxat) his hunt was foolish, but only after the Braxat had iron weilding gith (I stole many ideas from Black Spine) attack and kill many tribe members.
It was a Lich-spellweaver with about 18 levels as a Wizard and the PC's had met him and his nimblewright (I know this is spelled wrong) bodyguard several times. The lich was masquerading as a low level Guild Mage (PrC from TaB and reprinted in CA). I never really had a chance to totally unleash him and I wanted to know what others thought of having a spellweaver on DS.
I would make the whole race like on big experiment by Rajaat to make a kind of slave race of powerful spellcaster to avoid the time of training human wizards. I do not know if this thought is realistic in lines of the DS game due to Rajaats hatred of other races. Maybe I could make them halfling whom and volunteered for the job, but were never used because the Champions turned on Rajaat before he was finished and so they waited in a stasis spell of some.
When Rajaat was freed briefly, he could have willed the spellweavers release from stasis.
What do you guys think?? Would you like to face off with a creature that could cast upto six spells at one time?