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Hello all,
I love the apocalyptic, desert setting, distopian future of the Dark Sun setting. However I have always struggled to find an appropriate campaign to fit this unique campaign setting. The 'Freedom' series of modules, while capturing the ideals of the setting was a shameless railroad that left the PCs playing second fiddle to the real heroes of the novels.
When Hell's rebels was released it seemed to offer the perfect alternative to the Freedom series - with enough changes to maintain the mystery even though the PCs know the end goal is to kill a sorcerer king. The Veiled alliance seems like a fitting alternative to the Silver Ravens and Barzillai Thrune as the sorcerer king.
Here is my starting point...
1. I would suggest the campaign be set in Tyr - the best detailed city location in the setting. You could arguably set in the adventure in one of the other cities like Urik.
2. I personally prefer the original setting before the events of the Prism Pentad. That said I think Kalak's great pyramid and conversion is too well known to be used in the adventure as written. Instead the Great pyramid was used much earlier in the city's history to make Kalak into a 1st tier Dragon King (before that point he was just a powerful psion/defiler). There may be ancient legends of this terrible genocide - perhaps that was what caused the original founding of the Veiled Aliiance and once Kalak succeeded he was able to destroy them.
3. Kalak's current project is to expand the Golden Tower - his palace in the closed part of the city. He is building it higher and higher. Nobody knows why but it draws huge resources and slaves etc. (The reason is because Kalak is building the tower as weapon to challenge the Dragon - the real one - Borys of Ebe)
4. Hell's rebels begins with citizens protesting the enforced slavery of many citizens, seizure of goods and slaves, and higher taxes.
5. The Aria Park and Opera House is replaced by the great area and the protest happens on the floor of the arena floor beneath Kalak's balcony.
5. The Silver Ravens are the now defunct Veiled Alliance that was destroyed by Kalak - the PCs would be setting this back up across the campaign, including finding ancient safehouses etc.
6. The Order of the Torrent would become a disgruntled Templarate whose leader secretly turns on Kalak for his many abuses - and to increase his own power.
7. The Bellflower Network is instead an alliance of freed slaves and ex gladiators that have links to the Free and oppose the dramatic increase in slavery.
8. The Court of Coin represents the Senate of nobles whose 'advice' has been ignored more and more recently, particularly as regards their own slaves and the crippling taxes.
9. The Rose of Kintargo represents one of the Elemental faiths that was crushed by Kalak as an example to the others.
I am struggling to work out who would best represent the Sacred Order of Archivists. Perhaps they could separate and unorganised preservers and druids... don't know yet. Any ideas?
I think the whole cultural/operatic nature of Cheliax needs savaging quite a bit, but entertainments of the time would be the arena. I love the excrutiations and ruling through fear captured by Barzallai's purges - this fits Kalak's tyranny very well. Book three's expansion out of the city could involve the aid of the Halflings of the forrest ridge and maybe another sorcerer king or elf tribe, haven't thought that far ahead yet.
My intention is once the PCs kill Kalak at the end of the Book 4, they then need to deal with the Dragon, try to complete Kalak's weapon and raise the city. Possibly agains the army of Urik - obviously I haven't seen books five and six yet.
Overall, what are your thoughts on the viability of the conversian? Does it sound exciting? in keeping with the flavour of the Dark Sun Settings? Any ideas you can contribute to this project?
Viability: Hell yes. Do it. A lot of creature overhauls and the like, but all within the realm of possibility
Exciting: Hell yes. Dark Sun is awesome. Hell's Rebels is awesome. A mash-up stands to be amazing
Flavor: Wellll.... a lot of the legalisms and cultural overtones will need toppling, but for all of its fixation on sand and blood, Dark Sun is an eminently political setting. I think it's a solid notion. Just make sure your players know it's going to be a varied sort of experience.
Ideas:
For Hellknights, see Templars. I don't know about the Order of the Torrent as disgruntled Templars- maybe have them be an old city guard type of organization that got supplanted by Kalak's Templars.
More if any spring to mind.
The infernal themes, devil summoning, could be replaced with creatures made of defiler magic - Kalak's creations and those of his small number of defilers. I'll be using the Athas.org conversion for baseline stats of monsters that will probably need beefing up for Pathfinder.
I wonder if the Order of the Torrent could be a Templar Bureau overlooked and marginalised because it isn't relevent to the Golden Tower works? You're right its a tricky fit.
It was actually the release of Occult Adventures that made me think of a Dark Sun campaign and this AP came out at just the right time.
I'm thinking Kalak would need to be more powerful than a 15th level character. But I think if the PCs could get aid from the halflings (read deep elves) they could offest his power for the purpose of a final confrontation.
I considered having some of Barzillai's appearances proxied by high ranking templars. There needs to be a balance - Kalak shouldn't be that accessible to people I suspect - at the same time you need to make him the key villain and memorable.
I'd give Kalak all of the "proclamation"scenes, but anything involving even the HINT of other people getting to talk should be his Templars.
In fact,I'd just make Barzillai's statblock be the head Templar, with Kalak's defeat being contingent on a successful rebellion rather than any "you guys go toe to toe with a rising Dragon-King."
Thats a good idea. I like the idea of the proclamations being increasingly draconian, though some may need some adjustment - relate them to the works.
What makes sense with the other factions?
What about bringing in another city to replace Vyre, perhaps Nibenay, Balic, Gulg or Urik. I like the idea of which ever city they get the aid of then comes back to claim the city in book six - a little like the Crimson Sands book and Urik.
With the Tyr region being laid out like it is... Urik is close (and Hamanu is a boss), but for the sake of mixing things up... Gulg has a fairly decent reputation (Lalali-Puy always struck me as the least-nasty Sorcerer-King/Queen), but Nibenay has a nice mix of a taste for intrigue and no real use for upstart heroes when the dust settles.
For your arena unrest scenes, have you read up on the "Nika" riots in Constantinople? A good real-world example to channel if you get the chance.
Lol. I think you may be right but never know. Some people would get agro if i didn't post it so to be safe...
I'm just converting over the main text. I'm making the calls for an elected mayor into calls for an elected senate. Even in Tyr people aren't trying to overthrow the monarchy yet.
I decided the Sacred order of archivists including mama Vintacora will be preservers not organised, hp just hiding and do the best they can.
The eight proclamation that merchant captains may not step on land will be replaced with a prohibitions on merchants entering the city - this is partly because of paranoia over secrets of his construction getting to other sorcerer kings, partly to support house Vordon which is straining under the burden of Kalaks taxes. The embargo effects everyone and results in a large encampment outside the city and large bribes for the territory.
The city of Vyre will be replaced with Alturak where the PCs try to get on side the luxurious house Wavir who wants to break Kalaks embargo.
It really is so easy to translate I was surprised.
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Lol. I think you may be right but never know. Some people would get agro if i didn't post it so to be safe...
I'm just converting over the main text. I'm making the calls for an elected mayor into calls for an elected senate. Even in Tyr people aren't trying to overthrow the monarchy yet.
I decided the Sacred order of archivists including mama Vintacora will be preservers not organised, hp just hiding and do the best they can.
The eight proclamation that merchant captains may not step on land will be replaced with a prohibitions on merchants entering the city - this is partly because of paranoia over secrets of his construction getting to other sorcerer kings, partly to support house Vordon which is straining under the burden of Kalaks taxes. The embargo effects everyone and results in a large encampment outside the city and large bribes for the territory.
The city of Vyre will be replaced with Alturak where the PCs try to get on side the luxurious house Wavir who wants to break Kalaks embargo.
It really is so easy to translate I was surprised.
oh, I was thinking of replacing Vyre with the inbook usage of the halflings! We haven't seen the fifth chapter yet, so the halflings might be better used as how the Strix are, but from my understanding Tyr is the primary trading city for whatever trade the halflings of the forest ridge have with the table lands.
Ahh interesting. The meal and the whole halfling canabilism thing could be really interesting just to see how far the PCs will go for halfling aid!!
I was going to use the halflings to replace the Sea elves, however now I think I will swap the sea elves for Alturak and the halflings for Vyre - it's just too 'tasty' not too!
I think book three is definitely a chance to get out into the wider world. I am thinking of having fort menador act as the iron mines of tyr - cutting off this vital resource. Maybe doing before the halting banquet.
I'm am also adding a prologue part getting the players into one group as the Great Arena protest seems a little difficult for this.
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Ahh interesting. The meal and the whole halfling canabilism thing could be really interesting just to see how far the PCs will go for halfling aid!!
I was going to use the halflings to replace the Sea elves, however now I think I will swap the sea elves for Alturak and the halflings for Vyre - it's just too 'tasty' not too!
I think book three is definitely a chance to get out into the wider world. I am thinking of having fort menador act as the iron mines of tyr - cutting off this vital resource. Maybe doing before the halting banquet.
I'm am also adding a prologue part getting the players into one group as the Great Arena protest seems a little difficult for this.
yeah, it was the halfling cannibalism that made me think about the Vyre dining scene. Plus, it's a completely foreign culture to a Tablelander - which is appropriate for a rough bunch of urban toughs coming into a decadent banquet. Galtan cuisine becomes a bit... more literal...
The Fort Menandor as a chokepoint to the iron mines makes sense. Doing it after the banquet still works, since the mines are on the way back from the Forest Ridge. Plus, Kalak almost certainly has a military presence on the road to the mines.
Changing the aquatic elven village to say... a dwarven or renegade slave one might work.
A bit late to the party but hopefully not late enough to be accused of Necromancy :)
I dug out my old Dark Sun stuff a couple of months ago, (I agree all the later stuff diluted what I liked about the setting) but porting this across never occurred to me. It's a great idea and one that I'm sorely tempted to steal.
One other group in the mix is Mialari and the Lacunafex - they could morph into Athasian bards or perhaps a tribe based in the elven markets?
To me the Sacred Order could stay pretty much as is. With writing so disapproved of and the sorcerer-kings penchant for burying the past any bunch of historians would need to work in secret.
I'd also try to spread things out a bit - wilderness and survival is a big theme in Dark Sun so worth giving some stage time.
The bit I struggle with is the scope of the story. In the big picture Barzillai is a nobody and Kintargo irrelevant so the idea of a bunch of upstarts rounding up a few friends and taking him down sits OK with me, but Kalak is one of the dozen most powerful beings on the planet, a demi-god in all but name. I think I'd want to add a few more 'epic' touches like the Heartwood Spear to justify how he could be taken down.
While Barzalli is a nobody, he is a powerful autocrat in the city. The nature of the city states I think would be that the other sorcerer kings are isolated but act together when there is a common threat.
In the lore Kalak is sometimes recognised as an upstart sorcerer king - not one of the original - but he is powerful because of the iron mines. I would probably run him as a Arcanist 18, Psychic 9 with the half dragon template. It might be worth giving him mythic abilities because of his age of power.
You are right that the party would need defences/weapons to take him out. This could come from the halflings in book 3 or another sorcerer king... or perhaps a weapon from Under-Tyr. If Kalak goes mythic maybe the party either gain mythic power from a pyreen/sorcerer king or find a weapon that negates Kalak's mythic nature?
There are a lot of Athasian artefacts that might help and be worth using although the heartwood spear is a classic.
It is really hard when some of the party has read verdant passage et al. I want to capture that story but without copying events.
Any other thoughts Arquestan?
Is it too big a problem if the party OOC know a bit of what's going on? Kalak's building a ziggurat is likely to get their attention! Maybe have the big news early on that local star gladiator Rikus and his new partner just got killed in the arena so they know it's all down to them.
...running with that thought a little further - perhaps Tithian could sub for Lord Mayor Bainilus (not sure how that works later on though) and the Asticles estate could be burnt down in place of the Victocora's. Rexus might even be Agis, or perhaps a younger family member who receives the letter from him? If Rikus' death was clearly a setup with an unwinnable fight that might trigger the protest in the arena?
It uses the players knowledge to set the seen, and they just KNOW something bad is going to happen but it's also clear that this is going to be an alternate time line.
I'm not sure if I explained well in my first post, that in my version of Tyr, Kalak built the great pyramid a few hundred years before to put him on step one of becoming a dragon King (using the alternative version that Kalak wasn't an original and was taught by the two heads - love those characters). That was the reason for the original founding of the veiled alliance (silver Ravens). I like the idea that the events of the verdant passage happened almost as written, including throwing the spear, but when Rikus etc entered the pyramid they never came out. Kalak recovered and the alliance was destroyed.
Therefore the heartwood spear is somewhere, either in Kalaks treasury, or a retired gladiators armoury, on a templar's mantelpiece etc.
i do like your suggestion though Arquestan that Titian or a high Templar replace Barzalii but then how is killing that person freeing Tyr?
Instead of transforming into the dragon I was going to have Kalak be altering the golden tower to be a psychic-defiling weapon that would be used to destroy the dragon/control him. The fact that Kalak wouldn't know the original purpose of the dragon and Rajat makes it more interesting.
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...running with that thought a little further - perhaps Tithian could sub for Lord Mayor Bainilus (not sure how that works later on though) and the Asticles estate could be burnt down in place of the Victocora's. Rexus might even be Agis, or perhaps a younger family member who receives the letter from him? If Rikus' death was clearly a setup with an unwinnable fight that might trigger the protest in the arena?
It uses the players knowledge to set the seen, and they just KNOW something bad is going to happen but it's also clear that this is going to be an alternate time line.
Yup. Rexus is Agis and maybe Jillia is Tithian?
I guess if we want Barzilai to be the high Templar then we need some plot device whereby Kalak is out of the picture. Perhaps the arcane preparations in the tower require total isolation or maybe he's exploring the Grey or the Black, or stalking the Dragon.
His extended absence and failure to respond to a coup amongst his Templars would be reasonable motivation to believe a full blown revolution could succeed. Whether Book5/6 will be suitable to re-skin to what happens when Kalak finds out, or you'd need to improvise from there is an open question...