Dark Sun: The Scorched World of Athas | Adventure Log

City of Tattered Sails

At their safe house in an abandoned building, the party debated what to do and how to proceed without Banoc. Gwyn was unwilling to use the Dark Lens, out of concern about how she might

During the night, Daqiq struggled with the Crown of Dust, and eventually lost to the powerful will of Ul-Athra. He snuck out in the early morning and headed twoards the Sea of Silt. Too late, did the rest of the party notice he was missing, and tossing the Crown into the silt, Ul-Athra began to reform once again.

Moments later, the party ruhsed down towards the silt to find Daqiq struggleing to recover the crown and the massive form of Ul-Athra regenerating. Elleandra used her broom to fly out over the silt and rescue Daqiq and the Crown, while Way-lynn waded out to engage the primordial. Stunned for a few moments, the rest of the party finally engaged with weapons and magic, attempting to stop Ul-Athra from completely regenerating.

They were successful and Ul-Athra’s soul entered the Crown of Dust once again. However, they party suffered many wounds, and without Banoc, the prospect of healing was daunting. While the party wanted to take enough time to fully recover, they were unlucky. After only a few hours, with a loud “boom” the front door to the building burst out of the frame the the sorcerer-king of Balic, Andropinis himself stood in the doorway.

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OCT/2023

City of Tattered Sails

After their fight with Ul-Athra, the party retreated to a safe house in Balic. There, Banoc used much of his remaining spells to cure the party of the wounds they suffered during the fight. While resting, Daqiq attuned to the Crown of Dust, and although it attempted to assert influence over the rogue, the crown was not successful.

While resting, a large disturbance was seen moving from the Guilder’s Precinct towards the safe house, and the party assumed that it might be Ehwahla. Moving out to meet her in the open, they discovered that she traveled alongside a number of silt elementals.

Without any attempts at a diplomatic solution, the two forces engaged in a bloody combat. Although the party had the advantage of numbers, the silt elementals were able to pin down some of the party in sinkholes created in the ground. Banoc was unfortunately caught in a sinkhole and pinned by Ehwahlah, slowing suffocating and being crushed at the same time. Although Thea started to move to try and help him, Banoc urged her to take down Ehwahlah.

Eventualy the party was successful and Ul-Athra’s mate was defeated, however, Banoc also perished. They carried his body back to the safe house and rested once again, attempting to determine what their next move should be.

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SEP/2023

City of Tattered Sails

After the initial diorientation, the party found itself in the city of Balic, however, it was not as they remembered it. Most of the eastern districts were consumed by the Silt Sea. The remaining districts were burned and blasted with minimal signs of life. The level of destruction was far beyond anything that they had expected to see.

Hoping to find Andropinis, the party left he Villa Precinct and headed to the Meagleneon. There were signs of living inhabitants but despite the groups best efforts, they remained hidden, appearing to be afraid to show themselves. At the Megaleneon, the party encountered Ul-Athra, who was slowly consuming the land.

With one of their targets in sight, the party engaged the primordial and a titanic battle ensued, with meteors falling from the sky and Banoc, Iorskan and Way-lynn all being swallowed by Ul-Athra. Despite suffereing many severe wounds, the party emerged victorious and the remains sank back into the Silt Sea.

Gwyn used her magic to store Ul-Athra’s soul in the Dark Lens, Daqiq recovered the Crown of Dust and the party began searching for a place to rest while they planned their search for Yarnath, their next target.

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AUG/2023

Homecoming

Nibenay was curious about the partys intentions towards himself, the other sorcerer-kings and the world in general. Gwyn and Banoc carefully steered the conversation to avoid potentially dangerous topics and did not want to reveal too much about their specfic plans. During the conversation Nibenay revealed more of the history of the world, Rajaat and the champions, including the true purpose of the dragon’s levy – to power magic that contains Rajaat. If the magic were to fail, Rajaat would gain his freedom and the world would suffer greatly. Nibenay reveled the Rajaat’s plan was to return Athas to the Blue Age where halflings ruled.

Catacombs

In the catacombs beneath Nibenay, Jax and the other searched for more lost treasures. They happened across many of their corpses and remained confused as to what that meant for them. They found a magical deck of cards and Iorskan and Jarvix drew from it – each was affected by the magic. Jarvix lost some of his intelligence but gained the knowledge he could undue one event. Iorskan ended up loosing all of the magical items he possesed. None else dared to draw from the deck and Thea, being protective of the group, took the deck before any further trouble could be caused.

Way-lynn, Daqiq and Elleandra felt the best course of action was to head to Balic and confront Ul-Athra before the city-state was completely consumed. Having no further need to bother Nibenay, they left, and were allowed to leave without incident. The group reconnected in the catacombs and searched for the remainder of the day, eventually finding the Standard of Arkhosia as well as the Axe of Rkard. A number of other items were found, but they appeared to be cursed.

Iorskan arranged for the unwanted items to be sold and Gwyn used her magic to teleport the group to Balic, hoping they could defeat Ul-Athra and claim his power to help restore the dark sun.

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MAY/2023

Bloodsand Arena

Betrayal At Altaruk

Kaldras’s Betrayal
Brawl in the Market After the long march from Tyr the caravan finally arrived at the city of Altaruk in the early morning. At the gates Kaldras was able to move quickly past the guards with a few well placed bribes and the caravan reached the Elven Market. With the heroes helping to unload the kanks, Kaldras and the elves made arrangements sell their cargo and pay the heroes.

When the elves emerged from the tents, Vinara was quick to notice that they were fingering their blades rather than their coin purses. Alerted to possible trouble, the group was not surprised when a number of elf snipers emerged from the surrounding tents along with several kank spitters. Combat ensued as the elves attempted to subdue the heroes. A decisive blow by Morg, which nearly separated Kaldras’s arm from his shoulder, demoralized the elves. Before the raging barbarian could finish off the elves, the city guards appeared, along with their captain, ordering a halt to the hostilities.

The Captain, a human named Tellemon, who wielded a steel blade, demanded an explanation for the disturbance. Unmoved by the heroes story of betrayal by Kaldras, but not totally trusting the elves, Tellemon ordered the matter to be settled in the arena. With that, the city guards took both the heroes and the elves into the holding pens.

Coins in the Coffer
Locked in cells of the arena barracks, the heroes received their instructions for the games. The two groups were to engage in non-lethal combat by taking large ceramic coins from the center of the arena to one of the large stone coffers at the edge. Each coin scored the team one point, the team with the most points at the end of allotted time wins the arena game and will be judged to have been been telling the truth about the altercation in the Elven Market.

During this preparation time Morg used his gift in the Way to eavesdrop on the elves and learn part of the strategy they intended to employ against the heroes. Without more delay the elves were lead out of the barracks, with the party following a few minutes behind.

The arena has been planted with razor-sharp brambleweed, making it dangerous to move across many parts of the arena floor. A gong sounded the beginning of the contest and both sides moved quickly to gather coins, intercepting the opposing team and stealing coins from the other teams coffer. During the first few minutes Vinara manages to disable a few of the elves using the brambleweed and Gwyn had deposited several coins. A twist in the contest occurred when two large spiders were set free in the arena and begin harassing both groups. Morg decides to distract a spider attacking Gwyn and provide her with more coins by hurling the coins from the center of the arena to the edge.

After the alloted time, the final gong sounded and the heroes were victorious, with a last minute coin swap and steal from Vinara. Disappointed at the loss of the potential slaves as well as the humiliation of being defeated in the arena, the Moonrunner elves paid their fines and skulked off. The heroes were greeted by Tellemon who congratulated them on the victory and complemented them on their use of original tactics. Before departing, he invited them to his villa for dinner that evening for a small social gathering.

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FEB/2011

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Jul 15, 2011

Bloodsand Arena

Betrayal At Altaruk

A Change in Plans
The outcasts Morg and Vinara arrived at the city of Tyr hoping to find food and supplies for the encampment in the Ringing Mountains. Instead they found the city in chaos following the death of the sorcerer-king Kalak, and their hopes were dashed as the turmoil made all resources precious and unobtainable. Hoping to make some money and journey to a more stable city, they hired on with an elven caravan headed to the city of Altaruk…

The Elf Gwyn, hoping to find contacts within the city to aid in her training, found only chaos within the city walls. Inadvertently crossing a couple of well-connected thieves, the city became more dangerous to her than the wastelands. Trying to escape the city undetected, she hired on with an elven merchant of the Moonrunner tribe to guard a caravan heading to the city of Altaruk…

Road to Altaruk
Kaldras of the Moonrunners The heroes gathered with the caravan master, Kaldras, outside the city walls and the caravan formed up. The cargo, made up of unassuming ceramic wares, was loaded onto two large kanks and they headed southeast towards their destination. Travelling on foot, the elves kept their distance from the hired guards. Morg, Vinara and Gwyn tried their best to keep up with the fast insects and elves.

The party crossed stony barrens, avoiding the many landslides through a combination of luck and skill, and made their way into the sandy wastes in just over day. Pushing through the deadly sandstorms, freezing nights and blistering days, they managed to not lose their way in the dunes. The dunes gave way into twisting canyons in the badlands on the third day.

Raider Attack
Within hours of entering the badlands the caravan came under attack by a small group of raiders and their slaves. Barely alerted to their approach by falling rocks, the elves hid with the kanks, letting their hired guards deal with the threat.

Moving quickly Morg and Vinara, with her pet Bear, moved to engage the raiders in melee, while Gwyn stayed back. The group made quick work of the slaves, Morg’s axes cutting down several in one blow each. Vinara and Bear helping to protect the cargo from being taken by the flankers. Gwyn slew one of the raiders with a jet of flame she conjured. Although it appeared to be elemental, Morg recognized it as arcane magic.

Recovering from the attack, the caravan regrouped and continued on to Altaruk. Able to reach the city in the morning, Kaldras dispatched one of his sons to run ahead and alert the tribe members of his pending arrival.

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JAN/2011

Introduction

Death of Kalak It is the 19th day of Scorch in the season of High Sun of the Year of Priest’s Defiance in the 190th King’s Age.

Tyr is a city-state in chaos, and paradigms across Athas are snapping. Kalak, one of the nearly omnipotent sorcerer-kings, is dead. A band of rebels, now known as the Deposers of Kalak, laid low the centuries old tyrant. In the wake of the great arcanist’s downfall, the city’s oppressive order has crumbled. Factions struggle for power, snatching at scraps of influence and wealth as templars, Kalak’s agents, struggle to reassert civic authority. Howls of anarchy mix with the joyous whoops of freed slaves in a cacophony that has yet to quiet since the world was turned on its head.

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JAN/2011

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Jan 22, 2014