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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore
1419 Posts |
 Posted - 03 Dec 2023 : 20:15:35
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I'm doing a series of fun articles for my blog and thought I'd share.
https://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/2023/12/101-dark-sun-adventure-hooks.html
Dark Sun is a deeply underappreciated gameline and the fact that Hasbro has decided not to continue the setting is a great disappointment. It was a planetary romance akin to Barsoom at its most beautiful and like Mad Max at its worst. It's a post-apocalypse setting where the world has been ravaged by destructive magic and ruled by evil sorcerer kings. There are no gods because they are either dead or never existed in the first place.
It is a controversial setting, for good reason, with slavery and a history of genocide against other species baked into the setting. It challenged the many norms of fantasy with the only religions being the corrupt Templars or the oppressed Elemental cults. The nobility is also corrupt and in the pocket of the Sorcerer Kings. It is a reactionary setting where the working class heroes are perhaps the only hope the world has or the corrupt Defiler or Templar PCs are ready to rule over the ashes.
There's some genuinely bad ideas like the half-dwarf race options being sterile individuals called Muls, all half-giants killing their mothers at birth, and cannibal halflings but it is mostly a really fascinating take on D&D adventuring. So with warning that the following adventure hooks will deal with uncomfortable and mature topics (hopefully respectfully), enjoy!
1. The PCs come across an unmarked oasis crossing the desert. It is full of clean, pristine, and beautiful water as well as growing plants. Is it because of a friendly druid, an imprisoned elemental, or is it some kind of illusion for bandits luring weary travelers to their doom? What happens if the PCs need that water?
2. The PCs meet two tribes of elves who are about to go to war over a fairly trivial matter that they invite the PCs to arbitrate on. The PCs receive offers of bribes, seduction, and threats to win one side over or the other. Is it really what it seems or is the dispute over which can fool the outsiders before robbing them or selling them into slavery? Or both?
3. The PCs find a halfling teenager wandering in the desert, dazed and confused. He has no memory of what happened to happen.
4. See #3, the halfling was hunting a legendary monster for his rite of passage and ended up finding a bulette or owlbear or other traditional D&D monster mutated to horribly dangerous levels.
5. See #3, the halfling's village was destroyed by a defiler who reduced to ashes. The teenager has sworn vengeance and promises their tribes meager wealth to the PCs if they help once he remembers.
6. See #3, the halfling is actually the defiler themselves who is trying to hide from Templars hunting him.
7. The PCs inherit a nobleman's estate in the city of Tyr. They have no known connection with the man and yet it is a mansion of great value.
8. See #7, it was because the nobleman is spiting his relatives and believes they will get themselves killed antagonizing hardened adventurers.
9. See #7, the estate is in heavy debt and the nobleman actually was faking his death and hopes the hardened adventurers will distract his creditors.
10. See #7, the estate is actually haunted by a dwarven banshee whose focus was to serve the family only for him to break it when the nobleman defiled his family's honor somehow. The nobleman hopes the PCs will clean it out then buy it back.
11. A radical member of the Veiled Alliance wants to move on from just protecting Preservers and other magic users to liberating slaves. The Veiled Alliance thinks this is suicide while others see it as the spark of revolution. He offers to work with the PCs in setting up raids against slave traders and smuggling them to freedom.
12. The PCs are invited to dinner with a Sorcerer King, either Nibenay, Gulg, or Hamanu probably. Is it actually just dinner for a bored despot or do they have a job that they cannot trust to their own considerable forces? Or is it a game as the Templars, nobility, and merchants all wonder why they are honored guests.
13. The PCs are hired as ringers for a failing gladiator team in the arena. Their previous champions were poisoned by rivals and it is about time for the Great Games. A lot is riding on their victory as the pot is meant to buy the gladiator's spouses and families' freedom.
14. A courtesan bard wants to hire the PCs as guards and guests for a grand soiroe at a Merchant Prince's compound. She plans to poison one of the guests but whether he deserves it, the PCs know ahead of time, or things go horribly wrong is up to the DM.
15. The PCs are hired to journey to an ancient set of ruins to slay a horrifying monster that is preying on local caravans. Possibly a behir or sand kraken. It is guarded by a cult that reveres it as a god.
16. See #15, the cult is a bunch of druids who believe the ancient monster is a vital part of Athas' ecology and is the focus for their efforts to rebuild the city's gardens and farmland in secret.
17. See #16, the druids are real. They're also doing the whole human sacrifice and other crazy evil cult stuff.
18. A great Mul gladiator wishes to seek out his father and present himself in hopes of finding the family he has long believed he has deserved. He just needs their help doing the legwork.
19. See 18#, The Mul's father is a deranged serial killer with the focus of killing all the children he was forced to sire as a slave.
20. See 18#, The Mul is shocked to discover he is a dwarf on his mother's side and he was given away for being too puny.
21. The PCs find themselves waking up in Ur-Draxas, the city of the Dragon. Which should be confusing as Ur-Draxas was destroyed during the events of the Prism Pentad.
22. See 21#, Somehow they have gone back in time.
23. See 21#, the city's destruction was greatly exaggerated and the fascist dragon worshipers have worn themselves down to overthrowable levels in the meantime.
24. See 21#, it is actually a ghost city created by the massive amount of necromantic energy that Borys worked over the years. His ghost needs to be slain to put the city to rest and while massively weakened, he's still a frigging dragon ghost.
25. The local Elemental Priests are looking to hire mercenaries to kill a new priest who claims to represent a god of mercy, light, and good among other silly concepts. It's surely a scam, right?
26. See 25#, it's not a scam. A Deva has been summoned beyond the Gray and is trying to form a cult to heal Athas.
27. See 25#, it's not a scam. It is an Avangion-in-transitioning and would well start a new city state.
28. See 26#, it is an Avangion and it's an evil one. The Preserver wishes to enslave the world and restore it to a green and beautiful new age.
29. Two psionicist schools are feuding in the city and what started as a general war of pranks as well as preening has turned into a case of murder. One of the masters has been killed and the suspects can all kill people with their mind.
30. Some truly idiotic defilers have decided they will resurrect one of the deceased Sorcerer Kings like Kalak or Abalach-Re. It's certainly possible for a circle of wizards combining their powers but will require a huge number of people to die in the process.
31. Andropinis has returned to the city of Balic despite his imprisonment in the Plane of Shadow. He has done something no one has expected, though, and offered to step down as Dictator for Life. A new election is to be held immediately! Is it an imposter, the real thing, or some convoluted game by the Sorcerer King?
32. The PCs are brought into Ravenloft's domain of Kalidnay. They were not brought by the Dark Powers, though, but by the sleeping spirit of Kalid-Ma who wants them to confront his love-sick insane Templar Dark Lord. If they break her spirit or slay her, Kalidnay will return to Athas but Kalid-Ma will walk the world once more.
33. A bunch of bandits are surrounding a fortified oasis that wants to transport its cargo of fresh fruit, water, and other valuables out of it. The PCs can help the homesteaders or the bandits who claim that the homesteaders betrayed them somehow. Yes, it's The Road Warrior.
34. See 33#, the bandits are absolutely telling the truth. The homesteaders used to market slaves in their oasis and the bandits are made of ones who managed to liberate themselves.
35. See 34#, they're telling the truth but the homesteaders also have children with them and the bandits intend to slaughter everyone regardless of involvement. Oppression doesn't make you a good person after all.
36. A Thri-Kreen "prince" (which should already raise some red flags) wants the PCs to be his guide to a city-state as he visits various people his hive want to open trade with. Many wacky cultural misunderstandings ensue.
37. A merchant prince wants the PCs to rescue a princess of a rival house from a defiler's tower so they can be married. It has a monster guarding it. Pure classic motivation.
38. See 37#, the defiler owning the tower is the princess herself. The merchant prince is a rival who wants her to live up to their arranged marriage despite achieving financial freedom through dark magic.
39. See 37#, she's actually an Efreeti being held by her father and the Merchant Prince is a Marid, Djinn, or Gao in disguise.
40. See 40#, this was actually a test by the princess who is infuriated the prince didn't take part himself and decides to marry one of the PCs themselves. Gender is no object.
41. The Free City of Tyr is planning on trying to raise some money by hosting less violent and bloody spectacle in a more athletics focused Great Games than gladiator fighting. The Council requests the PCs get the athletes from killing each other, getting too drunk to compete, getting utterly fleeced by the local brothels, or cheating and spying for the other city states.
42. The harem of a particularly powerful noblewoman is in dire peril as their mistress has died in a chariot accident and they're about to be cast aside by her three daughters who don't want to pay stipends to aging pretty boys. The harem needs the PC to find/kidnap/impersonate a reputable oracle or soothsayer to find out which of them sired the daughters so they can demand retirement money by local law.
43. See #42, it was all one dude and he doesn't intend to share.
44. Dregoth the Dracolich has emerged and announced himself to the Post-Prism Pentad world. However, his actions are...unexpected. He has proclaimed Giustenal a Free City where any slave can come for freedom and farm the lands outside. His Templars, all Dray (Dragonborn in 5E), also promise fair law and protection from the other Sorcerer Kings. All will be equal.
45. See #44 Dregoth is 100% sincere. It's just read the fine print that undead are also equal citizens and all are equally under his claw.
46. A mysterious set of weird lights, noises, and people going missing is happening in a mountain top the locals know to send outsiders to investigate. The PCs should get a sense of what they might find (A Spelljammer) when they find out the name of the Mountains translate to Barrier Peaks...
47. A druid is wondering why a miracle has occurred around an old ruin leftover from the Green Age. A greast vast lake has appeared around the desert and he hopes to repeat the miracle. It turns out that it is a Decanter of Endless Water from a thousand years past that someone left open.
48. A wizened barbarian wants the PCs to take him on one last wild adventure. He has lost his vast strength and fighting ability but maintains his cunning. He wishes the PCs to take him to face his old enemy, a Kaisharga (Defiler Lich), for a duel. In his current state is an elaborate suicide. However, he might be open to lycanthropy, undeath, a fruit of youth tree, or a champion if talked into it. He knows where all are available.
49. The PCs are asked to explore beyond the Tablelands and find a large region full of new communities, peoples to explore, and trade with. Perhaps they're Incan Drow, stately Roman orcs, or Greek clockpunk kobolds. Unfortunately, this opens up an invasion by the surviving sorcerer kings.
50. The PCs receive a map to an iron mine from an old dwarven prospector. There is indeed precious steel at the bottom of the place. It just leads to an ancient city depraved below that holds secrets dating back to the Blue Age and mutated serpent men who worship a god that still answers their prayers.
51. The dracolich Dregoth or a resurrected Borys is going to destroy the city of Tyr. Sadira of Tyr, antihero that she is, has a plan. According to some ancient halfling relics, there's a defensive creature bound beneath the Silt Sea they can harness as a weapon. You just need to do the ritual to raise this "Tarrasque" from its prison.
52. See 51#, How to deal with it after you've killed Dregoth or Borys is anyone's guess.
53. See 51#, the Tarrasque has sadly been dead for millennia.
54. See 53#, which is why we need the mother of all Animate Dead spells. The PCs will then drive its skeleton like Voltron.
55. An ancient crystal teaching device (basically a holographic interactive library with a psionic interface) called The Book of Raajat drives any of its readers insane or can teach them defiling or preserving sorcery. Its possessors can also eventually be led down the road to dragondom or avangelion-dom. The local Veiled Alliance's leader wants to destroy the artifact and knows how to do it by tossing it in a volcano. Others, however, think it would be a cataclysmic loss to science as well as possibly the only way to save the world.
56. The PCs have attracted a quirky girl sidekick who wishes to be their associate and help them heroically save the day as well as the world.
57. See 56#, she's a Sorcerer King's daughter.
58. See 57#, also a Defiler or Templar or Warlock to something unwholesome, but she'd rather get out of that.
59. The PCs meet a Warlock who insists that the gods of old Athas are not dead but merely dreaming. He wants to go to an old temple and do a ritual to contact them. If the PCs translate the halflings' writings, they'll note the gods of old Athas were NEVER good but only appeased. Still how bad could these...K'tullu, Hahstor (better say that three times), or Yagh-Sothyth be?
60. The PCs on a scouting mission find a city of the undead. It is, oddly, a city of intelligent undead and not particularly hostile. They're all cursed and bound to their Sorcerer King who hasn't stirred in 600 years. How the hell do they report this?
61. A young water cleric wishes to runaway with the beautiful Nereid who is the source of his village's well water. Needless to say, the village is not happy about it.
62. Members of the Order, the Epic Level Psionicist group, are being killed one after the other. They assume it is the Sorcerer Kings but it's actually a man who has a 100ft psionic cancelling field around himself. What is his motivation? How does he know these people? Should the PCs stop him?
63. Lalali-Puy has selected the PCs to sire or bear her child. She's flexible about the mechanics and happy to do it the old fashioned way (with shapechanging if necessary) or using magic. The Sorcerer Queen of Gulg's criteria for this is unknown to her but the PCs may not be happy with the prospect. If they just do their duty, they'll find less than a year later, a fully adult child possessing all of their skills and now the Sorcerer Queen's primary agent.
64. Rikus the Gladiator is aware he's a shit general and wants the PCs to shore up some of his issues there. The city state of Urik is probing Tyr's defenses again and he wants them to prepare a strategy to make it too expensive to invade: raids, sabotage, attacks on convoys, whatever.
65. The PCs are meant to go on a heist for the Veiled Alliance. They're to break into the Sorcerer King's gardens and steal a Tree of Life so they can grow a forest of them. The half-giant gardeners, though, will **** you up. Also, it turns out they neglected to mention this Tree of Life comes with a Dryad.
66. SAND PIRATES! FLOATING SHIPS RAIDING THE SANDS! Yarr! They're giant animals enchanted to float and full of bandits out to steel booty! They're the legendary crew of the Gith known as Bone Claw the Ravager! Where did he get his floating sand skimmers? That's it's own story!
67. See 66#, They're after BONE CLAW'S TREASURE! It's hidden somewhere near the PC's home base and some slave villages terrified of becoming collateral damage to the reavers.
68. A love sick bard has started spreading incredibly dirty songs about Neeva the Gladiator in a misguided attempt to woo the redheaded Amazon. It doesn't help they're incredibly catchy and are playing in every brothel in the city. Neeva knows there's no stopping them now (unless the songs can get modified somehow) but she wants the asshole dead. Especially as her son is old enough to hear them now.
69. The Pcs are hired to do a giant beetle drive from Nibeney to Gulg with a family of dwarves. They'll have to do some herding, fend off bandits, wild animal attacks, and the fact that the buyers are a bunch of low down dirty cheats hoping to drive the family out of business.
70. The wealthy patrons of a brothel that only employs free women and educates as well as protects them (mostly by training them in the poisonous secrets of the Bard class) are being murdered. Is it a puritanical Templar? The local Thieves Guild? A deranged former prostitute out to kill all nobles?
71. For higher level PCs, they are confronted by the fact they now have a cult. A a bunch of less than particularly bright individuals have been recruited to worship the God Hero. The leader is a con man but deeply concerned a few of the believers now have developed miraclous powers in the PC's name. Which makes no goddamn sense in Athas. The Templars are also not amused.
72. The PCs discover another new land and it is wet, moist, and fertile! It's also full of mutant cannibal humans, bullywugs worshiping their insane Slaadi god in sunken marsh temples, lizard men druids, and the fact any who drown in the swamp become undead.
73. The PCs acquire a Efreeti in a bottle who will, indeed, grant them three wishes but it can't grant actual wishes. It is limited in its power to whatever the PCs can ask it to do and also cursed upfront to admit that it will try to twist what it asks to harm people because, "Well, I am a real bastard. You would be too after being imprisoned by that mutant pyreen, Rajaat."
74. See 73#, It does, however, first demand the PCs do it a favor--deliver a love letter to its Lamia lover in the Underground Fire Pits. She is pissed that he's abandoned her for 300 years and will try to make him jealous.
75#. A pregnant woman is being chased by a sinister cult who they claim wants to sacrifice her baby.
76#. They do indeed. However, they should clarify, by "sacrifice", they mean, "kill the demon spawn of the dragon Borys/Dregoth that impregnated her in a dream and will use it to rebirth himself."
77. The PCs are driven with a caravan of travelers to take refuge in a set of ruins by a days long sandstorm as people start dying left and right, their bodies sucked dry of all moisture. Is a water vampire in the group, a mummy from the tomb, or a particularly clever murderer using psionics or magic?
78. A lynch mob is about to form to kill a local medicine woman for dubious reasoning. She appeals to their morality and if not, their greed as she is a potion maker of considerable skill.
79. See 78#, she's a Desert Hag.
80. A boy raised by Thri-Kreen is being returned to his (supposed) family in trade. The 12 year old doesn't understand the concept of money, is collectivist in nature, has many weird quirks, and an incredibly powerful psion who can communciate/control the hive. The family plan to use him to enslave his hive and launch attacks on their rivals.
81. The PCs acquire a Green Age Holy Avenger +5 made of crystal that is intelligent and speaks in the dreams of a suitable hero, whispering him to become the First Paladin in an Age.
82. See 81#, the sword is totally BATSHIT INSANE after its god being killed and utterly failing to save the world during the Cleansing Wars. It will advise the PCs to suicidal acts of defiance and channeling magic that comes from SOMEWHERE but not their god.
83. A Half-Giant gangster, odd profession I know, comes to the PCs with a need: there's been a group spreading the story that all-half giants kill their mothers at birth and other propaganda that is utter nonsense. He wants them killed. It turns out to be a single Merchant family that has a Half-Elf patriarch who lost his first love to a Half-Giant and has been maligning them ever since. His family has just inherited his massive racism.
84. An alchemist reveals a horrifying secret: Muls aren't born sterile. Ones born in slavery are given a special potion to sterialize them in order to keep their strength from being used against the Sorcerer Kings. He's devised a cure. It sounds like a silly story until Templar paid assassins show up.
85. A cult around Tithian the former King of Tyr has emerged due to the fact he was given credit for killing Kalak and now is a life-giving living rainstorm. Oh and was peripherially involved in the deaths of many Sorcerer Kings. The cult would be harmless if not for the fact they plan to start assassinating innocents who don't revere him. The leader of the cult, in fact, is a storm shaman being manipulated by the NE storm elemental and is 100% actually doing his god's bidding.
86. A Preserver has decided to screw it and get out of this world as he's discovered an ancient Green Age "Gate" that he hopes to use to lead him and other settlers to another world. But is it wise to open to another universe when you don't know what is on the other side? What if Defilers wish to escape Athas to destroy other realms?
87. A merchant's teenage daughter has run off to the desert to be with her lover. However, said lover is a mummified Drajan Templar who intends to sacrifice her then entomb her with him as he's done so many other women before.
88. See 87#, he's actually lying and she just ran off to be with a filthy half-elf. He's going to follow them with his bandit clan.
89. See 88#, because HE is the mummy and his bride was raised from birth for the ceremony before saying "screw it."
90. Sadira of Tyr has begun teaching Sun Magic as an alternative to Defiling and many individuals are embracing this seemingly new, clean, and limitless source of power. Others question any gifts that came from Rajaat and want the PCs to investigate the ancient sun towers for its secrets.
91. A school of the Veiled Alliance is starting to teach an alternate path of Preserving magic to musicians and spies, thinking their skills will be more useful than just teaching sorcerers and wizards. However, egos and Templar infiltrators threaten to shut down this school of spellcasting bards early on.
92. A mad dwarf emerges from a cavern structure and says a whole massive world exists underneath the ground full of albino elves, tentacled wizards, mushroom forests, and vast lakes. Is this a possible new hospitable land to colonize or the ravings of a madman?
93. A gladiator prince has led a successful revolt against Nibenay's forces and is now being chased across the mountains. He has no plan and misses the glory of being a legendary outlaw, hoping to make one great stand to inspire others. The Veiled Alliance want to convince him to disappear with his people into obscurity.
94. A new city state has invaded from across the mountains with gigantic scarabs the size of elephants, raiding villages in hopes of isolating one of the city-states before starving them out. The PCs are asked to find their home and possibly lead an army to raid them instead.
95. The PCs find themselves crucified in a desert and survive miraculously due to that rare thing of compassion as well as some psionic healers. The thing is, they have no idea how that happened or how they got taken out before being sentenced to Trees of Woe.
96. See 95#, it was the psionicists who drugged them and clouded their memories in hopes that they can frame their enemies for the PCs to go on a roaring rampage of revenge.
97. A particularly decadent, corrupt, and hedonistic Templar of the late King Kalak is throwing a lavish feast while the people starve. She controls many storehouses and trade routes that allowed her to whether the loss of his magic. The Veiled Alliance would like the PCs to substitute a shapechanged woman for her during the party without anyone being the wiser (and requiring them to lure her away for it).
98. See 97#, it is not the Veiled Alliance but the other former Templars really pissed at being cut out from the pie.
99. See 97#, an undead defiler intends to unleash an unspeakable horror on the party at the height to punish her as well as her guests for their horrific abuses of power.
100. See 97#, a massive riot of starving peaants will assault the place and the PCs must keep their patsy alive if the reforms needed to feed everyone go--which may require them to do violence to innocents.
101. A man claiming to be the son of Agis of Asticles, legendary "good nobleman" and reformer of Tyr appears wanting to claim his estates. Ones that Sadira had plans to donate to the peasantry. He looks identical to the man and the estates are among the most well-maintained and richest in tyr. Enough to raise this new man to the Council of Tyr by themselves. Is this a scam? A clone? A doppleganger? Or is it all true and did the nobleman have a dark side that included a child with a slave girl? The PCs must investigate and determine the character of the man.
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My Blog: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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101+ Dark Sun adventure hooks
