Tag: Fury of the Wastewalker

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun: Wrap Up

Now that the second season of D&D Encounters has drawn to a close it seems like a good time for a little reflection. First of all thanks are in order to all the folks at Wizards of the Coast for producing and distributing the adventure, thanks go to my FLGS, Dueling Grounds for hosting us, and of course thanks to all the players who showed up.

Fury of the Wastewalker offered a great introduction to the Dark Sun setting. Though it was too brutal and unkind for some people’s liking, it succeeded in setting the tone that people have come to expect from Athas, the world of Dark Sun. A lot of characters died, a lot.

I think this adventure will serve as the best campaign primer for any DM that wants to start a Dark Sun game in the city of Tyr. The adventure touched on many of Dark Sun’s themes, such as dying in the desert, dying in caves, dying in the jungle and being eaten by cannibals. By the end of it the party will have arrived in the city they sought for so long, ready to begin the campaign you have planned. Clever move Wizards, I see what you did there.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 14)

With only two weeks left the excitement really started building. The PCs left the lush mountain foliage where the feywild crept into Athas and returned to the harsh desert environment more familiar to the PCs. With the sun setting on the horizon and long shadows reaching out towards the PC, they move hastily towards Tyr. As the party weaved in and out of the rocky outcroppings they heard a blood-curdling shriek followed by several others as if in response. The Wastewalkers most powerful allies were upon the PCs.

Our numbers continue dwindling. We were down to five this week. Again, I stepped up as the DM and ran the four adventurers through the penultimate encounter. The only pre-generated character in the party this week was Barcan. He was joined by three familiar faces, the Half-Orc archer Ranger, the Human Warlord (archer build) and the Minotaur Seeker. No defender and no strong melee characters. This was going to make for an interesting encounter.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 10)

GenCon is over and now it’s time to get back to our regularly scheduled D&D game. After a two week absence I was back at D&D Encounters on Wednesday night. With our numbers dwindling week after week I wasn’t sure if we’d need more than one table. While I was on the road to Indianapolis last week only six people managed to make it out for D&D Encounters Dark Sun week 9. I was ready to DM this week, but happy to jump into the role of player if there was only one table.

We waited an extra 15 minutes before starting, but in the end we had only nine people – not quite enough for two tables. The other DM decided to run a super encounter with an expanded party. So we got things in order and prepared to play with eight players. All of the pre-gens were represented as well as Yuka 2 and Phye 2 (which I played).

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Player Resources

The Future of D&D Encounters

During GenCon I attended the D&D Encounters seminar. Not only do we have details about season 3, but there’s big news for the rest of season 2. We also have the dates for seasons 4-6 as well as information about upcoming World Wide Game Days through 2010 and 2011.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 7)

What makes Dark Sun different from any other campaign setting? This question more than any other has motivated people to come out and try D&D Encounters over the past seven weeks. At first there was a lot of interest. People who used to play in Dark Sun came out to see the 4e version of their beloved campaign setting. Others were just curious to see what all the fuss was about. And for five weeks D&D Encounters did not disappoint.

Fury of the Wastewalker chapter 1 exposed the players and their characters to the harsh desert environment of Athas that makes Dark Sun so unique. The PCs struggled to survive in the blistering sun while trying to outrun a strange and vicious obsidian sand storm. Add to that the ever-present threats of the desert creatures determined to kill the PCs and take their food and water. Dark Sun quickly earned a reputation for its brutality and grit – and rightly so. This isn’t the light and fluffy D&D of the Forgotten Realms.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 4)

Today is Canada Day, a holiday across Canada, which meant that last night’s D&D Encounters Dark Sun had less than usual attendance. After three weeks with 20 or more participants, this week we were down to only 12 (including the two DMs). So with two tables of five, we returned to Athas.

Before we started the encounter itself, Jarvix performed a Comrades’ Succor ritual. This allowed the PCs to redistribute their remaining healing surges. So going into the encounter for week 4 everyone had full (or nearly full) hit points and at least one healing surge at their disposal during the combat. I want to thank the other DM running D&D Encounters for pointing out this ritual and explaining how to use it. Having never played an arcane character with Ritual Casting I had no idea. It made a huge difference.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: June 2010

Dark Sun is the hottest topic in D&D right now. We posted 10 Dark Sun articles here at Dungeon’s Master throughout the last month and promise to keep writing more on Athas and D&D Encounters season two. But that’s not all we covered in June. We still brought you plenty of player and DM resources as well as news from the D&D community. And just to let you know we haven’t forgotten about Eberron, we provided another installment in our ongoing Secrets of Eberron series. So whether you missed an article or two throughout June or you’ve only just stumbled upon our site, the Month in Review is a great way to get caught up on everything we ran in the past month. We’d also like to take this opportunity (as we do every month) to thank all of our readers for visiting Dungeon’s Master and for coming back again and again.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 3)

What do you get when four PCs are attacked by goblins from high atop a rocky outcropping? One hell of a tough encounter. Week 3 was another grueling session for the players at my table. They eventually defeated all of the monsters, but the toll on their personal resources was costly. If they thought encounter 3 was tough, encounters 4 and 5 will be nearly impossible without a significant turn of events.

There they were getting pelted from above when we took stock of party’s ranged attack options. Yuka, no ranged attacks. Phye, no ranged attacks. Shikirr, no ranged attacks. That left Barcan. The same Barcan with only 2 healing surges remaining. Barcan with the poorest defenses of all the pre-generated characters. After only 5 minutes we knew this was going to ugly.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 2)

This week I got a double dose of Dark Sun. I was on vacation last week, but before I left I made arrangements with 6 players to skip the first week and run encounters one and two back-to-back this week. After just two sessions of Fury of the Wastewalker I have to admit that I like this adventure a whole lot more than Halaster’s Lost Apprentice.

D&D Encounters is a 15-part adventure from Wizards of the Coast and it’s played out one encounter each week over 15 weeks.

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Dark Sun Editorial

D&D Encounters Dark Sun (Week 1)

The first session of D&D Encounters: Dark Sun was a sink or swim lesson in desert survival. This second season of the program takes place on the world Athas, an endless expanse of sand and searing heat having been blasted lifeless by the ravaging effects of magic. On Athas the majority of the population swelters in the heat of oppression in slavery while tyrannical sorcerer-kings live lavish and absurd life styles within the walls of their city states.

Welcome to Athas! Following an introduction to the world that our characters found them selves in, we joined the action as we took part in a caravan as guards. Since resources are so scarce on Athas and the wilderness is inhabited by cruel raiders (not to mention cannibalistic Halflings), cargo moves from city to city in large caravans fortified by hired swords fighting to earn their next meal. It is on this errand that our party was devastated by a rain of jet black obsidian from above which obliterated the majority of the caravan after only one days travel from civilization. It was after most of the caravan was killed by falling stone when we were ambushed.

As lizard men began to raid the wagon train a very strong tone was set that I hope will persist throughout the arc of the season: Life on Athas is pragmatic at best. Where did that obsidian come from? Why is in raining on us? I suspect that these questions and many more will never be answered. Our characters didn’t have time to ponder the source of our assailant because we had the task of grabbing as many days’ supplies as we could before running for our lives into the endless desert. You know that the circumstances are dire when the best course of action includes a life denying wasteland.

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