As it turns out, our Eberron game ended a bit prematurely. We've had a few weeks notice, however, and I decided to run a sandbox-style Dark Sun game until the books arrive. My Dark Sun addicted friend had a copy of Ivory Triangle that I could borrow, and with last month's Ampersand talking about the Nibenay (the sorcerer-king) and his brides, I decided to use Nibenay (the city - damned narcissistic kings naming cities after themselves) as the sandbox. There they will be given free reign to explore until the books arrive, at which point I'll propel them in a more major story-arc.
So last Sunday we had a character creation session, and here are the characters they were able to cook up:
- Renegade (Halfling Ardent) - Losing his whole squadron of halflings as they journeyed from the Forest Ridge to Gulg, the halfling that would later be known as renegade became further disenchanted by working for the city-state when he heard that their chief, Mogg-lul, perished in the travel as well. He has since run off to Nibenay, where he tries (and fails) to recruit a new squad worthy of his natural leadership skills.
- Visarion (Dray Sorcerer) - Visarion is a templar of the sorcerer-king of Giustenal, a city long thought dead by the greater people of the Tablelands. Unlike many templars who gained their power by ritual pacts with their sorcerer-king, the process that transformed Visarion's bloodline into the dray also imparted a natural ability for spellcasting. As a templar of the fifth scale, he was sent on an important mission to spy on the other city-states.
- Amare (Elf [eladrin] Swordmage) - A templar of Tyr. Permitted to practice the arcane because of his status as a templar, he has learned to blend magic with swordplay. For circumstances that he prefers to keep to himelf, Amare has been forcefully dispatched to Nibenay as the Tyrian ambassador. The templar-wives tolerated him, but with the news of Kalak's death spreading, he has begun to question the extent of his diplomatic immunity. He has begun to deal with the shadowy personalities of Cypher and Visarion to explore other means of surviving. He does not know his status in Tyr just yet.
- Cypher (Human mutant [Changeling] Assassin) - Once, Cypher enjoyed a privileged life, where he spied on the lasciviousness of the templar-wives and reporting only to the Shadow King himself. Wielding the power of the Black that he learned from the Shadow King, he did his job faithfully. And then King Kalak of Tyr died, and Nibenay chose to become active again politically. Seeing no further need for a Shadow hand, Nibenay disposed of him. He somehow survived, however, and now uses his mutant capabilities to escape and take his vengeance on as many templar-wives as possible.
- Bjorn Mindhammer (Dwarf Battlemind) - Had he been a gladiator anywhere but in Nibenay, Bjorn might not have had the privilege of earning his freedom. But earn it he did, but the tug of the arena calls to him constantly. Finding a sponsor in Eddard, he now seeks eternal glory in the arena as the best warrior ever known in Athas. His secret life focus is to prove his strength by defeating a sorcerer-king... Eventually.
- Eddard of House Xenxa (Human Psion) - Eddard's world has just been shattered. As the favored husband of House Xenxa's matriarch, he has enemies that are envous of him and his daughter, the heir of the noble house. But recently the templar-wives of Nibenay took his own daughter, citing an improbable loophole in the laws that somehow required his daughter to be taken in as "one of them." Distraught by this sudden turn of events, he does not yet notice the threat on his life brought upon by the loss of the protection of having produced an heir.
Character creation and tying up their backstories together (I wanted the characters to be somewhat familiar with each other already) took up most of our time, but by the end of it, we still had enough daylight to go through one encounter. So I began the game by setting the timeline at the time of the Starlight Pageant, a festival held in the city of Nibenay thrice a year. The character controlling Eddard couldn't make it, but I thought that 5 players were good enough for the game to proceed.
As Bjorn attempted to enjoy himelf in the festival after a successful match in the arena, he was approached by Orlon, a halfling pantmaster. At first the paintmaster attempted to earn a lot of money by asking Bjorn to let him ink some tattoos onto the gladiator's skin for a cost. The dwarf had no interest in losing money, however, an when he began to walk away Orlon made another offer. A contest of various artworks have been held as part of the Starlight Pageant of the High Sun, but Orlon keeps getting beat by a sculptor known as Marluc. Orlon thinks Marluc is cheating by paying Tyrian scultors with metal tools for some of their works. If Bjorrn helps him prove that Marluc has been cheating, he can present ink two tattoos for free - and he hinted at his tattoos being stronger than normal.
At the same time, Amare is approached by a shadow bride who goes by the name of Leaza. The safety of the Tyrian ambassador in Nibenay is not secure, and Leaza knows it. She promises to keep amare in favor if she helps with a little problem that the templars cannot attend to at the moment, for they are busy with tasks related to the Starlight Pageant. A cursed, metallic dagger has been smuggled into Nibenay by the elves and have found its way to one of the templars' homes. Now the house is inaccessible, and nothing short of disenchanting the blade will do the trick. If they are able to fix the problem, Leaza tells Amare tht they can keep the dagger.
The party talks it out and decides that Orlon's problem is easier to fix. They paid Marluc a visit. The half-elf sculptor wasn't just an artist, as it turns out, but he also kept some breed of bird that he called chickens for food, and even offered some dipped in boiling oil. They were highly suspicious of Marluc, however, especially when the sculptures didn't show any hint of chisel marks on the body. They began to suspect that sorcery was involved, and all save the halfling declined the opportunity to eat an exotic bird.
As they left, Amare noted that Marluc favored Bjorn above everyone else in the party. So they set up a trap that involved getting Bjorn alone in a dark alley. Sure enough, Marluc showed up again after the others were gone, offering the gladiator a chance to see him work on the sculpture for tomorrow's contest. They went back to the half-elf's studio, with the rest of the group stealthily following along.
Finally, Marluc showed Bjorn how he performed his sculpting - by way of the breed of birds that he called chickens. These delicious fowl creatures also has the uncanny ability to petrify its potential predators. Thinking the gladiator was alone, he set the chickens loose on Bjorn, hoping to turn him into his next award-winning piece. Thanks to Cypher's not-so-awesome lockpicking skills as well as Amare's better teleporting capabilities, the rest of the group got back into the studio in time to help Bjorn. They dispatched the chickens as well as Marluc (who turned out to be practicing sorcery illegally) and his two bodyguards.
Luckily, one of Marluc's past "masterpieces" was a missing templar, so the authorities forgave the fact that certain foreigners took part in the killing of a Nibenese citizen. That he apparently works for the Veiled Alliance helped, too.
And so, with Renegade and Bjorn sporting new tattoos, the group decides that they still have time (it's late, but the Starlight Festival means everybody's up anyway) to look into Leaza's dagger problem.
Up next: The Dagger of Khirim-Jan
As Bjorn attempted to enjoy himelf in the festival after a successful match in the arena, he was approached by Orlon, a halfling pantmaster. At first the paintmaster attempted to earn a lot of money by asking Bjorn to let him ink some tattoos onto the gladiator's skin for a cost. The dwarf had no interest in losing money, however, an when he began to walk away Orlon made another offer. A contest of various artworks have been held as part of the Starlight Pageant of the High Sun, but Orlon keeps getting beat by a sculptor known as Marluc. Orlon thinks Marluc is cheating by paying Tyrian scultors with metal tools for some of their works. If Bjorrn helps him prove that Marluc has been cheating, he can present ink two tattoos for free - and he hinted at his tattoos being stronger than normal.
At the same time, Amare is approached by a shadow bride who goes by the name of Leaza. The safety of the Tyrian ambassador in Nibenay is not secure, and Leaza knows it. She promises to keep amare in favor if she helps with a little problem that the templars cannot attend to at the moment, for they are busy with tasks related to the Starlight Pageant. A cursed, metallic dagger has been smuggled into Nibenay by the elves and have found its way to one of the templars' homes. Now the house is inaccessible, and nothing short of disenchanting the blade will do the trick. If they are able to fix the problem, Leaza tells Amare tht they can keep the dagger.
The party talks it out and decides that Orlon's problem is easier to fix. They paid Marluc a visit. The half-elf sculptor wasn't just an artist, as it turns out, but he also kept some breed of bird that he called chickens for food, and even offered some dipped in boiling oil. They were highly suspicious of Marluc, however, especially when the sculptures didn't show any hint of chisel marks on the body. They began to suspect that sorcery was involved, and all save the halfling declined the opportunity to eat an exotic bird.
As they left, Amare noted that Marluc favored Bjorn above everyone else in the party. So they set up a trap that involved getting Bjorn alone in a dark alley. Sure enough, Marluc showed up again after the others were gone, offering the gladiator a chance to see him work on the sculpture for tomorrow's contest. They went back to the half-elf's studio, with the rest of the group stealthily following along.
Finally, Marluc showed Bjorn how he performed his sculpting - by way of the breed of birds that he called chickens. These delicious fowl creatures also has the uncanny ability to petrify its potential predators. Thinking the gladiator was alone, he set the chickens loose on Bjorn, hoping to turn him into his next award-winning piece. Thanks to Cypher's not-so-awesome lockpicking skills as well as Amare's better teleporting capabilities, the rest of the group got back into the studio in time to help Bjorn. They dispatched the chickens as well as Marluc (who turned out to be practicing sorcery illegally) and his two bodyguards.
Luckily, one of Marluc's past "masterpieces" was a missing templar, so the authorities forgave the fact that certain foreigners took part in the killing of a Nibenese citizen. That he apparently works for the Veiled Alliance helped, too.
And so, with Renegade and Bjorn sporting new tattoos, the group decides that they still have time (it's late, but the Starlight Festival means everybody's up anyway) to look into Leaza's dagger problem.
Up next: The Dagger of Khirim-Jan
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