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Dark Sun Quest #DSQ3
Asticlian Gambit
The palace of the Forest Queen contains treasures unimaginable. To the sons and daughters of Athas's harsher climes, Gulg and the Crescent Forest seem almost perversely lush, a jumble of green and growing things hording precious water for the benefit of the few. But while basking in the glow of Lalali-Puy's gratitude, your characters have the richness of the forest at your beck and call. Of course, the Oba's sensibilities are easily bruised, and her nature is notoriously unforgiviing.
Gulg's dank dungeons are only a staging area to a deadly ceremony, where the young nobles of the city chase prisoners through the forest to earn their places as lord of their city - the Red Moon Hunt. Designed for four to six characters of 7th to 10th level, Asticlian Gambit makes them pawns in a dangerous game between the Oba of Gulg, the Shadow King of Nibenay, and mysterious representatives of the Asticles family of Tyr.
A stand-alone adventure, Asticlian Gambit can also be played as the sequel to Freedom, Road to Urik, and Arcane Shadows
Gulg's dank dungeons are only a staging area to a deadly ceremony, where the young nobles of the city chase prisoners through the forest to earn their places as lord of their city - the Red Moon Hunt. Designed for four to six characters of 7th to 10th level, Asticlian Gambit makes them pawns in a dangerous game between the Oba of Gulg, the Shadow King of Nibenay, and mysterious representatives of the Asticles family of Tyr.
A stand-alone adventure, Asticlian Gambit can also be played as the sequel to Freedom, Road to Urik, and Arcane Shadows
112 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1992
15 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Pryor
79 books8 followersI started writing in the iron age of roleplaying games, back in about 1986, writing material for FASA's Battletech before moving on to other products like Shadowrun, Bard Games' Talislanta, and TSR's second edition of Dungeons and Dragons. More recently I've done product development for White Wolf/Sword and Sorcery Studios' Scarred Lands setting and for Frog God Games. My new supernatural thriller trilogy The Shepherd is coming soon from Permuted Press, and is available for pre-order through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Google Play and Simon and Schuster. I look forward to hearing from readers here and on my blog, so feel free to drop me a line if you're so inclined!
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June 13, 202210/32 of Dark Sun 2e products.
The fourth adventure, and so far we've had 2 adventures that had to stick close to the novels and the metaplot of the campaign world, and now 2 adventures that aren't specific to the novels, but feel similarly indebted to the metaplot. That is, this adventure includes several times where the DM is told to make sure the PCs do a certain thing, even under complaint or duress.
The plot requires this also because it pings the PCs back and forth without any particular character-based hook or motivation. So the PCs are hired to help deliver a gift to the sorcerer-queen of Gulg, then offend her somehow and are subjected to a human hunt that they do there; and then, from there, the sorcerer-king of Nibenay reveals that the gift they gave the first sovereign will allow her to grow powerful and dangerous to everyone, so now they have to undo the thing they did in act 1.
I feel like you could write a guide to how to write adventures based on what this adventure does with the title "Don't do this!" I'll say this: in the core book, we learn about the human hunt in Gulg and it's so obviously gameable that I immediately wrote it in my book of adventure ideas: "PCs get hunted--can they survive?" It's such a great little adventure, and this is a pretty flat-footed way to get the PCs into that. Honestly, while reading this, I wondered if it would be better to do a Conan-esque move where you just start the PCs in prison as the result of their offending the people or leader of Gulg, without the blah-blah desert journey about getting the gift to her.
I mean, I understand why you might want to do things this way: you get to (again) show the harshness of the desert and you get to make the PCs responsible for giving a gift that will turn out badly for everyone else, but it just feels like incident for the sake of incident, and there's nothing really interesting about, say, how the raiders in the desert attack. That can happen in any time.
Also, it can sometimes work to make the PCs undo what they did earlier, but here it's just one job followed by another, with no great emotional weight or meaning.
Another thing (oh boy, is this my least favorite of the Dark Sun products so far? Honestly hard to tell since all the adventures have problems) is that I like how some of the adventure is structured, with flow charts that can show, say, how the PCs night of being hunted goes; it's a neat idea because being hunted might consist of a bunch of small episodes leading to or away from a bigger scenes/encounters. I like that, but that puts some strain on the flip-book form factor that they're sticking with here, because events can be smaller than a page or can flow over a few pages, which makes flipping a necessity. Now that definitely happens with letter-size books, but these flip books are (a) smaller and (b) make flipping a little more involved, so it feels worse here.
Now with all that said, here's one thing I liked: the description of NPCs here includes notes about what they're seeking during the adventure AND some notes about what they might want after and how they might interact with the PCs later, giving the world an on-going feeling.
The fourth adventure, and so far we've had 2 adventures that had to stick close to the novels and the metaplot of the campaign world, and now 2 adventures that aren't specific to the novels, but feel similarly indebted to the metaplot. That is, this adventure includes several times where the DM is told to make sure the PCs do a certain thing, even under complaint or duress.
The plot requires this also because it pings the PCs back and forth without any particular character-based hook or motivation. So the PCs are hired to help deliver a gift to the sorcerer-queen of Gulg, then offend her somehow and are subjected to a human hunt that they do there; and then, from there, the sorcerer-king of Nibenay reveals that the gift they gave the first sovereign will allow her to grow powerful and dangerous to everyone, so now they have to undo the thing they did in act 1.
I feel like you could write a guide to how to write adventures based on what this adventure does with the title "Don't do this!" I'll say this: in the core book, we learn about the human hunt in Gulg and it's so obviously gameable that I immediately wrote it in my book of adventure ideas: "PCs get hunted--can they survive?" It's such a great little adventure, and this is a pretty flat-footed way to get the PCs into that. Honestly, while reading this, I wondered if it would be better to do a Conan-esque move where you just start the PCs in prison as the result of their offending the people or leader of Gulg, without the blah-blah desert journey about getting the gift to her.
I mean, I understand why you might want to do things this way: you get to (again) show the harshness of the desert and you get to make the PCs responsible for giving a gift that will turn out badly for everyone else, but it just feels like incident for the sake of incident, and there's nothing really interesting about, say, how the raiders in the desert attack. That can happen in any time.
Also, it can sometimes work to make the PCs undo what they did earlier, but here it's just one job followed by another, with no great emotional weight or meaning.
Another thing (oh boy, is this my least favorite of the Dark Sun products so far? Honestly hard to tell since all the adventures have problems) is that I like how some of the adventure is structured, with flow charts that can show, say, how the PCs night of being hunted goes; it's a neat idea because being hunted might consist of a bunch of small episodes leading to or away from a bigger scenes/encounters. I like that, but that puts some strain on the flip-book form factor that they're sticking with here, because events can be smaller than a page or can flow over a few pages, which makes flipping a necessity. Now that definitely happens with letter-size books, but these flip books are (a) smaller and (b) make flipping a little more involved, so it feels worse here.
Now with all that said, here's one thing I liked: the description of NPCs here includes notes about what they're seeking during the adventure AND some notes about what they might want after and how they might interact with the PCs later, giving the world an on-going feeling.
December 9, 2013
I've reviewed several adventures in this series right now, so I went into this one with a bit of trepedation. Freedom was awful, but Road to Urik wasn't too bad. On which end of the scale would Asticlian Gambit fall, I wondered? So I opened the book, started reading, and:
So, the book assumes that party starts out either after the end of Arcane Shadows, if they did that adventure, or in Tyr if they didn't. If they're in Tyr, they get a job offer to guard a caravan and it comes under attack. If they're in the desert, then they see the caravan under attack. Either way, the marauders attacking the caravan attack them regardless of what they do, and they have a necklace placed in their keeping, adn then they're off to Gulg.
The leader of the marauders survives no matter what. If he dies, it was merely a flesh wound and he comes back later. Of course.
In Gulg, they're received by the Sorcerer Queen Lalali-Puy with ceremony and lavish hospitality and given the run of her palace as a sign of her favor. At least, except for some rooms that cause them to be instantly imprisoned in if they enter. Why, you ask? Well, perhaps this quote from the next section will inform you:
There are a myriad of ways provided for this to occur. Perhaps the PC run afoul of an annoying psionicist jester who taunts them from a tree with verbal and physical abuse and calls the guards if the PCs defend themselves and seem to be getting the better of him. Perhaps the court wizard tries to ingratiate himself with one of the PCs who looks like a wizard, trying to get them to compare spellcaster prowess and then having the PCs arrested for illegal witchery afterwards. Perhaps a thief in Lalali-Puy's employ steals some items from the PCs, either magical contraband that gets them arrested immediately or other items that the thief displays in court, trying to get the PCs to attack or accuse her of thievery and thus get them thrown into jail. Perhaps the Captain of the Guard challenges them to a duel and has them arrested when he starts to lose. Perhaps the Mistress of the Hunt thinks they would be good prey for
The Most Dangerous Game
the Red Moon Hunt and spreads rumors about them being Tyrian spies, causing them to be imprisoned.
Perhaps the GM just says, "lulz you're in prison now guyz." That'd save some time.
Anyway, the PCs are imprisoned and all their gear is taken, which is probably going to really piss them off because this is "for 4 to 6 high-level characters." Then they're taken to the Red Moon Hunt and released into the forest, along with the leader of the band of marauders from earlier, who is apparently a member of the Tyrian House of Asticles. This part actually has some choice involved--there's a flowchart with a bunch of different possibilities, from encountering monsters in the forest, finding an abandoned hunter's hut, running into other slaves or finding the bodies of previous quarry of the Red Moon Hunt, and so on.
Then of course it's all ruined because the PCs stumble out of the forest, run into templars from Nibenay, and:
The PCs get taken to Nibenay, where they are taken to a meeting with the Shadow King. And by "a meeting," I mean they're taken into a lesser palace of his that has a giant statue of his face, which has glowing eyes, talks to them, and shoots them with eye lasers if any of them lie when he asks what their mission was. I am not making any of this up. Unfortunately.
Nibenay gets them to agree to go on a mission to retrieve that amulet, using a geas spell if the PCs get annoyed of constantly being jerked around for the entire adventure up to this point, because the amulet is a powerful artifact that will allow Lalali-Puy to become twice as powerful. He teleports the PCs into her dungeons and they have to track down the amulet and destroy it. Then there's a dramatic scene where the Sorcerer Queen herself bursts into the room as the Shadow King is teleporting the PCs out. The GM is encouraged to roll some a d20 a couple times to make it look like there's some kind of resistance to the teleporting. Then they're let go with the favor of Nibenay and the Asticles family for helping them in their scheme, and the hatred of Lalali-Puy. Or they could fail, in which case Lalali-Puy and Nibenay both hate them. Or they could fail and get the marauder leader killed, in which case Lalali-Put, Nibenay, and Tyr all hate them. Also, all their stuff is gone and they don't get it back.
The whole thing is awful. Whoever wrote this should have just written a novel. Seriously, the benefit of tabletop RPGs over CRPGs or TV/movies/books is the freedom of choice offered. Even CRPGs that allow the player to change the story have only a limited variety of outcomes and can't match the variety and responsiveness that a tabletop RPG with a live GM can. There is no reason to read or run Asticlian Gambit, and anyone who wants to introduce the events in their game should just have a storyteller in a tavern singing about a group of idiots who agreed to deliver a necklace and all the terrible things that happened to them on the way.
Mingon is a psionicist, and has the telepathic devotion conceal thoughts active throughout the meeting. If PC psionicists attempt to use ESP or other powers to read her thoughts, roll a normal power check, but tell the player that the check fails, regardless of score.Tickets, please!
So, the book assumes that party starts out either after the end of Arcane Shadows, if they did that adventure, or in Tyr if they didn't. If they're in Tyr, they get a job offer to guard a caravan and it comes under attack. If they're in the desert, then they see the caravan under attack. Either way, the marauders attacking the caravan attack them regardless of what they do, and they have a necklace placed in their keeping, adn then they're off to Gulg.
The leader of the marauders survives no matter what. If he dies, it was merely a flesh wound and he comes back later. Of course.
In Gulg, they're received by the Sorcerer Queen Lalali-Puy with ceremony and lavish hospitality and given the run of her palace as a sign of her favor. At least, except for some rooms that cause them to be instantly imprisoned in if they enter. Why, you ask? Well, perhaps this quote from the next section will inform you:
the purpose of the following scenes is, essentially, to land the PCs in Lalali-Puy's dungeons, if they are not there already. Although the outcome of each scene is the same, the DM should allow the players to follow whatever course of action they desire. Above all, do not let them think that their eventual fate--internment in the Forest Queen's prisons--was inevitable.Well then.
There are a myriad of ways provided for this to occur. Perhaps the PC run afoul of an annoying psionicist jester who taunts them from a tree with verbal and physical abuse and calls the guards if the PCs defend themselves and seem to be getting the better of him. Perhaps the court wizard tries to ingratiate himself with one of the PCs who looks like a wizard, trying to get them to compare spellcaster prowess and then having the PCs arrested for illegal witchery afterwards. Perhaps a thief in Lalali-Puy's employ steals some items from the PCs, either magical contraband that gets them arrested immediately or other items that the thief displays in court, trying to get the PCs to attack or accuse her of thievery and thus get them thrown into jail. Perhaps the Captain of the Guard challenges them to a duel and has them arrested when he starts to lose. Perhaps the Mistress of the Hunt thinks they would be good prey for
Perhaps the GM just says, "lulz you're in prison now guyz." That'd save some time.
Anyway, the PCs are imprisoned and all their gear is taken, which is probably going to really piss them off because this is "for 4 to 6 high-level characters." Then they're taken to the Red Moon Hunt and released into the forest, along with the leader of the band of marauders from earlier, who is apparently a member of the Tyrian House of Asticles. This part actually has some choice involved--there's a flowchart with a bunch of different possibilities, from encountering monsters in the forest, finding an abandoned hunter's hut, running into other slaves or finding the bodies of previous quarry of the Red Moon Hunt, and so on.
Then of course it's all ruined because the PCs stumble out of the forest, run into templars from Nibenay, and:
This encounter must end with the PCs--under protest if necessary--on their way to Nibenay for a fateful meeting with representatives of the mysterious Shadow King.I'm pretty sure this is where the players flip the table over onto the GM.
The PCs get taken to Nibenay, where they are taken to a meeting with the Shadow King. And by "a meeting," I mean they're taken into a lesser palace of his that has a giant statue of his face, which has glowing eyes, talks to them, and shoots them with eye lasers if any of them lie when he asks what their mission was. I am not making any of this up. Unfortunately.
Nibenay gets them to agree to go on a mission to retrieve that amulet, using a geas spell if the PCs get annoyed of constantly being jerked around for the entire adventure up to this point, because the amulet is a powerful artifact that will allow Lalali-Puy to become twice as powerful. He teleports the PCs into her dungeons and they have to track down the amulet and destroy it. Then there's a dramatic scene where the Sorcerer Queen herself bursts into the room as the Shadow King is teleporting the PCs out. The GM is encouraged to roll some a d20 a couple times to make it look like there's some kind of resistance to the teleporting. Then they're let go with the favor of Nibenay and the Asticles family for helping them in their scheme, and the hatred of Lalali-Puy. Or they could fail, in which case Lalali-Puy and Nibenay both hate them. Or they could fail and get the marauder leader killed, in which case Lalali-Put, Nibenay, and Tyr all hate them. Also, all their stuff is gone and they don't get it back.
The whole thing is awful. Whoever wrote this should have just written a novel. Seriously, the benefit of tabletop RPGs over CRPGs or TV/movies/books is the freedom of choice offered. Even CRPGs that allow the player to change the story have only a limited variety of outcomes and can't match the variety and responsiveness that a tabletop RPG with a live GM can. There is no reason to read or run Asticlian Gambit, and anyone who wants to introduce the events in their game should just have a storyteller in a tavern singing about a group of idiots who agreed to deliver a necklace and all the terrible things that happened to them on the way.
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