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In the conclusion of the RPPR Dark Sun campaign, our heroes find themselves under siege. Desperate villagers attack them while their erstwhile allies are as dangerous as ever. How will they get out of the antlion’s pit? Find out in this last episode of Dark Sun!

A note: We stopped playing Dark Sun shortly after this session for various reasons – one of them being burned out on fantasy. So, we switched to Wild Talents. I find it unfortunate that there will be no resolution but perhaps that is fitting given the nature of Dark Sun itself.

In a grimdark post-apocalyptic future, where the earth has been devastated by nuclear war, dimensional rifts and Nazi cos-players, only a few gritty heroes stand between a new apocalypse, a post-post apocalypse or a meta apocalypse or an apocalypse squared or a neo-apocalypse or an epic apocalypse or a mega damage apocalypse or a dragon cyborg juicer apocalypse wielding a rune blade with Atlantean tattoos. Yeah. HARDCORE.

In other words, I ripped off the plot of a movie called The Eliminators and forced the players into a game of Rifts.  Deal with it.

I was fortunate enough to meet up with Ennie-award winner Kirin Robinson at this year’s Gencon and talk him into running a session of his game, Old School Hack. It’s a free, rules-light game of adventuring and dungeon crawling. Characters can be fighters or dwarves but not dwarven fighters. Caleb and I joined Simeon and Meg from the Arc Dream crew with the Angry DM as we went on a quest of liberation and adventure!

Since the last episode of Dark Sun, our protagonists have been stranded in a remote corner of Athas: The Silt Sea. They are surrounded by foes and untrustworthy rivals but they must work together with a group of NPC adventurers in order to survive. In this small island on the silt sea, a buried secret reveals itself…a secret that promises great rewards but only the strong will live long enough to claim it. Can the cursed bearers of the artifact survive this most dangerous ordeal yet?

The past is prologue Once upon a time before the light had been born, there was a great darkness that covered the world. Our people could not yet see and we were helpless against the things that did crawl in the darkness. From the cold, hard ground the Great King fashioned guardians and explorers. They were crude and callous nor did they have proper souls like you or I. Yet our Great King made them so they would help us in this time of darkness.

These earthen men did not respond, except for a small band. They were infused with water so they were far greater than the other earthen men, almost as great as us. The Great King set great tasks upon them to bring about the birth of light. With gentle guidance from the first king, highest servant of the Great King, these brave and simple creatures eventually brought forth the light that created our world. The eyes of our people could now see the glory and splendor of everything! The other earthen creatures displeased Great King for their failure and moved to destroy them all yet first king begged for their lives. A few of them had gone above and beyond their limitations. Surely, the others might also transcend their base nature!

Great King saw this and spared the lives of all the lesser species you see today. As for the heroic earthen men, they were granted titles of nobility and became true Grippli, transformed by Great King as a reward for their heroism. They were the first Water Barons and all the heroic water barons you hear of defending our kingdom strive to emulate them.

What’s that? You want to know how the Water Barons saved the light and fought back the darkness? Well, it is a very long story but it all began with a journey to an unexplored continent. You see, the kingdom of the earthen men wanted to colonize a savage land far from their own shores…

-old Grippli creation myth, as transcribed from the stories of an old Grippli king

(The Ruins of Lemuria PDF is now available!)