After concluding my review of the fabulous but short-lived Fell’s Five comics, I was going to jump an edition ahead. But I forgot that IDW did at least one other D&D comic during the 4th edition era, and it happened to be in one of my favorite campaign settings: the world of Dark Sun.
However, there is a catch…
I know I read this comic. I picked it up during a Humble Bundle sale and definitely remember reading it on the bus on my way to work. But…I don’t recall anything about it. At all. Whatever plot this five-issue miniseries had is a blank in my mind. So that doesn’t bode well.
But maybe I was distracted by something else while reading it, or maybe a stressful time at work caused my long-term memory to focus elsewhere. There’s only one way to find out, right?
With that said, let’s jump into Dark Sun: Ianto’s Tomb. It’s the first time I’ve done what is essentially a blind read in these reviews. Maybe the plot is as forgettable as I fear, or maybe there’s a gem here that fell into the crevasses of my memory due to outside circumstances.
The Dark Sun Elevator Pitch
Dark Sun is a different from the Forgotten Realms setting in many ways, including the way its owners approach continuity. When 4th edition hit and changed the D&D rules dramatically, Wizards of the Coast decided to jump the Forgotten Realms forward 100 years, using a magical cataclysm to explain the change to the setting’s physics. Dark Sun, a less popular setting, got retconned instead. The 4th edition setting dialed back some unpopular changes to the setting, returning it to the way it was right after its very first published adventure (which, frankly, wasn’t much to write home about).
With certain things about the setting kind of nebulous due to the retconning, Dark Sun was essentially an unknown to both new and old fans alike. Thus, the first thing we get from the comic is a quick recap of what the setting actually is.
This is essentially like the text scrawl at the beginning of a swords-and-sorcery film, and I’m not a fan of that kind of exposition dump. But at least it’s quick, so let’s see what the world of Athas has to offer!
We start off with an introduction to our main character: Grudvik the warrior. Apparently, he’s sleeping with a merchant named Rubi but isn’t legally allowed to be in her home.
Rubi stands by and does nothing while the guards take Grudvik away. His punishment is to be sold as a slave, where he will fight in a gladiatorial arena until his eventual death. Grudvik takes it hard, immediately starting a riot in the slave pens.
Grudvik escapes the pen, seizes a mount, and rides off into the desert. Other slaves try to escape, but they fall to a hail of arrows unleashed by some archers.
We’ve got our first break from traditional Dark Sun with the inclusion of a tiefling. The original setting used only a few creatures found in other D&D settings, and even those were changed–elves were xenophobic desert nomads, halflings were cannibals, and so on. The folks in charge of 4th edition decided that every book should be usable in every game if desired–the swordmage class from a Forgotten Realms book should be usable in a Dark Sun game, for example. Thus, tieflings, which were never part of Athas before, got retconned into the setting.
In the desert, Grudvik swears that he will find out why Rubi didn’t stop the guards from taking him.
The story’s prelude ends with us knowing very little about Grudvik. It seems he’s good in a fight, used to be a slave, and doesn’t want to be one again. Aside from that’s he’s definitely more of the strong, silent type versus the oddball chatterboxes that have populated previous D&D comics.
Survival in Athas
Grudvik catches some sleep in the shade of a large rock. A pair of travelers try to recapture him, with poor results.
The surviving man, named Aki, refers to Grudvik as a mul. In the original Dark Sun setting, muls were a magically-bred half-dwarven slave race. Given that Wizards of the Coast is trying to avoid themes of slavery and eugenics, I would bet that muls as a species won’t show up in the impending 5th edition reboot of Dark Sun. But in 4th edition days, it was still okay to mention them…although they are apparently not completely hairless like the 2nd edition muls were.
Aki offers to help Grudvik get out of the desert alive, but doesn’t get to say what he wants in return before both of them catch a flight.
No, literally. They were apparently standing on a giant stingray-looking thing this whole time, and it just takes off, carrying them with it.
This is totally in keeping with the Dark Sun I know. In the original boxed set, you were an escaped slave who was just trying to survive. Half the encounters were looking for water only for psionic cacti or what-have-you trying to kill you. So I’m cool with a random monster just yanking this pair into the air. I could certainly do with more of a reaction from Grudvik, though, he just stabs him knife into the creature and hitches a ride until its pups come along.
Aki uses his lute to cast a spell that drives the pups away, which is another diversion from the Dark Sun of old. In the 2nd edition set, bards didn’t cast spells. Instead, they were basically assassins. The only folks who could cast spells were priests, who drew their magic from the elements, templars, who got their magic from the sorcerer-kings who ruled Athas, and wizards, whose magic drained life around them unless they took pains to preserve it. The latter actually made good use of the differing experience tables for AD&D classes, as someone playing a wizard could advance much quicker than normal, but only at the cost of being a defiler who contributed to the destruction of the environment around them.
Either way, the 4th edition philosophy of anything from other D&D books being used in Dark Sun games shows through here, as bards in Athas now cast spells.
Not that it does much good. The ray-thing eventually drops both Aki and Grudvik into a shallow part of the giant dustbowl known as the Silt Sea. There, Grudvik decides he’s going to kill Aki after all, but Aki notices something that might save his life.
The sigil is of House Ianto, which apparently has a tomb beneath the city-state of Tyr. Within that tomb, suspects Aki, is enough treasure to make both of them rich.
Grudvik decides to get some shade so he doesn’t have to travel under the scorching sun.
I…don’t get this bit at all. What code? Athas is not a place where things like honor really exist. In fact, the original boxed set disallowed paladins as a class. Grudvik doesn’t seem to have a lot of lawful tendencies anyway; so far, his only motivation is survival and he has every reason to believe that Aki is just stringing him along to turn him in as an escaped slave.
As the sun sets, our dynamic duo gets walking to Tyr. Aki sings and chatters, and Grudvik mostly just tells him to shut up. It’s a tried and true dynamic, but not one that works terrifically well here. We don’t know enough about Grudvik yet to really appreciate him as a character. But maybe we’ll find out more soon.
The Desert Code
It turns out that Aki is talking about some sort of “desert code,” which he explains when the pair spots a ship sailing across the desert sand.
It’s probably best not to think too hard about how a ship sails across the waterless desert. D&D as a whole is filled with things that look cool but make no sense, and I feel that is as it should be.
Aki negotiates the pair on board by claiming that he’s bringing Grudvik back to Tyr as an escaped slave. The sand sailors agree to provide passage in exchange for 15% of the reward. The travel time allows Gurdvik to share some of his backstory and illuminate us as to who he is.
The bonding between Aki and Grudvik gets interrupted by a silt horror–a giant tentacled monster that lives beneath the dust of the Sea of Silt.
I guess being on what passes for a sea in Athas explains why there is a sailing ship here. Unfortunately, the colors in this comic are almost all some shade of yellow or brown, so it’s hard to identify what is silt and what is sand.
Our heroes escape the wrecked ship and continue toward Tyr on foot. The ship did manage to cut a day off their journey, but I don’t personally see how they’ll survive in the desert much longer. They have no supplies, and Aki’s only equipment is his lute. That’s quite the opposite of my Dark Sun days where I would carefully monitor the weight of the water flasks on my character sheet so the party wouldn’t be encumbered but also wouldn’t die of thirst.
Aki estimates that they are four or five days away from Tyr, which only heightens my confusion. I get that D&D usually handwaves the tracking of supplies these days, but it seems kind of essential in a survival-oriented setting like Athas.
Some aarakocra have similar views to mine as to the odds of our heroes’ survival, as they set up an ambush.
Unlike the tiefling shown earlier aarakocra are one of the creatures from other D&D settings that made their way into the original Dark Sun box. They provide an okay fight, but flee into the skies when Aki unleashes a magic blast at them.
It’s at this point where I realize my nostalgia for old Dark Sun is hampering my enjoyment of this comic. I keep expecting some sort of explanation of preserving and defiling akin to the 2nd edition days, but by now it’s obvious that 4th edition Dark Sun is a higher-magic setting. So time for me to drop that quibble and just roll with it.
Grudvik probes Aki a bit on his powers, and the bard boasts that he has some significant psionic powers in addition to his magic. We’ll have to see later if he’s lying or not. First, he brings Grudvik to a nearby oasis, which at least resolves the question of water.
Of course, the oasis has “zombie cactus” growing in it. Because this is Athas, so of course it does.
I bet they don’t believe in the “desert code,” either.
The Path to Tyr
Aki and Grudvik fight the killer cacti and do reasonably well. Unfortunately, the creatures release some sort of spores when they get damaged.
After defeating the rest of the cacti, Grudvik saves Aki. I guess he has to, because Aki knows the way back to Tyr. Otherwise, I’m not sure that the two have shown enough camaraderie yet for the gladiator to bother.
Once free of the oasis, the pair comes across a tree decorated shrunken, shriveled heads…and someone hiding behind it.
The creature is a thrax, which is a monster that drains water out of other living creatures. Grudvik does not take its advances well.
Beneath the roots of the thrax’s tree, Aki finds some gems which should help grease the right palms when the pair gets to Tyr. They get there the next day and sneak through the gates using the tried and true method of taking someone’s clothing and disguising themselves.
The journey to Tyr was pretty much filler, but it did showcase how weird and deadly the desert in Athas is. In most D&D worlds, folks stick to cities because bandits and goblins might attack you when you leave the walls. In Athas, everything from the sand to the water to the trees tries to kill you.
The City-State of Tyr
Since Aki and Grudvik have finally made it to Tyr, it’s a good time to check in on Rubi. It seems that she did something wrong when she gave the pendant to Grudvik…but she doesn’t know why that piece of jewelry was so important.
The man griping at her is the husband of one of Hosue Ianto’s elders…and someone who has been sleeping with Rubi on the side, as suggested by Rubi threatening to tell his wife “where your hands have gotten to.”
Meanwhile, Aki and Grudvik bring the amulet to a criminal contact. I think this guy is a half-elf, based on the pointy ears. In Dark Sun, elves are xenophobic desert nomads, so it seems more likely to introduce someone who is half-human rather than do a deep dive into a race that differs quite a bit from their normal D&D counterparts.
The other half of the key lies with the man we saw speaking to Rubi earlier. Together, they seem to form a map to some sort of treasure…or, at least, that’s what the story wants us to believe at this point.
The two break into Rubi’s home that night, where Grudvik kills a poor bird to keep it from making too much noise.
I’m still waiting for Grudvik to appeal to me beyond the understandable desire for freedom. He fits a Dark Sun protagonist pretty well, being all hardened by the harsh world around him, but I don’t really have a lot of reason to like the guy. Him killing animals certainly isn’t going to change that.
Rubi is in her room practicing some magic, and I again have to wonder what’s going on with spellcasting in this edition. Defiling has been mentioned, but between Aki and Rubi the casual casting of spells seems pretty normal.
The man we saw earlier, whose name is Haskyr it seems, is caught listening at her door by none other than Grudvik. And with startling ease, Aki and Grudvik have both halves of the map…unless Haskyr can stop them.
Rubi turned Grudvik invisible to protect him from Haskyr’s spell. Aki answers some of my questions about magic from earlier by identifying both Haskyr and Rubi as members of the Veiled Alliance. That means they’re both preservers whose magic doesn’t destroy the environment. As it happens, they’re both part of the same secret organization, but neither knew the other was also a member of the Alliance.
Aki says that the only other person who knows the pendant is but half of a map is Mudrada, a member of the criminal guild known as the Toothcutters, aka that half-elf(?) we saw earlier. And I’m seeing a recurring problem with this book now: we have no point of view character to guide us through a very unusual world, so the audience is a half-step behind on everything. The characters know names like Haskyr and Mudrada, but the audience doesn’t get them until well after they’ve been introduced.
My other big problem with the book can be summed up by the second panel on the selection below.
Rubi’s face there is just off. It’s the type of face I might expect in a comedy webcomic, not in a professionally published book. The art here has a certain style that works at times but really doesn’t at other times. Peter Bergting is an amazing artist, as highlighted by his online gallery, so this is a stylistic choice of his rather than laziness or poor technique. It just happens that his choices here take me out of the book at times.
Now that Aki, Grudvik, Haskyr, and Rubi are all friends…or close enough to it…they return to Mudrada so they can enter Under-Tyr, where Ianto’s Tomb lies.
Mudrada betrays the group to the law, so Rubi sets the building on fire. Our four heroes escape into Under-Tyr, which is apparently accessible through a hatch in Mudrada’s office. They run into a horde of undead, but Rubi sets them on fire, too.
So now lets’ see what’s in Under-Tyr…which is not to be confused with the Underdark, or the Shadowdark, or the Shadowfell…man, I’ll have to remember to post a rant about the lazy naming conventions in D&D at some point.
Beneath Tyr
Having been through the desert and a city-state, it’s time for this Dark Sun adventure to go where most D&D quests eventually lead: a vast and sprawling dungeon.
Kalak is a dead sorcerer-king whom I don’t believe has been mentioned before in this comic. Once again, everyone here is very worldly, so we as outsiders don’t have someone to explain the stuff that all the characters take for granted.
Out of curiosity, I turned to the back of this collection, which has game stats for the characters. Both Aki and Grudvik are listed as level 25, which makes them epic, near godlike beings. Nothing in this comic suggests to me that they should be that high a level. I’d believe they were 5th level, and maybe even 15th given the wonky power scaling of 4th edition D&D, but 25th-level characters shouldn’t have any difficulty with things like the desert sun. Then again, maybe that’s how Grudvik survived in the wasteland without any traveling gear…
A centipede-like monster called a cilops paralyzes Haskyr with its venom, separating him from the group.
While the rest of the group kills the cilops nest, Mudrada finds Haskyr.
The thief intimidates Haskyr into making a deal. Meanwhile, the rest of the group faces some kind of crystalline spiders.
After the spiders have been dealt with, thanks in part to Rubi’s magic, the companions enter a chamber where Mudrada confronts them with Haskyr as his hostage. Much to Haskyr’s chagrin, Rubi isn’t very willing to negotiate.
Luckily, the standoff gives Aki time to sneak around and kill Mudrada himself.
This is an area where the art style works against the story, I think. While Aki was in one panel and then not any others until he snuck up and killed Mudrada, I didn’t realize that was intentional. The backgrounds of this comic are pretty minimalistic, so I didn’t realize we were getting foreshadowing until Aki magically appeared behind his target.
With both halves of the key and nobody else following them, our heroes enter Ianto’s Tomb and discover what is was that so many people were willing to die for.
The tomb holds not just treasure, but the secrets of the past before magic defiled Athas and the sorcerer-kings took control.
The Green Age
Now that the group has made it into Ianto’s Tomb, they can learn about the history of Athas from before defiling magic destroyed it.
Unfortunately, like every single tomb ever in D&D, this place has hostile guardians.
We’re at the climax of the story now, and I don’t really know who Ianto was. Presumably a member of the Veiled Alliance? It’s very vague.
The art of this comic breaks down almost entirely during this battle.
I have to assume this book was right up against a deadline, because the characters are inconsistently drawn and the backgrounds are nonexistent. It’s definitely not representative of the artist’s best work.
Grudvik gets injured, but aside from being down a few hit points he seems fine. In fact, the whole battle ends with the heroes not really having struggled much at all.
The wound doesn’t slow Grudvik down all that much, because a few pages later he easily rips a steel portcullis off its hinges.
The portcullis leads to the heart of the tomb, which has enough gold to satisfy Aki. But the real prize is an artifact within Ianto’s sarcophagus.
Rubi’s emphasis on how important all of this is really confuses me. Why did she give half of the key to Grudvik in the first place?
Maybe Ianto’s ghost will answer that question.
Guess not.
Ianto’s test is to have Grudvik fight a bunch of monsters–if he wins, Rubi gets the seed she seeks. If not, everyone dies. So I guess he does answer my question in a roundabout way–Rubi needed a warrior who could pass the test. But did she actually know that, or was it just lucky that Grudvik came along?
Grudvik fights well. Haskyr, when he interferes, does not have the same luck.
Haskyr’s death is one I saw coming from a mile away. Four characters, with three of them having some degree of sympathy or backstory. Haskyr, the fourth, was clearly put into this party so that somebody could die.
After Haskyr’s death, Rubi saves the day…um, somehow.
I think Rubi took the amulet/seed from Ianto and used it to kill him with preserving magic…? But I’m really not sure. The visual storytelling and lack of general exposition leaves a lot of room for doubt.
Anyway…Rubi did something, and now all is well.
With the treasure of Ianto’s Tomb recovered, Rubi leaves Grudvik but promises they will meet again.
And so Grudvik and Aki wander off alone, richer than before but with Grudvik unable to be with Rubi. The story ends like many a classic tale, but I wouldn’t say this one quite compares to Rick and Louie wandering off together at the end of Casablanca.
And so that’s “Ianto’s Tomb.” And…I can see why I didn’t remember reading this story.
It’s not that this is a bad tale. It also doesn’t make a terrible introduction to the Dark Sun setting. But there’s very little that sets it apart from many, many other stories that walk in these same tracks. We’ve got a strong, silent hero and a chatty sidekick, but they never really show signs that they’re growing close. We have the love interest, but no idea as to what makes Rubi so desirable to Grudvik or vice-versa. Haskyr makes for a suitable ally who seems pretty shady, but he never really double-crosses the group or gets a moment to show that he truly has a heart of gold.
This story desperately could have used somebody who wasn’t as worldly and could serve as an audience surrogate. Maybe if Grudvik didn’t know about the world beyond the gladiatorial arena, we could have had some exposition as Aki delved into the history and environment of Athas a bit. But not only does Grudvik know everything about the setting, he’s also hyper competent and very powerful. That means that the challenges that should seem terrifying are over in a few panels because he just punches his problems away.
The art was probably a big reason why this story slipped out of my memory. Some of that boils down to the color palette–the eternity of browns and yellows makes for very few vibrant pictures that would really stick in my memory. Aside from that, a lot of the art looks hastily-drawn, especially near the end where the panels simply have no backgrounds at all. I feel certain that there must have been a very tight turnaround for this comic, because otherwise I believe the art would have been more fleshed out.
I do like that the comic showcased how deadly Athas is. Every single place the characters stopped had something that tried to kill them. There are a lot of areas, however, where the 4th edition conversion of Dark Sun is not my cup of tea. I really enjoyed how 2nd edition felt completely alien to AD&D, with even familiar races and classes getting warped by the setting. Seeing tieflings, bardic magic, and other elements familiar to other settings in the game doesn’t work for me. We’ll see how 5th edition deals with the setting, but the trailer leaves me feeling cold. Sure, it makes sense to lean into gore given the setting’s brutality, but nothing in that video really hits on the notes that made me love the 2nd edition setting. Given that even 2nd edition botched things up with its revised setting, it’s seeming more and more like my love of Dark Sun is going to get confined exclusively to the old boxed set only, before things like the Freedom adventure and the Prism Pentad novels changed it forever.
“Ianto’s Tomb” never got a follow-up, so that’s it for 4th edition comics. Next, it’s time to delve into 5th edition stories which are at least guaranteed to be memorable thanks to the presence of a certain iconic character and his pet ranger…
Images: Peter Bergting (pencils), Ronda Pattison (colors)