So they use ropes to get down and are finally in Dark Sun proper, so the only thing to do is hit ‘em with some scary desert creatures. I think it was a bunch of Baazrags, but it could have been some Jhakar. Either way they did a number on the mage, and then switched to the real threat, the BugBear … which was affectionately termed BugBear Whack-A-Mole because he got knocked out and then stood back up several times during the fight.
Then they wandered in the desert for a bit, using the port-key coin to determine the next likely appearance of the portal home. They headed west, where they found a practically dried up oasis, and one of their first puzzle fights. This one actually gave them a bit of difficulty… basically it was a simple strimko puzzle (think super simple Sudoku) but each of the four “lines” controlled a spawning bed, from which swarms of creatures would pour every round. I don’t remember if I re-skinned Kanks for this or if they were Baazrag Swarms, but regardless they weren’t really much of a threat except they were being generated faster than the party could take them out. As the party solved the puzzle, the spawning beds closed up and the influx of enemies abated.
They rapidly solved the entire puzzle … theoretically, but practically they only had pieces to solve two of the lines and had to start searching the battlefield for more pieces and get them to the alter instead of fighting. Eventually they found all the pieces (and a few extras), solved the puzzle and met their first Djinn.