Sample File 23 the Ebon Maw Was Born from the Abyss After the First Demon Lords Rose to Power, but It Has Since Grown to Rival Many of Its Peers

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Features

5 Creature Incarnations: Fell Taints By Eric Heath Monster Manual 2 introduced these new aberrant monstrosities, and we’re presenting even more of these hideous nightmares in the most recent Creature Incarnations.

11 Demonomicon: Turaglas By Ari MarmellSample file 23 The Ebon Maw was born from the Abyss after the first demon lords rose to power, but it has since grown to rival many of its peers.

23 Ecology of the Rust Monster By Shawn Merwin This classic D&D monster was reborn in Monster Manual 2. Get an inside look at the life of a rust monster here

34 Playing Revenants By Matthew Sernett

34 A new race exclusive to D&D Insider! Revenants are created by the Raven Queen—souls that have a purpose still to fulfill. Learn all about this exciting new race in the latest Playing article. 5 45 45 Adventurers of the Realms COLUMNS By Chris Tulach This article touches on the nature of adventurers from some of Faerûn’s newest locations.

51 Playtest: Monster Manual 3 66 Design & Development: Dragonmarks By Greg Bilsland By James Wyatt This month’s playtest explores some of Monster Manual Learn about the challenges in designing dragonmarks for 3. Sharpen your swords—you’ll need ‘em! D&D 4th Edition.

69 Design & Development: the Artificer By Stephen Schubert 4 editorial We premiered the artificer last summer on D&D Insider, and the class changed thanks to your playtest feedback. Learn 54 Class Acts: Bard about how fans shaped the final version of the class here. By Robert J. Schwalb 51 New paragon paths for the bard focused on multiclassing. 72 Confessions of a Full-Time Wizard By Shelly Mazzanoble 59 realmslore: Sarifal D&D’s “Player-in-Chief” shares more of her wisdom and By Brian R. James insight. This region of the SampleMoonshaes is steeped in lorefile and myth. Learn more about it here! 76 D&D Alumni By Steve Winter A look back at D&D through past editions. On the Cover Illustration by Ralph Horsley 80 RPGA Report By Chris Tulach The Living FR campaign is in full swing. Learn more about how to get involved!

84 Ampersand By Bill Slavicsek Bill discusses more of the changes in store for D&D in 2009.

59 Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Du n g e o n , Dr a g o n , d20, d20 System, Wizards of the Coast, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., in the U.S.A. and other countries. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental. Printed in the U.S.A. ©2008 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. For more Dungeons & Dragons articles, adventures, and information, visit www.wizards. com/dnd editorial

376 Dragon June 2009 There is no “I” in Vecna Editor-in-Chief Chris Youngs

Senior Art Director Jon Schindehette When I first joined my Thursday Night campaign, I rolled one of the vaults, complete with an alluring lock on its Web Specialist Chris Sims up Staab the warforged ranger—a straightforward, polite, waist just waiting to be picked. Garret managed to pick the Web Production Bart Carroll, Steve Winter cooperative member of his new party. After all, as a new lock, but activated the golem at the same time. Without the player, it made sense to fly under the radar. command words, he had to teleport out of there in a hurry. Graphic Design Emi Tanji But near the end of the fight, he used another power (will of Contributing Authors Greg Bilsland, Eric Heath, Staab bored me to tears. the Feywild) to teleport the final enemy into the force field— Brian R. James, Ari Marmell, and beneath the smashing fists of the golem. Shelly Mazzanoble, Shawn By the time we started playtesting 4th Edition, it was the Merwin, Stephen Schubert, perfect time to roll up Garret Farwhere, halfling warlock. Other times, marching to your own beat occasionally does Robert J. Schwalb, Matthew Garret’s personality better matched my preferred gaming mean pursuing goals that may or may not correspond with Sernett, Bill Slavicsek, Chris style: the instigator. your party’s. Take the Eye of Vecna for example. In our cam- Tulach, Steve Winter, James Wyatt paign, we were running through Thunderspire Labyrinth, Developers Stephen Radney-MacFarland, In my mind, instigator is a nuanced role. It combines and the Eye made an appearance. The rest of Garret’s party Peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, elements of a trickster, jester, intrepid explorer, and—at wanted to destroy it … but Garret desperately wanted keep Chris Sims, Rodney Thompson times—damsel in distress. Essentially, you’re trying to maxi- for himself. He even tried to pick a fellow PC’s pocket to mize your own fun at the table without diminishing the fun get at it. He even made the attempt, in a stroke of metagam- Editors Jeremy Crawford, Miranda Horner of the other players. However, you have to walk a fine line ing genius, by using an action point to make the Thievery Cover Artist Tom Baxa between keeping things interesting for yourself without attempt mid-combat, so as to not look inactive for a round. Contributing Artists Rob Alexander, Concept Art annoying, antagonizing,Sample or outright jeopardizing file the rest of House, Steve Ellis, Jason A. Engle, the party. The guy who opens random doors in the middle Garret never did get that eye (nor, for that matter, did he Adam Gillespie, William O’Connor, of a fight just to see what’s behind them, inevitably draw- get his mitts on Moran’s Eye from King of the Trollhaunt War- Hector Ortiz, Lee Moyer, ing more monsters into combat, is all three of these things. rens). But really, that was never the point. The point is that Richard Whitters, Eric L. Williams That type of behavior doesn’t qualify you as an instigator— as the instigator, Garret helped move things along, without in my book, that makes you a jerk (or a Cylon). completely moving counter to the goals of his fellow party Cartographers Jason A. Engle, Robert Lazaretti, members. It’s a challenging role in a cooperative group Sean Macdonald That said, an instigator who takes the occasional random dynamic, but if it fits your style as well, I’d fully encourage Web Development Mark A. Jindra approach to a fight can sometimes elicit better results than you to not take the most strategic action every round, but D&D Creative Manager Christopher Perkins the rest of the party might expect (think of Wicket luring think about exploring the most interesting one. I firmly off those Stormtroopers outside the shield generator). In believe that most DMs love it when you do. In the end, their Executive Producer, his most famous success to date, Garret, along with his bold monsters are meant to be defeated and their villains’ plots D&D Insider Ken Troop companions, fought within a treasure vault, the treasures unraveled. If you can help do so in a way the whole table Director of RPG R&D Bill Slavicsek stored behind a series of force fields. As the rest of the party remembers—that makes the adventure all the richer. battled the guards, Garret teleported behind the fields to Special Thanks see what he could take (thinking to help out the party, of Richard Baker, Greg Bilsland, Logan Bonner, Michele Carter, course). Knowing the type of character Garret was, the DM Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell, Torah Cottrill, had prepared a surprise: a “sleeping” chain golem within Jeremy Crawford, Mike Donais, Rob Heinsoo, Peter Lee, Mike Mearls, Kim Mohan, Cal Moore, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, Matthew Sernett, Rodney Thompson, Rob Watkins, James Wyatt Creature Incarnations: Fell Taints

Mysterious and deadly, fell taints can add by N. Eric Heath a new dimension to any adventure, and Illustrations by Hector Ortiz they make a great change of pace from the standard low-level fare of kobolds, skele- Mtons, and giant rats. Yet in middle levels of the heroic tier they can still provide serious challenges for even seasoned adventurers.

Description

Fell taints are beautiful, translucent orbs of wispy tendrils that flow and writhe as if in winds that aren’t Sample file there. They have a subtle iridescent glossy sheen and are about 2–3 feet in diameter. Adding to their strangeness is the fact that they don’t make any noise. Frequently their victims scream in agony or whimper in despair, but the fell taints themselves are completely silent no matter what they are doing at any given moment. A fell taint’s victim can feel a hit from the fell taint, but the fell taint’s tendrils continue to twist and flow undisturbed. These creatures do not have mouths and do not ingest solid matter. These bizarre creatures don’t even need to breathe. When fell taints feed on a victim, they do no physical damage. They consume the psychic energy of their victim. The body of a creature slain by fell taints is physically undamaged.

Behavior Like any predator, fell taints are adept at capital- difficult to convince the villagers (or even one’s own izing on their advantages. Their flying and hovering party) that something was in the area. Utterly alien, a fell taint’s motivations are a mystery. abilities make them formidable foes. They favor In combat, when fell taints drop an adversary, they None show humanlike emotions, though they with- locations where their ground-based quarry is more switch to the next most dangerous enemy. Most fell draw or flee if they are in danger. They do this not vulnerable, such as areas of difficult terrain and taints delay trying to feed until it is relatively safe or out of fear, however—they wish to survive. A group of obstacles that separate individuals from the group. they are in dire need of the healing provided by fell fell taints that has an experience of near-defeat rarely These include rickety bridges, narrow ledges, or any- taint feeding. These twisted writhing aberrations are voluntarily confronts those foes again. The exception thing that needs to be climbed. Whenever possible, not weakened by a lack of food; they do not starve. is when the opponents later became vulnerable, in fell taints remain hidden and attack with surprise Even a badly injured fell taint can go dormant, wait- which case the fell taints decide to attack again. The when their prey is vulnerable. ing indefinitely, until a safe meal becomes available. motivation for this second attack is only the desire to All fell taints with ranged attacks seek to attack When a fell taint is about to go dormant, it finds a feed; fell taints don’t feel anger or need revenge. from cover whenever possible. They also use any high, safe ledge or nook—or even just a corner by the Fell taints communicate with each other, though range advantage they might have. For example, in ceiling. Nestled among stalactites is also a favored no one knows how. Because they work well together melee fell taints occupy the space 1 square above the location. Fell taints go dormant by intentionally not in combat, some theorize that they receive psychic ground, which enables it to attack all 9 squares below taking any actions for 24 hours. While dormant, emanations from others of their kind. Those fell taints it. This position also helps prevent attackers from they can drift with air currents unless they take care that are soldiers work to prevent enemies from getting flanking the fell taint, since all the flanking positions to anchor themselves to something prior to going to the artillery or controllers, and they all focus on need to be 10-15 feet above the ground. Fell taints dormant. Noticing a dormant fell taint requires a DC one target once the combat begins in earnest. with ranged attacks frequently have cover from col- 30 Perception or Dungeoneering check. A dormant These creatures possess exceptional skills at evalu- umns, coffered ceilings, stalactites, or tree branches. fell taint takes a standard action to awaken from ating potential targets. If overmatched, they withdraw Fell taintsSample are new and unknown file to many play- dormancy. as soon as possible. Though fell taints are not nor- ers. Capitalize on the novelty. Perhaps the PCs are mally scavengers, one or more of them might follow hired to investigate why undamaged corpses are Fell Taint a party of adventurers for a time, then float in to feed turning up in the nearby ruins. The townsfolk could on the remnants of psychic energy left on the corpses understand bodies mauled by monsters or shot full Encounters of creatures defeated by the party. This likely happens of goblin arrows. Even most poisons leave signs, such if the fell taints decided that the party is too powerful as swollen tongues or strange odors, but a couple of When running encounters with fell taints, don’t to defeat. If, however, one of the party falls in combat, absolutely pristine corpses can unnerve towns. Per- forget to utilize the vertical space. Fell taints live their the taints have no basis for understanding that the haps a party member on watch keeps seeing fell taints entire lives in the air—they hover without effort, and rest of the party might object to them feeding on the at the edge of his or her vision, but when they rouse thus, they naturally capitalize on every advantage fallen adventurer. The taints don’t understand that the party, the taint(s) withdraw. Fell taints are only their flight ability provides. Attacking from above is a this action could bring an end to the chain of easy partially real, and when slain they appear to vanish, common tactic, especially for fell taints with ranged meals. So, even though they feed on the emotional leaving behind only a small trace of residue that few attacks. and psychic energy of their victims, they don’t appear can find (DC 20 Search check with a –10 penalty Use fell taints with caution: A party that has to understand or relate to those emotions. to the check if the area is wet). The scent lingers for neglected its ranged attacks or has just run low on only a moment. This lack of a “body” could make it ammunition could be wiped out by just a couple of

June 2009 | Dragon 376 6 Creature Incarnations: Fell Taints fell taint pulsars. Having an option for the characters while having only a few hit points. This practice could Fell Taint Drone to withdraw to a place of safety, or at least a room have tragic consequences if fell taints are nearby. with low ceilings, might be wise. Fell taint drones follow other fell taints and Given the types of fell taints provided thus far, Fell Taint Darter attack whatever they do. The drones are immature fell they have a wide variety of uses in an adventure or taints that haven’t finished developing yet. They are campaign. Add one or two to the bottom of a pit trap Fell taint darters dive in and out of combat using more animalistic than most other fell taints. Drones or along a rickety rope bridge. In some remote areas their mind slam to leave their enemies reeling. try to feed on any available target as soon as possible the boundary with the Far Realm might be so thin despite the risks. They are more likely to continue that fell taints move back and forth with ease. In Fell Taint Darter Level 1 Skirmisher attacking when more advanced fell taints withdraw. such an area a group of taints might appear in the Small aberrant magical beast XP 100 Initiative +5 Senses Perception +7 middle of the party and begin attacking. Or perhaps Fell Taint Drone Level 1 Minion Lurker HP 17; Bloodied 8 Small aberrant magical beast XP 25 fell taints are lurking just at the edge of visual range. AC 13; Fortitude 12, Reflex 14, Will 12 Initiative +5 Senses Perception +6 Resist insubstantial; Vulnerable 5 psychic They are ready to seize any opportunity to feed. HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion; Speed 1, fly 8 (hover) Also, these creatures can be a great addition to an see incorporeal form m Tendril Caress (standard; at-will) ✦ Psychic AC 15; Fortitude 12, Reflex 14, Will 12 encounter with other creatures. Fell taints can’t feed +4 vs. Reflex; 1d6 + 4 psychic damage. Resist insubstantial on undead, oozes, constructs, and similar lifeless or M Mind Slam (standard; at-will) ✦ Psychic Speed 1, fly 8 (hover) +4 vs. Will; 1d4 + 4 psychic damage, and the target is emotionless creatures, so they are more likely to be m Tendril Caress (standard; at-will) ✦ Psychic knocked prone. The fell taint darter must move at least encountered alongside them. However, because they +5 vs. Reflex; 5 psychic damage. 2 squares before using this attack, and it can continue Incorporeal Form (encounter) don’t understand or cooperate with other types of moving its fly speed after the attack. The first time in an encounter that a fell taint drone would Darter’s Dodge creatures, they might lurk nearby in the hopes of an take damage, roll d20, on a 10+, the fell taint drone takes The fell taint darter has +4 to AC vs. opportunity attacks. easy meal. no damage. Fell Taint Feeding (standard; at-will) ✦ Healing Sample file Drone Feeding (standard; at-will) Any fell taints in the area of a combat or simi- Targets a helpless or unconscious creature; the fell taint Targets a helpless or unconscious creature; the target lar commotion rapidly move to investigate, hoping darter loses insubstantial and its fly speed until the end takes 5 psychic damage and the fell taint drone gains 10 of its next turn, and it makes a coup de grace against the to find an easy meal. Fell taints aren’t picky—they temporary hit points. target. If the darter kills the target, it regains all of its hit enter combat by attacking either or both sides. In Alignment Unaligned Languages — points. Str 11 (+0) Dex 12 (+1) Wis 16 (+3) this way, they might unintentionally aid the party. Alignment Unaligned Languages — Con 13 (+1) Int 4 (–3) Cha 10 (+0) Frequently the taints attack the most injured combat- Str 11 (+0) Dex 16 (+3) Wis 12 (+1) ants, regardless of which side(s) they are on, possibly Con 13 (+1) Int 4 (–3) Cha 10 (+0) even attacking the wounded on both sides at the same Fell Taint Drone Tactics time. Fell Taint Darter Tactics Left to its own devices, a fell taint drone gangs up on Since most creatures attack only active combat- By using mind slam, a fell taint darter is adept at a target and then tries to feed on any potential victim ants, it is occasionally advantageous for players to knocking flying targets out of the air as well as caus- as soon as possible. Under the direction of more leave a fallen member of the party unconscious for a ing creatures in precarious situations to fall. A darter advanced fell taints, the drone can add significantly round or two during combat. This enables the party is also adept at positioning itself. to the danger of an encounter. Lashers and rippers to continue to use their actions for attacks and makes use a drone to gain flanking, while wisps and darters it less likely that a newly revived character is targeted direct one to interfere with any pursuers.

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