ISSUE 213 | APRIL 2013 A Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game Supplement CONTENTS 1 TEH TOMB OF 29 TE H DREAD PIRATE OWLBEAR PIRATES! BraXIS By Christopher Perkins By Jeffrey Ludwig I hope you like owlbears, pirates, and Avast, ye hearties! Storm the island deathtraps, ’cause this issue’s full of them! stronghold of the dread pirate Braxis and the sunken caves of his sea devil allies. A D&D adventure for characters of levels 4–6. 2 OWL BEAR RUN By Christopher Perkins and Steve Townshend 68 TOMB OF HORRORS Every year, two wizards in neighboring By Gary Gygax towns host a competition. This year, it’s an Welcome to the dungeon that has killed owlbear race over the mountain. Will your more adventurers than all other dungeons owlbear be the first to cross the finish line? combined. Let’s see if your D&D Next An off-the-beaten-path D&D® adventure characters fare any better! This adventure for characters of levels 4–6. is designed for D&D Next characters of levels 10–14 and includes 4th Edition conversion guidelines for characters of levels 14–16. ABOUT THE COVER: Map? Check. Wagon? Check. Supplies? Check. Owlbear? Check. LET THE RACE BEGIN! Jason Juta depicts intrepid heroes racing over the mountain in true medieval fashion in this month’s feature illustration for “Owlbear Run.” EDITORIAL 213 DUNGEON April 2013 The Tomb of Senior Producer Christopher Perkins Producers Greg Bilsland, Steve Winter Managing Editors Miranda Horner, Kim Mohan Owlbear Pirates! Development and Editing Lead Jeremy Crawford By Christopher Perkins Developer Chris Sims Senior Creative Director Jon Schindehette This issue was a lot of fun to cobble together, mostly Last but not least, we have something special for because I’m a sucker for owlbears, pirates, and killer D&D® Insider subscribers this month: a faithful adap- Art Director Kate Irwin dungeons, and this month we have all three. tation of Gary Gygax’s Tomb of Horrors™ designed for Graphic Production Manager Angie Lokotz Let me begin by saying that Chris Youngs (former use with the D&D Next playtest rules. This is the first Dungeon editor) thinks owlbears are dumb, which I time we’ve included exclusive D&D Next content in Digital Studio Consultant Daniel Helmick find perplexing. I decided to prove how AWESOME Dungeon, but we wanted to do something special for Contributing Authors Gary Gygax, Jeffrey Ludwig, they are by pitching an adventure about owlbears subscribers to celebrate Dungeons of Dread™ (our hard- Christopher Perkins, that riffed on The Cannonball Run, a spectacularly cover compilation of the original S series adventures, Steve Townshend wasteful movie starring many of the biggest and/or which released last month). Tomb of Horrors is famous Contributing Editors Michael G. Ryan, Ray Vallese weirdest names in Hollywood circa 1981. (I think it for grinding up characters and spitting them out (usu- might be Youngs’ favorite film, even more than Conan ally naked, without their gear and loot). What better Contributing Artists Wayne England, Tony Foti, the Barbarian, but don’t quote me on that.) I shared way to put D&D Next characters through the paces. Tomás Giorello, Jason Juta, my “owlbear race” idea with Steve Townshend, one of We’ve also included conversion notes at the end of the William O’Connor, David our semi-regular ezine contributors, and asked him adventure so that you can run the adventure using the C. Sutherland III, David A. to write “Owlbear Run” for our April issue. I also gave 4th Edition rules. Trampier, Kieran Yanner him a bunch of maps I’d drawn over a weekend, and Finally, our submission window is open, and we’re Cartography Jason A. Engle, David C. Steve took those maps and ran with them. If you think accepting adventure proposals until the end of May. Sutherland III the adventure is great, praise Steve for his rollicking Imagine you’re in an elevator with the ezine produc- encounters. If you hate it, blame me for the dumb idea. ers, and you have 30 seconds to tell us what’s cool “The Dread Pirate Braxis” is a different story. Jeff about your adventure. What’s the thing that will get Ludwig submitted a proposal for the adventure last our attention or make us smile? Hint: it could be an fall, unaware that we already had a pirate adven- iconic D&D monster depicted in a whole new light, a ture called “Captain Slygo’s Treasure” slated for the clever idea for a sequel, a memorable dungeon, or just November issue (Dungeon 208). However, I really about anything else. Let’s see what you got! liked Jeff’s villain and the villain’s lair, so I asked him to tie the two adventures together. As a result, “The Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast, D&D Insider, their respective logos, D&D, Dungeon, and Dragon are trademarks of Dread Pirate Braxis” features a cameo by Captain Wizards of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries. ©2013 Wizards of the Coast LLC. Slygo, the goblin pirate, and can be run either as a This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States standalone adventure or as a sequel to Timothy Ide’s of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written adventure. We haven’t published a sequel in a long permission of Wizards of the Coast LLC. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events time, but the tradition dates back to the early days of P.S. Can you believe that it’s taken 213 issues to get an is purely coincidental. Dungeon magazine. Might Captain Slygo return for a owlbear featured on a Dungeon cover? Long overdue, if third outing? Only time will tell. you ask me. Owlbear Run A D&D® adventure for characters of levels 4–6 By Christopher Perkins and Steve Townshend Illustration by Jason Juta Cartography by Jason A. Engle “Owlbear Run” takes place on the trails of a forested mountain between the towns of Telvorn and Milvorn, either or both of which can be renamed to suit the needs of your campaign. BACKGROUND Every summer, Duke Hightower holds a competi- tion quite different from the traditional jousting and archery tournaments held by similar lords of his station. The rules of his tournament change from year to year, and, to oversee the games, the duke has appointed two wizard brothers who help choose the setting and create the rules and challenges of the competition. This year the competition is called the “Owlbear Run,” an overland race that requires each partici- pating team to escort a live owlbear from the town of Telvorn to the town of Milvorn. The teams will face a variety of challenges; some are devised by the wizards, others by the competing teams or their spon- sors, and some occur entirely at random. All of these TM & © 2013 Wizards of the Coast LLC. All rights reserved. April 2013 | DUNGEON 213 2 Owlbear Run tests are in addition to the challenges inherent in differently depending on whom the adventurers motivating a temperamental owlbear. choose for their sponsor, which owlbear they choose, Fortune and fame await the first team to cross the which teams they cross paths with, the course the MEETING THE COMPETITION finish line, and the local lords sponsoring the race are party plots through the woods, and the encounters Instead of 5–6 random commoners observing Griss’s eager to enlist skilled champions for their causes. you roll or selects. sign, you might decide to introduce one of the com- peting teams here and let them size up the characters ADVENTURE SYNOPSIS E ncounter 1: The Signpost and reveal the details of the competition rather than During their travels, the adventurers come to a cross- Roleplaying Encounter having Griss do so (see “Competing Teams”). Intro- roads with a signpost advertising the competition. ducing one of the competing teams right away gives Assuming the characters decide to take the chal- The adventure begins as the adventurers make a the adventurers a chance to develop early allies or lenge, they proceed to the town of Telvorn, where mundane trip from one place to another. Along the rivals. Because the characters meet several NPCs they submit their names as contestants. The wizards way, the characters arrive at a crossroads where they when they reach Telvorn, introducing one team early Dirk and Delzar explain the rules of the competition, learn of the Owlbear Run. lightens the next section and gives at least one other and then the characters select their owlbear and vie team a spotlight. for sponsorship among the local lords. To start, read: The danger of introducing the competition early The race is set on a wooded mountainside criss- During your journey, you come upon an old cottage near a is that the characters might fight or kill that team, crossed by old mining trails. The characters face a crossroads. Several people gather outside the cottage as its removing it from the race and increasing the char- number of challenges (including encounters with other owner, a wizened old farmer, hammers a sign into the earth acters’ odds of winning. Use this option at your teams) on their way from Telvorn to Milvorn, all of at the junction. The sign reads: discretion. If you choose to introduce a competing which they must face accompanied by their owlbear. team at the crossroads, either choose one or roll ran- The key to the characters’ success lies in choosing GRAND TOURNEY: THE OWLBEAR RUN domly to determine which team is present.