Temple Between

“ Our eyes are open, our ﬁ sts are closed. Our walls are stone, our shields are steel. Our faces are many, our soul is dwarf. And thus is there no foe against whom Overlook cannot stand.” It is an ancient Overlook proverb—some would even call it a prayer— and it’s about to be put to the ultimate test. by Ari Marmell An adventure for 9th-level characters illustrations by Michael Komarck, tthehe Rob Alexander and William O'Connor ✦ cartography by Mike Schley TTempleemple BetweenBetween TM & © 2008 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All rights reserved. Decemberber 20082008 | DUNGEON 161161 4 The Temple Between The western end of Elsir Vale has been greatly other worlds. In the course of the Adventure Path, WHAT IS AN troubled in recent days. The threat of the orc hordes the PCs have already discovered one, traveling to the ADVENTURE PATH? from beyond the Stonehome Mountains, though Shadowfell through the caverns beneath the Happy turned back at Bordrin’s Watch, still lingers in the Beggar poorhouse. What they do not yet know— Scales of War is the fourth Adventure Path to people’s minds. Peculiar and hostile creatures of though they might discover it soon enough—is that a appear in the pages of Dungeon® Magazine. But shadow lurk in the caverns and caves below. Political gateway to the Astral Sea waits in a great cathedral what, you ask, is an Adventure Path? Quite simply, squabbling grows among the city’s powerful dwarf beneath the Stonehome Mountains, and a doorway to it is a series of related adventures intended to form clans. the Feywild lies hidden where the Elsir River flows a complete D&D campaign that takes your players All this makes the city particularly vulnerable from the mountains. (The region might well also con- from 1st level all the way to, in the case of Scales to an enemy nobody saw coming—that nobody even tain a portal to the Elemental Chaos, but if so, it does of War, 30th level. imagined. This enemy has goals and objectives far not influence this adventure.) Previous Adventure Paths, presented with the beyond the ultimately unimportant Elsir Vale, but the No, the humans and elves and dwarves of Elsir 3rd Edition D&D® rules, took characters from 1st first step is the utter subjugation of Overlook. Vale know nothing about this, but not everyone is so to 20th level. But with all three tiers in the new edi- An enemy who, at least in part, is already here. ignorant. A few sages know. A few priests know. tion ripe and ready to explore, we’re pushing the “The Temple Between” is an adventure for 9th- And the githyanki know. limit with Scales of War. Each tier takes roughly six level characters, and it is challenging enough to take Indeed, at the behest of their leaders in the adventures to traverse, which means we’ll finish off them to 11th level by the time all is said and done. astral city of Tu’narath, they have caused much of this Adventure Path in about eighteen issues. Each Although intended as the final chapter of the heroic Elsir’s worries of late. They arranged the theft of the adventure advances characters from between one tier portion of the Scales of War Adventure Path, it platinum sword from Brindol, and they employed and a half to two levels of experience. We recog- can be run as a standalone adventure, or as an adven- the shadar-kai, not only as weapons suppliers but nize that not everyone will meet every encounter ture in a campaign of your own making, with a small to encourage the orcs of the west to rise. For the or complete every quest, however, so periodically, degree of modification. It contains elements of urban githyanki want Elsir Vale, badly, and particularly the we’ll point you to a supplemental Side Trek or short investigation, dungeon delving, and even wartime planar portals it contains. Using it as a beachhead, adventure to keep your PCs on pace. Plus, roughly conflict, making it a suitable adventure to players of they could easily launch an incursion, not merely every few months, Dragon® will feature new sup- many tastes and preferences. into the mortal realm, but other worlds besides. And port content for Scales of War. there is no reality, no plane of existence, on which the Finally, this Adventure Path is intended to func- githyanki do not have some design or other. tion as a complete D&D campaign. That means BBACKGROUNDACKGROUND The semi-disgraced General Zithiruun is in charge we’ll be making assumptions about the history of of this operation, or at least commands the forces the world as we move along, just as you would in Few today are aware of it, but the western regions seeking to carry it out. Forced to make use of mer- any campaign you run. We’ll be borrowing heavily of Elsir Vale have long been rich in planar magic. cenaries and lesser soldiers, to keep the githyanki from the D&D mythology of 4th Edition, as well as Perhaps this is due to the fact that the giants, sol- involvement secret, he has carefully set up his pawns, all the great ideas that have cropped up in other diers, and servants of the primordials once dwelt maneuvering and manipulating, and now the time products over the years—including the pages of nearby in large numbers, driving their dwarf slaves draws near to take Overlook by force. past issues of Dungeon! to great works. Whatever the cause, the region is run Unknown to Zithiruun, and even to his com- Enjoy your stay in Scales of War, and keep an through with “cracks” in reality—portals that lead to manding officers, they themselves are merely pawns eye out for next month’s installment. Decemberber 20020088 | DUNGEON 161 5 The Temple Between on a larger board; schemes far more devious than a Was it Moradin’s wrath? A curse brought upon Zithiruun’s Plan simple githyanki invasion are afoot. But this is a dis- them by the giants they’d so long ago escaped? Or And so it remained, until the githyanki learned of covery, and a challenge, for a future adventure. For simply a natural catastrophe without greater mean- the temple and decided controlling it would better now, the PCs have more than enough on their plates ing? None can say. Whatever the case, some centuries enable them to control Overlook, and by extension, as it is. ago, the mountain was struck by an earthquake. Elsir Vale. Portions of the inner tunnels collapsed, damag- Zithiruun’s plan is to take Overlook by simulta- ing several chambers of the Mountainroot Temple, The Mountainroot Temple neously attacking from without and from within. destroying others entirely. Panicked, the priests and A subterranean structure built by the same order that Already he has a force of mercenary soldiers hiding the faithful grabbed up their treasures and holy would later go on to construct the Monastery of the in the wilds, ready to march on the city. Now, he’s icons—at least most of them—and fled using the sur- Sundered Chain, the Mountainroot Temple stands working to gain full control of the Mountainroot viving magical portals. deep beneath the Stonehome Mountains. Built when Temple—and the Stone Anvil, its anchor in Overlook— Once they’d settled elsewhere, the bulk of the dwarves were still celebrating their freedom through which he can move a second force from the Moradin’s priests decided that this way was better. from the giants, it was not a dwarven structure, but a Astral Sea into the city’s undefended heart. By scattering from the temple, they would allow the temple built for anyone who wanted to pay tribute to To that end, Zithiruun has suborned a number dwarves to build their own shrines, without feel- Moradin, of any race. It held great reliquaries of holy of Overlook’s priests and military officers. Most of ing constrained by the other races, and the jealousy icons, enormous cathedrals where hundreds could them, including several priests and Watch Captain that marred the priesthood would fade. Although worship at once, and even a doorway to the Astral Aerun, were kidnapped and subject to a difficult they mourned the loss of the great cathedral, and Plane whence angels and exarchs of Moradin would psychic ritual cast by incredibly powerful githyanki. those few treasures they’d been unable to save, they appear to discourse with the god’s most favored The result is that these poor people’s minds were declared the quake to have been Moradin’s will and priests and champions. To facilitate a grand commu- destroyed, and they have been possessed by several left the temple abandoned. In time, most faithful, nity of Moradin worshipers, the Mountainroot Temple githyanki, who are even capable of manifesting some even most priests save those most thoroughly learned had, in addition to its astral doors and its main of their normal powers (albeit in weakened form). in their history, forgot it had ever been. entryway into the mountains, four mystical door- Unfortunately, the possessing githyanki cannot Most, but not all. After a few decades, a small ways constructed. Each linked to another temple of access anything more than the victim’s base personal- group of Moradin worshipers—mostly dwarves, but Moradin elsewhere in the world, so the faithful could ity; they have no access to specific memories. So High with members of other races as well—returned to the come and go with ease.

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