ISSUE 176 | MARCH 2010 A Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game Supplement CONTENTS 4 CROSS CITY RACE 47 THE KEEP ON THE CHAOS SCAR 79 EYE ON THE REALMS By James “GRIM” Desborough By Mike Mearls By Ed Greenwood Adventurers—noble and otherwise—from all across The Keep on the Borderlands is a classic adventure Tarmel Drouth was outcast from the Ilance family the land have gathered to participate in the annual site from both 1st and 2nd Edition. Updated for in Suzail, but he has not taken his banishment Cross City Race. Can you be the first across the the first time in over ten years, this iteration of lightly and seeks revenge against those who have finish line? A Dungeons & Dragons adventure for the keep is intended to be placed near the Chaos ostracized him. characters of any level. Scar as a new base of operations for heroes seeking their fortunes in the valley. 82 DUNGEONCRAFT 25 CHAOS SCAR: DEAD BY DAWN By James Wyatt 57 CODEX OF BETRAYAL: GERYON James discusses the latest changes to his fledgling By Aeryn “Blackdirge” Rudel By Ari Marmell campaign. If even the monsters of the Chaos Scar have left The Broken Beast was ruled Stygia, but was cast a place abandoned, it’s probably for good reason. down by Asmodeus despite his loyalty. Exiled from 85 RULING SKILL CHALLENGES But when night falls and the dead stir, a lost, the Pit, he now seeks a return to his former glory. mysterious temple of death might be the only By Mike Mearls hope the characters have for surviving ‘til dawn. Mike continues to educate on the nature of skill A Dungeons & Dragons adventure for 2nd-level 6 3 CREATURE INCARNATIONS: challenges, with unique applications and examples. characters. OMORIANSF By Andrew Schneider 38 CHAOS SCAR: THE CROSSROADS The mad, powerful, and deformed giants control vast stretches of the Feydark. Discover more new fomorian By Rodney Thompson variants in the newest Creature Incarnations. Just beyond the King’s Wall sits the Crossroads—an inn and trading post for anyone passing into, out 70 ELEMENTAL MOTES of, or near the Scar. But the taint of the Chaos Scar has long since grown beyond the mortal attempts By Charles Choi to contain it, and the Crossroads offers its own This unique type of terrain, magically buoyed hazards to the unwary. A Dungeons & Dragons to float in the air, can make for compelling adventure for 2nd-level characters. encounters and adventures. Learn how better to ON THE COVER use elemental motes in your campaign. Illustration by Howard Lyon Dungeons & Dragons, D&D, DUNGEON, DRAGON, 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, LLC, 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. ©2010 Wizards of the Coast, LLC. 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 176 DUNGEON March 2010 Zombie Style Editor-in-Chief Chris Youngs Senior Art Director Jon Schindehette Web Specialist Steve Winter Zombies. Who doesn’t love ‘em? And while we’re at it, unknown to their enemies until they start sucking people Web Production Bart Carroll what about vampires? dry, zombies are people you knew. That adds just the right Both of these classic monsters have seen a renaissance twist to a good zombie story. Best of all, zombies just keep Contributing Authors Charles Choi, James “GRIM” in recent years in Hollywood and literature (although coming, and if they get you, they recruit you. Desborough, Ed Greenwood, Ari calling some of these books “literature” is a stretch). And I think zombies have been given short shrift in our Marmell, Mike Mearls, Aeryn why not? They’re both badass. But before Twilight and game in recent years. As I stated before, you can’t shake a “Blackdirge” Rudel, Andrew World War Z, before the Vampire Diaries and 28 Days Later, stick without hitting a heroic-tier adventure that features Schneider, Rodney Thompson, Dungeons & Dragons did vampires and zombies, and it zombies in some capacity or another, but I think they James Wyatt did them well. deserve a chance to really shine on their own. That’s why Developers Peter Schaefer, Stephen Many times, the game has borrowed from the most this month, you’ll find a real horror-movie-style zombie Schubert, Rodney Thompson classic versions of these tropes. Count Strahd von Zarovich adventure, set in the Chaos Scar. is the best example, of course, easily reminiscent of the “Dead by Dawn” starts with the same premise as the Editors Miranda Horner, Steve Winter Lugosi-era Dracula. Zombies have shown up so frequently classic George Romero movies Night of the Living Dead and Cover Artist Howard Lyon that they’ve become classic staples of D&D’s early levels. Dawn of the Dead. We’ve tried to capture some of what You could almost run an entire heroic-tier campaign fea- makes these classic zombie experiences terrifying. The Contributing Artists Rob Alexander, Dave Allsop, turing nothing but zombies! characters have to hole up in an old, abandoned struc- Jared Blando, Vincent Dutrait, We can take a page from Hollywood’s book with both ture and survive the night against an endless assault of Wayne England, Christine of these, and other, classic monsters, and revisit them zombies. Of course, we add our own unique D&D spin MacTernan, Raven Mimura, from time to time. There’s something just . awesome on things, complete with appearances by the game’s own Craig J. Spearing, Spikytiger about a good vampire adventure. There’s something pri- twist on zombies. Cartographers CrazyRed, Sean Macdonald, mally frightening about a monster that wants to kill you I’m hoping that “Dead by Dawn” strikes as much of a Mike Schley by draining your blood. Hollywood would also have us chord with you as it did with me. Because I’m hoping that believe there’s something erotic about blood draining, but if the demand is there, I get to commission more adven- Publishing Production Specialists Angelika Lokotz, Erin Dorries, I ain’t buyin’ it. Being dead kind of puts a damper on sexy tures playing on other classic horror tropes. The Mummy, Christopher Tardiff in my book. the Wolfman, heck, maybe even a good-old-fashioned Web Development Mark A. Jindra Vampires are sneaky, charming, and deadly, but worst Dracula romp—they’re primed and waiting for their of all, they look like normal humans (unless you’re making chance on center stage. D&D Creative Manager Christopher Perkins a movie where they glitter—ugh). Anyone you run into on Which classic horror trope do you think would make Executive Producer, a dark street corner could theoretically be a vampire, and the best Dungeons & Dragons adventure? Which do you D&D Insider Chris Champagne it’s that feeling of unknown danger that makes the mon- think would be the most fun to play or run? Send your sters so awesome. feedback to [email protected]! Director of RPG R&D Bill Slavicsek Zombies come at us from a similar place in the fear spectrum, but with one important distinction. Once more, Special Thanks these are creatures that were once human. They’re more Richard Baker, Greg Bilsland, Michele Carter, Jennifer Clarke grotesque, rather than more sparkly, but utterly lacking in Wilkes, Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell, Jeremy Crawford, Peter the emotional responses that make a human, well, human. Lee, Mike Mearls, Kim Mohan, Cal Moore, Peter Schaefer, Stephen Unlike vampires, who are often hundreds of years old and Schubert, Matthew Sernett, Rodney Thompson, James Wyatt An Adventure for Characters of Levels 1–3 illustration by Howard Lyon cartography by Jered Blando Cross City Race By James “Grim” Desborough The Best Adventure I Never Wrote As D&D 3rd Edition rode off into the sunset, Wizards ran a competition for our freelancers, asking them to present the ideas for the adventures that they had always wanted to write but had never done so for one reason or another. Those short synopses were voted on, and the eventual winner from the freelancer submissions was this, “Cross City Race!” TM & © 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC All rights reserved. March 2010 | DUNGEON 176 4 Cross City Race INTRODUCTION HOW TO RUN THE RACE remains in place. If the character has accrued enough failures to trigger a consequence, it must This adventure is designed to be a ‘side quest’, a break The race is made up of a series of skill challenges be resolved. from more typical adventures and dungeon delving. across a variety of routes, all leading to a final obstacle 3. Play proceeds with the next player in initiative It begins with the characters arriving within a city and the finish line. The number of successes gained order, starting at step 1. Continue until the race where a great fair and revel are in progress. The city demonstrates each racer’s position relative to each is won! is alive with talk about a race that forms part of these other on each of the routes.