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ISSUE 178 | May 2010 A Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game Supplement Contents 4 tyRant’s Oath 68 BaCkdRop: Chessenta By Kolja Raven Liquette By Brian R. James “The Tyrant’s Oath” places the heroes between two Chessenta is a land of feuding city-states vying for 94 eye on the Realms warlords struggling for dominance; a bandit queen the favor of ancient gods through blood sport and By Ed Greenwood who has subjugated the local village and a yuan-ti conquest . yet its people have inquisitive minds Ed Greenwood weaves another colorful occultist that transforms the villagers into snake- and an infectious zest for life. background tapestry for the land of Faerun. tongue minions. Who can the heroes trust in order to save the inhabitants of Elkridge? A Dungeons & Dragons adventure for 6th-level characters. 78 exploRe Taer Lian DoResh, 3 editoRial paRt 1 By Chris Youngs 31 Chaos ScaR: Elves of the Valley By Jeff LaSala Chris dons his DM’s hat to describe his favorite monsters to run during adventures. By Robert J. Schwalb Before the Day of Mourning, tales were told of a fey city that appeared fleetingly in Whitepine “Elves of the Valley” pits the adventurers against 97 Ruling Skill Challenges fey bandits corrupted by a demonic entity recently Forest. Now there is a darker, malevolent presence. By Steve Winter escaped from the valley. A Dungeons & Dragons adventure for 1st-level characters. The series wraps up with a recap of the most common 84 loRds of Chaos: BalCoth mistakes we see in skill challenges. By Peter Schaefer 43 Chaos ScaR: CRawling Fane 100 dungeoncraft Balcoth, the Groaning King, is locked out of By Aeryn “Blackdirge” Rudel By James Wyatt the mortal world like all primordials. But he A duergar heretic has taken up the worship of a James reports on the first sessions of his new Aquela is unlikely to remain so for long if his seething campaign! creature even worse than the usual duergar deities arcane power succeeds in reuniting his head with and lost his mind in the process. A Dungeons & his body. Dragons adventure for 4th-level characters. 57 dungeon Delve: 90 BestiaRy: CoppeRnight’s Salvation monsteRs of Mythology By Shawn Merwin By Bruce R. Cordell An unknown disaster has befallen a nearby mine, The return of “Clash of the Titans” gives us the on the CoveR and heroes are needed to find out what happened perfect opportunity to revisit some of our favorite Illustration by Raoul Vitale and why. A Dungeons & Dragons delve for 1st- monsters of legend. level characters which expands on “Coppernight Hold” from Dungeon Delve. 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 ed i to r i A l 178 Du ngeon May 2010 Love of the Kill Editor-in-Chief Chris youngs Senior Art Director Jon Schindehette Web Specialist Steve Winter This month’s editorial is brought to you by the month of it’s a cliché, but it still works. You’ll enjoy it, your players Web Production Bart Carroll April. That is, i was in the process of writing it for April, will enjoy it, everyone wins. when Steve said that i should pair it with a Dragon edito- The engulfer: The top-notch monster here is clearly Contributing Authors Bruce R. Cordell, Ed Greenwood, rial, for ultimate top 10 listy goodness. Because, you see, (ba-dum-dum) the gelatinous cube. i ran my first 4th Edi- Brian R. James, Jeff LaSala, Kolja this editorial was … is going to feature the top monsters i tion cube at D&D Game Day two years ago. i managed to Raven Liquette, Shawn Merwin, love to run as a DM. Steve’s idea was to also write the list absorb four out of five characters in one encounter. Two aeryn Rudel, Peter Schaefer, of monsters i love to fight for Dragon, which you can find died. it was brilliant. And the players? They loved it. i asked Robert J. Schwalb, Steve Winter, here, and pair the two editorials. Stupid good ideas… So them to roleplay what their characters were doing in the James Wyatt anyway, here it is. This might get you thinking about your giant Jell-O mold of a monster, and the results had us in Developers Peter Schaefer, Stephen own list, and maybe you can think about how to drop one stitches, even as the characters expired. really, can you com- Schubert, Rodney Thompson or more of those monsters into your next game. plain about any monster that eats people whole? A purple We’ve all seen lists of favorite monsters. Every player worm or remorhaz make for great fun too, but i still have a Editors Miranda Horner, Steve Winter has them, whether you’re a DM or not. Our favorites are soft spot (these are getting bad now) for the gelatinous cube. Cover Artist Raoul Vitale not necessarily the monsters we DMs have the most fun Beholders: They’re classic, they’re iconic, and they’re actually running. My list has changed from my 3E days. scary as hell. No player likes to see one of these guys, from Contributing Artists Eric Belisle, Sam Burley, Jeff Back then, any monster over, say, Cr 8 was unlikely to gauth to hive mother, appear on the table. They’re just Himmelman, Tyler Jacobson, make my list. They were so complex that analysis paralysis plain terrifying. i’d venture to say they might be the scari- Jason Juta, Christine MacTernan, too often sucked the fun out of the experience. est monster in D&D. So they make the list, easily. William O’Connor These days, my list is long, and covers a wide range of The Regenerator: My number one favorite monster Cartographers Jared Blando, Jason a. Engle, levels. For that reason, as with the Dragon editorial, i’ll is the troll. i don’t know why, really. But i can tell you why Sean Macdonald, Mike Schley put five of my selections here and the full list up on the they make this list: They regenerate. They’re the Jason D&D Community group. Without further delay: Vorhees of monsters. Knock a troll (or other regenerating Publishing Production Specialists angelika Lokotz, Erin Dorries, The Dominator: This is a class of monster best exem- monster) down and you’d better put another one in the Christopher Tardiff plified by the vampire. They’re fantastic. Don’t let any head, or it’s going to get back up and eat your spleen. The Web Development Mark a. Jindra Twilighter tell you otherwise: it’s not because vampires groans inspired by monsters that the players think are sparkle. Because they don’t. Ever. it’s because they can down and out, but aren’t, make these guys pretty much D&D Creative Manager Christopher Perkins make a character a thrall. Any monster that can take a unmatched in my book. Executive Producer, character’s actions away is great. A monster that not only So there’s my list. What’s yours look like? What mon- D&D Insider Chris Champagne takes your action but then turns it back around to hurt sters are you always thrilled to run? Or thrilled to see in the rest of the party? Priceless entertainment. Even if you an adventure? Post your lists on the D&D Community Director of RPG R&D Bill Slavicsek know the fight is not going the monster’s way, making a page or send them to us at [email protected]! character look foolish is often worth the dominating gaze Special Thanks action. Two words: No pants. Richard Baker, Greg Bilsland, Michele Carter, Jennifer Clarke ettins: OK, this is really a shout out to any multi- Wilkes, andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell, Jeremy Crawford, Peter headed monster that can talk. You can milk an encounter Lee, Mike Mearls, Kim Mohan, Cal Moore, Peter Schaefer, Stephen for endless entertainment by creating two different per- Schubert, Matthew Sernett, Rodney Thompson, James Wyatt sonalities for your ettin heads, then have them bicker. Yes, The Tyrant’s Oath An Adventure for 6th-Level Characters By Kolja Raven Liquette illustrations by William O’Connor ✦ cartography by Sean Mac Donald TM & © 2010 Wizards of the Coast LLC all rights reserved. “The Tyrant’s Oath” places a group of adventurers be- tween two warlords struggling for dominance over the region of Elkridge; a bandit queen who has subjugated the local village and a yuan-ti occultist that transforms the villagers into snaketongue minions. The heroes must decide who to trust and form an alliance that will save the inhabitants of Elkridge. May 2010 | Dungeon 178 4 The Tyrant’s Oath The Tyrant’s Oath is designed to take five 6th-level SynOpSiS of bandits arrives with an invitation to meet Skarn at characters to 7th level.