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CONTENTS 4 THE TEMPLE BETWEEN 114 CAMPAIGN WORKBOOK: By Ari Marmell RUINS OF STARMANTLE A Scales of War Adventure Path By Bruce R. Cordell adventure. The PCs return to Overlook, Campaign Workbook returns with an once again having averted disaster in encounter adapted from the Forgotten Elsir Vale, and gaining a potent new Realms novel Spellplague. ally in the process. But they return to an uneasy city—and the warm welcome they’ve grown used to has chilled. And now there are ON THE COVER Illustration by Michael Komarck rumors of something strange happening with the city’s temples and shrines. As the PCs investigate, they uncover another startling truth of Overlook, the real reason the city has 3 EDITORIAL become so important in the war, and the nature of their true enemy in the city. An adventure for 9th-level PCs. 119 RULING SKILL CHALLENGES By Mike Mearls 72 TOUCH OF MADNESS Mike continues to educate on the By Robert J. Schwalb Sample file nature of skill challenges, with unique applications and examples. Updated from 3rd Edition, this adventure is the first in a three-part series. The PCs 122 SAVE MY GAME must face and eliminate a strange, aberrant By Stephen Radney-MacFarland threat to the town of Wellspring. A notable A DM’s best friend? Stephen group of adventurers known as the Radney-MacFarland, back with Stormcrows recently set off from the city to more advice and letters from the retrieve a potent artifact of Ioun, and never mailbag. returned. Now bizarre monstrosities are attacking Wellspring, and the heroes must 125 DUNGEONCRAFT uncover the nature of the threat seemingly By James Wyatt unleashed by the missing adventurers. An James discusses the latest changes adventure for 10th-level PCs. to his fledgling campaign. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, DUNGEON, DRAGON, d20, d20 System, Wizards of the Coast, all other Wizards of the Coast prod- uct names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, LLC, in the U.S.A. and other countries. TM 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, 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 TM EDITORIAL 161 DUNGEON December 2008 Battle in Seattle In the spirit of this month’s Dragon editorial, in which I ask readers to tell me their favorite supplements of all Editor-in-Chief Chris Youngs time, I proposed doing something similar in Dungeon with adventures. Plus, what better way to ponder gifts for the gamers on your holiday shopping list than think about your—and their—all-time favorites? Senior Art Director Stacy Longstreet, Jon Schindehette Web Specialist Chris Sims w But when I brought up the editorial topic with Bart, it Bart: “Your dollar is as good as mine.” Web Production Bart Carroll, Steve Winter kicked off a heated debate. Okay, it wasn’t all that heated. I mean, we live in Seattle. Most debates around here aren’t And that’s about where it ended. Okay, okay—I may have Contributing Authors Bruce R. Cordell, Ari Marmell, heated. It’s too wet and gray. What’s the point? Anyway, taken some liberties with the dialog. Bart may not be that Stephen Radney-MacFarland, it got about as heated as an argument between two damp much of an ass (“may” being the operative word). And we’re Mike Mearls, Robert J. Schwalb, Seattlites can get, which is something like this: clearly big spenders here on the staff of D&D Insider. But you James Wyatt get the idea. Me: “I think that in the spirit of the Dragon editorial, I’d Developers Stephen Radney-MacFarland, like to talk about my favorite published adventure of all “Touch of Madness” was conceived over a year ago as a 4th Peter Schaefer, Rodney Thompson time. Then I’d like to ask the fans to send in their favorite Edition adventure, before we really knew what 4th Edition Editors Miranda Horner, Gary Sarli adventures. adventures would look like. We had broad ideas (bigger encounter areas, more varied monsters, and we knew they’d Cover Artist Michael Komarck Bart: “Uh huh.” be easier to run), but that’s it. Rob then reverse engineered it Contributing Artists Rob Alexander, Ryan Barger, to be a 3E adventure, then updated it to 4th Edition. Confus- Wayne England, David Griffin, Me: “Since we’re also releasing ‘Touch of Madness,’ which ing, I know. William O’Connor, Raven Mimura is an updated 3E adventure, it would be cool to see what Cartographers Kyle Hunter, Robert Lee, other adventure folks would want to see an update or In any event, I’m happy with the result, as well as with the Mike Schley spin-off of, especially if they’re old Dungeon adventures.” culmination of the heroic tier of Scales of War. “The Temple Sample file Between” is pretty crazy, and we finally pull back the curtain Publishing Production Specialists Angelika Lokotz, Erin Dorries, Bart: “Oh, no question. Tomb of Horrors. That’s everyone’s on one of the major villains of the campaign in this one. Only Christopher Tardiff favorite. Dumbass.” one more week and it’ll be available. Web Development Mark A. Jindra Me: “Hey, no need for the name calling. That’s just mean. But until then, solve our debate. Let us know which pub- D&D Creative Manager Christopher Perkins Are you sure?” lished adventure from previous editions is your favorite of all time. If your favorite is a Dungeon adventure, all the better. Executive Producer, Bart: “Of course I’m sure. Everyone knows Tomb of Horrors In fact, if you have a favorite print and a favorite Dungeon D&D Insider Ken Troop would win. I’d put money on it.” adventure, vote below or send in your favorite to dndinsider@ Director of RPG R&D Bill Slavicsek wizards.com. We’d love to hear from you! And I’d love it if Me: “What about Against the Giants? Or Vault of the Drow? you can make me a dollar richer … and make Bart eat his Or any of the Temples of Elemental Evil? People love those. I words. Not that I’m trying to skew the results… think #1 would be Against the Giants.” Bart: “Alas, you’re so stupid. And ugly. And did I mention Special Thanks stupid? Tomb of Horrors for the win.” Richard Baker, Greg Bilsland, Logan Bonner, Michele Carter, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell, Jeremy Me: “Whatever. Jerk. And I’ll take your bet. They usual?” Crawford, Rob Heinsoo, Peter Lee, Julia Martin, Mike Mearls, Kim Mohan, David Noonan, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Peter Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, Chris Sims, Rodney Thompson, Rob Watkins, James Wyatt “ 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 Sample file 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, the Rob Alexander and William O'Connor ✦ cartography by Mike Schley Temple Between 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.

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