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Sample file ® “Something inhuman has come to Tarker’s Mills, January/February 2001 as unseen as the full moon riding the night sky Issue #84 high above. It is the Werewolf....” —Stephen King, Cycle of the Werewolf Editorial . 4 Letters . 6 The Dying of the Light . 78 by Chris Doyle Sharpen your stakes and shine your mirrors: The hunt begins Maps of Mystery . 17 at dawn. A D&D adventure for 10th-level PCs but adaptable for levels 5–15. The Harrowing . 22 Dungeon of the Fire Opal . 106 by Monte Cook by Jonathan Tweet One sacrifice could spell the end of Lolth’s supremacy in the Was it destiny or something worse that destroyed the Order Demonweb and the beginning of a whole new order. A D&D of the Opal Fist? A D&D adventure for 3rd-level PCs but adventure for 15th-level PCs but adaptable for levels 10–20. adaptable for levels 1–5. Demonclaw . 66 Armistice . 126 by Peter R. Hopkins by Peter Vinogradov A wizard’s hideous transformation spells trouble for the The war in the mountains might be over, but there’s still one kingdom of Nyrond. A D&D adventure for 5th-level PCs more enemy to fight. A D&D adventure for 7th-level PCs but adaptable for levels 2–8. Samplebut file adaptable for levels 3–12. Cover Spoiled from birth and rotten to the core, Lolth’s daughter plots to seize control of her mother’s dominion. Stephen Daniele shows us the wicked demonspawn Laveth and her vile blade from “The Harrowing.” EDITORIAL Dead... Again! Exploring the Blakeney Factor by Christopher Perkins In my Wednesday night campaign, we’ve created a new verb. Shawn’s closest competitors for the award are Sean “To blakeney” means to lose characters repeatedly and often. Reynolds and Johnny Wilson, whose characters have each died The verb refers to Shawn Blakeney, one of the players in my twice. (Sean’s dwarf character, Droo, has also been turned to campaign (and a swell guy, to boot). stone twice, but in both cases he lived to tell the tale.) Other Death has claimed three of Shawn’s characters. His first players—like Stan! and Matthew Sernett—have come close to character, Gunthar the halfling, was disintegrated, reconsti- losing characters but have never actually “blakeneyed.” tuted through magic, polymorphed into a grizzly bear, and Losing characters in a long-running campaign can be prob- clubbed to death by a hill giant. His second character, an lematic. For the player who wants his character to develop and aquatic half-elf named Azurphi, tried to distinguish himself by become more powerful, losing that character means going all backstabbing a gelugon devil with an evil sword. This might the way back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, the DM strug- have worked had Azurphi been a rogue instead of a wizard. gles to find a fresh and logical way to include the new charac- Alone and unable to outpace the villain, he was blasted into ter in the campaign’s carefully entwined storyline. The best oblivion by the gelugon’s cone of cold. Shawn’s third charac- solution, I think, is to let the player determine how his next ter, a half-orc paladin of Heironeous named Olga, was valiantly character should arise. That takes some of the pressure off the battling monks in Rictavio Kalavan’s Starborn Theater when DM and encourages the player to create a character who not she was torn asunder by a lightning bolt leveled by the party’s only fits into the existing campaign framework but also is gnome nemesis, Erellak Golgof. (If you don’t know Erellak, you immediately useful, providing skills and abilities that the party haven’t been reading Dave Gross’s editorial column in DRAGON currently lacks. Magazine. In short, Erellak is what all good campaign villains Finding new and clever ways to introduce characters into should be—devious, likeable in a detestable sort of way, and a long-running campaign would make an interesting article for most of all, lucky beyond belief.) DRAGON Magazine, as would an article discussing ways to Shawn has been a terrific sport, tolerating mockery from appease players who “blakeney” more often than the Law of the other players in my campaign. Death comes suddenly and Averages would allow. I look forward to hearing about the unexpectedly during the game. As a DM, I never set out to strategies you’ve used in your campaigns. With players like deliberately kill off characters; it just happens, and usually at Shawn, I need all the help I can get! the worst times. Right now, I’m thinking about awarding Shawn a special trophy—Most Deaths Ever—as a consolation prizeSample for file all the ribbing he’s endured in recent months. Volume XIV, No. 6 Issue #84 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. PRESENTS “Dungeon Magazine #84” AUTHORS Monte Cook Chris Doyle Peter R. Hopkins Jonathan Tweet Peter Vinogradov ARTISTS Theodor Black Stephen Daniele Jason A. Engle Todd Gamble Todd Morasch Alan Pollack Michael Weaver Christopher West Aaron Williams Craig Zipse AND Diesel COVER BY Stephen Daniele ART DIRECTOR Christopher Perkins SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER John Dunn PRODUCTION MANAGER Bobbi Maas CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Pierce Watters ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Bob Henning ADVERTISING/CIRCULATION ASSISTANT Dawnelle Miesner ADVERTISING INTERN Alice Chung PUBLISHER Wendy Noritake GROUP PUBLISHER Johnny Wilson ASSISTANT EDITORS Eric Haddock Matthew Sernett ASSOCIATE EDITOR Chris Thomasson EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Christopher Perkins Subscription Queries: 1-800-395-7760 [email protected] Advertising Queries: 1-425-204-7262 [email protected] www.wizards.com Submission Queries: 1-425-254-2261 [email protected] Northeast U.S. Advertising Queries: 1-203-855-8834 [email protected] 4 january/february 2001 LETTERS Letters DUNGEON Magazine (ISSN# 0890-7102) is published bi-monthly for $19.95 per year by Wizards of the Readers with Issues Coast, Inc., 1801 Lind Ave. SW, Renton, WA 98055, United States of America. Periodicals Postage Paid at Renton, WA, and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Tell us what you think of the adventures in this issue. Write to DUNGEON Magazine, P.O. Box 469106, Escondido, “Letters,” DUNGEON Magazine, 1801 Lind Avenue S.W., Renton, CA 92046. ©2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All WA 98055 or email us at [email protected]. rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced (except for review purposes) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Material pub- Surviving Issue #82 opposite the table of contents, and the lished herein does not necessarily reflect the opin- First, we would like to say that we enjoy same picture in the feature adventure. ions of Wizards of the Coast, Inc., its employees, or the new D&D game a lot. We are writ- This is too much of a not-so-good thing. its editorial staff, who are not liable for opinions ing to tell you about our first 3rd-Edition I can’t say the recent covers (#83 in expressed herein. Most product names are trade- campaign. Our DM (Lewis) bought the particular) rate highly, but they are not marks owned by the companies that publish those D&D Adventure Game boxed set and that bad. I do wish to point out that the products. Use of the name of any product without revamped it by doubling the creatures cover for Issue #83 doesn’t reflect the mention of trademark status should not be con- and designing a town for the PCs (who proper ethos, being more of a horror strued as a challenge to such status. now have a great respect for gelatinous picture than fantasy. WIZARDS OF THE COAST; DUNGEONS & DRAGONS; cubes). Then he ran “Evil Unearthed” in In Issue #83, you published two non- D&D; FORGOTTEN REALMS; DRAGONLANCE; PLANESCAPE; Issue #82 and pumped up the levels of standard adventures (“London Calling” RAVENLOFT; BIRTHRIGHT; MYSTARA; GREYHAWK; DARK the adversaries as recommended for and “Alterations”). I do not demand that SUN; SPELLJAMMER; AL-QADIM; COUNCIL OF WYRMS; 4th-level PCs. We really enjoyed this every adventure be standard D&D fare, MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH; MONSTROUS MANUAL; one! Then he ran “Playing with Fire.” but such variations are useless to me. MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM; ENCYCLOPEDIA MAGICA; That one hurt a little because Lewis Please include no more than one per issue. ALTERNITY; STAR*DRIVE; DARK•MATTER; ALIEN brought back the Fire Lord, but the PCs The sidebars on how to adapt the COMPENDIUM; FIFTH AGE; DUNGEON MASTER; PLAYER’S prevailed. Then he ran “Eye for an Eye.” adventures to different levels represent OPTION; DRAGON; DUNGEON; POLYHEDRON; LIVING CITY; The players were expecting a big, bad an improvement. I am not sure the effort LIVING GREYHAWK;GEN CON; and RPGA are trade- boss at the end; when they discovered is fully successful, but they triple the util- marks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. that it was only a 3rd-level villager who ity of the adventures, so they’re worth SUBSCRIPTIONS: Please contact Publishers had caused all the havoc, the players’ the effort Sampleand quite possibly file should be Creative Systems at [email protected] or jaws dropped. expanded. call 1-800-395-7760. In the United Kingdom, contact We compliment you on the adventures David Argell [email protected] or call +44-18-58-41-4713. and hope you keep up the good work! via email ADVERTISING: Contact our Advertising Sales Lewis Leech, Shawn Leech, Director, Bob Henning, at (425) 204-7262. All ads David Leech, and J.R. Vaughn David, you raise several points that have are subject to approval by Wizards of the Coast, Colorado Springs, CO been mentioned in other letters as well.

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