Contents 4 ChaosC s aR: 67 Domains of DReaD: 79 Ruling skill Challenges a ChanCe enCounteR By Mike Mearls the enDless RoaD Mike continues to educate on the nature of skill By Robert J. Schwalb By Ari Marmell challenges, with unique applications and examples. While near the Chaos Scar, the PCs encounter Those who follow the Endless Road find themselves a strange wagon stuck in a hole, and the strange caught in this dark domain. 101 DungeonCRaft cultists escorting it. A Chaos Scar adventure for By James Wyatt 1st-level PCs. 18 Re D shoals of DakaR James discusses the latest changes to his fledgling campaign. By Bruce R. Cordell 9 ChaosC s aR: sliveR’s Call This tumultuous sea on the Elemental Chaos By Stephen Radney-MacFarland is sailed by the brave, the desperate, and the A voice from the Scar has summoned a wizard of despicable. 105 e ye on the Realms great power for many years. Now, as he closes in on By Ed Greenwood the secret of the Cave of Dark Whispers, he needs Ed sheds light on the most distant and compelling corners 09 help to achieve his ends. A Chaos Scar adventure s ealing the PaCt of the Realms. for 2nd-level PCs. By Arnie Franke and Jeff Morgenroth If your warlock character is on the lookout for 12 t est of fiRe more adventures with personal meaning, try introducingSample one of these patrons, file first discussed in By Scott Fitzgerald Gray Dragon #381’s “Performing the Pact.” The Scales of War Adventure Path continues. The epic-level adventurers have saved their world from the githyanki and brought a dead deity back to life. But now they face their most difficult task to date. The adventurers must break the siege on Tiamat’s last stronghold—the City of Brass. All that lies between the heroes and success is Tiamat’s blue exarch and the labyrinthine ways of the City’s efreet-run society. A Scales of War adventure for 27th-level PCs. o n the CoveR Illustration by Mark Zug 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 edit o R IA l 174 Du ngeon January 2010 Elemental Chaos, Ahoy! Editor-in-Chief Chris youngs Senior Art Director Jon Schindehette It’s a brave New Year. I’ve never been one for powerful, characters. With a little work, you could send a group of Web Specialist Steve Winter motivating, inspiring resolutions. I find the setting of new heroic characters there, if for no other reason than to let goals on January 1 a little arbitrary. I mean, if you’re going them dabble in its zaniness as a taste for later adventure. Web Production Bart Carroll to set a new goal, why wait? But in the spirit of the holiday, As for our feature—we have the “Red Shoals of Dkar,” Contributing Authors Bruce r. Cordell, Scott Fitzgerald I do have one resolution: I want to spend more time in the which describes pirates who ply the treacherous seas Gray, arnie Franke, Ed Elemental Chaos. within a perpetual chaos storm that rages across the Greenwood, ari Marmell, Mike oK, not me personally. That would suck rocks. Hot, plane. Islands within the storm, known as the Red Shoals Mearls, Jeff Morgenroth, Stephen magma rocks, most likely. No, I want to spend more D&D of Dkar, form a home base from which these pirates light radney-MacFarland, robert time in the Elemental Chaos. I want my campaign’s heroes out to attack seaside settlements and ships of the mortal J. Schwalb, James Wyatt to adventure there. I want to pack up my characters and world before sailing back to their home base on the head out myself. Elemental Chaos, loot in tow. These pirates have unique Developers Peter Schaefer, Stephen Why the sudden interest in the Elemental Chaos? knowledge and magical prowess that lets them safely navi- Schubert, rodney Thompson I feel like we’ve spent much more time in the Shadow- gate these storms, making the Red Shoals like Shipwreck Editor Miranda Horner, Steve Winter fell and the Feywild, which means to say we’ve devoted Cove on steroids. more magazine space to their exploration and expansion. I mean, pirates sailing seas of fire through chaos Cover Artist Mark Zug The Astral Sea follows close on the heels of these two. storms? This is good stuff! Consider an adventure vil- Contributing Artists Wayne England, Jeremy Jarvis, But the red-headed stepchild of the bunch has been the lain who appears and disappears at will throughout the Jorge Lacera, raven Mimura, Elemental Chaos. We haven’t set any adventures there course of a campaign. Now make that villain a pirate on William O’Connor, David rapoza, (although we dipped our toe). We haven’t featured many a ship that sails the planar seas—does it get any better? As articles that touch on the plane, either. Well, that’s chang- an alternative, consider giving your adventurers a ship Cartographers Mike Schley, Jason Engle ing, and in a Samplebig way. file like this of their own, or the option to join the crew of Publishing Production Specialists angelika Lokotz, Erin Dorries, last month saw the release of The Plane Below: Secrets of one of these vessels. Just think of the adventure potential Christopher Tardiff the Elemental Chaos. This was the first book since Manual when the adventurers’ home base is a pirate ship that sails of the Planes to really start to uncover the secrets of this through the Elemental Chaos to any sea of the mortal Web Development Mark a. Jindra plane. Now, we’re catching up with digital content. realm, or possibly beyond. D&D Creative Manager Christopher Perkins This month, we’re devoting one adventure and one fea- How have we let the Elemental Chaos lie fallow for ture article to the Elemental Chaos, and there are more on so long? My only excuse is that the world of D&D is big— Executive Producer, the way. This month’s Scales of War adventure takes epic- bigger than we could ever handle in full. But we’re going D&D Insider Chris Champagne level characters to the City of Brass, where they’ll need to use 2010 to make a dent in the Elemental Chaos. Director of RPG R&D Bill Slavicsek all their wits to survive the Byzantine efreeti politics. The What are your favorite parts of the Elemental Chaos? City of Brass has to be one of the best possible locations for What would you like to see us tackle next in an article or adventures—but not just for the epic tier. The questions of adventure? Send us your feedback to dndinsider@wizards. Special Thanks why the City of Brass’s influence isn’t larger and what the com, or better yet, your adventure or article pitch to richard Baker, Greg Bilsland, Michele Carter, Jennifer Clarke efreet families will do to further their goals in the city’s [email protected] Wilkes, andy Collins, Bruce r. Cordell, Jeremy Crawford, Peter structure are great launch points for adventure. Lee, Mike Mearls, Kim Mohan, Cal Moore, Peter Schaefer, Stephen What about the rest of the city? We only scratch the Schubert, Matthew Sernett, rodney Thompson, James Wyatt surface this month. Just consider all the other denizens, permanent or transient, who visit the City of Brass. Many of them make excellent threats or foils for low-paragon tier Chaos Scar: A Chance Encounter A Chaos Scar Adventure By Robert J. Schwalb Illustrations by Jorge Lacera Cartography by Jason A. Engle “A Chance Encounter” is a single combat encounter for a group of five 1st-level charac- ters set in the Chaos Scar. The adventurers find a wagon sinking into a hole despite the best effortsSample by the struggling file horse pulling it. Yellow-robed attendants fight to pull the wagon free, but the wagon’s slide and the horse’s screams suggest their efforts are futile. Should the PCs lend a hand, however, they find their good intentions met with cold steel, bitter curses, and a wild three-way fight. If you’re not playing a Chaos Scar campaign, you can still use this adventure by integrating it into any existing campaign on a road through a remote wilderness area. For details on the Chaos Scar and its environs, read the Chaos Scar introduction and check out the map of the entire valley. 4 TM & © 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC all rights reserved. January 2010 | Dungeon 174 A Chance Encounter BC A kground The Glass Cube PCs might leave some or all of the loot behind. Should this be the case, add the missing value to the treasure The glass cube is behind Pung’s madness, for it they find when they next gain a parcel.