CREDITS INTRODUCTION Design Shawn Merwin, Steven Townshend, James Wyatt Welcome to DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ENCOUNTERS™, an Development exciting official DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® program. This Chris Sims adventure is something new for the D&D Encounters program. War of Everlasting Darkness™ is an exciting Editing mini-campaign designed for play at your local Wizards Scott Fitzgerald Gray Play Network location and an opportunity to playtest Managing Editor elements of the next edition of the DUNGEONS & DRAG- Kim Mohan ONS rules. The most important element of the new rules that we D&D Producer have tried to implement in this season of D&D Encoun- Greg Bilsland ters is the idea that you should be able to do more in an Senior Creative Director hour and a half of play than complete a single combat Jon Schindehette encounter. As a result, this adventure looks significantly different from previous D&D Encounters adventures. Art Director Rather than a string of encounters, one per week, that Kate Irwin form a linear adventure, this booklet presents a series of Cover Illustration short adventures incorporating elements of exploration, Eric Belisle interaction, and combat in roughly equal measure. Interior Illustrations All the adventures offer much more flexibility than Dave Allsop, Wayne England, Ralph Horsley, Ben Wootten the linear adventures of the past, and each is designed to be played in a single session. Taken together, the Cartography adventures tell the story of the War of Everlasting Dark- Jason A. Engle, Mike Schley, Chippy ness—the conclusion to the Rise of the Underdark™ ® D&D Brand Team story that has played out in D&D game products and Nathan Stewart, Liz Schuh, Laura Tommervik, Shelly novels throughout the year. Mazzanoble, Chris Lindsay, Hilary Ross Publishing Production Manager TESTING THE NEXT EDITION Angie Lokotz War of Everlasting Darkness is a new kind of D&D Prepress Manager adventure, combining elements of the current edition Jefferson Dunlap Sample fileof the game with features that will drive its successor. Two of the goals of the next edition of the DUNGEONS Imaging Technician & DRAGONS game are these: Carmen Cheung ) Finding a balance among the three significant Production Manager elements of the D&D experience: exploration, Donna Woodcock interaction, and combat (the “three pillars”). ) Making combat take less real-world time, to Organized Play allow more exploration and interaction in a game Chris Tulach session. Playtesters Aaron Brosman, André Bégin, Andrew Nuxoll, Bill Newsome, In the current edition, combat is designed to be a sort Denise Elliott, Doreen Savoldi, Éric Leroux, Ian Ramsey, of centerpiece experience, or almost a game within a Jeremiah Harrison, Jillian Brosman, Joe Busch, John Flournoy, game. In the next edition, combat could sometimes be John Rogers, John Rossomangno, John Stanford, Justin Turner, an experience of minimal importance to get through M. Sean Molley, Manon Crevier, Mark Knapik, Mélanie Côté, Rick Small, Roger Mahrling, Stephen Savoldi, Teos Abadia, quickly so the characters can get on with the story. Veldraeos, Yan Lacharité This adventure tries to model that style of play within the framework of the current edition. This Published by Wizards of the Coast LLC. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, Wizards of the Coast, approach will have a number of significant effects for DCI, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Encounters, RPGA, all other Wizards of the Coast product you and your players. It’s important that you become names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the USA and other countries. Hasbro SA, Represented by Hasbro Europe, Stockley Park, UB11 familiar with all of this adventure’s introductory mate- 1AZ, UK. All Wizards characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards rial, particularly the section “Running This Season” on of the Coast LLC. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States page 4, so that you can communicate these changes 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 LLC. to the players before their characters get under way. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events included herein is purely coincidental. Printed in the USA. ©2012 Wizards of the Coast LLC. 620B9730001 EN 1 ) After you’ve been the DM for a few sessions, it’s Preparing for Play easy to prepare for your next session. Read the next The DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Encounters play kit pro- adventure and you’re ready to go. vides all you need to DM this adventure, including poster maps of encounter areas and a sheet of tokens to represent monsters, adventurers, and battlefield effects. A Changing Group Follow the steps below to prepare for play. Since you can never tell who’s going to show up to a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Encounters session, you might Before you run session 1: wind up with a different group of players from week to ) Read the Background and Adventure Summary week. Some players might have missed a session or two, for the flow of the story. and others might have played sessions with a different Session 1: Nightfall in Methegrist DM. That’s fine. Catch new players up with a summary ) Read . If you are of what has come before. starting at another point, read the appropriate sec- Majority Rules: If some element of the adventure tions and what has come before. plot hinges on the adventurers making a decision in At the table for session 1: a previous session, and the group is different during the current session, find out from all the players what ) Ensure that each player has a character to play. Play- decisions they made. Go with the majority, and if it’s ers can use one of the characters provided in the an even split, side with the most positive result. For kit or can create their own personas using the DUN- example, if three of six players’ characters at your GEONS & DRAGONS rules. table won the respect of the orc shaman in a previous ) Give each player a D&D Encounters Play Tracker. encounter and two didn’t, the characters are considered This sheet, found in the play kit, allows the players to to have won his respect for the session this week. track benefits their characters gain during each play session. Treasure ) Acquire a session tracking sheet from the organizer. As the characters progress, they have the opportunity Record all the players’ DCI®/RPGA® numbers on it, to gain treasure in the form of gold pieces, valuables, along with your DCI/RPGA number. If you or any of and magic items. Whenever characters discover trea- the players don’t have a DCI/RPGA number, ask the sure, follow the instructions provided in the adventure. organizer for a membership card. Use the following rules to divide treasure among the characters. During the session: Awarding Magic Items: When the characters find ) Each session is a single, self-contained short adven- a nonconsumable magic item, the players can decide ture. Typical play time for a session is 90 minutesSample to which file character receives it. Usually, these decisions are 2 hours. easy, since certain items are better suited for certain ) Make decisions and adjudications that enhance characters. If this is not the case, then you assign the the fun of the game. As the DM, you can adjust the new item to a character who has no nonconsumable adventures (see “A Changing Group”) to maximize magic items. If two or more characters lack noncon- the fun for the players. sumable magic items, have each of those players roll a d20. The character belonging to the high roller receives At the end of each session: the new item. Selling Items: If none of the characters wants a ) The adventurers take an extended rest. particular magic item, the group can sell it at the end of ) Record level advancement. Rather than tracking the session, using the information on pages 277–278 of experience points, this playtest season allows players the Rules Compendium™. Divide the gold pieces received to increase their characters’ level by one after each evenly among the party members. session they play. Make sure the players write down The special magic items found by the characters in their level advancement on their D&D Encounters this adventure are needed for success in the final ses- Play Trackers. sion. They cannot be sold. ) Turn in your session tracking sheet to the organizer. When to Gear Up: Characters can buy equipment Make sure you’ve recorded all the DCI/RPGA num- at the start of each session. bers on it, along with names and the date of the Unlike past D&D Encounters seasons, there are event. no random magic items in this adventure. Because ) Collect your special reward for providing your time the characters advance so many levels over the course as a DM to make the event happen. Your organizer of the season, treasure given out during the adven- has more details on this reward. ture can’t possibly keep pace with the treasure gain expected in the game. 2 For this reason, characters gain flat bonuses as they sacred to Mystra, and fought for control of magical advance in level, using the system described in Dun- locations on the world’s surface. As the dark elves have geon Master’s Guide® 2. All characters gain a +1 bonus gathered arcane energy and channeled it to Lolth, her to attack rolls and damage rolls at 2nd level, and again strength has grown. at 7th level. They also gain a +1 bonus to AC, Fortitude, Lolth’s web has extended to cover most of the world, Reflex, and Will at 4th level.