ISSUE 164 | MARCH 2009 A Dungeons & Dragons® Roleplaying Game Supplement CONTENTS 4 WORSE THEN DEATH 36 HAVEN OF THE BITTER By Robert J. Schwalb GLASS When a powerful aristocrat is By Kevin Kulp kidnapped from his caravan, it’s up to The next installment in the Scales of War the adventurers to discover what has Adventure Path is here! The characters happened to him. But there might be meet a new ally as a flying ship crashes more to his disappearance than the outside Overlook, setting off a chain of characters know. An adventure for 12th- events that take them to the scholarly city level PCs. of Sayre. There, they meet an old friend and ON THE COVER Illustration by Ben Thompson have a chance to shape the defense of the world against the growing githyanki threat. 3 EDITORIAL 26 DUNGEON DELVE: RETURN OF THE Meanwhile, some dark force in Sayre seems POISONED SHADOWS responsible for guiding the githyanki’s war effort. As the PCs rub 119 RULING SKILL By Greg Marks shoulders with the city’s CHALLENGES Continuing where the Poisoned elite, they must also By Mike Mearls Shadows delve from the Dungeon Delve find a way to halt the Mike continues to educate on the nature of skill challenges, with supplement left off comes Return of the githyanki’s uncanny unique applications and examples. Poisoned Shadows! After the PCs dealt ability to share with the Poisoned Shadows guild, the information, even 124 SAVE MY GAME PCs learn that they’ve been targeted by over immense By Stephen Radney-MacFarland more deadly killers. A Dungeon Delve distances. An A DM’s best friend? Stephen adventure for 8th-level PCs. adventure for Radney-MacFarland, back with 12th-level PCs. more advice and letters from the mailbag. 128 DUNGEONCRAFT By James Wyatt James discusses the latest changes to his fledgling campaign. 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For more Dungeons & Dragons articles, adventures, and information, visit www.wizards.com/dnd TM EDItorIAL 164 DUNGEON March 2009 What to Do when your Editor-in-Chief Chris Youngs Party Jumps the Shark Senior Art Director Jon Schindehette Web Specialist Chris Sims Boy, am I gonna catch flak for this editorial. But recent focusing fire is a top priority. If they’re regenerating and events have inspired—no, compelled—me to talk about insubstantial? It’s mandatory. Web Production Bart Carroll, Steve Winter something that every DM has to contend with: party It doesn’t stop there. Over the next several rounds, suckitude. the group continued to spread the damage around. The Contributing Authors Kevin Kulp, Greg Marks, First off, no offense to my party or any other that’s hit point total of all the wraiths continued to inch down Mike Mearls, Stephen Radney- had a rough day at the dungeon. The best groups have off almost equally. On top of that, the party striker became MacFarland, Robert J. Schwalb, sessions. Sometimes they forget they haven’t used their distracted by a dark creeper in the corner (who I made James Wyatt encounter or daily powers at inopportune moments. effectively a noncombatant in the fight, since he was after Sometimes they forget to focus their fire (dungeon crawl- something the PCs had and wanted to know who was Developers Stephen Radney-MacFarland, ing 101). Sometimes they run around an encounter area carrying it), so one of the prime sources of single target Peter Schaefer, Chris Sims, like poodles on a 24-hour caffeine bender. damage wasn’t attacking the wraiths. Rodney Thompson Sometimes, they do all of the above, and then some. So what’s a DM to do? I mean, some might “punish” Clearly, you know where this is going, if the title of the their players by letting the dice fall where they may. But Editor Miranda Horner editorial didn’t tell you everything. But it’s an important that’s not my style, and I don’t encourage that type of play, Cover Artist Ben Thompson issue. What do you do when your group just shanks it. especially when the group is having a bad night. I think Sucks rocks. Just plain old can’t pull it together. The dice it’s a DM’s first job to make the game fun for everyone, Contributing Artists Steve Argyle, Eric Deschamps, aren’t failing them (although that might be the icing on so I started to compensate for the players. That’s right, I Raven Mimura, William O’connor, your mess-of-an-encounter cake). They’re just not coor- cheated. In their favor. I dropped the wraiths’ regenera- Jim Pavlec, Sam Wood dinating, talking, and thinking tactically. And when it tion to 2. Then I put a secret button on the portal that comes down to brass tacks, a D&D combat is a tactical creates a radiant energy zone in the room that kills their Cartographers Kyle Hunter, Mike Schley, experience. regeneration altogether. I made some gentle tactical sug- Christopher West This happened to me recently. I’m running my group gestions. And finally, I left a clear line of escape open. The Shadow Rift of Umbraforge Dungeon Publishing Production Specialists Angelika Lokotz, Erin Dorries, through “ ” from But my point is that it’s important to keep some con- #158, and my group just made it to the third encounter tingency plans for these occasions in your DMing back Christopher Tardiff under The Happy Beggar, the one with all the wraiths. pocket for when things go south—really south. A TPK, as Web Development Mark A. Jindra This is a tough encounter, I’ll be the first to admit. The much as we toss the event around in gloating terms, isn’t one right before, against the shadar-kai witch, dark creep- really good for anyone. You lose campaign story continu- D&D Creative Manager Christopher Perkins ers, and shadow hounds isn’t a walk in the park, either. ity. Everyone is bummed. Worst case scenario, you might Executive Producer, The wraith fight is tougher. They’re insubstantial, which lose players. means they’re taking half damage, and they regenerate 5 We’ll see what happens. We left the session mid-fight D&D Insider Ken Troop hp a round. last time, with lots of anxious and frustrated faces. I hope Director of RPG R&D Bill Slavicsek So my group starts the fight, and the mistakes start to that next month I’m not writing about how to jump start pile up immediately. One defender charges the middle a campaign after a TPK. I hope they pull it out, and at wraith in the group clustered around the portal. The the least, run away to try the encounter again later. What second defender charges … a different target. And the about your campaigns? Got any stories of encounters gone Special Thanks rogue charges a third. If you do the math on expected horribly awry? Send them in to [email protected]. Richard Baker, Greg Bilsland, Logan Bonner, Michele Carter, damage for a 4th-level PC, you’ll note that half damage is Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell, Jeremy around 5 or 6 points. So each wraith, on the first round, Crawford, Rob Heinsoo, Peter Lee, Mike Mearls, Kim Mohan, Cal takes enough damage to regenerate nearly to full on Moore, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Peter Schaefer, Stephen its turn. When you’re fighting regenerating monsters, Schubert, Matthew Sernett, Chris Sims, Rodney Thompson, Rob Watkins, James Wyatt Worse than Death by Robert J. Schwalb A powerful dilettante goes missing in the wilderness, so it falls to a capable adventuring band to come to the rescue. “Worse Than Death” is a 4th Edition DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ® adventure for five characters of 12th level. This adventure takes place in the wilderness, far from any communities or settlements, so you can drop it into any campaign setting with little work. illustrations by Jim Pavelec, Sam Wood cartography by Kyle Hunter TM & © 2009 Wizards of the Coast LLC All rights reserved. March 2009 | DUNGEON 164 4 Worse than Death BACKGROUND Amala has been at her task long enough to make a Tantalroy, a fop, simply coveted Festuad’s coin. Amala few enemies, and though vigilant about eliminating let the conspirators concoct the plan, nudging them Festuad il’Sook is known throughout his city as a dec- hidden threats, she’s not naïve; there are always ene- as needed, until they settled on kidnapping the aris- adent and effete aristocrat—a man who has no interest mies, created from lives she has broken, people she tocrat and ransoming him back to his household to beyond his hedonistic escapades and squandering his has betrayed, and those who suspect that something extort his fortunes and then kill him once the gold fortunes on drink, drugs, and excess. From his great foul lurks beneath the pleasant features of an idle changed hands.