S PECIAL ATTRACTIONS Issue #152 Vol. XIV, No. 7 Welcome to the Underdark: 9 Its cheerless and horrible and eternally black, but its home. December 1989 The Ecology of the Umber Hulk Tony Jones Publisher 10 If it can claw through miles of solid rock, your armor won’t slow it down. James M. Ward In a Cavern, In a Canyon . Thomas M. Kane Editor 18 To get lots of gold and gems in the safest way, dig for them! (Ho, ho!) Roger E. Moore The Wanderers Below Buddy Pennington Fiction editor 28Random monsters just aren’t the same when you’re miles below ground. Barbara G. Young Servants of the Jewelled Dagger Eric Oppen Assistant editor 40The duergar will survive, no matter what the cost (to you). Dale A. Donovan Art director O THER FEATURES Paul Hanchette Role-playing Reviews Jim Bambra Production staff 32Would you go on an adventure in which all of your foes carried Kathleen C. MacDonald automatic weapons? Gaye OKeefe Angelika Lokotz 44The First Notch fiction by R. A. Salvatore Subscriptions Some monsters are so bad that your regular enemies look pretty friendly. Janet L. Winters 52In Quest of Adventure Greg Minter U.S. advertising Sometimes, if you’re not careful, an adventure will come looking for you. Sheila Gailloreto Tammy Volp The Game Wizards James M. Ward 62Board games, computers, and great magazines (these are a few of our U.K. correspondent favorite things). and U.K. advertising Sue Lilley The Role of Computers Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser 64In search of a Krystal, a Holy Grail, and a spell to remove a tyrant. Worth a Thousand Words The editors 74 Do you have fan mail for an artist? Here’s where you can write! Spider-Man to Wed Vanna White! Fraser Sherman 76 Suppose that the Marvel Universe™ was actually the real world. Through the Looking Glass Robert Bigelow 80Now you can create (and destroy) terrain in your miniatures games. Make the Most of Your Missions Merle and Jackie Rasmussen 94Throw your agents a mission they'll always remember! If they survive it. D EPARTMENTS 5 Letters 72 TSR Previews 106 Gamers Guide 7 Forum 86 Convention Calendar 8 Sage Advice 100 Dragonmirth COVER Paul Jaquays describes his cover painting: “The title of this painting is ‘Cryson’s Reward.’ Cryson was a PC run by another player in AD&D® games I played about 10 years ago. This never happened to good ol' Cryson. It should have. Although it looks like a warrior or cleric being dragged off by goblins, it is in truth a statement about modern materialism, greed, and the cost of betraying one’s friends, beliefs, and values. .” 4 DECEMBER 1989 Saving our world I would like to use this space this month to talk about saving the world, What did you think of this issue? Do you have Hawks = falcons? a question about an article or have an idea for a or at least as much of it as you yourself new feature you’d like to see? In the United Dear Dragon: can save. If youve envied the heroic States and Canada, write to: Letters, DRAGON® I am writing in praise of Patricia Nead Elrod’s exploits of your player characters, you Magazine, P.O. Box 111, Lake Geneva WI 53147, “Getting Familiar” article in issue #147. The now have the chance to exceed even U.S.A. In Europe, write to: Letters, DRAGON information presented was fabulous for bring- the wildest acts of role-playing derring- Magazine, TSR Ltd., 120 Church End, Cherry ing familiars to life as an important part of the do in real life. Hinton, Cambridge CB1 3LD, United Kingdom. gaming universe. The article was in-depth, Most of us did not have to worry this informative, and quite useful to the familiar- year about a hurricane or earthquake using characters in my many campaigns. I striking our homes, as did the residents Enough, already especially liked the comment: “Few wizards of Charleston and San Francisco. Many would want a toad for a familiar. Toads are almost a punishment.” Any player can agree of us did not worry about heart dis- Dear Weaklings: ease, cancer, AIDS, lacks of funds for Upon hearing of Waldorf’s insubordination [in with this! schools and hospitals, poverty, home- DRAGON issues #137 and 149], I would like to One mistake I spotted, however, was the show you a truly powerful character. His name information contained in the following line: lessness, and a thousand other calami- is Thor, and he is a 6,253rd-level magic-user, a “Female hawks are called falcons; males are ties that so often affect only other 25,001st-level cleric, and a 3,000,000th-level tiercels.” This didn’t seem quite right, so I con- people. But some of us did have to fighter. Once he sneezed and destroyed the sulted the 1974 edition of Funk and Wagnall's worry about those things, and the rest entire Forgotten Realms world, so think of what Standard College Dictionary. It says that a falcon of us saw the terrible effects of disas- will happen when he wields his 80’-long sword is “Any of a genus (falco) of . birds of prey ters and deprivation and disease every +5,682. Waldorf’s enslaving of the gods was noted for their powerful wings [and] keen vision . especially, the peregrine falcon, the male of morning and evening in the news. very unrealistic, since all the gods are servants Those of us who were lucky didnt of Thor, and furthermore [The remainder of which is called a tercel” (or tiercel, as Patricia this letter has been deleted by the editor for noted). know what to do about those who reasons that must be all too painfully apparent. In other words, DMs should keep in mind werent, so we went back to our role- We continue now with our regular “Letters” that hawks and falcons are entirely different playing games and imagined that it was feature.] birds, rather than the latter being the female possible for little groups of people to version of the former. Aside from this, the have any real control at all over a hos- article was fantastic! I hope to see more of tile world. More outrages Patricia Elrod’s work in future issues of But you do have that control. You can DRAGON Magazine. do something about all of the above Dear Dragon: Jarod Warner Cedar Rapids IA problems and more, and you can do it I am interested in sculpting my own fantasy by gaming. No kidding. Listen: figures. Have you any information you can send My copy of Webster’s New World Dictionary Conventions: It is rare (perhaps too me on this subject, or any idea where I can get much so) for game conventions to take information on it? Any reply would be deeply of the American Language (Second College appreciated. Edition, 1984), says that a falcon is “any hawk a part of their proceeds and donate One other thing. I loved the article, “Still More trained to hunt and kill small game: in falconry them to helpful causes. I would like to Outrages From the Mages,” in issue #144. I have the female is called a falcon, the male a tiercel.” suggest that this practice become much used it a few times. Once the party was being It goes on to say (under the entries on hawk and more commonin fact, it should be- chased by five minotaurs when the spell-caster falcon) that falcons are usually considered to be come standard procedure. tripped over Nimrod’s scroll, picked it up, and part of the hawk family, but both terms seem to be loosely used. A few conventions do this regularly. cast monster invulnerability upon the mino- GLATHRICON, which is held in Evans- taurs The party charged and couldn’t figure out ville, Ind., supports the American Can- why they couldn’t hit the minotaurs. Seven out cer Society through its Joe Martin of the party of eight died, but amazingly the Dragon hunting spell-caster was still alive. He was using a sling, Benefit Tournament. During the 1989 so he cast minor globe of iron, threw the BB, Dear Dragon: GEN CON® game fair, the RPGA Net- and ran. He was almost safe when he cast wall Concerning Mr. Moore’s editorial in issue work was able to donate $1,000 to the of missiles (poor sod). The minotaurs had a good #148, I remember seeing the gray and rainbow literacy programs of the Boys and Girls lunch. dragons in issue #146, but I don’t remember Club of Greater Milwaukee, thanks to One of my characters gave an evil spell-caster seeing the brown, stone, rock, or purple drag- one tournaments entry fees, an his remove hand spell, then pulled a dagger on ons anywhere. Have they appeared in any other autographed-book auction, and a dona- the mage. Audible curse has often been used issues of DRAGON Magazine? If so, which ones? tion from TSR, Inc. WINTER FANTASY, The purple dragon sounds interesting. when a battle is lost, and detect object was used coming up this January, has a benefit by one of my dumber players. Chris Connelly Jon Enge Dearborn MI tournament for the Salvation Armys Vista CA Homeless Program. Last year, one California convention donated all of its We don’t have a lot of information on how to We’ve published brown dragons in issue #38, proceeds from RPGA Network tourna- sculpt your own fantasy figures at the moment, grey dragons (not the same as gray dragons) in ments to the American Red Cross.