Dungeon Magazine #160.pdf

CONTENTS

4 BEYOND THE

TROLLHAUNT

By Logan Bonner

If you’re looking for more

from King of the Trollhaunt

War re n s , check out these extra

encounters. Alternatively, use

any of them to spice up any

adventure of a similar level,

or use them as presented as a

self-contained Side Trek. A Side Trek for 11th-level PCs.

55 THE SAND KING’S DAUGHTER

ON THE COVER

Illustration by William O’Connor

14 DEN OF THE

DESTROYER

By Rodney Thompson

A Scales of War Adventure Path

adventure. The PCs are the heroes

of Overlook, but before they can

really enjoy the fruits of their labors,

they receive a strange summons from

Brindol. This summons will send them

on an adventure that will dramatically

shape the coming conf lict in Elsir Vale . . .

and possibly have even more significant

repercussions in the near future.

An adventure for 7th-level PCs.

By Ari Marmell

3 EDITORIAL

The brown dragon Urum-Shar lurks in a strange

tomb, plotting schemes only a wyrm of incredible

power could understand. Expanding on content

98 DUNGEONCRAFT

By James Wyatt

from Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons , this

adventure takes the heroes into Urum-Shar’s dark

and trap-filled lair, where they will eventually face

101 SAVE MY GAME

By Stephen Radney-MacFarland

the powerful dragon herself. An adventure for

25th-level PCs.

91 SUMMER’S END

By Bill Slavicsek

Get a first glimpse at the Dungeon Delve

supplement, releasing in February, 2009, with

this delve-style adventure. A delve

for 18th-level PCs.

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CO N T E N T S

Push ‘em Real Good

EDITORIAL

160

DUNGEON

November 2008

Editor-in-Chief

Chris Youngs

When it comes to the pace of a game, DMs like to think they’re in control. After all, a DM can

change the course of a session at any time with but a word. But in reality, when it comes to the hour

to hour f low of the game, the PCs often set the pace.

Senior Art Director

Stacy Longstreet

Web Specialist

Chris Sims

Web Production

Bart Carroll, Steve Winter

How do players take this power out of the DM’s hands?

By resting. Sure, 4th Edition is better about this than

previous editions. As a rule, you don’t have wizards

or clerics telling the group to rest after a single fight

anymore. Most balanced groups can make it through

five or six fights before they need to rest, often more if

they’re particularly skilled—or they get hot hands with

their dice.

That’s right, don’t let ‘em rest. Have a breathless NPC

show up and ask for their immediate help. Start a skill

challenge. Or just send in a fresh wave of bad guys.

Contributing Authors

Logan Bonner, Ari Marmell,

Stephen Radney-MacFarland,

Rodney Thompson, James Wyatt

Chris Perkins is a master of the push. In fact, he’s used

it dozens of times in his campaigns, often when the

PCs felt genuinely deserving of rest. I can remember

the party wizard telling the group he’s down to 1st- and

2nd-level spells, plus maybe a couple of wands, and

Chris dropping us into a big fight. And then another

one. And then another. We found creative ways to

contribute, even if we were out of spells. We scoured

the Player’s Handbook for tactics (Aid Another!) and our

character sheets for something—anything—that could

help (“What if I take this sunrod and…”). And we rose

to the challenge, every time. And those were some

of the best, most memorable fights of all, precisely

because we weren’t at our best.

Developers

Mike Mearls, Stephen Radney-

MacFarland, Peter Schaefer

Editors

Scott Fitzgerald Gray,

But 4th Edition still has some nonrenewable resources,

most importantly daily powers and healing surges.

Still, I’ve yet to really see dailies prevent a group from

pressing on. No, what seems to stop most groups is

when one or more characters run out of surges. I saw

this happening last week in my game, and as the group

started to debate whether to stop and rest or push on

(they’re on a bit of a time crunch, or I don’t think it

would have even been a debate), it got me thinking.

Miranda Horner, Gary Sarli

Cover Artist

William O’Connor

Contributing Artists

Rob Alexander, Jason A. Engle,

William O’Connor, Sam Wood

Cartographers

Kyle Hunter, Sean Macdonald,

Mike Schley

Publishing Production Specialists Angelika Lokotz, Erin Dorries,

Christopher Tardiff

Web Development

Mark A. Jindra

Man, it’s fun when you can push a group of PCs past

their comfort limits. I think that in many groups, the

first PC who drops to a couple surges calls “Uncle!” and

sends the rest of the party out of the dungeon. If you’re

a DM, this can be frustrating. Maybe the very next

encounter is the last one in a long adventure, and it’s

going to be anticlimactic if you have to stop and wait

while all your players refresh their character sheets

after taking an extended rest. Or maybe, as in my case,

there’s supposed to be a time crunch, and the PCs are

supposed to feel some pressure to continue.

So last week, when my group debated on whether to

rest after two characters spent their last healing surges

(and one of them at less than full hit points), I decided

to push. The NPC accompanying them, himself almost

bloodied, told them they needed to continue. That the

safety of the region depended on it. And with that, they

kicked in the next door, to be continued this week.

D&D Creative Manager

Christopher Perkins

Executive Producer,

D&D Insider

Ken Troop

Director of RPG R&D

Bill Slavicsek

I can’t wait to see what happens.

Special Thanks

Richard Baker, Greg Bilsland, Logan Bonner, Michele Carter,

Jennifer Clarke Wilkes, Andy Collins, Bruce R. Cordell, Jeremy

Crawford, Rob Heinsoo, Peter Lee, Julia Martin, Mike Mearls,

Kim Mohan, David Noonan, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Peter

Schaefer, Stephen Schubert, Chris Sims, Rodney Thompson,

Rob Watkins, James Wyatt

When the group suddenly stops because the wizard

wants his spent sleep power back, all I want to say is,

“Gah! Are you adventurers, or chumps?!” If this has

happened to you, then I have one word for you:

Push.

A K ING OF THE T ROLLHAUNT W ARRENS

K ING OF THE T ROLLHAUNT W ARRENS SIDE TREK

SIDE TREK

by Logan Bonner

Beyond

ver the course of King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, plenty of places can

lead to more adventure. You can use these encounters if your PCs are

Trollhaunt

a little behind on experience or if they’ve found an area they’d like to

explore. The first two encounters can be dropped into other adventures easily.

The third one works well if the PCs are having an easy time during the raid on

illustrations by Sam Wood

✦

cartography by Kyle Hunter

Moonstair and need a little more pressure to feel challenged.

November 2008 | DUNGEON 160

the

Tr o l l h a u n t

Beyond the Trollhaunt

ADVENTURE

BACKGROUND

The background for these encounters is in P1: King of

the Trollhaunt Warrens . All these encounters occur in

places onto which the DM was meant to build.

ADVENTURE SYNOPSIS

This Side Trek consists of four encounters.

✦

The first encounter has the PCs face drow and

bladerager troll enforcers who have abducted

eladrin from Celduilon. This encounter takes place

in one of the many troll ruins within the Trollhaunt.

It includes ties to adventure P2: Demon Queen’s

Enclave .

✦

The second encounter is set in one of the pas-

sageways that branches off from the map of the

Trollhaunt Warrens. In a steamy cavern that opens

up around the water-filled passageway, galeb duhr

and redspawn firebelchers dwell. Even trolls refuse

to enter this secluded cavern.

✦

Amid the chaos of the raid on Moonstair, trolls

wreck a sailing ship into the town. In the third

encounter, they begin their rampage, using the

wreckage as a weapon.

✦

The last encounter can take place after the

adventure, inside the abandoned fomorian fortress

of Mross-Kagg. A band of traitorous drow and

their duped cyclops companions set up a shrine

to Orcus in the ruined fomorian fortress. This

encounter can serve as an adventure hook for

Demon Queen’s Enclave .

It's dark inside. . . . You hear the sound of deep

breathing, like a large beast might make . . .

November 2008 | DUNGEON 160

Beyond the Trollhaunt

Beyond the Tr o l l h aunt

ADVENTURE

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