Dungeon 158.pdf

Contents

4 the shadow rift

of the uMbraforge

By Scott Fitzgerald Gray

A Scales of War Adventure Path

adventure. Following a lead from

“Siege of Bordrin’s Watch,” the

heroes pursue dark creepers who

were selling weapons and armor

to the orcs responsible for trying to attacking Overlook. Their

investigation will take them into the darkness beneath the

ancient city, and beyond. An adventure for 4th-level PCs.

54 sea reavers of the

shrouded Crags

By Logan Bonner

A group of mysterious, sea raiders—

capable of appearing from out of nowhere,

striking, and disappearing—has terrorized

a group of coastal states for some time.

Now the leader of the states has asked the

characters to infiltrate the raiders, find out

how they operate, and put a stop to their

activities. But once the heroes join the

raiders, things aren’t as clear as they were

led to believe. Will they succeed at their

mission? Or join the raiders themselves?

An adventure for 15th-level PCs.

on the Cover

Illustration by Michael Komarck

83 the tariff of

relkinghaM

By Eytan Bernstein

The goddess Erathis has

never seemed the sort to

demand the sacrifice of

mortals in exchange for

safe trade routes, but

that’s exactly what her

high priest has demanded.

When a local ruler asks

the characters to investigate the high priest, a chain of events

is set in motion that could shake the city of Wyllea, and the

church of Erathis, to its core. An adventure for 3rd-level PCs.

3 editorial

104 dungeonCraft

By James Wyatt

108 save My gaMe

By Stephen Radney-MacFarland

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This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use

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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

EdiTOriAl

158

Dungeon

September 2008

Editor-in-Chief

Chris Youngs

This 10x20 room has two exits, at the north and south ends. A long wooden table extends down the middle of the

room, with a half-dozen humanoids seated around it, planning out some sort of mission with detailed maps and

small figurines representing the participants and their potential adversaries.

Senior Art Director

Stacy Longstreet

Web Production

Bart Carroll, Steve Winter

The above describes an encounter set to take place shortly here

in the halls of Wizards of the Coast, specifically Fridays 12 – 2

in the lost Temple meeting room. i’m about to sit behind the dM

screen after an edition-long absence and try my hand running the

Scales of War Adventure Path.

position could expect a campaign whose only players would even-

tually become the younger brothers he forced to sit at the table

(a memory of the worst dM i ever experienced as a player).

Graphic Design

Shauna Wolf Narciso

Contributing Authors

Eytan Bernstein, Logan Bonner,

Third Edition shifted this relationship, in my opinion, into the

players’ hands. The dM still ran the game and mediated the story.

But as far as the rules went, the players had much greater power

in how they built their characters and what they could pull off.

Pun-Pun is an example taken to the extreme, but min-maxing

characters was rampant, often limited only by the players them-

selves. in several campaigns, i witnessed the tension this caused

between experienced players looking to build the most powerful

character they could, and newer players using the character they

were most comfortable with—usually, a simpler, less tricked-out

character.

Scott Fitzgerald Gray,

Stephen Radney-MacFarland,

First, let me disclose—and this should come as little surprise—that

i am a satisfied convert to 4th Edition. i find this edition to be

the most playable i’ve experienced, and i began my love affair

with d&d back in 1982. Of course, back then i was in the second

grade, and playing d&d meant my friends and i sitting around

emulating what we could remember of the older kids’ actual

d&d games, using dice borrowed from the family Monopoly set.

it wasn’t until the great and glorious Christmas of 1983 when my

parents bought me a d&d Basic set that i could actually claim to

be playing a legitimate version of the game.

James Wyatt

Developers

Mike Mearls, Stephen Radney-

MacFarland, Peter Schaefer

Editors

Miranda Horner, Gary Sarli

Cover Artist

Michael Komarck

Contributing Artists

Dave Allsop, Ryan Barger,

don’t get me wrong. i don’t have a problem with min-maxed PCs.

The players were simply using the tools they were given—exactly

what we’d been encouraging them to do. But in a campaign of

mixed-experience players, what’s a dM to do? insist that “stron-

ger” characters handicap themselves Harrison Bergeron-style?

Find a group of players that were all of the same playing experi-

ence? This last option is terrible; we want friends around the

table, and we want d&d to be enjoyable for all of them.

Nicole Cardiff, Randy Gallegos,

in the years since, i’ve been the most intrigued by the job of dM.

in my mind, being a player meant having access to whatever

magic items, spells, and monsters the dM introduced. On the

other hand, being a dM essentially meant having access to all

of the magic items, spells, and monsters—who wouldn’t want

all that fun?

Saejin Oh, Amir Salehi,

Chris Stevens, Francis Tsai

Cartographers

Sean Macdonald, Robert Lee,

Mike Schley

Web Development

Mark A. Jindra

That said, here’s my confession. Throughout 3rd Edition (includ-

ing 3.5), i played the game solely in the player’s seat. Throughout

numerous campaigns, i was content to limit my d&d experience

to just my character.

D&D Creative Manager

Christopher Perkins

These relationships (between the players and dM, and between

players themselves) largely kept me away from the dM screen

throughout 3rd Edition. To me, 4th Edition strikes a tremendous

balance between the players and the dM. in my Adventure Path

campaign, some players will have already experienced 4th Edi-

tion, some with previous editions, and some are relatively new to

the game—and that difference in experience doesn’t worry me in

the least.

Executive Producer,

D&D Insider

Ken Troop

Why? i can boil my thinking down to the following.

Director of RPG R&D

Bill Slavicsek

First Edition, in many ways, placed the power of the game in the

hands of the dM. “Can i do this…?” and “What happens if i…”

were essentially questions posited by the players to be answered

by the dM. Not quite sure how a rule worked? Wondering what

actions your character can perform? in the 1st (and largely 2nd)

Edition campaigns i played, these were all questions that often

needed answers from the dM. That was the relationship. You tell

the dM what you want to do, the dM tells you if you can, you roll

some dice, and the dM provides the result.

in fact, i’m already looking forward to having the ogre bombar-

dier lob that first cask of burning pitch….

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

This is not the worst relationship in the world—and it was one

i found myself comfortable with. That said, it’s a relationship

that depends very much on your dM. Someone who ran a fair

game could expect a long-lived campaign. A dM who abused his

BACK BEHIND THE SCREEN

“We are mercenaries, all

of us, but only a precious

few have honesty enough

to admit it. Whether we

sell ourselves for coin,

for honor, or ideals, we

all have a price whose

continued payment

leads us inevitably to our

end. But when that end

comes, will you admit

to your balance sheet?

Or will you lie when you

claim that the blood on

your hands was spilled

for just cause, not simply

your hunger for glory?”

THE SHADOW RIFT

by Scott Fitzgerald Gray

OF U MBRAFORGE

illustrations by Dave Allsop,

Ryan Barger, Nicole Cardiff, Saejin Oh,

and Chris Stevens

cartography by Mike Schley

September 2008 | Dungeon 158

THE SHADOW RIFT OF UMBRAFORGE

WHAT’S AN

ADVENTURE PATH?

Scales of War is the fourth Adventure Path to appear

in the pages of Dungeon Magazine . But what, you ask,

is an Adventure Path? Quite simply, it is a series of

related adventures intended to form a complete D&D

campaign that takes your players from 1st level all the

way to, in the case of Scales of War, 30th level.

Previous Adventure Paths, presented with the

third edition D&D rules, took characters from 1st to

20th level. But with all three tiers in the new edition

ripe and ready to explore, we’re pushing the limit with

Scales of War. Each tier takes roughly six adventures

to traverse, which means we’ll finish off this Adven-

ture Path in about eighteen issues. Each adventure

advances characters from between one and a half

to two levels of experience. We recognize that not

everyone will meet every encounter or complete

every quest, however, so periodically, we’ll point you

DMs to a supplemental Side Trek or short adventure

to keep your PCs on pace. Plus, roughly every other

month, Dragon will feature new support content for

Scales of War.

Finally, this Adventure Path is intended to function

as a complete D&D campaign. That means we’ll be

making some assumptions about the history of the

world as we move along, just as you would in any

campaign you run. We’ll be borrowing heavily from

the D&D mythology of 4th Edition, as well as all the

great ideas that have cropped up in other products

over the years—including the pages of past issues of

Dungeon !

Enjoy your stay in Scales of War, and keep an eye

out for next month’s installment.

“The Shadow Rift of Umbraforge” is an adventure for

five 4th-level characters who are approximately half-

way to 5th level. Characters should be 6th level by the

adventure’s end. This adventure is a sequel to “Siege

of Bordrin’s Watch” and the third part of the Scales of

War Adventure Path. However, with a little modifica-

tion, it can be played as a standalone adventure or

integrated into an existing campaign.

civilized frontier and a stone’s throw from Sarshan’s

operations in the city of Overlook, was one of these.

When Sarshan rebuffed Myrissa’s request, Modra

approached the witch in secret. He struck a deal to

supply Tusk with weapons and intelligence, sending

in a group of his followers (the dark creepers in “Siege

of Bordrin’s Watch,” including Iranda) to do the job.

In going behind Sarshan’s back, Modra expected that

an overwhelming orc victory (won with the help of

dark one subterfuge) would win his master’s respect.

However, with Tusk’s forces routed and Modra’s ser-

vants scattered or killed, the dark creeper has had to

go to ground to escape Sarshan’s wrath. The brass key

that Iranda carried in “Siege of Bordrin’s Watch” sets

Modra on the PCs’ trail—and leads them into the next

stage of the adventure path.

BACKGROUND

In “Siege of Bordrin’s Watch,” the PCs discovered that

dark creepers had sold arms and tactical intelligence

to the orc war chief Tusk, aiding him in his attack

against the folk of the Stonehome Mountains. In

this adventure, the PCs investigate the link between

the orcs and the dark ones, stumbling into an arms-

running operation bridging two planes, and finally

confronting the charismatic figure behind it.

Sarshan is an opportunistic shadar-kai arms

dealer. For years, he has built an invisible mercantile

empire around the sale and brokering of weapons,

armor, mercenaries, and intelligence from his domain

in the Shadowfell. Though Sarshan plays a significant

part in this adventure, the PCs’ initial focus is on one

of his lieutenants—a dark creeper shadowborn stalker

named Modra.

Before the “Siege of Bordrin’s Watch,” Modra was

approached by Tusk’s advisor Myrissa, a shadar-kai

witch who knew of Sarshan’s operations. However,

the success of Sarshan’s arms running and mercenary

services turns on his ability to maintain a low profile

in his dealings with clients in the world. Sometimes

this means turning down jobs that run too much risk of

exposure. Tusk’s massive raid, aimed at the heart of the

ADVENTURE SYNOPSIS

Back in Overlook after the events of “Siege of Bor-

drin’s Watch,” the PCs find themselves targeted

by a group of street toughs seeking the mysterious

brass key they obtained at the end of that previous

adventure. Through their would-be assailants, the

PCs obtain the name of the one who ordered the

assault—”Modra.”

By way of a skill challenge that takes them into the

darkest corners of the city, the PCs learn that Modra

is a dark creeper with connections to an arms-run-

ning operation and a poorhouse known as the Happy

Beggar. In a network of secret caverns beneath the

Beggar, the PCs discover that the weapons-running

operation extends from the Shadowfell to Overlook by

way of a pair of ancient magic portals. When the dark

creeper f lees to the Shadowfell, the PCs give chase.

September 2008 | Dungeon 158

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