Dragon #417 (4e).pdf

Issue 417 | NOVeMBeR 2012

A Dungeons & Dragons ® Roleplaying Game Supplement

ContentS

16 fAllen A ngels

By Steve Townshend

The succubus—a fiendish temptress that

can turn the most faithful paladin into a

slavering creature consumed by lust, all for

the price of a soul.

Agents Of ChAnge

By Stan!

We’ve got a change in format, a chance

for you to get published in future issues of

Dragon , and demons and devils everywhere.

Sounds like change is in the wind.

24 the sWOrd Of spells

By Ed Greenwood

Wizards live in fear of a sentient sword that

f lies across the Realms unbidden, slaying

spellcasters to slake its thirst for magic.

the BlOOd WAr

By Sterling Hershey

The fiendish war between the baatezu

and the tanar’ri has raged since time

immemorial. How did it begin, and will it

ever end?

28 MirOn’s teArs

By Keith Baker

For centuries, Miron’s Tears has fought a

secret war against the fiendish forces that

strive to infiltrate and corrupt the Church

of the Silver Flame. Do you have what it

takes to join this devoted order?

MAgiC diCe

By Alana Joli Abbott

I guess you could say we’re on a roll.

11 the shAdOW thAt WAs

By Derek Guder

Orcus died, and then he came back—a

fitting tale for the Demon Prince of

Undeath.

31 YsrillA lightstep

By Rodney Thompson

Ysrilla Lightstep stalks the desert wastes

of Athas in search of elusive prey, defying

death to claim her prize.

On the COver: A balor and a pit fiend go toe-to-cloven-hoof as Mark Winters envisions a fiendish battle of the Blood War.

EDITORIAL

Agents of Change

By Stan!

417

Dr agon

November 2012

Senior Producer

Christopher Perkins

Producers

Greg Bilsland, stan!

submission guidelines and send us your best propos-

als. Help us make the magazines better by writing the

articles you’d like to see in these pages.

In the meantime, we’ve got a whole month’s worth

of articles right here in this PDF. Speaking of agents

of change, our theme for November is Demons and

Devils—creatures that want to change the world (and

not for the better). You’ll find two History Check

articles, one expounding on the Blood War (the epic

battle between the Abyss and the Nine Hells), and

another revealing the mysteries of the demon lord

Tenebrous. There’s also an in-depth look at the suc-

cubus, complete with a succubus companion just to

tempt you further. If demons and devils aren’t your

thing, no worries—this month’s Bazaar of the Bizarre

presents a collection of magic dice, in case your char-

acter wants to roll up a character of his or her own.

So even with all the changes happening, our

monthly lineup of interesting and useful items for

your D&D game remains one thing you can count on.

Managing Editors

Kim Mohan, Miranda Horner

As you noticed last month (and as Chris Perkins

discussed in October’s Dungeon editorial), we’ve

made a change in the way the magazines are being

presented. Rather than having Dragon and Dungeon

articles appear individually on the D&D ® website,

we’re experimenting with presenting them as a pair

of compiled, single-PDF issues.

On the one hand, this harkens back to the good

old days when you could buy Dragon and Dungeon

magazines on the newsstand (back when there were

such things as newsstands). On the other hand, you

might have gotten used to consuming the columns,

adventures, and supplemental material in bite-sized

nuggets. Either way, things have changed.

Change can be scary—and I don’t just mean the big

things. Even little changes, like driving a new route to

work or trying a new breakfast cereal, can cause some

anxiety. (Breakfast is the most important meal of the

day, you know.) We like things to stay the way they

are, and even when we aren’t completely satisfied, we

at least are comforted by the familiarity and the pre-

dictability. Change means uncertainty, and nothing is

scarier than the unknown.

But change is also good. It’s what allows us to

make improvements. And even if a particular change

turns out to be less helpful than we hoped, we can

always make a new change to get things back on

course. This is as true for publishing a magazine as

it is for designing a game. You are taking part in the

D&D Next playtest , aren’t you? It’s your chance to be

an agent of change for the game we all love.

If you want to be an agent of change for the maga-

zines themselves, that opportunity is available, too.

We’re currently in the middle of an open submis-

sion window for Dragon and Dungeon article pitches.

It will remain open until November 30, so read the

Development and Editing Lead

Jeremy Crawford

Developer

Tanis O’Connor

Senior Creative Director

Jon schindehette

Art Director

Kate Irwin

Publishing Production Manager

Angie Lokotz

Digital Studio Consultant

Daniel Helmick

Contributing Authors

Alana Joli Abbott, Keith Baker,

ed Greenwood, Derek Guder,

sterling Hershey, Rodney

Thompson, steve Townshend

Contributing Editors

Michele Carter, Ray Vallese

Contributing Artists

Noah Bradley, sam Carr, Hector

Ortiz, Peter Tikos, Mark Winters

Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast, D&D Insider, their

respective logos, D&D, Dungeon , and Dragon are trademarks of

Wizards of the Coast LLC.

This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States

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. This product is a work of

fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events

is purely coincidental.

History Check:

The Blood War

By Sterling Hershey

Illustration by Mark Winters

This is the latest installment in the continuing series

exploring the history of the Dungeons & Dragons ®

setting. Each History Check article provides new

insight into the game’s iconic events, organizations,

and characters. Sidebars included in the text note

the history or related information a character might

know about the subject, based on a successful skill

check.

This time things take a darker turn with a look

at the Blood War, the endless struggle between the

fiendish forces of evil. These articles attempt to clarify

confusing bits of D&D history, but the history of the

Blood War is anything but clear and concise.

fighting the fiends, or worse, working for them. I trust

it is the former.

“How do I know so much about the Blood War? I

tumbled to the dark of it long ago, as they used to say

in a place far from here. To me, you’re merely another

clueless berk. Don’t be offended; most everyone is.

“I am not, as you might have guessed, from around

here. I have traveled farther than the Zarovans. They

have been generous enough to let me join their clan

and use their name. The arrangement suits us both. I

the zARovAnS

The narrator of this History Check is a member

of the Zarovan tribe of the Vistani. These myste-

rious gypsylike groups travel the Shadowfell and

untold other worlds and lands. During their trav-

els they have learned much, though how many of

their tales are true is left to the listener to decide.

This article introduces Rovvo Zarovan, an older,

wiser, and understandably cautious sage (who is

not actually a Zarovan by birth).

More information about the Vistani can be

found in Player’s Option: Heroes of Shadow ™ , the

boxed set The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and

Beyond ™ , and the Vistani articles in Dragon 380.

T he e Ternal

S Truggle

“Please, come in. Have a seat at my table. Do not

touch the runes. They will give us some measure

of protection from prying and scrying eyes. No, no,

merely a precautionary measure.

“I apologize for meeting you in the confines of my

humble wagon, but the subject of our discussion is not

one for the ears of the meek or innocent. Please close

the door and pull the curtains.

“Now, you ask about the Blood War. My advice?

Stay away from it. Run away from it. Not possible?

Then you must already be involved. You’re already

November 2012 | DR AGON 417

The Blood War

like to stay on the move, and they find good uses for

my sage advice. For a fee, of course. The not-inconsid-

erable price you paid for my attention compels me to

reveal only the truth. As I know it, of course.

“The Blood War is a seemingly eternal struggle

between the devils and the demons. Some call them

baatezu and tanar’ri, some call them by other names.

It makes no difference to the fiends, unless you call

them by the wrong names. Most would kill you for

the petty insult. Then again, most would simply kill

you with no rationale whatsoever. These beings thrive

on hatred, slaughter, and the quest for power.

“Their numbers are uncountable. Their types

probably are too, but if you encounter them often

enough, you’ll start to recognize some of the more

common varieties. Recognition is useful for adven-

turers such as yourselves, as long as you don’t begin

to imagine that such information gives you signifi-

cant advantages. Foolish warlocks or wizards who’ve

learned the name of a demon or two might think they

can entrap fiends or make deals with them, but ulti-

mately they are mistaken. If they’re lucky, they simply

become pawns in a greater game and might even

escape with their lives.

“I digress. Such minor pacts with mortals seldom

inf luence a war that is fought on the infernal planes

of existence. They have battle lines numbering in

the tens of thousands, sometimes millions, on their

chosen battlefields, so any demonic battle or devilish

manipulation here in the world is rarely more than a

minor skirmish. Probably not even worth a footnote

in the history of the war, were any creature keeping

track.

“The given reasons for the Blood War are varied

and conf licting. No mortal really knows the whole

story, and it’s unclear if any of the gods do either.

Some say the Blood War is an inevitable conse-

quence of their fiendish natures—the regimented

devils versus the wildly chaotic demons, each vying

for supremacy over the other. There might be a bit

of truth to that notion. The devils rise from the Nine

Hells, the domain of Baator in the Astral Sea. The

demons swarm from the Abyss, way down at the

bottom of the Elemental Chaos.

“That’s how I’ve heard the chant lately. Other sages

tell a different story and spin a far different concept of

planar relationships—more like a great wheel. From a

mortal perspective, it’s irrelevant: Regardless of clas-

sification, the fiends come from places vastly different

in location, nature, philosophy, environment, and

organization.

“Some say the nature of these beings is only part

of the story. They say that one event really ignited

the war, spawning epic battles the scale of which the

planes had never seen before. Your coin’s bought you

the tale as I’ve heard it.

“It goes something like this: The strongest of the

devils, the fallen angel Asmodeus, entered the Abyss

and stole a shard from the evil seed embedded in the

plane’s heart. He fashioned it into a ruby-tipped spear

and killed his divine master. Now the demons—all

the demons—want the shard back and will never stop

until it is returned, restoring the power and pride

stolen from them.

“Rumors claim that Asmodeus wants to acquire

and use the rest of the evil abyssal seed to gain domi-

nance over all of the fiends, and to overthrow the

other gods. Naturally, the forces of the Abyss oppose

this plan. Demons don’t need a reason to hate, but

their enmity toward Asmodeus and the devils drives

them to greater and greater atrocities.

“A glimpse of one of their battlefields, even the

remains of one centuries old, tells the tale. Little can

compare to that frightful scene of extreme violence

and tortured ground. The battlefields stretch for

miles on the plains of Avernus and across the layers of

the Abyss.”

hiStoRy CheCk

A character knows of the existence of the Blood

War with a DC 20 Arcana check, History check,

or Religion check. A DC 25 check for these skills

reveals that the devils and demons fight over

ideology and dominance. A DC 40 check reveals

the story of Asmodeus and everything above.

O rigin Of The W ar

“This legend of Asmodeus and the spear sounds

dire enough to spark an eternal war. But let me tell

you another tale of the war, a myth that suggests the

conf lict goes well beyond Asmodeus and his theft.

Have you ever heard of the yugoloths? Baernoloths?

Of course not. These creatures are lost to legend, if

they existed at all. Yet the sages who talk of the great

wheel say that the yugoloths were early incarnations

of evil that were responsible for the first creation of

the devils and demons.

“They say that back when the primal forces of the

universe struggled for dominance between good and

evil and law and chaos, they battled each other to

a stalemate. In an effort to change the game, those

forces created minions and followers to act as agents

for their causes.

“One side created the baernoloths, creatures of

immense wisdom, yet cunning and evil. After eons of

study, the baernoloths created the yugoloths as a force

to conquer creation for their masters. Or it might be

the other way around: Some say baernoloths are com-

plete fabrications of the yugoloths, a myth devised to

prove their divine lineage.

“The yugoloths pursued perfection and believed

they were the only race capable of reaching that goal.

Alas, they perceived their ambition thwarted by the

November 2012 | DR AGON 417

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