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ISSUE 428 | OCTOBER 2013

A Dungeons & D ragons

Roleplay ing Ga me Supplement

CONTENTS

SCARY STUFF

By Steve Winter

Getting scared is a kick, even when it’s all

for pretend.

CHA NNEL DIVINIT Y:

A MON THE WOLF

By Tim Eagon

Amon the Wolf terrorizes Avernus and other

planes in his quest for vengeance against the

enemies of his lord, Levistus.

BACKDROP: WESTGATE

By Erik Scott de Bie

The city of Westgate is brimming with

opportunity—for those who can handle

the risk.

BA ZA AR OF THE BIZARRE:

TREASURES FROM

THE FAR REALM

By Eytan Bernstein

A magic item crafted in the Far Realm may

be useful in mortal hands, but never let one

fool you into thinking it’s your friend.

COURT OF STARS:

THE WILD HUNT

By Aaron Infante-Levy

The Horned Lord was adopted into the

Green Court, but he was destined to fall

from favor.

RUMOR HAS IT

By Skip Williams

You’ll never be at a loss for local events and

rumors if you keep this list nearby.

FRIGHT NIGHT

By Steve Winter

So what if heroic characters have icewater

in their veins? Your goal is to spook

players.

THE SPEAKING SKULL OF

THEMTR AVER HALL

By Ed Greenwood

In the gloomy, rotten-floored Themtraver

Hall dwells the Speaking Skull.

ON THE COVER:

Eric Belisle offers a scene of East meeting West in the city of Westgate, where the two don’t always get along.

EDITOR I A L

428

D R AG O N

O c t o b e r 2 013

Senior Producer

Producers

Managing Editor

Development and Editing Lead

Developer

Senior Creative Director

Art Director

Publishing Production Specialist

Digital Studio Consultant

Contributing Authors

Christopher Perkins

Greg Bilsland, Steve Winter

Miranda Horner

Jeremy Crawford

Chris Sims

Jon Schindehette

Kate Irwin

Jessica Dubey

Josh Dillard

Eytan Bernstein, Erik Scott de

Bie, Tim Eagon, Ed Greenwood,

Aaron Infante-Levy, Skip

Williams, Steve Winter

Michele Carter, Michael G. Ryan,

Ray Vallese, Penny Williams

Eric Belisle, Wayne England,

Jim Nelson, Vincent Proce, Beth

Trott, Kieran Yanner

Scary Stuff

By Steve Winter

We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.

—Stephen King

This month’s theme is, unsurprisingly, scary stuff.

That puts us in line with hundreds of other October

magazines doing Halloween-themed issues. Here you

won’t find recipes for pumpkin cookies, instructions

for carving an award-winning jack-o-lantern, patterns

for sewing your own Dracula cape, or a list of the top

25 horror movies suitable for family viewing.

At first glance, D&D appears as if it should be a

good fit with horror. Just look at what you start with.

Bloodthirsty monsters: check. Walking dead: check.

Insane, otherworldly villains: check. Remote, creepy

locations: check. Mind-bending events: check.

But D&D is hampered by one ingredient that

works against horror: heroism. While it’s OK for

heroes to get scared like everyone else, their schtick is

that they keep on fighting the good fight and endur-

ing through hardship and horror until victory is

won. As the heroes of our tabletop adventures, our

sights are set on those victories. It’s hard to establish

a frightening mood when everyone believes in their

heart that it will all turn out well in the end.

Horror is always a hybrid, a dark lens through

which any genre X can be viewed to get X/horror:

mystery/horror, science fiction/horror, fantasy/

horror, romance/horror, western/horror, historical/

horror. Oddly, sports/horror seems to be underrep-

resented (not counting titles like “Cheerleader Camp

Massacre”). I’d pay to see “The Unnatural” or “The

Longest Graveyard.” Maybe a bigger sports fan than I

can name more titles.

What sets horror tales apart from nonhorror in

the same settings are the villains. They aren’t always

ghosts or werewolves, but they should surprise us and

challenge our notion of what’s “natural.” Cujo is just

a normal dog until he’s supercharged by rabies. Then

he moves beyond our everyday experience of the

family pet and takes on aspects of the supernatural.

D&D throws an endless chain of surprising con-

tent at players. You have your garden variety cave

bears and dire wolves, your insects as big as wagons

and birds as big as ships, your dragons that breathe

fire and wizards that throw magic fire—and we

accept all of that as our characters’ day-to-day nor-

mality until we’re no longer surprised by anything.

That’s why volumes of new monsters are always

popular sellers. DMs are ever on the hunt for the foe

that can make players sit up and go “whaaaat’s that?”

The new and surprising doesn’t need to be hor-

rific, of course. Fairy tales are filled with whimsical,

comical creatures that could never exist in a rational

universe, yet they don’t frighten us. Our brains are

reasonably well wired for distinguishing real threats

from the pretend kind.

And that, I think, is why so many of us enjoy a

scary story. While our adrenal glands and stomachs

are screaming “this is frightening,” our subconscious

minds are quietly reminding the rest of the body,

“relax, it’s OK, it’s just a story, we’re fine,” and calmly

setting out neurological milk and cookies to make us

feel better when it’s all over.

It’s good to have a brain like that. It’s also good to

have friends who’ll help you take those occasional

jumps into fear and emerge safe and sound a few

hours later with your limbs and sanity intact.

Contributing Editors

Contributing Artists

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.

Backdrop:

By Erik Scott de Bie

Westgate

Illustration by Eric Belisle

“Coin can buy almost anything in Westgate, and what coin

can’t afford, blood certainly can.”

—Ilira “Fox-at-Twilight” Nathalan,

The Year of the Awakened Sleepers, 1484 DR

Known as the Gateway to the West, this seedy port

metropolis was born in piracy and greed, built on the

backs of slaves, and sealed with blood. Westgate is the

most powerful city on the Inner Sea, and it thrives on

trade and skullduggery.

Westgate is a city of dangerous opportunity.

Anyone can make it big with enough gold, regardless

of how it was obtained. The gold of half-orcs, drow,

known criminals, and vicious warlords spends just as

well as that of anyone else, and one’s history poses no

impediment to advancement. The two main hurdles

folk face in the city are their own scruples and the

host of others who have none. Fall, and a dozen rivals

will scramble over you—and probably kick and stab

you on the way.

A C

ity

eCretS

Westgate arose from the jagged Dragon Coast on the

south edge of the Sea of Fallen Stars many centuries

ago under the cruel eye of a powerful dragon. Saldri-

nar of the Seven Spells overthrew the monster and

named himself king some 1,700 years ago. Ruled

since by a succession of tyrants, pirate kings, and

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D R AG O N 4 2 8

Westgate

even monsters like vampires and lamias, the city ulti-

mately did away with its monarchy over two hundred

years ago. Since then, the council of ruling lords has

ruled the independent port city, free of foreign influ-

ence, where coin is king.

Despite the lawlessness, theft, murder, and other

crimes are just as illegal in Westgate as they would

be anywhere else. Unless an offense is committed

against a merchant lord, criminals can usually get off

with a fine: the more of the “fine” that is paid directly

to the arresting officers and the judge, the lower

the official fine will be. Rich merchants have been

known to use the city watch against business rivals

and other annoyances such as pesky adventurers who

nose around where they’re not wanted.

The leadership of the city watch and the seat as

chief judge are combined into a single powerful office

called the Just Captain. Currently that title is held by

Torpin Urdo, the third son of his house (and he is glad

to be far removed from the line of succession, with its

inherent dangers). Torpin is a rarity in Westage; he is

a (mostly) honest man, which chiefly means he costs

more to bribe than most other officials.

Westgate has no standing army out of fear that it

might endanger commercial liberties. The council

prefers instead to hire mercenaries or pirates in times

of war. Several thousand mercenaries live in the city

year-round, always hungry for jobs to tide them over

until the next armed conflict.

A C

ity of

CoundrelS

Power in Westgate shifts daily or even hourly

between grasping merchants and vile cults. Here,

greed is good, and ruthlessness is even better. Every-

one who holds a position of power in Westgate is

connected, directly or indirectly, to the city’s criminal

enterprises. Given the level of corruption in Westgate,

no one without such connections could ever rise to

prominence. The corruption rises up from the bottom

and sinks down from the top to meet in the middle

and infect every level of society.

Daily Life in Westgate

Merchants of Westgate can and do make underhanded

deals and take as much advantage of their clients and

supposed partners as possible. It is considered a mark

of pride to get away with a good deal, especially if the

other party loses more than they gain. Unscrupulous

business practices are barely illegal, and suspicious

watchmen can always be bribed or done away with.

Second to gold, violence is the city’s other cur-

rency. Bodies wash up out of the bay or are dumped

in the street every morning, and some of the streets

have acquired a perpetual red stain from spilled

blood. Wealth matters only as much as the strength

one can employ to gain it and keep it.

The Ruling Council

Power in Westgate ostensibly rests in the hands of an

appointed council of the most powerful merchants

in the city, themselves chosen by a Croamarkh (first

lord) elected by the people every four years. As one

might imagine, elections are not particularly free and

balanced, so the word of the merchant lords is key in

anointing a Croamarkh.

The Croamarkh is the speaker for the council,

the de facto general of any mercenary army hired by

the lords, and the final arbiter of political and legal

decisions. He or she can be overruled by the council,

though this rarely happens: the Croamarkh, like the

other merchant lords, acts primarily to enrich the

council. Some Croamarkhs have been lords of the

people, well loved and respected by the populace,

while others (such as the current Lord Jaundamicar

Bleth) rule through fear and violence.

The council has proven a surprisingly stable

body of government, despite occasional tumults.

After the Dhostar debacle over a century ago, when

a croamarkh’s son tried to take over Westgate, the

weakened council craved new leadership and offered

seats at the ruling table to the recently arrived Bleth

and Cormaeril families, both of which were exiled

Law and Order

Westgate is a free city, stubborn in its resistance to

foreign interests, but the Ruling Council keeps a tight

hold on its people.

For decades, Westgate was effectively run and

policed by the notorious Night Masks gang. Eventually

the Masks’ power was broken by an alliance of mer-

chants, adventurers, and rival gangs that scooped up the

fragments of power scattered by the Night Masks’ fall.

Westgate now employs a city watch about 2,000

strong. Its primary duties are suppressing uprisings

and stopping riots. Troopers of the watch are outfitted

with leather armor, blades, and nets to capture trouble-

makers. As with most things in Westgate, the amount

of trouble someone can expect from the city watch

depends more on the weight of their purse than on their

adherence to the law. Most watch officers and munici-

pal officials are corrupt to one degree or another.

USING WESTGATE

Westgate lends itself to dark, morally ambiguous

fantasy stories like those of Fafhrd and the Gray

Mouser or

Thieves’ World.

You can draw inspi-

ration from films like

The Godfather

and from

television shows like

The Sopranos

and

The Shield.

Though Westgate exists officially in the

Forgotten Realms, the city fits any fantasy set-

ting that highlights urban intrigue and moral

ambiguity.

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