An alcove in the ruins of Nimrod Fortress, a mediaeval fortress in the middle east built in 1229. The bottom of this room is flooded with water.

Photograph courtesy of Uri Kurlianchik.

We might not have published articles every day in March, but the days we hit were chalked full of great 4e D&D content. If you missed any of our articles over the past month then this is your chance to get caught up.

It finally happened; our Iron Man streak ended in March. For the first time since we launched Dungeon’s Master we took a few days off during the March break (see March Broken). However, even with a few days off our numbers continued to climb.

Strong articles that covered topics like how to keep players involved in the game when dice go cold, including a blind player at your table, methods for dividing treasure, a humorous look at what your weapons says about your character, and new pre-gens for D&D Encounters all contributed to another great month at Dungeon’s Master.

We want to thank everyone who visited our site over the past month and encourage you to continue reading. We invite you to comment on articles that you like, hate, or have questions about. And if there’s something you want us to write about send us an email or comment below and we’ll see what we can do to accommodate.

Highlights

DM Resources

• 8 Ways to Get Out of a Gaming Slump and Make Your Game More Exciting - Reignite the spark in your D&D game by following these 8 pointers; you’ll be glad you did.
• Ameron Answers 20 Quick Rules Questions - We joined numerous other gaming bloggers who wanted to document their take on a list rules that often change from campaign to campaign.
• How a Blind Player Improved Our Game - DMs should be descriptive enough that a blind player can follow the adventure without special assistance.
• The Oil of D&D – Residuum as a Natural Resource - Conflict for natural resources is commonplace in real life, but would it work in a fantasy campaign setting where magic itself was the resource being fought over?
• Tips For Making Encounters More Interesting - Every encounter should be different and exciting, and we share a few tips for DMs who might need some help in that department. You players will thank you.
• Understanding Initiative and Surprise in D&D - After seeing it done wrong too many time, Buxtehude shares his insight and personal methods for handling surprise the right way.

Player Resources

• Dividing Treasure - We share various methods for dividing treasure and minimizing conflict over who gets what loot.
• How To Solve the Cold Dice Problem - When the dice gods forsake players there are still plenty of ways for the player to be useful and productive.
• What Your Weapon Says About Your Character - If the clothes make the man think about what his weapon say about him.

D&D Encounters

We began D&D Encounters season 8, The Elder Elemental Eye in March. The PCs are hired to investigate an outbreak of the Abyssal Plague in Easting. Once there they discover that the plague was intentionally spread by cultists. By the end of week 5 they’d discovered the cultists’ hidden shrine and began a dangerous dungeon crawl to discover the source of the Abyssal Plague and possibly a cure.

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 1)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 2)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 3)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 4)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 5)
• D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye – Pre-Generated Characters

Eberron

The Eberron tab at the top of the page provides easy access to all of our Eberron resources.

• Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 14) - Our newest guest author, Alton from the blog 20ft Radius, contributes to our ongoing series revealing the Secrets of Eberron.

A Look Ahead

After taking a few days off in March I realized that the world won’t come to an end if we don’t produce new content every single day. That being said, in April we’ll likely drop down to four posts a week, rather than the usual five. If the creative juices are really flowing we might manage to squeeze in five articles some weeks, but our new benchmark will be four new 4e D&D articles every week.

In April we’re planning articles on using social skills, subterranean adventuring, wild west adventuring in D&D, field reports of the latest Lair Assault, some recommended reading, new adventure hooks and of course weekly field reports from D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye. We may even manage to sneak in a funny article or two to mark April Fool’s Day. April should be a great month so be sure to visit every day.

Looking for instant updates? Subscribe to the Dungeon’s Master feed!

After defeating the elemental guardians last week, the party descended the staircase where they disarmed the trap and opened the door to the Sunset Shrine. Before them was a long, downward sloping corridor. On either side of the hallway were statues. The statues nearest the door looked somewhat humanoid, but as the party proceeded downward they noticed the statues became more aberrant.

As the party continued down the hallway they could see light flickering and smell smoke from burning fire in the room ahead. When the slopped passage finally leveled out the PCs stood before a vast room. In the centre were two huge rolling fires, and in-between them stood a Dwarf with fiery red hair wearing yellow robes.

Throughout the room was rubble from collapsed pillars. The party also noted several doors leading out of the chamber, all of which were closed. At the far end of the chamber two scaffolds provide Dwarven crossbow men with clear shots at the party. Between the platforms was an iron portcullis that bared passage to another long hallway beyond. Behind the gate was a Dwarf in Purple Robes who said “Your arrival has been foretold.”

This season we’ve managed to remain very consistent with our numbers and our players, week over week. This week our table had four Genasi and one Halfling and looked like this:

• Windsoul/Firesoul Genasi Assassin
• Earthsoul Genasi Swordmage [Earthforger]
• Firesoul Genasi Barbarian (Berserker) [Ironwrought]
• Sandsoul Genasi Ranger (Hunter) [Unseelie Agent]
• Halfling Rogue (modified Merric pre-gen)

The heroes realized that things were about to get ugly so the Rogue tried to convince the Dwarves he was here by mistake. The purple-robed Dwarf rambled incessantly, clearly a bit crazy, and told the PCs that they weree in the right place at the right time. None of the other PCs could think of anything to say to improve the situation and prepared to rush the Dwarves. However, before they could act the Bolters fired initiating combat.

The Dwarf behind the Portcullis stepped back, deeper into the hallway where he pulled a lever dropping a solid stone barricade on his side of the portcullis. Azryg, the yellow-robed Dwarf in the middle of the room used his Wrathful Eruption to blast four of the five PCs still clustered together near the entrance.

The Barbarian then rushed Azryg to get him inside the defender’s aura. The Swordmage ran around the rubble and tried to get to the Bolters, but even with a double move it was too far. As he passed the open passage on the east he heard the sounds of approaching footfalls. Reinforcements were on the way.

The rest of the party moved away from the entrance and out of the zone Azryg created, focusing their attacks on the leader. The Bolters opened fire on the approaching Swordmage (rolled a 20) and the Barbarian in the middle of the room (rolled a 19). Two PCs were bloodied earl in round two. Without a leader on team heroes things could get bad. And they did. Dwarven Warriors accompanied by Norkers entered the room from the east and the doors to the north-east. Four engaged the Swordmage and four engaged the Ranger.

The Barbarian continued to go toe-to-toe with Arzyg trading hit for hit and miss for miss. Meanwhile the Assassin managed to get into the rubble where he had cover from the bolters and a clear line of sight on Azryg. The Rogue also tried this tactic but two of the Norkers saw him and after missing the Ranger moved to a softer target.

The Bolters continued to hit the PCs, nearly dropping the Swordmage and badly wounding the Barbarian. Once the Swordmage finally dispatched the Warriors and Norkers surrounding him, he moved under the scaffolding and managed to pull it apart, bringing the Bolter down from his vantage point.

The Ranger (a Hunter, controller build) managed to take out the rest of the minions quickly, saving the Rogue from more damage. Unfortunately by this point the Barbarian had switched from Defender to Striker leaving Azryg free to go where he pleased. When the assassin’s next attack bloodied the Dwarf he went into Flamerage, growing to large size and gaining reach which he used to pound on the Ranger. Lacking the fire resistance that the Barbarian possessed, the Ranger fell quickly under Azryg’s might blows.

The Assassin heroically used his Heal skill to trigger the fallen Ranger’s second wind, reviving her before she could miss a turn. This was the second time this season the Assassin has done this successfully despite a 3 in Heal.

The Rogue, who until this encounter was the most consistent attacker, missed with every single attack roll. He didn’t hit anything all night. Even with combat advantage and his action point he missed every single time. He even switched dice but that didn’t help. Until this week a strong offense lead by the Rogue made up for no leader in the party. This week they experienced the dangers of being striker-heavy.

The Barbarian and Swordmage managed to destroy both scaffolds and take down the two bolters. Unfortunately the bolters managed to score a few more hits before they were killed. The Assassin and Rogue flanked Azryg while the Ranger fired from a safe distance. It took three rounds, but in the end the Assassin and Ranger managed to drop Azryg. The Rogue was the only one to get hit during the final few rounds.

When all the combat was finished the PCs took a much needed and well-deserved short rest. The Rogue was down 7 of 8 healing surges after two encounters. The Swordmage and Barbarian also spent a lot of healing surges but as defenders they’re still fine. This was the first time in three sessions that the Ranger took any damage at all. The Assassin was the hero of the night hitting on all but one attack and taking no damage.

When the fighting ended the PCs heard cries for help coming from the east passageway. The Swordmage ventured down the hall alone and found a sorry-looking Human in one of six cells. The Human showed obvious signs of torture and abuse. He pled for help and when he told the PCs his name was Malgrym they immediately freed him. They cleaned his wounds and offered him food and water. He showed noticeable improvement almost immediately.

He shared what little knowledge he knew about the Sunset Shrine and the Dwarves. He continually talked about the Amorphous One, a monstrous blue ooze that guards the way deeper into the temple. The ooze sleeps in the form of the high alter in the Great Shrine. Malgrym also talked about something called the Black Cyst, likely a room of some kind. He saw the mad Dwarf stirring a red mass flecked with gold there. The Black Cyst lies beyond the Great Shrine and through the black obelisk.

One of the heroes walked Malgrym back to the door and escorted him outside. The Galeb Duhr was waiting outside and thanked the PC for helping his friend.

The party then searched the rooms to the east, beyond the cells. The Swordmage and Rogue went north where they discovered a chapel. At the far end of the room was a large pool of dirty water. They were cautious but neither could figure out what the pool was used for. They decided to avoid it just in case. From there they proceeded south into the torture room. While searching the implements of torture they discovered a +1 weapon.

The Barbarian, Ranger and Assassin when south and discovered a rune circle on the floor. It radiated faint magic as if it was used recently to summon something. However, it was safe now. The still avoided it, just to be safe. To the east they entered the study where they found many books and papers on oozes and aberrant monsters. In a desk drawer they discovered a potion of healing.

The party regrouped, exchanged notes and then proceeded back to the main chamber were they would decide how to proceed next week.

This was the toughest fight for this party so far. The Rogue’s poor luck really hurt the party’s offence. With more monsters alive longer, the party took much heavier damage than they had in any previous encounter. Their biggest tactical blunder was focusing all their attacks, especially ranged attacks, on Azryg and completely forsaking the Bolters. They knew from the crit early in the combat that the Bolters could inflict up to 20 points of damage on each strike, but it still took six or seven rounds before the first one was even threatened. Their uncanny accuracy and hot damage rolls were devastating.

It will be interesting to see how this party adjusts its combat style to keep the PCs with fewer surges away from harm during the next two encounters.

We continue to record our D&D Encounters sessions and make them available to you for download every week. This season I’m going to try to record the games at both FLGS where I play so that you can hear how two very different groups handled the same encounter. These recordings are made in a loud, crowded game store so at times it may be difficult to hear everyone.

D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 5) – Podcast

• Harry T North session

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

Looking for instant updates? Subscribe to the Dungeon’s Master feed!

Oil. In the real world it is one of the most precious resources on the plant. Those who have it are rich for possessing it. Those who don’t have it are willing to buy it and kill for it. In an industrial world run on oil there’s nothing more valuable. But in D&D oil isn’t important. After all, very few game worlds are mechanized and those with any industry use a more abundant resource: magic.

In fantasy role-playing is there an equivalent to oil? Something so precious and integral to society’s prosperity and advancement as oil is in the real world? Again the most likely answer is magic. But magic isn’t a limited resource. After all, magic is, well, magic. It doesn’t have any real tangibility and certainly doesn’t have to follow any rules or logic. It can be whatever the game needs it to be. But that’s not to say that a campaign world couldn’t be made more interesting if magic was a finite resource.

In this context we’re looking more at magical items rather than spells like the ones Wizards and other arcane characters use during combat. We’re looking at a tangible, physical embodiment of magic. Using what’s in the rules as written for guidance I suppose we’re actually talking about Residuum. In D&D Residuum is basically magic dust (or as we often joke in my home campaign, Pixie dust). It’s the byproduct left over when magical items are disenchanted. Residuum can be used to make new magical items and perform rituals. So in the fantasy settings of D&D Residuum is probably the closest thing we have to oil in terms of physical valuable commodities.

I have yet to see anything that suggests Residuum is in limited supply. I’ve always made enough available in my campaign to advance the plot. But if we assume that there is some kind of limit to the amount of Residuum out there it could open up a whole new set of motives for adventurers. As today’s real-world super-powers send troops to parts of the world where oil is abundant, so to can DMs send PCs to those areas of the campaign world where Residuum is abundant. The only problem is that none of these details are documented.

Have you ever thought about where Residuum comes from? Is it a mineral that is mined like ore or gold? Perhaps it’s grows naturally like a flower or plant? In a world with magic any explanation is possible, but for Residuum to take on the importance in a campaign world to the extent that oil is important in real life these details need to be fleshed out.

I’ve actually give this a lot of thought and I think that in a fantasy world Residuum should be in some way connected to the elements that make your game world fantastic. I’m talking, of course, about Dragons. Like the mythical Elephant Graveyard, I think a Dragon Graveyard should be the source of Residuum. Raw Residuum is created when the scales and bones of dragons decompose. Dragon scales have always been coveted, but now there’s an even better reason to collect them after defeating a wyrm.

By tying Residuum to Dragons you eliminate the possibility of any lesser beings stumbling upon a random field or Residuum plants and suddenly becoming a power base in your campaign. That’s not to say that some ingenious kingdom hasn’t found a way to capture and breed dragons to harvest Residuum, but it makes the possibility highly unlikely.

Dragons are intelligent enough to set aside petty differences to protect the remains of their ancestors. I just don’t see Dragons allowing the races of men to ravage their graveyard and claim Residuum. If Dragons understand the value and power that is literally in their bones they’re likely to keep their final resting places secret and will protect them from would-be thieves and common adventurers.

Tying Residuum to Dragons is just an idea. If your campaign world doesn’t have Dragons or such creatures are exceptionally rare (Dark Sun, for example) then this idea would need to be adjusted. I still think that it should be tied in some way to the organic aspects of the fantastic elements of your games. Perhaps anything that is not found in the real world will break down into residuum when it dies – everything from Elves to Goblins to Unicorns to Beholders. However, looking back to oil as a comparative resource, it should take a considerable amount of time for any of the more common elements of fantasy to produce any useful amount of Residuum. This is why I liked the Dragon example. Given their rarity having their remains become Residuum more quickly (if not immediately upon their death) doesn’t seem like it would break the game mechanics.

Of course, Residuum isn’t the only magical commodity in D&D. In Eberron Dragonshards are already as important as oil. Everything that we would use oil to power in the real world is powered by magic, mostly dependent upon Dragonshard, in the Eberron campaign setting. Wars are already fought over Dragonshards, but imagine how much more bloodshed would happen if the Dragonshards became even rarer.

By creating a physical, tangible commodity that powers your game world you provide new motivation for the PCs adventuring within it. The aimless wandering by random adventurers can be focused towards more significance aspects of the campaign setting. If Residuum is your game-world’s oil then everyone will want it. If it’s tied to Dragons then these fantastic creatures will become even more revered than they would be otherwise.

Changing the way an entire campaign setting works by making magic tangible is a serious proposition and shouldn’t be taken lightly. I see this more as an idea for experienced DMs and players looking for a way to add something new to their game. It opens the door for a lot of political intrigue and open conflict. DMs running campaigns in such a world need look no further than recent real-world history for adventure hooks and plot arcs. Each adventure can easily be “ripped from the headlines” replacing conflicts for oil with battles for Residuum.

Do you think that having a resource as valuable as oil in your D&D campaign would change things for the better? Do you think that Residuum is the right choice for such a resource or should magic just be unlimited?

Related reading:

• No New Magic Items
• Stop Abusing Dragons!
• Should Dungeons & Dragons Deal With Social Issues?
• Make Magical Item Identification Harder

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For those of you that don’t know, there hasn’t been an Architect DM post in several weeks because my wife and I welcomed our first child into our lives in early March and she’s been running things ever since! What this means is that I have a lot of small periods of free time on the internet at random points throughout my day. These short periods of time have made it tough to sit down and write a full post, but I will definitely be back to writing these posts regularly very soon. What I’d like to do in the meantime is help you, yes YOU, with anything you might need help with in your roleplaying games.

Over the last year I’ve gotten some great e-mails from readers responding to my Architect DM posts either with questions or personal experiences. People have asked me for help with their campaigns, adventures, encounters, or just general world building advice. Simply put, I love helping people with their games in any way that I can, but an added benefit is that often these discussions will spark some random chord with me and end up inspiring one or more posts in this series. Basically, I’m begging you to tell me about your character/game/world!

A great example of this in effect is my post about applying the design charrette concept to planning your RPG sessions, which was inspired by comments and questions from previous posts. The post then inspired one of our readers that e-mailed me a story about how he started a whole new campaign with a sit down charrette with his players that led to greater player buy-in for the campaign right from the start. It’s cliche, but I have to say it’s situations like this that make me really happy that I started the Architect DM series.

Down to business, here’s how you can ask me questions! Comment on this post and I’ll respond as quickly as I can, E-mail me here – bartoneus at critical-hits.com, or tag me with your questions on twitter @Bartoneus. While questions about location design and world building make the most sense, really anything relating to RPGs is fine and I’ll do my best to give good advice.

Click here for the rest of the Architect DM Series.

After defeating the elemental guardians last week, the party descended the staircase where they disarmed the trap and opened the door to the Sunset Shrine. Before them was a long, downward sloping corridor. On either side of the hallway were statues. The statues nearest the door looked somewhat humanoid, but as the party proceeded downward they noticed the statues became more aberrant.

As the party continued down the hallway they could see light flickering and smell smoke from burning fire in the room ahead. When the slopped passage finally leveled out the PCs stood before a vast room. In the centre were two huge rolling fires, and in-between them stood a Dwarf with fiery red hair wearing yellow robes.

Throughout the room was rubble from collapsed pillars. The party also noted several doors leading out of the chamber, all of which were closed. At the far end of the chamber two scaffolds provide Dwarven crossbow men with clear shots at the party. Between the platforms was an iron portcullis that bared passage to another long hallway beyond. Behind the gate was a Dwarf in Purple Robes who said “Your arrival has been foretold.”

This season we’ve managed to remain very consistent with our numbers and our players, week over week. This week our table had four Genasi and one Halfling and looked like this:

• Windsoul/Firesoul Genasi Assassin
• Earthsoul Genasi Swordmage [Earthforger]
• Firesoul Genasi Barbarian (Berserker) [Ironwrought]
• Sandsoul Genasi Ranger (Hunter) [Unseelie Agent]
• Halfling Rogue (modified Merric pre-gen)

The heroes realized that things were about to get ugly so the Rogue tried to convince the Dwarves he was here by mistake. The purple-robed Dwarf rambled incessantly, clearly a bit crazy, and told the PCs that they weree in the right place at the right time. None of the other PCs could think of anything to say to improve the situation and prepared to rush the Dwarves. However, before they could act the Bolters fired initiating combat.

The Dwarf behind the Portcullis stepped back, deeper into the hallway where he pulled a lever dropping a solid stone barricade on his side of the portcullis. Azryg, the yellow-robed Dwarf in the middle of the room used his Wrathful Eruption to blast four of the five PCs still clustered together near the entrance.

The Barbarian then rushed Azryg to get him inside the defender’s aura. The Swordmage ran around the rubble and tried to get to the Bolters, but even with a double move it was too far. As he passed the open passage on the east he heard the sounds of approaching footfalls. Reinforcements were on the way.

The rest of the party moved away from the entrance and out of the zone Azryg created, focusing their attacks on the leader. The Bolters opened fire on the approaching Swordmage (rolled a 20) and the Barbarian in the middle of the room (rolled a 19). Two PCs were bloodied earl in round two. Without a leader on team heroes things could get bad. And they did. Dwarven Warriors accompanied by Norkers entered the room from the east and the doors to the north-east. Four engaged the Swordmage and four engaged the Ranger.

The Barbarian continued to go toe-to-toe with Arzyg trading hit for hit and miss for miss. Meanwhile the Assassin managed to get into the rubble where he had cover from the bolters and a clear line of sight on Azryg. The Rogue also tried this tactic but two of the Norkers saw him and after missing the Ranger moved to a softer target.

The Bolters continued to hit the PCs, nearly dropping the Swordmage and badly wounding the Barbarian. Once the Swordmage finally dispatched the Warriors and Norkers surrounding him, he moved under the scaffolding and managed to pull it apart, bringing the Bolter down from his vantage point.

The Ranger (a Hunter, controller build) managed to take out the rest of the minions quickly, saving the Rogue from more damage. Unfortunately by this point the Barbarian had switched from Defender to Striker leaving Azryg free to go where he pleased. When the assassin’s next attack bloodied the Dwarf he went into Flamerage, growing to large size and gaining reach which he used to pound on the Ranger. Lacking the fire resistance that the Barbarian possessed, the Ranger fell quickly under Azryg’s might blows.

The Assassin heroically used his Heal skill to trigger the fallen Ranger’s second wind, reviving her before she could miss a turn. This was the second time this season the Assassin has done this successfully despite a 3 in Heal.

The Rogue, who until this encounter was the most consistent attacker, missed with every single attack roll. He didn’t hit anything all night. Even with combat advantage and his action point he missed every single time. He even switched dice but that didn’t help. Until this week a strong offense lead by the Rogue made up for no leader in the party. This week they experienced the dangers of being striker-heavy.

The Barbarian and Swordmage managed to destroy both scaffolds and take down the two bolters. Unfortunately the bolters managed to score a few more hits before they were killed. The Assassin and Rogue flanked Azryg while the Ranger fired from a safe distance. It took three rounds, but in the end the Assassin and Ranger managed to drop Azryg. The Rogue was the only one to get hit during the final few rounds.

When all the combat was finished the PCs took a much needed and well-deserved short rest. The Rogue was down 7 of 8 healing surges after two encounters. The Swordmage and Barbarian also spent a lot of healing surges but as defenders they’re still fine. This was the first time in three sessions that the Ranger took any damage at all. The Assassin was the hero of the night hitting on all but one attack and taking no damage.

When the fighting ended the PCs heard cries for help coming from the east passageway. The Swordmage ventured down the hall alone and found a sorry-looking Human in one of six cells. The Human showed obvious signs of torture and abuse. He pled for help and when he told the PCs his name was Malgrym they immediately freed him. They cleaned his wounds and offered him food and water. He showed noticeable improvement almost immediately.

He shared what little knowledge he knew about the Sunset Shrine and the Dwarves. He continually talked about the Amorphous One, a monstrous blue ooze that guards the way deeper into the temple. The ooze sleeps in the form of the high alter in the Great Shrine. Malgrym also talked about something called the Black Cyst, likely a room of some kind. He saw the mad Dwarf stirring a red mass flecked with gold there. The Black Cyst lies beyond the Great Shrine and through the black obelisk.

One of the heroes walked Malgrym back to the door and escorted him outside. The Galeb Duhr was waiting outside and thanked the PC for helping his friend.

The party then searched the rooms to the east, beyond the cells. The Swordmage and Rogue went north where they discovered a chapel. At the far end of the room was a large pool of dirty water. They were cautious but neither could figure out what the pool was used for. They decided to avoid it just in case. From there they proceeded south into the torture room. While searching the implements of torture they discovered a +1 weapon.

The Barbarian, Ranger and Assassin when south and discovered a rune circle on the floor. It radiated faint magic as if it was used recently to summon something. However, it was safe now. The still avoided it, just to be safe. To the east they entered the study where they found many books and papers on oozes and aberrant monsters. In a desk drawer they discovered a potion of healing.

The party regrouped, exchanged notes and then proceeded back to the main chamber were they would decide how to proceed next week.

This was the toughest fight for this party so far. The Rogue’s poor luck really hurt the party’s offence. With more monsters alive longer, the party took much heavier damage than they had in any previous encounter. Their biggest tactical blunder was focusing all their attacks, especially ranged attacks, on Azryg and completely forsaking the Bolters. They knew from the crit early in the combat that the Bolters could inflict up to 20 points of damage on each strike, but it still took six or seven rounds before the first one was even threatened. Their uncanny accuracy and hot damage rolls were devastating.

It will be interesting to see how this party adjusts its combat style to keep the PCs with fewer surges away from harm during the next two encounters.

We continue to record our D&D Encounters sessions and make them available to you for download every week. This season I’m going to try to record the games at both FLGS where I play so that you can hear how two very different groups handled the same encounter. These recordings are made in a loud, crowded game store so at times it may be difficult to hear everyone.

D&D Encounters: The Elder Elemental Eye (Week 5) – Podcast

• Harry T North session

Visit the Dungeon’s Master D&D Encounters Archive for all of our ongoing weekly coverage as well as other great D&D Encounters articles and resources.

Looking for instant updates? Subscribe to the Dungeon’s Master feed!