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12

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Intrigue meets jungle warfare, as an /Elfhunt/ plunges players into

Chult's deadly environments

The Dungeon Masters Guild is the perfect platform for creating, sharing,
and publishing your adventures. Since its launch, hundreds of DMs,
players, and fans have created new characters, monsters, spells, and
locations, bringing a wealth of options and detail to the Forgotten Realms.

But with so many choices, how do you know which ones to pick? Well,
/Dragon+/ is here to help. Each issue, we shine a spotlight on some of
the best content on the DMs Guild, and speak to its creators to learn
how it was made.

/Jussi R. Foltmar Svendsen/

This issue we head off on an Elfhunt, courtesy of an adventure created

by Jussi R. Foltmar Svendsen. With /Tomb of Annihilation/ taking
adventurers deep into the jungles of Chult later this year, this
adventure from the DMs Guild allows players to further explore its harsh
environments. This multi-session module for fifth-level characters is
full of intrigue and mystery. (And-as that title suggests-sees the party
embark on a mission to track an elf who has absconded with vital
military intelligence.)

If you're looking for creatures to populate this wild environment, we

also recommend taking a peek inside /The Bestiary/
<http://www.dmsguild.com/product/176671/The-Bestiary>-a collection of
fifty wild animals and monstrous beasts, with stat blocks for fifth edition.

Best of all, /Elfhunt/ is available as an exclusive free download for

/Dragon+/ readers for the duration of this issue. But before you rush
off to claim your free adventure, enjoy our chat with its creator and
learn more about the making of /Elfhunt/, his thoughts on module design,
and how children can go rogue when you get them together to roleplay.

Exclusive free download

Download PDF

*Did you create /Elfhunt/ as a module to play in your home game or

specifically for the DMs Guild?*

This adventure was first conceived in 2015 and playtested in 2016. Our
group of players came together when my wife saw a notice from someone
looking to play D&D. We had a newborn daughter at the time, so we posted
that we would be interested in playing at our place, so that she could
remain in a safe environment. Another requirement was that our daughter
came first. So whenever she wasn't asleep, was hungry, needed to be
changed, etc., then one of us would focus on that instead of playing
D&D. My wife and I were going to take turns being the DM, so we created
two adventures in the same setting. The project evolved into each player
taking turns being the Dungeon Master.

*Why did you choose to set it in Chult? *

My wife chose the jungles of Chult because it reminded her of Feralas in

/World of Warcraft/, which was the source of inspiration for her
adventure. It was the wild, elven beauty and the mystery and exploration
that appealed to us, and I wanted to create an event-based adventure
that took place in the same environment.

As an engineer working in R&D I have a very structured workflow when

creating an adventure. I expanded on the skeletal adventure I had
created and then divided it up into three parts, one for each main NPC:
the elf; the soldier; and the rogue. I further expanded on this by
applying a five-act structure. Initially, the adventure was written
using small cards for each scene, but when the opportunity to publish it
on the DMs Guild arose, I changed the format to what it has become today.

Johan Petry

*What was it like having different people take turns being the DM?*

It was fun to try and run a campaign with different DMs, but also
difficult and something I would only recommend to the most advanced
groups. The characters were always the same, and therefore evolved in a
very different way than if we had just a single DM.

*The game has a few different outcomes, depending on choices the players
make. Have you ever been surprised by the outcome? *

I'm always surprised by the outcome.

*Reading your blog <http://gamemastersdk.blogspot.co.uk/>, you've also

been running a weekly two-hour session for kids. What's that been like? *

I'm still playing a two-hour session with the local kids every Tuesday,
and it's teaching them a lot. Hopefully more will join us after the
summer break. We were playing Storm King's Thunder, and when the players
created characters, nearly every single player ended up creating a
half-elf rogue. Fortunately, it is still possible to have a balanced
game even without covering every single role.

*Why was that class so popular? *

The appeal of the rogue was the fact that it was a deadly and silent
character, similar to the type of characters the kids play in their LARP
games. They play the rogue more like a fighter, even though the
character's strengths lie elsewhere.

Chief Filip

*One of the children eventually took over as DM... *

The reason we stopped /Storm King's Thunder/

<http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/storm-kings-thunder>
is because one of the children wanted to try and be the DM. I had the
pleasure of trying a real kids' game!
We've now had two of the kids as DMs, and they are incredibly creative
and remind me of games I created when I was their age. They prefer their
own games, but we've added a rule saying that I'm the DM once per month
to ensure that I still teach them a few things. We're missing the books
not being in Danish, though.

*You also broadcast some of your D&D games. What has that experience
been like? *

We put content on both YouTube <http://bit.ly/2s4u582>and Twitch

<https://www.twitch.tv/beldwhig>. I try to run our streams like
podcasts, so that everyone can follow without having to look at the
screen. I add a few extra things on the screen for those that do want to
look at us. Streaming has given me a chance to play roleplaying games,
even when I can't leave the house or don't have free weekends. We
started out in English, but since our players and viewers are Danes, we
switched language, especially since two of our players were struggling
in English.

Imis Elvan

*You've also been raising money for the Youth's Red Cross using D&D
Extra Life <http://indsamling.urk.dk/ekstraliv>. What have those events
and games been like? *

In 2014 and 2015 I ran /Tyranny of Dragons/ and /Elemental Evil/ at

Extra Life. In 2016 I ran /Out of the Abyss/ for the Children's Cancer
Foundation. These have been very different games than conventional
sessions, because people have been able to influence the game through
donations. This year, I've recruited several DMs in an attempt to run
multiple games on September 30-October 1, 2017. It is a large project
involving YouTubers, streamers, camera people, unions, shops,
conventions, etc. At one point we were aiming to have the event take
place at the second Copenhagen Comic Con, but that has been moved to
2018. So we're now running it at a game shop in Denmark, where we'll
stream face-to-face and Roll20 games, while gathering donations for the
Youth's Red Cross.
*What advice would you give to other people designing modules for the
DMs Guild? *

When I published /Elfhunt/, other Dungeon Masters who were also

interested in publishing things asked me how I set up my adventures. So
I shared those details in a series of steps online
<http://gamemastersdk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/how-to-make-d-adventure.html>.
But as an R&D engineer I need to be flexible, and sometimes a project
takes a completely different route to that structure. My greatest advice
to anyone who wants to write and publish adventures is to follow your
inspiration. Take it in steps and don't try to write everything at once.
If you have no ideas, but feel like drawing a map, then do that first.
The map may lead you to get inspired to run an adventure on an island in
the middle of lake, which may lead you to write about a nearby town and
a ruined castle on the island, which includes all the encounters. Before
you know it, you have an entire adventure. Eventually, you'll write
something awesome, and even if it's not awesome, publish it. Others may
appreciate it more than you do.

*You mention you have plans to write additional adventures. Any sneak
peeks you can give us about what those might be? *

The adventure I'm working on right now is the jungle of Chult adventure
my wife created. It's a treasure-hunting adventure that should be on the
DMs Guild at the end of summer at the latest. After that, I might start
working on a larger adventure, which sees the players scour the land for
dead heroes to bring them back to life to help defend the world.

COMMUNITY:
Lich Phylacteries

COMMUNITY:
Lich Phylacteries

Your responses to our community question: What unusual phylacteries

might a lich devise?

although the exact secrets of achieving lichdom remain undisclosed (save

to powerful wizards taking up the path), it is known how an arcane
ritual traps the wizard's soul within a phylactery-traditionally, an
amulet in the shape of a small box. And yet, not all liches choose such
traditional phylacteries... and not all hiding places for them need be
such well-defended vaults.

With the release of /Tales from the Yawning Portal/

<http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/tales-yawning-portal>,
players dared confront the liches and demiliches within its adventures.
As such, we asked for your ideas
<http://dnd.wizards.com/poll/phylacteries> on especially fiendish,
strange, or otherwise unexpected lich phylacteries. So the next time
you're looking to create a lich with a well-designed, well-hidden or
otherwise memorable phylactery, we suggest you consult the following list..

Our sincere thanks to all the contributors-and we look forward to your

creativity in our next community poll!
 1. An acorn, which grew into a tree, which grew into a forest. To
destroy the lich, every oak tree in the forest must be destroyed.
2. An artificial eye implanted in a beholder.
3. A sharpened, golden tooth inscribed with numerous arcane symbols and
passed down from the leader of a goliath tribe. The item is a symbol
of leadership and is embedded in the mouth of each chief, after he
is defeated in combat.
4. A dragon's tooth.
5. The king's crown, always under heavy guard.
6. An amethyst, embedded in the center piece of a beautiful golden
necklace given to the queen of the realm on the day of her wedding.
7. An impressive magic item such as a /ring of invisibility/ or /staff
of the magi/ (that adventurers will simply consider valuable loot).

Death Knight

8. Through an ancient ritual found in the /Book of Vile Darkness/, a

lich created a Death Knight phylactery-immortal until they atone for
their deeds or find redemption. Thus, the party might have to stage
an intervention or go on a life-changing road trip before they can
permanently take out the lich they're really seeking to defeat.
9. A fruit bowl, bristling with pristine ripe fruit. Among the many
luscious fruits within it, is a single peach. The phylactery is the
stone of the singular peach.
10. A rock gnome turned lich builds clockwork toys as a phylactery. Over
the years, the gnome has made hundreds of these toys scattered
throughout the world, many with minor enchantments to throw off
detection spells.
11. The skull of the lich's child, whose untimely death led the lich to
ponder mortal frailty and seek immortality through undeath.
12. Inside of a warforged paladin (unbeknownst to the warforged, who is
on a quest to defeat the lich).
13. A giant, twisting necropolis, resembling an M.C. Escher painting in
intricacy, with depths and areas that take days or weeks to travel
through, carved with runes and glowing channels of energy. The soul
of the lich wraps through it all, and heroes must break key lines
and areas, or even bring the whole structure down, to finally bring
him to an end.
14. A beautiful conch shell, inlaid with gold and gems. A thick silver
chain with arcane symbols is attached to the ends of the shell
forming a necklace. The conch necklace is attached to a slumbering
kraken for protection, deep in the ocean.
15. From a folktale in Hungary, in which the evil crone kept her life
force in a black bug. One must kill a specific boar and in that
boar's head is a rabbit. In the rabbit's head is a pigeon and in the
pigeon's head is a small box which held the black bug.
16. Alternatively, a variant on Koschei the Deathless: the actual
phylactery is a needle, inside an egg (on which /sequester/ has been
cast), inside a simulacrum of a duck (ordered to fly away, alongside
two programmed Illusions also ordered to fly away in different
directions), inside another simulacrum of a hare (ordered to run,
again alongside two programmed illusions), inside a diamond chest
which is inside a gold chest which is inside an iron chest which is
buried in a pocket dimension which consists of a small island
surrounded by an ocean.
17. A singular grain of sand, kept within an hourglass but housed in no
vault... Instead, it was given to a rural common-folk family without
 the means to afford such a treasure, where they protect it
life-and-limb hoping to preserve it as an heirloom.
18. An ornate wooden puzzle box made of dozens of small pieces that
tightly fit together. The box itself is nearly impossible to solve,
except by those with extraordinary intelligence and patience.
19. A single coin in a dragon's hoard. Alternatively, a copper piece
travelling from Neverwinter to Baldur's Gate in the purses of
commonfolk. One can tell the difference because the pegasus on the
face has 29 feathers on its wings rather than 30. The coin is also a
slight shade darker than most coppers, but that's just age and the
effects of time, right?
20. A full height, brass-framed mirror. Extremely fragile, it may be
carried in a padded wooden crate-perhaps on the very back of the
lich's trusted minions, in order to keep it safe.
21. A crystal gem darker than the darkest nights floating in an empty
chamber in absolute silence.
22. A special bone pot found by a clan of goblins-whose warlord deemed
it a mighty crown, and so it adorns his head and fills his mind with
dark whispers. The goblins are unaware of its true nature and so
often brew foul concoctions with it when their warlord isn't looking.
23. Another lich, whose phylactery is the original lich. These twins
forged their lichdom status together having cooperated from their
earliest days as witches. Their phylacteries are each the heart of
the other; as long as one lives, so too shall the other. The heroes
must slay both liches within a single day or the first one felled
simply revives.
24. The entire dungeon/stronghold/fortress itself. Large, solid, and
extremely difficult to destroy without siege weapons at your
disposal, and effectively hidden in plain sight!
25. For the nautically minded lich, storing their soul in ship parts-the
ship's wheel being an obvious choice, often a lantern in the fore
cabin or an innocuous nail in the keel. Stocking the hold with
distracting or cursed treasures is often a precaution against
would-be heroes, but for an added layer of protection, a lich may
crew such a ship with damned souls pressed into their service, or
hidden beneath the waves in the belly of a dragon turtle.
26. A gem in the pommel of a weapon, which makes the weapon not only
enchanted but also sentient.
27. The map of the lich's dungeon (a stone tablet with the map
engraved). The lich, impressed that its ancient lair would have been
found, cleverly allows itself to be defeated then revives in the
party's camp, ambushing them and reclaiming its map to be hidden
once more.
28. A chess piece that cannot be destroyed if it hasn't been legally
captured. Alternatively, the black queen in a chess-set, used by the
leader of the Zhentarim.
29. A small, stone box containing the drow warlock's soul is melded onto
the underside of a stone gear on the plane of Mechanus. An
inevitable forge lies on the other side of the gear, meaning that a
/scrying/ spell cast on this phylactery bewilderingly points a marut
towards home.
30. The lair of the lich houses a strange variety of rats. On the tail
of each appears to be a ring; however, this ring is only a
biological mutation... save for one rat. This unique rat, a construct,
wears the phylactery of the lich on its tail (in the form of an
actual ring).
31. A chain-wrapped iron flask with a glass window through which is seen
a tiny human form made from flames of colors according to alignment
of the viewer, hovering in a fetal position.
32. An entire dam overlooking a city. Thus, you can't destroy the
phylactery without destroying the city, and attempting an evacuation
gives the lich time to rejuvenate.
33. A black metal lantern inscribed with images of stars and planets. It
glows with a pulsating, purple light and is always cold to the
touch. There are no latches or any ways of opening it and it is
impossible to see through the hide to observe what is giving off the
light inside. It is located on a small funeral boat alongside a
statue in a sleeping position, fashioned after the likeness of the
lich. There are other treasures from his living life placed
alongside, including a sextant that opens a temporary gate back to a
location on the Prime Material Plane. The boat and its contents were
gated and cast adrift in the Astral Plane on a course to a
destination known only to the lich.
34. An ornate music box enchanted to disorient anyone who opens it,
causing them to forget they ever found it.
35. A silver hourglass. The grains are white and all contained in the
upper part. The middle section is a gold band with runes inscribed
in it. No amount of shaking or poking seems to make the hourglass
work, but when the lich is destroyed, black grains starts to fall to
the bottom half as the white grains start to disappear. Once the
hourglass has drained, the lich reappears.
36. The innkeeper's towel. Once upon a time, there were two friends. One
a mage and the other an innkeeper. While the mage went on adventures
to gain greater power, the innkeeper would make sure that, when the
mage returned, drinks were to be had. As the mage ascended to
lichdom, he gave his friend a present: a towel that never goes bad,
no matter how many glasses or kegs you clean with it. He doesn't
know that it's in fact the phylactery of the lich, but an innkeeper
always keeps his towels safe, for while thousands of adventurers
gaze upon the towel, there is no scarier boss than an angry innkeeper.
37. A magnificently brightly colored stone. Legends say if you find the
stone you will be granted one wish, but once fulfilled the stone
then teleports you to a random spot around the world.
38. A set of nesting dolls, with each doll gradually becoming more
necrotic and foul in appearance. Before a layer may be opened to
access the next doll within, a specific puzzle or condition must be
fulfilled, or trap bypassed.
39. An undead treant, roaming a corrupted forest in the Feywild.
40. Bards sing from an old book of dirges and laments, oblivious to the
fact that the composer is a lich. So long as those songs ride the
current of their voices, those melancholy melodies and verses act as
the lich's phylactery. Bard colleges even teach lessons about the
lyrics to initiates, for funerals and tributes to the departed, and
the initiates unwillingly ensure the lich's reign by studying and
memorizing the lines written by his dead hands.
41. A collar around the neck of an intelligent skeletal rat named
Nibbles, which lives in the lich's keep and burrows deep underground
whenever intruders enter.
42. In the center of the desert town stands a fountain, around which the
town was built. It displays a playful mermaid holding out a conch
shell that streams water day and night, keeping the town prosperous
despite no other sources of water for tendays around. Inside the
conch is a crystal the size of a fist, holding the soul of the lich.
To destroy the phylactery, one must first destroy the conch, but to
do so sentences an entire town to a slow, thirsting death.
43. A pearl in the eye of a resurrected storm giant, who serves as a
guardian to the phylactery.
44. A piece of colored stone that's part of a mosaic in a temple of Pelor.
45. The ashes of a phoenix. So long as the phoenix keeps being reborn,
the phylactery persists. Only someone who can slay the mad phoenix
and wish it out of its reincarnation cycle can destroy the phylactery.
46. Deep within the lich's lair, well defended by traps and monsters, is
an adamantine box, radiating magic and containing ornately scribed
fragments of parchment. It sits atop a stone pedestal. This pedestal
is actually the phylactery.
47. The phylactery is housed at the bottom of a deep artificial lake.
The lich's essence is contained inside a single, ordinary smooth
stone, just like the tens of thousands of other ordinary stones that
fill the bottom of the lake. The lich doesn't need to breathe, being
undead (and may have been a triton in life), so she doesn't mind
reconstituting in lightless, watery depths. Her would-be foes, on
the other hand, must secure the ability to breathe water to even try
to locate the stone, and cannot sift through the lake bottom without
inevitably attracting the attention of the lich's shark-like golem
servants and the sahuagin tribe that maintains them.
48. A lantern that when lit acts as a /darkness/ spell but only during
time that the lich's soul is not inside.
49. A beautifully crafted elven prosthetic leg, buried within an elven
heroine's tomb.
50. Inside a reliquary said to hold a finger bone of Saint Cuthbert,
feverishly protected by the acolytes of the temple.
51. A necklace that contains the soul of a slain lich but does not have
enough power to recreate it. The necklace forms a link to a specific
weapon, so intelligent creatures slain with that weapon have their
soul harvested into the phylactery. Once enough souls are fed into
it, the phylactery is able to reconstruct the lich.
52. An obsidian statuette modeled after the first dracolich Shargrailer,
gilded in rubies, and poised to breathe flames.

Mirror of Life Trapping

53. An enchanted playing card, hidden in a deck of playing cards. The

phylactery card can only be drawn if it ends up as the top card of
the deck after a thorough and truly random shuffle.
54. Alternatively, the death card in a tarot-style deck. The visual on
the card could represent a Dorian Grey-esque lich in his/her prime.
The deck is carried by a Vistani, and thus not tied to a single plane.
55. The casket of the lich's long-dead lover, tucked away in an
overgrown mausoleum in a forgotten graveyard.
56. A /mirror of life trapping/: A magic item that no level-headed
adventurer would dare enter to explore inside, and yet houses a
small space also containing a collection of magic items and books
for the lich in one of its cells. The lich of course has the magical
expertise to escape the mirror at-will.
57. A totem for shamans of nomadic creatures (orcs, centaurs,
thri-kreen) making its location extremely difficult to track as it
constantly moves. Destroying it also becomes a greater challenge as
the adventurers must defeat the group sheltering it.

Mechanical Koi

58. A mechanical koi fish, swimming with other koi in a fully-stocked

ornamental pond. The other fish are undead: a mixture of ghost koi,
skeletal koi and zombie koi.
59. Inside an intelligent weapon that's sole purpose is to destroy the
 very lich that created it. The weapon itself does not know that it
is actually the object that must be destroyed to defeat the lich
once and for all. Heroes would work to protect it, hence keeping the
lich alive.
60. Deep in the cellars of the Stone Boulder Brewing company are casks
of strong brew that have been aging for untold years. Many
independent brewers will contract to place their barrels within the
vaults, in order to claim a portion of the history that has been
brewed within. Hidden amongst these is a peculiar barrel, untapped
and marked only with a single unrecognizable rune. However, more
lies within this barrel than some potent ale. Its inner magic masked
by the spells and wards of the cellar itself, the barrel is the
phylactery of a most ancient brewer lich.
61. The knocker inside the bell on a church or temple.
62. A /rod of resurrection/ or /staff of healing/ that lessens the
lich's return time with each successful resurrection or heal.
63. A key, which opens an empty vault in the lich's lair.
64. A copper filling in the mouth of a mad beggar.
65. An entire village, built and paid for by a seemingly wealthy noble
who hides the secrets of their vast necromantic power in the walls
of innocent villagers' homes and businesses. Hiding runic
cornerstones, covering support beams made of bone, and inscribing
ritualistic circles that can be easily covered by furniture, the
secret of the village is protected by the lich's minions.
66. Some powerful wizards (that have become liches) have adventuring
backgrounds behind them; their phylactery may be old, traditional
magical or mundane adventuring gear, such as a /bag of holding/ (due
to its extradimensional possibilities, which may lead to some arcana
shenanigans).
67. A collar with runes etched into the inner band. The lich leaves the
collar on Rover, his beloved dog. Upon the death of the lich,
adventurers may happen across Rover, who is very friendly and will
likely accompany the party as they loot the lich's lair. Rover has
been trained to be very observant and will discern what the party
has taken from the lair and where they put it. When the lich
regenerates near Rover, he uses speak with animals to determine what
has become of his belongings.
68. A gem that is an integral part of a greater seal. The lich sealed a
powerful demon behind it, so that unless the adventurers wish to
release it, they'll need to leave the phylactery intact.
69. A stuffed owlbear toy.
70. A conch shell. When held to your ear, you hear a dark ritual being
chanted.
71. A wooden chalice. Obviously worn with odd teeth marks along the rim.
72. An unassuming holy book located within a library. The book was
originally written by the wizard (before becoming a lich),
concerning the wickedness of lichdom and how to destroy them. It
details intentionally false information and rituals designed to feed
a foolish and unfortunate reader's soul directly into the
book-phylactery.
73. A brass mortar and pestle inscribed with glyphs that inspire
alchemists and lend aid to their skill... and leech a bit of their
life force in exchange. It is said that this tool imparts the
knowledge of all its previous owners, enabling the user to expertly
craft alchemical concoctions, including those mythical and legendary
recipes lost to the sands of time.

/Like us on Facebook to participate in our next community poll. /

Open Facebook <http://bit.ly/dndfacebook>

<https://www.dndbeyond.com/>