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Current Clack

• Movie news! Plot details of the Dungeons & Dragons movie have been reported, giving character names, the gold dragon Palarandusk, and a quest for the Eye of Vecna! (Better that than the Head...) True or not, we have all the details compiled.
• Regis87 wanted us to hit 30,000 articles before the end of the year, but we got there much earlier than that. The lucky 30,000^th article is the ring of animal influence from Sir Whiteout, who powered to the finish line with an arsenal of magic items and a tree full of trained monkeys banging away on keyboards.
• Sorry for the lack of clacks; I was attacked by a vasuthant and lost all track of time. Now, let's catch up.
• Moviesign has been wandering Cormyr, getting gossip from court ladies Darlutheene Ambershields and Blaerla Roaringhorn about exiled noble Sabran Cormaeril. Later, he was a guest of Ingleiyr Tammarast, the rustic lord of Landuth, enjoying a humble meal that included the rare treat of pumpkin.

• Journeying along the Sword Coast North, ISUBurd made the acquaintance of the Helmite paladin Sir Justin Melenikus, protector of villages and travelers. Then, visiting Port Llast, Burd documented a shocking variety of poisons, such as varrakas, belpren, and huld. I don't think a paladin would approve.
• We welcome Artyom.pavlov, who's on the trail of a Plague of Spells. Artie explored Darroch Castle in the Feywild, encountered an eidolon and scrapped with a vile kruthik, and sat under the branches of the fabled Grandmother Ash.
• We also welcome DuxClarus, who met Trisk Adamantelpiece (actual name), and welcome back Tofudinner (also actual name), who rode in on a giant strider.
• It's not the Realms, but Eberron: Rising from the Last War is out now! If that's your setting of choice, head to the Eberron Wiki and starting exploring and writing!

Featured Article

The Cathedral of Emerald Scales was a temple to Varae, the beast cult aspect of Sseth, located in the heart of Hlondeth in the Vilhon Reach. It was a huge green dome squeezed by a spiraling constrictor snake sculpture with an upturned head that spouted water. The fountain not only kept the surrounding swatch of jungle misty, but water filtered through the porous dome to create a constant gentle rain beneath. The dome was held up by 30 massive pillars carved with snakes, giving the area under the dome the name Forest of Serpents. Outside, the jungle garden was ensorcelled so that trespassers got lost for days in a steamy trap filled with tropical animals, birds, insects, and plants, many of them deadly. The entire compound was surrounded by a high, hollow wall known as the Wall of the Amphisbaena because it was sculpted to resemble a gigantic snake with a head at both ends.

Below the Cathedral were catacombs designed to be traversed by bodies with serpentine features and impede bipeds. Here were living quarters for the priests, staff, and ophidian guards; brood chambers tended by histachii; laboratories for bizarre experiments that produced things akin to mongrelfolk; "prison pantries", where a menagerie of creatures were grown for food (including a deepspawn or two); and the lavishly furnished chambers of the high priestess, a yuan-ti abomination named Medusanna Mhairdaul.

New & Upcoming Releases

Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus by Christopher Perkins is a 5^th-edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure module released on September 17, 2019. It sees players adventure from Baldur's Gate down to Avernus, the first of the Nine Hells.

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Welcome to Baldur's Gate, a city of ambition and corruption situated at the crossroads of the Sword Coast. You've just started your adventuring career, but already find yourself embroiled in a plot that sprawls from the shadows of Baldur's Gate to the front lines of the planes-spanning Blood War! Do you have what it takes to turn infernal war machines and nefarious contracts against the archdevil Zariel and her diabolical hordes? And can you ever hope to find your way home safely when pitted against the infinite evils of the Nine Hells?

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Boundless by R.A. Salvatore is the second entry in the Generations trilogy featuring Drizzt Do'Urden. It was released on September 10^th. The novel's story is split into two parts: one following Drizzt in the present time of the Realms, and the other focusing on Zaknafein and Jarlaxle's adventures in the distant past.

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Split between time and two worlds, Zaknafein had always been conflicted. That inner turmoil was magnified by his inferior position as a male dark elf in the matriarchal drow society. Only his status as one of the greatest warriors—as well as his friendship with the mercenary Jarlaxle—kept him sane. When he finally perished, he was content knowing he left behind a legacy as substantial as his son Drizzt...

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Dragon+ #28 was released on October 30, 2019.

For the Realms, this issue gives previews of the Warriors of Waterdeep mobile game, a Tyranny of Dragons Special Edition, a Descent into Avernus Soundpack, and new Icons of the Realms. There are articles on the Nine Hells, infernal war machines, and neo-otyughs, and a short story set in Elturel, as well as Maps of the Month for Baldur's Gate.

Featured Source

Tomb of Annihilation, designed by Christopher Perkins, Will Doyle, Steve Winter, and Adam Lee, is an adventure module set in the Forgotten Realms using the Dungeons & Dragons 5th-edition ruleset. Set in the late 15th century DR, it explores the distant land of Chult and introduces the mighty lich Acererak to the Realms.

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Dare to defy death in this adventure for the world's greatest roleplaying game. The talk of the streets and taverns has all been about the so-called death curse: a wasting disease afflicting everyone who's ever been raised from the dead. Victims grow thinner and weaker each day, slowly but steadily sliding toward the death they once denied. When they finally succumb, they can't be raised—and neither can anyone else, regardless of whether they’ve ever received that miracle in the past. Temples and scholars of divine magic are at a loss to explain a curse that has affected the entire region, and possibly the entire world. The cause is a necromantic artifact called the Soulmonger, which is located somewhere in Chult, a mysterious peninsula far to the south, ringed with mountains and choked with rainforests.

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Today in the Realms...

...it is 11 Nightal, or the 11th of the Drawing Down. Selûne is a waning crescent moon . On this day:

• In 1479 DR, Vajra Safahr became the seventh Blackstaff.

Realmslore

• Endeir Falconhand was a Cormyrian huntsman who served as a retainer to the Rayburton family. He was a distant ancestor of the adventurer Florin Falconhand.
• Sword and hammer was a variant of spiritual weapon available to the war-focused clergy of Tyr. The spell was also accessible via a Tyrran relic called the Balance of Belaros.
• The Zakharan merchant Sadik el-Huari sold coffee to the residents of Yeoman on the plane of Bytopia. His tent was a favored haunt of the city's elite.
• Spectral stag created an illusion of a spectral, red-eyed stag that charged forward in a straight line. The spell was recorded in the Malarite Book of Fangs and Talons.
• The Elturian halfling baker Pilster Pebblehuck considered selling his soul to the imp Perchillux in exchange for food for his starving wife and three children.
• Haruman was a paladin of Helm who participated in Zariel's invasion of Avernus. After Zariel's defeat and fall, he continued to serve his mistress as an infernal narzugon.
• The conjuration spell summon nishruu allowed a powerful wizard to summon a nishruu, an extraplanar creature that fed on magic and appeared as a cloud of mist.
• Gray puddings were highly acidic oozes related to black puddings. They were incredibly deadly creatures capable of dissolving an opponent in mere seconds.

And, from the archives:

• Gok'llak, a tough grimlock barbarian, was completely enthralled by a mind flayer, and would serve him unto death.
• The yataghan, a slashing sword related to the sabre, was wielded in the lands of Zakhara and Kara-Tur.
• Nym, a mad monk of Ilmater, betrayed the Monastery of the Yellow Rose to an elemental cult bent on world destruction.
• A knarr was a small ship used in the North for carrying cargo, and it could be constructed from the corpse of a dragon.
• Sandmen came from the Plane of Earth to capture slaves in Zakhara by causing their victims to fall to sleep.
• Adrienne Stillwater was a priestess of Mielikki who tried to limit damage to the Hullack Forest by adventurers.

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