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Dreams of the Red Wizards: Dead in Thay (D&D Next)

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NOTE: The maps for this title are included with the digital version only. If ordering print, please order the print + digital option if you would like the included maps.

Szass Tam, the lich lord of Thay, and his Red Wizards threaten to dominate all of the Sword Coast. The Bloodgate, an elemental node of power, must be destroyed in order to stop him. This adventure is part two of the Dreams of the Red WizardsSundering storyline, directly tied to Scourge of the Sword Coast, and loosely connected to the events in Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle.

Dead in Thay is a tribute to Tomb of HorrorsThe Ruins of Undermountain, and other killer dungeons. The monsters, traps, and hazards in the adventure create a deadly challenge.

Product History

"Dreams of the Red Wizards: Dead in Thay" (2014), by Scott Fitzgerald Gray, is the adventure for Season 18 of D&D Encounters. It was released in April 2014 as a PDF-only book on DnDClassics.com.

Continuing the Encounters. The D&D Encounters program saw major changes beginning with Season 15's "Murder in Baldur's Gate" (2013); Season 18's "Dead in Thay" continued some of the changes of previous seasons, but reversed others.

"Dead in Thay" was the fourth D&D Encounters that was sold into the mass-market rather than being made available only to D&D Encounters GMs. Like its immediate predecessor, Season 17's "Dreams of the Red Wizards: Scourge of the Sword Coast" (2014), it was released PDF-only. The sale of "Dead in Thay" into the mass-market once more allowed for a beautiful production, in advance of what was possible in the first 14 seasons. It also allowed for a longer, more detailed module that provided detail on things other than the encounters themselves — such as the NPCs, who are highlighted throughout this adventure.

Season 16's "Legacy of the Crystal Shard" (2013) had initiated another big change: the D&D Encounters adventures stepped away from the D&D Encounters format, which had traditionally laid out specific events for each week of play. This was a change that "Dead in Thay" reversed: it featured specific encounters for the first and last week and confined plays to individual zones of a dungeon during each other week of play. It was an interesting compromise that allowed for play through a large, coherent dungeon while still keeping individual weeks of play separated. It was also a marked contrast to the much more episodic dungeon crawl of Season 1's "Undermountain: Halaster's Lost Apprentice" (2010).

However the biggest innovation of "Dead in Thay" was the introduction of an Event Coordinator — a role used in D&D Game Day's "Vault of the Dracolich" (2013), but never before used in Encounters play. The Event Coordinator managed the interactions of multiple groups of players, all playing the same adventure. In "Dead in Thay" they might directly interact during the first and last weeks of play, but as they adventured through the dungeon, they could also change its state for subsequent parties. This idea could be as big and innovative as the Encounters program itself, as it allowed multiple groups in a game store to all interact in a meaningful way, really taking advantage of the environment that the Encounters programs was played in.

As with Season 17's "Scourge of the Sword Coast", "Dead in Thay" was released for D&D-Next play only. It was also one of the highest-level D&D Encounters adventures ever, running from 6th to 8th level. It began play on May 10-11, 2014 with a special weekend event, then ran from May 14, 2014 to July 23, 2014.

Continuing the Story. "Dead in Thay" continued a story of troubles in Daggerford that began in Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle (2013), then became part of the D&D Encounters program with "Scourge of the Sword Coast".

Continuing the Sundering. "Dead in Thay" also continued the story of the Sundering, Wizards of the Coast's tale of changes in the Forgotten Realms that led it into D&D Next. This multimedia event had already run through three previous seasons of Encounters: "Murder in Baldur's Gate" (2013), "Legacy of the Crystal Shard" (2013), and "Scourge of the Sword Coast" (2014). As with most of the Sundering tie-ins, the connection is not very explicit.

Adeventuring Tropes. For the most part, "Dead in Thay" is a classic, old-school dungeon crawl of the sort you could find back in the '70s. However, it presents a more mature, more active dungeon, where the rulers of the realm can react to the players' actions … and where the players themselves could change an environment.

About the Homage. "Dead in Thay" explicitly says that it's "a tribute to Tomb of Horrors, The Ruins of Undermountain, and other killer dungeons." It also returns to the "elemental nodes", a part of the classic adventure T1-4: The Temple of Elemental Evil (1985).

Expanding the Realms. The beginning of "Dead in Thay" is set in Daggerford, which was the heart of "Scourge of the Sword Coast" and several other Realms adventures, dating back to its origins in N5: "Under Illefarn" (1987). "Dead in Thay" minorly expands the area by finally revealing Bloodgate Keep.

However, as the title of the adventure promises, much more of "Dead in Thay" takes place in Thay itself. Mind you, it doesn't necessarily expand the land a lot since it's all about a previously unknown dungeon. Thay itself entered the spotlight in FR6: "Dreams of the Red Wizards" (1988) and has received attention in any number of campaign sourcebooks.

About the Creators. Though "Dead in Thay" was his first adventure for D&D Encounters Gray is also the author of "Vault of the Dracolich" (2013), which introduced the Event Coordinator role.

About the Product Historian

The history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of Designers & Dragons - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.

We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial, and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

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Reviews (3)
Discussions (10)
Customer avatar
Gustavo S February 07, 2019 1:45 am UTC
PURCHASER
is it possible to have this one in print? i know it's on tales of the yawning portal (i have it) but i would buy it just to carry a smaller book when needed
Customer avatar
Andrew B January 06, 2019 8:51 pm UTC
As with many WotC products I've looked at on this site, this one gives no indicator of what's actually included. Somebody help me out?
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Customer avatar
Gustavo S February 07, 2019 1:43 am UTC
PURCHASER
hey
it has the adventure, art for some npc's and maps in jpeg and pdf
it also has the d&d next rules
Customer avatar
David H March 19, 2017 12:19 am UTC
Any chance this one will become available in Print format?
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Customer avatar
Jeremy F April 10, 2017 10:25 pm UTC
It's in Tales from the Yawning Portal in its full glory.
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Customer avatar
David H August 01, 2017 3:24 am UTC
I have Tales from the Yawning Portal, but my OCD still wants Dead in Thay in a printed version to go on the shelf along with Scourge of the Sword Coast. Premium Heavyweight preferred, in color of course. :D
Customer avatar
Dave J November 29, 2014 11:43 am UTC
Hello, can someone please tell me what files you get when purchasing this PDF? From my understanding, this was part of the D&D Next playtest materials, and you need more than the actual book to run it properly. Does this purchase come complete with everything needed to run the adventure?

Thanks
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Customer avatar
Julie Y September 11, 2015 1:51 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Yes, it has the adventure plus maps and an "interim rules supplement," which presumably reflects the state of the playtest rules at the time.
Customer avatar
Michael B May 11, 2014 5:33 am UTC
PURCHASER
Are high-resolution maps without numbers/traps/markup (suitable for players to see) included for virtual tabletop play?
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Customer avatar
Julie Y September 11, 2015 1:50 pm UTC
PURCHASER
It includes the same maps that are available for download on Mike Schley's website. They run about 7-800K in JPG.
Customer avatar
Johnathon R May 09, 2014 8:02 am UTC
Is the rules updated since October?
Customer avatar
mark R May 07, 2014 9:48 pm UTC
may be a silly question but do we get a code for a free copy if we are running encounters this time,if so I will have to see if the shop has it yet as last time they didn't pass it on :(
Customer avatar
Herman S May 03, 2014 3:29 am UTC
PURCHASER
Why is the Eldritch blast cantrip added to the monsters (Including every red wizard) with no spell description???
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Customer avatar
Avi K May 04, 2014 10:15 am UTC
PURCHASER
I'm doing 1d8+(magic ability mod) Cause I can't think of any other special ability that spell might have.
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Customer avatar
Mike C May 09, 2014 11:08 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Spell list was updated on 5/8 and includes the missing spells--so make sure to download the updated PDFs. Unfortunately, the update did not also add those spells to class spell lists (in addition to monsters/NPCs that have the spells listed).
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Customer avatar
Tim W May 16, 2014 12:47 am UTC
removed...
Customer avatar
John P May 02, 2014 9:01 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The Defense Against the Dark Arts ministry has apparently fixed that problem. I wasn't getting it before, and the new version looks no different, so maybe it was just a problem for certain versions of iOS?
Customer avatar
Matt P April 29, 2014 1:00 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The artwork for this appears very dark when viewed on my iPad. This affects both the module and the additional NPC art. I have the same problem with Scourge of the Sword Coast, Dragonspear Castle, and multiple 4e products from D&D Classics.
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Customer avatar
Avi K May 01, 2014 7:39 am UTC
PURCHASER
Art looked fine on my android phone.
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Customer avatar
Tom H May 01, 2014 8:43 am UTC
PURCHASER
Art looked great on my Ipad Air
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Customer avatar
Teos A May 06, 2014 6:53 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Wizards recently worked with DnDClassics to fix the art, which was displaying too dark on some pdf readers. This correction was also done for Scourge and may have been done for other recent adventures.
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This title was added to our catalog on April 29, 2014.