Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Modified Statistics

While inside the castle, the faerie dragon is 12 feet long relative to its surroundings, because its size is not altered by the castle's shrinking magic. It has a challenge rating of 3 (700 XP) and the following statistical changes:

• Otto is Large and has 104 (16d10 + 16) hit points.
• It has a Strength score of str 18, and its bite attack deals 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage on a hit.

Otto turns invisible and flees if reduced to half its hit points or fewer. It tries to find a hiding place in the castle but abandons the structure if it must. When encountered outside the castle, Otto has the size and statistics of a normal violet faerie dragon. Whenever Otto's relative size decreases, any hit points beyond its new hit point maximum are lost. Whenever Otto's relative size increases, any damage that Otto has taken remains and is subtracted from its new hit point maximum.

Modified Statistics

Inside the castle, the homunculus is 12 feet tall relative to its surroundings, because its size is not altered by the castle's shrinking magic. It has a challenge rating of 2 (450 XP) and the following statistical changes:

• The homunculus is Large and has 55 (10d10) hit points.
• It has a Strength score of str 15, and its bite attack deals 9 (2d6 + 2) piercing damage on a hit.
• It understands Abyssal, Common, Draconic, and Gnomish, but can't speak.

If the homunculus is forcibly taken from the castle, its relative size reverts to Tiny, and its statistics become those of a normal homunculus. Whenever the creature's relative size decreases, any hit points beyond its new hit point maximum are lost. Whenever its relative size increases, any damage that it has taken remains and is subtracted from its new hit point maximum.

Treasure

Sixty pieces of blue quartz can be broken off the throne. Each piece is worth 10 gp.

6a. Stonebones Carving

If the characters catch him by surprise or greet him with hostility, Gravillok retreats to x while shouting out to his family in Giant, "Invasion! Arm yourselves! We're under attack!" Gravillok's deep bellow echoes throughout the level. To the best of his recollection, Gravillok has never seen small folk before. His instinct is to treat them as vermin and smoosh them with his greatclub. If they attempt to parley and he can understand them, he stops attacking long enough to listen to their words, then discounts them, concluding that the interlopers must be responsible for the strange magic bedeviling his family. The characters will have to work hard to change his mind.

In addition to his greatclub, Gravillok carries a favorite chisel, much too large for Medium or smaller characters to use as an effective tool.

A successful DC 15 Intelligence (Religion) check identifies Gravillok's wall carving as a 30-foot-tall image of Skoraeus Stonebones, the stone giant god. Gravillok hopes that Skoraeus will be honored by the carving enough to help him catch whoever has been tormenting his family.

6b. Tool Storage

The stone giants store their stone-carving tools in this cave. The tools are too big and unwieldy to be used by anyone not of the giants' size.

11a. Faces of Halaster

The stone giants have met Halaster several times over the years and carved his visage after many of those occasions. Though the giants' memories of him never last, the faces in this cavern remain.

The giants have begun using the cavern to store the bodies of creatures they're forced to kill. With the duergar and the drow returning to Undermountain in force and the bullywugs on level 8 becoming more aggressive, such encounters have become commonplace. Again, the giants have no memory of these altercations, and they have no use for the dead creatures' gear.

The corpses include a drow, two quaggoths, five troglodytes, seven hobgoblins, three duergar, six grimlocks, nine bullywugs, and two humans (former members of an adventuring party). The stone giants tossed the creatures' weapons into the nearby silt pit (x).

11b. Silt Pit

Carved into the floor of the narrow tunnel leading to this cave is a large X (a warning sign). This cave contains a silt pit like the one in x.

13a. Obsidia and Rhodos

Two stone giants named Obsidia and Rhodos have been tasked with carving abstract designs into the roof of this empty cave. To reach the ceiling, Obsidia rides on her brother's broad shoulders. She is using a chisel to smooth out some of the rough spots.

Of all the giants in here, Obsidia and Rhodos are the least set in their ways and the most likely to tolerate small folk. Characters who bribe them with at least 500 gp worth of precious metals, gemstones, or art objects can convince the giants to let them pass or to escort the party to the tunnel that leads to level 8.

13b. Giants' Home

If Speleosa detects intruders in her home, she grabs loose rocks from the piles around the room, instructs Obsidia and Rhodos (see x) to do the same, and sets out to destroy the invaders. Attempting to reason with Speleosa while she's hurling rocks is no simple matter, and she isn't receptive to bribes. If one or more of her children are imperiled, Speleosa becomes calm and begins negotiating for their safe release.

While the characters are dealing with Speleosa, the invisible faerie dragon flies into the cavern, becomes visible momentarily as it casts the hallucinatory terrain spell, and turns invisible again as a bonus action. Characters who have a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 17 or higher glimpse the wee dragon for a second before it turns invisible. On subsequent turns, Otto flies back to Maddgoth's castle. Otto's spell replaces all of areas 3db, 3e2, and 3e4 with a sylvan forest. The cavern walls remain but are masked by the illusion. Any stone giants in the affected area find themselves in wholly unfamiliar terrain and become panicky. Their inclination is to blame the characters, and dispelling the faerie dragon's magic does little to console them. If the characters don't flee, the giants attack them out of fear.

13c. Treasure Alcove

Niches have been carved into the walls of this deep alcove at a height of 15 feet. The stone giants keep their accumulated treasure here.

13d. Cave of Rest

The stone giants come here to rest when they're tired. The cave is devoid of furnishings and ostentation.

14a. Adult Cave Bears

Two adult cave bears (use the polar bear statistics) rest here. These mates attack anyone they don't recognize, defending their young in x. Gnawed bones cover the den's floor.

14b. Young Cave Bears

Two cave bear cubs (use the black bear statistics) sleep and play here. Qurrok has hollowed out several large rocks for the young bears to run through and climb on.

15a. Unfinished Cave

Natural columns of rock support the cave ceiling, the walls of which depict unfinished carvings of lanky stone giants hurling rocks. The cave is otherwise empty.

15b. Gym

This cave's walls are bereft of carvings. Resting on the floor at the north end of the cave are stone barbells and stacks of circular stone plates with holes bored through the middle of them. Qurrok (see x) works out here, using the barbells and boulders as weights.

16a. Ledges

These ledges are 90 feet above the cavern floor and safe to traverse.

16b. Cavern Floor

Qurrok's body is a temple, and he has honed and shaped it to perfection. His extensive physical training gives him advantage on all Strength checks and Strength saving throws.

Every time Qurrok loses his memory, he forgets about his previous excursions to the bottom of this cavern. He lowers himself to the floor, discovers the mithral spindle, and tries to climb it to see what's at the top. Rebuffed and discouraged by the repulsion field that surrounds the spindle, he starts combing the cavern floor for treasure.

When an alarm sounds in the caverns around this area, Qurrok climbs up to the ledge closest to the disturbance. If doing that puts him anywhere near his pet cave bears in x, he summons them to his side with a booming, bear-like roar.

Qurrok likes physical challenges. He neither shies away from combat nor backs down from a fight unless his mother, Speleosa, commands him to.

Green Flasks

Uncorking or breaking a green flask releases a cloud of invisible poison gas called essence of ether. The gas fills a 10-foot-radius sphere and dissipates within seconds. Any creature in the cloud when it forms must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for 8 hours. Creatures poisoned in this way fall unconscious, but they wake up if they take damage or if another creature uses an action to shake them awake.

Living Unseen Servants

Attacking a servant, snatching its feather duster, or otherwise disturbing the contents of this room triggers combat. On their first turn after rolling initiative, the living unseen servants knock the green flasks off their pedestals, causing the containers to shatter on the floor and release their poison gas (which has no effect on the unseen servants). The servants have no weapons but can arm themselves with weapons dropped by creatures rendered unconscious by the poison gas.

The living unseen servants are bound to this room and can't leave of their own volition.

Arch Gate to Level 9

The arch is one of Halaster's magic gates (see "x"). Inscribed on its wall is the following riddle in Common: "What appears once in an hour, twice in a blue moon, and never in sunshine?" The answer is "The letter O." The rules of this gate are as follows:

• If the riddle is answered aloud and correctly by someone within 30 feet of the arch, the gate opens for 1 minute.
• Characters must be 10th level or higher to pass through this gate (see "x"). The first creature to pass through the gate triggers an elder rune (see "x").
• A creature that passes through the gate appears in x on level 9, in the closest unoccupied space next to the identical gate located there.

Books

One book has worn wooden covers and is filled with humorous anecdotes. Another appears to be a diary with a gold-stitched cover of burgundy-dyed leather, its scented pages chronicling the love affairs of a long-dead noblewoman. The third book, which is missing its cover, contains Elvish translations of common Orc phrases and idioms. The last book is bound in stirge hide and contains recipes for pie. These books aren't valuable.

Treasure

The characters can plunder ten vials of perfumes (5 gp each), a silver comb set with turquoise (25 gp), a matching hairbrush (25 gp), and a gold chamber pot (125 gp).

25a. Homunculus Lair

Once opulent and full of exotic hardwood cabinets packed with leather-bound tomes, this room now lies in shambles. Ankle-deep rubbish covers the floor, the remains of the room's former furnishings. The homunculus (see "x") stands amid the wreckage. (If the characters have already encountered and destroyed the homunculus, it has magically re-formed in this room.)

The arrival of adventurers prompts the homunculus to begin rooting through the detritus on the floor. After a minute of searching, it finds a torn page on which is drawn a smiling dragon with butterfly wings. The homunculus shows it to the characters, tears the page into tiny pieces, throws the scraps into the air like confetti, and gives the party a long stare. If the characters offer to kill the faerie dragon, the homunculus leads them to x, reaches into the mirror there, pulls out Maddgoth's helm, and gives it to the nearest character.

25b. Maddgoth's Study

The stained glass panes of this door have been shattered, creating holes through which characters can see into the room.

The wands, staffs, rods, and orbs embedded in the walls are trophies taken by Maddgoth from wizards he has killed. They can be pried from the walls easily enough, and each is usable as an arcane focus.

Maddgoth took the spellbooks from scores of dead wizards and used them to construct the desk and chair for himself. Any character who examines the furniture can quickly ascertain that the spellbooks belonged to many different wizards. Some look much older than others. A coating of thick lacquer gives these furnishings a glass-like sheen and prevents the books from being opened. Characters who smash the desk and chair can salvage twelve intact spellbooks, nine from the wreckage of the desk and three from the wreckage of the chair. The remaining books are too damaged to be salvaged or read.

To determine a particular spellbook's contents, roll a d6. The book contains four wizard spells of each level up to and including the number rolled on the die. For example, on a roll of 3, a spellbook contains four spells of each level from 1st through 3rd. Pick spells from the wizard spell list.

26a. Building Blocks

This room contains piles of tiny interlocking clay bricks that radiate auras of transmutation magic under the scrutiny of a detect magic spell. The bricks can be assembled into a single Large object, two Medium objects, or four Small objects. A sculpture animates at its creator's command, as though affected by an animate objects spell, and remains animate and under its creator's control for 1 hour. The sculpture is destroyed and turns to clay dust when it drops to 0 hit points, when it's successfully targeted by a dispel magic spell (DC 15), or when the effect ends.

26b. Old Clay

A detect magic spell reveals an aura of transmutation magic around the oven, which is used for baking tiny clay bricks like the ones in x. The clay on the shelves is too old and brittle to be of use.

27a. Dining Room

Moments after the bell rings, the six living unseen servants from x enter through the north door and begin setting the table for a feast. Once the table is set, they pull out chairs for guests and begin pouring wine into goblets before serving dinner and dessert.

27b. Kitchen

This room contains tables, stoves, cauldrons, cooking utensils, and food in various states of preparation. All the food is magically created and appears fresh. Packed in cupboards are enameled bowls, plates, goblets, and mugs, as well as silver eating utensils and candlesticks.

Unless they were in encountered in x, six living unseen servants (see appendix A) staff the kitchen. They try to gently nudge anyone who wanders into the kitchen out the nearest door. Intruders that refuse to leave are attacked. The servants are confined to x and can't leave these chambers of their own volition.

27c. Pantry

Grains, dried meats, and other foodstuffs line the shelves here. Thanks to Maddgoth's magic, the food is perfectly preserved as long as it remains in the castle.

27d. Potent Potables

Jars, decanters, casks, and bottles containing all manner of liquids line the sagging wooden shelves. Beverages from the mundane to the exotic can be retrieved from the shelves, which are replenished thanks to numerous spells laid upon the room. These liquids quickly evaporate if removed from the castle.

Arch Gate to Level 11

Carved into the arch's keystone is a hand clutching a lit torch. The arch is one of Halaster's magic gates (see "x"), and its rules are as follows:

• If a lit torch is brought within 5 feet of the arch, the gate opens for 1 minute.
• Characters must be 11th level or higher to pass through this gate (see "x"). The first creature to pass through the gate triggers an elder rune (see "x").
• A creature that passes through the gate appears in x on level 11, in the closest unoccupied space next to the identical gate located there.

34a. Master Bedchamber

Maddgoth slept as little as possible and spent almost no time here. The room's features are as follows:

The snoring lump under the covers is an illusion. If the covers are pulled back, the snoring stops as it's revealed that there's no one in the bed. Casting dispel magic on the bed also ends the illusion.

A detect magic spell reveals an aura of conjuration magic around each framed portrait of Maddgoth. When a creature casts a spell in this room or disturbs the figure in the bed, the six wands depicted in the framed portraits magically spring from their paintings, gaining the statistics of flying swords, and remain detached from the paintings thereafter. Replace the wands' Longsword action option with the following:

34b. Closet

This closet is stuffed with robes, sleeping gowns, shoes, and slippers hanging on racks or stacked neatly on shelves.

Mind Flayer Costume

Closer inspection reveals that the mind flayer is a featureless wooden mannequin dressed in a convincing mind flayer costume, complete with black robe, cowl, and rubber mask. A Medium character who wears the costume can make Charisma (Deception) checks to impersonate a mind flayer. Such checks are made with advantage if the costume is viewed in poor lighting or from more than 15 feet away. A character who wears the mask has disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks. A character who wears the robe and cowl has disadvantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. The robe and cowl can't be worn over heavy armor.

36a. Gathered Intelligence

This room contains rows of wooden cabinets stuffed with disorganized files chronicling the magical exploits of thousands of wizards dating back hundreds of years. Half of the dossiers are so old that they've crumbled to dust. Scrawled on most of the remaining ones is the word "DECEASED" in Maddgoth's hand, while a handful of dossiers bear the word "LICH" instead.

36b. Secure Records

The door to this room is locked and trapped with a glyph of warding spell. Maddgoth took the key with him, and opening the door by any means other than using the proper key triggers the spell. Picking the lock requires thieves' tools and a successful DC 15 Dexterity check.

An examination of the door accompanied by a successful DC 19 Intelligence (Investigation) check detects the nearly invisible glyph, which is scratched into one of the door's stained glass panes. When triggered, the glyph erupts with magical energy in a 20-foot-radius sphere centered on it. Each creature in the area must make a DC 19 Dexterity saving throw, taking 45 (10d8) thunder damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. The glyph has the secondary effect of blowing out all the glass in the door.

The room is empty.

Stairs to the Roof

The northernmost staircase climbs 20 feet before ending at an 8-foot-square stone trapdoor. When a creature starts to climb the stairs, the trapdoor opens outward, allowing access to the roof (x). The trapdoor closes on its own 1 minute later.

Mirror Gate to Level 10

Etched into the bottom of the mirror's stone frame are the letters T-U-O-Y-A-W (a reflection of W-A-Y-O-U-T). The mirror is one of Halaster's magic gates (see "x"). Its rules are as follows:

• If a creature speaks the words "Way out!" while pointing at the mirror, the gate opens for 1 minute.
• Characters must be 11th level or higher to pass through this gate (see "x"). The first creature to pass through the gate triggers an elder rune (see "x").
• A creature that passes through the gate appears in x on level 10, in the closest unoccupied space next to the identical gate located there.

Shapechanged Roper

Halaster melded a roper and a mimic to create this creature with the statistics of a roper and the ability to shape itself into objects like a mimic. While immobile in object form, it is indistinguishable from a normal object. Only when the roper reverts to its true form do its monstrous features become apparent.

The roper has the following additional trait:

Treasure

If the characters kill and cuts open the roper, they find five misshapen diamonds (100 gp each) in its gizzard.

43a. "Homunculi Unwelcome"

The characters hear crashing sounds as they approach this room. Hanging on the handle of each door to this room is a crude wood-and-rope sign bearing the chalk words "HOMUNCULI UNWELCOME" in Draconic. The western door is closed and has a gold coin wedged in its frame (see x).

Maddgoth's homunculus knows it can't be killed and attacks the characters unless they withdraw immediately. If it is destroyed, it melts away and re-forms in x.

Otto's spoils include candles and candle snuffers, potted mushrooms, mortars and pestles, lamps, belts, pentacle pendants, recipe books, sticks of colored chalk, kettles, cauldrons, spoons, stuffed animals, spools of wire, glass beads, wigs, walking sticks, bars of soap, balls of yarn, cracked mirrors and prisms, quills, smoking pipes, empty scroll tubes, and torn sheaves of parchment. Though some of the collection's pieces might be useful and many are colorful or whimsical in design, nothing here holds any special value.

43b. Otto's Secret Stash

Otto's most prized possessions fill this cluttered space. These treasures are spread across tables that have been stacked atop one another, forming makeshift shelves that scrape the 20-foot-high ceiling and threaten to topple at any moment. Any character who tries to get at a hard-to-reach item has a 50 chance of setting into motion a Rube Goldberg-esque cascade of tables and baubles. When everything comes tumbling down, every creature in the room must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Treasure

The framed scroll is a spell scroll of cloudkill.

Treasure

The room contains three full sets of alchemist's supplies, all of which can fit in one backpack.

A potion of invisibility in a stoppered glass vial has rolled underneath the northwest corner cabinet and is lodged in the back corner. A detect magic spell reveals its presence.

Hidden Trapdoor

An 8-foot-square trapdoor near the northern battlement hides a stone staircase that leads down to x. This is the route by which Otto the faerie dragon comes and goes from the castle.

The trapdoor blends in with the surrounding stonework, and detecting it requires a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check. Tiny letters scratched into the trapdoor spell the words "KNOCK KNOCK" in Draconic.

Knocking twice on the trapdoor causes it to swing open on its own, then close 1 minute later. Otherwise, the trapdoor must be pried open with a crowbar or similar tool. Prying the trapdoor open requires a successful DC 18 Strength (Athletics) check.