Page 134 - Waterdeep - Dungeon of the Mad Mage_Neat

45. HALASTER'S SANCTUARY The desk has a single drawer, in which Halaster has
placed one of his many spellbooks. This thin tome has
These areas serve as Halaster's private abode on this a black leather cover with Halaster's rune burned into
level, though the Mad Mage himself is not present. it. Any creature other than Halaster that opens the
book triggers an elder rune that targets that individual
45A.SPECTRALSKULL (see "Elder Runes," page 12). Draw a card from the
The single door leading to this room opens inward, Elder Runes Deck (see appendix B) to determine which
swinging toward the east. The room has a flat ceiling 20 rune appears.
feet high and contains the following features: Treasure. Most of the spell book's pages have been
Statues. Two ll·foot-tall statues of elephant·headed torn out. Written on the few pages that remain is the fol·
men stand in the southern corners. The one closer to lowing meager collection of spells: disguise self, levitate,
the southern exit is a stone golem . The other statue is nondetection, and unseen servant.
inanimate and harmless.
Dais. An arched double door carved with screaming 46. DETENTION AREA
devil faces stands closed at the back of a dais. Floating Dweomercore's faculty and students are entitled to
in front of the double door is a giant, ghostly human freely use creatures imprisoned here as test subjects in
skull with a long beard. their demonstrations and experiments.
The devil.faced doors have nine hidden locks, each
of which requires a separate knock spell to open. Both 46A. PRISON CELLS
doors also swing open when one or the other is touched A lO·foOt·high hallway contains six iron-barred cells,
with a silvered weapon, or if someone speaks Infernal their doors held shut with arcane Jock spells. Faculty
while standing on the dais. members and students can ignore the spells and open
The ghostly skull is neither a creature nor an object, the cell doors normally. Forcing open a door requires
but a magical force. It has darkvision and truesight out a successful DC 25 Strength (Athletics) check or a
to a range of 60 feet, but it can't perceive any creature knock spell.
warded by a nondetection spell or similar magic. The The cells contain no furnishings other than waste
skull can't move or be moved from its space, and it can't buckets. The middle cell on the east side of the hall
be damaged. Because it's without substance, other crea· holds three goblins abducted from Azrok's Hold (level
tures can occupy its space. A successful dispel magic 3, area 21) by Wormriddle. Their names are Evilfinger,
spell (DC 19) cast on the skull causes it to vanish for 1 Pulk, and Tobble. If they are rescued, the goblins wait
minute. The skull also disappears while contained in an until their rescuers fall asleep, then rob them and es-
antimagic field. No other magic has any effect on it. cape. Until then, they follow the party and contribute as
If the skull sees any creature other than the real little as possible.
Halaster in the room, it screams, "You're not me!"
When this happens, all creatures in the vicinity must 46B. PETRIFIED WIZARD
roll initiative, including the stone golem. The skull acts The statue in the middle of this room is a former
on initiative count 30 and again on initiative count 15. pupil- a dragonborn mage whom Halaster turned to
On each of the skull's turns, all creatures in the room stone with a wish spell over a century ago. The statue
except the stone golem are telekinetically thrust straight stands atop a 2-foot-high, 5-foot-wide stone cylinder
up into the air, then cast down hard onto the floor. Each engraved with the following words in Common: "Follow
target takes 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage and ends the the rules. Obey your instructors. Don't be this guy."
turn prone in its space. (Although the telekinesis effect 47. DEVIL ON THE LOOSE
is magical, the damage it deals is not.) Only when there ---
are no more creatures left to toss about does the ghostly A conjurer named Yarek summoned a bone devil in area
skull cease its assault. 48 and promised to set it free on the condition that it
When the ghostly skull screams, the golem uses its kill his nemesis, Skrianna Shadowdusk. The bone devil
first turn in combat to block the south exit, pushing the agreed. After Yarek released the devil, it immediately
door closed and shoving smaller creatures out of the murdered him. To fulfill its agreement with the mage,
way automatically. By occupying the space north of the the devil must now kill Skrianna. Wards placed on these
door, the golem prevents the door from being opened. chambers prevent the devil from leaving, however, and
The golem remains stationary and attacks creatures the greater wards placed on Undermountain by Halaster
within its reach, returning to its original position only prevent it from getting away by plane shifting.
when no other creatures are left in the room. Before he died, Yarek used a sending spell to warn the
headmaster about the escaped devil. If the arcanaloth
45B. HALASTER'S STUDY persuades the characters to destroy the devil in ex-
Desk. A black crystal desk covered with melted candles change for safe passage through Dweomercore, it waits
and empty ink jars stands in the middle of the room. patiently for them in area 46b while they confront the
Chair. Behind the desk, attached to a thin iron chain fiend in these chambers.
and draped over one corner of a tall black crystal
chair, is a fist·sized, gleaming black gemstone-the 47A. ALAS, POOR YAREK
control gem for the death slaad on level 8 (a legend Characters who examine the doors to this room (each
lore spell or similar magic confirms as much). marked with an asterisk on map 9) notice thin silver

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