Page 189 - Waterdeep - Dungeon of the Mad Mage_Neat

25. HOBGOBLIN GUARDS Smashed Jars. Hundreds of jars of body parts lie
------- smashed on the floor.
Guards. Two hobgoblins stand guard here, one in front
of each door. They attack intruders, ganging up on one A hobgoblin accidentally set off a polymorph trap and
enemy at a time. was transformed into this hook horror. The other hob-
Arch. A stone arch embedded in the middle of the goblins decided to trap it in this room as a joke. Lacking
east wall has an image of an open book carved into hands, the hook horror couldn't open the doors to es-
its keystone. cape, and it swept the bottles off the shelves in a rage,
Secret Door. A secret door in the north wall opens spilling their contents.
into a dusty, web-choked passage between this room When the hook horror drops to 0 hit points, it turns
and area 24. back into an unconscious hobgoblin named jarrk. De-
spite his recent misadventure, jarrk is fanatically loyal to
ARCH GATE TO LEVEL 9 Doomcrown and would never willingly betray him.
The arch is one of Halaster's magic gates (see "Gates," Arcturia collected body parts from all sorts of Un-
page 12). Its rules are as follows: derdark specimens. Characters who search through the
detritus find moth wings, beetle shells, darkmantle eyes,
• Holding an open book while standing within 5 feet stirge hooks, fiumph tendrils, troglodyte claws, demon
of the arch causes the gate to open for 1 minute. The ichor, gelatinous residue, and other worthless creepy
book turns to dust as the gate opens, even if it is a bits. At your discretion, some useful spell components
spellbook. might lie amid the refuse.
• Characters must be 10th level or higher to pass
through this gate (see "jhesiyra Kestellharp," page 29.LABORATORY
10). The first creature to pass through the gate trig-
gers an elder rune (see "Elder Runes," page 12). Vanar Freth. A drow mage named Vanar Freth and his
• A creature that passes through the gate appears in summoned shadow demon companion are quietly
area 49 on level 9, in the closest unoccupied space searching the room when the characters arrive.
next to the identical gate located there. Statues. Standing in opposite corners are two 9-foot-
tall statues of ogres transforming into giant flies.
26. APPRENTICE'S QUARTERS Table. A large stone table stands in the middle of the
room. Several curious items rest atop it, including a
Like her former master Halaster, Arcturia takes on black cube-shaped box on a folded gray blanket, and
apprentices of her own from time to time, but they sel- the slimy, decapitated head of a mind flayer whose
dom survive for long. This room contains a moldy quilt headless body has bled out on the floor nearby. The
draped over a stone bier against the north wall and a corpse is being feasted on by maggots.
wooden desk with a high-backed chair in the southeast Old Trap. The double door to the southwest and the
corner. On one corner of the desk rests a yellowed hu- floor around it are scorched by fire- the result of a
man skull topped with a half-melted wax candle.
trap set off long ago.
27. D EAD APPRENTICE The drow mage has managed to get this far without
being detected. Left to his own devices, he eventually
Quilt. A moldy quilt is draped over a stone bier against finds the treasure hidden under the table (see "Trea-
the south wall. sure" below). The shadow demon watches for trouble
Desk. A wooden desk stands in the northeast corner. while the drow busies himself with the search.
Slumped in a high-backed chair behind the desk is a Vanar fights to keep any treasure he has found but
human skeleton clad in perforated black robes.
otherwise avoids hostilities. Once his search of Arctu-
The inanimate skeleton belongs to a human appren- riadoom is complete, he plans to return to the House
tice named Kazvark, whom Arcturia killed with a bar- Freth fortress on level 12 and report to his master,
rage of magic missiles for failing to complete a simple Drivvin Freth.
homework assignment. Arcturia destroyed Kazvark's
spellbook but didn't check his pockets for valuables. TABLE
Until recently, Arcturia had a mind flayer assistant. She
MITHRALKEY tore off its head to study the psychic energy stored in its
Characters who search the apprentice's robes find a brain. Next to the head is a long pair of steel tweezers
6-inch-long, fiat piece of mithral shaped like a U in one and a ladle.
pocket. This key is one of six required to activate the The 1-foot black cube is an ebony-framed box fitted
weapon of mass disintegration in area 37. with panes of black glass. The box has a hinged lid
and radiates an aura of transmutation magic under
28. SPECIMENS the scrutiny of a detect magic spell. When a Tiny beast
Characters who listen at either door to this room hear small enough to fit in the box (such as a rat or a lizard)
strange clicking noises from beyond. is placed inside and the lid is closed tightly, the box
magically transforms it into some other Tiny beast (your
Hook Horror. A hook horror is trapped in the room, choice) unless it succeeds on a DC 15 Wisdom saving
but there's more to it than meets the eye. throw. The box can do this eight more times before its
Shelves. The curved walls are lined with stone shelves. magic is fully spent, whereupon it crumbles to sand.

LEVEL 14 I ARCTURIAOOOM
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