Page 35 - Waterdeep - Dungeon of the Mad Mage_Neat

If he or his thugs are attacked, Shunn Shurreth calls While enlarged by the duergar skull, the gelatinous
for bugbear reinforcements from area 9d. Shunn's goal cube has the following modified statistics:
in any conflict is to capture his enemies and haul them
• The cube is Gargantuan and can hold up to nine Large
to Skullport as trophies. Once there, the prisoners are
creatures or up to thirty-six Medium or smaller crea-
brought to Skull Island and left to the tender mercies of
tures inside it at a time.
Commander Sundeth (see "Skullport," page 303). • It can make up to four Pseudopod attacks on its turn,
Supplies. The barrels and crates here contain enough and it makes Strength checks and Strength saving
water and dry food to sustain a single person for 600
throws with advantage.
days or Shunn's gang for 30 days.
• When the cube shrinks back to normal size, any crea-
Treasure. The thugs carry a total of 14 gp in coin. On tures that it can no longer contain are expelled into
a black cord around his neck, Shunn wears a silver key unoccupied spaces around it.
(5 gp) that unlocks the silver-bound chest in area 9c.
lOB. FLOODED ROOM
9C. GANG'S TREASURE
This laboratory, with a 20-foot-high ceiling, is com-
Barrels. Stone racks spanning the walls contain barrels pletely filled with 24,000 cubic feet of salt water created
that are so rotted and old that they fall apart when by a spell gone awry. Opening the door causes the water
handled. (The ale and water once stored in them have to empty into area lOa. Creatures within 20 feet of the
long since evaporated.) opened door are caught in the deluge and must make a
Table and Chest. A large stone table in the middle of the DC 12 Strength saving throw. Any creature that fails the
room is draped with cobwebs. A silver-bound wooden saving throw is knocked prone and takes 5 (ldlO) blud-
chest rests atop it. geoning damage.
Treasure. The chest has a built-in lock that Shunn Once the water is released, it fills both rooms to a
Shurreth's silver key opens. The Jock can also be picked depth of half an inch. Swept into area lOa with the water
with thieves' tools and a successful DC 15 Dexterity is the putrid, rotting corpse of a human wizard in green
check. The chest contains 100 gp, which Shunn uses to and purple robes. This is what remains of Salamanth,
pay his gang. one of Halaster's more foolish apprentices.
Treasure. A search of the room reveals overturned
9D. BUGBEAR BARRACKS tables, waterlogged books destroyed by salt water, and
Ten bugbears sleep on the dusty floor of this room. a glass wand (the dead wizard's arcane focus), which is
They investigate any commotion they hear in area 9b. worth 25 gp.

10. OOZE TEMPLE 10C. ALTAR TO jUIBLEX
These four rooms comprise a temple devoted to water False Altar. In the middle of this 20-foot-high room is
and oozes. All doors leading to these rooms are deco- a limestone altar topped with a misshapen mound of
gold that looks like it was poured on the altar in mol-
rated with symbols of water, and each door forms an
ten form and left there until it cooled and hardened.
airtight seal when shut.
(The mound of gold is an ochre jelly of unusual color
lOA. SKULL IN THE CUBE trapped in magical stasis.)
Wall Carvings. Black mildew drips from lidless eyes
Clean. This 30-foot-high room is swept clean, with no
and gaping mouths carved into the walls. (The wall
trace of dust or debris.
carvings represent the all-consuming demon lord
Frescoes. The walls are carved with frescoes depicting
Juiblex. Though ghastly, the depictions are harmless.)
horrific cyclopean cities of black stone submerged be-
neath raging seas. Close examination of the altar reveals that it bears an
Giant Ooze. A gelatinous cube measuring 30 feet on a inscription in Abyssal that reads, "A gift of flesh, will-
side is trapped in the room. The monster is situated in ingly given, can feed our eternal hunger." A character
the northeast corner when the characters first arrive. who inspects this "mound of gold" can ascertain its true
Floating in the center of it is a dwarven skull sheathed nature with a successful DC 12 Intelligence (Nature)
in glass. Any character who succeeds on a DC 15 Wis- check. A detect magic spell reveals an aura of trans-
dom (Perception) check can tell that the skull is sus- mutation magic around the ochre jelly, suggesting the
pended in an enormous gelatinous cube, not levitating. presence of the stasis field.
The stasis field immobilizes the ooze but also renders
A detect magic spell reveals an aura of transmutation
magic around the skull, which belonged to a duergar. it impervious to damage. This magic is dispelled when it
Halaster preserved within the skull the duergar's magi- comes into contact with flesh or is targeted by a success-
ful dispel magic spell (DC 17). Freed from its stasis, the
cal ability to enlarge itself. The skull now has the power
to enlarge the gelatinous cube, and the skull's glassy ochre jelly attacks.
coating protects it from the cube's digestive acid. Re-
lOD. CAVED-IN ROOM
moving the skull from the gelatinous cube causes the
This room has partially caved in, but someone has
cube to shrink to its normal size (10 feet on a side). The
bored tunnels through the collapsed sections, granting
skull has no magical properties other than its ability to access to dungeon hallways south and east of here. The
enlarge gelatinous cubes (and potentially other oozes, at floor is covered with dust and debris, but the room con-
your discretion).
tains nothing of interest.
LEVEL 2 I ARCANE CHAMBERS
34