Page 64 - Waterdeep - Dungeon of the Mad Mage_Neat

Darribeth suffers from hallucinations and paranoia. If 9. ALARM SYSTEM
the characters approach her in a calm manner, Darri-
beth smiles and says to the toad on her knee, "Look, Sloped Roof. The ceiling is 30 feet high at the north-
west end of the cave and gradually slopes down to 20
Teeha! I told you they're not demons. I wonder if Urgala
feet high as the cavern narrows into a passage that
sent them."
Darribeth desperately wants to get back to her wife leads to area 10.
Urgala, whom she hasn't seen in a decade. When last Tripwires. The uneven rock floor is dotted with small
stalagmites, between which run nearly invisible trip
they were together, Urgala and Darribeth were living in
wires made of webbing. These web strands set off hid-
Amphail, a town north of Waterdeep. In the intervening
den rockfall traps.
years, Urgala moved farther north to the frontier town of
Triboar, where she took over a modest inn called North- The driders in area 10 have strung thin web strands
shield House. (See the adventure Storm King's Thunder between some of the stalagmites, creating trip wires.
for more information on Urgala Meltimer and her inn.) Any creature that enters a square marked Ton the map
If her sanity is restored, Darribeth becomes her nor- has a 50 percent chance of breaking a strand and trig-
mal self-a curious and kind woman with a flair for gering a trap that releases rocks from a hidden crevice
magic who doesn't mind bending rules for the greater in the ceiling. If a trap triggers, all creatures occupying
good. She speaks Common, Dwarvish, Halfling, and the trapped square must succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity
Undercommon. saving throw or be struck by a falling rock for 5 (ldlO)
Darribeth has a rope of climbing that belonged to a bludgeoning damage. In addition, the sound of the fall-
colleague who perished in the Underdark. She offers ing rocks alerts the driders in area 10.
it as payment for getting her back to the surface. In A character adjacent to a trapped square or in a
addition, if any wizards are among her rescuers, she trapped square can spot the trip wires with a successful
lets them copy spells from her spellbook (see "Trea- DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check, then track the thin
sure" below). webs to the point in the ceiling where the rocks are hid-
Once restored to her right mind and borne safely to den. Once it is spotted, a rockfall trap can be disabled
Waterdeep, Darribeth makes plans to return to Amphail. with a successful DC 12 Dexterity check by a creature in
There, she learns what became of her wife and reunites the trapped square; failing this check triggers the trap.
with Urgala in Triboar. If the characters make the jour-
ney with Darribeth and all is well at Northshield House, TuNNEL TO EXPANDED DUNGEON
Urgala is so delighted by their act of kindness that she If you want to expand the dungeon north or east of
offers them free room and board for as long as the inn here, assume that the tunnel in the north wall is hidden
remains standing. Urgala and Darribeth remain lifelong behind a 1-foot-thick wall of rocks held in place by web
friends of the characters henceforth. netting and clay mortar; characters can detect the false
wall with a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Perception)
QUASIT check and break through it with ease.
Darribeth's memory is fuzzy on where and when she
met her talking toad during her Underdark exploits. The 10. DRIDER LAIR
quasit, which Darribeth calls Teeba, has not revealed
Driders and Spiders. The northern half of the cave
its true form to her. In the form of a toad, it torments her
is home to two driders and five giant spiders. The
with false hopes of escape before dashing them. It has driders hide in the natural alcove north of the en-
told Darribeth, for instance, that hezrou demons are trance, while the spiders crawl amid thick webs that
nearby to keep her from leaving this cavern. If attacked
fill the top 10 feet beneath the 30-foot-high ceiling.
or exposed, the quasit turns invisible and flees.
Hidden Arch. The southern half of the cave is filled
with thick, sticky webs. (These webs conceal an arch
TREASURE
embedded in a wall at the south end of the cave. The
Darribeth's spellbook contains the following spells: cone
arch is not visible from the cave entrance because of
of cold, counterspell, darkvision, detect magic, fireball,
the webs concealing it.)
fly, greater invisibility, ice storm.jump, mage armor,
magic missile, misty step, shield, suggestion, tongues, The driders while away the days carving zurkhwood
and water breathing. figurines and writing poems on the caps of trillimacs in
In addition to her spellbook, Darribeth carries a back- Undercommon. A sample haiku is presented below.
pack missing a strap, within which she keeps material
My Queen of Spiders,
components for her spells, a pouch containing 11 gp, a
Dark diamond of the Abyss,
dagger, a canteen, and a worn blanket. Fastened to the Snare me in your web.
backpack is a coiled rope of climbing.
ARCH GATE TO LEVEL 6
8. CROSSROADS A character entering the cave through the arch gate au-
The ceiling of this 30-foot-high cavern is studded with tomatically becomes stuck in the webs (see "Dungeon
stalactites, and the floor is so uneven that it counts as Hazards" in chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master's Guide).
difficult terrain. A search of the cavern reveals nothing Carved into the arch are six stone niches, each one
dangerous or valuable. containing a small stone figurine that weighs 1 pound.
The figurines represent a black dragon, a unicorn, an

LEVEL 4 I TWIST'ED CAVERNS