DDAL Jasper DMs Dungeon of the Mad Mage Spoilers Completed

Oh at the end of game Tuk’n Rol wish to be first level and lose all abilities. Player wanted a reset on the pc. He rolled 26 so he can never use a wish again. I allowed it. Some DMS are going to be ticked.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage Session 14
Day 29-30 Dweomercore and Murial’s Gauntlet or No Class for you.
AP 4 TP 8 Downtime 10 Renown 1.
PC Killed Monsters Killed 612 Villains Captured 13 Villains escaped 28
Magic Item Unlocked Mithral Plate armour, Chest of Preserving, Oil of slipperiness, Cloak of Elvenkind drow version, +1 wand of war mage, Gauntlets of Ogre power,
Eye of the Spider side quest complete.
I had five people strong grew Rick Wizard, Drew Sorcerer, John C Sorcerer, Joseph Bard, Bankshot Warlock Fighter. This would grow by two npcs and more allies. Most of them are Drow Downtown Town Drow Killers. And with some of the magic items in play most combat was walk.
As the group approached the Dweomercore entrance, Rick with his detect magic see an Alarm spell on the floor and ties to dispel it. OOPS. The new students of Halaster Mad Mage school are not enrolled and already late for classes. Thing arm take to dorms to fill out their school loans and majors.
Halaster arrives thirty minutes later and questions each student. Some don’t even know what circle of magic they like. And a freaky Bard. They are expelled three minutes later. And shown the back door down to Murial’s level. (Okay one player was late so I did a quick walk through of level nine to kill time.)
Rick’s Detect Magic and Joseph’s passive perception made sure any magic or traps were not even a bother. As they are deciding on to take the secret door, Vlonwelv comes over the intercom ordering troops about. (I let Vlonwelv have use of intercom at any location. I allowed me to do some silly announcements.) The group now know drow are on this level. They take the door.
Exploring the northern part of the level they find a temple. And John C sees an old girlfriend. No ghoul friend. No that not right. Oh, a Girlfriend T’rissa a Banshee and two other drow banshees. All of them remember John C. T’rissa lets out a wail which drops Bankshot and combat begins. (This would be the only combat during the night where the anyone was zeroed out.) The group makes short work of the banshees. As they are getting Bankshot up, they see two recently dead bodies which had been looted. Kravous a tiefling rogue and Zundra a dwarf barbarian.
Joseph casts Raise Dead on Zundra. What?
Joseph casts Raise Dead on Zundra. You heard me.
Joseph casts Raise Dead on Zundra. He did. Talk about gaining allies the strange way. Ok, the book does cover what happens when speak with dead is used. BUT THE BARD RAISED DEAD ON AN NPC. Inspiration can only be reward once. I was able to use Zundra as information dump and gave some temporary advantages to the party.
Bankshot during his short rest tossed Kravous into his portable hole. OKAY.
The group explores all the northern section of the map finding a well-maintained series of labs. Checking out the center of the map, they raid the kitchen. (College students am I right). Finding a small cooler of what they think holds beer, Rick casts KNOCK on it.
DING DONG. I need a cheese pizza with extra spider legs. Would patrol b check out who casted the KNOCK spell. Glory to Lolth. DING DONG. (ok the knock put the Drow on alert and took away all the advantages I just gave them for having the barbarian information dump.)
Exploring the rest of the center of the map, they make short work of the stone giant drow, the madness statute. Find the eye of the spider gemstone. And still have not spotted the green drider or the drow. Entering Lolth’s palace they hear, “Oh good allies. Well maybe allies. Roll the bones to win.” This was from a hidden voice in the balcony section of the room they just entered. Three bone golems attack the party. Using various spells Drew Ping Ponged up and down the room. Rick got mad when the voice dispelled on his spells that had a golem dancing in midair. After a few rounds they defeated Murial’s golems and become somewhat allies.
(Okay I do not know how the combat would have went between Murial and Rick especially with the staff of magi in play. But between having a wall of force casted around him, and the group calming him down, we will not know.)
The group took a long rest in a safe room with Murial’s new troglodyte allies. (I like my dungeons to be active. Since the floor is setup to be Murial versus the drow, I had him clear some rooms and encounters.) During breakfast Joseph cast RAISE DEAD on Kravous. Ok now the group is 5 players. 2 players have pulled out other pc sheets to sub in as two no dead npcs. Murial and the 8 troglodytes. It is a freaking company. Or at least two platoons. I know what the next encounter will be. I have John C roll to place the new location of Vlonwelv this morning. She is in the next encounter.
Next encounter Auvryndar Hall is huge. I used the width of the battle map and three fourths of the length. I had my monsters spread out as possible. Well except for the priestess guards. They rolled a group stealth check. All but one passed it. I said they had five rounds to finish combat before reinforcements would arrive. The monsters were spread out. Surprise round. First round. Second round about a third of the way through it. No monsters left. Four halfling banjo playing bards rescued.
I just called the floor. If we played to closing, they would have cleared some more rooms. Even if I stopped at closing and got rid of the two npcs, and bards. With Murial’s help it would have been a cake walk.
Next week Day 31. Level 11 Trog Warrens.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage Session 15
A 3-hour combat or Bride of Trog!
Day 31- Morning 32
AP 4 TP 8 Renown 1 Downtime 10
PC Killed 7 Monster Killed 642 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 28
I had a very strong group of six. Even after one person dropped out to run a table. In fact, every pc was over the recommended level of the floor.
Bankshot Warlock Fighter, John C Sorcerer, Drew Sorcerer, Rick Wizard, Skye Monk Rogue, and Joseph Bard. Two friends and the rest Drow Downtown Drow Killers. Two Staff of the Magi.
The group fresh of totally clearing level ten are loudly entering the next level when they spy a lone Drow. The loner goes get off a shout of fright alerting the watch post. They nearly take out all the watch in two rounds but one escapes to be chased by Skye. Skye is slowed by the troll trap and half the group flanks left. This alerts the Drow slavers who send their slaves to a safe room, and either charge the group or send for help.
The drow knowing they are going to die, slow the party down so the alarm can be given. Ignoring Rick when he turned into a T-Rex they beat up Skye. The T-rex splits his attacks between Skye and the Drow. (Hey Int 2 if it moves it is food.) Just before two fireballs take out the drow, one puts a good sword into the monk. Ding. The Drow did take one with them. The fleeing drow alerts the level. What to do retreat or attack? They choose.
Attack. Wiping out most of remaining House Auvryndar members. The group retreats and casts tiny hut to rest of the day. And so, the bard can raise Skye. The group is on notices as the NEW ALLIANCE of House Auvryndar and House Freth search for them. The guards leave behind three troglodyte slaves chained together with a gong.
What happens next is part miscommunication, store noise, and not paying attention. Joseph goes to release the troglodytes and half the party tries to kill them. Lots of counter spells and yelling. At the end one of the trogs proposals to Joseph and the other two swear loyalty. Terrance Trog shows Joseph the way down to level 12. They do have to bypass one watch post.
The group surprises me and with in three rounds sneak pass the watch post using spells, sneaking, and walking far away from the patrol.
Story Awards House Alliance. ALL DROW will kill or capture the party on site. Joseph Bride of Trog. Advantage when dealing with troglodytes for the rest of book.
Combat started around 6:30 and the first break was at 9. The group did explore about 7 rooms.

Dungeon of The Mad Mage Session 16
John C gets a little peace.
Maze Level and Trobriand’s Gauntlet
Day 32 Morning to Day 35 Noon.
AP 4 TP 8 Renown 1 Downtime 10
PC Killed 7 Monster Killed 61 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 28 PC Captured 4 PC Released 4
I had a strong group of four Bankshot warlock fighter, John C Sorcerer, Skye Monk Rogue and Nathar Darkblood (who dances on the ceiling) wizard.
Fleeing from the troglodyte tyranny our bold party enters the maze level. And get lost. Sliding north they come to a dead end. They back track a little and go west. They discover one of Halaster archway gate but leave it alone. Going further west, they find foggy minotaurs. The foggy monsters attack but it really an illusion. Turning north the Nathar discovers an iron web. Consulting with the party, he figures out it will not keep regular size humanoids out but will keep out large monsters. They then proceed to a very smelly situation.
John C steps in to it. Yes, he steps into a full cavern which is two-foot-deep of bat smell stuff. He smiles weakly at Bankshot. Bankshot stands three foot two on his tippy toes. Everyone but John C is able to avoid the smelly stuff by spells or items. Just as John C gets halfway across, he slips and falls backward into the mess. He declares this stink and four drow voices agree with him. Look north four drow guards are going for their hand crossbow holsters. They don’t make it.
John C gets to western exit. Bankshot starts cleaning him off while Skye goes to explore the drow passage way. He finds a huge iron spider. Everyone but John dashes to the passageway. Looking at the stinking stuff John does the smart thing. And take walks north to the huge cavern the iron spider. The group makes short work of the construct.
They finally notice the huge okay medium fort. As they approach a drow mage order them to halt and declare. John C announces himself. The Alarm goes off. John C announces he will surrender if his friends can live.
(OKAY. The player running John C done broke the DM again. The party switch to being nice. But looking at the fort, if combat broke out. It would be a TPK. Also, John C said some key words in his speech. So, I took about twenty minutes to figure out what to do.)
Three days later a peace treaty was signed between the Drow nations and the Downtown Drow Killers. They are now allying to kill Halaster. PCs will not attack drow on sight. Drow will provide backup if necessary. John C two new girlfriends Hanhue and Sabatrin said John C was a good man but he better not has any other girlfriends. I allowed the wizard to copy spells. And the group walked away with some drow poison, potions and scrolls.
As they left the twelfth level, they were happy. The cavern corridor was not wide until suddenly a purple worm had widen the tunnel. They could see far in the distance some welding going on. Following the worm trail, the see two metal scorpions welding a huge gateway arch. Around the build site the purple worm had dung a twenty-foot trench. It also appears flying arbalests were guarding the archway sight. Sliding south they are stopped by a hobgoblin patrol. A deal is made. Gold for taking out Trobriand. The hobgoblins would get the processed metal, the adventures the loot.
They tried to sneak pass the build sight but Nathan tripped over some loose metal which was on the ceiling. They polished off the scaladars and flying crossbows.

Dungeon of The Mad Mage Session 17
Trobriand’s Gauntlet and Arcturiadoom
Day 35 Noon to Evening Day 35
AP 4 TP 8 Renown 1 Downtime 10
PC Killed 8 Monster Killed 701 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 28
Magic Item unlock Dodecahedron of Doom story item page 178, and Orb of Gonging TP 2 gong with 600-foot range.
Had a strong group of four. John C Sorcerer, Bankshot warlock fighter, Joseph Bard, and Junni Monk.
The group ignores the hobgoblin patrol suggestion and go exploring to the east. After a quick fight with some metal wasps and rust monsters, they stumble on the wild wild west prop department. A huge metal spider with lightning bolt turrets attack the party. The Junni has fun kicking the legs off. Joseph has fun turning into a t-rex and ripping the legs off. (Oops I miss read the damage output. So, they got off easy.)
They wander north and have fun playing fetch with rust monsters. (Ok I used persuasion instead of animal handling but hey it was fun.) They met up with some lava children and make friends due to Junni’s ability with languages. The lava children take them to make friends with Zox the great apprentice. That is Zox not Zot. But Zot is a kissing cousin. Zox tells them about the problem with raiding parties of hobgoblins from the level below. The group quietly ignore the fight happening outside of the meeting between the lava children and hobgoblin patrol. The group agrees to stop the metal raids. So, gathering a few lava children they descent to the next level.
They group bluff their way into the Fire Giant stronghold by selling out the lava children. While one fire giant and hobgoblin group are battling the lava children, they persuade the other giant to go tell the boss that the Waterdeep diplomatic party is here to speak with the boss. As soon as that giant leaves, they shut the door closing off the battle and go exploring.
After a few minutes they enter the grand hall. The hall has a 100-foot statue of Halaster and Emberosa is doing the final inspection. John C starts with an art critic speech, detailing everything the fire giant have gotten wrong with Halaster’s face. Emberosa is taking notes and becoming happy. Until John C decides to cast Enlarge on the head. (John C had turned a hostile encounter into a fun encounter back into a hostile encounter. Oops.) Emberosa screams and snap spins her clipboard at John C. Midway to John’s face the clipboard explodes in flames. So, this is a fire throwing fire giant. None of his allies decide to attack Emberosa directly but between mass suggestion, and hypnotic pattern they calm everyone down.
They grabbed the frozen John C and dash out one of the east corridors. Once they are far enough away, they drop the spells, and John C drops the enlarge spell. They can hear the distant shouts of Emberosa but are safe for the moment.
They find Arctunia’s art gallery. They admire the moving tapestry until it starts talking in their heads. It was beholder before it got polymorph into an art piece. Most of group starts to leave the gallery but John C decides to listen to the tapestry and toggles the button on one the other piece of art.
The party is now split.
John C finds himself in an oval room which he leaves quickly. He decides he really hungry and goes in search of food or the kitchen.
The rest of group explore the eastern part of the hall. Junni accidently trips a polymorph trap but successfully saves. They do find some abandon rooms. The only loot they discover is an “U” shaped key.
John C hears noises behind a door, using his feather claws he opens the door. He snaps his beak hungrily. The hobgoblin guards are surprised when their leg day at their personal gym is interrupted by a hungry owlbear. John C decides hobgoblin is on the menu. The fight is loud and John C takes out all but the last of hobgoblin gym rats, he finishes it off with a firebolt. However, the gym brawl had disturbed the religious study group in the next room. Maglubiyet follows are ticked off when they open the door to the gym. Finding their friends dead and a lone spell caster licking his bloody lips while standing over their bodies. Pastor Garry Hobgoblin says “KILL IT”. John C yells, “LET'S DANCE!” He misty steps into the room. Then Breaks his staff of the magi. What. Yes, he broke his brand new only one spell cast from it Staff of the Magi. KABOOM! Since the dungeon does not allow plane travel, he is the center of the explosion. Halaster tells him, “Dam I am impressed.” After some looking up in the DMG. Only Pastor Garry survives.
The rest of group feels the ground rumble under them. They explode the next three rooms dispatching the two guards. I called a night there.
We will pick up on Day 39.

Dungeon of The Mad Mage Session 18
Arcturiadoom and Obstacle Course
Big boom, Big Boom, Big Boom and Small Boom
Day 35 Evening to near midnight.
AP 4 TP 8 Renown 1 Downtime 10
PC Killed 8 Monster Killed 706 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 28
Magic Item unlock Dwarven Thrower Story item for this level only
Had a very strong group of four. Bankshot warlock fighter level 15, Drew Sorcerer Level 16 staff of magi, Rick Wizard level 15 staff of magi, and Nathan Darkblood Wizard level 16 staff of the magi.
Ouch three legendary staffs. I going to start bumping the encounter level if more than one legendary is on the board. We see how that works. Since it was a question, the retributive strike is 30- foot radius. So, a 60 by 60 cube. The farer away from it the better. This radius has not change since AD&D (1E). The only difference is 3” was 30 feet inside and 30 yards outside. Other magic items of note, trident of warning, Robe of eyes, invisibility cloak.
Okay. Since only Bankshot was the only player from last week returning, I just advance the timeline by one hour.
The group is wandering around the north east section of the fire giants lair. Most of the rooms they search are either classrooms or labs with strange critters. Just remember to knock your shoe out in the morning or there maybe an umber hulk sleeping in it. (Most of these encounters were not going to last a round so I paid no attention to the initiative order once the first combat was over). The group does find the school bell. They are not happy when the evening bell rings calling the classes to dinner and declaring the end of the school day. A wandering deep gnome who had been playing hooky tries to close the doors to the clock room only to be tricked by Bankshot. The deep gnome would close the door, Bankshot would open them. Rinse and repeat until the gnome barfed on Bankshot’s shoes and wander toward the kitchen for some pink stuff.
The group return to the audience chamber. Some of the soot on the floor had been cleaned up. The mech Halaster face had been highly polished. An inspection sticker saying passed. A+. Signed by Emberosa was stuck on the leg. They heard noises coming from one the rooms.
“Big Boom. Big Boom. Mage. Teleport. Let’s Dance. Big Boom. Choir not more. Big Boom. Big Boom. “mumbles Bob Hobgoblin to the janitorial staff. The other four hobgoblins are listening to Bob’s tale of woe.
“Come out here,” demands Rick. Bob and the cleaning staff enter the chamber. Bob sees a gnome with a staff of the magi. He looks to the broken half of John C staff of magi. “Gnome Big Boom. No Big Boom”. Bob see a flying tiefling, “Flying big boom. No Big Boom.” Bob looks over to Nathan with his staff of the magi, “Elf Big Boom. No Big Boom.” Bob does not see Bankshot because Bankshot has used his cloak to turn invisible.”

“Big boom. Big boom. Big Boom. No big boom. No choir practices. Big Boom. Big Boom. Big Boom.” Bankshot casts a spell to cause a small boom. When the adventurers are old and toothless caging drinks at the bar, they will be able tell young adventurers of the day they saw a hobgoblin jump ten feet in the air while doing a 360 and peeing and pooping on itself and on the floor. Bankshot had to clean his shoes again.
“Big Boom. Big Boom. Big Boom. Small Boom. I DON’T LIKE BOOMS!” Rick got into Bob’s face, “Take us to boss or BIG BOOM!” he threatens. Meanwhile the rest of the hobgoblins are trying to do a slow fade out of the room. (WHAT. Now where is the boss. Who is the boss? Okay guys give me five minutes.)
Emberosa is the new boss. Where to place her? In the highest number room. Can’t do that. Okay room 39.
Hobgoblin prisoner Big BOOM Bob escorts the party to Emberosa Boudoirs. She answers and see Bob clutching a broken staff of the magi, and three wizards with staff of the magi. She stalls the party and is very very happy they just want any magic item on the floor and the key to the next level. She hands over the key and tells the crew where the magic scroll was. (Ok some player knowledge was going here). Nathan finds an invisible drow mage picking the lock to desk which holds the polymorph scroll. Vanar Freth of House Freth sadly hands over the scroll. Rick accidently lets it be known that John C blew himself up, so the alliance may not hold. (DM says the Alliance holds).
The group descents to the Obstacle Course. This is a fun house, and fun for me level. Halaster is giving a play by play commentary. Some highlights are Rick nearly becoming Jell-O. Drew and Bankshot becoming funny statues. And all the party members being hit with various pizza ingredients. (Wonder what that is about. THE DM IS NOT TELLING.)
Drew does find a friendly ghost name Fidelio who is curse to wander this until he strikes the killing blow on the beholder Netherskull. Hey ignore he 0 for 99. And been trying for 100 years. This year he has a shot. Drew agrees to be possessed if Fidelio shows them the way to the beholder. (Grr part of this level hints the boss monster moves but no chart or hint of where he be except his lair).
Fidelio takes them back to entrance and points out a trap in the north hallway. They zig zag north and find a new forty-foot-deep pit. At the bottom of the pit is a coffin and a dwarven death rune on it. The party decides to ignore it. Drew flies Rick over and Bankshot teleports over. The coffin lid explodes off and lands Nathan. The death rune flies into Rick’s face burning a death mark into it. The vampire throws his dwarven hammer into Rick’s face. Halaster, “in your face! That got to hurt!”. Seven seconds later after over 205 points of damage Zorak is returned to his cursed coffin to lie in wait again. (Since the death mark is basically a homing beacon to the vampire, I gave him advantage against Rick.)
We will pick up on the morning of Day 36.

WTF THREE FREAKY STAFF OF THE MAGI. I know why some AL Dms complain.

How long are your sessions? 6-8 hours? You folks are crushing through this. We play every week for four hours. We have had 33 sessions and we are not that far ahead of you. We are on the Seadeeps.

4 hour sessions. But depending on who shows up. They are massively over powered, so there is no point of me adding extra monsters which can't do serious damage to them. Occasionally some diplomats show up and make nice with most the monsters. I also make sure if possible the levels communicate. So the drow alliance with the party is still going on. And two of my regular players are playing the book in a homebrew so they are kind of using player knowledge to get around some fights.
Depending on how powerful they are when they get to the bottom, I may have Halaster throw them a welcome home party.

Had my first death of the campaign last session for me. The group was on Level 2 and ran into the Xanathar's Guild post that had the Zombie Beholder. Said Zombie Beholder hit the Warforged Fighter with its disintegration ray...bye bye Warforged Fighter...