DDAL Jasper DMs Dungeon of the Mad Mage Spoilers Completed

[jasper]

Dungeon of Mad Mage Level 1 Dungeon Level Session 1
AP 4 TP 4 Downtime 10 Renown 1
Wand of Secrets and Driftglobe unlocked. Players take note. If you want to sell spell books or magic items to Obaya Uday, you either have to owe them currently. OR pay for the magic items with treasure points and then sell them. This should be done before or after the session. Tell me to consult page 7 and 8 for prices.
Very strong party after everyone set down. Yes it was Black Friday and I was the only table. I did not make many adjustments to the encounters.
PC Killed 0 Monsters Killed 56 Villains Captured 0 Villains Escaped 0 Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 7,495 pp.
Ouch hit kill count. I explain to the group what spells will not work and will work with adjustments. See page 10 and 11 of DMM. I also pass out one secret card to each player and let them note that on their character sheet. I also just recommend a dm scan/photocopy the maps instead buying the add on map pack which being sold. The group had 1 fighter, 1 thief, and the rest were spell casters.
Nox and Rick sneak back into Waterdeep while hiding from the law. They and the rest of group are hired by Obaya Uday to recover magic items and spell books. The group hit up their buddies and faction for healing potions and other stuff. (Adventure League lets your borrow stuff for a session. What you get depends on your renown total.)
The group rips the secret door off in the first room and sweeps North West killing bandits left and right. (After the first battle I did not run the bandit fights, just call them dead.) They murder the manticores in one and half rounds. Drew takes out the basilisk himself only to become chocolate pudding nearly. Ok the party split and it party theatre of mind to kill the pudding. The barbarian Blank eats the Manticore dinner served by the troll and then kills the troll.
The group backtracks into the bugbear and goblin territory. Blank becomes scared after he kills a bugbear and an Intellect Devourer tries to snack on his smarts. Drew tries to help but in the end his horse upstairs is smarter than him. (PC is currently at INT 4). I buffed the shadow fight using the PC hit points and plus to hit. The group enjoyed the fight.
The group will start after a long rest at Room 28 A.
As always feel free to comment or add your pc’s viewpoint to the thread.
***
edit to add link to the waterdeep heist part of season 8
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...s-Season-8-spoilers&highlight=waterdeep+heist

 

[jasper]

Dungeon of Mad Mage Session 2 Dungeon level and Arcana Chambers (Level 1 and 2)
Days in 2. Next session starts day 3.
AP 4 TP 4 Renown 1 Downtime days 10
PC Killed 0 Monsters Killed 126 Villains Captured 0 Villains Escaped 0 Obaya Uday Cash left on hand Obaya Uday Cash 6,995
I had six players so it was a strong or very strong group but I made no adjustments. Barbarian, Rogue, and the rest arcane casters.
The group found the map room and started pressing buttons. Lucky none of them work. Rick made friends with Halleth the Revenant. Halleth agree to show the players the way through the dungeon until he gets his revenge.
The group blew up, burned, and sliced and diced the bugbears, Ettin, goblins in the lower east side of the map. Well a small matter of Blanaka the tenth level goblin barbarian had his Int drop from 8 to negative 6 or just 0. This cause the group to retreat from the dungeon and call for spell casting services. With gold on hand plus what the group kicked in, Blanaka was up the next day. He sold off a ring he did not need and reward his buds with about 500 gp each. After a mimic tried to eat Jado, the group entered the second level aka Arcana Chambers.
Hearing the market place calls they investigated. Halleth points out his enemy Copper Stormforge who is chained to the south wall of the vast market barn. Blanaka distracts the crowd and Yek the Tall with a 500 gp challenge. His bare fists against any armed and armored goblin. (Not a fair fight since the goblin has a Storm Giant belt on). The crowd watches the fight as Rick cast Crown of Madness on Copper causing him to attach the guard who is watching him. The two fight end. Copper is killed which gets a thumbs up from the revenant. Tek the Tall is impressed and makes a deal with Blanaka. No attacking any goblins who give the pass word unless they attack first.
Ok, this was smart play. The group is now allied with goblins. However they cannot loot any goblin area. (Which means I skip the room unless it down). So I then had to figure out on the fly which rooms can be explored. The group agreed I would just start at beginning of the chapter and we work thru the rooms in order.
The group explores the North Upper West Side. Kel is thinking of stealing Halaster’s puppet. Jado lays down some haunting tunes on the harpsichord and gets a raise dead scroll as a reward.
Trenzia’s lab and other rooms are no trouble for the group. The Gibbering dwarves are not a problem either.
The group will start day 3 after a long rest in room 13 E. 13 G and 13 F need to be checked out. Rooms 9 and 10 I need to review to see if the group is now allies with the people inside.

 

[jasper]

Dungeon of Mad Mage Session 3 Arcana Chambers (Level2)
Days in 3. Next session starts day 4.
AP 2 TP 2 Downtime days 5
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 135 Villains Captured 0 Villains Escaped 0 Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 6,995
Two Room in Two Hours with lots of interesting table talk. 4 PCs APL AVG.
Again, I was DMing this with under 40 hours of no sleep and under the influence of Triple Mocha Frappuccino.
The group wakes from a long rest. The open the door into a corridor. Should they explore the door across the hall, the construction to the north or the stairwell to the south. They choose what is behind door number 14. It is dark. A voice speaks from the darkness, “You are interested in my map? Well I let you copy it if you help destroy Xanathar’s outposts on this level,” Rizzerryl. Jade had taken a blood oath to destroy Xanathar’s operation.
The group decides to attack the south post which had a Beholder Zombie. The group decided to use the turn in the tunnel before the room as cover. John C opened up combat with a fireball. (okay except for the bugbears, the monsters went last). Perry the Paladin, and Bradick the other Paladin dashed in and out of combat slicing and dicing the minions. The spell casters laid down covering fire or hit the zombie. The group had killed all the minions. Bradick was slowly standing up after drinking his last potion of healing.
The beholder shot an eye ray. Perry the Paladin ducked. Bradick looked into the eye of the beholder and turned to dust. Jade scooped up some dust. The party retreated.

 

[jasper]

Dungeon of Mad Mage Session 4 Arcana Chambers level 2.
AP 4 TP 4 Downtime 10 Renown 1 Days 4 and 5. Will start next game on Day 6.
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 164 Villains Captured 1 Villains Escaped 1 Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 6,995
I had a strong group of 6 pcs but made no adjustments. Due time passing since Friday, this will be a short update.
The group wandered around Level 2. I dropped the revenant due not having it in my notes. The group has not visited the Rooms 18, 19, 23 b, 24, 26, and most of 25. They will start at 25 a.
Most combat was a walk over most of the time except for the beholder bar room fight. They forgot to check the vats in the brewer’s room and the undead beholder pinned in the corridor. The Trollskull Manor owners did add “Undermountain Ale” to their beer list and gain 40 GP to the bar’s income.
John C a sorcerer tried to woo Midna cleric of Shar but the goblin barbarian was a pill and started a fight before John C could ask her out on a date.
Shunn Shurreth surrendered quickly after the party wiped out his troops. He gave them his word not to fight or harm the party. He also gave the directions from level two to Skullport. The group has the story award Known in Skullport.
Just for the fun and due Marine sad puppy eyes the goblin barbarian is dragging a ballista from room 21 with him. +6 to hit. 20 shots. 10 by 10 feet wide. (medium story to this).

 

[jasper]

DDAL 08-07 INTO THE DARK Session
AP 3 TP 3 Downtime days 5
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 179 Villains Captured 1 Villains Escaped 1 Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 6,995 mace of smiting Unlocked table G
I had a very strong group of six.
The Baron of Blood and Durnan invited John C the sorcerer and the other five to a meeting. The baron offers the group a contract to eliminate any know and unknown vampires, vampire spawn, and vampire minions in the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Durnan also wanted the party to contact the druid Limn to find out why the supply of Blue Lichen had not been delivered.
The group found the hovel of Limn. The hovel was so bad it made trailer park trash look like a fine five-star hotel. Salazar Soothsayer engaged Limn. After chocking back down his last three breakfasts due to Limn’s bad breath, Salazar recovers 2 vials of Blue Lichen and 8 empties. Limn did give the group directions to the bone garden.
The mine was formerly own by the Clan McCloud dwarves 200 years ago. Importunely the clan was over ran by a drow raid. Salazar and Dexter carefully gather the lichen while the group looked on. But Dexter chipped the kneecap of Reizzlerum McCloud. She was not happy with being woken up. She ordered Dexter to recover the history of Clan McCloud and deliver it to the nearest McCloud or nearest dwarf church. Also, she mentioned her Mace of Smiting was in the hands of evil. The group gather the rest of the lichen and went to the elevator.
The elevator room was an ambush six Stonebone Skeletons charged the group after pressed the up button. The skeletons and their farts lasted three rounds. The group all took damage from a small fall as the failed to engage the safety break twice. They should read the safety instructions.
After leaving the elevator, they followed a ramp to their doom. Well, not really. Salazar and Pausha fell into a big pit of filled with spikes and Stonebone Skeletons. This combat took longer due to the oil which pour out the walls and tunnels which lead to everyone being in the pit. Pausha did grab a skeleton and body slam it onto a spike killing it.
The group found the lair of the vampires. Only to discover John C and his other party had wiped them out a week ago. On the way back to the surface they caused two cave-ins and got lost. Ok this was just a lot of group skill checks.
They discover a trail of notes written by the mad mage vampire Tev Zevia. The mage was using the journal of Clan McCloud to write his notes on. This ticked off the group and they proceeded to strike this mad writer from the scrolls of Waterdeep. The only problem they had was his editor was stone golem which liked hitting the group with the stick end of the mace of smiting. The group was able to survive with very little damage.

Ok due to the holidays my table did not make for a couple of weeks. Or I had to run tier 1 modules.

 

[jasper]

Dungeon of Mad Mage Session 5 Arcana Chambers level 2 and Sargauth level.
AP 4 TP 4 Downtime 10 Renown 1 Gp 250 APL 9
Magic item unlocks Dust of disappearance, Elemental gem water, Pot of Awakening.
Morning of day 6.
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 201 Villains Captured 1 Villains Escaped 2
Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 6,895
John C, Joseph, and Aukan return with two new friends Kyen, and Nym. The group was very strong for the levels. I was not asking what next but pushing the group to the next rooms.
The group found Halaster’s creature storage area. They destroyed everything except for the badger and freed the wererat. Until they found Halaster’s stone statue, just as Aukan was raising his axe to smash, “I wouldn’t do that “in an epic voice echoed down the hall behind them. The group did a Scooby Doo and fled the hallway. Aukan and Kyen were so scared they crashed into the Owlbear elf tomb. Making quick work of the monsters, they finished exploring the rest of the Arcana Chambers. The pot of awakening, some magic dust and an arcana focus was the treasure.
They only explore three rooms in the Sargauth level. Ancient Stormkuhldur which they found a whip. The Chimera lair where combat last 8 seconds. Downtown Drow Town. They did not know the drow could heard them. They knock on the kitchen door asking where John C could find a lady to date. But not in a nice way. OOPS!
This combat took over an hour to set up and run. John C did find love comes with whip, and demon lovers leave you.
Not much seem to happen but this group of folks love roleplaying off each other. So, a lot of in character table talk happens which is fun to watch.

 

[jasper]

DDAL 08-08 Crypt of the Dark Kiss Session
AP 4 TP 4 Downtime 10 Renown 1 Unlocked Ring of Fire Resistance Table G
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 220 Villains Captured 1 Villains Escaped 2 Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 6,895 PP
I started on time for a change with a very weak group of 3 which grew to a weak group of 5. PCs ranged between 5 and 10.
Ok no one in the group spoke Dwarf which slowed down some of clues and locks. Sometimes I gave them the answer. The group did trip one glyph of warding. (Note module does not give an exact number).
As they enter the main hall and try to read dwarf, a black statue spits fix at Nox. Just as the group dispels magic on the North door two more companions Dausha and Ginny arrive. The druid changes shape into an earth elemental. This tactic would be used the rest of adventure sometimes being a good thing sometimes being a bad thing. The group had a hard fight against the vampire spawn. Nox was their chew toy for most of the combat. (Hahaha the DM finally remember Insightful defense and regeneration work great together). They took a short rest and the open the forge room.
Ok, I forgot to give out the free clue here and had the fire snakes have the clue. Oops. The earth elemental stomped most of the purple dwarves flat. The fire snakes were hosed too.
The group kicked open the door to their mummy’s room. Their mummy spanked them or sent them to stand in the corner. I think about half the group were under the mummy’s curse. Since they either spend most of hit die to recover the first short rest, or could not regain hit points; they decided to open the last door.
Okay I may read this wrong but the module read two stone golems. One still active and one damage. I took it to read both were active. But the second one was at half hit points. This was hard fight. Casting darkness into the room did not help much and was later dropped. Kilthor took to spider climbing the wall to get to the golden hook. Nox bravely misty stepped back into the room to feed Dausha a potion of healing. This leaves both of them under 10 hit point. A stone golem raises in hands to smash one of them. ( Two hits would have put either at 0 plus two death fails). It chooses Dausha and misses both. (my dice hated me then). Kilthor from the ceiling rings the bells to end the session.
This could be a good module but has information missing or buried in the text. Take an highlighter or pencil and make notes.

 

[jasper]

Obaya has 7,500 PP and will
Buy magic items for
Common 10 PP
Uncommon 50 PP
Rare 500 PP
Very Rare 5,000 PP
Spell books. Highest spell
1 5 PP
2 or 3 25 PP
4 or 5 100 PP
6 or 7 250 PP
8 or 9 500 PP

 

[jasper]

Dungeon of Mad Mage Session 6 Sargauth Level and Skullport
AP 4 TP 4 Downtime 10 Renown 1 GP 200 APL 7 Two Bugbear bodyguards (Rick and Marty) are now companions of the group.
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 228 Villains Captured 1 Villains Escaped 2 Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 6,895 PP
Dagger of Blindsight unlocked Table G.
I had 2 regular players and 3 drop ins. However the regular players played out characters. One player is also dming the book so he was a follower to the group and made little input to major decisions. It was also point out since this is a classic dungeon crawl, no reason exists for the group to exploring the dungeon. To correct this I am having all side quest be active.
Side quest are Hunt for magic loot page 7. Harper’s Debt page 8 Deliver a pouch to Skullport’s Flagon and Dragon, Kressando Rosznar page 8 (completed party found the ring this session), Throne of Coronal page 8 (completed this session), Eye of Spider page 8, Runestone search page 9, Save the dragon page 9, I am thinking of a Spy page 10.
The new group passes the old group as they enter downtown drow town. They free some Troglodytes and discover some hints of a magic dagger which will allow you to rule the level. They have two choices explore Skullport by ferrying down the river or check out the hobgoblin tunnels. (Note I need to reread the level a day or two before the session). They choose the skeleton ferry. In Skullport with the lack of a slave market and no clue to the dagger (again I should read the level), they water walk back to the ferry. Talk about cheating death. A small encounter with some shadows left Smiling Jack with a Strength of 6.
The group explores Stonecarver’s Hall. After a quick battle with a Xorn due to banishment. Ooops, according to page 10 that shouldn’t have worked. The group discovers the Throne of Coronal in a false stone block. After a long rest they decide to explore the Hobgoblin tunnels.
The old lady of the group Ethel talks her way into the good graces of Skull Crusher. Crusher has Private Pyle escort the volunteers to Chief Azrok. They pass thru Goblin town noticing some interesting things, like Oscar Otyugh. Azrok tells them about the dagger of Blindsight. The group becomes “Squires of Azrok” and are send on a quest to Skullport to recover the dagger from the duergars of clan Ironeye. Ethel talks with the mind flayer Ulquess. She gets information about the Crystal Labyrinth. (Players will have advantage on initiative in rooms 1-6, and 11 of Level 16. Make a note of this). In Skullport the Ironeye clan run the Black Tankard.
So they walk back to Skullport. In the Black Tankard, the group is at a standoff. Baltus Grey Stalker offer Smiling Jack as slave to trade for the dagger. The bartender tells to come back in an hour for the swap. As they reenter the Black Tankard, Baltus notices three snipers on the roof across the road. They make the swap. SMILING JACK BECOMES A SLAVE WILLING! (Okay y’all done broke the dm again.) Again the group sold Smiling Jack into slavery for the dagger of Blindsight. They return the dagger to Chief Azrok. Smiling Jack makes his escape five days later. Skullport thinking the group were responsible puts up wanted posters for them.
Okay. After Smiling Jack went willing into slavery, I lost it. I could not get my mine back into the game. I thought they group would do a battle in the middle of the group. So I ended the session early.
“Squires of Azrok” Story Award. Allows passage thru Hobgoblin and Goblin territory if badge is shown.
“Wanted in Skullport” Story Award. You did something to tick off people in Skullport. 10 GP award if present to authorities of Skullport.

 

[jasper]

DDAL 08-09 Fangs and Frogs Session
AP 2 TP 2 Downtime 5 Renown 0 APL 6 with 7 players.
PC Killed 1 Monsters Killed 242 Villains Captured 1 Villains Escaped 2 Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 6,895 PP
Magic Item Unlocked Wand of Lightning Bolts Table G You forget you Bonds for 10 minutes every time you cast.

Story Award Monster Merger You decided to take a chance and touch or drink the multicolored water that spilled from a broken fountain in Arcturia’s abandoned laboratory. Doing so has changed you forever. Arcturia was a master of transmutation and she must have used this water to assist her in her unholy experiments. While you no longer carry the negative effects associated with this, it seems the physical trait you manifested still lingers. This story award can only be removed by a remove curse.

The only good thing I can say about this adventure is the maps for each room. I dropped the two bonus objectives and changed some of encounters in the main story line. Also I had all the portals available for choosing so if they choose wisely the adventure would be over in two rooms.
The adventures are hired by the Baron Blood for either a real estate check out, or a vampire hunt depending on their connections with the Baron. The door with a huge snake consuming six snakes did not scare them. Of purple, red, blue, or black glowing stones, they choose red.
The red stone opened the portal to the hole in the weave. After defeating six shadows, and a vampire spawn they discovered a dispel magic scroll. (I added this combat.) They return to the snake door.
The blue stone got them to Taste the Pain Bow. They recover the vampire lore book. Dongar tastes the magic fountain and gets the story award.
The purple stone got them to Some Thralls be Crazy. Since the npcs appeared to be confused, and ignoring the party; Nathan used the scroll to bring the npcs back to reality. Ingemar rewards the group with a wand of lightning bolts. Both adventuring parties leave the room. Once arriving at the snake portal, the npcs thank the group and leave. The group took a short rest so the wizard could attune the wand.
The black stones open the final encounter Frogs are Biters. Rhacoph charms Ukbuk and summons some swamp wolves from nearby. Just as Rhacoph about to bite Ukbuk, the adventures wake up from their fog and attack. (Ok they was some side chatter at the table. And I wanted to set up the combat as a little bit difficult.) During the combat Ukuk and Sister Jaden Ash would bitten. Ukuk was zeroed out twice before the group defeated him and his spawn. (Note again I forgot the spawn’s Insightful Defense ability but due to “Daylight” being cast by the light cleric; it really did not matter.)
A couple of great ideas and background are buried in this module but it would be hard to develop them into an Adventure League story.