Greetings, fellow adventurers and dungeon delvers! After our previous session's dramatic events involving a goblin uprising, we were eager to see what dangers and discoveries awaited us in the fourth session of Dungeon of the Mad Mage, guided once again by the masterful GM Wintermute. This session proved to be a thrilling mix of social manipulation (of the chaotic kind!), exploration into the unknown, and some surprisingly challenging combat!
The session kicked off with the aftermath of the goblin revolt. Our heroes, particularly Gala Door (the illusionist) and Fanus (his goblin mouthpiece), found themselves worshipped as deities by a horde of newly freed goblins. Fanus, seizing the opportunity, delivered a rousing (and hilariously translated) speech, urging the goblins to “go forth and claim the rest of this domain in the name of your people”. This led to the goblins, in a bizarre display of reverence, presenting Gala Door with a bugbear tooth and… mooning the party. One particularly enthusiastic goblin even licked Gala Door's palm, leading to a rather unsettling magical interaction involving glowing eyes and the title of “King Pooh-Bah” being bestowed upon him. The goblins were then commanded to secure the level, their identifying mark now an ass slap. This promises some interesting encounters for anyone else venturing into this part of Undermountain!
With their unusual allies dispatched, the party continued their exploration. They discovered a room with a peculiar statue – a dwarf king with a deformed second head. Examining the statue, they found its warhammer was a separate piece that could be rotated. This caused the pedestal to rise, revealing a gold circlet of blasting. After ritual identification, they learned it allowed the wearer to cast scorching ray once per day with a +5 bonus to the attack rolls. This item was eventually given to Lucretia, the rogue/cleric.
Their exploration then led them down a stairwell to what they believed to be level two of Undermountain. Following a narrow, sloping passage, they encountered signs of danger. Their bat familiar scouted ahead and alerted them to the presence of two grik.
A tense combat encounter ensued in the confined passageway. The grik proved to be formidable opponents, with their tentacle attacks and bites. The paladin, Kasev, was unfortunately dropped by the grik. However, through combined efforts, the party managed to defeat both grik.
Continuing south, they entered a large, bizarre room where gravity seemed reversed in the upper half. A mummified figure sat on a stone throne on the “ceiling” with gemstone eyes, and a great axe lay at the foot of the throne. Detecting magic, they discovered a permanent reverse gravity spell affected the upper portion of the room. Ever resourceful, Gala Door used his spear to knock one of the gemstone eyes (a banded agate worth 25 gp) out of the mummy's socket.
Their journey then took them through more passages, where they eventually found a human man hiding in a closet. He identified himself as Maurice, a member of an adventuring party called the Fine Fellows of Daggerford, who had been separated from his group about ten days prior after disturbing some grik. He gratefully gave the party his spellbook as a reward for rescuing him. The spellbook contained a variety of spells, including lightning bolt, invisibility, and dispel magic. After giving him some rations and instructions to head back to Waterdeep (and a warning about the ass-slapping goblins), they let Maurice go.
The session concluded with the party discussing their next steps. They decided to head back towards the statue room and explore other passages they hadn't yet investigated.
Session four was a wild ride, showcasing the unpredictable nature of Undermountain and the creative solutions our heroes come up with (even if those solutions involve deifying themselves to goblins!). We eagerly await session five to see what other secrets and dangers lie ahead!