The Stream of Many Eyes: Day 3

Last night, the day 2 stream ended with the announcement of a second book! We start off day 3 with a discussion of this product.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage
Things that are discussed:

• It comes out on November 11th.
• It is a continuation of Dragon Heist. It goes from levels 6-20. It is a deep dive into Undermountain, which sits under Waterdeep.
• Every floor is a different setting.
• Halaster Blackcloak is a crazy wizard that has put some really weird things in the dungeon.
• Every level of the dungeon has a map. Every level of the dungeon is a character in and of itself. Halaster will be watching the entire time. Statues and portraits of Halaster interact with the group. Is he imprisoned in Undermountain? What is he up to?
• There are portals in each level of the dungeon that pulls creatures from other realms and planes. These creatures try to claim part of the dungeons as their own.
• Weird experiments by Halaster and his apprentices are scattered about.
• They left space for the DM to add rooms and areas. 
• Chris says that there is a lot of fun stuff at the lower levels that are "worth the wait."

Adventure Impractical

Mark Hulmes is the DM.

(Matthew Lillard) Bobo Silvertongue Human Bard
(Taliesin Jaffe) Archie Tiefling Sorcerer

(Sam Riegel) Obby the Rat Dwarf

(Ashley Johnson) Rabbit Yuan-ti Monk
(Clint McElroy)  Merle Highchurch Dwarf Cleric

Archie Vanderflute opens a book, which summons a hooded figure. A secret auction will be taking place and the Magpie's Court. One item up for auction is Dagult Neverember's journals. The group must find the court and obtain the ledgers by any means possible.

We jump right into it with the group chasing a half-orc in a tuxedo. Obby shoots at him and rolls a natural 20. Bobo tries to chase him down but crashes into some barrels. Merle drops and insect swarm and Rabbit sicks her snakes on him. The guy gives up.

Archie sweet talks the guy and asks where Magpie's Court is. It is in a dwarven bank called K'zaar Knox. The banks has only one entrance. The items are stored in the vault, which is a chamber with an 80-foot cylinder drop. If you touch the walls or floor, a magic alarm goes off.

He gives the group his invitation so they an get in. Now he wants to flee the city.

We skip ahead to the heist. Mark gives each player a flashback token. They can use it to declare something they did earlier in the day.

The group wears ridiculous elegant clothes and enters the vault, using the invitation to get in. The guy at the front is a snooty noble named Weigalious. The group calls him "Wiggle".

There are a number of notable NPCs. One is magically disguised. The group casts dispel magic on her. She's a succubus!

An assassin and many guards attack her. She tries to teleport away. Archie goes for a counterspell, and is successful thanks to an inspiring word from Bobo. The succubus looks around, confused. Six dwarven guards proceed to kill her. 

In the chaos, the group makes their way over to the vault. They check out the pressure plates on the wall and floor - if they're touched, a magic alarm will go off.

Archie wants to keep the chaos going, so he casts chromatic orb on the far side of the room.

They hear the auction going on - a talking skull with the spirit of a wizard trapped in it.

The group lowers Rabbit down. She uses an item to levitate the journals into the air. The journals are in a box. They put the box in a baby carriage and cover it with a blanket. There are breastfeeding shenanigans.

A dwarven guard spots the group on the way out and shouts. Merle kills him. Then he casts animate dead on the guard, who is pretty much split in half. Then he uses it to distract the guards who are coming. 

Jarlaxle approaches the group. He wants the ledger. He's got driders with him. Archie creates a minor illusion of the ledgers. He tosses it by a guardian golem. More golems come to life. Jarlaxe runs for the fake journal and the group escapes.

They hand over the ledgers to their boss and are rewarded with gold. Archie uses the money to open a bar - the Greasy Wheel. Obby the Rat wants to train four turtles in ninjitsu.

Rabbit has swanky parties and steals from people who show up. Merle wanders around trying to figure out what happens to his babies. He writes down the story of this adventure and runs into Tom Crooz, famous halfling actor. Pitches the idea and become filthy rich.

Great show! In my opinion, Mark Hulmes is THE best DM out there. He did so much in 90 minutes, the guy is really on the ball.

Dice, Camera, Action

 Episode 96 -Eyes on the Prize

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Joining the group is a player from The Adventure Zone.

 The Party

(Anna) Evelyn - Human Paladin of Lathander
(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue
(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer
(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard
(Travis McElroy) Magnus Burnsides - Human Fighter/Rogue

The group enters the Yawning Portal. Durnin, owner of the tavern, lets Waffles in. Strix is allowed to go into the kitchen to cook a pie. There's a person playing a lute. Paultin asks for it, and plays a little ditty. It's good!

Diath sits down with the Zhentarim. Diath shakes hands with one guy who has a ring. Chris says to make a save. Jared gets nervous. Chris is kidding. He's in quite a mood today!

Evelyn is watching Paultin play, hearts are rising up out of her. Simon is missing. Paultin immediately stops and runs off to find him. Simon is safe, he made a friend.

A flying snake swoops into the tavern. It has a message from Renaer Neverember (son of Lord Dagult Neverember, former ruler of Waterdeep). His operatives are looking for the Stone of Golorr. It is believed that Dagult made the stone.

The pie is done. Strix brings it out.

The Zhentarim ask the heroes to go find Renaer. He's at an event called "ChairCon". Yes, a chair convention. People go there and sit. 

This is a high class kind of thing, so the group considers getting nice clothes. Nate wants a Strix makeover montage. Strix is not happy. What does she look like? The group lets Anna decide. Strix ends up with a big collar and a jaunty hat.

Paultin leaves Simon with the kids he made friends with. He gives Simon advice - Sleep dart. There better not be any dead children when he gets back.

Diath is leaving some weapons behind. Gutter asks him what he's doing. Paultin chucks Gutter and heads to ChairCon.

The heroes ride in a coach and are brought to a wealthy area of the city. Through the gate, they see nobles in fine attire. Women in hats. Gardens, tiny brooks along paths that have strategically-placed chairs. This Con is part outside! Men are letting women sit.

The guards don't seem to mind that Evelyn has weapons. Ut oh. Diath is relatively unarmed. Security seems nonexistent. They notice the guard at the front is a poseur. He doesn't look like a trained soldier.

Warrington is here. "Quite an experience, DingDong!"

Paultin approaches a man and asks him where Renaer Neverember is. The man swoons and leads the group to Renaer. Renaer is talking to Travis's character, Magnus. Magnus accidentally knows a chair over, and upsets Renaer. "That's on loan..."

Renaer is playing the piano. Paultin takes out the lute and accompanies him.

Magnus thinks he recognizes Diath. He asks Diath how old he is. Diath had taken a potion of youth long ago, so he's 21. 

Reanaer asks Strix who she is. She introduces herself and he kisses her hand. She recoils.

There are screams downstairs. The front doors slam shut. The group go running toward the danger. Strix offers to protect Renaer.

Downstairs, there's a noblewoman with a third eye. She's looking around and casts her glance u the stairs. Another noblewoman does the same. A door is smashed open. Bugbears and goblins run through. The women point at the group, and the goblinoids charge.

Evelyn and Magnus both have their flaming swords out. Magnus's sword has a scorpion tail on it.

A chair that Magnus made is down here. It is called the "Sitboy 5000". It reclines. Paultin sits in it. Chris wants a sit check. Critical! There's a bunch of buttons on the chair. He presses them all.

Diath asks Renaer if he knows what the Stone of Golorr is. Renaer doesn't want to answer. 

Holly casts animate object on the piano. It goes stomping toward the monster.

Evelyn cuts down a noblewoman. The middle eye on her forehead disappears. Then she kills the other one.

There are 20 goblinoids. Paultin unleashes a level 5 thunderwave that hits 12 of them. A chandelier explodes, raining crystal down on the whole area. He kills many of them. Paultin looks cool.. then he throws up.

Magnus tears through about 6 goblins, his sword does tons of damage. One goblin is left, he pees.

Evelyn is very impressed.

Diath uses his new magic dagger for the first time! Rolls a one. Jared is sad.

A new creature enters the fray. It's a dwarf who is missing a hand - a crossbow attached to the stump. He looks at Evelyn and tells her that the people of Waterdeep must suffer for their greed.

She tells him that "The Morninglord, in his infinite grace, loves even you."

He goes, "I've been wrong all these years." He does so. His name is Naska.

Strix is shocked that Evelyn keeps converting randos.

The animated piano flips over and falls on Magnus. Strix tries to polymorph some goblins into snowbirds.

Paultin gives Magnus bardic inspiration. He throws the piano. He crushes 3 goblinoids to death. The piano is ruined.

One bad guy is getting away. He's riding a zip line down to a coach. Strix gets on her broom. Magnus charges through the stained glass window.

Paultin dimension doors outside. It looks like the dungsweepers guild used their brooms to bar the doors.

The group catches up to the coach. That's where we stop!

Witch of Briarcleft

The DM is Deborah Ann Woll.

(Matt Mercer) Dolas - Hairless Tabaxi Rouge
(Marisha Ray) Gallenda the Lucky - Mountain Dwarf Cleric
(Tommy Walker) Veros - Human Fighter
(Julia Dennis) Human Bard
(Kate Welch) Kathra - Dragonborn Ranger

The witch lives in a ruined city. The heroes are free to keep any treasure.

Aurora goes for walks. When she was young, there was a forest fire. Both of her parents died in it. Now that she's older, she explores the forest. She went in a week ago and never returned.

There is one survivor named Bernard, who talks about a witch. He's "addled".

Aurora is 12 years old. Long blonde hair. Raised by the Brighttree sisters.

The adventurers go to talk to the survivor. He's talking gibberish. They ask him about Aurora. He says she's "up there". The dense thicket of the wood. They can tell he's too frightened to say anything more.

The heroes decide to let him freak out. They want to drag him into the woods and see where he freaks out the most.

Annabella asks if anyone has chloroform. She casts sleep. Deborah says that Veros will need to make checks every hour while carrying him to avoid exhaustion.

The group comes to a section of woods with little carving paths. The canopy is thick, and it is very dark. They travel for a bit and come upon a small rock sitting on top of a larger rock. Annabella thinks this could be a waymarker meant to point the way to the elven ruins. It also might be some kind of witch thing.

The group slowly realizes that they are going in circles. There's some kind of magic involved here. They try leaving things on rocks.. eyeshadow, lipstick...

The crazy guy, Bernard, wakes up and chuckles. He hands them a note that was in his pocket. It's basically the solution to the puzzle. Kate points out that the NPC has taken pity on them.

He helps them navigate the forest. They come to a clearing. There are a lot of vines or ropes dangling down from the foggy treetops. They hear a rumble from up in the canopy.

Kathra is pretty sure these ropes are traps. Disturbing them might cause things to fall on them. They realize that the little girl could probably slip between them easily.

Dolas, the hairless tabaxi, slips through in a super-sexy manner. The group ends up firing a crossbow to cause the trap to trigger safely. Boulders fall to the ground and make a lot of noise.

They continue on. They hear a waterfall up ahead. There's a large stone building covered in vines and a round tower, also covered in vines.

They enter the tower and come upon a circular room with a moon symbol in the floor. There are etchings on the wall. The tabaxi looks them over. they are symbols or runes of some kind.

The dwarf steps on it and takes damage.

They go back outside.. There's some steps behind the waterfall... They go down them... nothing...

The tabaxi dives into the water. The group joins her. They find a way behind the waterfall. There's a cave - inside are cages. In most cages are bones.

One prisoner is not moving. the other is awake. It's a young girl with blonde hair. It's Aurora. She's gaunt, she hasn't eaten in days.

Kasha gives her a carrot. She tells the heroes to hide, she'll be back any moment.

Suddenly, a huge shadow blocks the light through the waterfall. The heroes hide.

The head of a dragon comes through the waterfall. Her wings seem to be useless, burned and ragged. She drags one claw, limply. She walks over to a mound of gold and pulls it around her. It's a green dragon.

Dolas charges the dragon... critical hit! Then Matt rolls all one's on damage. Ouch. The bard hits the dragon with a shatter. Galinda runs over and frees Aurora from the cage. She rolls a 20 to do so.

Aurora says "we have to go right now"

Hmm.. the girl's the witch?

The dragon is telling the group they've done something terrible. The dragon lets them go.

The heroes bring Aurora back to the city. It's her 13th birthday! Matt goes.. "oh no."

That night, at midnight, the two sisters who raised her stand up. All three of them transform into a coven of hags, 12th level spellcasters ready to do the heroes in. End of session!

Deborah's awesome. They should get her to do more!

Jocks Machina

DM: Mike Mearls

(Joe Manganiello) Arkhan the Cruel - Red Dragonborn Oathbreaker Paladin lvl 18
(Travis Willingham) Grog Strongjaw - Goliath Barbarian lvl 16 Barb /2 Fighter
(Ron Matthews) Bieber MJ Timberlake - Aasimar Paladin lvl 18
(The Big Show) Oolok Jotun - Rogue Giant lvl 18

The heroes got sucked into the Shadowfell. There's a tower.

A man with his mouth stitched shut speaks in their minds. He is the Speaker in the Void. His job is to guard the boundary between the Shadowfell and the Shadowfell. A being fled a great battle and sundered this barrier. Something on the other side is coming.

Two of the heroes have been marked. A champion of light and champion of darkness.

The heroes assume that the bad guy here is Vecna.

The Spire of Hope's Defiance. It keeps those in the void at bay. The foe's passage disrupted the magic. They will come to claim the light of the Spire. He warns them that they will be tempted - things that they desire most.

The players describe their characters innermost desires.

• Arkhan sees a doorway with armies of ancient dragons flying through it, burning green fields all to hell.
• Bieber is riding his unicorn, full gallop on Moonwalker, giant smile on his face.
• Oolok the giant has a tear in his eye.. he won't say.
• Grog sees droves of naked women. They've got mugs of ale and they're fighting to give it to Grog.

The heroes agree that if they all survive, they do Grog's dream.

They check out the tower that they have to guard. There's just one archway and the light within it. The void/tear is about a mile away.

Grog is wielding the Sword of Kas. Wow.

Oolok casts stone shape and actually seals up the entrance. Arkhan casts bless on the heroes.

The group waits. Then they hear the roar of a red dragon,a  servant of Tiamat, forced to serve Vecna. Riding it is some kind of knight with a lance.

Bieber tells the rider to dismount and fight one on one.

Arkhan casts finger of death. The dragon rolls a natural 20 on its save! Arkhan rages.

The knight is a death knight. Lord Soth? Mike says no. Two more shadow dragons arrive (each ridden by a death knight), along with a skull lord. It tells the dragons to ignore the heroes and to take the light.

The high-level heroes proceed to do piles of damage to the undead.

Then.. all three dragons breathe on them! 112 points to Oolok. 168 to Bieber, but he has resistance, so he takes half. Grog made all three saves, so he takes 78 necrotic. Arkhan is not affected.

Grog casts enlarge on himself.

The adventurers eventually defeat the skull lord. Energy coalesces into an entity. The tethers in the souls of the bodies of the heroes are being tugged on.

The heroes tear into the entity. Oolok uses a stunning stomp.

It goes down! Great game!