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New 'Dungeons & Dragons' Adventure Offers the Most Dangerous Goldfish Heist of All Time
Christian Hoffer
10/18/2018
A new Dungeons & Dragons compatible adventure puts players on the course for a suicide mission involving a goldfish and a mad beholder.
Last month, Dungeons & Dragons published Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, a new adventure for low level adventurers looking to build renown and fortune in the famous City of Splendors. During the course of Dragon Heist, players cross one of four powerful villains that are looking to claim a massive hidden treasure hoard for themselves. One of these villains is the Xanathar, a beholder that runs the most powerful criminal syndicate in Waterdeep.
Xanathar is one of the most famous beholders in the game, as befitting for a monster that somehow took control of a huge criminal enterprise. The beholder was previously featured in Xanathar's Guide to Everything and provided a running commentary about all the new rules options found in the game. But while Xanathar lords over a massive network of thieves, criminals, and unscrupulous mages, he's still a beholder...which means he's xenophobic, paranoid, and considers everyone and everything to be a potential threat.
Xanathar only cares for one thing - his pet goldfish Sylgar. A running joke in adventures that involve Xanathar is that his criminal syndicate continuously replaces Sylgar with a new goldfish whenever it dies and that Sylgar might be the beholder's one true weakness.
If players run afoul of Xanathar, their only resort might be to steal Xanathar's goldfish and hold it hostage...which is where "A Tail of Two Fishies" comes in. The mini-adventure, written by Y. Michael Zhang and Richard Gejji, is available on DMs Guild and assumes that a party from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist actually wants to attempt the impossible and steal a mad beholder's pet goldfish for themselves.
According to a description of the adventure, players can expect to encounter "a talking goldfish, a table-flipping bugbear, a gnome with ichthyophobia, robot beholders, a disco dance floor, a giant slot machine, a book titled 'Wizardry for Dummies,' and a chance to steal from a laundry list of magical artifacts out of Xanathar's personal treasury."
The adventure is compatible with the Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adventure and contains multiple ways to add the secondary goldfish heist into the main plot of Dragon Heist. Best of all, the adventure is meant to only last five hours, so players should be able to finish it in a session or two.
Dungeons & Dragons seems to enable silly storylines and plans, so DMs should probably plan for their parties to try to steal a goldfish at some point. And if they do, 'A Tail of Two Fishies' seems like the perfect way to give players plenty of laughs and an unforgettable heist.
Sigh.anathar only cares for one thing - his pet goldfish Sylgar. A running joke in adventures that involve Xanathar is that his criminal syndicate continuously replaces Sylgar with a new goldfish whenever it dies and that Sylgar might be the beholder's one true weakness.
If players run afoul of Xanathar, their only resort might be to steal Xanathar's goldfish and hold it hostage...which is where "A Tail of Two Fishies" comes in. The mini-adventure, written by Y. Michael Zhang and Richard Gejji, is available on DMs Guild and assumes that a party from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist actually wants to attempt the impossible and steal a mad beholder's pet goldfish for themselves.
According to a description of the adventure, players can expect to encounter "a talking goldfish, a table-flipping bugbear, a gnome with ichthyophobia, robot beholders, a disco dance floor, a giant slot machine, a book titled 'Wizardry for Dummies,' and a chance to steal from a laundry list of magical artifacts out of Xanathar's personal treasury."
Uh huh. Like it’d be just that easy and he’s going to sit like a turd in a toilet waiting to get killed. Even though 5e has been out a bit I really don’t understand its rules all that much. Some say Pathfinder 2 does or will do a better job. From what I’ve seen how products are broken up it makes me want to go back to basic Moldvay. I forget younger is the generation and they like end game. I tend to view Halaster akin to an immortal god like Tarjan is to Bardstale.New 'Dungeons & Dragons' Adventure Brings Back All the Classic Undermountain Levels
Christian Hoffer
11/05/2018
The newest Dungeons & Dragons adventure will have plenty of danger and mayhem, some of which should have fans feeling a bit of nostalgia for earlier adventures.
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage is D&D's newest adventure, a classic dungeon crawl in the depths of Undermountain, a megadungeon underneath the famous city of Waterdeep. The adventure will guide players from Level 5 to Level 20 and will likely culminate with a showdown with Halaster Blackcloak, the "Mad Mage" who created Undermountain thousands of years ago. While past adventures have explored different parts of Undermountain, Dungeon of the Mad Mage is the first time that the whole megadungeon has been mapped out and made available to players.
Undermountain is the setting for several classic D&D adventures and features plenty of strange and iconic levels, different areas of the dungeon featuring their own dangers and themes. And it seems that most of those levels have survived into the present day, at least according to a recent list of levels posted to the Roll20 virtual tabletop service.
Undermountain will have 23 different levels plus the city of Skullport, which was built in one of the upper layers of the dungeon. Iconic areas such as Wyllowwood, Maddgoth's Castle, Arcturiadoom, and the Obstacle Course are all returning for a new generation of players to explore.
A few of these areas were already the settings for past adventures. For instance, Maddgoth's Castle is a miniaturized castle in the middle of Undermountain was the focus of a 1996 adventure. Maddgoth's Castle was famous for how it turned mundane threats like bats or rats into terrifying monsters for players to vanquish. Meanwhile, Trobriand's Graveyard is a scrap heap home to numerous constructs rejected by their creator, who was one of Halaster's ex-apprentices.
Other iconic areas that will appear in Dungeon of the Mad Mage include Arcturiadoom, the realm of another one of Halaster's ex-apprentices who transformed herself into an undead pile of worms, and the Crystal Labryinth, in which Halaster keeps some of his most prized possessions.
You can check out the full list of levels here, but be warned that there are spoilers.
Dungeon of the Mad Mage hits hobby game stores this Friday, November 9th, and will be available for wider release on November 16th. You can pre-order it for 40% off on Amazon now.
Yeah, nostalgia for back when the game was well written and made sense!The newest Dungeons & Dragons adventure will have plenty of danger and mayhem, some of which should have fans feeling a bit of nostalgia for earlier adventures.
"Thousands of years ago"? Idiots. The original box set states:The adventure will guide players from Level 5 to Level 20 and will likely culminate with a showdown with Halaster Blackcloak, the "Mad Mage" who created Undermountain thousands of years ago. While past adventures have explored different parts of Undermountain, Dungeon of the Mad Mage is the first time that the whole megadungeon has been mapped out and made a
All listed on the wrong levels though!Undermountain will have 23 different levels plus the city of Skullport, which was built in one of the upper layers of the dungeon. Iconic areas such as Wyllowwood, Maddgoth's Castle, Arcturiadoom, and the Obstacle Course are all returning for a new generation of players to explore.
I'll skip that garbage, thank you very much.Dungeon of the Mad Mage hits hobby game stores this Friday, November 9th, and will be available for wider release on November 16th. You can pre-order it for 40% off on Amazon now.
It's ridiculous to think of anyone being able to kill Halaster in Undermountain. He has powerful apprentices on each level to back him, unlimited access to monsters from across the multiverse, controls every aspect of the dungeon, and has clones released throughout the dungeon as needed. But you're right, they'll probably have him holed up on that stupid mini-level they once released as "The Mad Mage's Lair", when in fact the whole "ultimate level" they detailed was smaller than Skullport on Level 3.Uh huh. Like it’d be just that easy and he’s going to sit like a turd in a toilet waiting to get killed.
I've always argued that everything has its Golden Age and then enters a slow decay period. Comics hit their peak in the 70s, then it went downhill. D&D hit its peak in the 70's and early 80s, then downhill. Same for TV, music, etc. When you start catering to the stupid masses, you get stupid products. It's how things work, and cannot be changed.Well, I’ve come to expect in every media that my nostalgia in movie, tv, comics, cartoons, gaming, electronic gaming and sports is all turned upside down and scattered to the four winds. Without gettjng into the politics (though that’s severely hobbling everything like a bunch of evil SJW fat crazy chicks from the film Misery) I have to say everything is becoming a mess. I well know for decades $$$ ran the ball court but now it’s just stupid
I always say...fanboys need to stop being mindless fanboy sycophants and become educated, discriminating consumers who demand better service. They're more like addicts these days...entertainment junkies.In e-media I give you blizzards stupid idea to announce mobile Diablo at blizzcon. The die-hard fans are pissed. Other games are getting “enhanced editions” or reskins. The bards tale trilogy will probably be close to 1gig in size and it’s features aren’t all that improved. And for integrated video you need a core i5 to run. Pretty stupid.
I've noticed that too. Far too much left-wing politics in entertainment, forced down everyone's throat. It's why I don't bother with it. They can;t get my money in exchange for propaganda and depravity.Comics/movies/tv shows... yeah I’ve given up on all that. Too much TG, gay, social justice, and feminism in everything. Shit you got girls and women saying boobs are bad and the display of is sexist and is part of toxic masculinity to males viewing the female body as attractive. I guess science and sexual attraction is wrong.
And stupid plots, childish drama and lots of simplistic room descriptions.Eh... I am really curious what crap they stuffed in there. I can guarantee the book isn’t the only product. Expect flip mats, map books, and more. And expect lots of repeated content.
You cannot run this adventure if you do not own the Monster Vault. No monster stats are provided in this book, except for the new monsters introduced.