Level 2: Arcane Chambers - Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Level 2: Arcane Chambers. This level of Undermountain is designed for four 6th-level characters. Those who overcome this level's challenges should amass enough XP to reach 7th level. What Dwells Here? A tribe of goblins has claimed many rooms on this level and erected a bazaar. These goblins oppose the Xanathar Guild and its beholder overlord. The rest of the dungeon is infested with sentient magical experiments and leftovers from the days when Halaster's apprentices used this level as a laboratory. The characters might also encounter a troublesome drow, a wererat gang, and members of a doomed adventuring party. Goblins The Rustbone tribe of goblins has claimed an old throne room (area 1) and turned it into a bazaar. The Xanathar Guild wants to shut down the market before it attracts too many surface dwellers, while the goblins fight to keep it open. Admission into the goblin bazaar is free, but non-goblinoids are closely watched. The goblin boss, Yek, recently found a magic circlet that transformed him into a human (see area 1f). After his initial surprise passed, Yek warmed to the transformation. After all, it made him taller. The other goblins quietly resent taking orders from a human and would like to see Yek returned to normal. They might conspire with adventurers toward that end, offering them the circlet as a reward for undoing Yek's "curse." Xanathar Guild The Xanathar Guild aims to secure this level, plunder it thoroughly, and return valuable items to Skullport to be sold, thus boosting the town's sagging economy. There are two Xanathar Guild watch posts on the level, and each one has a leader: a drow named Shunn "Spider Eyes" Shurreth commands the northern watch post at area 9, and a human berserker named Nadia the Unbent leads the southern watch post at area 20. Wererats recently stole a stone key from the southern outpost. Shunn believes that the key unlocks something important (though he doesn't know what that might be) and wants to reclaim it. He in...