Mephit Mayhem
A Tutorial Adventure for Waterdeep Dragon Heist
This is the tutorial session I ran for my players, who were new to D&D, before we launched into the campaign proper. My aims in this session were twofold. Firstly I wanted to introduce my players to the basics of D&D: ability checks, social interactions and combat. Secondly, I wanted to introduce my players to the city of Waterdeep, previewing several of the characters and places that they will meet during their adventures.
The adventure is suitable for a party of four first-level adventurers.
Synopsis
A halfling alchemist called Hardo Finchey has been releasing mephits into the shops of other apothecaries in Waterdeep in an effort to sabotage the opposition. The PCs are enlisted to help track down the source of this chaos.
Scene 1: Market Mishaps
The first scene opens in the Waterdeep Market, and introduces the players to ability and skill checks.
Overlooking the sprawling square to the north and south are the great statues of the God Catcher and the Drunkard. The one stands tall and proud, stretching his hand up towards a huge stone sphere hovering barely beyond his fingertips, while the other sits slumped over, nursing a tavern in his lap as though it were the last ale in Faerûn.
You are watching the traffic on the Trader's Way on the northern perimeter of the market, which is as usual completely stationary. Two irate caravaneers have been brawling for several minutes to the cheers of the other onlookers, until two members of the City Watch managed to make their way through the carriages to drag them apart. After what seems like an age, a small mule cart pulls off the main thoroughfare. A priestess dressed the flaxen robes of the cult of Waukeen dismounts and smiles warmly at you.
The priestess is Obaya Uday. After greeting the party warmly, she asks them to assist her in tending to the shrine of Waukeen in the marketplace. She gives them a few tasks:
- Helping Obaya unload her equipment chest from the cart (DC 6 Strength check).
- Finding the key to the chest, which she dropped when her cart clipped another at the intersection of Trader's Way and Copper Street (DC 8 Perception or Investigation).
- Getting a shopkeeper to move his market stall from in front of the shrine (DC 8 Intimidation or DC 10 Persuasion or DC 12 Deception).
Once Obaya's rituals are complete, read the following.
If the characters head to the source of the commotion, they find a portly male sun elf called Caelar Ollale hopping around on one leg. He is a purveyor of fine wines and herbal remedies, but was surprised when a "demon" (in fact a smoke mephit) burst out from one of his crates and made off with his boot. The demon has alighted in one of the trees over the cattle yards, where it is methodically chewing through the boot's leather.
Caelar implores the characters to get his boot back. If they do, he rewards them each with a bottle of elvish amberwine worth 4gp. This, sadly, is all that remains of his wares.
Recovering the Boot
To recover Caelar's boot, the characters will have to entice the mephit down from the tree and either capture it or otherwise get it to release the boot. This involves a series of skill checks of DC 8-10, depending on their approach. The mephit does not attack, or seek to actively harm the players.
- The mephit is mischievous, and can be enticed down from the tree with an opportunity to create further havoc.
- As a creature of fire, it is also entranced by open flames.
- It has a particular grudge against Caelar, and will pursue him preferentially over other targets.
DM Note: This element of the plot is intentionally left more free-form, and encourages players to develop their own solutions to problems.
Once the party has dealt with the mephit, Obaya informs them that she heard of another merchant having a similar problem a few days ago. That merchant is Fala Lefaliir of Corellon's Crown, and Obaya suggests the characters make some further inquiries there.
Scene 2: Ambush?
The second scene is a flavour scene, intended to build up the players' image of Waterdeep as a city and introduce them to some of the denizens of Trollskull Alley.
On the right-hand side of the old manor is a wide alley, down which you can hear the sound of voices and a hammer striking an anvil. An embossed sign on the wall proclaims "Trollskull Alley: open for trade".
When the characters enter the alley, read the following to the PC with the highest perception.
These are the three urchins, who are playing at being adventurers. Once the PC they "attack" either plays along or rebuffs them, they run off further down the alley, laughing.
The genasi are Avi and Embric and the dragonborn is Rishaal, who is dealing with an unsatisfied customer. See p33 of WDH. They can direct the party to Corellon's Crown, and remarks that they haven't seen Fala Lefaliir all day.
Scene 3: Corellon's Crown
The third scene takes place at Corellon's Crown, an apothecary's shop in Trollskull Alley, and introduces the players to the combat mechanics in D&D5e.
Corellon's Crown is owned by Fala Lefaliir, a gender-neutral wood elf with a shock of black hair and an earring in their left ear fashioned from green faience (see p32 of WDH). When the party enter, the shop is in a state of disarray and they find Fala sitting on the counter, apparently surprised to see them. Fala explains that the shop was broken into early in the morning by a malicious creature seemingly made out of a sticky mud. Fala managed to lure the creature upstairs into the rooftop greenhouse above Corellon's Crown and trap it there by blocking the doorway. They had sent for a friend for help (Ziraj the Hunter, though Fala doesn't volunteer this information), but was surprised that the PCs appeared first. Fala asks the PCs to slay the creature trapped in the greenhouse before it causes too much damage. Based on Fala's description, the players can work out that the creature is a mud mephit on a successful DC 16 Arcana check.
When the party arrive in a clearing, the mud mephit pulls itself out of a pool of viscous clay where it had been hiding and attacks. It first uses its Mud Breath to restrain as many PCs as possible, then uses its fists on subsequent rounds to attack restrained PCs. It fights until it dies. When it dies, it dissolves into a pool of steaming sludge containing a gold ring engraved with the initials HF.
Fala Lefaliir is grateful to the PCs for disposing of the mephit, and gives them two potions of healing as a gesture of thanks. They also offer the PCs an opportunity to rest awhile after the combat (even if no PCs took damage).
If shown the ring, Fala remembers that a halfling alchemist by the name of Hardo Finchey was skulking around the shop several days previously. (If the players don't ask, have Fala bring up the subject themself.) They believe the evidence conclusively proves that Hardo was behind the mephit attack, and ask the PCs to confront him about it.
Scene 4: Hardo Finchey
The climactic scene is the confrontation with Hardo Finchey, in which the party resolves the mephit problems that have been plaguing Waterdeep's alchemists.
When the PCs enter, they find themselves in an alchemist's workshop, with tables covered in glassware: retorts and alembics all linked by a chaotic profusion of glass tubes. A thick, acrid vapour fills the air, burning their nostrils as they breathe it in. On the far side of the room is a halfling dressed in a grubby apron and goggles, standing on a stool and taking measurements of a large glass vat of bubbling virulent green liquid. His fingers glisten with a number of gold rings. Seeing the PCs, he announces brusquely that the shop is closed.
The PCs can attempt to reason with Hardo, but combat is the most likely outcome. Hardo makes no effort to deny his part in the chaos that has been taking place across the city, and has no interest in letting the PCs leave without giving them a beating. Unbeknownst to the party, two smoke mephits and a steam mephit lurk in the vapours, ready to attack when hostilities break out.
The battleground
Hardo's workshop is approximately 30ft wide by 40ft long, and seven workdesks are arranged loosely around the room, covered in alchemical equipment and several flasks of brilliantly-coloured liquids. In the back left corner is a large glass vat of acid, behind which Hardo hides once combat breaks out.
- The vat of acid has 10 HP, AC 10, immunity to poison and psychic damage and vulnerability to bludgeoning damage. If reduced to 0 HP it shatters: all creatures within 5 feet of the vat must make a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 acid damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one. A small creature hiding behind the vat has three-quarters cover against ranged attacks from the front half of the shop.
- The flasks come in three colours: red, green and blue. A PC may, as an action, throw one of the flasks, functioning as a thrown weapon with a range of 20/60ft, and dealing 1d6 fire, acid or cold damage on a hit. The damage type depends on the colour of the flask chosen: red flasks deal fire damage, green flasks deal acid damage, and blue flasks deal cold damage.
- The mephits all have vulnerability to cold damage, in addition to their usual statistics. While stationary in the acid vapours, they cannot be seen.
Suggested combat tactics
- The smoke mephits focus on using their claw attacks on the closest PC. If reduced to 7HP or less, they attempt to flee, using their Cinder Breath to cover their escape.
- The steam mephit opens with its Steam Breath. On subsequent turns, it casts Blur on itself, and then proceeds to engage the closest PC, flitting in and out of combat range. If reduced to 7HP or less it will fling itself furiously at the closest PC, using claw attacks until it is downed.
- Hardo takes cover behind a large glass vat of acid, giving him three-quarters cover from ranged attacks coming from the front half of the shop. He uses his actions to grab a flask from a nearby table and lob it at the PCs, or draws a knife if engaged in melee combat.
Hardo Finchey
Small humanoid (halfling), chaotic evil
- Armor Class 12 (leather armour)
- Hit Points 11 (2d8+2)
- Speed 25ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 9 (-1) 12 (+1) 12 (+1) 13 (+1) 8 (-1) 11 (+0)
- Condition Immunities frightened
- Senses passive Perception 9
- Languages Common, Halfling
- Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)
Lucky. When Hardo rolls a 1 on the d20 for an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, he can reroll the die and must use the new roll.
Halfling Nimbleness. Hardo can move through the space of any creature that is of Medium size or larger.
Actions
Thrown Flask. Thrown Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, range 20/60ft., one target. Hit 4 (1d6) fire/acid/cold damage (determine randomly).
Knife. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5ft., one target. Hit 4 (1d4 + 1) piercing damage.
DM Note
This final combat gives the party an opportunity to test their skills on a more challenging combat encounter, and introduces them to damage resistances and vulnerabilities. It also is designed to suggest to players various ways they might interact with their environment, from the obvious vat of bubbling green acid, to the flasks that Hardo throws at them.
Aftermath
Hardo has seven gold rings on his fingers worth 3gp each, and a strongbox in the back room of his shop contains a further 17gp, 14sp and 68cp, along with an unpaid bill for 23gp for "services rendered". These, however, all belong to Hardo, and the PCs would be committing a crime if they were to take them.
If the PCs remain at Finchey's Phials for more than two minutes, they hear the sound of hobnailed boots on the cobbles outside and a squadron of four members of the City Watch arrive, led by Sergeant Hulda Steelbrock, a female shield dwarf with tightly pinned-back ginger hair. If the PCs took Finchey alive, she is convinced by their tales and awards them 20gp as a group as an assistance fee for solving the mephit crimes, as per section 43.E, subsection ii.5.f of the Waterdeep City Ordinances. If they killed Finchey and were acting in self-defense, she instead gives them a stern lecture about the dangers of vigilante justice, before taking their names and issuing them with a warning.
DM Note
The consequences of committing a crime here (killing Hardo or stealing from him) are deliberately gentler than they would usually be in Waterdeep, since the adventure is intended as a tutorial where the players can learn from their mistakes.
The morning after the resolution of the adventure, the PCs receive the following note, written in a looping hand.
Obaya
This kicks off the events of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist proper.
Tutorial written by u/jakob_vd. Description of Trollskull Manor by u/toxik0n.