Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Laniel steps into the alcove immediately, feeling around and calling out for Morph. He is clearly not there. And Laniel also does not disappear himself.

Rethan looks back and forth between the others.  "Uhh...now what?  I guess we wait a few minutes to see if he reappears?"  In the meantime, he sends Midnight to go explore further down the hall.

"Ahh..."

Morph is a little in shock at suddenly being in the presence of Halaster Blackcloak, the Mad Mage himself.

Morph turns to look behind himself, holding the mask up to look through the eye's in case its needed to see the way he came in.

If Morph can see the way back out, he will quickly step back out of the room.

If Morph only sees a wall behind himself, he will scan the room a little more to be sure the glowing door is the only exit. And to judge the distance between himself, the glowing door, and the Mad Mage. (not sure about any skill rolls, so here are two, just in case)

Perception check: 17

Investigation check: 10

Titus grows a bit weary as he watches Morph and Rethan discuss the mask, he stands quietly and keeps guard occasionally taking a few steps down each side of the hallway. He is alarmed when Morph suddenly vanishes. He cries out a curse in his draconic tongue and joins Laniel in frantically searching for their lost companion. He checks the walls and floors for any sign of a trap or curse.

OOC: Is the mask still on the ground, or did it go with Morph?

It went with him.

"Aha. I should like to learn that trick, someday. Are we concerned? Should we be concerned? It's hard for me to tell if this is a normal thing or not."

Morph:

 Suddenly, Morph reappears in the alcove behind Laniel and Titus.

"Ah! Oh thank the gods!"

Morph steps back away from the statue, keeping the mask away from his face.

"Ok, so holding the mask up, while going into the alcove to look at the statue, takes you to a room."

"And, either the Mad Mag....ah, Halaster, is in there, or maybe it's some kind of magical representation of Halaster."

"Anyway he asked me, to ask him, three questions about Undermountain. He said two of his answers would be true, and one would be false.”

"I kind of panicked and jumped back out here. There is a glowing doorway that lets you back out."

Morph looks at his friends,

"So do we want to ask him questions?"

Morph holds the mask out, for any of the others to take, if they want it.

Atuan rubs his chin in thought for a moment. "Well, if we ask him three different questions, we will have no clear way of knowing which are true, and which is false. If we ask him a question twice, however, and he repeats the answer, or says something similar, then we know it is true. If he changes his answer, we can repeat it a third time, and so find the truth! It's just like a riddle I used to play with my friends as a child, just with a lot scarier stakes and a wizard at one end who may or may not be lying about telling the truth sometimes."

"Good thinking."  Rethan ponders for a moment.  "Do you think we could each get three questions if we go in one at a time?  Then we could pick one question for each of us to ask.  And if the first 2 answers matter, they can ask the next person's question to get 1 response to that as well."

"Okay. What do we want to know?" Laniel says.

Titus thinks on the question for a moment, and then says “We need to find Martus Krennic... can we simply ask Halaster where he is?”

Morph nods along with everyone's insights and suggestions.

"Is there anything we could maybe learn that the Grey Hands or the Lords Alliance would be interested in?"

Morph tries to think of anything that the group or others may benefit from knowing.

"The location of Master Krennis is a good idea," Laniel says. "We could ask for the directions to the second level as well, I suppose."

Morph thinks over the questions and the problem of one being a lie, before giving more input.

"Ok so if we use Atuan and Rethan's suggestions, we could each ask one question three times, to determine the truth of the question."

"So then we can each ask a different question and get 5 true answers between us."

"We have at least two questions to ask: 'Where is Master Krennic right now' and 'What are the full directions, to get to the second level of Undermountain, from here'. What else do we want to ask? We could ask for the directions for the first 4 levels, I suppose..."

Laniel's eyes open wide as an idea strikes him. "Maybe where traps are located on the next level or two or what creatures we will face on those levels. Or maybe where a secret stash of...no, I like the other ideas better."

Rethan ponders for a moment, then looks back to Morph.  "The one possible flaw with this plan...do we know if he'll actually allow the same question to be asked multiple times in a row, or if it has to be three different ones?  Though I suppose in that case, with several different questions, we could each use one of our questions for each of 3, then compare answers when we get back.  As for the actual questions...not sure at the moment what else to ask."

(Trying to remember what all the goal was with exploring undermountain besides testing the teleportation paint)

Rethan thinks back to the meeting that sent them into Undermountain.

"We could also ask about this other group of adventurers hired by Krennic.   If we're hunting for him, odds are good we'll run into them at some point.  Would be good to have an idea what we're getting into."

"Well, we have some options, then. Where should we start? Krennic?"