Waterdeep Dungeon of The Mad Mage: Dungeons and Dragons Story Explained

Hey D&D peeps!
This request was a difficult one but fun to do! The amount of content that's jam-packed in this adventure is unreal and definitely one of the longer adventures that I've read. That being said, the story that lies in this adventure is more concentrated in the individual levels and interactions rather than the overarching plot.
Tried my best to manage my time better when making this video so I'm able to put this one out a lot earlier than I expected. I hope you enjoy it!
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
1:04 Undermountain Overview
4:39 Level 1
6:47 Level 2
9:49 Level 3
15:10 Level 4
17:14 Level 5
22:06 Level 6
24:00 Level 7
28:13 Level 8
31:18 Level 9
33:00 Level 10
34:48 Level 11
35:36 Level 12
38:57 Level 13
41:04 Level 14
43:37 Level 15
47:09 Level 16
48:58 Level 17
51:32 Level 18
56:08 Level 19
58:19 Level 20
59:57 Level 21
1:03:57 Level 22
1:08:03 Level 23
1:10:55 Closing Statements
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All art used is not created by me and owned by their respective artists
Music: The Road Home, Skaga, Cold Journey, We three Celtic Kings, Traveler, Borgar, Nomadic Sunset, Dungeons and Dragons, Until the End, Nowhere Land, Marked, Wonderland, Dreamy Interlude, Autumn Walk, Heartbeat, Tam Lin, Fantasy Motion, Adventure Beyond, Haven, Planning, Dragonquest, Foreverlands, Celtic Ambiance, Medieval Chateau by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/...

[@jontylerlud]

Honestly running this campaign as well as preparing it makes YOU as the DM the real Mad Mage. It takes a certain kind of obsessive madness to go into this project yourself, understand it in its entirety, and craft the very foundations all players interested in trying this campaign require in order to actually experience it. It’s been a couple of weeks and I’ve only finished polishing up the first 3 levels of this thing. I hope I will manage to actually finish this immense project cuz after listening to this it’s truly an amazing book and crafted world

[@catman-hi5cn]

How’s it going? I’ve failed the intelligence save that is this campaign a couple times now

[@controlfreak3587]

Awesome Review! My group is currently on the 23rd level, having beaten Trobriand (in both forms) and are now mid-fight against Arcturia, who isn't faring very well. I'm giving the group the link to this video so they can reminisce about the almost 2 year journey they've taken to where they are.

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Congrats on the home stretch! I hope you guys made plenty of wonderful memories in this infamous dungeon!

[@jontylerlud]

Could I ask you about some of the things you implemented into your campaign with your group? I’m currently running this and I am so curious how others run water deep and stuff outside the dungeon :P

[@oscarsiri2763]

23 levels of greatness. Beautiful, epic.

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Thank you!

[@GM-lx7ji]

As much as i woulnd't run this adventure myself or play through the whole thing, there seems to be lots of interesting encounters and sitiuations on it to use as inspiration in a homebrew campaing. Good job in making this video as understandable as possible while keeping each level description as short as posible.

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Thanks! Glad you appreciate the short summary of each level! The adventure is quite a hefty dungeon crawl so I think it'd be quite a tall order to run this campaign fully. Hopefully you find some neat floors to enjoy that will help you design your homebrew!

[@helixxharpell]

Good work here young man! No offense but allow me to correct you on pronunciation. "Deemacore" is pronounced "Dwemer-core" The "Dw" is emphasized as "duwa" said quickly, running the D & U together. Dweomer is realmspeak for an enchantment. It's also used to describe any glowing aura produced by arcane or divine magic. Faerie Fire is also known as "Dweomer Glow" in some regions of Faerun. Excellent work tho! Thoroughly enjoyed the video! Instant subscribe!

[@ijokerdu4902]

I feel like i need a corkboard with thumbtacks and strings. So helpful thank you.

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Haha, the story is quite large for sure! If you run it, don't worry. The book is set up in such a way that you get away with only reading a few chapters ahead before running each floor. Regardless, glad to hear you find this helpful!

[@spdegabrielle]

Red string😅

[@John-ej9xz]

I’m Ngl I’m a new DM and I’ve been struggling with trying to approach my campaign so I decided to look up random modules and honestly this gives me so much of a better feel as to how I should approach my planning. Thank you so much 🙏

[@houstonhall1144]

Ooo lawd. An hour, god bless all you do!!

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Haha yeah! It was brutal to edit but glad I was able to do it!

[@saintdane7336]

The fact that there are certain levels in this dungeon that if rewritten and expanded upon properly would count as entire campaign plots on their own truly is a form of madness

[@MichaelCadence]

Absolutely fantastic video. Incredibly helpful for running this adventure and keeping the lore of each level straight. Thank you so much for the work you put into this!

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Glad you found this helpful! Wish you the best in running this astronomically large adventure!

[@jandobiasovsky4287]

You did an amazing work in keeping it comprehensive. Got lots of inspiration for my game and very interesting listen. Thanks a lot

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Thanks for the kind words! Wish you the best in your future games!

[@docop8926]

stop kissing ass... i could barely hear the words over the music

[@ADT1995]

This is one book I highly recommend for any DM, even if you aren't running it, it's got so many good ideas to steal. Thanks for the great overview

[@DnDWalkthrough]

It does! I think it'd be fun to just steal a floor in the dungeon to throw into your campaign! Certainly less taxing than running this mega dungeon lol

[@sigmar4564]

Great Video

[@mau_victorino]

Remarkable undertaking! Thanks a lot!

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Anytime! Thanks for watching and the kind words!

[@jackcook7051]

Have been so keen for this vid and once again you've exceeded my expectations! Top content as always :)

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Haha, I'm very glad to hear it exceeded your expectations! Thanks for watching and appreciate it!

[@jamespearsoniii914]

This is a great listen and motivated me to get the book! On the downside, the truth that most lvls are barely changed by the actions of the party is a bit disheartening😅

[@DnDWalkthrough]

I'm glad you enjoyed it enough to pick up the book! Yeah, most people seem to have the opinion of using this adventure as a supplement in their own D&D campaigns rather than running it all in one go since most actions in one level don't really affect another.

[@GarikTate]

I've been looking for this type of video for a while! Thank you for the hard work in summarizing these levels. Helps me see what I might want to pluck and put into my own DnD campaign. Levels 5, 7, 9, 12,13, 18, 22,23 look really interesting

[@vnavone]

Thank you so much for this! I would never have had the patience to read the whole book myself, and this video is a great resource for highlighting bits of the adventure I can steal!

[@JacintoDeSousa-bq2wp]

Next to Tomb of Horrors and Annihilation, the Dungeon of the Mad Mage is my favorite and most memorable.

[@PMMagro]

It is a classic for sure!

[@mojorn8837]

Thanks a ton for this! What a great preview and review resource for the floors as a dm trying to prepare for a session

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Anytime! Thanks a plenty for watching and wishing you and your party the best!

[@edthered]

This is awesome, I will probably never get to play through this or DM it, but I did read through it twice, but I feel like I have a better grasp and understanding of it now. There's a lot of lore that connects to other events before and beyond, it makes more sense now. A good DM who brings their players through the previous campaign to here could really open it up to something awesome or even keep it as a kind of "progress as you level" thing players could come back to between other adventures in a more sand-boxy campaign set in the Forgotten realms.

[@davidwilson4446]

I use bits and pieces of modules to spice up homebrew dungeons… take the Undertakers gang, instead of bickering bandits I made them into 12-17 year old orphan gang who use their trickery to extort adventurers to earn enough to make a living back up top and are aware of the dungeon as part of their daily work they also mine out the top floor to earn a pittance. Makes it all the more tragic when the adventurers realize they just one shot a 4 hp child disguised as a vampire.

[@zackrox4347]

This is beyond awesome. Thanks man!

[@miked3340]

Great overview! I found tthis whilst prepping level 9, my players are on level 2, and this helps me get an overarching view of the dungeon. Now I just hope my players don't stumble on this video :)

[@dogfishfood]

Thank you for all of your effort! It's helped me decide on investing the campaign for my players.

[@eXdXgXe4life]

Just stumbled upon this. This is amazing. Thank you for making this.

[@Conradmartin97]

Love your content, Keep it up!

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Thank you so much!! I'll do my best!

[@ProgramKiraTV]

You sir are a god. Blessed be your dice

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Haha, thanks! I like my dice to fight back a bit 😉

[@texastaterbug5395]

This is super helpful. I'm running this campaign starting tomorrow. Hoping my players don't stumble across your video!!! It looks like your channel isn't monetized yet. Do you have a Patreon?

[@kashantius]

Your work is so awesome!

[@ijokerdu4902]

So far this has been my favorite level. Although I I statred at level 10 so may have missed others. The level just seems to flow nicely unlike some of the other levels. Thanks for the overview, it is very helpful.😁

[@thashadowspawn]

That Was 😎🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉😎 Awesome!

[@cwesley2005]

This is an amazing video!!!

[@alanschaub147]

This is *so* good! ❤

[@iktancreativo9910]

Thanks a lot, I'm starting to read this book and surely this video is a good complement.

[@DnDWalkthrough]

I hope it helps! Thanks for watching!

[@larkohiya]

What I've always been wanting. I just don't have time to read all of it and trying to do a text to speech of the format of DND books is not possible.

[@DnDWalkthrough]

Yeah, this adventure is a 300 page long read. I can understand the burden so glad to help in that department!

[@saveronshadow]

Finishing up Seadeeps next week!

[@3sgamestudio]

amazing video .as a DM i appreciate it a lot! its a great intro to a 300 page adventure :D

[@houstonhall1144]

Level 20 aka the Christmas level

[@greeninferno1339]

Very cool!! Could you do a short spoiler-free intro video for the first floor for players? Kinda what you do in the introduction 0:00 and first overview? Great stuff!!!

[@MoneySpain1188]

Just finished dragon heist as dm, about to start this. Any advice?

[@matthewjenkins4559]

All of this is happening underneath a wizard tower/bar?

[@simongellings9482]

gratulation

[@gerardoalvarado8425]

Does anyone know the artist of the first song I tried to find it but only gospels where popping up 💀

[@gerardoalvarado8425]

Nvm found it

[@zenmaster6780]

Great work but I find the music distracting

[@GodwinXZ]

Tears of Selune

[@docop8926]

music is waaaaay to loud

[@user-gj7lp5iz6k]

music gets too loud at times 🔊

[@troisot1107]

Could you narrate some horror story adventures?

[@helixxharpell]

Like to hear him do a Ravenloft narrative!

[@quicksilvertongue3248]

"Undermountain Overview" lol.

[@user-gj7lp5iz6k]

Duergar is pronounced "dwere-gar", not "dur-a-gar"

[@dermaniac5205]

While we are correcting pronunciations: Muiral is "mis-shapen" not "miss-hapen". He changed his body into a different shape, which is why he is misshapen.