The Forgotten Storm

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

From party level 8, ask the old man in The Mad Mage's Hut on Mount Baratok "The lightning that lands on the glass every evening. What is it?" It works whether he's still The Mad Mage or already Mordenkainen again.

• Mad, he says he told it something long ago and can't remember what, so he can't tell it to stop, and it's getting angrier.
• Restored, he knows: the night he ran from the castle he called a storm down behind him and ordered it to bring his apprentice Corvina after him. It never found her.

If Mordenkainen is travelling with you (as your Tarokka ally) and you never asked him, you don't need the hut. From level 8, look at the heart of the ring of glass with him along: he stops at its edge, tells you it's his storm, ordered the night he ran from the castle to bring her after him, and says you'll wait there for dusk and tell it what it needs to hear, or break it. The quest starts at Asked right there, and you carry straight on with step 1.

You may already have seen the storm strike if the lightning-ridge event came up on the mountain roads; Arcana DC 14 there tells you it's a spell, not weather.

Step by step

1. Go to the ring of glass on the trail below the hut, and look at the heart of the ring. Between 6:00 and 18:00 the glass is cold, and you can choose to wait there: time passes to 19:00 and the storm comes down. Between 18:00 and 6:00 it comes as soon as you look. It settles on the glass and asks "WHERE IS SHE."

   

2. Read it, if you like. Arcana DC 15 shows the mage's order written over and over ("bring her after me") and two words added underneath in a different, very neat hand: "and him". The count has taught it to come for the mage too. A miss tells you nothing, and you still get to choose what to say.
3. Answer it. "(Say her name: Corvina.)" only appears if you know her name: from the letter fused into this same ring of glass (The Mage's Lost Pages), from Mordenkainen after you bring him all three letters, or from the slip of paper in her coat once you've beaten her in the castle catacombs and used her crypt again (The Unnamed Crypt). When the storm has her name:
   • "She's at rest. Her name's on her crypt. You can stop now." This only appears once you've laid Corvina to rest in the castle catacombs (The Unnamed Crypt). The storm lets go of itself and drifts off over the lake as rain, with no fight (Liriel +2, Wren +2, Godrick +1).
   • "In the count's castle, in a crypt with no name." The storm tears off east toward the castle, hits a wall in the sky, and comes back smaller and furious: "AND HIM." You fight it weakened, at 110 hit points.
   • "(Stand your ground.)" You fight it at full strength, at 140 hit points.
4. The fight. The Forgotten Storm and a Squall (Air Elemental at 60 hit points), 6800 XP, on the storm's own ground (it has lair actions).
   • Its attacks: two thunderous slams, Lightning on two of you (Dexterity DC 16, 6d8, half on a save), and a Whirlwind that throws whoever is in its space 20 feet and knocks them prone (Strength DC 16, 4d10+2 thunder).
   • Its defences: it resists weapon damage and lightning, is immune to thunder, and has Legendary Resistance once a day.

   Spells that aren't lightning or thunder are your best damage. Keep apart so the lightning only finds two of you. Sending it east first takes 30 hit points off it, so it's worth it if you can't yet tell it she's at rest. Winning (or the peaceful ending) moves the quest to Broken.

5. Look at the glass again. Sunk where the storm stood is the brass censer the mage dropped on the road forty years ago: a Censer of Controlling Air Elementals.
6. Tell the mage. Talk to him in his hut and he notices the quiet at once. The quest ends at Done and he gives you 250 gp. If he's restored and you read the spell, he has a dry word about the count writing himself into it.

   If Mordenkainen is travelling with you, he hears it at the glass instead. After the peaceful ending he speaks as soon as you've lifted out the censer; after a fight, he speaks when you look at the glass again in step 5. It's the same scene and the same 250 gp.

Choices and endings

• Done (success), however the storm ends: the censer and 250 gp.
• The peaceful ending also earns approval, but it needs both Corvina's name and her rest in the castle, so it usually means coming back late in the game. Laying her to rest gives you her name too, even if you never found the letters.
• Nothing here changes whether Mordenkainen can join you.

If you're stuck

• The question about the lightning only appears from level 8, and so does Mordenkainen's talk at the glass when he's travelling with you.
• You can't learn Corvina's name on the mountain while he's still mad: her letters only turn up once a restored Mordenkainen has asked you to find them. The other way to her name is in the castle: finish The Unnamed Crypt, and the slip of paper in her coat counts.
• If Mordenkainen has joined your party as your Tarokka ally, he's no longer in his hut, but you can still start this quest: take him to the ring of glass and look at its heart, and he starts it there (see Getting the quest). You can finish it with him along too, since he hears the storm is gone at the ring of glass (step 6).

Rewards

• Censer of Controlling Air Elementals
• 250 gp

What your companions think

• Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you told the mage's storm it could stop
• Wren Featherfoot: +2 you told the mage's storm it could stop
• Godrick Pendlebrook: +1 you told the mage's storm it could stop

Fights

• The storm comes down off the ring of glass at you, and the lightning comes down out of it., in Mount Baratok: The Forgotten Storm, Air Elemental. Scales with your level.

Journal

Related

• People: The Mad Mage, Mordenkainen, The Forgotten Storm
• Places: The Mad Mage's Hut, Mount Baratok
• More in Mount Baratok: The Mad Mage of Mount Baratok, The Mage's Lost Pages