# The Mad Mage of Mount Baratok

> From the Curse of Strahd game wiki (it covers the whole game, spoilers included): https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-mad-mage-of-mount-baratok.html. Unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy, not approved or endorsed by Wizards of the Coast.

> [!infobox]
> ![quest the mad mage](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/quest-the-mad-mage.webp)
> **Type:** Side quest
> **Region:** [Mount Baratok](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/regions/mount-baratok.md) · level 9
> **Given by:** [The Mad Mage](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/the-mad-mage.md)
> **Starts at:** [The Mad Mage's Hut](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-mad-mages-hut.md)
> **Rewards:** [Spell Scroll (Level 1)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#spell-scroll-level-1) ×2, [Ring of Spell Storing](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#ring-of-spell-storing)

## Summary

A powerful wizard lives alone on Mount Baratok with his memory gone. Someone took it on purpose.

## Walkthrough

### Getting the quest

[Mount Baratok](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/mount-baratok.md) is on the travel map from the start. It's 5 hours from [Vallaki](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/vallaki.md), 2 hours up from [Van Richten's Tower](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/van-richtens-tower.md) and 4 hours from the Tsolenka Pass, and the mountain roads can throw dire wolves, ogres, giant spiders or (at night) werewolves at you. Climb the goat track to the stone hut in the frost garden on the east side. Inside [The Mad Mage's Hut](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-mad-mages-hut.md), [The Mad Mage](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/the-mad-mage.md) looks up from his dragonchess board and speaks first, asking whether you're real. That starts the quest. The hut is a safe place to rest.

![loc mount baratok 1](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/shots/loc-mount-baratok-1.webp)

### Step by step

1. **Talk to him.** He doesn't know his own name ("I am... Osric. No. Osric was a goat."), only that he went down to the castle with an excellent plan and that a little old woman with a jar said "hush now".
   - **Insight DC 14:** every time a word slips away, his eyes go to the cairn on the summit. A miss tells you nothing, and the cairn is there whether you spot this or not.
   - **A wizard** in the party can name the spell he keeps muttering, Mordenkainen's: it hurts him (Ratatouille +2, and Heroic Inspiration for the wizard).
   - **Dragonchess:** playing him wins Ratatouille and Wren +1.
   - **The lightning question:** from level 8, ask about the lightning on the glass to start [The Forgotten Storm](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-forgotten-storm.md).
   - **The cards:** if Madam Eva named him as your ally, he cheerfully agrees to come and then forgets who you are mid-sentence. He can't join until he's himself again.

2. **Give him back his mind.** Any one of these works.
   - **The spellbook in the cairn.** Climb to the summit in the north-west corner of the mountain. The cairn is ringed by his own ward, a thunder trap (spot DC 15, disarm DC 15, or Dexterity DC 15 against 4d6 thunder). Instead of disarming it, you can try Arcana DC 16 on the cairn to unpick it (one try; a miss costs 2d8 lightning). "Unstack the stones." finds his spellbook and two [Spell Scroll (Level 1)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#spell-scroll-level-1), and the quest moves to Book Found. Back in the hut, "Show him the spellbook from the cairn." gives him his name, then "Read him the last page." brings him back. No rolls needed.
   - **The witch's jar.** [Baba Lysaga](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/baba-lysaga.md) in [The Ruins of Berez](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-ruins-of-berez.md) keeps his memory in a jar on her shelf. You get it either by winning Intimidation DC 15 when you blackmail her, or by taking the labelled jar from her shelf once she's dead or broken ([The Witch of Berez](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-witch-of-berez.md)). The quest moves to Jar Found. "Uncork the witch's jar for him." brings him back.
   - **Greater Restoration.** If the party is level 9 or higher and has a cleric, druid or bard, that character can cast [Greater Restoration](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/spells/level-5-spells.md#greater-restoration) on him from the menu.
   - **Talk him back.** Arcana DC 16, one try only. A miss fills the hut with a short, furious snowfall and the option is gone.

   ![mordenkainen jar](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/cutscenes/mordenkainen-jar.webp)

3. **Mordenkainen.** Restored, he remembers coming to Barovia to kill Strahd, losing, and having the witch bottle his mind. The quest moves to Restored, and he gives you the [Ring of Spell Storing](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#ring-of-spell-storing) he's worn for forty years without knowing why (Ratatouille +5; Kip, Liriel and Godrick +1). Before you settle what he does next, use his new menu:
   - "The gate in the Tsolenka Pass is held by dead men." gets you the watchword, "cold hearth, shut door", the easy way through [The Tsolenka Gate](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-tsolenka-gate.md). (Reading the watch log in [The Tsolenka Guard Tower](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-tsolenka-guard-tower.md) teaches it to you too.)
   - "Heard anything interesting?" starts [The Mage's Lost Pages](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-mages-lost-pages.md). Later answers lead to [The Name Over the Door](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-name-over-the-door.md) and [The Drowned Library](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-drowned-library.md).
   - From level 8, ask about the lightning on the glass if you haven't yet.
   - Ask what he knows about Strahd and about the Amber Temple.

4. **What he does next.**
   - **If Madam Eva named him:** "Madam Eva's cards named you. Will you come?" He joins you as a guest, [The Destined Ally](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-destined-ally.md) is found, and this quest ends at Joined. If you haven't yet heard about his missing pages, he tells you before you go down, and [The Mage's Lost Pages](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-mages-lost-pages.md) starts.
   - **Otherwise:** "Will you help us against him?" He stays on his mountain to rebuild his spells and promises to come when you go up to the castle. This quest ends at Promised, and he stays in his hut to talk to.

Worth a look while you're on the mountain:

- **Ring of glass on the trail:** a wand fused into it (search DC 15: [Wand of Lightning Bolts](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#wand-of-lightning-bolts)).
- **Summit:** a stone that isn't part of the cairn (search DC 16: [Ioun Stone (Intellect)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#ioun-stone-intellect)), and a cleft in the rock with 15 gp and a potion of healing.
- **Frost garden:** a page blown into the snow (search DC 13: [Spell Scroll](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#spell-scroll)).
- **Inside the hut** (Investigation DC 17 each): a chess piece that isn't a piece ([Figurine of Wondrous Power (Serpentine Owl)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#figurine-of-wondrous-power-serpentine-owl)) and one book on the shelf that isn't blank ([Tome of Understanding](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#tome-of-understanding)). His travelling satchel holds rations and a component pouch.

### Choices and endings

- **Joined** (success, only if he's your Tarokka ally): Mordenkainen travels and fights beside you as a guest.
- **Promised** (success): he stays home, mending, and has promised to come to the castle.
- Either way, a restored Mordenkainen is what the epilogue remembers: one morning he vanishes from his mountain, leaving a thank-you note that's slightly too pleased with itself.

### If you're stuck

- **Once he joins you, his hut conversations are over.** He leaves the hut, and a guest can't be talked to, so you can't get the Tsolenka watchword from him or hear his news about Khazan. Do those before you say "Will you come?". (If you miss the watchword, the watch log in the Tsolenka tower has it.) His two quests on the mountain still work with him along: he reads Corvina's letters with you where you find the last one, even if the castle has already given you her name ([The Mage's Lost Pages](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-mages-lost-pages.md)). If you never asked him about the lightning, from level 8 he tells you about his storm at the ring of glass, which starts [The Forgotten Storm](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-forgotten-storm.md), and once it's gone he hears it there too. The promise ending has no such cost.
- The Greater Restoration options only appear once every party member is level 9.
- If you tried the Arcana talk and failed, use the book, the jar or the spell.

## Rewards

- [Spell Scroll (Level 1)](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/equipment.md#spell-scroll-level-1) ×2
- [Ring of Spell Storing](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/items/magic-items.md#ring-of-spell-storing)

**What your companions think**

- **Liriel Dawnsong:** -2 you blackmailed Baba Lysaga over Marina's murder; +1 you gave Mordenkainen back his name
- **Godrick Pendlebrook:** -2 you blackmailed Baba Lysaga over Marina's murder; +1 you gave Mordenkainen back his name
- **Kip Smudgewick:** -1 you blackmailed Baba Lysaga over Marina's murder; +1 you gave Mordenkainen back his name
- **Ratatouille:** +2 you named Mordenkainen's own spell to him; +1 you sat down to a game of dragonchess with a mad old man; +5 you gave Mordenkainen back his name
- **Wren Featherfoot:** +1 you sat down to a game of dragonchess with a mad old man

## Journal

> [!quote]- Every journal entry and hint
> **Met**: An old wizard lives in a stone hut on Mount Baratok, playing dragonchess against nobody. He doesn't know his own name, and the weather does whatever he forgets he told it to.
> *Hint:* Look for what was taken from the old man: a warded cairn on Mount Baratok's summit, and Baba Lysaga's jars in Berez.
>
> **Book Found**: Under a warded cairn on the summit of Mount Baratok we found a spellbook in a strong, impatient hand, hidden by someone who didn't want it found, not even by himself.
> *Hint:* Show the spellbook to the old man in the hut on Mount Baratok. Baba Lysaga's jars in Berez hold the rest.
>
> **Jar Found**: Among Baba Lysaga's jars was one labelled in her scrawl: the wizard on the mountain, his remembering. Something silver moves inside it.
> *Hint:* Take the jar to the old man in the hut on Mount Baratok.
>
> **Restored**: He remembers. His name is Mordenkainen. He came to Barovia to destroy Strahd, lost, and had his memory bottled by the witch of Berez.
> *Hint:* Ask Mordenkainen in his hut what he knows.
>
> **Joined** (the end: success): Mordenkainen walks with us now. Madam Eva's cards called him the broken one. He is mending.
>
> **Promised** (the end: success): Mordenkainen is staying on his mountain to rebuild his spells. When we go up to the castle, he says, he will come.

> [!abstract]- Every skill check in its conversations
> - Arcana DC 14: What made that cloud?
> - Insight DC 14: Watch where his eyes go when he loses a word.
> - Arcana DC 16: Talk him back to himself, one spell at a time.

## Related

- **People:** [Baba Lysaga](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/baba-lysaga.md), [The Mad Mage](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/the-mad-mage.md), [Mordenkainen](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/people/mordenkainen.md)
- **Places:** [Baba Lysaga's Hut](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/baba-lysagas-hut.md), [Mount Baratok](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/mount-baratok.md), [The Mad Mage's Hut](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/locations/the-mad-mages-hut.md)
- **More in Mount Baratok:** [The Forgotten Storm](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-forgotten-storm.md), [The Mage's Lost Pages](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/quests/the-mages-lost-pages.md)

> [!example]- Cutscenes
> **Lightning on the Ridge**: One small cloud strikes the same ring of black glass every evening.
> ![lightning ridge](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/cutscenes/lightning-ridge.webp)
>
> **Mordenkainen Remembers**: Silver smoke pours out of the jar and into the old wizard's eyes.
> ![mordenkainen jar](https://curseofstrahd.app/wiki/img/cutscenes/mordenkainen-jar.webp)