The latest session of my Roll20 Waterdeep campaign saw the third-level party finally return to Waterdeep after a longer period away from the city and get back into some of the faction quests that actually related to Dragon Heist!
They’d discovered a map showing an ancient treasure stored in the first level of Undermountain, but Onyx the Paladin realised they still hadn’t dealt with the gangs of Zhentarim and Xanathar’s Guild roaming in the Field Ward, a quest given to them by Mirt the Moneylender – it’s the first of the Order of the Gauntlet track of quests.
In addition, some research on the tapestry they’d found indicated it belonged to an order of Knights of Helm that had tried to build a kingdom in the North before Waterdeep was founded, only to be destroyed by trolls. There is no major temple to Helm in Waterdeep, but they learnt that the great cathedral in Helm’s Hold just to the south of Neverwinter (about 9 days travel away) might be interested in paying a premium for it. But that was for later.
Trouble in the Field Ward
After a day spent recuperating, the characters headed off to the Field Ward. This group is doing a good job of working on non-combat skills, so Xeon the Rogue did some research about the area using his contacts first and discovered the area where the Zhentarim gang was going to target. The characters were able to surprise them and confront them before things got worse. (As the group had delayed for 15+ days before taking the job, things were definitely worse in the city!)
The adventure calls for three successful Intimidation checks to persuade the gang to stop it because the Order of the Gauntlet is keeping the peace now, but the characters were rolling poorly. When we get to a situation like this, I give advantage on checks when players say the right thing (or even give auto-successes), but the players’ role-playing was not that convincing. Eventually, I decided that the Zhentarim gang would attack, and we moved into combat.
It was a tough fight, and T’ak the Bladesinger was down unconscious before it was done. However, each time the characters knocked out a gang member, I allowed a character to make another Charisma (Intimidation) check to demoralise the gang. Onyx was the first to drop one, but his rolling remained poor. It was Xeon who was successful, and the characters then explained to the cowed gang what the new order would be.
With that, they had calmed things down in the city, and they could start paying attention to other things, like Midwinter!
The Passage of Time
While keeping a good track of time is something recommended and urged by Gary Gygax in the old Dungeons & Dragons books, it is something that I have been traditionally very poor at doing. However, with the games on Roll20, I am using the Journal function a lot more. So, for this session I roughed out how events in the campaign had progressed so far, then noted down the days as people did things. Let us see if I can keep it up!
Here is the timeline so far:
- Hammer 1. Campaign begins. Troll in Yawning Portal. Volo recruits the PCs to find Floon.
- Hammer 2. Floon and Renaer rescued. Volo rewards PCs with free room and board at Yawning Portal.
- Hammer 5. Contacts from various factions. Missions over next few days.
- Hammer 12. Travel to Wayfarer’s Inn to make with delivery. Learn of orc caves.
- Hammer 13-17. First trip to orc caves. Rescue merchants and return.
- Hammer 20-25. Second trip to orc caves. Find lower level.
- Hammer 28. Return to Waterdeep
- Hammer 29-30. Dealing with gangs in the Field ward.
- Midwinter.
One of the other aspects of the campaign is that players are interested in other things than just adventuring. Traven the Ranger wants to learn new skills through training, Onyx wants to research the Far Realm, and T’ak wanted to find a colour-shifting cloak (his player has been reading the Wheel of Time recently). All of those would be dealt with shortly.
The Bookshop and the Gazer
On the day after midwinter, T’ak received a message from the Harpers: a bookshop owner had been forced from their shop by the incursion of a strange creature! Could the characters help?
They certainly could, and soon enough they learnt that a strange orb-like creature with many eyes had invaded the shop and trapped the shopkeeper’s cat!
How to deal with it? T’ak sent his familiar in, a lizard named Yoshi, and scouted ahead. He got a glimpse of the creature on an upper floor, and so the group decided to send Xeon in on his own. Rogues being good with stealth and all that!
Xeon rolled very well for stealth. Given that the gazer – for that was the beast – had few hit points, I expected Xeon to take it down easily. He is playing an assassin, after all. Except, after he rolled a 21 for initiative, the gazer rolled a 22! It was surprised, but by the time Xeon’s turn happened, it wasn’t surprised any more.
Not that it saved it for long. Xeon attacked, it got one attack of eye rays, both of which Xeon resisted, and then Xeon attacked again and slew it. At which point the other characters could act. It was all over!
One mission for the Harpers down, and the group got a spell book as a reward, much to T’ak’s delight. Especially as I decided to put a spell from the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount in the book.
Downtime Activities
It was now time for the players to go into the non-adventuring activities they had been talking about. Using Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, I adjudicated the following activities:
- T’ak searched for a colour-shifting cloak. He spent 5 days looking, spending 100 gp in the process, then made a Charisma (Persuasion) roll. A natural 20! He discovered both a colour-shifting cloak for 600 gp and a potion of speed for 450 gp. Alas, he did not have the money, but he put a down-payment on the cloak, so the seller would hold it until he returned.
- Onyx consulted sages for clues on the Eldritch Realms he was so interested in, especially since the encounter last session with the Chuul. 50 gp later, he discovered two pieces of information:
- Chuuls are the servants of the Aboleths, a race of underdark-dwelling fish-creatures, that once ruled a vast empire with their mind-control powers.
- The vast empire was known as the Abolethic Sovereignty. Recently, reports from Neverwinter indicate that agents of the Sovereignty are active there, beneath the ruined town.
- Traven trained in a tool proficiency – many more weeks to go!
- Xeon spent time with the Gray Hands researching reports of a thief causing trouble in the area.
Money was again becoming an issue for the characters.
Into Undermountain
As a result, the treasure map they had found in the orc lair last week seemed very interesting. So, gaining the aid of Yagra of the Zhentarim, they descended into Undermountain in search of treasure!
They did well at overcoming threats, but not so well in discovering treasure.
Onyx thought he had found a wonderful item when he took a magical sword, but it was cursed! He will need a remove curse spell to wield any other item!
Three fire beetles attacked, which I played as a wandering encounter in the dungeon. The group was terrified of them, but bravely fought on. They were very surprised when they learnt how few hit points they had!
Finally, the group were ambushed by grell! (More creatures from the eldritch realms for Onyx!) Xeon had scouted on ahead, but with the disadvantage for darkvision in the dark coming into play, he failed to spot them, even after throwing a torch into the centre of the room they were hidden in! As he returned to the party, one sneaked up behind him and attacked!
This could have gone very badly. Grell are tough, and we had a 3rd level party! But my rolling was bad, the party’s rolling was good, and soon the grell were defeated.
With that it was time to end the session. It was Alturiak 7, and a lot of winter remained. But with the XP gained from the expedition, they had achieved 4th level!
We may get back to the main Dragon Heist plot at some point, but no hurry! (For those interested in timing, that was slightly over three hours of play using Roll20 and Skype).
Resources used in session: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything; Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount; AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide; Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage.