Here are the latest updates on what’s going on in my Waterdeep campaign. We were down a player this session, with work taking the rogue away, so the players hired a sidekick to accompany them into Undermountain. That trip could have gone better!
Previously in our Waterdeep Campaign…
Hammer 1. Campaign begins. Troll in Yawning Portal. Volo recruits 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:
- Meet Maxeene and Hlam.
- Deal with scarecrows in Undercliff.
- Recovered a shipment for the Order of Master Tailors, Glovers and Mercers that was stolen by the Zhents
Hammer 10-12. Accept job to deliver enchanted cloths to the Wayfarer’s inn, three days south of Waterdeep. Travel to Wayfarer’s Inn to make with delivery. Learn of orc raids and kidnapped merchants.
Hammer 13-17. First trip to orc caves. Rescue merchants and return. One merchant is Lords Alliance.
Hammer 20-25. Second trip to orc caves. Find there is a lower level – old stronghold of Helmic Knights
Hammer 28. Return to Waterdeep
Hammer 29-30. Deal with Zhent gangs of in the Field ward who were causing trouble.
MIDWINTER
Alturiak 1. Help Uza regain her shop
Alturiak 2-6. Research and downtime activities:
- T’ak looks for glammerweave – find Glammerweave (600 gp), and a potion of speed (450 gp) for sale. Pays deposit on glammerweave.
- Onyx – investing the snake spear (and eldritch stuff) (learnt 2 lore).
- Traven – training
- Xeon – research & meeting Force Grey
Alturiak 7. Undermountain. Fight grells and find cursed sword. Return to the Yawning Portal. Go to Savra and get remove curse.
May 17th Session
Alturiak 8. Meet Sir Ambrose Everdawn, a paladin worried about a necromancer in the City of the Dead.
Alturiak 9-18. Patrol of City of the Dead. Met one group of skeletons, but no necromancers.
Alturiak 19. Rest.
Alturiak 20. Into Undermountain. Traven killed by poking something he should not have.
Alturiak 21-24. Rest and recuperation after Traven raised by an Emerald Enclave boon.
Alturiak 25. Talk to Mirt about Mattrim and his friend, Bonnie.
Alturiak 28. Learn about Abolethic Sovereignty and the Mind Flayers which seem to be affecting Onyx.
Alturiak 30. Meet Bonnie’s friends
- Vlad, the Zhentarim stooge
- Ronnie interested in treasure.
- Lonny wants to eat people
- Gina a seductrix and not particularly trustworthy.
Notes and Comments
I killed a character! Well, it is likely Ed Greenwood killed a character, since he is the one who designed the throne that Traven decided to sit in.
This was something that completely shook the party. They were not expecting it at all. I am curious as to how it will affect their future adventuring. Will they be more cautious?
This demonstrates one of the problems with Undermountain: The easiest level is for fifth-level characters! What do you do before then? Not having it available is unfortunate, as typically dungeon adventures are some of the easiest proving grounds to run for low-level adventurers.
I took a concept from the early days of the Adventurers League: “Faction charity”. This allowed Traven to be raised by his friends in the Emerald Enclave. I decided it used up one of his “boons”.
What is a boon? In this game, a character gains a boon every time they gain a rank in their faction, which can be used for some form of aid. Exactly what sort of aid is something I will determine on the spur of the moment. Having strict guidelines can be great, but I prefer having some freedom to manoeuvre. But we are talking allies, magic items, spell casting: those sorts of things are boons.
The Doppelgangers
One of the faction missions in Dragon Heist requires the characters to assess whether a group of doppelgangers are trustworthy. Like most of the faction missions, it is just an idea rather than a fully blown encounter or quest, resolved with simple Insight checks.
I took the opportunity to provide basic personalities for the doppelgangers, as noted above. I had the party make insight rolls in advance, then role-played the doppelgangers appropriately. This was fun, especially as few could be trusted.
The most interesting detail I added was that Vlad was a member of the Zhentarim, who wanted to get into the Harpers as a spy. Instead, he was noticed by the party, so they will use him to discover what the Zhents are up to!
Which will bring us back to the main plot of Dragon Heist from next session. It is time to move onto the chapter Fireball! However, with Vlad’s information, I am going to ignore the actual fireball, and instead I will move the players immediately into the hunt for the orb and the construct.
Resources Used
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, D&D Essentials (sidekick rules) and AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide (for some random encounters in the dungeon).