Experience Points

As I've mentioned, I have not played all that much Dungeons and Dragons. Nor have most of my players, except for the two behind Elephant Joe and Niv, they both used to play a lot of 3.5. Niv's player knows mountains of lore and tried to run a couple of campaigns in 2018, both of which ended pretty quickly after his players started killing each other. My characters are more than just a little bit responsible for those, but we're fine now. Elephant Joe enjoys reading modules and needs to be reminded frequently that he does not get to see this module until we finish playing through it.

Both of them have looked things up, and know things they should not know. Elephant Joe and I live together, and so we talk about my plans for after the party leaves Waterdeep, and the weird and exciting monsters I have found to hide in the wilds. Niv however, has looked up fountains of lore on the city and all the notable magic items and personages it contains. I get a lot of interesting lessons on the history of the Blackstaff during our sessions.

Part of how we are dealing with this is through their characters and roleplay. Elephant Joe is not very bright, and so he can't really tell the party any secrets and be believed. I also use him as a point to introduce new optional sidequests that I want to send the party on. Oskar was replaced by Niv partly because Oskar being so knowledgeable about this city he had never been to before made no sense, partly because the player loves making new characters, partly because he thinks that there will be a new version of the Artificer class coming out that he can upgrade to, and finally because Oskar didn't have a whole lot of story stuff to work with.

Meet the Players

 The party currently consists of four players who come regularly (one of whom is already on his second character), and a fifth who has a very busy schedule during our regular play time.

Pearl

First is Pearl, our Water Genasi rogue. She is a bounty hunter and only recently moved to Waterdeep after bouncing up and down the coast, working and looking for a place to belong. A new prospect came up that inspired her to book passage on the last ship to Calimport before winter. She seems to be happy to be stuck in Waterdeep for the winter now though.

Oskar Trueanvil

Next is Oskar Trueanvil, he has already left and been replaced by Niv, but I liked him and his vague reasons for being around. Oskar was a Dwarven cleric and sailor, he left the party after his ticket for the ship to Calimport was refunded, he's currently guarding a trade caravan on it's way to more Dwarven territories because, in the words of his player, "All Dwarves are racist, it's literally in the Player's Handbook."

Niv-Mizzet the Wizzet Lizzet

He was replaced by Niv-Mizzet, whose name and portrait are a reference I do not understand. Niv is a Human Artificer from the Field Ward of Waterdeep, an area North of the city proper, and something of a slum. For the past few years he has been studying and working in Waterdeep's own temple to Gond, referred to as The House of Inspired Hands. After Oskar left, the party went to update Volo on the search for his friend Floon, while Volo was asking Niv for help, Niv is the smartest character in the party.

Tavinend Gallous?

Tavinend Gallous has been very secretive and private. He is fairly clearly a Human Paladin of fairly high birth, and certain people in the city suspect that "Tavin" is a false name. In reality, the player behind Tavinend is really enjoying telling everyone about how Tavin was removed from power in his ancestral barony on suspicion of tax evasion. He is deciding now whether to swear an Oath of Vengeance against whoever framed him, or if he should swear an Oath of Redemption, and attempt to redeem himself and whoever took his home from him.

I only recently was told Tavin's true name, an plan to keep it private for the time being.

This leaves the best for last.

Elephant Joe Braveknight

The final regular member of the party is affectionately known as Elephant Joe. He is a Loxodon Barbarian. He was going to go to Chult after stopping in Calimshan. He heard there are some really big animals in Chult. He likes big things. His parents are Loxodon ambassadors to Waterdeep, and so he has spent most of his 60 year childhood in the city playing with noble children. Raenar Neverember is one of his old friends. For the past few years Elephant Joe has been serving in the Waterdeep Coast Guard during the summers. He thinks it is a fun job. He finds big things in the water, and then he hits them real hard.

Welcome to Waterdeep

The trouble with every story is figuring out how to begin, from there it becomes a simple matter of continuing.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist begins with all of the characters gathering together in The Yawning Portal Tavern. I was uncomfortable with just dropping the characters in the bar by themselves, and so I announced that all the characters had been staying on a boat for the past few weeks, preparing to leave the city for the wonders of Calimshan. Which served another purpose, the refund of their tickets would provide a bit more money for the extravagant city life in Waterdeep.

And my players were going to get that refund, (and then never write it down) the first big storm of the winter hit before their ship had a chance to leave port. Despite what certain Dwarves would say, the crew decided it was far to dangerous to set out, and the city closed the harbor for the winter.

So, on their second to last night of shipboard accommodations, this group of travelers set out to get a good drink and a nice meal at Waterdeep's greatest adventurer bar and commiserate over their current situation. Homelessish, and far from where they want to be.