waterdeep dragon heist

INTRODUCTION

ELCOME TO WATERDEEP, THE CROWN OF

the North, where a wondrous tale of urban

adventure is about to unfold. Our story

begins with the gathering of adventurers

at the Yawning Portal Inn and Tavern.

Volothamp Geddarm, the famous explorer

and raconteur, has a quest for them-one

that entangles the characters in a bitter conflict between

two nefarious organizations. lf the adventurers com-

plete his quest, Volo rewards them handsomely. Yet a

much greater prize lies hidden somewhere in the City of

Splendors, waiting to be claimed.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is a DUNGEONS & DRAGONS

adventure designed for characters starting at 1st level.

By the end of the story, the characters will be at least

5th level. If you're planning to run through the adven-

ture as a player, stop reading now!

If you're looking for higher-level adventure content set

in Waterdeep, a companion product titled Waterdeep:

Dungeon of the Mad Mage explores the vast dungeon

under Waterdeep known as Undermountain and is de-

signed for characters of levels all the way up to 20th.

Story Overview

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is a treasure hunt set against

an urban backdrop. The adventure's plot can be summa-

rized as follows:

• Half a million gold coins are hidden somewhere in
  Waterdeep. Many individuals know about the cache
  and are looking for it. Adventurers can join the hunt
  and prevent the cache from falling into evil hands.


• The city is threatened by escalating tension between
  two power groups that is on the verge of flaring into
  violence. The Zhentarim, a shadowy network of mer-
  cenaries, and Xanathar, the beholder crime lord of
  Waterdeep, are at odds, and when they clash, the char-
  acters are pulled into the conflict.

CACHE OF DRAGONS
In Waterdeep, a gold coin is called a dragon. Before he
was ousted from his position as the Open Lord ofWater-
deep, Dagult Neverember embezzled half a million
dragons and hid them in a secret vault. As a security
precaution, he arranged for all knowledge of the vault's
location and defenses to be magically erased from his
mind and the minds of his subordinates. The wizard
who performed the procedure trapped this knowledge
within an artifact called the Stone ofGolorr. The wizard
disappeared shortly thereafter, and Dagult hid the stone
in the Palace ofWaterdeep.
Dagult was off rebuilding the city of Neverwinter when
the other Lords ofWaterdeep voted him out of office. He
immediately made plans to retrieve the Stone ofGolorr
and smuggle his cache of dragons out ofWaterdeep. His
spies plucked the stone from the palace but were killed
while trying co leave the city. The stone was stolen and
passed from one hand to another like a common jewel
until it wound up in the clutches ofXanathar.

USING THE POSTER MAP

The map in the back of this book has the city ofWaterdeep

on both sides. One side can be shown to players. The

other side is for the OM and includes tags marking import·

ant locations in the adventure.

The Stone of Golorr is actually an aboleth transformed

by magic. In this inanimate state, the aboleth can read

the mind of any creature that attunes to the stone, as

well as modify that creature's memory. A creature at-

tuned to the stone can also extract information from the

aboleth, including lore about Neverember's vault.

Built long ago by dwarves, the vault is warded against

all forms of magical detection and intrusion. Its current

protector is an adult gold dragon named Aurinax, who

is also the current wielder and guardian of the dragon-

staff of Ahghairon, which bas the power to prevent other

dragons from entering the city. Tn exchange for the staff,

Aurinax promised to guard the gold until such time as

Neverember or his appointed vassals removed it.

WAR IN THE STREETS

Beneath the city streets lurks a criminal underworld,

its leader a beholder called Xanathar. Hoping to gain a

political foothold in Waterdeep, agents of the Zhentarim

(a lso known as the Black Network) recently tried to ally

their organization with the Xanathar Guild. The archi-

tect of this attempt was a clone of the wizard Manshoon,

a founder of the Black Network long thought dead.

While the two sides were negotiating in Xanathar's

lair, the Stone ofGolorr suddenly disappeared from

where Xanathar had hidden it. The paranoid beholder

accused the Black Network of stealing it and slew the

Zhentarim envoys who were present. When the Zhents

retaliated by attacking Xanathar Guild outposts, Xana-

thar took their actions as confirmation of the Black

Network's vile intentions. Now the bad blood between

the Zhentarim and Xanathar has begun to spill into the

streets, threatening peace throughout the city.

Who actually stole the Stone ofGolorr? The answer:

a rock gnome named Dalakhar. After Lord Neverember

used magic to discern the gemstone's location, he sent

forth a succession of spies to infiltrate Xanathar's lair

and obtain it. Dalakhar succeeded where many others

before him had failed, but his success turns out to be

short-lived.

VOLO 's QUEST

The Yawning Portal serves as the default starting point

for this story. One of the first people the adventurers

meet there is Volothamp Geddarm. He has just returned

from a tour promoting his latest book, Volo'.s Guide to

Monsters, and he has a quest for the characters.

One ofVolo's friends, a handsome simpleton named

Floon Blagmaar, has disappeared, seemingly kid-

napped. The search for Floon leads to the revelation

that he was caught up in a case of mistaken identity, and

the characters are actually looking for two victims. The

intended target was Lord Neverember's estranged son,

INTRODUCTION