Waterdeep

Situated on the Sword Coast, Waterdeep was named for its outstanding natural deep-water harbor, and the city that grew up at this site became the commercial crossroads of the northern Realms. More than 100,000 people make their home in Waterdeep. The city sprawls northward from the sea, spreading along the flanks of Mount Waterdeep. It is one of the biggest and most important cities in the entire continent of Faerûn. It is a member of the Lord’s Alliance and its current Open Lord is Laeral Silverhand - one of the seven daughters of the God of Magic Mystra. Silverhand took the title from Dagult Neverember who has since become Lord Protector of Neverwinter.

The city is home to a variety of magnificent sites and features including:

• Mount Waterdeep
• The Griffon Cavalry
• City Guard and City Watch
• An enormous market and trades district
• A variety of temples, tombs and places of beauty - including The City of the Dead
• The eight Walking Statues of Waterdeep

In recent months unusual creatures and beings have been spotted in the vicinity of the city itself such as hags, scarecrows and even dragons flying over the city itself.

However, Waterdeep is protected from the potential threat of dragons by its famous Dragonward - a mythal that cast an invisible dome over the city meaning any dragon that tried to enter the city was overcome with an overwhelming urge to leave the area, never to return.

Luskan

Luskan, which had once stood in ruins and whose leadership changed from hand to claw an undocumentable amount of times, has begun to show signs of organisation.

While all believed it still to be a mockery of a true city a new power had clearly worried some. With the naked eye those who dared to visit the city would see that most buildings were ruined and murderers and demon-worshippers roamed the streets freely, plying their trade in broad daylight. Wretched tribes of goblins and kobolds skulked in the shadows and the fetid bog that was once the estuary of the River Mirar was infested with aquatic horrors. The place had become a haven for escaped criminals who, while escaping punishment for their crimes would likely die on the end of a psychopath's blade or a monster's claw.

But rumours of a new organised power in the city have persisted and Luskan has once again tried to join the Lord’s Alliance - one of a series of attempts which have been resisted by the Alliance itself.

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Ruathym

Ruathym is located more than 200 miles north of the Moonshae Isles. It’s a rocky island with rugged coasts, narrow coves, green hills, forested purple mountains, and a few villages.

It is barely 100 miles long from north to south and not even half that wide at its widest point. Its coast is pockmarked with deep fjords and dotted by clear bays with the exception of the south coast which boasted white, sandy beaches. A spine of tall rocks ran down the middle of the island which were occasionally snow-capped. It has a storied history of war with Luskan.

The Lords Alliance

The Lords’ Alliance is a coalition of rulers from cities and towns across Faerûn (primarily in the North), who collectively agree that some solidarity is needed to keep evil at bay.

The agents of the Alliance include sophisticated bards, zealous paladins, talented mages, and grizzled warriors. They are chosen primarily for their loyalty, and are trained in observation, stealth, innuendo, and combat. Backed by the wealthy and the privileged, they carry quality equipment (often disguised to appear common), and spellcasters tend to have a large number of scrolls with communication spells.

The Lords’ Alliance can only survive if its members “play nice” with one another, which requires a certain measure of diplomacy. Rogue agents within the Lords’ Alliance are rare, but defections have been known to occur.

The Lord's Alliance includes a variety of cities across the Sword Coast such as Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, Silverymoon and Daggerford. It does not include Ruathym nor Luskan.

The Gray Hands

Force Grey is an elite cadre of specialised adventurers, drawn from the ranks of the Gray Hands, whose fighting prowess is matched only by their loyalty to the city. Force Grey attracts the best of the best. Characters don’t begin their adventuring careers as members of Force Grey, but they can work up to that status.

Whenever Waterdeep has a problem that can’t be handled by diplomats or the city’s other armed forces, the Open Lord has the option to mobilize Force Grey. Such action is usually taken as a last resort, since some past members of the group have exhibited a tendency to indulge in wanton violence, causing as much damage as they ostensibly prevent. Although the Open Lord sets mission goals and parameters whenever the unit is activated, the Force Grey team needed to complete any given assignment is made up of individuals handpicked by the Blackstaff.

If members of Force Grey (and, in some cases, the Gray Hands) are arrested for a crime, the Open Lord or the Blackstaff will usually intervene on their behalf and facilitate their release.

All members of the party currently find themselves as temporary members of the Gray Hands and some members have vowed to return the stolen wealth in the secret vault back to Waterdeep - to whom it rightfully belongs.

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The Black Staff

Vajra Safahr is a capable wizard in her mid-thirties, the youngest person ever to hold the position of Blackstaff. As the High Wizard of Waterdeep, she is charged with using all the magic and resources at her disposal to defend the city against threats. She was handpicked for the job by Khelben Arunsun, and wields the Blackstaff from which Khelben derived his name and the title of the office. Vajra isn’t the city’s most powerful wizard, but she can hold her own. Despite her many gifts, she still questions her ability to meet the demands of her role, and she rarely makes a decision without first soliciting the advice of the Blackstaff, which contains Khelben Arunsun’s spirit as well as the spirits of all the other Blackstaffs who preceded her. She also gets intelligence from many other sources, both through her own network of spies and from Harper agents.

Vajra runs Blackstaff Academy, a school for mages, out of Blackstaff Tower in the Castle Ward. She is also in charge of Force Grey, an order of highly skilled adventurers who are called upon to defend the city in times of need. Vajra is always looking for new adventurers to fill the ranks of Force Grey, and she is particularly interested in those who can bring unique skills, abilities, or spells to the mix.

Several of the older and more seasoned wizards in Waterdeep consider Vajra an upstart, but they are smart enough not to challenge her. Only the Open Lord, currently Laeral Silverhand, can strip Vajra of her title.

The Stone of Golorr

It is understood by the party that shortly before he was ousted from his position as Open Lord of Waterdeep, Dagult Neverember embezzled half a million dragons and hid it in a location in Waterdeep that he could access later.

In order to ensure he could not be found guilty of such a crime or be subject to any mind-reading spells he removed much of the information about the crime and the location of the gold from his memory using an artifact known as the Stone of Golorr which has the power to eat memories and retain them.

The party has come to understand that Dagult was off helping to rebuild the city of Neverwinter when the other Lords of Waterdeep voted him out of office. He then made plans to retrieve the Stone and smuggle his cache of dragons out of Waterdeep. His spies plucked the stone from the palace but were killed while trying to leave the city. The stone was then stolen and passed from one hand to another like a common jewel until it wound up in the clutches of the Xanathar, by which time the three eyes of the stone had been separated from the artefact and fallen into different hands.

The stone is also the reason for the current warring between the Zhentarim and Xanathar’s guild. The party has learned that while the two sides were negotiating in Xanathar’s lair, the Stone of Golorr 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, Xanathar took their actions as confirmation of the Black Network’s vile intentions. Now the bad blood between the Zhentarim and Xanathar has spilled into the streets.

For better or worse Lyriel is currently attuned to the Stone of Golorr.

The Xanathar

The Xanathar is one of the most notorious and chaotic criminals within the Sword Coast. He is head of the Xanathar Thieves Guild which has its headquarters deep below the city of Waterdeep. A beholder, he is known to be ancient and exceptionally paranoid. He trusts very few and places enormous care and attention on his pet goldfish Sylgar.

Due to the chaotic nature of its leader, the Xanathar Guild often acted as a buffer against other evil organisations unintentionally. There are no strict rules on membership of the guild and as such it comprises a tapestry of races. Members of the guild were trained in stealth, discretion, and tactics with fighters, rogues, sorcerers, wizards, and other experts. To join, a member had to prove their ruthlessness, obedience, and loyalty by committing a serious crime . Given that the faction was evil at the core, advancement through assassination was a popular "shortcut".

The Xanathar is currently enraged at the Zhentarim who he believes stole the Stone of Golorr from his possession, this rage has been emboldened by the fact intruders have recently managed to gain access to his secret headquarters and escape with their lives.

The Zhentarim

The Zhentarim, or the Black Network, is at best a morally ambiguous organisation with an ambitious drive for wealth and power and an open recruitment policy. Tenacity and loyalty are highly valued (but not essential) traits in new members.

The Zhentarim trades mercenaries and goods (including weapons) for profit and has long sought to gain political influence across the Sword Coast. The Zhentarim is often thought of as a necessary evil, while its intentions and practices are often revealed to be shadowy and unethical (straying it to evil and immoral) it provides high quality people, services and products for prices that people can afford, which often means people look the other way and hire them anyway.

It has been revealed that the Zhentarim in Waterdeep is a fractured organization and there are rumours of the return of the Zhents original founder - the highly powerful wizard Manshoon. While it would seem the Zhents are now split between those who would follow Manshoon and those who would not, the party has not uncovered any information as to whether these rumours are true, baseless, or otherwise.

Netheril and Karsus

In a select few areas the party has discovered writing or documents that relate to the ancient civilisation of Netheril and a great Netherese wizard named Karsus. It is understood that during the height of the Netheril Empire, 54 floating cities soared over the skies of Faerûn. They were by-and-large bastions of enlightenment, peace and ingenuity, giving the mages of Netheril sanctuaries from which they could continue their arcane research.

Karsus was the foremost mage of Netheril, experimenting with epic magic untapped by the gods. The party has learned that Karsus brought about his own death and the death of his entire civilisation when he cast his most famous spell “Karsus Folly”. The spell not only temporarily turned himself into a God, a power which his form simply could not absorb, but completely disrupted the magical weave causing the floating lands of Netheril to crash to the ground, killing millions. It was this event that caused the goddess of magic Mystra to put a cap on the level of spells that could be conducted on the surface world.

The Vault of Dragons

The secret vault of Dagult Neverember can only be opened by the Stone of Golorr and is said to contain 500,000 Gold Pieces or “Dragons”. Although the party has heard rumours through different sources that it may also contain other things too.

The party has entered the mysterious Vault of Dragons to which the secret entrance lay through a secret compartment in a converted windmill. Following the underground path the party encountered huge Admanatione Double Doors and used the completed Stone of Golorr to open them.

Along the sides of the 20-foot-high, 20-foot-wide stone corridors there have been pictures of floating islands, scribes in Elvish and Common, beautiful illustrations of an old empire and detailed pictures of incredible magical feats. At the centre of many of the illustrations is Karsus, who is pictured as brilliant, yet flawed. One rune underneath the illustration read “the momentary god”. Another illustration was magically animated, showing the figure bursting with light over and over.

The party has negotiated two floors of the vault in which it has encountered five separate statues all miniature versions of the Walking Statues of Waterdeep. The party has also learned that all traps/encounters could have been disabled using the blood of Neverember himself or his estranged son Ranaer.

Tyche, the mystic, and the silver eagle

Before making out on their final drive towards the vault, the party were forced to hide in a Zhent safehouse in Trades Ward. While there the party was unexpectedly visited by a silver eagle which magically transformed into the form of a tall woman with a willowy build, blond hair, deep blue-green eyes. The transformation seemed to leave her exhausted.

While catching her breath she explained that she was Tyche, the lost God of Fortune, long thought dead across the realms. She explained to the party that she had met them before but perhaps they hadn’t seen her in quite the same way - at which time she revealed that it was her who was also the Mystic who had told their fortune with Tarot Cards much earlier.

Tyche explained that she had seen the future and she prophesied the following:

• A future where Ruathym falls first, overwhelmed by the blades of Luskan. None are left alive this time
• A future where the swarm moves South as city after city, including Waterdeep, is swallowed by the five
• A plague of destruction that only brings with it rot and decay

She also said she had seen another path but it is a path where you must believe in her and believe in your fate. She said that in the vault there lies more than Gold and you must defend it at whatever cost. She said she would help with the return of Bucky if the treasures were handed back to Waterdeep but her power was much reduced and inhibited from what it once was.

No member of the party was successful in seeing if the woman was who she claimed to be, or whether she was telling the truth.

I see more, more which binds you all:

• I see Fire, Nobles, Keys, Gold, old powers and a new one, revenge is in season
• Five ghosts - four slaughtered, one to be sacrificed, all to be reborn
• The Lady lies in wait, until we meet again

Treegor Twinefoot

Assistant to Dr Cordelia Meadowbane