r/WaterdeepDragonHeist

TLDR: Players messed up their resources on the first 2 encounters. I want to educate them on resource management but also not take away from the fun.

Hi all. I recently started running WDH for a party of 4. One person in the group is experienced in DnD, one is experienced in games & BG3 but the other 2 are inexperienced in the game. I am running the Alexandrian Remix. We just played through the gang brawl and the Troll + Stirges. I ended the session with Volo greeting them and saying he has a proposition for them.

During the combat encounters of the last session, they used most of their resources. Despite Durnan's prompts (which I repeated twice), some of them chose to focus on the troll rather than leaving it to Durnan and dealing with the stirges. They also used some resources during the gang fight as well. The bard even cast Tasha's on a fleeing bandit (I don't know if she felt she needed to stop him or if it was just for fun). By the end of the fight, they were all assuming they were going to get a long rest afterward. The experienced ranger player even urged the newbie paladin to "smite the shit out of the troll".

Here is my conundrum, the mission Volo hands out is obviously time sensitive and they have the Zhent hideout and more importantly the sewers + a boss fight on their hand. They have now depleted most of their resources and should definitely learn to manage them more effectively, especially in a campaign like WDH. So I feel like there should be at least some consequences to face. However as I've said some of them are newbie players and I don't want to make the first chapter a harrowing experience for them that puts the game itself in a negative light.

What I have considered:

1. Leveling them up now and tuning the next 2 encounters slightly to accommodate. This way they can get some tiny amount of extra resources & capabilities. (Edit: They are level 1 now)
2. Retconning a little bit to have Volo show up the next day. (I already had Volo greet them at the end of the session so I would have to actively retcon)
3. Relax the timing aspect of the mission a little bit. Say that the Yawning Portal encounters took place in the afternoon and the players can take a rest and go to the Docks Ward (I think the Docks ward mission merits nighttime for the proper vibe)
4. Give them a choice to rest or carry on. If they rest, there will be some consequences, albeit not as major as losing Floon. (Maybe even play off the warehouse being raided and Floon being taken as them being too late).

I am looking forward to reading about how you would handle this situation.

I love Waterdeep but the Sea maidens Faire is criminally underpopulated as a concept. Every time my players go to investigate the mysteries in Waterdeep im finding myself umming and ahhing about what the fair **actually** has on the pier. so i made a d100 table about it! it works in any forgotten realms carnival with only minor name changes. hope you guys enjoy!

d100	Attraction
01	Candy Floss Cauldron. A copper drum spins brightly colored sugar into clouds of “candy floss” wrapped around paper wands.
02	Hippogriff Rides. Children and small adults ride saddled hippogriffs around a fenced paddock under the guidance of handlers.
03	The Ringing Bell. Contestants swing a maul onto a weighted lever, trying to ring a brass bell mounted atop a tall pole.
04	Tymora’s Toss. Players throw painted rings over bottles bearing symbols of good and ill fortune.
05	The Dancing Bear. A trained brown bear performs clumsy dances, bows, and balancing tricks alongside its handler.
06	Luskan Fish Fry. Battered fish, fried potatoes, and onions are served in folded paper cones.
07	Nimblewright Pavilion. Lantanese nimblewrights demonstrate dancing, fencing, serving drinks, and performing household chores while representatives take orders from wealthy buyers.
08	The Bearded Mermaid. A heavily bearded performer in a glittering fish-tail costume tells increasingly improbable stories about life beneath the Trackless Sea.
09	Goblin Knockdown. Patrons throw leather balls at hinged wooden goblins that collapse when struck.
10	The Bottomless Tankard. Contestants race to drain oversized tankards of watered ale without spilling.
11	Moonshae Toffee Apples. Apples are coated in hard caramel, crushed nuts, or cinnamon sugar.
12	Madame Starcloak. A veiled fortune-teller reads cards, palms, and polished dragon bones inside a darkened tent.
13	The Clockwork Dragon. A brightly painted mechanical dragon stamps, roars, flaps its wings, and exhales harmless sparks.
14	Owlbear Ring Toss. Wooden rings are thrown over the ears and beak of a painted owlbear cutout.
15	The Sword Swallower. A flamboyantly dressed performer swallows blades and invites spectators to inspect them beforehand.
16	Waterdeep in Miniature. An elaborate model of the city features turning windmills, moving ships, and a tiny walking replica of the Walking Statues.
17	The Kraken’s Grasp. Contestants wrestle free from padded mechanical tentacles before a bell sounds.
18	Chultan Fruit Ice. Shaved ice is drenched in brightly colored citrus and pineapple syrups. For adults, the vendor offers a tej syrup (a chultan honey wine) with a mild alcoholic kick.
19	Darts of Destiny. Patrons throw darts at a painted wheel divided among humorous predictions of their future.
20	The Invisible Man. An apparently empty suit argues with its barker, juggles objects, and occasionally steals spectators’ hats.
21	Lantanese Curiosities. A merchant sells self-lighting pipes, wind-up birds, folding tools, mechanical toys, and other small inventions.
22	The Mermaid’s Kiss. Patrons attempt to land copper coins in clam shells arranged beneath the water of a glass tank.
23	Fire Beetle Lanterns. Caged giant fire beetles illuminate a tent where handlers explain their care and sell safely collected glowing glands.
24	The Amazing Rope. An acrobat climbs a rope that appears to hang unsupported in the air.
25	Sausages of the Sword Coast. Grilled sausages from Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Baldur’s Gate, and Luskan are sold with competing regional mustards.
26	Race the Alchemist. Two contestants pump bellows beneath glass vessels, racing to make colored liquid rise through a twisting series of tubes and ring a small
27	The Laughing Mimic. A trained mimic assumes the shapes of ordinary objects while spectators try to identify it before it moves.
28	Harpoon the Sea Serpent. Patrons throw blunt wooden harpoons through moving hoops mounted along the body of a painted sea serpent.
29	The Cabinet of Changing Faces. An enchanted mirror successively transforms a visitor’s reflection into an elf, dwarf, orc, goblin, tiefling, and several increasingly ridiculous monsters.
30	Neverwinter Hot Nuts. Paper sacks of roasted nuts are coated in salt, honey, pepper, or powdered flame-cinnamon.
31	The Great Zardoz Portrait. Visitors pose before a painted seascape while an artist produces quick charcoal portraits in exaggerated heroic style.
32	The Spider’s Web. Contestants climb through a tangled rope obstacle without touching the dangling brass bells.
33	Pixie Cakes. Tiny iced cakes sparkle with edible sugar and briefly stain the eater’s tongue a random bright color.
34	The Two-Headed Calf. A preserved anatomical curiosity is displayed inside a glass case surrounded by lurid painted banners.
35	The Rolling Beholder. Players roll a heavy wooden ball painted to look like a beholder down a sloped, uneven track, attempting to guide it into a numbered goal without letting it tumble into painted dungeon pits.
36	Clockwork Axe-Beak Derby. Patrons wind miniature mechanical axe beaks and release them onto a tabletop track filled with gates, ramps, and swinging obstacles.
37	The Wandering Tattooist. A tattooist offers nautical designs, carnival emblems, and expensive pigments that faintly shimmer in moonlight.
38	The Mechanical Orchestra. A cabinet of drums, horns, bells, and pipes plays songs from punched metal sheets.
39	Catch the Stirge. Players use small nets to catch leather-winged stirge puppets launched erratically through the air.
40	Calishite Sweetmeats. Honeyed pastries, sugared dates, sesame cakes, and rosewater confections fill tiered brass trays.
41	The Strongest Sailor. Contestants lift increasingly heavy anchors, cannonballs, and iron-bound ship timbers.
42	The Talking Skull. A skull inside a curtained booth insults visitors, answers questions, and claims to have advised several dead kings.
43	Catch the Moon. Players use short fishing rods to hook silver crescent moons drifting around a basin of black water without disturbing the floating stars.
44	Dragon Breath Peppers. Patrons compete to eat increasingly hot peppers while milk and bread are sold at inflated prices nearby.
45	The Cabinet of Tiny Monsters. Harmless miniature creatures and convincing models are displayed in glass-fronted boxes.
46	Find the Doppelganger. Three performers identically dressed in red and white stripes mingle through a crowd while players on a tall platform attempt to spot them before an hourglass runs out.
47	Deepwater Pearl Divers. Patrons retrieve marked shells from the bottom of a cold-water barrel using only a set of oversized wooden teeth in their mouth.
48	The Puppet Siege of Waterdeep. An elaborate puppet show depicts an absurdly inaccurate attack on the city by dragons, giants, and ogres, with an unlikely romance between the hero's donkey and an amethyst dragon.
49	The Alchemist’s Fizz. Colorful sweet drinks smoke, foam, change color, or make the drinker belch harmless bubbles.
50	The Goblin Catapult. A padded goblin doll is launched from a small siege engine toward baskets worth different prizes.
51	The Monster Rockers. Children ride individually mounted rocking griffons, owlbears, dragons, and displacer beasts fitted with growlers, bells, and moving wings.
52	The Sword Coast Menagerie. A rotating selection of exotic creatures is displayed under the supervision of animal handlers.
53	Sune’s Silhouettes. An artist cuts surprisingly accurate profile portraits from black paper.
54	The Drunken Deck. Visitors attempt to cross a tilting platform made to resemble the deck of a ship in rough seas.
55	Mystery Meat Pies. Patrons buy savory pies without knowing whether they contain beef, pork, mutton, fish, or vegetables until the first bite. particularly lucky patrons can find a coin in the center of the meat, but particularly unlucky ones will bite into their pie to find it filled with horseradish.
56	The Amazing Flea Circus. Tiny carts, swings, and balancing wires move beneath magnifying lenses as the barker narrates the feats of supposedly trained fleas.
57	Gond’s Puzzle Boxes. Customers race to open mechanical boxes fitted with sliding panels, hidden catches, and false keyholes.
58	The Giant’s Teeth. Players throw wooden clubs at rows of hinged teeth inside the mouth of a painted frost giant.
59	Waterdhavian Waxworks. Wax figures depict famous Open Lords, masked criminals, adventurers, monsters, and scandalous nobles. the one of Dagult Neverember has been defaced multiple times and has a glass case surrounding it.
60	Smokepowder Sharpshooting. Under strict supervision, wealthy patrons fire a Lantanese pistol at painted targets backed by thick timbers. patrons who enjoy the experiance can buy the pistols at outragous
61	The Rainbow Eel. A trained eel swims through colored hoops in a tall glass tank and rings a submerged bell for food.
62	The Chultan Mystery Boxes. Blindfolded patrons reach into covered boxes and identify harmless objects presented as dinosaur eggs, shed reptile skin, jungle insects, and monster organs.
63	The One-Eyed Jax Wine Garden. Bottles of Luskan wine are served at tables beneath purple awnings while musicians perform sea songs.
64	The Flying Carpet. patrons can rent flying carpets for their children that rise only a few feet off the ground and travel at a speed of only 10ft with which to traverse the fairgrounds.
65	Catch the Greased Goblin. Contestants attempt to seize a nimble halfling performer wearing green loincloth and green body paint inside a fenced ring.
66	The Pearl of the Trackless Sea. A dancer performs inside an enormous opening clamshell accompanied by drums and colored lanterns.
67	Aurora’s Oddities. A reseller offers inexpensive imported trinkets, costume jewelry, carved shells, feathers, and alleged monster parts.
68	The Chimera Toss. Beanbags painted like goats, lions, and dragons are thrown into the corresponding mouths of a three-headed target.
69	The Great Escape Artist. A performer is chained, locked inside a sea chest, and dropped into a transparent tank of water.
70	Fried Dough Dragons. Twisted strips of dough are fried, dusted with sugar, and shaped to resemble curled dragons.
71	The Ghost-Lantern Theatre. A lanternist projects shadows of spectral ships, drowned sailors, and sea monsters onto a curtain while a storyteller narrates their doom.
72	The Sailor’s Knot. Contestants race experienced sailors to reproduce increasingly complicated knots.
73	The Painted Panther. A patient panther dyed in harmless carnival colors performs leaps between platforms with its trainer.
74	The Wishing Well. Visitors cast coins into a decorated basin while a hidden performer provides cryptic blessings through a speaking tube.
75	The Mermaid’s Wardrobe. Customers purchase shell jewelry, pearl combs, scaled cloaks, sailors’ scarves, and elaborate aquatic costumes.
76	The Barrel of Kobolds. Wooden kobold heads pop unpredictably from holes while contestants strike them with padded mallets.
77	The Liar of Luskan. A storyteller delivers three outrageous nautical tales, and the audience wagers on which one supposedly happened.
78	The Dragon Egg Hatchery. Patrons select a painted clay “dragon egg” from a straw-filled nest, then crack it open with a small mallet to reveal a trinket or prize hidden inside.
79	The Healer’s Tent. A licensed attendant treats scrapes, nausea, minor burns, and other carnival mishaps for a modest fee.
80	The Enchanted Menagerie Portraits. Visitors pose behind painted boards that depict them as dragons, merfolk, drow pirates, or famous adventurers.
81	The Shipbreaker. Contestants throw heavy iron balls at stacked wooden ships, attempting to knock down every mast.
82	The Glassblower of Neverwinter. A craftsperson shapes glowing glass into tiny ships, dragons, flowers, and personalized ornaments.
83	The Bottomless Basket. Spectators watch as a performer continually produces birds, ribbons, fruit, and increasingly large objects from a small basket. During the finale the performer pulls out a flabbergasted audience member who is actually another performer that walks around talking to people early on in the performance .
84	Pegasus Feather Catch. A concealed bellows sends white feathers whirling through a netted booth while contestants try to catch marked feathers before time expires.
85	The Dock Ward Dunking Chair. Patrons throw balls at a target to drop a jeering performer into a tank of harbor water.
86	The Map of Marvels. A huge illustrated map displays famous monsters, ruins, and wonders encountered along the Sword Coast.
87	The Gnome Cannon. A gnome acrobat wearing a life preserver is fired from a spring-powered imitation cannon into the bay.
88	The Drowned Sailor’s Riddle. A waterlogged “corpse” awakens to pose riddles and squirts unsuccessful contestants with seawater.
89	Feywild Face Painting. Artists paint children and adults as dryads, satyrs, pixies, displacer beasts, or eladrin.
90	The Dancing Blades. Blunted swords hover and perform a choreographed duel while a musician plays beneath them.
91	The Great Cheese Roll. Contestants roll wax cylinders pained to look cheese down a sloped track toward numbered gates.
92	The Fortune Fish. Patrons select folded paper fish from a net; each contains a brief fortune, joke, or romantic prediction.
93	The Illusory Fireworks. A darkened tent surrounds visitors with silent bursts of colored light shaped like sea monsters and ships.
94	The Siren’s Challenge. A singer holds a clear note while contestants attempt to match it closely enough to make a set of sympathetic crystal glasses hum.
95	The Wandering Haberdasher. Hats, masks, feathered cloaks, eye patches, parasols, gloves, and carnival costumes crowd a brightly striped stall.
96	The Mage Hand Maze. Patrons use a control wand to guide a spectral hand through a glass-sided tabletop maze, retrieving a brass key without touching the hanging bells
97	The Captain’s Auction. Imported curios, recovered cargo, exotic bottles, art objects, and minor mechanical devices are sold to the highest bidder.
98	The Faire in a Bottle. An glass bottle contains a magically animated miniature of the entire pier. Tiny, accurate replicas of its ships, booths, performers, workers, and visitors reproduce everything happening across the fairegrounds in real time.
99	Zardoz Zord’s Grand Exhibition. A lavish central pavilion advertises the Faire’s attractions, accepts commercial inquiries, arranges private demonstrations, and displays portraits of its flamboyant master.
100	The Mint of Marvels. Visitors operate a hand-cranked press that stamps brass souvenir tokens with their choice of a mermaid, ship, dragon, nimblewright, or Captain Zord’s profile.

I recently ran the 2nd faction mission of the Zhents (deliver the potions to the Black Viper), and was wondering a couple of things about the mind reading potions secretly being poison:

Did the Black Viper order poison disguised as potions of mind reading? Or did she order mind reading and Skeemo delivered poison without her knowing? If so, why? And would Davil know that Skeemo did this or is this part of his betrayal to Davil?

The whole potion thing feels a bit random so it might be left ambiguous intentionally to have the DM fill in what works for them, but I want to check that I didn't miss anything 😁

Im DM’ing W:DH for my two brothers. There’s only two of them, a human Wizard and half-orc Paladin, and I am worried the intro will either result in neither getting involved with troll fight and or being too week. Any alternative ideas for the introduction?

Hello,

Here is the context:

I have 3 players. The PCs were working for the Cassalanters, but they had doubts about them. Two PCs recently died / were petrified while carrying out a heist in Xanathar's Lair.

The day after that, a party at the Cassalanters' was scheduled. One of the new PCs was a Harper and didn't trust the Cassalanters, so they came up with the following plan: the PC who was invited would still go to the party and give the Cassalanters information about the death of their friends, while the two "new" PCs would investigate the Cassalanters and recover the stone.

They found and took the stone, one eye, and the holy symbol of Asmodeus. They even saw Osvaldo. They then decided to go to the Grey Force and ask them to raid the Cassalanters, as they feared that the Cassalanters would hide the evidence and deploy this massive demon in the city.

The only concrete proof they had was the holy symbol. The agent working for the Grey Force is the last PC, who was still at the party.

We stopped the session there because I wasn't sure whether the Grey Force would actually rush in something like this at 10 PM, against a highly respected noble family, especially when the evidence was somewhat suspicious and their only agent involved wasn't even there.

What would you do?

My players have a good relationship with Fala, one of my paladins is taking lessons to learn how to make potions.

During one of their lessons I'd like to have an encounter where Ziraj barges in injured and asks Fala for help, maybe he has to hide because someone is chasing him.

Who might have hurt him or is chasing him?

I have 2 ideas currently, the Xanathar or Griffon Riders. If the Xanathar chases Ziraj my player would try to help him, they love fighting the Xanathar, if it's the Guard then my players might try to stay out of it.

My table is closing in on refurbishing Trollskull Manor and setting up the first floor within Ches 20. Alexandrian has a pretty simple guide on how to run the business - which is fine for the initial and recurring costs part of it.

I'm curious as to what you guys do to run the business. Plus, how's your manor looking? Do you have a HQ situation, installing bells and whistles (re: bastion), included any perks/functions to your manor and the like.

For the time being, my players are looking into setting up a casino (Renaer offered) and gentlemen's club (Floon offered) on the second floor. There's also a bit of an opportunity with including a player's backstory as an entertainer to have their backstory NPCs come in and do live performances too.

Hello, I'm trying to find some info about house Talmost of Waterdeep, cause there is just a little information about them on wiki. Could someone help please?

Title's pretty self-explanatory, but pretty much, the book says that he tries to recruit them disguised as J.B. Nevercott (which btw, I somehow only just now put together that the initials are Jarlaxle Baenre), but how exactly is he supposed to ask someone to join a nearly drow-only group when he himself is disguised as a human?

I've seen some advice from a ~6-year-old post here, but I was hoping to hear some other perspectives as well.

For context, the character JB is looking at is a changeling bard with amnesia who doesn't remember his original form, the meta reasoning being that I wanted to at least introduce each faction (each of my 4 party members has 2 factions looking to recruit them) and the drow-only rule kinda sucks (like sure, drow-preferred would be fine, but who came up with drow-only?), and the in-world explanation being that, with how much Jarlaxle and all of BD engage in disguising themselves, a changeling would fit right in.

Edit: I just realized I left out the crucial detail that I'm running Jarlaxle as my antagonist.

Hi! I’m a player that’s just about to start a Waterdeep campaign, and I need some suggestions on some waterdeep themed food/bakes that I should bring. Any ideas?

I have a couple questions bout the remix like how im 60 pages in and barely made a dent into this thing like what more can be added like i would like for the campaign to end where the original did with them having the money out the vault.

Another question is what level should they start at like some of these encounters like response teams and main events come one after another idk could be dangerous for the pcs

What material have yall cut from the remix and also general advice for it?