We kicked off the ‘Thieves of Waterdeep’ D&D campaign last night and I think I can safely say a good time was had by all. I almost hit my goal of having a combat free D&D game. A brief tussle with some drunken mercenaries on a main street was the only stumbling block, and that combat only lasted two rounds. In defiance of the whole ‘the group meets at a tavern’ standard sort of D&D start I had the group be an already established gang of thieves in the Forgotten Realms city of Waterdeep.
They had just come off of a successful robbery and were loaded with goods and cash so money was kind of a non-issue. That in mind they decided they needed a base of operations. (In an urban game a base of ops is a necessity, much like a space ship in a sci fi game)Fortunately Ed, playing a gnome and life long Waterdeep resident (and professional vermin hunter), knew of a potential place. The only problem is that it was haunted and no one had been able to stay longer than a night in the building for over 100 years.
Undaunted our party decided to look into it, soon discovering that the deed for the place was in the hands of the weirdly menacing moneylenders Trask & Hammerfall. Trask, a tall and cadeverously thin human and Hammerfall, an almost spherical dwarf, proved to be shrewd negotiators and reluctantly parted with the building for a mere 1000 gold. The building, a stucco affair of Calimshani design (think Sante Fe meets the middle east) proved to be pleasant enough during the day, if a bit run down. More importantly it was perfect for the uses of our team.
The gang made nice with the neighbors in the form of Frank, the smith and his son (and apparently invisible wife) next door, and the mini-vermin hunter brought a priest of Lathander (god of the dawn) around to bless the place and generally spread good mojo. Sherman the bard went out on a shopping expidition and bought all the various sundries the house would need. He returned with two hirelings loaded with stuff and half filled the store room, with more goods to come the next day.
The team went on to generally clean the place up and search around, finding a few hidden spots here and there and discovering their well was indeed a source of decent fresh water (and was being used clandestinely by their neighbors). Night was falling and soon the group would find out if their new home was really haunted or not.
(more to come)