Getting up to Speed

It is the Autumn of 1492 DR*. Waterdeep's days are getting shorter and colder, and an occasional icy breeze tears through the streets. Those streets aren't empty, it's the busiest time of year for all the guilds. Food needs to get into the city and be preserved. Leaks need fixing, rooves need thatching, and it's hit the right balance where the days are not yet too short but are cool enough to allow for heavy labour to go from dawn til dusk. A gold coin in Waterdeep is called a Dragon, and Autumn sees more dragons changing hands than any other season.


 * We're not too concerned with DR. It stands for DaleReckoning, and has to do with a dramatic shift in Faerûn politics, cementing many of the alliances we know today.

There has been some strange times. Sometime in the last couple of years, the Open Lord of Waterdeep, Dagult Neverember, embezzled 500,000 golden dragons. Sometime after, he left the city to go rebuild the recently-ruined city of Neverwinter. While he was away, his crime was discovered and he was stripped of his position and exiled. He probably would have also been arrested and killed, but he proved impossible to find, having surrounded himself with a powerful group of loyalists and spies. The money was never recovered, the only certainty is that it had not left Waterdeep.

Adventurers arrived in droves and searched the town from top to bottom, but with no luck. The "dragon heist" had left no hints or clues. Annoyed at their lack of success, many adventuring parties went for one last drink at the Yawning Portal Inn, before descending into the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Most returned, some with wealth, but at an unexpected cost: With the top few levels picked clean, their wards disabled and their guardians slain, horrible monsters from lower levels made their way up, slaughtering more junior adventuring groups and causing mayhem, some even climbing up out of the dungeon to wreak havoc in town.

Things have settled down a bit now. The last adventuring party to descend into the dungeon, a few months prior, had only one survivor, a fellow named Meloon. The stories of horror he brought back have cooled any last remaining embers of adventure for the time being.

Not everything is quiet however. Over the last few months two warring criminal groups have been leaving each other's bodies all over Waterdeep. The Zhentarim and the Xanathar's Guild have been at each other's throats, and something to do with Dagult's stolen dragons. The rumour is that both sides planned to ally to find the treasure, pooling what knowledge they'd found or stolen. Predictably they betrayed each other, and now are locked in a bloody fued.

You have been in the city for at least a tenday (and possibly a lot longer). You've met each other, and are planning to work together. With the adventurers gone and the City Watch dealing with the gang war, there's a lot of small jobs going that will put coin in your pocket. You've hung out in the Yawning Portal most nights for a tenday, making friends and gathering leads. What your friends have to say will come later, but for now you're making sure people know you're available for work, and seeing what lands in your lap.