A 'City of Splendors', Waterdeep is a crossroad where all manner of peoples and ideas mingle and converge. The deep harbor welcoming ships from far and wide are primarily responsible for the bustling markets full of just about anything one could hope for if willing to part with the right coinage.
The city is broken up into many districts or wards. And while visitors may easily get lost and confused, most locals know their way around. While the wards may have an overall characterization, any and all sorts of people can be found there, regardless of economic status.
The Sea Ward is in the northwest of the city and is home to many established nobles and those whose fortunes are one the rise. The rich and the powerful (or those who wish you to think such of them, and can afford the rent) reside or run their businesses here. When the warlords and pirates of early Waters Deep gained enough gold, they built fortresses on what used to be fields of grass tousled by sea wind. You can still see the remains of some of those old castles incorporated into the palatial homes of the noble families that dwell in the Sea Ward. Blue and gold are the Sea Ward’s colors in competitions, and the ward’s mascot is the sea lion — a fanciful combination of fish and feline. Several ornate temples to the gods are also found in Seaward's wide, clean streets.
To the west of fashionable Seaward is North Ward, a respectable area occupied by upper middle class residences and noble villas. Townhomes are even more common here and the Northward is home to several nice inns, merchant shops, and typical industries and services of moderate price. Though it has taverns and shops to suit a variety of tastes, the tenor of the area tends toward reserved and polite. Most streets are lined with row houses inhabited by the families of prosperous people of business, investing, and civic service. They are each wealthy enough to employ a servant or two, or they endeavor to appear as such. The ward comes quietly to life just after dawn. Just as birdsong fills the air, servants begin hustling about on errands. These aren’t the live-in staff used by noble houses, but people hired to come and work for a day. Most of them come from less affluent parts of the city, arriving with the tools of their trade and outfitted in their customary garb: launderers and cooks in white, chimney sweeps and housecleaners in black, valets and child-minders in gray, gardeners in green, and tutors in blue.
The Field Ward lies to the north of both the Seaward and Northward and lies between the inner and outer walls of the city. The area grew without much plan or regulation and therefore is a messy tangle of muddy streets and tenuous tenements. The residents of the Field Ward are some of the poorest in the city. It is not an official ward, and as a result the Watch doesn't patrol the area, leaving many crimes here uninvestigated. The City Guard is present due to its duty to guard the walls of the city, but rarely gets involved in "minor" problems of the area. . It has no sewer system and isn’t served by the Dungsweepers’ Guild — a fact that will be quite evident to your nose. The Guild of Butchers operates several slaughterhouses, smokehouses, and leather-making facilities in the area — noisome operations that have been pushed out of the city proper.
The Castle Ward is the heart and mind of Waterdeep, if not its soul. It houses the city’s military forces, courts, government, and the Market — the largest market square of any city in the North. It encompasses the City Navy’s docks in the Great Harbor and all of Mount Waterdeep, and it is home to six walking statues, numerous temples, and many other landmarks.Castle Waterdeep stands above the city on a great bluff that extends out from the mountain, its towers soaring hundreds of feet into the sky. It surprises many to learn that this isn’t where Waterdeep’s rulers reside, nor from where the city is governed.
The castle was and is a redoubt of last defense should the city be attacked, but for well over a century, the ruler of Waterdeep has occupied the Palace of Waterdeep — also known as Piergeiron’s Palace, and still called that by elderly and long-lived citizens (including many elves). Though not quite as large as the castle, the palace is far more comfortable and lavishly decorated, with many halls used by government officials, guildmasters, and nobles for meetings and court proceedings. Many other buildings in the ward are given over to city business, including several courts for magisters and the barracks of the City Guard. So many of the ward’s structures are offices and meeting halls for business owners, solicitors, publishers, and the like that the Castle Ward has the smallest resident population of all the wards.
Shopping, shopping, shopping galore! Or eating, eating, eating! Or drinking, drinking, drinking! Or lavish accommodations, or fine art, or legendary parties! The Market in the Castle Ward is the largest market square in the city, but the Trades Ward is like a market town in itself — and is easily thrice the Market’s size. This ward bustles day and night with activity, both on the street and on balcony walkways that run the length of blocks and are sometimes layered five stories high. Shop signs appear to leap out from buildings, whose sides are plastered with advertisements all vying for the attention of the eye. Glove shops, shoe shops, jewelry stores, perfumeries, flower shops, cake shops, taverns, cafés, tea shops, inns, row houses, boarding schools, offices, dance academies, grocers, pottery stores, armor vendors — as long as it’s not illegal, you can find it in the Trades Ward. But if you are looking for something illegal, the Trades Ward is likely the place to get that too. Do not do so too loudly, though. The City Watch has a heavy presence in this ward, in the form of both open patrols and officers working out of uniform. As befits a place of so much business, many guilds have their halls in this ward.
It is called the Southern Ward, not the South Ward. The name derives not merely from its southerly location in the city, but from the southerners who settled in this district as the city grew. Today, the ward still hosts most of the traveling merchants who visit the city, and is made up of many enclaves, blocks, and streets primarily occupied by citizens who trace their ancestry to other realms.One can indulge in the finest halfling food here, enjoy the best singers of Calishite music, and examine the most stunning works of dwarven crafting — but the first challenge is finding where these treats are housed. The Southern Ward has long been a district of laborers catering to travelers, so its folk have adopted the architectural custom of building homes and businesses above stables or around inn yards, near to where wagon trains are housed. Residents of the Southern Ward take pride in their legacy as overland travelers and hardworking folk, so it should be no surprise that the ward’s mascot is the mule. On their competition flags, a pugnacious mule in rampant pose stands on a field of red and white — colors said to represent the blood and tears the people of the Southern Ward have shed during their labors.
The Dock Ward was long considered the most dangerous district in the city, but the Field Ward has since taken that title. Aside from the Field Ward, this is the area where most of Waterdeep’s poor reside. It is home to some of the least literate people in the city. Most of its taverns are inhabited by habitual drinkers, and far too many inns charge by the hour. But all must concede this: the residents of the Dock Ward often work the hardest while living under the harshest conditions. Warehouses, poorhouses, and tenements dominate much of the area. Streets are steep throughout, and few have space alongside for pedestrians. Wandering through the ward can be a bewildering journey without a guide. Except in the immediate vicinity of the piers, shop signs and advertising of any kind are rare, and warehouses and other businesses often have no sign at all. You either know where you are going and have reason to be there — or you are lost, and a likely mark for pickpockets or worse. Streetlamps don’t fare well in the Dock Ward. Their candles, oils, and glass are too regularly stolen or smashed. The Guild of Chandlers and Lamplighters makes a halfhearted attempt to repair the streetlamps at the start of each season, but for most of the year, locals are forced to carry their own light when traveling these streets at night.
The City of the Dead is no drab cemetery. It is a great park of grassy hills, tended flower beds, artfully placed clusters of trees and bushes, beautiful sculptures, astounding architecture, and gravel paths that wend intriguingly through it all. Long ago, Waterdavians largely abandoned the practice of burying their dead, instead entombing them in mausoleums. For centuries, the major mausoleums here have each been connected to an extradimensional space where the dead are taken, mourned, and interred. Those who can afford it memorialize the departed with sculptures, making the City of the Dead an open-air museum that features some of the most stunning, haunting, mournful, and downright eerie statues ever crafted in marble or bronze. Nobles and wealthy merchants have competed to erect the grandest markers for their dead, leading to a wide variety of styles and concepts created by artists at the height of their skills.
Map and text used by permission of Nightingalehiker
The full party assembled in a Zhentarim warehouse on Candle Lane in the Dock Ward. Emerald, Naiadyn, and Gilbert had followed rumors to this spot and discovered four members of the Xanathar Guild ransacking the place after. They defeated them, taking one prisoner, from whom they learned that Floon was taken to a Xanathar Guild hideout in the city sewers. They also discovered Renaer Neverember had been captured along with Floon since they both have similar appearances. This is what you've learned:
The Zhentarim and Xanathar's Guild are both looking for a hidden hoard of gold dragons, allegedly hidden by Lord Neverember.
This hoard can only be found with a magic item called the Stone of Golorr.
Renaer, the estranged son of Lord Neverember was captured and questioned along with Floon, who looks and dresses very similar.
Floon has been taken to a Xanather Guild hideout in the sewers underneath the Dock Ward, which can be found by following yellow marks.
The current scene. The party found the sewer hideout and began to sneak in. They tied up a sleeping goblin lookout and fought two more Xans, one of which was a grey-skinned dwarf that magically grew to almost ten-feet tall, and a tattoo-headed human who Emerald and Naiadyn previously encountered starting trouble at The Yawning Portal tavern.
Legola opened the barricaded lavatory door and was instantly attacked by a dull-colored ooze that was called a Shit Monster by their tattoo-headed prisoner.
A 'City of Splendors', Waterdeep is a crossroad where all manner of peoples and ideas mingle and converge. The deep harbor welcoming ships from far and wide are primarily responsible for the bustling markets full of just about anything one could hope for if willing to part with the right coinage.
The city is broken up into many districts or wards. And while visitors may easily get lost and confused, most locals know their way around. While the wards may have an overall characterization, any and all sorts of people can be found there, regardless of economic status.
The Sea Ward is in the northwest of the city and is home to many established nobles and those whose fortunes are one the rise. The rich and the powerful (or those who wish you to think such of them, and can afford the rent) reside or run their businesses here. When the warlords and pirates of early Waters Deep gained enough gold, they built fortresses on what used to be fields of grass tousled by sea wind. You can still see the remains of some of those old castles incorporated into the palatial homes of the noble families that dwell in the Sea Ward. Blue and gold are the Sea Ward’s colors in competitions, and the ward’s mascot is the sea lion — a fanciful combination of fish and feline. Several ornate temples to the gods are also found in Seaward's wide, clean streets.
To the west of fashionable Seaward is North Ward, a respectable area occupied by upper middle class residences and noble villas. Townhomes are even more common here and the Northward is home to several nice inns, merchant shops, and typical industries and services of moderate price. Though it has taverns and shops to suit a variety of tastes, the tenor of the area tends toward reserved and polite. Most streets are lined with row houses inhabited by the families of prosperous people of business, investing, and civic service. They are each wealthy enough to employ a servant or two, or they endeavor to appear as such. The ward comes quietly to life just after dawn. Just as birdsong fills the air, servants begin hustling about on errands. These aren’t the live-in staff used by noble houses, but people hired to come and work for a day. Most of them come from less affluent parts of the city, arriving with the tools of their trade and outfitted in their customary garb: launderers and cooks in white, chimney sweeps and housecleaners in black, valets and child-minders in gray, gardeners in green, and tutors in blue.
The Field Ward lies to the north of both the Seaward and Northward and lies between the inner and outer walls of the city. The area grew without much plan or regulation and therefore is a messy tangle of muddy streets and tenuous tenements. The residents of the Field Ward are some of the poorest in the city. It is not an official ward, and as a result the Watch doesn't patrol the area, leaving many crimes here uninvestigated. The City Guard is present due to its duty to guard the walls of the city, but rarely gets involved in "minor" problems of the area. . It has no sewer system and isn’t served by the Dungsweepers’ Guild — a fact that will be quite evident to your nose. The Guild of Butchers operates several slaughterhouses, smokehouses, and leather-making facilities in the area — noisome operations that have been pushed out of the city proper.
The Castle Ward is the heart and mind of Waterdeep, if not its soul. It houses the city’s military forces, courts, government, and the Market — the largest market square of any city in the North. It encompasses the City Navy’s docks in the Great Harbor and all of Mount Waterdeep, and it is home to six walking statues, numerous temples, and many other landmarks.Castle Waterdeep stands above the city on a great bluff that extends out from the mountain, its towers soaring hundreds of feet into the sky. It surprises many to learn that this isn’t where Waterdeep’s rulers reside, nor from where the city is governed.
The castle was and is a redoubt of last defense should the city be attacked, but for well over a century, the ruler of Waterdeep has occupied the Palace of Waterdeep — also known as Piergeiron’s Palace, and still called that by elderly and long-lived citizens (including many elves). Though not quite as large as the castle, the palace is far more comfortable and lavishly decorated, with many halls used by government officials, guildmasters, and nobles for meetings and court proceedings. Many other buildings in the ward are given over to city business, including several courts for magisters and the barracks of the City Guard. So many of the ward’s structures are offices and meeting halls for business owners, solicitors, publishers, and the like that the Castle Ward has the smallest resident population of all the wards.
Shopping, shopping, shopping galore! Or eating, eating, eating! Or drinking, drinking, drinking! Or lavish accommodations, or fine art, or legendary parties! The Market in the Castle Ward is the largest market square in the city, but the Trades Ward is like a market town in itself — and is easily thrice the Market’s size. This ward bustles day and night with activity, both on the street and on balcony walkways that run the length of blocks and are sometimes layered five stories high. Shop signs appear to leap out from buildings, whose sides are plastered with advertisements all vying for the attention of the eye. Glove shops, shoe shops, jewelry stores, perfumeries, flower shops, cake shops, taverns, cafés, tea shops, inns, row houses, boarding schools, offices, dance academies, grocers, pottery stores, armor vendors — as long as it’s not illegal, you can find it in the Trades Ward. But if you are looking for something illegal, the Trades Ward is likely the place to get that too. Do not do so too loudly, though. The City Watch has a heavy presence in this ward, in the form of both open patrols and officers working out of uniform. As befits a place of so much business, many guilds have their halls in this ward.
It is called the Southern Ward, not the South Ward. The name derives not merely from its southerly location in the city, but from the southerners who settled in this district as the city grew. Today, the ward still hosts most of the traveling merchants who visit the city, and is made up of many enclaves, blocks, and streets primarily occupied by citizens who trace their ancestry to other realms.One can indulge in the finest halfling food here, enjoy the best singers of Calishite music, and examine the most stunning works of dwarven crafting — but the first challenge is finding where these treats are housed. The Southern Ward has long been a district of laborers catering to travelers, so its folk have adopted the architectural custom of building homes and businesses above stables or around inn yards, near to where wagon trains are housed. Residents of the Southern Ward take pride in their legacy as overland travelers and hardworking folk, so it should be no surprise that the ward’s mascot is the mule. On their competition flags, a pugnacious mule in rampant pose stands on a field of red and white — colors said to represent the blood and tears the people of the Southern Ward have shed during their labors.
The Dock Ward was long considered the most dangerous district in the city, but the Field Ward has since taken that title. Aside from the Field Ward, this is the area where most of Waterdeep’s poor reside. It is home to some of the least literate people in the city. Most of its taverns are inhabited by habitual drinkers, and far too many inns charge by the hour. But all must concede this: the residents of the Dock Ward often work the hardest while living under the harshest conditions. Warehouses, poorhouses, and tenements dominate much of the area. Streets are steep throughout, and few have space alongside for pedestrians. Wandering through the ward can be a bewildering journey without a guide. Except in the immediate vicinity of the piers, shop signs and advertising of any kind are rare, and warehouses and other businesses often have no sign at all. You either know where you are going and have reason to be there — or you are lost, and a likely mark for pickpockets or worse. Streetlamps don’t fare well in the Dock Ward. Their candles, oils, and glass are too regularly stolen or smashed. The Guild of Chandlers and Lamplighters makes a halfhearted attempt to repair the streetlamps at the start of each season, but for most of the year, locals are forced to carry their own light when traveling these streets at night.
The City of the Dead is no drab cemetery. It is a great park of grassy hills, tended flower beds, artfully placed clusters of trees and bushes, beautiful sculptures, astounding architecture, and gravel paths that wend intriguingly through it all. Long ago, Waterdavians largely abandoned the practice of burying their dead, instead entombing them in mausoleums. For centuries, the major mausoleums here have each been connected to an extradimensional space where the dead are taken, mourned, and interred. Those who can afford it memorialize the departed with sculptures, making the City of the Dead an open-air museum that features some of the most stunning, haunting, mournful, and downright eerie statues ever crafted in marble or bronze. Nobles and wealthy merchants have competed to erect the grandest markers for their dead, leading to a wide variety of styles and concepts created by artists at the height of their skills.
Map and text used by permission of Nightingalehiker
Chapter 1: A Friend in Need
The full party assembled in a Zhentarim warehouse on Candle Lane in the Dock Ward. Emerald, Naiadyn, and Gilbert had followed rumors to this spot and discovered four members of the Xanathar Guild ransacking the place after. They defeated them, taking one prisoner, from whom they learned that Floon was taken to a Xanathar Guild hideout in the city sewers. They also discovered Renaer Neverember had been captured along with Floon since they both have similar appearances. This is what you've learned:
The current scene. The party found the sewer hideout and began to sneak in. They tied up a sleeping goblin lookout and fought two more Xans, one of which was a grey-skinned dwarf that magically grew to almost ten-feet tall, and a tattoo-headed human who Emerald and Naiadyn previously encountered starting trouble at The Yawning Portal tavern.
Legola opened the barricaded lavatory door and was instantly attacked by a dull-colored ooze that was called a Shit Monster by their tattoo-headed prisoner.