History TabletopGame / WaterdeepDragonHeist

* HandicappedBadass: Downplayed, as she's a ten-year-old girl, but the deaf Nat not only has no trouble keeping up with her two hearing friends, she is firmly established as being the leader of their street urchin trio. She even invented her own personal sign language and taught it to the boys. Squiddly, the nine-year-old tiefling member of the trio, might also count, having a patch over one eye for unknown reasons but apparently decently proficient with his toy bow and arrows.

* KarmicJackpot: Literally the easiest way to acquire the horde from the gold dragon guarding it is pointing out it's been embezzled and should be returned to its rightful owners. {{Subverted}} if the [=PCs=] use Bluff or their rescued allies to swindle the dragon.

** Manshoon, one of the founding leaders of the Zhentarim, is the only evil archmage present in the adventure. [[spoiler:He's actually a [[CloningBlues sentient clone]] of the real Manshoon, who's been dead for over a century.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[TagLine Welcome to Waterdeep!]][[note]]From top to bottom, left to right: [[MagnificentBastard Jarlaxle Baenre]], [[AristocratsAreEvil Victoro and Ammalia Cassalanter]], and [[EvilWizard Manshoon]]. In the background: [[KingOfThieves Xanathar]].[[/note]]]]

* ForcedTransformation: [[spoiler:Osvaldo Cassalanter, eldest of the Cassalanter children, was transformed into a chain devil after Asmodeus claimed his soul through an infernal contract with his parents. Like all devils, he took a dip into the River Styx, and there is no way of saving him upon finding him within the family villa]].

* HandicappedBadass: Downplayed, as she's a ten-year-old girl, but the deaf Nat is described as the leader of the trio of street urchins who show up from time to time. She even invented her own personal sign language and taught it to the boys. Squiddly, the nine-year-old tiefling member of the trio, might also count, having a patch over one eye for unknown reasons but apparently decently proficient with his toy bow and arrows.

* StreetUrchin: Three young orphans (Nat, Jenks, and Squiddly) can be encountered by the PCs at various points in the story, getting into shenanigans and helping or inadvertently hindering them. The trio consider themselves adventurers of a sort, and will quickly latch onto and idolize the players if they treat them well.

** The Cassalanters keep their two young children on a fairly tight leash, having them privately tutored and rarely allowing them to leave the family villa. As such, should the PCs try to befriend them if they encounter them while staging a heist there, the children will likely be eager to help out, giving them info on the villa's layout and what they know about their parents' dealings, as well as helping them sneak around (especially if the PCs want to get into the few rooms the kids are forbidden from entering).

* ObnoxiousInLaws: The Xanathar Guild's mess cook, Bepis Honeymaker, was kidnapped and held ransom one month before the story began, only for his in-laws to destroy the ransom notes and tell his wife and children he ran away. Ahmaergo, Xanathar's chief slaver, decided to make Bepis the guild's overworked cook for their lower members. He's so distressed by the time the players arrive that he mistakes them for possible kitchen help and puts them to work. Bepis, meanwhile believes that his family has simply decided [[YouCanKeepHer he wasn't worth the money.]]

* StrictParentsMakeSneakyKids: [[spoiler: Esvele Rosznar, a young Waterdhavian noble, had a very strict upbringing as part of her family's efforts to [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten wipe away their history of illicit slave trading from the minds of the public.]] Rebelling towards her parents only resulted in [[GildedCage her being shut in her home at night and house guards watching her every move during the day.]] She then taught herself the arts of skullduggery, assassination, and theft as a way of cutting herself loose from the decadent noble life, culminating in adopting the identity of the [[PhantomThief Black Viper]], an [[LegacyCharacter infamous Waterdhavian criminal who supposedly died a century ago.]]]]

* RooftopConfrontation: One of the scenarios encountered in search for the Stone of Golorr is a rooftop chase.

* ObnoxiusInLaws: The Xanathar Guild's mess cook, Bepis Honeymaker, was kidnapped and held ransom one month before the story began, only for his in-laws to destroy the ransom notes and tell his wife and children he ran away. Ahmaergo, Xanathar's chief slaver, decided to make Bepis the guild's overworked cook for their lower members. He's so distressed by the time the players arrive that he mistakes them for possible kitchen help and puts them to work.

** Hell of a Summer: Ammalia and Victoro Cassalanter, a pair of influential Waterdhavian nobles who pride themselves in their business of money-lending and rumor-mongering. [[spoiler:They are also devil cultists in secret, as they have previously struck a deal with Asmodeus to provide wealth and power to their family in exchange for the souls of their children.]] They plan to use the dragons [[spoiler:alongside sacrificing nearly a hundred Waterdhavians in order to spare two of their only children from infernal damnation.]]

Taking place within [[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Waterdeep]], the [[CityOfAdventure City of Splendors]], the story begins with the adventurers being hired by famed author and explorer Volothamp "Volo" Geddarm to help him find a friend of his who disappeared after their meeting a couple of nights ago. But as the adventurers begin to settle into Waterdeep, they soon hear rumors that a cache of half a million golden coins (locally known as "dragons") is hidden within a secret vault somewhere in the city, and many individuals in and out of Waterdeep have long been looking for the vault to claim the treasure inside, some of whom with more insidious motives in mind. And so begins a wild city-wide treasure hunt, where adventurers can meet many of Waterdeep's most influential figures who can help them in their quest to uncover the vault, while pitting them against some of its most infamous villains who will stop at nothing to claim the cache as theirs.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler:Half a million gold coins is a LOT of money, and word travels fast if it's recovered by the adventurers. And due to it being embezzled by Dagult Nevermember, the money is technically stolen property of the city. Because of this, the adventurers will not be able to legally keep the whole cache and will have to settle for being rewarded a tenth of it (which, at 50,000 gold pieces, is still a lot of money) for doing the right thing. If the players do not return the money to the city, they'll be immediately charged with robbery, [[InsigniaRipOffRitual stripped of their faction ranks]], and [[SuddenDownerEnding quickly arrested with no real way to pay back the damages that are owed for their crimes]], [[BolivianArmyEnding if not hunted by the Lords' Alliance and Harpers if they somehow escape]].]]

* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: One of Xanathar's lieutenants is a mind flayer named Nihiloor, who acts as TheSpymaster for the Xanathar Guild by using [[BrainMonster intellect devourers]] to create a spy ring of {{Meat Puppet}}s. [[spoiler:If the adventurers killed Nihiloor, Xanathar would eventually replace it with another mind flayer named Qrr'zarq, who unbeknownst to the beholder is [[TheStarscream secretly plotting to implant it with a illithid tadpole and turn it into its thrall]].]]

** Winter Wizardry: Manshoon, one of the founding leaders of the Zhentarim which is in the midst of a MobWar with the Xanathar Guild as well as an EnemyCivilWar with another Zhentarim group that opposes Manshoon's plans. [[spoiler:He is actually one of the surviving sentient clones of the original Manshoon, who died long before the events of the adventure, and is searching for the cache of dragons as part of his EvilPlan to take over Waterdeep alongside his loyal Zhentarim agents and exact revenge on Halaster Blackcloak for a past incident in Undermountain.]]

** [[spoiler:The special events tied to the Cassalanters can actually result in this if the adventurers weren't able to put a stop to Victoro and Ammalia's EvilPlan in time. By the time the Founders' Day party being hosted by the Cassalanters is over, the stolen cache of dragons had already been paid to Asmodeus alongside the souls of ninety-nine Waterdhavians that they've poisoned to death, thus saving Terenzio and Elzerina's souls from being forfeited to the archdevil. From that point on, the couple would use their noble status as well as threats of infernal retribution to silence any witnesses and quash any investigations against them regarding the stolen dragons. Of course, an alternative take on this scenario would be that the adventurers are willing to let the Cassalanters claim the gold in the end if only to help prevent the couple from losing their only children to Asmodeus.]]

** Winter Wizardry: Manshoon, one of the founding leaders of the Zhentarim which is in the midst of a MobWar with the Xanathar Guild [[spoiler:as well as an EnemyCivilWar with another Zhentarim group that opposes Manshoon's plans. He is actually one of the few remaining clones of the original Manshoon, who died long before the events of the adventure, and is searching for the cache of dragons as part of his EvilPlan to essentially take over Waterdeep alongside his loyal Zhentarim agents and exact revenge on Halaster Blackcloak for a past incident in Undermountain.]]

* {{Cthulhumanoid}}: One of Xanathar's lieutenants is a mind flayer named Nihiloor, who acts as TheSpymaster for the Xanathar Guild by using [[BrainMonster intellect devourers]] to create a spy ring of [[MeatPuppet Meat Puppets]].

* EnemyCivilWar: Xanathar and the Zhentarim under the command of Manshoon are fighting it out off-screen. So are Manshoon and the Doom Raiders.

* {{Greed}}: Subverted; Every villain, with the exception of Xanathar, has a reason for seeking the gold other than just wanting it. [[spoiler:Aurinax, the dragon in the vault, however, is noted to be too blinded by his own greed to accept what he secretly knew all along; that the gold is not really Dagult Neverember's gold.]]

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: [[spoiler: 500,000 gold coins is a LOT of money, and word travels fast if it's recovered by the players. And due to it being embezzled by Dagult Nevermember, the money is technically the stolen property of the city. Unfortunately, the players will not be able to legally keep the whole cache and will have to settle for being rewarded a tenth of it (which is still a lot of money at 50,000 gold pieces) for doing the right thing. If the players do not return the money to the city, they'll be immediately charged with stealing from the city, [[InsigniaRipOffRitual stripped of their faction ranks]], and [[SuddenDownerEnding quickly arrested with no real way to pay back the damages that are owed for their crimes]], [[BolivianArmyEnding if not hunted by the Lords' Alliance and Harpers if they somehow escape]].]]

* WhatTheHellHero: If the players recover the gold from the Vault of Dragons and refuse to return it to the city, then they will be scolded by city authorities, expelled from any good-aligned faction they belong to, and then arrested and/or hunted.
* YouAllMeetInAnInn: The adventure begins with a BarBrawl within the popular Yawning Portal inn. The players even get to pick out a contact among the patrons inside, who acts as a " friendly face" for them.

* TreasureHuntEpisode: ''Waterdeep: Dragon Heist'' serves as this among the 5th Edition adventure modules, as its plot revolves around the Vault of Dragons, within which half a million golden coins are being kept and is being searched for by everyone in Waterdeep, including the adventurers and the villains.

* AlwaysSaveTheGirl: [[spoiler:Between their two remaining children or a hundred innocent Waterdhavians, Victoro and Ammalia Cassalanter would prefer sacrificing the latter to Asmodeus just to get out of their DealWithTheDevil.]]