WDDH #1: Awkward Family Reunion

Hello again!

To add some variety to my content (but mainly just because I want to), I'm going to start summarizing the sessions of a D&D campaign I'm in. My group recently played our first session of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, and I'm super into it.

Obviously, this means that these posts will be full of spoilers, so if you don't want that, then you'll want to skip both this and all future "WDDH" posts. But if you've already played it or just plain don't mind spoilers, then read on!

My Character

I'm going to be writing about the sessions from the perspective of my own character, so let's start there. He's a tiefling named Jabin Co Aldo, born to a prominent noble family in Waterdeep. He's the bastard child of a non-tiefling noble mother and an unknown father, so he was punted down to the absolute bottom of the noble class, getting the smallest home in the ward and sacrificing much of the social privilege normally afforded to nobles (noble background with the "retainers" feature instead of the "position of privilege" feature). Between his observation that less-talented people stand above him and his proximity to all the hard-working commoners standing below him, Jabin has developed a distaste for the class system and wants to do what he can to close the gap.

Jabin is supremely talented (rolled really good stats) and has learned a bit of magic (the Aethermage class, which you can find HERE). If you're curious to have a look at his stats and abilities, I use an online character sheet of my own creation, so you can view his stats HERE. (You're also welcome to use the sheet for your own games; the template version is available HERE, free for personal use.)

The First Session

The story begins when Jabin receives a letter from someone named "M. Volo" stating that he might be Jabin's father and requesting a meetup at a particular table of the Yawning Portal tavern at a specified date and time. Interestingly, the letter looks like a printed form, with the only handwritten parts being "Jabin Co Aldo," "son," and "M. Volo."

Upon arriving at the designated table, Jabin meets four people: a half-orc bard named Ion Marko; a kenku monk who identifies himself as [sound of mice scratching inside the walls] but answers to "Scritch" and is a traveling companion of Ion; a human monk whose player hasn't settled on a name yet; and a tabaxi ranger named Skystone Bloodlake, who is a traveling companion of the human.

After a bit of discussion, it's determined that Jabin was not the only one to receive a letter; Ion and HumanMonk received the same form (but with their own names filled in). The mysterious M. Volo does not arrive.

As they wait, a group of five humans with tattoos identifying them as Xanathar gang members picks a fight with a half-orc woman nearby. Jabin and some of his newfound extended family intervene, but are interrupted by the appearance of a troll from the dungeon-entrance hole in the center of the tavern (which gives the Yawning Portal its name). Along with the troll are several stirges, which the barkeep instructs any armed patrons to engage while he solos the troll.

Once things calm down (and after Jabin checks on the half-orc woman, who apparently didn't need help, and offers to vouch for her if false charges are brought against her by the Xanathars), Jabin and company are approached by none other than Volothamp Geddarm, more commonly known as the famous adventurer Volo. He has a (re)quest for the group.

He offers to pay the group to locate his missing friend, Flune Blagmar, last seen a couple of days ago. He also answers our inquiries about M. Volo and says he's sort of an annoying friend who adopted the pen name of Marco Volo in order leech some notoriety, but hasn't been seen by the real Volo in years.

Despite it being evening already, the newly-familial group sets out to find Flune, starting by heading toward a seedy tavern where he was last seen. Turns out he was joined by a friend and noble named Renier Neverember, and the pair left together. Further investigation leads the group to a run-down warehouse and a kenku ambush, the site of which also contains recent corpses from both the Xanathars and a rival gang known as the Zhentarim.

The group finds and rescues Neverember, who seems to think that his and Flune's identities were mistaken by their captors, as Neverember is (erroneously) believed to know the hiding place of his father's alleged embezzlement hoard of 500,000gp. Thus, Flune (thought to be Neverember) was taken elsewhere. The city watch, arriving on the scene, also informs the group that there seems to be a gang war happening between the Xanathars and the Zhentarim, allegedly over an artifact which could in theory locate the aforementioned stash.

The session ended with the group preparing to continue their search for Flune, with Neverember along for the ride.

Thanks for reading! Until next time, take care of each other, okay?