Moving beyond the major villains, the Grand Game also features the participation of any number of other factions (including the PCs).
GRALHUNDS
The Gralhunds are a minor faction (at least compared to the four main villains) involved in the Grand Game. They simply hope to obtain the Vault for themselves, and use its riches to elevate their position in Waterdeep’s high society. (As described on p. 213, the Gralhunds believe that Lady Yalah should have been elevated to the Masked Lords years ago following the events in the novel Death Masks.)
Many dismiss the Gralhunds as petty schemers, but the truth is that they have had to be clever and conniving in order to punch above their weight-class in Waterdeep’s labyrinthine politics. Even now, as they play the Grand Game, they are struggling to compete with organizations that are far larger and have far more resources.
Thinking outside of the box, they embedded agents in Renaer Neverember’s household months ago. Because Renaer was estranged from his father, they knew it was a long-shot, but it paid off: The agents spotted Dalakhar’s surveillance of Renaer and identified him as an agent of Lord Neverember. When Dalakhar was abruptly pulled off of that assignment, the agents followed a hunch, followed up, and discovered he had ended up in Xanathar’s organization (presumably still on orders from Lord Neverember). The Gralhunds didn’t know that Xanathar held the Stone of Golorr, but when it was stolen they were among the first to suspect (and then know) that Dalakhar was responsible.
THE NIMBLEWRIGHT: Two days after Dalakhar stole the Stone, the Gralhunds located him and dispatched their newly acquired nimblewright to find him. In Trollskull Alley, the nimblewright uses a fireball spell to kill Dalakhar and the Zhentarim agents trailing him. The nimblewright then grabs the Stone of Golorr from Dalakhar’s corpse and flees the scene, returning to the Gralhund Villa with his prize (see Part 2).
DESIGN NOTE
The key decision here was to simplify the Gralhund back story. This quickly eliminates a whole slew of continuity errors from the campaign and simplifies a rather convoluted intrigue that the players are unlikely to ever fully fathom. But we’ve also simultaneously increased the scope of the Grand Game (by establishing that there are numerous minor factions all wrapped up in the intrigue) and given ourselves the opportunity to dynamically increase the number of factions involved in the Gralhund Villa sequence (see Part 2).
OTHER MINOR FACTIONS
OPEN LORD: The Open Lord of Waterdeep isn’t exactly a “minor” faction, but Laeral Silverhand is considerably behind the curve in the current Grand Game. She knows that Lord Neverember embezzled 500,000 dragons from the city, but as Dragon Heist begins she is under the belief that he already has the money in Neverwinter. She has agents working to recover it there, but little hope of succeeding (as she believes it has likely already been laundered into Neverember’s expansive plans for rebuilding and expanding Neverwinter). She has heard rumors of Neverember’s Enigma, but has yet to connect that with the missing dragons, and is also unaware of the Stone of Golorr (although she knows that a powerful artifact was stolen from the palace during the confused time period when Neverember was being ousted from power).
The most likely avenue for that to change — and potentially change rapidly — is through information blabbed to the City Watch. This could happen as early as Scenario 1 (depending on exactly what Renaer and/or the PCs report to the watch), but it’s quite possible for the Open Lord to never fully twig to what’s happening.
THE UNSEEN: James Introcaso, one of the original designers for Dragon Heist, wrote a supplement for the campaign called Unseen Waterdeep. It includes a 
new villain for the campaign — a half-doppelganger, half-illithid hybrid running a small gang of shapechangers who wants the gold in order to fund bribes to discover the identities of the Masked Lords (who he intends to assassinate and replace with his shapechangers).
If you want to crank up the byzantine complexities of the Grand Game by adding in more villainous factions, the Unseen are a great plug-and-play option for that. I’m not going to discuss them at great length, but:
- Consider introducing the Unseen by having them send a doppelganger disguised as a friend or ally of the PCs to politely pump them for information. (They may also be targeting other factions with the same tactic. Their goal is to quickly play catch-up in the Grand Game.)
- I would avoid adding the Unseen to the Gralhund Villa sequence (see Part 2). Partly to keep that complexity of the sequence under control, but mostly because adding them a little later will create the feeling that the Grand Game is attracting more attention and the stakes are ratcheting up.
- However, if the PCs have staged a successful heist on Jarlaxle’s ship without tipping him off about Neverember’s Enigma, then the Unseen can very easily slip in and fill that vacuum in any sequence where I discuss Bregan D’Aerthe’s involvement.
DESIGN NOTES
The Unseen also make a convenient exemplar for how other factions of your own design can be added to the campaign. Note that their method of introduction to the campaign is via a unique vector: The Zhentarim have kidnapped people. Cassalanters ask the PCs for help (perhaps in exchange for a percentage). The PCs have to ask Jarlaxle for help. The Gralhunds launched a violent assault. The Unseen’s introduction comes via social subterfuge and deceit. Similarly, the Unseen are also capable of deploying tactics that the other factions can’t. If you’re adding a new faction, try to make sure they’re bringing something new to the table, and not just rehashing what the current factions already provide.
BONNIE’S DOPPELGANGERS / THE BLACK VIPER: These aren’t really factions. They’re small, independent operators who almost certainly lack the resources to go up against the big players. (Of course, the same thing could be said of the PCs.)
Whatever the case may be, Bonnie’s Doppelgangers and the Black Viper are good examples of small-time players who can get swept up in the Grand Game.
- They might interfere with heists. (Either pursuing the same objective or just coincidentally breaking into the same establishment in pursuit of some other item of value.)
- They might be hired by NPCs to accomplish any number of ends. But, in particular, they might seek to steal the Stone and/or the Eyes from the PCs.
- They might also offer their services to the PCs (or be found by the PCs if they go looking for such services).
(Bonnie’s doppelgangers are described on p. 20 and are part of faction missions on p. 35 and 37. The Black Viper is described on p. 196 and is part of faction missions on p. 39 and 40. She also appears at the Cassalanter Estate, as described on p. 118.)
Interesting read. I don’t know the scenario or setting, but I’m still getting some usable concepts from reading this regardless.
That said, a couple typos:
– “I’m not going to discuss them at gra” got cut off mid-sentence. (I assume “…at great length”?)
– “The Black Viper is described on p. XXX”.
Thank you. Fixed and fixed!
Hello, is Part 1C: Player Character Factions available yet? The link at the end of the page (Part 1B) does not work.
Interesting to read these fixes. I mostly gave up on the module, and after completing Chapter 3 changed it to where the Zhentarim (Manshoon’s) had gotten the stone, entered the vault, and the Xanathar’s Guild followed them. Jarlaxle came to the PCs, revealed himself and his gambit to get renown by helping the city*, and tagged along with the PCs to guide them to what was happening. So, when the PCs arrived, they ended up in a 3-way battle throughout the vault between the factions. Rather straight to the point, but I was so dissatisfied with the structure of the module I just wanted to move on.
Still interesting to see how someone else fixes it though.
* I guess that’s in line with the design of the module, which rarely gives the PCs actual tools to help learn information on their own, but rather assumes the PCs do the thing the designers wanted, or they wait around uselessly until an NPC comes along and guides them back to the rails.
Having now completed the whole adventure, I predict your changes will help out DMs more with the later half (chapter 3 and 4) of the adventure moreso than the first half. Before the fireball is probably the strongest parts of this adventure.
I want to say to any future DM, that your tweak on Jarlaxle recording and handling the nimblewrights is a must include idea. It worked extremely well for me to keep Jarlaxle involved in this adventure.
Thanks for writing this up!
I am definitely stealing the Jarlaxle Nimblewright spies. Though I feel it makes sense that since he is aiming for the Dragonstaff that he would have discovered from the Gralhund’s Nimblewright about the location of vault. Maybe from other spying Nimblewright, he had learned about the fact that the Dragonstaff is with the treasure. So he becomes the lover of the Lady Gralhund as per the book to get her to betray the Zhentarim.
Though the Autumn Chapter 4 scene is still pretty messy. Parties that want the treasure for themselves wouldn’t want to work with Laeral Silverhand, so maybe a different path is required. I still need to read through them to discover interesting other scenes.
I will add Vincent Trench as a minor villain as well. He (it) has all the tools to spy on and manipulate the PCs. Once he gets to know (detect thoughts) about their plans and motivations he will surely pursue the gold. I will make him piggy-back the PCs and have them retrieve as much info as they can for him. He just waits and acts when the time is right.
Hey Alexander, is the Black Viper going to appear again in the Remix?
Loving your Remix!
No additional references, as such. I see the Bonnie & Black Viper as being very flexible tools: Information resource. Freelancer. Competition. How they show up will depend a lot on what actions the PCs take. But my goal would be to include one or both of them at least 2-3 times over the run of the campaign.