Dragon Heist launches with the PCs being hired by Volothamp Geddarm to find his missing friend Floon Blagmaar. Unfortunately, the scenario structure for this investigation is quite fragile, being formed from long sequences of linear clue-finding. There are also several continuity problems that we’re going to straighten out.
VOLO’S HIRING SPEECH
There are several problems here.
First, if the PCs don’t fight the troll or stirges that emerge from Undermountain, Volo has no reason to hire them. So if the PCs decide that discretion is the better part of valor here, the whole campaign never happens. (This is relatively low risk, but something you might want to give some thought to.)
Second, the adventure oddly claims, “Volo is embarrassed to admit he might have gotten his friend Floon in trouble, and he resists providing all the details of what happened the night Floon disappeared.” That must be some vestige from a previous version of the scenario, because in the published version of the scenario he does, in fact, tell the PCs everything that happened and has absolutely no reason to think he’s responsible for Floon’s disappearance. (Just ignore this continuity error.)
Third, when Volo hires the PCs, his hiring speech sets up a timeline of events which doesn’t line up well with the events described in the rest of the chapter. (According to Volo, Floon was kidnapped by the Zhentarim two nights ago, but “before the interrogation could begin”, the Xanathar Guild kidnapped him from the Zhentarim, and when the PCs arrive at the Xanathar sewer hideout, their interrogation of Floon has just begun. Where did the missing day go?) We’re going to clear this up (and prelude a later clue) with two new chunks of boxed text:
The figure who approached you strokes his mustache, adjusts his floppy hat, and tightens his scarf. “Volothamp Geddarm, chronicler, wizard, and celebrity, at your service. I am most impressed by your derring-do, and the truth is that I fear I have misplaced a friend amid the odious violence which has recently been seizing the streets of this fair city, and I could use your assistance in finding him. You’d be well paid, of course.”
PAYMENT: 100 gp per character, with 10 gp per character up front.
DC 10 Wisdom (Insight): Volo is stretching the truth about how much he can pay immediately. (Currently low on cash, Volo is awaiting royalty payments from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and he’s currently endeavoring to finish Volo’s Guide to Spirits and Specters, for which he is certain receive a handsome advance.)
FLOON: Once the job is taken, Volo identifies his missing friend.
My friend’s name is Floon Blagmaar. He’s got more beauty than brains, but he’s a great drinking companion. Last night he accompanied me to the Skewered Dragon, a dark, bawdy tavern in the Dock Ward. I called it an early night, but Floon remained – drinking and merrymaking.
His wife tracked me down here in the Yawning Portal half an hour ago and told me that Floon never came home last night. This was doubly surprising, as I had not previously been aware that he was married.
Floon is a handsome man in his early thirties with wavy red-blond hair. He is not difficult to pick out of a crowd, however, for he insists on always wearing a gaudy, 6-inch bas relief of a unicorn’s head on a chain of blue pearls around his neck.
(The necklace is a holy symbol of Lurue. It was Floon’s mother’s, but he’ll tell any of a dozen different stories for how he got it.)
TO THE ZHENTARIM WAREHOUSE
Tracking Floon from the Skewered Dragon to the Zhentarim warehouse is restructured as a two-part investigation.
BLOOD IN THE STREETS: Make sure to frame the “Blood in the Streets” incident on the way to the Skewered Dragon.
- Mention that the three men who have been arrested each have a black tattoo of a flying snake (one on the hand, two on their arms).
REVELATION #1: Floon was kidnapped by men with flying black snake tattoos.
- Canvassing the Neighborhood: Several people saw Floon and another man (Renaer) waylaid in front of the Old Xoblob Shop (see Dragon Heist, p. 23). Xoblob the Gnome can describe the attack (see Dragon Heist, p. 24). Searching outside Xoblob’s shop will turn up a gaudy, 6-inch bas relief of a unicorn lying in the gutter (see below).
- Questioning at Skewered Dragon: As the PCs arrive, the evening regulars are probably rolling back in. Several of them will remember Floon and be able to describe how he drank with Volo, Volo left, and then he was joined by another man, a “spoiled, rich noble who likes to rub our noses in it!” (Note: Berca, the bartender, knows that the other man was Renaer Neverember, the son of Waterdeep’s previous Open Lord, Dagult Neverember, but she won’t be free with that information.) Floon and the other man left around midnight. They were followed out by several men, one of whom had a tattoo of a flying black snake on his neck.
(Note: Contrary to the published scenario, the patrons of the Skewered Dragon do NOT know that the “flying black snake” men can be found on Candle Lane. Some of them may be able to identify them as Zhentarim gangsters at the GM’s discretion.)
REVELATION #2: Floon was taken to the Zhentarim warehouse on Candle Lane.
- Canvassing the Neighborhood (Looking for Tattoos): Several locals have seen men with flying black snake tattoos “up by the candle on Candle Lane” (see Dragon Heist, p. 24). Surveying the lane identifies the correct warehouse because it had a black winged snake painted above the front door’s handle. Asking workers at the other warehouses along Candle Lane can also point them at the right warehouse, and may also reveal that there was some kind of “ruckus” over there early this morning, with large groups of people coming and going.
- Questioning the Prisoners: The PCs may backtrack to the “Blood in the Streets” crime scene and figure out a way to talk to the Zhentarim agents being held by the city watch. (They’re likely to speak with Captain Staget, see Dragon Heist, p. 27). If they can convince these agents to talk, they’ll learn that they aren’t local, but were told to report to the warehouse as a safe haven after performing the hit on the Xanatharians.
- Tracking Floon’s Beads: Floon kept his wits about him as he and Renaer were being kidnaped. Breaking the necklace around his neck, he let the blue beads drop into the streets and alleys as they were carried to the warehouse. PCs who find the unicorn’s head in the street outside Xoblob’s may be able to track the trail of beads back to the Zhentarim warehouse.
PROACTIVE FAILSAFES: If the PCs’ investigation is running aground, consider using these proactive elements.
- Zhentarim hear that the PCs are asking questions about Zhentarim agents, safe havens, or both. A number of Zhent thugs (MM, p. 350) equal to half the number of PCs comes to intimidate them into going away. (Adroit PCs can turn the tables, question them, and learn the location of the warehouse.)
- A small squad of Zhentarim agents arrives at the Zhentarim warehouse. The kenku lying in ambush attack them, and the fight spills out into the street right in front of the PCs.
AT THE WAREHOUSE
As initially described in Part 1, after he lost his Eye to Xanathar, Manshoon needed to get back in the game. His agents eventually concluded that Neverember’s son, Renaer, might have another of the Eyes. They were right, although Renaer didn’t know it: His father had given him an elaborate, ivory mourning locket in honor of his mother. The Eye was hidden inside it.
The full dynamic in the first chapter, therefore, is this:
- Zhentarim agents snatch Renaer Neverember and his friend Floon Blagmaar.
- While questioning Renaer in Area Z5, they realize that the Eye is in the mourning locket and take the locket from Renaer.
- Renaer is hauled back down to Area Z2 and tied up next to Floon. Upstairs, the Zhentarim break open the locket (it can still be found in Area Z5), remove the Eye, and give it to a courier to carry to Manshoon.
- Floon is then hauled upstairs for questioning (the Zhentarim want to see if he might be worth a ransom).
- Xanathar’s agents storm the warehouse. They immediately find “the prisoner” (i.e., Floon), assume he’s Renaer, and several of their agents hustle him out to their sewer hideout. Meanwhile, Renaer takes advantage of the confusion downstairs to slip his bonds and hide in Area Z2.
- Xanathar’s agents do a perfunctory sweep of the warehouse and then take off, leaving the kenku behind to kill any Zhents who show up.
DEAD SNAKE: A black flying snake lies dead in the lower yard, pierced by an arrow. (GM Note: The Zhentarim tried to send it as a messenger during the attack, but a Xanatharian watcher shot it down.)
RENAER: Renaer will be able to tell the PCs that he was questioned by the Zhents about the half million dragons his father stole from the city; then they ripped off a locket that was very precious to him. If they find the locket and see the (now empty) secret compartment inside it, Renaer can also tell them that he had no idea that the compartment existed or what was stored inside it.
TO THE XANATHAR GUILD HIDEOUT
Once the PCs realize that Floon was taken by members of the Xanathar Guild, they’ll need to track them back to the Xanathar Guild Hideout in the sewers.
TRACKING: The Xanatharians exited the warehouse through the yard on the lower level and accessed the sewer half a block away down the alley. A DC 11 Wisdom (Survival) check easily tracks them that far.
Once in the sewers, it requires three successful DC 13 Wisdom (Survival) checks. On a failure, the PCs waste considerable time needing to backtrack and pick up the trail. If the PCs fail the test three times, they’ve wasted too much time: When they arrive at the hideout, they find it abandoned except for the goblin watchers in Q2 and Zemk, the usual keeper of the hideout, in Q5. Floon’s dead body lies in Q7. (Zemk will toss it into the sewer later in the day when he gets around to it.)
However, each time the PCs roll a tracking check, whether it’s successful or not, they can also make a DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) test to notice the guildsign (see below).
(Note: Even if the PCs only manage to recover Floon’s dead body, Volo, albeit a little disappointed with them, will still reward them for completing their mission.)
QUESTIONING THE KENKU: As described on page 25 of Dragon Heist, questioning the kenku may reveal the existence of the guildsign in the sewers (see below). Beyond that, the kenku are largely incapable of describing where the hideout is located. However, they can lead the PCs there (although they’ll be looking for opportunities to lead them into traps or otherwise betray them).
GUILDSIGN: Symbols scrawled in yellow chalk – a stylized representation of Xanathar – is marked at each tunnel intersection in the sewers, indicating the path which should be followed by the direction the main eye is looking. Once the PCs are aware of the guildsign, they can simply follow it back to the hideout.
How did the Zhenartim keep possession of the eyestalk after the Xanathar guild attacked?
From the article: “Upstairs, the Zhentarim break open the locket (it can still be found in Area Z5), remove the Eye, and give it to a courier to carry to Manshoon.”
The Zhents have the Eye because it was offsite because the Xanathar guild members showed up.
Hey, you mention the fact that if the party doesn’t attack the troll it could set up for a strange/forced beginning.
The new texts you propose still seem to assume they did defeat the troll (e.g. ‘derring-do’).
Unless I missed it, how do you propose to make sure that volo is able to bring across his message?
Thanks for all the work btw, I’m greatly enyoing your remix.
When I said “you might want to give some thought to this,” I’m afraid that meant, “I don’t really have a good idea for how to easily fix this. And it’s probably fine, so…”
With that being said, I did come up with an approach over the weekend:
1. During character creation, have the players aim at having all of the PCs already in a group together. I told them, “The first moment of the campaign will be you arriving at the Yawning Portal to meet with a contact who has a job for you.”
2. Show them the page of “Familiar Faces” at the Yawning Portal. Tell them to pick whichever one looks interesting to them. That’s their contact. You can chat a little bit about how they know them if you’d like, or just jump into it.
3. As they sit down, they can briefly chat with their contact (or, if it’s Bonnie or Threestrings, maybe they’re doing their job and indicate that the PCs should take a seat; whatever works). They tell them that they’re waiting for their colleague to show up.
4. TROLL ATTACK!
5. Volo shows up. He’s the colleague their contact was waiting for. If the PCs interceded with the troll/stirges, Volo saw the whole thing and he’s very impressed. If they didn’t, doesn’t matter. (Might be funny to have him say something like, “What did I miss?”) He was already planning to hire them for the job based on their contact’s recommendation.
I’ll probably be expanding on this in an addendum to the remix.
Ah, sorry, my bad.
I was thinking about having Volo invite the characters, but I had no real idea on how he would be able to get the address of all the characters in the first place, let alone have a solid reason to collect a number of unknowns.
I really like your suggestion of using the ‘familiar faces’, I can make that work perfectly, thanks a lot!
First, I’m loving this remix. I’m looking forward to being able to assemble all of the articles into a cohesive whole for easy reference.
You say, “Volo is embarrassed to admit he might have gotten his friend Floon in trouble, and he resists providing all the details of what happened the night Floon disappeared.”
We know from the book that Volo is suffering from writer’s block. It makes sense that he’s chosen a lackluster dive bar like the Skewered Dragon for his meeting, as it provides the best chance of avoiding anyone of consequence. Of course, nobles traveling unaccompanied through the Dock Ward at night isn’t a terribly wise idea, but Volo wasn’t thinking straight when he asked Floon to meet him there. Now that his friend is missing, he (reasonably) fears the worst and blames himself in the process.
I think that fits pretty closely with how the book portrays Volo’s situation. Again, thanks for this remix, and keep ’em coming!
There appear to be a couple of typos in this entry:
“Several people Floon and another man…” Looks like the word “saw” is missing there.
“They’re likely to speak with Captain Renaer…” I assume you mean Captain Staget?
Fixed! Thanks!
“A number of Zhent thugs (MM, p. 350) equal to the number of PCs comes to intimidate them into going away.”
Two days ago I killed 2 PC’s because the party got stuck and I used this proactive element. Thugs’ CR does not really allow them to be played 1:1 against 1st level party (adds up to more than “Deadly”). I am fully to blame here for being inattentive to difficulty and resources my players had, but even with fudging rolls and less than eager to fight Zhents, two people failed death saving throws. It’s epic start, but not too nice for the 1st session. Anyways, I suggest to edit that sentence a little bit. Love the remake overall, I wish original official book had the same standard of quality.
@Egor it specifies a number of Zhent thugs equal to HALF the number of PCs in the post, which is probably much better for a party that’s still 1st level.
Justin’s patreon notes match what you quoted so that may be where your confusion comes from. I’d take a moment to adjust the number of thugs based on the size of the party and what level they’re at; I’m planning on starting the characters at 2nd or 3rd level, so a 1:1 ratio should prove less deadly to them.
Egor: Yup. That’s a typo. Thugs equal to HALF the number of PCs would be correct there, and I’ve fixed the post.
… but apparently could not comment fast enough on having fixed it to avoid the cross-post. 😉
Thanks for all of this! I’m having such a wonderfully challenging time incorporating the remix into my materials for the campaign. Really exercising my DM chops.
Just want to share an anecdote here about my party. They killed the Xan kenku just before they were going to find out where to track Floon. Then they used the paper bird in the offices to lead themselves directly to him, right to the secret door and everything. I’ve got some really brilliant idiots and I couldn’t be prouder.
Following paper birds to find someone is brilliant. Very nice!
I notice you didn’t have Renaer mention the Stone of Golorr to the party. In that case, when does the party learn about the Stone to get their revelations?
A revelation list for the Stone can be found in this post.
Do you recommend General Staget show up with the City Watch after the fight in the warehouse? Or should I skip that and run them straight to the Xanathar hideout?
I played that by ear. A few things to think about:
– Following the players’ energy. If they want to go tearing out of the warehouse, it may make sense to follow that urgency. (Particularly if it logically means that Watch doesn’t have time to arrive.)
– Conversely, using the Watch’s arrival to slow the PCs down and force them to interact with Renaer.
– The opportunity to establish the Watch and how they’ll be characterized in the campaign. (Are they lazy? Effective? Corrupt? Helpful?) This is an opportunity to set a tone that will influence how the PCs choose to react to/report lawlessness.
My players just finished finding Floon. I’m very tempted to start having the Zhents (“Who killed our guys and stole our stuff?”) and Xanatharians (“Who killed our mage, and freed our prisoner”) go proactive with response teams using your counter-espionage suggestions. Just to foreshadow that the NPC factions aren’t static. I may have to tune the response teams for second level PCs. I might make some faction investigation rolls and depending on results send a menacing thug their way. Any advice?
Maybe I missed it but is there more information on Floons wife. Is it really just his wife or someone who pretended to be to get help?
from this bit of what Volo says:
“His wife tracked me down here in the Yawning Portal half an hour ago and told me that Floon never came home last night. This was doubly surprising, as I had not previously been aware that he was married.”
Just wondering if there was something fun or interesting behind it, since Volo seems so puzzled by it.
I absolutely love the work you’ve done with the module, it will save me so much time! thank you so much! 😀
Floon goes out to partying with his male friends and hides the fact he’s married from them for what I’m certain are entirely innocent reasons.
(Floon is cheating on his wife.)
The Xanatharian Hideout has one big problem for me and its name is Nihiloor. I am looking for a compelling reason for it to just “leave” at the appointed time instead of using its abilities to turn the party into a six-course meal. Toying with the idea of Nihiloor having designs on taking over the guild network itself and looking at the party as potential pawns to that end. Why face a crazy beholder if you don’t have to, right? Either that or hope the party is smart and sends all their arrows Nihiloor’s way so I can say he is wounded badly enough to want to run.
If the PCs do burst into the room, one thing to keep in mind is that Nihiloor doesn’t automatically know they’re 1st or 2nd level characters. Adventurers kicking down the door in Waterdeep is a little like the cops showing up: Unless you’ve got something worth fighting for (and Nihiloor doesn’t here), GTFO.
Option #2: Wake up with Floon (or Floon’s corpse if you’re feeling dark), dumped in an alley with no memory of meeting a mind flayer. Then intermittently suffer from periods of missing time and lost memory throughout the rest of the campaign while Xanathar remains REMARKABLY informed about everything the PCs learn. (Nihiloor scanned their brains, saw they had rescued Renaer — the ACTUAL target of the whole operation — and then psionically brainwashed them.)
Regarding Nihiloor, I had the party scout out and observe the mind flayer chewing out Zemk for not kidnapping the actual Renaer. Nihiloor ordered the failed lesser boss to kill and get get rid of the captive, and then the party scout witnessed Nihiloor’s exit.
The failure to grab Renaer just made the next attempt that much more difficult, Zemk might wind up dead as well, Nihiloor has to tell his boss that the street guys screwed up. Let Zemk the failure clean up his own mess.
The party had little difficulty assaulting Zemk and the intellect devourer, and finding Floon beaten and restrained in a nearby room.
I didn’t really want to bother with the fight in the Yawning Portal. It’s kind of pointless. So I came up with an easy reason to have Volo approach them – he’s broke. It’s a tavern full of seasoned adventurers who would demand buckets of gold up front if they even bothered to take on a missing person quest.
Volo’s going to scan the room, pointedly avoid the tables of high-level adventurers, and approach the table full of newbies desperate to make a name for themselves at coppers on the gold piece.
I am DMing for the first time in years and am getting a lot of inspiration from here. I used the YP along with “Dipping Gone Wrong” to set a lot of different wheels in motion. One of my PCs has a connection to Obaya and she invited them there to introduce them to a friend in need (Volo) in case they didn’t attack the Troll. I used the bar fight as a way to establish that drawing weapons all willie nillie might get you in trouble, I’ve already started messing with one of my PCs (a LG fighter) who Azuredge has taken curiosity in, and one of my PCs thought it would be fun if he had connections to Xanathar (which will cause all sorts of moral dilemmas for him moving forward)
One thing I am struggling with is how to handle light in the warehouse and the hideout. It says that the sewers are dark, but what about the rest. We are using roll20 and I am trying to decide how to set-up the dynamic lighting. Thoughts?? Suggestions?? Thanks so much.
@Ray
With regards to the lighting of the warehouse, I treated the interior as completely dark. The street it’s on is described as dark except for the middle of the day, so it’s going to be pitch black for most of the day.
However, as the Kenku have no darkvision, I had one of each of them hold candles, so they could see their immediate vicinity. As soon as they believe there’s intruders about, they extinguish their lights and form an ambush.
@Ray
With regards to the lighting of the warehouse, I treated the interior as completely dark. The street it’s on is described as dark except for the middle of the day, so it’s going to be pitch black for most of the day.
However, as the Kenku have no darkvision, I had one of each of them hold candles, so they could see their immediate vicinity. As soon as they believe there’s intruders about, they extinguish their lights and form an ambush.
I love this remix!
I really liked Dragon Heist when I watched it on Roll 20 Presents, but I thought it lacked some of the same continuity that you have mentioned.
Unfortunately, I have to re-mix the re-mix for four reasons.
First, I have never used the published worlds, and my characters have already arrived in the capital city (actually two cities and a town based on 1300’s London, the town being London Bridge with 1000 inhabitants). So I have to used my original town which is very much like Waterdeep minus the mountain. (I wonder if Waterdeep was also based on London?)
Second, my players were aware that I was watching Dragon Heist. Though they did not watch it with me, I let a few of the more fun details out. As a result, I have re-named the gangs the crowns (Xanathar’s) and the Black Wands (Zents). Blackstaff is the Orange Wizard.
I told the group that I liked Waterdeep and would ‘borrow heavily’ from some of the ideas there, especially that the name Floon was very popular and you can’t say it in a bar without someone nearby saying “Who? Me?”. (Side note, one of my players saw and personalized Ontario license plate that said FLOON. Maybe I wasn’t the only person watching Roll 20!)
Hopefully my players will not notice they’re in Dragon Heist until it is well underway.
Third, my campaign is already underway and my characters are 6th level, so the starting bad guys will have to be boosted. Not too much problem there
Fourth, and perhaps most important, is that I’m not DMing 5th edition. I have been playing and DMing the same core group since the late ’70’s, early ’80’s with 6 months or a year or so off here and there. We are still playing a modified version of AD&D.
By the time second and third edition came out, we had already developed house rules that we liked better. Like any good DM’s, we adapted what we liked and ignored the rest.
By the time 5th edition came around there was no point in trying to learn what is essentially a completely different game.
As an example, I transferred Davil Starsong to first edition Bard. He would have had to be a fighter to 7th level, quit, become a 5-6th level thief, then become a bard and worked to 12th. That would give him about the same abilities and hit points in first edition that he has in Dragon Heist.
Wish me luck!
(the original) Grinnel
Oops Edit-Saw A personalized license plate, not saw and
Hey,
You wrote in the Renaer section “RENAER: Renaer will be able to tell the PCs that he was questioned by the Zhents about the half million dragons his father stole from the city” are the Zhents meant to know about the gold at this stage or is it just “Neverembers Enigma” still. If it is the later when do they learn about the gold?
During my preparation I’ve created a diagram and found that there’s too few clues leading to the sewers. If players will kill Kenku before extracting this information, they’re left clueless (as far as I can tell).
I came out with a following solution:
During the Xanathar attack on the warehouse, when Floon was questioned upstairs, one of the Zhentarim (I named it “Grimeclaw the Sinister”) fell through the window and managed to survive. He followed the Zhentarim and saw them dragging Floon to the sewers. Then he came back to the warehouse only to see Kenku there, so he stayed outside watching the warehouse. When he saw PCs entering the warehouse and dealing with Kenku, he is more than happy to point them to the sewers if they can’t find their way there out of sheer lust for vengeance.
I don’t know if I’ll need this failsafe, but better safe than sorry.