D&D General A Question about Waterdeep - Where does the Drinking Water come from?

[pukunui]

Why is there no canal linking the nearby river to the city?

Perhaps they didn't want to risk contamination from the city dump in the Rat Hills.

 

[pemerton]

Because there’s no need obviously. Several centuries of dragging stuff over land and drinking rainwater is obviously much preferred.

Or, maybe it’s because folks will invent a thousand reasons why canon is right before admitting to a single mistake.

Well, I mean we can always retrofit fiction in order to make the canon "right" (unless we're criticising no myth play, in which case it's impossible to invent fiction ad hoc without becoming mired in incoherence!)

But it seems weird that a city with early modern technology plus easy access to Move Earth spells hasn't solved a fairly basic engineering problem.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Why is there no canal linking the nearby river to the city?

That's honestly a good question. You think it would have been done, but then again, the old "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" adage may come into play here. Stasis and inertia can be very powerful things when the status quo is working just fine.

(My main issue with the entire situation is that there has never been any indications of large river docks at Zundbridge, which logically should have been developed there. Then again, Zundbridge has been minimally described other than the bridge itself.)

 

[Demetrios1453]

Because there’s no need obviously. Several centuries of dragging stuff over land and drinking rainwater is obviously much preferred.

Or, maybe it’s because folks will invent a thousand reasons why canon is right before admitting to a single mistake.

I mean, you posed some interesting questions. Of course people are going to try to answer them as best as possible using FR canon and real-life examples to back up their responses...

 

[Autumnal]

But it seems weird that a city with early modern technology plus easy access to Move Earth spells hasn't solved a fairly basic engineering problem.

Waterdeep is on a bluff, though. I’ve lived on a bluff, in Tacoma, WA, and getting between top and bottom without, you know, just jumping off is not trivial. It took nineteenth century engineering to turn trails along relatively broken stretches into roads, and more for roads that could carry trucks

Though there could much more easily be a canal to the foot of the bluff and then transshipment to hauling of some other kind.

(My main issue with the entire situation is that there has never been any indications of large river docks at Zundbridge, which logically should have been developed there. Then again, Zundbridge has been minimally described other than the bridge itself.)

Yeah. Sticking with Pacific Northwest comparisons, it should have docks on the spectrum from Aberdeen and Vancouver WA to Portland OR.

Oh hey, plot hook: the druids are overseeing canal construction. Which means negotiating with all the local spirits along the way. Some of thme are easy to placate, but some are cantankerous and curmudgeonly. Which is why it’s going slowly.

 

[Hussar]

I mean, you posed some interesting questions. Of course people are going to try to answer them as best as possible using FR canon and real-life examples to back up their responses...

I have no problems with answers. But “well that’s the way it’s been written” is a pretty poor one. I mean we’re currently driving several hundred foot deep wells into the Undermountain (which is impossible because Halaster won’t allow it) opening up great avenues for all those monsters to come up in the middle of your city.

But dig a canal a couple of miles long? Nope. That’s just impossible.

 

[Hussar]

Waterdeep is on a bluff, though. I’ve lived on a bluff, in Tacoma, WA, and getting between top and bottom without, you know, just jumping off is not trivial. It took nineteenth century engineering to turn trails along relatively broken stretches into roads, and more for roads that could carry trucks

Though there could much more easily be a canal to the foot of the bluff and then transshipment to hauling of some other kind.


Yeah. Sticking with Pacific Northwest comparisons, it should have docks on the spectrum from Aberdeen and Vancouver WA to Portland OR.

Oh hey, plot hook: the druids are overseeing canal construction. Which means negotiating with all the local spirits along the way. Some of thme are easy to placate, but some are cantankerous and curmudgeonly. Which is why it’s going slowly.

Ooh. I like that. Yoink! Great addition to my campaign.

Currently doing a dragonheist game. This would be a fantastic backdrop. City is in a bit of chaos as construction is going on everywhere. Tons of imported labour. The Xanathar guild running all sorts of rackets. All sorts of pissed off people who are being displaced by the construction.

And a fantastic way to showcase the fantastical aspect of Waterdeep. The walking statues (blanking in the name) could be involved in construction as well as a small army of wizards, clerics and Druids. Cool idea.

 

[Tonguez]

Oh hey, plot hook: the druids are overseeing canal construction. Which means negotiating with all the local spirits along the way. Some of thme are easy to placate, but some are cantankerous and curmudgeonly. Which is why it’s going slowly.

I played in a Kingdom level game once where My nation was similar to Nigeria, one of my projects was a Royal Highway linking the salt flats of the eastern desert to the markets of the Western Empire Western. Except we were opposed by Disgruntled land owners, angry spirits, hungry monsters and a Druid-Griot who summoned Tikoloshe to harass our road workers

 

[Demetrios1453]

Ooh. I like that. Yoink! Great addition to my campaign.

Currently doing a dragonheist game. This would be a fantastic backdrop. City is in a bit of chaos as construction is going on everywhere. Tons of imported labour. The Xanathar guild running all sorts of rackets. All sorts of pissed off people who are being displaced by the construction.

And a fantastic way to showcase the fantastical aspect of Waterdeep. The walking statues (blanking in the name) could be involved in construction as well as a small army of wizards, clerics and Druids. Cool idea.

The landowners, especially if they are nobles (and it's fairly likely they are), might indeed be a huge impediment to it being built. "I'm not giving up my second summer hunting lodge just so some grubby merchants can demolish it to dig some ditch to make it easier to move goods from the river to the harbor! Isn't that what the poor are for?" All sorts of bribes being thrown around so it can be built on other people's land...

 

[Autumnal]

Currently doing a dragonheist game. This would be a fantastic backdrop. City is in a bit of chaos as construction is going on everywhere. Tons of imported labour. The Xanathar guild running all sorts of rackets. All sorts of pissed off people who are being displaced by the construction.

And a fantastic way to showcase the fantastical aspect of Waterdeep. The walking statues (blanking in the name) could be involved in construction as well as a small army of wizards, clerics and Druids. Cool idea.

Okay, I like all of that, and am happy to have helped set it off. Keep it coming.

I played in a Kingdom level game once where My nation was similar to Nigeria, one of my projects was a Royal Highway linking the salt flats of the eastern desert to the markets of the Western Empire Western. Except we were opposed by Disgruntled land owners, angry spirits, hungry monsters and a Druid-Griot who summoned Tikoloshe to harass our road workers

Oh neat!