[FR] Waterdeep in Ashes

[the_mighty_agrippa]

not to mention conscription. the lords of waterdeep would enforce conscription into the militia if the situation demanded it.

also, the denizens of the city's secret societies would make for a hell of a paramilitary force as the conquerors entered the city. the red sashes would wage protracted guerilla war inside the city. any lengthy siege would just engineers and cutthroats ample opportuinty to turn every alleyway and thoroughfare into a deathtrap.

 

[Eccles]

waterdeep has magical defenses out the wazoo. khelben has secreted dozens of collosal stone contructs throughout the town.

in the immediate aftermath of the war, trade would go to luskan and/or baldur's gate, depending on the end destination. smuggling along the coasts would skyrocket as well.

all in all, it's better to have it destroyed in a magical calamity.

Surely a rampaging collossal stone construct (a) would be incredibly dangerous in a built-up-area, and (b) cause a lot of chaos if incorrectly instructed by a seriously unstable mage...

Sounds like fun to me!

(The trade point's a good one, though - I just don't like magical catastrophes!)

 

[Gregor]

Having a city such as Waterdeep fall, causes some major problems in the balance of power throughout the realms. Having the concentration of Zhent forces in such a major political area AND in control of said area, is going to create some interesting results. Many other city states / nations are going to see this as a threat to their wellbeing and or security. So, I do not think it would be odd for alot of them to create temporary alliances to march against the occupying Zhents. Neverwinter, Luskan, Silverymoon would probably march to ensure that the Zhent army doesnt decide to conquer the rest of the north. Or alternatively, you could toss in more political intrigue and have Luskan ally with the new occupied Waterdeep to split the spoils of a conquered North. You would also have some of the states to the south of Waterdeep move upon the Zhents as well. However, If that many Zhents (you'd need alot of high level npcs / generals / etc as well as the army itself) all placed in one area, what kind of security was left at home in Zhentil Keep? Could the Dalelands not rally and see this as an opportunity to depose the Zhents from that area once and for all? Does this cause Sembia to march on the Dalelands seeing them as too strong a power after conquering Zhentish areas? Does that draw Cormyr into the fray? This could possible cause all of Faerun to fall into multiple conflicts......and that's just cool.

You would also definitely have Elminster, The Seven Sisters and many other super NpCs moving to the aid of Waterdeep.

There is ALOT you can do with this.

Cheers,

 

[ashockney]

The end of Waterdeep!

Outstanding!

Some interesting elements to consider:
1) The powerful casters of the Watchful Order of Magists & Protectors, Danillo's Bard School, and the Harpers, up to and including Maskar Wands, Laeral, and Khelben himself.
2) The guilds. I know it doesn't sound like much, but what influence and power due they wield with the almighty gold piece? None want a significant disruption in trade...unless of course they were behind it all along.
3) The Churches. Not only would they take unkindly to a 'Bane-led' force, they would have significant resources both inside and outside of the city.
4) Force Grey, the elite protectors of the city from powerful adventuring types. Also very likely to succeed at a mission like killing an army's powerful leader.
5) Halaster, newly appointed chosen of Mystra, and the forces of Undermountain.
6) The denizens of Skullport. Friends or foe? Should anarchy erupt above, what would this bode for those below? Do ancient pacts of support exist between the leaders of these two cities for mutual protection.
7) Alliances. The alliance of Lurien (under Alustriel's rule) and the Knights of the Shield (North), the trade alliance.
8) Powerful magical defenses including the 50' (epic) golems (that's plural), a walled city, atop a plateau, with a heavily fortified castle, atop an embankment, all supported by a significant air cavalry (griffon riders) and naval fleet.
9) Numbers. During it's peak season, Waterdeep is said to boast nearly 1,000,000 in population. That is an enormous number of people in a fantasy world.

Given the above, I didn't get the impression you were pulling a "Shark" on them, and dropping some 50th level Epic Demon Cleric that rode it's pet Force Dragon at the lead of his very own army of 50,000 vampire troll barbarians. (Yeah, baby!) Instead, you've got a powerful cleric leading a powerful army on a fortified stronghold. Under the circumstances, I would recommend (instead of an outright "sacking" of the city) that you instead chase off the travelers, merchants, mercenaries, and visitors, which knocks their population down to about 200,000 - 300,000, a far more manageable number. Most of the old city is in ruins. Those alive have held up in one of several key strongholds throughout the city (Castle Waterdeep, Khelben's Tower, The churches, or perhaps even in Undermountain or Skullport).

And then comes the counter-attack! Just in time for the PC's arrival.

 

[Volaran]

If I were taking Waterdeep, and had to deal with the magical defenses (assuming I had some kind of meta-knowledge), I'd make a deal with Halaster Blackcloak. Split the remaining territory down the middle and offer assistance in expanding his Undermountain complex, or whatever might tempt him in return for Things emerging all over the place once the attack commenced, ect.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Waterdeep is one of the biggest cities in the north.

TO have it taken is a huge event.

Pockets of resistance should be common in some areas but those that probably want to keep things down are the nobles and merchants who want things to go on as normal until they start to lose power at which points things are probably too late to do anything about it.

The bad thing about the FR is that a change on this level seems almost impossible due to the high amount of 'good' mages. I'd suggest that the Netherize wizards from the Plane of Shade make it known that they'll look down upon any interference in such a 'mortal' situation with great displeasure or they are already lending active support to the Zhents and have promised to lead much more active, on the field support, if the Choosen take a stand here.

 

[Lazybones]

I love the idea of shaking things up in the Realms. Part of the problem people have with the setting, IMO, is that too much is considered "canon" and can't be changed.

In my story hour, I limited myself to sacking a minor town of ~5,000 people, although I ended with a Spur Lord of Cyric becoming the defacto dictator of Iriaebor.

As Eccles noted above, spawning undead are a great mechanism for taking out large numbers of people in a congested urban area.

Don't be afraid to kill off the "superNPCs." Maybe this plot line opens with Khelben Blackstaff being assassinated in such a way that he can't be easily resurrected. Maybe his girlfriend (don't recall her name off the top of my head) petitions the PCs to intervene so that he can be restored to life. Of course, in the process the PCs do most of the work, so when he finally does come back, it's just to seal the victory over the baddums.

Maybe something really funky happens during the assault on the city, there's an explosion inside Undermountain, and half of Mount Waterdeep collapses atop the wealthier districts of the city. Fiends are spotted amidst the rubble, but they don't leave to enter the rest of the city. The whole area becomes a wild-magic zone.

Lots of good ideas in this thread...

 

[mmu1]

Umm... An army from Waterdeep was led into the Anauroch? That's 400 miles away. What were they doing there in the first place? Why go fight someone who hasn't even managed to get through the Silver Marches?

Any kind of plot involving the Zhents physically sending an army to Waterdeep is not going to work without a lot of very blatant "hand waves". The distances are too great, and there are too many nations hostile to the Zhents in the way for the army to ever get there without first occupying and controlling much of the area between Zhentil Keep and Waterdeep. For anything like this to ever happen, it'd take a massive war that'd take years and completely reshape the face of Faerun...

It'd take one hell of a war for the Zhents to take Cormyr, or one of the smaller cities in the Silver Marches, never mind Waterdeep.

 

[Marimmar]

Well, to be honest I dislike Waterdeep and it's überNPCs quite a bit. Everytime the PCs have a problem with something it's like 'we cannot fail, Waterdeep will save the day' or 'there's no way Waterdeep would allow that' or 'we need a True Res, let's go to Waterdeep'. For me as a DM it's always like the heroes are nothing but startups, no matter how high level or powerful they are. There's always someone that can stop by to undo the mess the players left behind. There's no way the PCs have to live with the consequences of their actions, they can always run home to mommy if something goes wrong.

As for the power of the attacking army, it is quite considerable. It is led by 6th-10th level wizards, features lots of goblinoids, giants and trolls as well as human desert nomads and most notably a Juggernaut the size of a small fortress which is completely immune to magic. It is with the Juggernaut that Waterdeep's defences could be breached especially with a good deal of Waterdeep's manpower already destroyed. Since the army is always on the move it can live off the land unlike conscript armies of the World Wars.

BTW the adventures are X4/X5 Master of the Desert Nomads, adapted to fit into the Realms. There's also an OD&D high level module (don't remember the number) that deals with the return of the master that I intend to run after two other DMs have run their adventures.

~Marimmar

 

[Renshai]

One interesting point. In the product, Cloak and Dagger, Fzoul (Chosen of Bane) made an agreement with Khelben to stay away from anything west of the Sunset Mountains.

In return Khelben allowed him to gain access to a very powerful artifact. This is one of the reasons that Blackstaff is no longer a member of the Harpers....

You can of course, ignore that it happened. I think an invasion of Waterdeep would be a great change to a pretty static area in the Realms.

One of my current campaigns involves the Githyanki invasion of Toril. The Gith have landed in Sembia and are preparing to attack Cormyr.. so, my FR is getting quite the facelift...

Ren