Undead attack on Waterdeep

Gwaihir

Explorer
In an upcoming episode of my campaign -Curse of Strahd extended-- There is an undead invasion of Waterdeep. Im thinking of running this much like Tides of Dread, from the Savage Tide Adventure path, where the PCs are given victory points for doing certain tasks throughout the city.

Has anyone done something similar? Pointers?

Thanks
G
 
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The only problem I see is that Waterdeep has soooo many high level NPCs and protections like giant walking statues. The players may feel like their characters are bit players. You could 'recruit' them to protect a certain area of town or block. This way they can direct the other NPCs and fight along with some of the big guns before they need to moe on. You can throw big things at them and have a NPC show up to blast something before moving along, or you can have the PCs show up down the street to aid a low level group.
 

The only problem I see is that Waterdeep has soooo many high level NPCs and protections like giant walking statues. The players may feel like their characters are bit players. You could 'recruit' them to protect a certain area of town or block. This way they can direct the other NPCs and fight along with some of the big guns before they need to moe on. You can throw big things at them and have a NPC show up to blast something before moving along, or you can have the PCs show up down the street to aid a low level group.

That was 3E, not sure about 5E. Waterdeep is fantasy Constantinople and then some.
 

The only problem I see is that Waterdeep has soooo many high level NPCs and protections like giant walking statues. The players may feel like their characters are bit players. You could 'recruit' them to protect a certain area of town or block. This way they can direct the other NPCs and fight along with some of the big guns before they need to moe on. You can throw big things at them and have a NPC show up to blast something before moving along, or you can have the PCs show up down the street to aid a low level group.

This is a good point, Ill need to consider that.

G
 

I did something similar. Still am, actually, I just have let that game go by the wayside in recent months. I should pick it back up…

Anyway, I had a setting where the world of FR became overrun with undead, and Waterdeep was the last city left with living people. Their protections kept the Undead out, but the city was stagnating, running low on supplies, weapons and whatnot, with crime, disease, starvation and overpopulation running rampant. Anything Divine had been lost due to a disease that only attacked people of faith, thus robbing most gods of their power. And over the years, most high level npc’s have died.

So the party was supposed to find a way to leave Waterdeep and go out into the world, and find supplies, or stem the tide of undead, or find new cities, or whatever else they could and make way for the people of waterdeep. I gave them a number of options, places they could go to “Unlock” a new area and, if they succeeded in completing it, to “Unlock” new features for the city.
For example, there are some mines in the north that would have all kinds of weapons, armor and raw materials for the City Guard, because most of their weapons and armor are to the broken after years of fighting. But there’s an Undead baddie guarding it with his minions. There’s a forest filled with game and fertile land which the Undead seem to ignore, but it needs to be cleared out and fenced off. There’s a city to the south, Calimshan, which was completely abandoned and was left alone by the Undead, but no one knows why it was abandoned and, if secured, would be the perfect place to expand and add more room to alleviate the overcrowding in Waterdeep. The seas are overrun with undead pirates, but if that could be fixed, they’d have a good way to travel quickly. And the majority of the Undead seem to be coming from Icewind Dale, so if they could figure out why they are coming from there, the Undead hordes would lessen tremendously.

The point was that with each victory, the world becomes a little safer, but as they choose one area to fix, the other areas escalate. So if they choose food first, starvation will go away, and as a result some disease and crime will go away, but undead will continue to be strong as more weapons break, and travel by sea will still be impeded. If they choose weapons first, starvation, disease and crime will go up a few notches and the chances of a plague will increase, but the guard will be better equipped to repel zombies. If they choose the Sea first, they’ll be able to quickly and safely get to the other objectives, but starvation, disease, crime, and undead attacks will all go up, making a dangerous time in the short term until they can get other objectives done. And of course, opening up a whole new city would solve many of their problems, but add more if they do not have good travel or protections or supplies.

It’s very video gamey. But everyone seemed to be enjoying it.
 


One of my many Campaigns I Will Never Get The Chance To Run But You Should, I was going to take the Death Curse from Tomb of Annihilation and plop it into Waterdeep. That way, instead of a bunch of randos dying, it's essentially all the rich and powerful, both good and evil, who rule Waterdeep. It isn't long before the city descends into anarchy ala The Dark Knight Rises. And, of course, there are zombies. Players have to go into Undermountain (a reskinned Tomb of Annihilation) and stop the evil ritual of Acerarack or maybe Halaster (I could never decide which) to save the city.

Do with that what you will.
 

When I was 15 I had a Dracolich destroy Waterdeep entirely. That was a loooong time ago and I'd never repeat that...

Even if the Major Players in Waterdeep dictate who wins the battle overall, the PCs can play a major part in defending a particular location. I'd focus in on that as the Big Players can't be everywhere all at once (except Manshoon).
 

That was 3E, not sure about 5E. Waterdeep is fantasy Constantinople and then some.

All of that is in 5E and it is detailed in Waterdeep Dragonheist. The walking statues are stated at CR 18 and they are gargantuan constructs. Waterdeep has a dragonward, dragon species literally can't enter the city unless given permission by the wielder of the Dragonstaff of Ahghairon. In addition to the constructs and the multiple arch mages, the leader of the emerald enclave who is a literal demi-god resides in Waterdeep. Oh, and the open lord is a chosen of the goddess of magic, Mystra. She is a CR 17 arch-mage. I don't think an invasion would be possible in canon unless you had vast numbers helmed by entities of the level of an Acererak or Orcus.
 
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