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Rats of Waterdeep

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Solve a brutal crime on the mean streets of Waterdeep in this madcap companion adventure for Xanathar's Guide to Everything!

This adventure was brought to you by D&D designer Lysa Penrose and Tomb of Annihilation author Will Doyle, as part of the Guild Adepts program. The product also includes new player options and NPC villains for your campaigns.

Inside, you'll find:

  • A thrilling murder mystery balanced for five 1st-level characters, with guidelines for scaling the adventure up to APL 4. The adventure is playable in 3-4 hours.
  • Two new NPC villains: the Rat King and the Lady of Plagues.
  • Three new player options: the Detective background, the Rat King archetype for rangers, and the Circle of Plagues archetype for druids.

This product is now legal for play in the D&D Adventurers League, and has the following adventure code: DDHC-XGE-01.

PLEASE NOTE that the two class archetypes in "Appendix A" are NOT legal for use in Organized Play. You can use the Detective background.

Version 1.4 notes: Fixed cipher wheel errors.

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Reviews (43)
Discussions (29)
Customer avatar
Dorietta M February 07, 2023 6:32 am UTC
PURCHASER
I loved this module as a player.

*******. SPOILER. SPOILER. ********
Our npc sidekicks is absolutely precious. And imagine a harengon getting rat claws and eyes. I kept having decide it is ok just not the ears. Anything but the ears. Thankful for the antidote all of the party got plagued. It was fun. The fighter and the ranger archer had rat paws.
Customer avatar
glenn R December 22, 2021 4:02 pm UTC
PURCHASER
This is my default entry point for Waterdeep adventures. Including Dragon Heist. It has everything you need to hook players into the city itself. Great flavor, built in long term NPC contacts in the City Watch, and a fun adventure with every kind of encounter. It is well written, and easy to run. Depending on your party, they may obsess about things a skosh. The remedy for this, is to infect at least one of them with the rat pox early, to motivate them properly to keep moving. Otherwise, I have had groups spend entire sessions in the apartment, scouring it for clues and meaning, where there is none. Some glitches with the puzzles, but otherwise even those are engaging. Great module!
Customer avatar
Doug A July 20, 2020 7:39 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Figures I see the link for the online cipher wheel after I made one that rotates in roll20!!!! Thank you for the link - will see which I end up using.
Customer avatar
Brian B May 15, 2020 2:17 pm UTC
PURCHASER
For those in lockdown needing a digital solution for a cipher wheel, try sharing this with your players: https://inventwithpython.com/cipherwheel/
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Customer avatar
Bertie B May 27, 2020 2:00 am UTC
PURCHASER
You, sir, are an absolute legend! Thanks a ton.
And thank you to both the authors <3
Customer avatar
Bill R November 08, 2019 1:57 pm UTC
PURCHASER
My players really loved this campaign. And they really enjoyed watchman locks. Just curious, what is his official "class" and gear?
Customer avatar
John M January 11, 2019 3:50 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Had TONS of fun with this module in an AL game (ran by Lysa!).

Our group went nuts over the puzzles and handouts. We loved the mystery and the absurd callout text. There's a really quirky high fantasy adventure feel to this adventure. And it's just great.

Looking forward to running this for my group.
Customer avatar
Luke M November 16, 2018 5:38 am UTC
PURCHASER
I had a great time playing this in a AL group, and I plan to run it for some friends on Roll20, but the Cipher Wheel is giving me pause, in part because I'm not quite sure I grasp how it works myself. I don't want to have Lock (a great character by the way) solve it for them, but I'm not sure how to make the Cipher Wheel functional for Roll20, or how to replace it in a way that is functional on Roll20.
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Customer avatar
Sean R November 20, 2018 9:31 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Sorry that I'm a bit late to the party, but you can replicate the cipher wheel in Roll20. Cut out the middle wheel in photoshop or whatever, and then make a new page in Roll20, with no grid. Insert both the image of the whole wheel and the image of the inner wheel on top of it, and then give all players access to the inner wheel. They'll be able to rotate it perfectly.
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Customer avatar
Peter B December 22, 2018 2:01 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I have struggled with the Cipher Wheel as well. I start with the wheel how the image on Handout 3 shows with the A on the larger wheel matching with the T on the small wheel.

The box on page 10 "Solving the Puzzle" says, "for example, '8% off' means you should click the upper wheel eight letters back." The problem is that when I click the wheel back eight letters the letter "K" on the big wheel matches the letter "L" on the small wheel when what we want is for the letter "K" on the big wheel to match the letter "S" on the small wheel. To get this correct match you should actually click the wheel back eleven letters rather than eight.

So using this method to try and figure out the right number of times to click the big wheel backwards or forwards for each portion of handouts 2 and 3 I came up with the following answer.

On Handout 3
I changed the note that gives the hint "GAIN FOUR" to "GAIN THREE."...See more
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Customer avatar
Lindsay B January 21, 2019 7:31 am UTC
I'm fairly certain that the "neutral" position of the wheel should be A matching with A, and moving the inner wheel to correspond with the gain/lose text should line it up in such a way that the inner wheel will give the deciphered message. Though some of them are slightly off (for example, on the GAIN FOUR advert, PSZA would be "LOVW." The cipher wheel would have to move the other way to get the "E" in LOVE, but there's no reason that should change in the middle, so I think it's just a mistake. I replaced the A with I.")
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Customer avatar
Lindsay B January 21, 2019 7:53 am UTC
I just went through all of them again and found three mistakes.

"GAIN FOUR" advert should read:
M AMWL JSV XLI HEC SYV PSZI (was PSZA) MW (was MO) RSX LMHHIR

"EIGHT percent OFF" advert should read:
SO S JSL (was ZSL) LGVSQ SFV LZGMYZL GX QGM

The other two adverts are correct.
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Customer avatar
Lindsay B January 22, 2019 3:03 am UTC
Actually, also had to change the LOSE NINETEEN advert to LOSE SEVEN. The wheel moves the wrong way. The one in the newspaper is the only one that's totally correct to begin with. Which is a bit of a shame, because I absolutely love this puzzle.
Customer avatar
Ezekiel V October 30, 2018 11:59 pm UTC
PURCHASER
A great mod for introducing new players to Waterdeep! Very story rich and interesting characters, but it could use a few maps or guidance on enemy placement.
Customer avatar
Joshua G October 12, 2018 3:28 am UTC
Love this mod, great story and nice change of pace from straight hack and slash. My only complaint I can even form would be a lack of maps for the encounters.
Customer avatar
Paul B October 08, 2018 5:34 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Halfway through running this (took my players a while to decipher the codes), and we're all enjoying it thus far; though, I am a bit disappointed with the lack of encounter/combat maps. Easy enough to draw a street or a room, granted, so it's a minor gripe, all in all.
Customer avatar
Álvaro V September 04, 2018 11:55 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Is there any Fantasy Grounds version of this one?
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Customer avatar
Will D September 05, 2018 1:02 am UTC
CREATOR
Hey there! No plans at present to support FG.
Customer avatar
Glenn M August 21, 2018 7:36 pm UTC
This is a challenging game for experienced players. Definitely, need a good DM who is prepared to run this. If you want to DM this, put extra effort in prep time! But it's worth it!
Customer avatar
Harvey K August 12, 2018 9:08 am UTC
PURCHASER
Hi, Looking forward to running this. I've got the Forgotten Realms Atlas which has a superb map of Waterdeep, based on the maps in the City of Splendors (3e) box set. I'm having a hard time trying to locate the area of the quarantine zone, and the alleys Dark Lane and Cloak Lane from the adventure. I can't find them in on the canon map. I could substitute some areas with rework (more hours work for a busy DM !), but I wondered if I'm just missing the area on the official maps. Thank you.
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Customer avatar
Will D August 13, 2018 1:24 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Harvey. The map provided in Rats of Waterdeep isn't based on a canonical map source. It's intended to comprise a few blocks of the Dock Ward, so you can slot it in anywhere that looks roughly similar.
Customer avatar
Daniel P August 03, 2018 12:26 am UTC
PURCHASER
As I've already said this IS a GREAT adventure! But I do have a recommendation to DMs running it.. Print out multiple copies of all the handouts/puzzles etc. I'd say enough for 2 people to share a copy, this will speed it up and help prevent folks being left out. For the cipher wheel you can give each couple of players one advert and a clue each, so one person reads out the letters while the other notes them down, giving everyone something to do
Customer avatar
Daniel P August 03, 2018 12:10 am UTC
PURCHASER
I really like this adventure, great stuff. But... the cipher wheel is still all over the place. The problem is it seems to require the letters on the adverts to be the outer wheel letters, and the coded message corresponds to the inner letters. However on the EIGHT OFF advert one letter follows the reverse (ZSL should be JSL), then on the GAIN FOUR advert it happens twice more (PSZA should be PSZI and MO should be MW). Finally the last advert is completely the opposite requiring players to use the inner wheel for the advert and the outer wheel for the code.... I couldn't spend ages sorting out the right letters for this one so I just told my players to use the opposite method.

Other than this it's a great adventure but I would definitely recommend the DM completes all the puzzles ahead of time to be sure they know the solutions match up.
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Customer avatar
Daniel P August 03, 2018 12:15 am UTC
PURCHASER
Also one more thing if you see this Will, I don't understand why the letter asking Lady to 'abandon hope for your lover' is signed 'RK'. Even if someone had sent this to M'lady pretending to be the Rat King... it wouldn't make sense as RK (Rat King) is the lover being spoken of. I trimmed the initials off the handout to avoid confusion but if there is a reason for it let me know. Thanks!
Reply
Customer avatar
Will D August 03, 2018 12:26 am UTC
CREATOR
Many thanks for the valuable feedback, Daniel. I'm surprised to see the wheel is still screwed - I must have submitted the wrong version! Good point about the initials too. I'll fix both in the next update.
Reply
Customer avatar
Daniel P August 03, 2018 12:35 am UTC
PURCHASER
No problem Will. Sorry but one more thing I just remembered. The handout in the complete document for the 'straight talk' newspaper article has the Apothecary advert circled (presumably by Brisby) - which is a great push toward that location... however the individual handout version doesn't have this circled and so it made my first read through a bit confusing (I didn't really see why the party would go there). The circle definitely helps so you could include that on both versions. Hope this helps and thanks again for a great adventure. Maybe it's just me but I certainly saw some similarities between the Xanathar's dialogue and a certain public figure, which definitely inspired his voice and mannerisms at my table lol.
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Customer avatar
Will D August 03, 2018 12:40 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks, I'll update that too. As for those similarities: no comment ;)
Reply
Customer avatar
Guy D August 14, 2018 12:50 am UTC
PURCHASER
There is nothing wrong with an error in the coded message. Who is to say the character who coded it didn't make a mistake? Everyone accepted that explanation when I ran it.
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Customer avatar
jimmy H August 27, 2018 7:14 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I jumped right on the Xanathar part. In the meeting, he summons tiny mage hands while he talks. The Xanathar also wants to lock up that crooked Laeral Silverhand.
Customer avatar
Jeffrey M August 02, 2018 8:37 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Fyi, handout 6: security box papers is typo'd handout 5 on its' page.
Reply
Customer avatar
Will D August 03, 2018 12:24 am UTC
CREATOR
Thanks - I'll fix this in the next update!
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File Last Updated:
February 29, 2020
This title was added to our catalog on April 22, 2018.