So since it’s been around 9 months since I last did an info post, which was basically just at the start of the story, I figure it’ll be nice to do another one. A lot has happened after all, nearly three years worth of time in story. Taylor has gone from a recent arrival, confused about how gold morning ended and having not a lot of idea of what was going on, to… still not really having answers to those questions.

  What she does have though, is friends and family and henchlizards helping her make a pretty large sum of money for an eight year old. She’s started to learn some of the foundational principles of wizardry, she has a sponsor, and she knows a lot of trivia about the world.

  Anyway this will be a bit rough and disjointed, I have a good bit that I want to cover. Some will be from my author’s notes scrubbed of information I think will be spoilers, others will be written from scratch checking back over the wiki and the story that’s been written so far.

  Dates and Time

  I mentioned before in the previous info post about how there are twelve total months in the year, each with exactly thirty days, with five or six days (because leap years) interspersed between them. I figure I’ll actually list them out properly here so people don’t have to keep looking up what corresponds to what, and also include some of the big dates that have happened like birthdays and such.

  Hammer AKA Deepwinter AKA January

  1st, Wintershield. The first day of the year, in Waterdeep, is typically celebrated with social get togethers where people are either talking about interesting or important events from the last year, or discussing plans and intentions for the new one. Generally recognized day off for the majority of citizens.

  5th, Virla’s Birthday. It’s Tayvra’s Mom’s birthday, simple as that.

  16th, Anniversary of when Taylor initially approached the Lizardfolk the first time.

  Midwinter AKA Deadwinter Day

  Sandwiched between the first and second months of the calendar, this is the first of the “filler” days to bring the total up to 365. It’s a holy day for some religions, though none that are yet relevant. The nobles are the ones to actually use the name “Midwinter” as something of a timekeeping point for paperwork and such. The average person is much more miserable struggling to survive winter, so they use the far less enthusiastic “Deadwinter Day” instead.

  Alturiak AKA The Claws of Winter AKA February

  14th, The Grand Revel. Not!Valentines Day, organized by some of the art/pleasure goddesses’ clergy in the city. The daytime features plenty of dancing and sweets, and once the sun sets it becomes a more intimate romantic affair.

  19th , Tayvra’s Birthday. So this is a bit of a weird thing in-story, because Taylor is basically celebrating three different birthdays now. This is the most relevant one though, being the one of Tayvra’s.

  25 Tulgor’s Birthday. Tayvra’s Dad’s Birthday

  Ches AKA The Claws of Sunset AKA March

  1st, Rhystertide. An important day for the faithful of Lathander, celebrating his first prophet.

  4th, Taylor’s first day of magic school.

  19th, Spring Equinox AKA Fey Day. Far more dangerous for places closer to nature, this is the day of the year when the boundary to the feywild is thinnest. For Waterdeep though, it’s a day of celebration and pranks and revelry.

  21st-30th Fleetswake. A celebration spanning the entire last tenday of Chess, honouring maritime tradition and appeasing Umberlee. Features public boat races, as well as assorted guild galas.

  Tarsakh AKA The Claw of Storms AKA April

  1st-10th, Waukeentide. More a collection of a bunch of smaller holidays, that sort of get combined into one holiday season.

  1st Caravance. Gift giving holiday sort of like Christmas, meant to celebrate the traditional start of caravans actually reaching the city thanks to the weather becoming tolerable. There’s even a not!Santa called Old Carvas.

  5th Goldenight. Big sales night where shops will stay open overnight with big deals and sales.

  7th Guildsmeet. The big annual meeting/party for most guilds in the city, covering new policies and direction.

  10th Leiruin. A day celebrating the goddess of wealth encasing the goddess of trickery and lies in molten gold. That’s the story guilds use to justify the big annual dues collection day.

  20th Taylor’s Arrival Anniversary. This was the day Tayvra shifted over more fully to Taylor, and is sort of Taylor’s third and newest birthday.

  Greengrass

  Sort of the “First day of Spring” calendar wise, it’s sandwiched in between Tarsakh and Mirtul. Naturally, plenty of deities have big events around this time, both good and bad.

  Mirtul AKA The Melting AKA May

  6th-9th The Plowing and Running. Rural areas around the city celebrate this day with shared activities of plowing the fields, and running the herds of animals. The city proper instead celebrates the day with a variety of races, from foot to horse to chariot and more. Ends up as a big competitive sports celebration between the city wards.

  17th Taylor meets Chief Balthsvk, and makes their business agreement to start the workshop

  28th The day Taylor goes on the mock adventure with her brother and friends, ran by Penelope’s Nose

  Kythorn AKA The Time of Flowers AKA June

  1st Trolltide. Basically not!Halloween, commemorating the Second Troll War, kids dress up like trolls and go door to door collecting candy and treats.

  14th Guildhall Day. City wide trades fair, where the guilds of the city put on big advertising displays showing off new products, and also try big hiring drivings to get new members.

  20th Dragondown AKA Summer Solstice. The city celebrates by parading around and then burning giant effigies of various famous dragons that have plagued the city in the past, having some reenactments performed by the winners of the Plowing and Running.

  20th Bhaal’s Return. The actual date of this event canonically isn’t actually clear, it’s during some sort of celebration though, so I decided that something during the summer solstice worked for it.

  27th Neeshka gets adopted. This is the day Jespa picked up a random cat off the street and adopted it. This is a very important day to Jespa, much as Taylor hates it.

  Flamerule AKA Summertide AKA July

  1st Founders’ Day. Celebrating the founding of the city, there are huge illusory displays put on to chronicle big historical events of the city. There’s also big martial exhibitions by the city’s military, as well as costume contests.

  3rd-5th Sornyn. A sort of business festival sponsored between Waukeen and Lathander, this three day period is considered to be a blessed time for business agreements and ventures.

  7th Llira’s Night. Originally starting in Waterdeep, this celebration ended up becoming popularized along the Sword Coast once fireworks started being added. Features a day of revelry involving a lot of pink coloured beverages.

  Midsummer

  Placed in between Flamerule and Eleasis, this was a day of near universal celebration in practically every culture. Interestingly almost always featured good weather supposedly maintained by various gods, so poor weather was considered a very bad omen. In the more liberal cultures and cities, this was also basically a big sex festival because the Forgotten Realms just has those as things.

  Shieldmeet

  A Leap day celebrated every four years, it was considered to be a major day in Elven Calendars. Celebration of it varies quite a bit, some having special religious festivities for it, while others considered it something of a continuation of Midsummer

  Eleasis AKA Highsun AKA August

  1st Ahghairon’s Day. A day celebrating the founder of the city of Waterdeep, featuring a variety of smaller rituals across the city. From people leaving flowers at Ahgharion’s Tower, to the Open Lord going around the city socializing and listening to the public.

  Eleint AKA The Fading AKA September

  21st Brightswords AKA Autumn Equinox. Essentially a big recruitment drive/publicity stunt from the various armed forces of the city, there’s a variety of martial events and parades meant to advertise to people how they should sign up.

  Highharvesttide

  This was yet another major day of feasting, considered to mark when winter would begin to set in and so when the crops would need to be brought in and preserved for the winter. This was also a day where many travellers would set out, as one of the last chances before snowfall might interrupt their journeys.

  Marpenoth AKA Leaffall AKA October

  3rd Day of Wonders. Something of a religious holiday Dedicated to Gond, god of technology, where various craftsman show off new innovations to the public. On the lower end it might be simple improvements to everyday items while the more spectacular would be things like constructs or magical items.

  7th Stoneshar. A day in which it is considered especially sinful to be slothful, and so everyone is busy being busy doing things. Business ventures and new projects are considered especially blessed if they are started on this day.

  10th Reign of Misrule. A day meant to appease the Goddess of bad luck, the Reign of Misrule is all about reversal of positions and pranks. Kids become the teachers in classrooms, nobles serve their servants, etc. It’s actually important that people participate in some capacity, lest they be cursed with bad luck for being a stick in the mud.

  15th Gods’ Day. A neat little anniversary for when the gods returned to their divine realms after having materialized in the mortal world to fight each other over a century ago, where people very openly display what gods they worship and the faiths they favour.

  30th Liar’s Night. Going along with the collection of appeasing the mafia evil gods, this one is for the god/ess of trickery and thievery and the like, where people wear masks and do pranks and tomfoolery.

  Uktar AKA The Rotting AKA November

  Floating, Selune’s Hallowing. Whenever it’s the first full moon of Uktar, it is a holy day for the religion of the goddess of the moon. Selune has some pretty big connections with Waterdeep, and her church will bring out a powerful divine artifact to be paraded around the city during the night time, followed by a blessing for all seafaring navigators.

  20th Last Sheaf. Sort of like a thanksgiving celebration, where people feast and socialize just before winter typically arrives. So named because this is often the last day mail is sent before travel becomes too difficult. I really actually like that inspiration for the name, makes it feel like a more genuine sort of worldbuilding.

  Feast of the Moon

  And right at the tailend of the calendar year, Feast of the Moon lands between the eleventh and twelfth months. A sort of “Final Feast” for the year, marking the onset of winter. The idea of a final feast gets a bit of a double meaning, as people often talk about their ancestors and the recently deceased on this day as a means to honour them.

  Nightal AKA The Drawing Down AKA December

  11 Howldown. A day to honour Malar, a typically evilish god of hunting, the city’s military and guardsman spend this day and the surrounding period going out and hunting down threats to citizens. Bandits, dangerous predators, evil humanoids, that sort of thing.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  20th Simril. The last proper major holiday celebrated in Waterdeep, Simril is all about horoscopes and constellations. Considering how much magic and mysticism exists in the world, and that people just live on the moon, this actually seems like a fairly reasonable holiday.

  That’s the rough calendar for the story, there might have been some days I missed here, I don’t actually always write things down in my notes when I write about them, which is a terrible habit.

  I figure I’ll also share a bunch of info about various characters that have appeared. This won’t be everyone, but will feature characters who have had something of an important role. The order isn’t anything too specific, though I will be grouping some people together into related sections. If you have personal requests for people you want a writeup for that I somehow managed to miss, feel free to comment and I might add an entry here or in the future when I inevitably need to make a new info post.

  Orsik

  Perhaps one of the most mentioned characters in the story, that isn’t just Tayvra’s immediate family. Orsik is a travelling scholar and wizard, often searching out lost dwarven lore and records. He’s a bit of an oddball by dwarf standards, spending more time in human settlements than dwarven ones.

  He’s also been Taylor’s most important source of information about Faerun. Much of the trivia I have her write is likely to stem from discussions with Orsik. If you ever find yourself asking “When did Taylor learn about that?” It's a good chance to be from Orsik.

  Orsik himself is an entirely original character, though he is very much a reference to the canonical dwarven clan of Ironfist.

  Seraphina Cross

  Yet another original wizard character, Seraphina is Taylor’s business partner, mentor, sponsor, and probably a lot of other things. I wouldn’t say they are actually all that close, but Seraphina left her charisma as a dump stat and doesn’t actually have much that counts as “friends” in her personal life. Is it a little sad that the closest thing to a friend for her is a random eight year old girl who’s paying her? Absolutely, but I love girlfailures.

  While her social skills may as well be six feet under, Seraphina is actually a reasonably accomplished wizard in her own right. She’s sort of the “civilized necromancer” archetype of character, someone who is macabre but utilitarian about the forces of life and death, analytical in ways that clerics typically wouldn’t be about the topics. Necromancy is about a lot more than just animating corpses after all, and Seraphina is a proper sage on all sorts of related topics.

  From being a skilled artisan and crafter of magic items, to a skilled surgeon and doctor, as well as a magical plastic surgeon (or at least something roughly equivalent, plastic isn’t used since it basically doesn’t exist). Taylor doesn’t actually have a lot of interest in those topics of course, she has something of an existing predisposition towards distrust of such things thanks to all the horrific biomanipulators we get to see in worm/ward.

  Alexiea Liadon

  Taylor’s first “official” teacher in the art of wizardy, who has yet to actually teach her how to cast magic. Alexiea is an original creation, though most of it actually doesn’t come from me. I poked a few of my beta readers for ideas for a teacher type character, and PartisanPasta did most of that work for me. Readers might be interested in reading his works, which are more wholly Worm focused than mine.

  Born in Icewind Dale, and having ended up in Baldur’s Gate for much of her early life, Alexiea ended up moving north to Waterdeep with her girlfriend with big dreams of becoming a capable wizard. She does well at blending into the uppercrust of society that many wizards also operate in, though her origins are actually far more down to earth. Of course, she’s actually not all that great, basically being a trainee wizard herself who can only cast a handful of spells.

  She’s a little at risk of becoming another Firebolt Fred, which is why she took the job of being an instructor for elementary schoolers. It’s good money, and makes her fellows like her a little more for volunteering to take on such a burden. She still has savings of course, but better to make money along the way and not need to tighten the purse strings if she can help it.

  There’s a lot more to her backstory of course, connections, dangers, and so on that I won’t elaborate further on just because I figure I’ll have them feature at some point or another in the future.

  Persvek Casein

  The local clan of Lizardfolk, whom Taylor has made business arrangements with to run the workshop. The name roughly translates from draconic to “In a forest”, or “From the forest”, owing to the fact that they live in a cave in a forest they took from some kobolds. The clan was originally on the smaller side of medium, not quite fledgeling, but they had taken recent losses and been forced from their original home.

  They ended up taking a big risk resettling in the cave system near Waterdeep, but they’ve been smart about avoiding harassing people going to the city, and have even been helpful on occasion. The “official” position of Waterdeep is to mostly just leave the lizardfolk be so long as people aren’t being harmed. The clan regularly sends their own little trade caravans to the city to sell off excess from their hunting, or random crafts.

  Chief Balthsvk

  As his title suggests, Balthsvk is the current chieftain of Persvek Casein. As large of a loss as the clan being forced out of their old home and renaming was, he actually benefited quite a bit in regards to internal politics after the rest of his possible rivals died/were enslaved. Truly a tragedy.

  Balthsvk stands a little over seven feet tall, with mostly green scales with some nice red ones highlighting many of his facial features as well as his stomach and tail. He’s a bit of a renegade in regards to lizardfolk, which translates to him being pretty willing to “civilize” and not have the clan be directionless bandits like many can be. Territory can be “shared” if properly negotiated and boundaries are set.

  He’s pretty popular within the tribe, their trade with the city has been far more of a boon than most were expecting. Tayvra metaphorically dropping into his lap as a business partner has also been quite helpful for his popularity.

  Shaman Ragoth (Sky)

  Someone who hasn’t really made a proper appearance yet, but has been mentioned a few times. Ragoth is Balthsvk’s right hand lizard when it comes to proper management of the clan as well as most things magical. He’s also the reason the lizardfolk named Taylor “Charm”, since he sort of misidentified what she was doing with the bugs.

  Other than that, he’s important in a sort of background sense. Key to the day to day of the clan, but not regularly in contact with Tayvra like some of the other lizardfolk.

  Durah

  Our first lizardfolk POV, Durah is sort of the muscle/bodyguard type for the original lizardfolk trading squad. Someone who was just a little bit bigger and intimidating to help watch over the others and keep them safe.

  Now with Taylor’s deal with them though, he’s the “head of security” for their operation, not that he’s actually particularly needed as of yet thanks to them flying under the radar. He’s the one keeping an eye out while they travel the streets, and the one who’s hiding weapons that are illegal by Waterdeep bylaws just in case someone tries to steal precious cargo from them.

  He’s also typically the one to carry their deliveries to the shops they supply after things are negotiated, partially due to his discretion and mostly just because he is the best at carrying and lifting heavy things.

  Laraek

  Sort of Durah’s apprentice, he was learning the art of dealing with the smoothskins as a newer member of their trade squad. Since the two of them became mostly permanent members of the workshop, Laraek tends to be the one left behind to make sure nobody breaks in while deliveries are made. He’s the better of the two at activities in the workshop, and so handles a lot of the milking of venoms.

  Slaan

  A fun little Neverwinter Nights 2 reference, Slaan is the newest lizardfolk assigned to the city. He’s pretty weird by lizardfolk child standards, since he actually volunteered for the job. He was sort of fascinated by stories about it that he would hear from the trade group, and so wanted the chance to learn common among other things. The clan doesn’t exactly like the idea of a small child joining the trading squad mostly out of paranoia that something would go wrong, so this was the alternative.

  Under the careful watch of Durah and Laraek, he’s been learning all sorts of things. From culturally important events, to some sparse theology, magical theory, and economic concepts. Tayvra ends up spending a lot of time answering questions from him while she’s actually in the workshop.

  Penelope’s Nose

  A small but reasonably successful adventuring group operating out of Waterdeep, Taylor first came into contact with them during their “child safe” “practice adventure”. The party originally came up with the scheme to drum up some positive reputation in the city, since they had recently cleared the dungeon of some Zhent agents that were operating in it.

  Merric Blackhands

  Merric is the adoptive father of Bree, something that tends to confuse many of the people who are actually aware of their relation. I sort of always found the idea of cross species adoption a funny topic, the idea of one of the “small” races adopting one of the larger ones.

  He’s not quite a local to Waterdeep originally, growing up as a hedge mage out in some small rural town. He ended up adopting an orphaned Bree when she was just a babe, underestimating some of the hardships that would come with having to take care of a child that would be far larger than you were and still have plenty more room to grow.

  As far as actual wizardry goes, he tends towards the more day to day utility magic. Sure there are some wizards who would love to set a room ablaze with a fireball, but simpler magics work plenty well for disabling his foes if needed.

  He’s actually the reason behind the name of Penelope’s nose, after winning the bet when the party formed. So named after his late sister, who initially helped a lot with raising Bree.

  Bree Blackhands

  Bree is the primary frontliner tough person for Penelope’s Nose, as something of a Barbarian. She’s the adoptive daughter of Merric, and they make quite a pair given she’s over six feet tall and well muscled, while her dad is simply half her height and wears flamboyant wizard attire. Still, their relationship is fairly positive.

  Merric was actually semi-retired as an adventurer, having had some calling for it in his youth. Bree’s desire to sort of try and live up to the fantasy led him to coming along as something of a chaperone and to have a fun bonding activity between the two.

  Bree has some minor degree of talent in wizardry, not exactly up to being a proper wizard perhaps, but her father was able to instill enough of the basics she can cast a few spells herself. This makes for something of an interesting skill set for her, since most wouldn’t expect the big muscle fighter with a greataxe to be able to cast illusions and other neat tricks.

  All the more effective when she disguises herself as something of a vulnerable target, only to surprise foes with her true capabilities in combat.

  Ekemon

  Ekemon is sort of the party leader/face, who handles a lot of their job negotiations. He’s the cunning tiefling rogue archetype, though he’s far more of the lawful pacifist leanings within it. He’s a rogue, meaning he’s tricksy and sneaky and clever, but he’s actually law abiding and has a history of actually working with the Waterdeep city guard as an investigator.

  Waterdeep is very much a place of laws, so having someone who can actually act as something of a legal representative and is just shy of being a lawyer is a rare and treasured thing for adventurers who actually deal with the laws around breaking and entering.

  Miri Kulenov

  The party’s healer and secondary frontliner, Miri is a cleric of Silvanus. A bit of an oddity in how she lives in the city, given Silvanus is typically the more wild side of nature deities, though he does have a shrine and followers there.

  She’s a little snippy, and sort of a rival with Bree. She looks more like the average farmgirl, and wouldn’t look out of place in casual wear walking down the street. When she’s actually geared up… she still looks pretty average walking around, but she has a love of beating people to death with a random tree branch, so there’s a degree of very interesting dissonance there.

  Aelar

  And the final member of the party and the resident weirdo, we come to Aelar. He’s a dwarf who’s compacted with something from the upper planes, and it mutated his eyes into basically being black orbs that sparkle a little bit. He sees sort of black and white, but with some weird sort of insightful colouration to do with emotions that people feel. He’s also done something quite heretical as a dwarf and went full bald. No hair at all, either atop his head or from his chin. He has a bunch of tattoos though covering them.

  Truly, one must question if the powers of the heavens was worth it if it cost a dwarf his beard.

  Somewhat like Merric, Aelar tends towards the more subtle powers of being a warlock. Summoning illusions, healing people, using his familiar to scout and draw attention, that sort of thing. He’s the more obviously spiritual of the group as well, partially due to his appearance but also his mannerisms. He likes to do the whole wise “Know this” sort of thing, speaking in metaphors and such.

  The Kids

  Taylor started out the story spending a lot of time with the gang of local kids, mostly pulled together thanks to Pelsot being friends with them. A sort of weird lineage of people constantly pulling their younger siblings in, or people who just live nearby, resulting in a bit of an interesting line of connections where people know someone who knows someone who knows someone. Taylor ended up sort of drifting a little bit away from this as time went on, mostly due to her preferring to spend her time actually being productive rather than playing with a bunch of kids. She still spends time with them of course, she can’t be at school, or studying, or breaking the local poison industry in half all the time.

  Yeena

  Tayvra’s best friend from before Taylor ever showed up, she’s sort of an Emma in miniature at the moment. Small little redhead with some freckles, and is the more sociable of the pair. Of course, while those similarities exist the actual context is quite different. She has a *new* younger sibling, and otherwise has no other siblings at the moment.

  She’s the one who sort of pulls Taylor around, moreso than her siblings even. Taylor has not put in a lot of work to actually maintain what social connections Tayvra once had, but Yeena has done her best to adopt the introvert, as extroverts tend to do. With Tayvra being busy much of the time, Yeena makes the most of when she actually deigns to join the kids in their various activities.

  Jesler

  Pelsot’s rival/best friend type person, Jesler acts as the sort of “leader” for their age bracket in the child group. He’s outgoing and personable, often the one to volunteer ideas for what their group might do. He’s often the one that Pelsot “duels” with their practice swords, either proper bouts or emulating some sort of historic tale they’d heard about.

  Felpirn

  Completing the trio of the boys, Felpirn is the oldest of the three. He’s the sort of quiet reliable type, quick on the draw but happy to follow the lead of the other two. He’s probably actually one of the kids Taylor would get along with just by talking about stuff she’s learned about, but he’s sort of on the periphery of her social circle so there’s just never been that sort of circumstance for them.

  He’s actually sort of aging out of the group as well. The specific ages vary of course, but kids in Waterdeep tend to grow up fast and emulate their parents typically in the 11-12 age range. Dad is a fisherman? Probably takes you out onto the water with him while the crew is sailing. Same sort of thing goes for a lot of professions, though typically the kid is mostly just being an assistant and hopes to learn via osmosis.

  Mary

  Interesting for having a major crush on Pelsot, which is obviously a little weird for Taylor since she doesn’t think that fondly of her older brother. She’s the only Tiefling in their age bracket in the friend group, though there’s probably one or two more that show up.

  She’s sort of the outsider, but she’s nifty and quite dexterous with her hands. Kids are also often fascinated by the beginnings of the magic often inherent to tieflings. Mary has had quite a few discussions though about being careful, it would be quite a lot of trouble for her to start a fire that got out of control and burned down a building.