Hear ye, hear ye! Tales From the Tables is back with episode 52: Lady Mage of Waterdeep, part 2.
Apologies, not very meme-y this time, still submitting for the sake of completion and popular demand :)
Our intrepid adventurers befriend Laeral Silverhand, and get to know the fames Lady Mage of Waterdeep from a different, personal side. It’s very much a Laeral special, lovingly consulted with the man, the legend, Ed Greenwood. It saddens me that so many D&D players only know Laeral superficially, if at all.
“Ruler of Waterdeep” “Oh, she’s a powerful wizard and very old, isn’t she?” And that’s about the extend of most players’ knowledge… She’s a truly fascinating character who’s walked Faerun for over 7 centuries, with beautiful, oft heart-wrenching stories to tell. I do hope my little hints at but a handful of events from her past will encourage a few people to at least read up about her on the Forgotten Realms Wiki, or better yet, reach for the many amazing books by Ed Greenwood or Steven E. Schend.
Your Laeral is very similar to the way I run Laeral in my games, which is lovely. I think she’s a good character, the tragic “I live forever” schtick works well on a genuinely good, intellegent, competent leader type.
I do always feel that she makes friends with the PCs too easily in most of my games. (I have a similar problem running Vajra… which at least evens itself out a bit whenever the PCs suggest having the two of them meet up…) - but also, if you do (good-aligned) adventures out of Waterdeep for long enough, you should probably end up friends with both of them.