Dragon Heist post-mortem.

[thorr-kan]

The Friday Night Gaming Group ran through Dragon Heist as our first quarantine campaign. It involved a rookie DM and 5 players who had not played 5E before. Though some of us were familiar with it from owning 5E materials. The quality of the 5E materials are what convinced M. to DM for the first time. The group usually plays 2E, CoC-based (though often non-Mythos), and a lot of one-off material.

We ended up with the orphan party of forest gnome paladin, dragonborn paladin, and the tiefling firm of paladin, warlock, and rogue (3 different characters). We had a lot of fun with both the set pieces and the sandbox pieces of the adventure. Roleplaying interactions and investigations with the various factions were fun. Combats and new abilities were entertaining. I gotta say, though it pains me, milestone levelups may have a place.

I think we would have enjoyed it more in person. Zoom just doesn't do it for us, and nobody's interested in the online-tools for a more immersive experience. I think we might have gotten more out of the adventure if the group was more familiar with Waterdeep and the FR. Neither us nor the DM are real familiar with the source material. But we were able to overcome that.

I'd recommend this as a good intro adventure. I think the DM may be interested in running Mad Mage at some point. We'd sure be interested in revisiting these characters!

[Evaar]

Just so you have the right expectations, Mad Mage is a near total 180 from Dragon Heist and none of the narrative from Dragon Heist flows through to Mad Mage. Basically the only links are 1) The Yawning Portal and 2) You end Dragon Heist at the right level to start Mad Mage.

Mad Mage, however, is pure dungeon crawl with puzzle solving but no mystery solving. It focuses a lot more on combat. It doesn't reward most background choices. It doesn't really have a main story arc, instead it plays like a series of vignettes.

None of that is necessarily bad, but it's just extremely different from Dragon Heist.

[Dork_Forge]

So you didn't find the end... disappointing?

The whole point is to recover this fortune and the module goes out of its way to ensure that you can't keep it, not only that but you can actually earn an enemy if you don't share what loot you do get. It just seems like they exploited a low level heist and realised at the end, oh no we can't actually give a party half a million GP...

[ProsecutorGodot]

So you didn't find the end... disappointing?

The whole point is to recover this fortune and the module goes out of its way to ensure that you can't keep it, not only that but you can actually earn an enemy if you don't share what loot you do get. It just seems like they exploited a low level heist and realised at the end, oh no we can't actually give a party half a million GP...

I thought it became obvious pretty early on that keeping it was never an option, at least if those characters had any plan to continue being adventurers or stay in Waterdeep.

You can't easily find the Horde without the help of a faction, you've got no way to transport that much gold and if you do have a way to move it, the process of doing so and spending any hefty amount of it would attract exactly the kind of attention that would cause people in the know to reach the conclusion "oh someone actually found it"

From my point of view, it would be pretty naive to think there was any realistic opportunity for all that gold to be just your parties afterwards. We were more than happy to take 1/10th of it with little to no strings attached.

[Dork_Forge]

I thought it became obvious pretty early on that keeping it was never an option, at least if those characters had any plan to continue being adventurers or stay in Waterdeep.

You can't easily find the Horde without the help of a faction, you've got no way to transport that much gold and if you do have a way to move it, the process of doing so and spending any hefty amount of it would attract exactly the kind of attention that would cause people in the know to reach the conclusion "oh someone actually found it"

From my point of view, it would be pretty naive to think there was any realistic opportunity for all that gold to be just your parties afterwards. We were more than happy to take 1/10th of it with little to no strings attached.

Doing all of the work to recover the money only to be allowed to retain 1/10th of it at best is a slap in the face. If the writers weren't prepared to handle players with that level of coin then they should have been actively recruited with a predetermined cut early on. As it stands the players act as independent heisters, presumably the image the module is trying to conjure up and then are told at the end no you can't keep what you earned. If you try? Well you'll be arrested and imprisoned as well as fined for your troubles. Oh but if your players are crafty and get away with it? Well they'll be hunted by 3 of the most powerful factions in the region 'tirelessly.'

Okay, so you've resigned yourself to taking the reward they offer you, and suddenly you're swamped with beggars from all walks of life guilt tripping the players this way and that way. One of the options is literally to make an enemy of a masked lord.

The module makes it very abundant that the players should be adventuring for the prospect of riches and that the reality is that they can neither keep the sum, and even if they settle for less they will be beseeched by leeches.

Note that not one of those options is the leader of a mercenary company looking to offer the players muscle to keep them safe. If they wanted to drain them of money all they need do is just present a bunch of expensive house and business options to give the players something to do with it. Heck they could use it as capital for a grander adventure in pursuit of larger riches, artifacts or to protect the world.

As it stands the entire mordule just feels like a gotcha.

[EggKookoo]

As it stands the entire mordule just feels like a gotcha.

That's why I homebrewed in a macguffin buried somewhere in the gold. The hoard was always a red herring. That item somewhere down in there is the real treasure (well, in addition to the friends you make along the way).

[Dork_Forge]

That's why I homebrewed in a macguffin buried somewhere in the gold. The hoard was always a red herring. That item somewhere down in there is the real treasure (well, in addition to the friends you make along the way).

This would feel more satisfying for sure.

I'm now rereading the beginning of Mad Mage and my hunch appears to be correct, Dragon Heist feeds directly into it yet there is no opportunity to actually spend gold in any significant way at the start of the adventure or between it unless you insert a magic item store.

There should have been a detailed section on hireling to take down there at the very least.

[TyGuy]

Doing all of the work to recover the money only to be allowed to retain 1/10th of it at best is a slap in the face. If the writers weren't prepared to handle players with that level of coin then they should have been actively recruited with a predetermined cut early on. As it stands the players act as independent heisters, presumably the image the module is trying to conjure up and then are told at the end no you can't keep what you earned. If you try? Well you'll be arrested and imprisoned as well as fined for your troubles. Oh but if your players are crafty and get away with it? Well they'll be hunted by 3 of the most powerful factions in the region 'tirelessly.'

Okay, so you've resigned yourself to taking the reward they offer you, and suddenly you're swamped with beggars from all walks of life guilt tripping the players this way and that way. One of the options is literally to make an enemy of a masked lord.

The module makes it very abundant that the players should be adventuring for the prospect of riches and that the reality is that they can neither keep the sum, and even if they settle for less they will be beseeched by leeches.

Note that not one of those options is the leader of a mercenary company looking to offer the players muscle to keep them safe. If they wanted to drain them of money all they need do is just present a bunch of expensive house and business options to give the players something to do with it. Heck they could use it as capital for a grander adventure in pursuit of larger riches, artifacts or to protect the world.

As it stands the entire mordule just feels like a gotcha.

Yes and yes

[ProsecutorGodot]

Note that not one of those options is the leader of a mercenary company looking to offer the players muscle to keep them safe. If they wanted to drain them of money all they need do is just present a bunch of expensive house and business options to give the players something to do with it. Heck they could use it as capital for a grander adventure in pursuit of larger riches, artifacts or to protect the world.


Look for that option and you'll have it, we signed up with the Gray Hand and Lord's Alliance and used the 1/10th we were given to turn our Tavern into an Adventurer company. We hired capable help to watch the tavern while we continued our adventure down into undermountain, found larger riches, stronger artifacts and are currently working on protecting the City of Waterdeep from threats like incurring Mind Flayers and Halastars plan to expand Undermountain (this part is some homebrew).

So we did exactly what you're suggesting. In fact, with our expanded wealth (which wouldn't be off the backs of profiteering) we can afford to expand our single business further into Waterdeep, we could retire into Nobility, this sum of cash would be more than enough to bring my characters family from the brink of falling out of it. The adventure provides you a massive city with endless opportunity. It's not the books job to throw ways to spend that money in front of you, tell your DM what plans you have for it.

This is a life changing amount of stolen money. The adventure assumes you are heroic characters who thwarted the seasonal villain with the cities best interest in mind. You don't have to though. You could be just as villainous as the competition and try to run off with the money anyway, that would be a separate adventure on its own.

Having these connections going into Dungeon of the Mad Mage has been invaluable, particularly the part where returning these funds to the city has given us some amount of sway with the Open Lord of Waterdeep and a personal connection with a Masked Lord. Put into perspective, we "spent" 450k to cement ourselves as heroes with connections to some of the most powerful figures in this city. Powerful figures that would have been our enemies (along with all of the other enemies we made) if we had chosen to try and make off with the money instead.

[thorr-kan]

We knew the money had been stolen from the city. We all joined law and order factions. Three paladins, remember? Of the old-school kind.
We got the deed to the inn, decided to go into business, and were contracted to find and recover the horde. 10% finders fee seem pretty good.

[Segev]

Just so you have the right expectations, Mad Mage is a near total 180 from Dragon Heist and none of the narrative from Dragon Heist flows through to Mad Mage. Basically the only links are 1) The Yawning Portal and 2) You end Dragon Heist at the right level to start Mad Mage.

Mad Mage, however, is pure dungeon crawl with puzzle solving but no mystery solving. It focuses a lot more on combat. It doesn't reward most background choices. It doesn't really have a main story arc, instead it plays like a series of vignettes.

None of that is necessarily bad, but it's just extremely different from Dragon Heist.

Because of this, if your group does try it out, I strongly recommend something like roll20 to work through. Go ahead and use Zoom for the voice chat, but I think you'll find it a way better experience, online, to use a shared map app, and roll20 sells entire modules. You can literally buy Dungeon of the Mad Mage on it and have all the maps and stuff set up. I know the Tomb of Annihilation package has maps with tokens on them that let you quick-alter the map as needed in places where the dungeon features...movable parts, shall we say.

[Dork_Forge]

Look for that option and you'll have it, we signed up with the Gray Hand and Lord's Alliance and used the 1/10th we were given to turn our Tavern into an Adventurer company. We hired capable help to watch the tavern while we continued our adventure down into undermountain, found larger riches, stronger artifacts and are currently working on protecting the City of Waterdeep from threats like incurring Mind Flayers and Halastars plan to expand Undermountain (this part is some homebrew).

So we did exactly what you're suggesting. In fact, with our expanded wealth (which wouldn't be off the backs of profiteering) we can afford to expand our single business further into Waterdeep, we could retire into Nobility, this sum of cash would be more than enough to bring my characters family from the brink of falling out of it. The adventure provides you a massive city with endless opportunity. It's not the books job to throw ways to spend that money in front of you, tell your DM what plans you have for it.

This is a life changing amount of stolen money. The adventure assumes you are heroic characters who thwarted the seasonal villain with the cities best interest in mind. You don't have to though. You could be just as villainous as the competition and try to run off with the money anyway, that would be a separate adventure on its own.

Having these connections going into Dungeon of the Mad Mage has been invaluable, particularly the part where returning these funds to the city has given us some amount of sway with the Open Lord of Waterdeep and a personal connection with a Masked Lord. Put into perspective, we "spent" 450k to cement ourselves as heroes with connections to some of the most powerful figures in this city. Powerful figures that would have been our enemies (along with all of the other enemies we made) if we had chosen to try and make off with the money instead.


That is not a strong point of the module, that is a testament to your DM accommodating his party's ambitions, there is no good reason that there couldn't have been outlined ways to invest. You have 50k and your only RAW option is to continue living in the Tavern you had to renovate yourself, no option to move on to higher living? The only way to make connections is to turn the moeny you earned over? I'd have thought that plenty of people would be interested in a party of wealthy and capable adventurers as allies.

The line between adventuring and profiteerinf seems to be a matter of perspective, isn't the iconic thing to pilfer the contents of tombs?

Again, all this needed was for the adventurer's to actually be contracted with the actual reward stated, instead of a bait and switch or guaranteed life of a pariah. Sure in theory the party could get away, but the module gives you nothing in that eventuality, no potential allies or safe harbours. The outcome of the module is very clear in the writing and anything to the contrary is on the DM, which isn't why we buy modules.




We knew the money had been stolen from the city. We all joined law and order factions. Three paladins, remember? Of the old-school kind.
We got the deed to the inn, decided to go into business, and were contracted to find and recover the horde. 10% finders fee seem pretty good.

Being contracted by the authorities is quite different from independently heisting, in that case 10% finders fee is a very ample reward.

[Segev]

Again, all this needed was for the adventurer's to actually be contracted with the actual reward stated, instead of a bait and switch or guaranteed life of a pariah. Sure in theory the party could get away, but the module gives you nothing in that eventuality, no potential allies or safe harbours. The outcome of the module is very clear in the writing and anything to the contrary is on the DM, which isn't why we buy modules.


Being contracted by the authorities is quite different from independently heisting, in that case 10% finders fee is a very ample reward.

Yeah, it sounds like a lot of the complaint about this module could have been ameliorated by changing the hook to one or more of the factions hiring the PCs to recover the stolen wealth, and offering them the 10% finder's fee up front. Then, it's not a bait-and-switch, and the PCs can negotiate on the amount in good faith up front, or negotiate for more backing since they're not getting as much out of the risks they're taking.

I also love the idea of a modification to the module, or perhaps a supplement, that provides minigames and adventure hooks for them to actually spend the 500,000 gp hoard if they do keep it. Provide hooks for protecting it while it's hauled out, for storing it, for ways to spend it. Inundate them not with beggars who will punish them with enemies for not "sharing," but with opportunists, business men, con artists, and lawyers both honest and crooked who want to get their hands on the money. Some will be genuinely out to help and make an honest profit off their contribution to the party's new way of life; others will be sleazy scum who just want to bilk them for all they can. Might be some with a combination of both: not really planning to cheat the party too much, and on the skeevier side of things, but still out to make the party ultimately richer and happier so they can ride this gravy train for longer.

[Keravath]

Just some comments ..


To the folks complaining about the 10% reward for finding the horde ...

I don't get it. The horde is 500k gp. This is a HUGE sum of money even for the lords of waterdeep. The coin was stolen from the city treasury. Various factions know the money is hidden somewhere and have people looking for it ... if the characters don't find it then someone else will.

At the end of the module the characters are 5th level. They are weak and low level. They are surrounded by city factions composed of much more powerful characters. Once the gold has been found, some simple divination spells will likely reveal either where the money is or who has access to it. The characters are utterly incapable of defending themselves or protecting the treasure.

Basically, in no reasonable world I can imagine does it make sense for the players to find and somehow remove the vast quantity of gold and have any reasonable expectation of being able to spend it without it being discovered and confiscated - this has nothing to do with how the module is written but just the simple logic of finding a vast sum of wealth that you have no way to effectively protect. This is D&D - there are many magical ways to track this which the low level characters have no way to mitigate.

The 10% deal is generous and even then it might make them a target for some of the weaker factions though at least by giving up the bulk of it to the more powerful factions they likely make some friends that might mitigate against others trying to come along and just take away the 50k the characters have left.

So ... no, I don't find the limitations on character rewards in Dragon Heist to be unreasonable at all.

[Joe the Rat]

I think the key for setting expectations - and this is one thing that they could have done a better job of emphasizing in the narration - is that keeping the lot is an unlikely proposition. The origins of the hoard (stolen from the city) and the physical practicalities (10,000lb of gold - which there are ways to manage with some extensive finagling) should be noted more - I ended up 'reminding' the party of the mass every time they started to discuss how to move it once they get it.

But the other thing I did - and this is where faction jobs can be handy - is try to emphasize "multiple parties are hunting for this." The whole The Xanathar vs. Zhent (vs. Zhent) piece is baked in, but dropping hints of Drow and Noble interests in the party's runaround (ideally before Fireball, since that reads better if you have a plan for the villain) PLUS the city itself does kind of make it clear this is not going to be easy to go it alone - encouraging the party to pick an "ally" makes the Final Cut less a gotcha and more an expected outcome (though I do think some negotiation on the percentage could have been added).

They could have also had a less benevolent, not-entirely-aware-of-what-is-guarded final guardian. But that may just be because Kelly's Heroes is my favorite heist movie.
"Do you have any idea what is in that vault you're guarding?"

[ProsecutorGodot]

That is not a strong point of the module, that is a testament to your DM accommodating his party's ambitions, there is no good reason that there couldn't have been outlined ways to invest. You have 50k and your only RAW option is to continue living in the Tavern you had to renovate yourself, no option to move on to higher living? The only way to make connections is to turn the moeny you earned over? I'd have thought that plenty of people would be interested in a party of wealthy and capable adventurers as allies.

The line between adventuring and profiteerinf seems to be a matter of perspective, isn't the iconic thing to pilfer the contents of tombs?

Again, all this needed was for the adventurer's to actually be contracted with the actual reward stated, instead of a bait and switch or guaranteed life of a pariah. Sure in theory the party could get away, but the module gives you nothing in that eventuality, no potential allies or safe harbours. The outcome of the module is very clear in the writing and anything to the contrary is on the DM, which isn't why we buy modules.





Being contracted by the authorities is quite different from independently heisting, in that case 10% finders fee is a very ample reward.

You're never really given an opportunity to "solo heist" as you put it, you don't even learn that this heist is happening until it appears at your doorstep already in progress and you never have much opportunity to progress it without interacting with people who would be in contact with a number of the factions. It's clear from the very start that if you don't pick a side you'll only make enemies of them. That's probably why they have you introduced to factions before the heist even starts, you are expected to have a good ongoing relationship with them and the obstacles you encounter during the heist push you towards using that relationship.

Again, from my perspective, you'd have to be pretty foolishly naive in character to think you'd had much of a chance of claiming the entire thing for yourself unscathed. You're competing with some of the biggest names in the city, some of which are big names for the entire realm. From a player perspective, the adventure was finding it, I'd not once assumed (I never felt I was given a reason to assume either) that I could keep the entire thing. The Horde is introduced as embezzled stolen money hidden by a not so good person that a lot of not so good people are actively looking to use for not so good things.

As far as "adventuring v profiteering" the perspective is pretty clear when you can trace your loot back to still living people or long lost ancient and/or dead people.

All that said, that's simply my perspective from being a player. I don't like playing greedy characters, so the thought never crossed my mind of trying to take it all.

[Segev]

If it's going to be found anyway, doesn't that almost make the adventure superfluous? This doesn't reduce players to observers of a plot that unfolds the same way with or without them, does it? That's one of my pet peeves.

[saucerhead]

Our group really enjoyed Dragonheist. I think the DM had to rework some of the bits, but as a player we had fun.
The Dungeon of the Mad Mage, however, immediately has lots of death and no reward. We found it a grind and ditched it. The DM occasionally tries to lure us back with: the information you seek is in the Mad Mages lair. Hard pass.

[Segev]

Our group really enjoyed Dragonheist. I think the DM had to rework some of the bits, but as a player we had fun.
The Dungeon of the Mad Mage, however, immediately has lots of death and no reward. We found it a grind and ditched it. The DM occasionally tries to lure us back with: the information you seek is in the Mad Mages lair. Hard pass.

If I wanted to link the two adventures, maybe one way I might try it is to have the Hoard have been stolen by beings that took it down into Undermountain.

[Evaar]

If it's going to be found anyway, doesn't that almost make the adventure superfluous? This doesn't reduce players to observers of a plot that unfolds the same way with or without them, does it? That's one of my pet peeves.

The question is who finds it and what they do with it. It's going to be found, but if the villain finds it then the result is much worse than if the players find it first. At least, for most of the villains - not sure if Jarlaxle's plans are really all that sinister, I haven't read his chapter.

[Dork_Forge]

Just some comments ..


To the folks complaining about the 10% reward for finding the horde ...

I don't get it. The horde is 500k gp. This is a HUGE sum of money even for the lords of waterdeep. The coin was stolen from the city treasury. Various factions know the money is hidden somewhere and have people looking for it ... if the characters don't find it then someone else will.

At the end of the module the characters are 5th level. They are weak and low level. They are surrounded by city factions composed of much more powerful characters. Once the gold has been found, some simple divination spells will likely reveal either where the money is or who has access to it. The characters are utterly incapable of defending themselves or protecting the treasure.

Basically, in no reasonable world I can imagine does it make sense for the players to find and somehow remove the vast quantity of gold and have any reasonable expectation of being able to spend it without it being discovered and confiscated - this has nothing to do with how the module is written but just the simple logic of finding a vast sum of wealth that you have no way to effectively protect. This is D&D - there are many magical ways to track this which the low level characters have no way to mitigate.

The 10% deal is generous and even then it might make them a target for some of the weaker factions though at least by giving up the bulk of it to the more powerful factions they likely make some friends that might mitigate against others trying to come along and just take away the 50k the characters have left.

So ... no, I don't find the limitations on character rewards in Dragon Heist to be unreasonable at all.



Again, the issue isn't the reward amount itself, it's that it isn't clear what your reward will be on the onset. Did the money originally come form the city? Yes and they lost it years ago and have been flourishing without it, the fact remains that without the adventurers there's a high chance that the money would have fallen into nefarious hands and done the city a great deal more damage than if some adventurer's suddenly found themselves wealthy occupants of said city.

Make it clear to the players that they will get an amount within a certain range and then actually present them with options to spend money on.


You're never really given an opportunity to "solo heist" as you put it, you don't even learn that this heist is happening until it appears at your doorstep already in progress and you never have much opportunity to progress it without interacting with people who would be in contact with a number of the factions. It's clear from the very start that if you don't pick a side you'll only make enemies of them. That's probably why they have you introduced to factions before the heist even starts, you are expected to have a good ongoing relationship with them and the obstacles you encounter during the heist push you towards using that relationship.

Again, from my perspective, you'd have to be pretty foolishly naive in character to think you'd had much of a chance of claiming the entire thing for yourself unscathed. You're competing with some of the biggest names in the city, some of which are big names for the entire realm. From a player perspective, the adventure was finding it, I'd not once assumed (I never felt I was given a reason to assume either) that I could keep the entire thing. The Horde is introduced as embezzled stolen money hidden by a not so good person that a lot of not so good people are actively looking to use for not so good things.

As far as "adventuring v profiteering" the perspective is pretty clear when you can trace your loot back to still living people or long lost ancient and/or dead people.

All that said, that's simply my perspective from being a player. I don't like playing greedy characters, so the thought never crossed my mind of trying to take it all.

And is there a good reason why the party can't align themselves with an alliance where they are getting the lion's share not just a cut?

The entire thing unscathed probably not no, but the lion's share? Anything over 10%? The chance of death is ever present in D&D so the unscathed thing shouldn't be a concern anyway.

Embezzled money, bad people, yes. The fact is the party have done the city a service by just depriving said bad people of that gold and any coin that is returned should be thanked, not threatened from the hands of the people that risked their lives to reclaim it. The city clearly didn't suffer through loss of the coin, the people that run the city are hardly upstanding themselves (one of the masked lords will literally make an enemy of you over a 10k loan after all... how does that even make sense?).

All of this could have been avoided if the module had been better written to actually meet the conclusion they railroad you into harder than any video game ending. Hire them with a clear reward, make it clear the city is struggling financially, make the treasure some kind of Waterdeep specific artifact (there's only what, several listed in the module afterall...), heck even make it clear that it's a significant amount of money within context (we have absoutely no idea the wealth of a city or Lord, I mean just look at the monetary aspect of the random treasure hordes in the DMG, a single CR17+ treasure horde dwarfs the player's reward for this module and the open lord of Waterdeep is an Archmage level former adventurer. We have no reason to suspect that her personal wealth is not in the region of (if not exceeding) that of the embezzeled money. A simple sidebar to establish how much that money means to a city and nobility would have gone a long way.

Then there's the fact that it feeds into Mad Mage directly, yet there's no considerations whatsoeever for the party having a glut of money. No list of interesting NPCs of notable power to hire, no magical items of note to purchase from a dealer at the Yawning Portal prior to descending. They avoid giving the big reward and then give you no tools whatsoever to deal with the reward that is given.

[Segev]

Then there's the fact that it feeds into Mad Mage directly, yet there's no ... list of interesting NPCs of notable power to hire, no magical items of note to purchase from a dealer at the Yawning Portal prior to descending. They ... give you no tools whatsoever to deal with the reward that is given.

Edited for clarity and to remove the bits that need the spoiler tags.

I haven't read the beginning of it in a while, but Dungeon of the Mad Mage, to my recollection, has a few salesmen in it. There are merchants who are even there to hire the party to acquire loot. Maybe they have some loot that's not so rare from where they hale they're willing to part with.

Waterdeep is also a very large city for D&D, and you could use the downtime rules in Xanathar's Guide to go buying magic items. Or running businesses.

I do agree, though: a chapter on options for integrating into society with a lot of wealth would have been pretty awesome.

[ProsecutorGodot]

Edited for clarity and to remove the bits that need the spoiler tags.

I haven't read the beginning of it in a while, but Dungeon of the Mad Mage, to my recollection, has a few salesmen in it. There are merchants who are even there to hire the party to acquire loot. Maybe they have some loot that's not so rare from where they hale they're willing to part with.

Waterdeep is also a very large city for D&D, and you could use the downtime rules in Xanathar's Guide to go buying magic items. Or running businesses.

I do agree, though: a chapter on options for integrating into society with a lot of wealth would have been pretty awesome.

Integrating into society with a lot of wealth doesn't usually have rules because it usually involves retiring the characters. Or you just start paying the Wealthy Lifestyle tax and roleplaying the copious amount of fine wine and dining you have with your new neighbors in the Sea Ward. Maybe after a few years of this raucus behavior you finally decide to take up adventuring again because your coffers are running low.

There are a lot, you remember correctly. In the Yawning Portal you meet a priest of Waukeen from Chult who brought a frankly HUGE amount of money (7500 Platinum) to buy any quality of magic item so long as it was found in Undermountain. Funnily enough, it makes sure to note that her funds are carefully secured in the bank and that when she leaves she recognizes the wealth she carries and only leaves with bodyguards... It even covers the transportation aspect of dealing with such large quantities of money, saying she pays in Platinum to alleviate the burden of transporting such a large amount of gold.

You also, presumably, live near an entire array of specialty shops in Trollskull Alley, a book seller who can provide some magic spells, a potion maker, a carpenter and a blacksmith. Even if your DM never bothers to populate the rest of the city with business, you have a ton right next door.