D&D General A Question about Waterdeep - Where does the Drinking Water come from?

"Fresh, clean water (for drinking and cooking) in Waterdeep comes from deep wells under Castle Waterdeep and under Farwatch Tower, and from shallow wells around the city. These wells are attended at all times by members of the Watch. To deliberately poison or attempt to block access to or fill in one of these wells is an offense punishable by immediate death (i.e. as soon as the offender is within blade's reach). "Spillwater," the not-quite-so-clean water used for bathing and washing of animals, buildings, and equipment, and for the watering of plants, comes from cisterns on the roofs and the cellars of most buildings in Waterdeep; cellar cisterns are fed by sloping catchbasins on roofs, and have gratings to filter out solid debris that finds its way onto the roof out of the collected water as it flows down wall pipes into the cellar; smaller roof-cisterns are merely open-topped basins, and are cleaned often by users below to avoid contact with dead pigeons and the like. Used spillwater is referred to as "nightwater," and is used to sluice chamber pots into the sewers."

-page 11 of the "Campaign Guide to the City" booklet from the AD&D 2nd Edition City of Splendors (affiliate link) boxed set.

Hussar said:

Seems a bit of an oversight really. After all, Baldur's Gate has a honking big river, and so does Neverwinter. But, Waterdeep is nowhere near an actual fresh water source.

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I'm not here to threadcrap, because I do think this is an interesting question. But it's one of those world building things that most players don't really care about because it has nothing to do with adventuring. Where do they get their water? Where do they get all their food? How does the economy work? Unless it plays an important role in a particuilar adventure, it's just one of those little details that's not very important. But you're absolutely right, the availability of water really goes a long way to determining the size of your size.

from the mad mage

1. River of the Depths level 4​

Large blind fish swim up and down this dark, sluggish river that flows from level 4 and meanders down to the Underdark, plunging over waterfalls every mile or so.

The river’s depth varies from a few feet to as much as 30 feet in spots. Characters who trawl the depths for treasure might find the odd bauble here and there, or possibly something more dangerous like a sleeping hydra.

At various points along the river are crude wooden signs, each one carved with the word “Underdark” in Goblin and an arrow pointing downriver.

From mad mage level 3

1. River of the Depths​

Large blind fish swim up and down this dark, sluggish river that flows from level 4 and meanders down to the Underdark, plunging over waterfalls every mile or so.

The river’s depth varies from a few feet to as much as 30 feet in spots. Characters who trawl the depths for treasure might find the odd bauble here and there, or possibly something more dangerous like a sleeping hydra.

At various points along the river are crude wooden signs, each one carved with the word “Underdark” in Goblin and an arrow pointing downriver.

population is 132K so read this I did years ago


Decanter of endless water.

Ok let see the time to fill various things with the decanter.

For an oval swimming pool the calculation is Len * width * avg depth * 5.9 to find the number gallons an oval pool holds. For a rectangle swimming pool the calculation is Len * width * avg depth * 7.5 to find the number of gallons a rectangle pool holds. I got the calculation from a swimming pool site.

A 16 by 32 foot pool with an 8.5 deep end and 3 shallow end, holds about 22,080 gals so my parents’ pool holds a lot. The decanter has the rate of 30 gallons per round = 300 a minute = 18,000 an hour = 432,000 gallons a day, and 157,680,000 gallons a year. Then it would take 1.226 hours or 74 minutes to fill the pool at my parents’ house. Dad will be happy.

For 10 by 10 by 10 room it would take 25 minutes to fill. The orc will have time to eat his pie and brush his teeth before he starts to get worried. For a 20 by 20 by 20 room it would take 3.33 hours (3 hours 20 minutes) or just enough to enjoy one of Lord of Rings before you drown.

If want to fill the Empire State building 424 * 424 * 1250 * 7.5 (this max volume not true) 3901 + days. 10 years 251 days (I could not find where the dimensions of the breaks were)

Looking at the sample dungeon in 1e and 3e DMG and fill it to depth of one foot. The sample dungeon is 577.5 squares making 5775 * 5775 * 7.5 * 1 foot deep = 250,129,687.5 gallons or 579 days. This does not take in account the depth of the various stair ways and if the water was able to enter all parts of dungeon.

My house is 1300 square feet. So 1300 * 10 (I don’t have ten foot ceilings) * 7.5 = 97,500 gal it will take 5.4166 hours or 5 hours and 25 minutes. So if I late going home for lunch my house would be over flowing from the two chimneys. Hope the cats remember to hold their breath.

The old joke about Englishman, Scotsman and Irishman with a wall around England. England is 93,000 square miles. 93,000 * 5280 * 100 (foot wall) * 7.5 (water) = 368,280,000,000 gallons = 2,335 years 225 days. So if the decanter of endless water starting filling England on the stroke of midnight in the year 2000 you would have to the year 4334 November 24. 11/24/4334.

The Earth’s total surface area is 197,000,000 square miles. 197,000,000 * 5280 * 7.5 would result in 7,801,200,000,000 gallons. 49,474 years, 323 days and 8 hours.



How much water would give to town’s people besiege? A person needs one liter of water a day to replace water loss by normal activities but needs 2.5 quarts to maintain health but this includes water contain in food.(American Water Works Association 25 facts about water). It was hard to find an exact minimum of water usage per day which did not include modern appliances. I am going to go with one gallon to include bathing, cooking, or activities. So one decanter could supply the needs of any fort. If you use the one hundred gallons of water per person per day (this include modern showers, dishwasher, and washer) a larger village can live a modern life if the population is under five thousand and the orcs are at the gates. So the only major problems would be spellcasters dispelling the decanter, weather in the winter freezing the bottle up, and vandals.



A fire engine can put out up one thousand gallons of water a minute on the water cannon. To get down three hundred gallons a minute you have to go to the “Neptune” 1837 fire engine in Toledo Ohio museum.



Decanter of Endless Water: If the stopper is removed from this ordinary-looking flask and a command word spoken, an amount of fresh or salt water pours out. Separate command words determine the type as well as the volume and velocity.

“Stream” pours out 1 gallon per round.

“Fountain” produces a 5-foot-long stream at 5 gallons per round.

“Geyser” produces a 20-foot-long, 1-foot-wide stream at 30 gallons per round.

The geyser effect causes considerable back pressure, requiring the holder to make a DC 12 Strength check to avoid being knocked down. The force of the geyser deals 1d4 points of damage but can only affect one target per round. The command word must be spoken to stop it.



Oh goody. New stuff from the army.

The 3,000-gallon onion tank is a highly mobile, easily transportable, manually inflatable, collapsible fabric water tank. The tank is 23 by 28 by 42 inches and weighs 130 pounds packaged. The tank is 56 by 148 by 94 inches and weighs 24,020 pounds filled with water (Figure D-1). From fm 10-52-1 appendix d.

You got your water for the day for 3,000. Call it 30 minutes setup time. Fill time is 10 minutes on geyser. A five man team can rig a support beam so two or more men can hold the geyser. But this a little too big.



In the field mess we had a few collapsible fabric drums which carried 55 gallons when full iirc

It was basically 3 six foot long poles, a metal plate with holes for the poles and chain in center. A od green canvas bag with a dust cover and one metal rim with 3 chains connecting to the center. And the center was clipped into chain above. It took 3 minutes to setup well more if did by the regs digging footing holes for the posts, and laying down peddles to keep the mud down. Call it 10 pds when empty. Fill time is about 6 minutes on stream. Under 2 on fountain. Call it 10 minutes total setup time. Break down time is less especially if empty.



FM 10-52 Chptr 2 Water Support Planning and Operations



Speaking of bathing you don’t shower but bathe in your pot helmet or a bucket. So call it a gallon of water each of bathing and you don’t have to bathe each night. But if you need a shower canvas bag with shower head. Call it six poles each 8 feet long. 3 for shower head, 3 for curtain.

So here is the canon answer lifted from candle keep forums

Originally posted by The Hooded One

Hello, fellow scribes. Ed is back hard at work spinning Realmslore for various WotC projects, so second banana [I'm taking a bow, but you'll just have to imagine it; if it helps, I'm not wearing anything while doing it except my wristwatch, a black ribbon choker, and a smile

) will have to step in for the nonce.
I'm really busy right now, too, so MY replies will also be sporadic. And further delayed by the need to "check them" with Ed.
However, Mandras happens to have asked about some things (the "water in Waterdeep" queries) that Ed has gone over several times in the past, for TSR designers and various fans. Here, I'm paraphrasing bits and pieces of several of his answers. (You didn't think Ed hadn't thought about all of this, did you?)

First: Waterdeep has a very wet climate. Orographic rainfall occurs as cold sea air blowing onshore hits Mount Waterdeep, is forced to rise, and comes over the mountain dumping its water. And filling cisterns all over the city, well-nigh constantly.

Second: Extensive springs arise deep in the Underdark and come to the surface in two places: high on the slopes of Mount Waterdeep (where they are immediately piped, and used in Mirt's Mansion, Castle Waterdeep, Piergeiron's Palace, municipal pumps in the Market, and throughout Sea Ward) and in the face of the cliff forming the eastern boundary of North Ward (where the water descends into narrow pools at the base of the cliff, and is promptly pumped back up into North Ward, and thence by gravity down into Castle Ward, South Ward, and finally Dock Ward [the most poorly-served ward, water-wise]. The Company of Crazed Venturers encountered "water welling up" many times in their explorations of Undermountain, which even in its fragmentary published form (by TSR and subsequently WotC) has its rivers. A lot of the "black areas" on the sprawling dungeon maps are places where water rises through the rock, under pressure, and no "tunneling in" is possible. Adventurers who tried to "dig their way out" of dungeon areas with Ed as DM quite frequently found themselves starting floods, and fleeing until the water found a way to drain down and away.

Third: People use water quite differently than in modern times. Seawater is used to flush privies (yes, by the bucket method), down into sewers that are flushed out by seawater tides. Public bathing occurs mainly on the beach west of Sea Ward (that's why there's a gate in the wall), in the sea, and is usually undertaken (as opposed to picnics and playing, which occur on sunny days) during rains or heavy mists, when naked bathers emerging from the sea can have the salt naturally washed off their bodies by the freshwater mist and rain). Sand-and-water mixtures are used to scour plates, pots, et al, and there are many soaps, what we would call shampoos, and what we would call grease-cutting detergents in use that drive off grease and sea-salt (Lantanna gnomes and many others constantly invent new ones). Much drinking involves beer, wine, juices and milk brought into the city aboard ships and from around the Sword Coast North interior - - so little "straight water" is drunk. Many noble households have "country estates" that they regularly bring wagon-tanks of water into the city from, for family use in their mansions. And finally, the summertime population of Waterdeep is much higher than the wintering-over population, so water demands drop sharply during times when water is apt to be frozen (though those cisterns keep working; Waterdeep has little insulation, and the crush of crowded-together bodies and cooking and guild-work and animal defecation gives off lots of heat, constantly).

Fourth: the same portal spells that hold the "unseen phantom walls" of the city dimensionally "otherwhere," to be summoned around the city when needed, also hold an opening to a huge lake, which would "pour water from the sky" into the statues around the walls of the Field of Triumph (arena), which contain pipes with various gigantic spigots and drain-holes accessible around the outside edges of the walls (so, into wagon-tanks), that drain on down into Undermountain, should drought, a siege, or other extraordinary conditions of water shortage arise. (This backup has never been needed, but did feature in an adventure Ed ran back in 1982, I think, wherein a Watch patrol got "washed down the street" and a group of PC adventurers managed to escape them.)

So there you have it. Lower demand than you posit, using modern real-world habits, and a very large natural supply with magical augmentation. Trust me, Ed thinks of everything. As for your other questions, Eltan is definitely Ed's invention (as is the Flaming Fist), but I'm not sure about the others. I'll add the "where else are they detailed" query to Ed's massive and ever-growing pile, and we'll see.

love,
THO

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You can definitely have wells close to the ocean - my mother's side of the family is from Gabriola Island and we relied on the plentiful well water at my grandparents, only a few hundred metres from the beach.

They could also be collecting in cisterns, etc.

Paul Farquhar said:

To address Waterdeep specifically, one thing unusual about that city it is it is built upon a major connection to the Underdark. The Underdark has plentiful fresh water and is below sea level. Indeed it extends for hundreds or thousands of miles under the ocean.

So the proper question we should be asking is "why doesn't the ocean drain into the Underdark?"

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I often pondered that myself, so in my campaign the underdark is actually a different world/dimension Svartalfheim. Portals to this dimension can be found deep underground, and the unwary may cross over into this world of darkness without even realizing it. Based on north mythology, Svartalfheim is the home of the dark elves. Norse mythology doesn't really distinguish between elves and dwarves, so I make Svartalfheim land of Lollth and the drow while dwarves originate from a different world.

In any case, if a portal were to open in the ocean to Svartalfheim, it would just flood that section or create it's own dark ocean. Problem solved.

You can have fresh water under the ocean depending on the rock

By the way, there are real-life equivalent cities that had late Renaissance-era populations in the hundreds of thousands without any nearby rivers, or even aqueducts. Naples is a good example - it had a population of approximately 150,000 by 1500 and 200,000 by 1600. And it's in a far dryer climate than Waterdeep. Or how about a modern equivalent - New York City (then equivalent to Manhattan) possessed a water supply was solely from wells and cisterns (and some water hauled in by wagon from Brooklyn) until an aqueduct was built in 1842 (the Hudson, East, and all other rivers around Manhattan are tidal, so they're basically salt water - water from the Hudson generally isn't potable until far upstream of NYC, usually around Newburgh, 50 miles or so to the north). The population of Manhattan was 312,710 in the 1840 census, all of whom were getting their drinking water from cisterns, wells, and wagon transport.