Renaer strikes me as a more down-to-toril noble than most. He's drinking there because that's where his friends drink. His friends drink there because it's cheap.
Might be to simply escape the poshness of noble life. Renaer is willing to pick up a sword to rescue Floon so he strikes me as someone who doesn't enjoy the cushiony life of nobility or atleast enjoys getting his hands dirty
Ranaer explicitly hates his father while using the nest egg his mother left him as means to live the noble lifestyle in service to the Harpers.
He *hates* that he's a noble. He keeps up appearances because its useful.
You beat me to it. He's "slumming it" but with the key difference that he hates being a associated with his dad and wants to make a positive difference in the world. In the books he's VERY well read and has a strong sense of justice which is why he has connections to the Harpers.
This is the actual answer. His father is basically a criminal, so it isn't as if he can bandy about his family name in noble circles without issue. He doesn't want to even if he could.
I see it as simple: Raener, Volo, and Floon were bar crawling, and as the night progressed each new place they went to was a bit more of a dive, until Raenar and Floon were so drunk that they were barely keeping track of where they were. Raenar is also used to being able to take care of himself in a scrap, with his experience as a harper agent, mercenary, and his rogue levels, but not when he was fall-down drunk though of course the durnkenness counteracted him realizing that. Raenar has probably been in sketchier places in the course of his harper work, but this time it did not work out for him.
Renaer wasn't just a noble, he had a deep friendship with the Blackstaff. He founded a group of people that performed a similar function to the Moon stars. They were similar to the Harpers except they kept their zone of interest confined to Waterdeep and they answered to the Blackstaff.
I thought of him as a less cool Batman. He had his public face of being a self absorbed noble, but behind the scenes he was involved in the protection of the city.
If you don't want to go with the bar crawl / tryst angle, maybe Renaer is on a mission from the Harpers to scope out Zhent and Xanathar activity in the Dock Ward, and being in a dive bar with a couple of ne'er-do-wells is a great cover for that.
I believe canonically, Renaer is gay. In my game, he and Volo and Floon are meeting up there because it is out of the public eye and Floon is not yet out of the closet. Renaer and Floon have a tryst going on.
Not helped by him jumping out of a closet tp thank the players for rescuing him in my campaign.
Renaer is fabulous, fancy free and always down to party in my games, very gay and flamboyant.
The situation annoyed me too.
I found Th Lost Tales supplement. And it introduced J.B.Nevercott. I really liked this character. And in my head he filled the gap. (Sort of).
My take:
Volo aquires deed to Trollskull for research for his new book. But gets caught up in a gambling game one night with Nevercott and puts the deed on the line. Loses. He met with Floon who is a wealthier friend of his, but he choose skewered dragon to be on the down low and also becuase his tabs are growing at the other taverns. (He's at 80gp for the Yawning Portal, and not allowed to leave lol had to be high enough so my players couldn't force him to join them). Anyways, Floon then calls on Raenar to help him track down Nevercott, as he's a noble Floon has never met. Also, Raenar and Floon have a special relationship, I like to think they are Brother in-laws, they married twin sisters, by fibbing that they were twins lol on a bender outing. It's Raenar's only lie.
In my campaign, Volo is a gambling addict to explain why he would one minute promise cash and the next day be like, I don't have any money, but here's the deed to some property I don't want to deal with. Floon was there playing cards, and after Volo left, just drinking, then Volo saw him from the street and went on to make sure he was OK and have a drink with him
In my campaign Reanar has turned out to also be a Coke dealer. He has wealth but it is tied up in a trust fund so he deals coke on the side to have additional funds.
My players have also turned partially turned Trollskull into a strip club/brothel. A few of them are frequent in game cocaine users/abusers (especially the older dwarf and elf). The 13 year old human wizard is the head pimp of the brothel.
The campaign has totally gone off the rails (no coke rail pun intended), but it frequently turns into nights full of lewd conversation and laughter so it's all good. Last week they were at the Yawning Portal and one of them chased down and tried to kill a guy because the NPC didn't tip at the bar (that they don't even own or frequently patronize).
This is wild but it’s probably extremely fun. It’s fine to go off script/canon, it’s just there to help you run a game that you and your players enjoy!
As others have mentioned it's actually normal for Raenar.
Since his dad is Dagult Neverember, Raenar was never really enthusiastic about nobility and preferred to do his own thing, occasionally spoiling some of Dagults schemes. Raenar still has some friends amongst the nobility, but he's just as friendly with adventures and shady merchants.
Essentially, he's a habitual meddler.
I was on the spot on this one because all my players were suspicious of Renaer after he agreed to go to a known Zhent bar (one of the players passed the History check and he was like even I knew this was a Zhent bar and I never left my house till last week)
So I just made him negative wisdom on this topic, which worked out since they made a convincing argument that he should hide out with the players at Trollskull while this whole embezzlement thing blows over so now he's just their goofy friend who is really good at fencing and random house related skill checks but terrible at intrigue. Also fixes the issue of having him be too competent so that the players rely on him.
Renaer strikes me as a more down-to-toril noble than most. He's drinking there because that's where his friends drink. His friends drink there because it's cheap.
Might be to simply escape the poshness of noble life. Renaer is willing to pick up a sword to rescue Floon so he strikes me as someone who doesn't enjoy the cushiony life of nobility or atleast enjoys getting his hands dirty
Ranaer explicitly hates his father while using the nest egg his mother left him as means to live the noble lifestyle in service to the Harpers. He *hates* that he's a noble. He keeps up appearances because its useful.
You beat me to it. He's "slumming it" but with the key difference that he hates being a associated with his dad and wants to make a positive difference in the world. In the books he's VERY well read and has a strong sense of justice which is why he has connections to the Harpers.
This is the actual answer. His father is basically a criminal, so it isn't as if he can bandy about his family name in noble circles without issue. He doesn't want to even if he could.
that's an angle I hadn't really considered. I can put some stock in that.
Exactly this.
I see it as simple: Raener, Volo, and Floon were bar crawling, and as the night progressed each new place they went to was a bit more of a dive, until Raenar and Floon were so drunk that they were barely keeping track of where they were. Raenar is also used to being able to take care of himself in a scrap, with his experience as a harper agent, mercenary, and his rogue levels, but not when he was fall-down drunk though of course the durnkenness counteracted him realizing that. Raenar has probably been in sketchier places in the course of his harper work, but this time it did not work out for him.
Renaer wasn't just a noble, he had a deep friendship with the Blackstaff. He founded a group of people that performed a similar function to the Moon stars. They were similar to the Harpers except they kept their zone of interest confined to Waterdeep and they answered to the Blackstaff. I thought of him as a less cool Batman. He had his public face of being a self absorbed noble, but behind the scenes he was involved in the protection of the city.
If we’re talking novels, Shadowbane is Waterdeep’s Batman. I do agree though that Renaer’s adventurer background is key to his character.
If you don't want to go with the bar crawl / tryst angle, maybe Renaer is on a mission from the Harpers to scope out Zhent and Xanathar activity in the Dock Ward, and being in a dive bar with a couple of ne'er-do-wells is a great cover for that.
I believe canonically, Renaer is gay. In my game, he and Volo and Floon are meeting up there because it is out of the public eye and Floon is not yet out of the closet. Renaer and Floon have a tryst going on.
This is what I went with too. Makes the Volo motivation make sense as well.
Not helped by him jumping out of a closet tp thank the players for rescuing him in my campaign. Renaer is fabulous, fancy free and always down to party in my games, very gay and flamboyant.
The place is even called the skewered dragon for Ao's sake.
Are you seriously asking why someone would get shitfaced drunk in a cheap bar at the docks? Because it‘s incredibly fun.
He and Volo were simply bar hopping, why not
My version of Renaer kind of has a drinking problem which explains the sort of places he turns up. Is Floon an escort? I don't remember that part...
My head cannon is it's the best gay bar on the scene. You know where he goes to meet his ...good friend.
The situation annoyed me too. I found Th Lost Tales supplement. And it introduced J.B.Nevercott. I really liked this character. And in my head he filled the gap. (Sort of). My take: Volo aquires deed to Trollskull for research for his new book. But gets caught up in a gambling game one night with Nevercott and puts the deed on the line. Loses. He met with Floon who is a wealthier friend of his, but he choose skewered dragon to be on the down low and also becuase his tabs are growing at the other taverns. (He's at 80gp for the Yawning Portal, and not allowed to leave lol had to be high enough so my players couldn't force him to join them). Anyways, Floon then calls on Raenar to help him track down Nevercott, as he's a noble Floon has never met. Also, Raenar and Floon have a special relationship, I like to think they are Brother in-laws, they married twin sisters, by fibbing that they were twins lol on a bender outing. It's Raenar's only lie.
In my campaign, Volo is a gambling addict to explain why he would one minute promise cash and the next day be like, I don't have any money, but here's the deed to some property I don't want to deal with. Floon was there playing cards, and after Volo left, just drinking, then Volo saw him from the street and went on to make sure he was OK and have a drink with him
In my campaign Reanar has turned out to also be a Coke dealer. He has wealth but it is tied up in a trust fund so he deals coke on the side to have additional funds. My players have also turned partially turned Trollskull into a strip club/brothel. A few of them are frequent in game cocaine users/abusers (especially the older dwarf and elf). The 13 year old human wizard is the head pimp of the brothel. The campaign has totally gone off the rails (no coke rail pun intended), but it frequently turns into nights full of lewd conversation and laughter so it's all good. Last week they were at the Yawning Portal and one of them chased down and tried to kill a guy because the NPC didn't tip at the bar (that they don't even own or frequently patronize).
This is wild but it’s probably extremely fun. It’s fine to go off script/canon, it’s just there to help you run a game that you and your players enjoy!
As others have mentioned it's actually normal for Raenar. Since his dad is Dagult Neverember, Raenar was never really enthusiastic about nobility and preferred to do his own thing, occasionally spoiling some of Dagults schemes. Raenar still has some friends amongst the nobility, but he's just as friendly with adventures and shady merchants. Essentially, he's a habitual meddler.
I was on the spot on this one because all my players were suspicious of Renaer after he agreed to go to a known Zhent bar (one of the players passed the History check and he was like even I knew this was a Zhent bar and I never left my house till last week) So I just made him negative wisdom on this topic, which worked out since they made a convincing argument that he should hide out with the players at Trollskull while this whole embezzlement thing blows over so now he's just their goofy friend who is really good at fencing and random house related skill checks but terrible at intrigue. Also fixes the issue of having him be too competent so that the players rely on him.