Black Bucket Hunt

A Black Bucket Hunt was an annual revel and treasure hunt held in Waterdeep that ultimately led into Undermountain. It was sponsored each year by a different noble family and tacitly allowed by city officials. It had no purpose or meaning beyond entertainment for apathetic and cynical nobles, but by the second Hunt, it became quite popular among the upper echelons of Waterdhavian society that were able to observe the hunt from safety on the surface.

Description
A Black Bucket Hunt began at a party hosted by a noble family. The wealthier, usually more senior members of the House sponsored the event: by providing the treasure to be hunted; paying healing fees to clergy of various faiths; and hiring wizards to facilitate the Hunt, enforce the rules, and, beginning with the second Hunt, provide visual observation of the participants while they wandered about Undermountain.

At the kick-off revel (where much alcohol was available), the ceremony began with the Black Bucket being escorted by a bevy of women wearing masks. The large Bucket appeared to have seen many years of hard use and was blackened by exposure to fire. It contained tokens that were drawn by the participants to randomly determine teams. After the drawing, there were typically at least eight teams with a minimum of six persons on each team. The empty Bucket was then filled with rubies and twelve tokens that granted the bearer freedom from city taxes, fees, and fines for one year. In a flare of pageantry and showy spells, the Black Bucket was teleported away to "a secret corner of Undermountain". Likewise, monsters were summoned and sent off to provide a challenge to the hunters.

The "Hunting Ground" for the event was the Dungeon Level of Undermountain with many of its exits to lower levels temporarily walled off. Prior to the event, various adventuring groups (mostly from outside the city) were hired to kill or remove the worst monsters out of the Hunting Ground. Invariably, these same groups were approached by agents from noble families with an interest in the outcome of the Hunt to plant notes, disallowed weapons, and/or fake Black Buckets in the section they were clearing. In addition to the summoned monsters and those left behind by the cleansing crews, there were other unpleasant hazards throughout the Hunting Ground, such as heaps of smelly refuse, dung slides, and "perfume bombs"—breakable bags of inexpensive, strong-scented liquids that could be thrown at rivals or creatures.

After teams were chosen, the participants donned silly costumes to represent their team. They were made of thin, cheap cloth in bright colors (pink, yellow, orange, etc.) and styled to give the wearers a distinctive characteristic, such as a huge bird beak, a wagging tail, or a dozen extra tiny arms. The costumes were enchanted to glow like a torch and were the only source of light allowed on the Hunt. Likewise, all armor, weapons, and magic items were prohibited, but the contestants did their best to sneak them in. The teams then formed a loud and boisterous parade through the streets of Waterdeep in their ridiculous, luminous splendor to places where they would either be teleported into the Hunting Ground or escorted to an entrance through a cellar, and the Hunt began.

Activities
During the first annual Black Bucket Hunt, those left behind had to wait until the winning team appeared back at the revel to find out what happened, although some wizards may have spied on the proceedings with arcane eye. Wagering on the winner and other aspects of the event was minimal at first, but increased year by year. By the second Hunt, a modified version of arcane eye that allowed the image from the eye to be projected in the air for anyone to view was under development and was successfully cast twice. The violent and salacious images brought back were deemed greatly entertaining by the crowd and more such remote viewing was strongly demanded at future Hunts. Representatives of the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors were tasked to watch for and prevent any other spells from being cast into the Hunting Ground.