Confluence

The Confluence were a loose, secret association of half–steel dragons based in Waterdeep with the purpose of eliminating all shapechangers that tried to enter the City of Splendors. Its primary enemy in 1374 DR was the Unseen.

Relationships
Their allies were the noble families of Bladesemmer, Tesper, and House Thongolir, who raised the half-steel offspring, the Harpers and the offshoot Moonstars, plus the local church of Selûne at the House of the Moon. Other enemies were the church of Malar and the People of the Black Blood.

Membership
Members had to be sponsored by a patron, usually one or both of their parents and were often called upon to perform services for these patrons. They also hired adventurers to perform various missions for the group, though they never revealed their own identities.

Members traveled the city in disguise, whether magical or conventional, to hide their nature from passers-by.

History
The Confluence originated with a pair of steel dragons, Auntyrlothtor and Quituryte. During the Harpstar Wars of 1182 DR – 1222 DR, they fought in Waterdeep against the malaugrym together with a group of noble women. In time, the two brothers produced half-breed offspring that were raised in secret by the noble families of the original dames, contrary to the custom of the Waterdhavian nobility to not allow half-dragons in their families.

In 1254 DR, the half-steel nobles had reached maturity and the malaugrym subtly attacked Waterdeep again. Thanks to the experience of the veterans of the Harpstar Wars, the menace was stopped but they understood that they needed to remain vigilant to stop a future resurgence. Thus they founded the Confluence to control and eliminate all shapechangers entering the city.

In the decades since, they ruined more than a dozen malaugrym plots. The climax was in 1291 DR when the Confluence exposed the secret sorcerers guild of the Eyes of the Golden Hawk as sons of Malaug, stopping an insidious ten-year-long plot to supplant the Lords of Waterdeep.

In 1331 DR, they discovered that high-ranking members of the Master Mariners Guild were a group of weresharks and stopped their criminal plan.

The war with the Unseen started in 1363 DR. The Confluence frequently came into conflict with the Unseen: one such battle was the cause of the Rat Hills Conflagration, another time they manipulated Volothamp Geddarm into unmasking the doppelganger courtesans of the Hanging Lantern festhall, and they once reported to the Lords that the pirate leader the Black Admiral was a doppelganger. The only shapechanger tolerated in the city was Amarune, who posed as Lady Nael Irlingstar, but only as a personal request of the famous Elminster Aumar.