Adventure authors sometimes include hidden references to other material that inspired them (so called "Easter Eggs") into their adventure modules. For example:
In Dragon Heist, the flamboyant Illuskan captain Zardoz Zord is a hidden refrence to Sean Connery. The name of the character is a reference to the cult sci-fi-fantasy movie Zardoz starring Connery in red lingerie, and Zardoz's submarine is called the Scarlet Marplenoth, a reference to Connery's submarine Red October in the movie The Hunt for Red October (scarlet is a shade of red, and Marplenoth is the month matching October in the Forgotten Realm's Calendar of Harptos).
There are already a few posts on Easter Eggs citing other D&D material, that is, in-game refrences, for example for van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, or references to the ranger Minsc from the D&D computer game Baldur's Gate. I'm looking for references materials outside of D&D, for example real world persons, movies, novels, TV series.
What are other easter eggs in this adventure where the connection can be shown beyond a reasonable level of doubt (as in the example cited)?
To make the question answerable here I am including the following restrictions:
- Only from the Dragon Heist adventure (i.e. this is not open ended)
- No speculative answers about something that may or may not be a reference. This should be so clear and obvious that there is no need for discussing if it actually is a reference
- Author confirmation would be a plus, but is not required. It could replace obviousness from the text in the adventure or comparative analysis
- No general game background history. This is not about what fantasy novel a monster or item that appears in the game also in other modules may have been inspired by. It is about the specific content of this module.
