Well, here is my initial write-up, as promised. I did break the groups into four discrete entities, because I can work with each one separately, and even allow them to be turned against each other or played off each other, if the PCs decide to go that route. I hope someone else can use this write-up to start their own gang design.
Street Criminal Groups in Per-Bastet.
In the Wharfs district, where the PCs live there are four major criminal gangs of sorts.
The Golden Scales - a group of were-crocodiles who are smugglers and drug-sellers.
Goals: The Old One wants to be very rich, and very safe. He also wants to ensure that The Flood is protected so his kith always have a place of safety.
Leadership: Their boss is known as “The Old One”; it is rumored that he was an adventurer, once, who returned to Per-Bastet about a decade ago and established himself in the Flood, soon becoming a major power. Some gossip says that the major drug his group smuggles into the city is one that The Old One discovered himself, somewhere deep in the deserts south-west of the city, and others say it comes from the jungles of the Yawchaka, far to the south. Whatever, the drug known as Little Sleeping is powerful, deadly, highly addictive, and highly sought-after, thus quite expensive.
Organization: The Old One has a band of about 30-50 followers, not all of whom are active criminals, but who all smuggle or assist in the smuggling of the Little Sleeping and other small, valuable cargoes that bypass the tax-collectors of Per Bastet’s wharfs. They have no known hangout or lair. The Old One can be found in almost any locale within the Flood, depending on his mood, but he prefers to lurk in the deepest darkest waters when he is not on business. He has three lieutenants, his Scales. All three are were-crocs, two male, and one female. They are Rek-ket-sah, Rashotephet, and Nathifa. Nathifa serves as intermediary to Bastet’s Talons. She and Na’alna are friends, in the loosest sense of the word, and work together to see that the drugs flow freely into the Wharf District. Rek-ket-sah is the hands-on manufacturing supervisor; he has a number of human(oid) assistants who do most of the work. He also has a fair number of guards and lower level supervisors. Rashotephet handles the actual smuggling, working with shippers and receivers of the incoming merchandise.
The second group, closely affiliated with the Golden Scales, is Bastet’s Talons. This gang of dope peddlers and street criminals is very dangerous.
Goals: Na’alna mostly simply wants to have enough wealth to eat and dress and play luxuriantly. She also enjoys spreading chaos and harming the stability of the city. She dislikes humans and despises gnolls with a passion. Anything that injures or annoys them pleases her.
Leadership: Their leader, known as Na’alna the Black Lady, is a sensual young tabaxi well known for her ruthless, cruel and violent nature. She has a coterie of young male catfolk and a few were-cats who serve her loyally. They are mostly the street arm of the Golden Scales, but also conduct a fairly good trade in muggings, pickpocketing and burglary. Na’alna is said to personally know The Old One - perhaps she was once a member of his adventuring fellowship, though she doesn’t seem old enough.
Organization: There are about 20 active members in the Talons, and another dozen hangers-on or associates they can call on if necessary. Names of some of these members are Ta-khat, Mur-kau, Hes-ra, Mau’tep, and Ni’iti.
Na’alna imposes no structure on her group, and will call on whoever she happens to favor at the given moment for any task. However, Ta-khat is a muscular, thuggish male who is often found with his favored friends on the streets of an evening, hunting for victims to rob. Mur-kau and Hes-Ra are a pair of sibs who have an active gang of street-sellers, and Mau-tep is best at establishing and running a number of drug-houses. Ni-iti maintains several colonies of feral cats with whom she can communicate, who act as spies and informants when needed. Their least-secret hangout is a tavern in the northern Wharf district, north-west of the Endless Bazaar; it is called the Purring Cat.
The third gang is the Children of Leather and Bone, a matriarchal clan of gnolls.
Goals: to create wealth for the extended family, to eat well and own many slaves. To drive the were-crocodiles out of Per-Bastet and demonstrate the superiority of the Gnoll species.
Leadership: this extended family of gnolls is bossed by the matriarch known as the Laughing Mother, and her Daughters. These gnolls operate a protection racket that stretches across most of the Wharf District - about half the private residents and many smaller businesses pay them a fee each month for “fire insurance” and “theft prevention”. Those who refuse to pay find themselves suffering fire and theft on an unusually frequent and damaging basis.
Organization: There are about 50 members of the extended family, who can be identified when they are on gang-affiliated business by the finger-bones they wear on braided red leather cords around their necks. The Sons have a couple of hangouts; the larger and better known is a slaughterhouse near the meat-market just south of the Endless Bazaar. Their second hangout is a warehouse near the Grand Souk. The Daughters are harder to find; their numbers are unknown, and they do not reveal their names to outsiders. They are usually hooded and veiled.
Closely associated with the Sons and Daughters is the final group, known as the Silver Paws - these were-rats and humans are mostly beggars, spies and informers for the Sons of Leather and Bone.
Goals: not to go hungry. To destroy Na’alna.
Leadership: the wererat leader, a slimy little man known as Toothless Pakuru, owes the Laughing Mother his life. He and his pack-mates are perhaps not entirely reliable, but they fiercely hate Bastet’s Talons, and will do them a wrong any time they can.
Organization: There are as few as 30 and as many as 80 members of the Silver Paws - their membership fluctuates as they starve, fall to disease or find their way into other districts of the city to scrabble out a living. They have no specific hangout, but often can be found in the various markets and streets, gathered in alleys or nooks and crannies, spying, begging, and pilfering whatever they can lay hands on.
