Help me flesh out a thieves guild

[Gregor]

***My players please stay out***






Hey all,

A player of mine is a rogue who is deeply interested in herbalism, botany and the making, selling and using of poisons. In our 3.5 FR campaign, he was able to learn about a small guild of thieves and smugglers who would be willing to sell him poisons and some drugs. The player went, alone, paid his way into the audience chamber of the guild (a small tavern hidden below a spice shop; its secret passage administered by the shop owner) and met with some of the guild members. The guild, seeing him alone and on their turf, decided that this would be a great opportunity to take the player for what he was worth - charging an arm and a leg for information that he requested as well as charging him vast amounts for any poisons he wished to purchase. The player caught wind of the treatment and promptly left on warning, naturally, that if he spoke of the guild the town watch would find his eviscerated corpse in an alley.

I should note that we are playing in a neutral / evil campaign.

The player had another run in with the guild and he received the same treatment. The player, tired of the guild's cocky attitude and bully tactics, has decided that he would like to infiltrate the guild, kill them, take back his money and take their poison and drugs for himself so that he may study them, manufacture some for himself and sell the rest.

For a few days (in game) he cased the spice shop that the guild was located beneath and took tabs on how many came in and out, where they went etc. So, he has a pretty good idea that there are aapproximately 20 individual guild members, all humans and half-elves (there could be more, as well as members that he hasnt seen yet).

The guild itself is relatively small time, in terms of thieves guilds, making most of their money through petty crime, extortion and the occasional sale of drugs and poisons. The drugs they are aquiring through a Zhentarim contact (ruthless trade organization in FR) and the poisons they purchase from a reclusive Green Hag Druid named Shagrah who lives in the vast Chondalwood to the south. A follower of Shagrah, a human rogue/cleric and worshipper of Talona (god of disease and poisons) works with the guild to sell the poison, as she gains spiritual fulfillment by seeing these poisons used on people.

So, in the guild im thinking:
- approximately 20 rogues or rogue/fighters;
- the Zhentarim contact, probably a fighter;
- the rogue/cleric follower of Shagrah;
- the guild leader, rogue?;
- some lieutennants?; and
- what else?

In terms of what is in the guild, im thinking:
- tavern as the entrance;
- sleeping area;
- training room;
- small underground garden/greenhouse/lab for the rogue/cleric?;
- storage areas;
- cruel traps, both mechanical and magical but also situational (like the crucible in the first adventure of the Savage Tide AP)?
- anything else?

I would like this dungeon to be memorable, difficult for the PCs and would like to have some variety without making an illogical dungeon ecology (i.e. would like there to be some undead, some monsters, along with the humanoids...but in a logical manner) and so I turn to your collective wisdom for some help.

The party consists of:
- human rogue 4 (the player wanting to infiltrate);
- human wererate rogue 2;
- human diviner 4;
- half-orc barbarian 4; and
- human cleric 3

Any suggestions on encounters, rooms, the inhabitants, traps?

Books I have available are: PH, MM, DMG, PH2, DMG2, Complete Adventurer, FRCS, Players Guide to Faerun, Faiths and Pantheons, Races of Faerun, Monster Manual 3, Lords of Darkness, Magic of Faerun, Shining South.

Also, the campaign is situated in Chondath in the FR.

My thanks on any and all advice.

 

[robertsconley]

In what city is this located?

 

[Gregor]

Shamph. The PCs have not yet been to Arrabar and they have recently been working for the Shamph government in inflaming the trade war between Hlath and Iljak - a war that is making Shamph quite rich.

 

[Shadeus]

A small-time guild like this usually would start because their leader has an idea and expands his business. You might want the leader to be a rogue/assassin so he's used to handling the poisons. If there's an assassin's guild, make him an excommunicated member...that could lead to some decent RP later on.

I would make the guild leader level 9 at least. Give him two lieutenants to take care of the day to day work that he doesn't want to deal with. They should be around level 5. The leader doesn't trust them enough to get anyone more powerful or have more of them so they can try to kill him off in a coup.

Maybe make one lieutenant a rogue/fighter to be in charge of the extortion and the other a rogue wannabe assassin who deals in the illicit materials.

The cleric is a good idea; it will add some variety to the guild. Make a shrine in there, but maybe only a handful of the worshippers are converts.

I would expect the leader to have a method of escaping from the guildhouse that is known only to him. I would also expect several poison-related traps, maybe a glyph of warding as well.

Also, develop the relationship of the guild to the green hag. That's a good angle for future adventures. Why is she helping the guild? Purely for money, or is she a drug addict and this is how she pays for it?

 

[Tonguez]

The lab gives you the chance to use 'accidental' explosions, shattering glass and ceramics and poison gas hazards

The garden might include aplantbased monster of some kind from which a poison extract is taken (poison dripping assasin vines perhaps)

A pit of braineating Zombies who are actually junkies who have had their brains fried (either deliberately or due to addiction)

A polluted toxic 'chemical dump' where Oozes or some betentacled abberation has taken up residence

You will also need a crucible of some sort and who knows what could be in that - half-elemental crack zombies

an entrance to the sewers/drains

 

[robertsconley]

The Red Guards are a thieves guild currently operating in the city of Shamph in Chondath. It originated over a hundred years ago when five small time merchant families of Shamph pooled resources to formed a guard regiment to guard their warehouses and caravans. Several years later a venture to become a player in Shamph trading hierarchy failed leaving the joint company without an employer.


Ostracized by the leading merchant families the Red Guards became willing to accept any job even if it was disreputable and/or illegal. A decade later the original command council was taken ove, in a coup, by one of members, Pernits who became the leader of the Red Guards. The new command council were firmly under his thumb. Under Pernits leadership the Red Guard expanded their illcit operation become one of the leading powers of the Shamph underworld.

Pernits died twenty years ago and the Red Guards has been since lead by Seryas his son. Traditional the Red Guards specialize in a variety of smuggling and protection rackets. Sometimes will do deals involving assassinations and intimidation.

While a ruthless and skilled leader Seryas is somewhat of a sybarite inviting clerics of dark gods into association with the Red Guards. He is enthuastic particpant in their rituals. Currently the Red Guards have an association with the Zhentarim and are their chief local allies.

The Red Guards have a history of despising the leading merchants of Shamph and will sometime do risky operations just to hurt them. However they very rarely ever resort to local banditry as this will unite all the merchants against them.

Things to detail
who are members of Seryas' command council. What are their agenda? Which merchants commonly use them 'under the table'.

If you want to make them a younger group have Seryas be the guy who desposes the original Red Guard Command Council and turns the group into a thieves guild.

Enjoy
Rob Conley

 

[painandgreed]

To make things interesting, you could have some of the guild members also be members of the town watch. Makes sence to get some of the town watch on the payroll. If the party kills them, then they may be chased down for killing watch members unless they can sufficiently show such guards deserved it.

Another complication would be if a guild member is a local noble, or perhaps a nobles son. This boy who enjoys the dangerous life of a gangster and the friendship of thugs also offers protection to the guild because if anybody harms him, the noble will come after them.

Who are the guild's customers? If there are a bunch of poisoners in the city who lose their contact, the party will have just made lots of enemies unless they are prepared to step into the guild's shoes fairly quickly. This goes double for drug users who are lacking their next fix and expensive drugs are sold to people with lots of money. Many of the people being extorted might be a little nervous about who now knows their secrets.

One thing the thieves guld should have is lots of back doors. Once things get hopeless, just have the theives grab what they can and run. They'll probably lay low for quite some time after that, but they'll probably remember longer than the adventures.

 

[Gregor]

This is all really good stuff, thanks alot.

Robertsconley - did you just make that up, or is it in some obscure 2E FR supplement? Either way, its wicked.

Tonguez - I like the idea of failed experiments or explosions / gas leaks...could make for a nasty room or environment.

Shadeus - I hadn't thought of making the green hag a drug addict who pays for her fix with poisons...but thats a sweet idea.

painandgreed - I like having a noble involved...maybe even as one of the lieutennants. Im sure his father, and his private army, would be most displeased if his son went missing at the hand of some pesky adventurers.

Keep em coming everyone, this is great stuff!

 

[GlassEye]

Urchins! A few coppers scattered amongst urchins on a fairly regular basis and you've got a cadre of lookouts (and future recruits). Which should really make it difficult to case the guild or sneak up on it. Working girls can provide the same service. Think of their whole neighborhood as the 'dungeon', not just their building.

 

[robertsconley]

This is all really good stuff, thanks alot.

Robertsconley - did you just make that up, or is it in some obscure 2E FR supplement? Either way, its wicked.

No I made it up. Given the nature of FR I am sure there is a Red Guards somewhere in its vast array of product but the one here I just made up. I picked Red Guards because is sounded FRish.

I have a small website with a few articles on my campaign of 20 years (based on JG's Wilderlands of High Fantasy)

http://home.earthlink.net/~wilderlands

Here are two more takes on different Thieves Guild

one is a outcast group turned to blackmail, spying, and smuggling

http://home.earthlink.net/~wilderlands/beggarsguild.html

another is a former resistance group turned into a general thieves guild

http://home.earthlink.net/~wilderlands/brotherhoodlion.html

The trick to make something like the Red Guards is to look at the local situation and history that why I asked for what city you were using this for.

I looked it up and found that Chondath is loosely modeled on the city-states of the Italian Renaissance. Slamph in particular was at a cross-roads with a lot of trade.

So thinking on the Gueplhs and Gibellians, Monteques and Capulets,etc, etc and my own tale of the Brotherhood of Lion. I figure it would be interesting have the Red Guards be based on an "out" group. Originated in something that fell on hard times.

A powerful group once fallen and seeking revenge is somewhat overused so I decided on a rising star that fell due to the entrenched hierarchy. Italian City-States were generally oliogarchies ruled by merchant/noble families.

I picked five families coming together because that would result in natural origins of the factions in the thieves guild. Because you had the elements of bringing in drugs and poison that I thought it would be interesting to have the combined caravan guards of the families to be the from which the thieves guild sprung.

Using caravan guards gives plausibility as to why they could get a start in smuggling and a basis to make a detailed history (if needed) from when it was just a few guards bringing things in their pouchs to the formal operation that it is today.

From there it was a matter of writing how they went from legit to criminal. And once they became criminal typically one person (Pernits in this case) will become boss of the bosses.

And too explain why an evil priestess of of Talona is in with the group I came up with the idea of Seryas, Pernit's son, being something of sybarite.

I am explaining all this so you can see my thought process and be able to take this in your own direction to serve the needs of your game.

Enjoy
Rob Conley