Hook for Outside Help to Thieves' Guild?

[Crothian]

The thieves Guild is not the only thieves guild in town. There is a war between the guilds that is coming and the master of one guilds knows it. He's probably making the war happen. So, he is recruiting adventures and people from outside the city to build his own numbers and recruit from outside the normal powerbase. These will be people the other guild does not know of and does not suspect.

 

[Mark CMG]

I'm with those who suggest a good reason why outside help is brought in is because inside help simply cannot be used. I'm for the internal struggle in the thieves guild track. Someone needs faces that won't be recognized to do something that some others might not wish to do or cannot do, such as pull a con job or steal something from the nephew of the guildmaster. Another possibility is that some member found out about something, some sort of treasure, he doesn't want to share or isn't allowed to steal, so he needs someone technically not tied to local rules, who maybe (as suggested above) could further be used as a patsy if things go wrong.

 

[domino]

I think the idea of having someone be hired to steal from the family of the guildmaster, (assuming without the permission of the guildmaster) or otherwise work around the head of the guild would make it hard to justify their entry into the guild later, though.

 

[Mark CMG]

I think the idea of having someone be hired to steal from the family of the guildmaster, (assuming without the permission of the guildmaster) or otherwise work around the head of the guild would make it hard to justify their entry into the guild later, though.

I suppose they need not know all the details of who the mark is. Maybe they won't find out until they apply for membership.


*edit* Maybe even the guy who hires them represents himself as the guildmaster or as someone higher up in the ranks than he is. Perhaps the real test of the scenario, for the players, will be to put together some clues the DM lays out that will help them discover they are being duped before it gets too far, thus uncovering the traitor in the guild and giving them a reputation with the actual guildmaster of being worthy of eventual membership.

 

[Gilladian]

Or, if the PCs do their job quite well, there could be a major change in the power structure of the guild, leading to their boss BEING the new guildmaster. In this case, he'd probably be at least somewhat indebted to those who helped him get there.

 

[Barastrondo]

You could have the guild not trust their operatives for some reason - if you can, work into the plot of the task that there's information being leaked from inside the guild related to whatever the job is. The guildmaster hires outside help, ie the PCs, to accomplish whatever the task is while the leak is found and plugged.

Yeah, this is where I'd start. Potentially the PCs' task could draw out the subversives or traitors in the guild; the people hiring the PCs set them on their mission, wait to see who tries to stop them, intercepts the interceptors, and then congratulates the PCs on helping them rid themselves of a troublesome element.

(Or most of a troublesome element. Some might still be secretly in the guild, plotting revenge. Which would be awesome.)

 

[Hassassin]

Thanks for all the great ideas.

This is what I'm planning now, though specifics are still hazy:

There is a mid-level operative in the guild suspecting the upper echelons of using the guild for their personal purposes, maybe sacrificing members for dark gods etc. He needs someone to investigate targets within the guild and has heard (impossibly) good things about the PCs. He is doing all this to unify the guild beneath him after he has found the current leaders' weaknesses.

The party will eventually find out how they are being used and can either stick with the operative who hired them (being in a good position to gain power with him) or rat him out to someone who will listen (hoping to gain their favor instead).

Depending on how long it takes them to figure out what's going on, the second door may start to close as they do unforgivable things to important guild members.