Uh oh. Need a Thieves' Guild Initiation.

[Ao the Overkitty]

One of my players wants into the Thief Acrobat Prestige Class, which has the roleplaying prerequisite of needing to belong to a Thieves' Guild.

Since they're in Waterdeep, I know there is at least one in Skullport. But I'm kind of stuck on a test or initiation rite.

Also, this character has two thieves' guilds hunting him (both Wererat guilds; one specialized in assassinations, the other more of a information gathering/bribery/kidnapping type) based in Everlund.

Any ideas for how this should play out?

oh. character is the ranger/rogue/barbarian I mentioned in the Huntsmen thread in this forum a couple of days ago.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I would leave it up to the thief, just tell him he has to do a feat and have proof of it, this could be something as simple as taking a flag from the guard tower, to getting a kiwi fruit from the garden of the greatest merchant of the city. If he does it the guild will want him and come looking for him.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Heh. The guild member he contacts merely says, "You want in? Impress us."

I like that.

Thanks Mr. Evil.

 

[Tilla the Hun (work)]

I would leave it up to the thief, just tell him he has to do a feat and have proof of it, this could be something as simple as taking a flag from the guard tower, to getting a kiwi fruit from the garden of the greatest merchant of the city. If he does it the guild will want him and come looking for him.

I thought he was looking for a rite of initiation into the thieves guild, i.e. that contact with the thieves guild had already been established...

If not, that's a great idea - steal something in their territory to 'make' them come looking for you, then ask them if you can join.


You could go several ways with this 'rite of initiation'. Firstly, you could have the thieves guilds in communication with one another, in which case it's only a matter of time until the player is recognized. Or, secondly, you could have the thieves guild be rather treacherous, and double cross the player on the initiation...

As for the actual act of initiation - it could be as simple as going along on a job, being point man on the job, or going and doing a solo job without getting caught or raising the alarm.

Perhaps there's a highly guarded item the guild wishes to acquire, but they can't get in to check the defenses - send this new recruit in on a scouting mission.

Have him steal the flag of the guards, the guard captains hat, and return both to the guild without raising an alarm.

Have him steal sufficient items to qualify.


Or just pass off the whole initiation thing, give him a single contact, and that's the contact he has to clear any jobs he wants to do through. If he wants to get into the thieves guild interior, he has to prove his merit by clearing jobs with his contact and then successfully performing them. Eventually, with enough jobs under his belt, the contact will come to trust him more, and possibly introduce him to one or two others. Repeat as needed to climb higher into the guild. Vary stealing with smuggling, extortion, blackmail, fraud, forgery, prostitution, and drug dealing.

Every so often, with success stories racking up, he get's introduced to a few new guild members or a new level of the guild. Eventually, he'd start going out with groups on jobs, etc.

This last is potentially the most realistic initiation you could have.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

No contact has been established, though he does have a reputation among thieves' guilds in the North.

Namely, he attacked a guild representative of the information/blackmail/fence/kidnapping guild in Everlund. This man (who happened to be the guild leader) was there to negotiate the release of one of their captives (a friend of the party who tried to steal some information from the guild for the party). The player decided he didn't like how the conversation was going so decided he was going to rage and attack said representative. The representative (a Rogue/Wizard) was able to tumble out of the way and teleport to safety.

The other half of his reputation is he exposed the location of one of of another guild's hideouts (the assassin's guild) in Everlund and helped lead a raid upon that hideout. Though unknown to anyone, this was the result of a mislead divination spell to find their captured friend (mislead by the attacked guildmaster to point the group at the other main theives' guild)

He does have one thing in his favor, though. In Skullport, he convinced a swarm of halflings that he was the friend of a now legendary halfling in Skullport. He actually is a friend of this halfling, it's just the case of the man (or halfling, in this case) not living up to the legend. This halfling has the reputation of leading one of the largest prison breaks in Waterdeep history (the halfling did break out of prison, and let other prisoners out too, but didn't intend the consequences of his actions).

So, any guild would only allow him one contact (if that, in all likelyhood).

Your post did remind me of AEG's Evil minimod "The Gauntlet." I may use elements from that (have run it once before for different players and it worked well).

 

[adwyn]

The test for entering a thieves guild shouldn't be about skill, but about loyalty. Thieves guilds are by their nature a collection of people who have already shown that they cannot be trusted by society, so their must be some proof that they can be trusted by the other thieves. Traditionally family ties are the best way of doing this, but in the case of a stranger the usual way is a carrot and stick combination.

If the PC is to steal something it must be from someone who can't or won't find out who did it unless the guild rats out the PC, but who can and will inflict a terrible demise on the PC if the secret is revealed, thus ensuring the PC can't double cross the guild without risking his own exposure. This is why the Mob is so often portrayed as using murder as an initiation - it gives them power over the individual.

IMC some of the tests I have used have been
- replacing an heirloom with a fake that won't be noticed unless the scam is revealed.
- sabotaging an activity of a major merchant/noble/wizard in such a way as to look like an accident. Again there will be no investigation unless the secret is told
- steal spellbook pages from books in the Wizards guild. The whole book might be noticed missing but a few pages in an obscure but valuable book won't be.
- gain a secret, such as who Lord so and so is actually sleeping with, then revealing it. The exposure must be enough to outrage the target but not enough to reduce his ability to respond.

Good luck

 

[roguerouge]

I like the "Impress us" idea, but as a DM you'll still have to have a few things set up in case player inspiration fails. This depends a bit on the type of player you have and what you want the guild to be like.

Embarass someone prominent
Get information that will allow the guild to blackmail someone
Deface a temple
Set up a smuggler's cave
Infiltrate another guild
Throw a gladiator match
Embarass the City Watch by leading them on a wild chase through the streets
Enter a very secure place and leave something strange there
Begin a false rumor campaign
Start a fad for the guild to exploit
Prison Break!
Scavenger hunt (all you have to do is bring us a few things....)

roguerouge

 

[TiQuinn]

Any ideas for how this should play out?

Hmmm, one idea could be to give the PC a task to carry out that seems fairly straightforward...take out an enemy of the guild, collect a past-due loan from someone whose come into some money, case a prospective score and return the info to the guild, whatever.

Naturally, there's a trick.

The guild has some its members disguised as watch guards who manage to catch the PC in the act of carrying out the illegal task. The true initiation for the PC is to see his reaction in dealing with the imposter guards. If he's captured, what information does he give away, if any? Can the guild really TRUST the PC?

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Hmmm. good ideas. keep them coming. ^_^