ShadowGuild

X Worldbuilders:

GM James R

ShadowGuild was the name of one of Galik's most populous (though far from the most secret or subtle) guilds of criminals, thieves, assassins, and other lowlives.

Base of Operations

The ShadowGuild's large size meant that they needed a massive base of operations, which most surface dwellers would have simply called "The Sewers". Entrance into the special sewer-based headquarters was done via a number of special one-way doors in the city. These doors opened directly into the base via a proximity-based portal. These doors could only be opened from the outside, so members would need to make sure another friendly face on the outside had made sure the coast was clear before opening the door for people to leave.

Other times, Shadowguild members often left the underground base by manholes under the cover of night, with spies inside the city's guard letting members know which manholes were unguarded at any given time.

A portion of the Shadowguild's name wall, which indicates Glittoria was taken by the Mists (among the many others)

One notable item in their sewage base was a massive wall of names, former members of the guild that had been abducted by The Mists. This wall included Glittoria's name.

Modus Operandi

A guild of thieves and criminals, the ShadowGuild was very specifically NOT an Assassin's Guild. For years, the ShadowGuild had to deal with The Mists, which are a strange phenomena operated by Dark Powers that kidnapped the killers of Quelmar, often times never returning them. So many members of the ShadowGuild disappeared in the early PR era that the guild began a "no-kill-when-possible" policy, and instead would pay Galik's ACTUAL assassin's guild a high premium to have targets taken out.

In place of killing threats, ShadowGuild members relied on blackmail, polymorphing, long distance teleportation, memory wiping, and other expensive but effective non-lethal methods.

• The Shadowguild’s most important charter is to avoid directly interfering with the work of other guilds. Their leader maintains this balance, serving as chairman of the Shadowguild while maintaining his guise as the hard working labor-friendly master of the Wheelwrights to the general public.
• The shadowguild is highly fragmented and very very few people know anything about its workings outside of their one specific job. This prevents leaks and keeps nosy investigators out.
• The shadowguild appear immune to most forms of divination, presumably under a powerful nondetection charm.

• The thieves cant of the Shadowguild undergoes review every 3 months and rotates out among 6 different dialects, with no less than 2 dialects being used in a single calendar year. The methods of learning new dialects are still a mystery as no "dictionary" or otherwise written definition catalogue has been found, even amongst the houses of the most powerful guild members raided.
• It is believed that dialect changes are induced solely based on the amount of heat a group is taking. During times of long shelter, it has been known that the Thieves guilds have kept the same dialect going for as long as 11 months. In times of political pressures and investigations, the dialects may change week to week. For this reason, forces of Galik recommend not jumping on the guild before a tight plan is made, in the risk that the dialect may change and all leads lost.

History

See Also: The Rise of the ShadowGuild

Members

Members of the guild included thieves, rogues, shadow monks, and mages such as Alterationists.

ShadowGuild employed a number of onomancers who were tasked with "reading" prospective new recruits and guests to the guild's inner workings. Official positions, titles, medals, and other names would immediately give away spies and undercover agents. These were typically known as "Loomers".

Notable Members

• Kaia (operating under the nickname "Lily")

Operations

• The Space Between the Lines, the guild operated a series of secret rooms in the ArchCrystal Tower that allowed them to steal and read documents that were otherwise restricted to members of the Illumian Scholar's Guild. The ShadowGuild had a series of Limmericks they used to dictate the order of doors taken in the tower to arrive at the secret space. The first letter of each line is either L or R to dictate taking the left or right door. Some words are swapped out below for secrecy reasons.
  • Library's protecting the books Lest they fall into hands of the crooks (Roles that we often be) Raising up like a tree Laugh as we climb the tree using hooks
  • Robbed of stories that once were us all's Let us tear down these sundering walls Right under their nose Ripe with thieves cant and codes Run now swiftly and rider our observation

• Grelli's Expets, an animal shelter that claims it sells animals for rehoming after they had been given up. In reality, the shop was a front for the guild, and while it sold a few legitimate animals for the occasional walk-in, in reality most of the store's animals were polymorphed people, being sold as part of slave trafficking operations.
  • In 11 PR, the signals that one was looking to purchase a special pet included wearing a velvet wheel pin and greeting the shopkeep with the phrase "Brisky Weather, Innit?
  • The shop hired an unknowing fool to man the register and do the sales, the fool's pay is dropped off every Tenday by one of a number of men, who claim to work for Grelli. But otherwise the fool's whole job is to take care of the animals every day. When the fool leaves, the store is cleaned up every night, and occasionally new animals are dropped off come morning.
  • The first actual member of the Shadowguild comes in the form of the wagon that drops off animals every couple of mornings at the store, the driver remarks that he's been doing it for a long time, and that the orders are placed by Grelli, and are picked up at Grelli's house.
    • If pressured, the deliverer is likely to mention that he has the full weight of the Wheelwrights and the Woodworkers guild behind him, and if anything were to happen to him or his cart, anyone nosy would feel their wrath.
  • Grelli's house (if the address was to be found) is empty, of course. It seems abandoned but was never put up for sale, as it's owned by the guild
  • Documents for the house (obtained at the Office of Commerce and Trade) note that the building is owned by a Wheelwright by the name of Inrealt'e Nessuno
    • The Wheelwrights have an office at the Woodworking Guild house, which is in the city trade district. But if investigated even further, nobody at the office, Woodworker or not, knows of an Inrealt'e Nessuno. It's a dead end.
  • In reality, Grelli's house is one of many entrances to the city's underlayer where caverns of lowlives do their business. Entering Grelli's house requires both a special knock and one of those velvet wheel pins mentioned above.

See Also

• The Rise of the ShadowGuild