Vigilant Sentinels

The Order of Vigilant Sentinels will stop at nothing to see such renegades captured or slain, since their knowledge of the inner workings of the order is considered a threat to the elven nation. Such characters will mysteriously fi nd no safe harbor in any elven community that knows anything of the vigilant sentinels, even in Valenar or other nations. Needless to say, the order selects its members carefully, and rarely does one choose this path.

As a vigilant sentinel of Aerenal, you are the first line of defense for your often misunderstood (and sometimes feared) people. The rest of Eberron stands against you (or at least that is what you are trained to assume), and uncovering threats to Aerenal is always your primary motivation. Years might pass between your missions, allowing you to pursue your own personal or professional agenda, but when the call for duty comes, you must respond immediately.

You are expected to keep your skills sharp, and you probably do so by moving in powerful circles, engaging in the endless parry and thrust of court intrigue. As a vigilant sentinel, you often find yourself in a position where you must assume a role to further your nation’s cause. The machinations of court life keep you on your toes and allow you to establish contacts that will help you when you receive a mission. You should also seek to establish relationships with individuals whose skills complement your own. Forging these bonds will provide you with allies willing to stand by you in a tight spot.

You do not live within your nation, although you might be summoned there to receive a particularly important assignment or debriefing. Instead, you call some other country home. Your skills are best suited to blending into  the world around you with little or no foreknowledge of the situation in which you find yourself. You must manage to convince those around you (hostile or otherwise) that you are who you appear to be, even as you uncover information that will aid your mission.

At first, you are likely to be given simple charges, perhaps even as mundane as a courier assignment. But as you rise within the silent ranks of the sentinels, you will be entrusted with more sensitive missions that require an increasingly delicate touch. At the highest levels, you might someday be the only one who stands against the certain destruction of your homeland.

When you entered the order of the vigilant sentinels, you were likely recruited, though some members learn of the group through family connections and ask to join. The ranks of the vigilant sentinels of Aerenal are fi lled with rehabilitated criminals, former petty thieves or burglars, and more than a few wandering bards. Taught that their personal concerns pale besides those of their nation, these individuals must swear an oath to obey the masters of the order, the Sibling Kings, and the Undying Court in all things. As a result, the initial training of an initiate of the order is more mental and emotional than physical. Recruited members already possess a solid foundation in the skills they need to succeed at the order’s bidding, and so their teachers focus more on instilling strong feelings of loyalty and devotion in their charges.

Even despite the oath and training, new members are not trusted with much information. Turned loose and told to notify the order when you settle in another land, you might then wait months or even years for your first assignment. During this time, the order observes you, taking note of your behavior and whether you use this opportunity to good purpose. You are expected to establish a network of contacts in many fields of interest, as well as keep an ear to the social and political ground for signs of plots against Aerenal.

When you finally receive your first assignments, they are likely short, even tedious affairs. You might be asked to make a simple courier run or simply sit in a public place for a day and observe passing citizens. These missions all have a purpose in the greater schemes of the order and of Aerenal, however, and those who shirk the simple duties soon fi nd that all ties with the order have been cut. Such characters cannot continue to advance in this class, but will not typically be hunted unless their actions involve betrayal of the group or another member (see Ex-Vigilant Sentinels of Aerenal, above).

As a vigilant sentinel, you are expected to always keep your eyes and ears open, and to pass on any information of value to your nation. This obligation might lead to conflict with your closest friends or companions at times, which is why most members of the order keep the details of their duty secret, even from those they trust the most. Many sentinels claim to be natives of Valenar, and your abilities easily allow you to pass yourself off as a Valenar elf (even among the Valenar themselves).

Take opportunities to expand your horizons. Vigilant sentinels are encouraged to travel, although they must remain in contact with other members of the order. Expand your network of contacts and knowledge of other cultures and nations, meeting with other members of your order and exchanging information when you can

Outside Aerenal, few know of the existence of the vigilant sentinels—and the order prefers it that way. In fact, learning anything about the order is extremely diffi cult outside Aerenal, but most Aereni who do know of the sentinels’ existence see them as heroes. They know of the tremendous sacrifi ce involved in living for so long outside one’s homeland, and that these folk have kept their people secure time and again. Within the borders of Aerenal, a member of the class who encounters a normal citizen of the nation will be met with indifference, but an NPC who knows of the group meets members with an initial attitude of helpful.

The enemies of Aerenal are the enemies of the vigilant sentinels, and the Blood of Vol (along with their Aerenal pawns, the Stillborn) are often subject to sentinel attention. In fact, if not for the actions of the sentinels in years past, the Blood of Vol’s foothold in Aerenal might be much stronger than it is.

The Order of Vigilant Sentinels is run by an elf named Sha’aret Gaazikshi (LN female elf), who works out of the order’s headquarters in Pylas Talaear. Their proximity to the merchants and envoys of other nations suits the order’s leadership well, providing them with countless opportunities to send agents and messages off the island aboard merchant or diplomatic vessels. Sha’aret’s loyalty to the Undying Court is absolute. Her father, Rethret Gaazikshi, led the order for nearly two centuries before she took over at the end of the Last War (and it is unlikely that she would have done so if he hadn’t gone missing in an exploratory expedition to Xen’drik just as the war concluded).

She works closely with the governor of the city, Syraen Melideth, to ensure that her agents’ movement through the city is unimpeded (though Syraen frankly wouldn’t know who to impede unless Sha’aret shared their names with her). Syraen is instrumental in seeing to it that agents have transport to Khorvaire and the other corners of the world.

An average day for a vigilant sentinel varies. They are mostly allowed (even encouraged) to pursue their own agendas, as long as those do not confl ict with the protection of Aerenal. Many act as courtesans in courts across Khorvaire, while others are merchants (some small, some prominent) in various cities. However, when not actively undertaking a mission for the order, most vigilant sentinels adventure. Many sentinels have learned that a powerful strike team of adventurer allies can be an invaluable asset to the missions they are called on to perform. The bonds established from sharing the extreme risks of adventuring last through even the most difficult times, and many of these alliances have proven as important to the protection of Aerenal as any based in a royal court.

While the order doesn’t have ranks per se, those with more levels in the prestige class are typically deferred to by lower-level members. However, a low-level sentinel who has performed a particularly daring or important mission is recognized for her deeds, and perhaps even called upon to lead the Ivek Nath, or Sentinels Elite. These are teams of vigilant sentinels brought together when the order perceives a threat greater than any one agent can handle. Only twice in the last one hundred and fifty years has such a group been called together, the last time when the former leader of the order, Rethret Gaazikshi, led the vanished mission to Xen’drik.

As with any large, widespread organization, some of the older sentinels frown on the way Sha’aret (the “young elf”) runs the Vigilant Sentinels. Most have given her the benefi t of the doubt out of respect for her father (and, some whisper, in the vain hope that he will return from Xen’drik someday), but a murmur has recently surfaced of a small faction of vigilant sentinels based in Valenar who seek to break from the larger group. These dissidents are led by Trevak Larieen (N male elf rogue 5/vigilant sentinel of Aerenal 3), who has been a member of the organization for over two hundred years. He doesn’t go on missions much anymore, but that hasn’t stopped him from wooing several older Valenar agents to his cause. He hopes to remove Sha’aret from power gently in the coming years, but as with everything relating to elves, “the coming years” might prove to be a long time.

As NPCs, vigilant sentinels can be worked into a campaign at virtually any time. Any elf or half-elf NPC might be a sentinel in disguise, even a character with whom the PCs have had a longstanding relationship. The prestige class is more interesting for PCs, however, and an elf character from Aerenal with the necessary skill set (and the requisite loyalty to the homeland) might be approached at any time by a member of the order for recruitment.

Player character sentinels should be allowed to adventure as they please most of the time, but being given missions on occasion can help them feel more immersed in the class. These characters are excellent sources of adventure hooks, since Aerenal is not a well-understood nation, and its enemies are many.

Such missions can be undertaken as short solo adventures during party down time (while spellcasters scribe scrolls or craft magic items, for example), or even as group adventures. When running an adventure that also happens to be a sentinel mission, you might let only the player of the vigilant sentinel know the true nature of the adventure. You can leave it to the sentinel’s player to reveal the information to his companions at the right time.