Nightblades

Introduction

The Nightblades are a centrally organized Thieves' Guild, suitable for a wealthy port (river or sea) city with a population of 5000 to 15000. They are led by a guildmaster and typically have around 40 members at any given time - although the low-level ranks are fairly fluid. Roughly a dozen of these members are vital for the guild's success.

The guild should be viewed as "officially outlawed", but are actually unofficially accepted by the city officials, who know that without an organized guild such as The Nightblades, there could be chaos in the streets.

There are open lines of communication between the city and the guild, but they are all very discreet and hush-hush. The unofficial acknowledgement of the guild will not protect low-ranking members should they be caught in a criminal act. This means that the guildmaster is tasked with overseeing not only a vast and lucrative criminal enterprise, but controlling every aspect of it so as not to rock the proverbial boat.

The guildmaster accomplishes this through experience and delegation to the guild's hierarchy. The Guildmaster is aided by cloakmasters, one for each important district in the city. Each of cloakmaster is responsible for their district's ringleaders, who run their personal enterprises as they see fit.

In addition, The Nightblades boast several specialists called veils, most of them "upstanding" citizens of the city that interact with the public through their legitimate businesses, but are actually key members of the guild that provide a valued skill set.

Reapers are bodyguards directly under the Guildmaster's orders. They guard main locations, perform special duties, and protect key personnel. The lowest rank in the guild is called a street.

The portfolio of The Nightblades is a full one, and involves beggars, cutpurses, protection rackets, burglary, highway robbery, smuggling, gambling, fencing, forgery, and counterfeiting.

Membership Earnings

Each guild member is paid a weekly salary based on their rank, as follows:

• Cloakmasters earn 500 gp per week, plus 25% of what each of their ringleader's establishments bring in.

• Ringleaders earn 75 gp per week, plus 50% of what their establishment brings in.

• Reapers earn 150 gp per week.

• Streets earn 15 gp per week.

• Veils are paid 150 gp per week as a retainer, plus whatever their established profession earns them.

Bonus Payments

Each week, the street that brings in the most revenue for the guild receives a bonus of 10 gp. The highest earning ringleader receives a bonus of 100 gp. Cloakmasters receive bonuses from special lucrative undertakings that bring the guild a significant return, which they can keep or distribute as they see fit. Generally, they will distribute a portion of the bonus and keep the rest.

Operations

In order to keep the guild flourishing, each ringleader must bring in 1000 gp a week. Some ringleaders use teams of streets as small as 3, while others have a gang of 8 or 9 streets.

While it may vary from week to week, streets should aim to bring in an average of 20 gp per day. To the uninitiated, that may seem onerous, but at least one job per week, be it a smuggling operation, major burglary, or highway robbery, usually brings in enough to cover their contribution, and in a city as wealthy as the one The Nightblades operates in, it is not difficult. One cutpurse can steal a day or two's take in a few minutes. Beggars are the eyes and ears of the guild and may not be expected to bring in as much, but a charismatic beggar can bring in 4 gp on a busy day in a good district, like the market.

Guild Members

The Nightblades are led by their guildmaster, Lady Marcella Dask, who has appointed eight cloakmasters. There is currently an opening for a cloakmaster in the Docks district. Each cloakmaster oversees multiple ringleaders. What follows is a list of notable NPCs you can use to flesh out a Thieves’ Guild, which can be expanded to suit your campaign. See The Nightblades Quick Reference table for an overview.

Filling the Ranks

The Non-Player Characters detailed in The Nightblades are the guild’s most important members, but the guild has been created with the intention of being supplemented with important figures from a Game Master’s campaign. In addition, should the player’s characters begin to gain favor with the guild, they may be promoted through the ranks.

Areas for Expansion

Some positions in the guild have been intentionally left vacant. Most notably, the cloakmaster for the Docks District (a position formerly held by Thorkel) is currently vacant. Perhaps the Stiletto Silhouette is actively looking to fill this position? Maybe the players are curious as to why there is no cloakmaster in the Docks District, which would represent a compelling way to introduce Thorkel in his new role as reaper, and serve as an extreme example of what happens to guild members that betray The Nightblades.

Other areas for expansion include ringleaders, reapers, and streets, with some guidance included below:

Appointing Ringleaders

While many ringleaders are detailed in this section, the ringleader rank should be the level that most players strive to obtain in a mid-level campaign. It offers direct involvement with the guild, while also allowing the players to operate a business of their own.

The current ringleaders can serve as somewhat of a template for the types of establishments a player might like to run, or existing ringleaders might be replaced.

More Bodyguards

Only the Stiletto Silhouette’s personal reapers have been detailed for The Nightblades, but it will be fairly common for every cloakmaster, as well as some of the more wealthy ringleaders, to employ their own reaper.

Ear to the Street

Given the fluid nature of low-ranking members coming into (and exiting) the guild, no streets have been detailed. That’s not to say that The Nightblades don’t employ any. Quite the opposite, there are too many to name.

When running a campaign that will add a Thieves’ Guild, it is a good idea for Game Masters to introduce streets early on. An ideal hook to get players involved with a Thieves’ Guild is to use Non-Player Characters that the party members already know, revealing that they work for The Nightblades and the guild is looking for new recruits.