V is for Veiled Society

[over the course of the month of April, I shall be posting a topic for each letter of the alphabet, sequentially, for every day of the week except Sunday. Our topic for this year's #AtoZchallenge? Revamping the Grand Duchy of Karameikos in a way that doesn't disregard its B/X roots. I got behind by a couple days because of the Easter weekend, but I'm trying to catch up as quickly as possible]

V is for Veiled Society, "the most powerful criminal organization in Specularum." GAZ1 states that thief characters can choose to belong to one of three thieves' guilds in Karameikos, and identifies The Veiled Society as one of these (the other two being "The Kingdom of the Thieves" headed by Flameflicker, and "The Iron Ring" slaver organization).

I was trying to remember when I first heard of such a concept as a "guild" of thieves. I didn't read any Leiber "Lankhmar" tales till (probably) high school, certainly not before I was years' deep in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (back in those "pre-internet days," if you were looking for some long out-of-print pulp fiction, you'd only find it at a library with a decent selection...pretty sure my first Leiber, Moorcock, and Zelazny books were pulled off the Seattle Prep SciFi shelf). I probably had some idea of guilds (from history class, encyclopedias, and/or watching Dickens' Christmas Carol on a yearly basis), and there IS mention of "thieves guilds" in the Cook/Marsh Expert set, in exactly two places:

"At this point, a player character thief may want to consider setting up a Thieves Guild (the details of this are left to the DM)."  [page X8, discussing high level thieves building hideouts and attracting apprentice thieves]

"The base town should be large enough to support the services the players will need these include:

• Inns and townhouses where the players stay between adventures, where notices are posted, and where rumors are found.
• Churches, shrines or temples for the clerical orders, including at least one NPC cleric powerful enough to cast a raise dead spell.
• A Thieves' Guild for thief class characters that can provide information, markets for treasure, smuggling, spies, and hireling thieves -- for a price.
• Town militia to keep an eye on the town -- and the players!

"The DM should also decide who is running the town..." [page X54, on building a base town for the campaign, emphasis added (regarding the thieves guild) by Yours Truly]

[man, just to digress for a moment...so much to digest and infer from that little bit of world building. What a great place for a new DM to start! Everything that's really pertinent...including a cleric that can raise dead!...is on that list, save perhaps the blacksmith and "general store" that any town large enough to support the rest should be able to provide. Note, this is the outline for a "home base" for adventurers, not any old village, which could be lacking most, if not all of these components. But for a place that adventurers (i.e. the player characters) come from, YES, it should have all these things...not only for their services but (probably) for the PCs' origins as well: fighters were trained in the militia, clerics at one of the churches, etc. And, NO, it does not NEED to have a wizard or "magicians guild" because, of course, PC magic-users can learn their own spells through spell research (helping to suck off excess treasure in the process)...magic need not be commonplace!]

[ha! Raise dead! Always available at the home base, so why O why was there ever whining about getting killed on an adventure? Sheesh!]

*AHEM* The presence of a thieves guild, given the description in the Expert set provides a number of practical services for player characters (a place to sell treasure! a place to procure thief hirelings!) as well as giving the thief a way to shine that may be welcome indeed (keeping in mind that the low-level thief in B/X is a pretty paltry character, both skill-wise and combat-wise!)...since, presumably, one must BE a thief (and one in good guild standing) in order to interact with the "thieves guild."

[the alternative I suppose would be difficulty in finding places to fence loot, poor exchange rates on treasure, and wild chance if an adventuring thief was available for hire at the local tavern...assuming a thief would be willing to publicly announce her profession in the first place!]

Members in the Veiled Society (briefly mentioned in this previous post) is described in GAZ1 as follows:

"The Veiled Society is appropriate to characters with a grim, Mafia-like outlook on their criminal activities. If this character likes hurting people as much as he likes robbing them, the Veiled Society is for him.
"The Veiled Society demands 15% of all the character's earnings (other than those earnings for Veiled Society activities). It does provide a reliable fence for that fee. It helps the character by trying to spring him from jail or beating or killing those who've done him wrong -- the Society is loyal to its members.
"However, it often makes demands of the characters -- such as "Go to the House of Silks near the Street of Dreams. Break in. Kill the old man and his daughter and then set the place afire." This isn'e a thieves' guild for characters with morals."

Allston states that only Neutrals and Chaotics may join the Veiled Society, but PCs of any alignment...and of any class!...can be asked to join during the course of adventure module where they first appear: Dave Cook's B6: The Veiled Society. In fact, very few of the Veiled Society men (yes, they are all men) in the adventure are thieves...a total of three out of 51 NPCs. For a "thieves guild," they're pretty light on thieves! Cook also includes this little "initiation" ritual:

"You are now on of us," says the man. "If they catch you, they kill you. If you betray us, we kill you. Act in our name but without our blessing, we kill you. Work hard for us and you will prosper. Once with us you cannot leave us."

This is said after donning the Veiled Society hood, which both protects their identities and is the symbol of their allegiance. It should be obvious that the Society does not suffer betrayal lightly (or at all).

The Society's hideout appears to be an ancient, subterranean complex (I'm making it sound more exciting than it is: it consists of all of three chambers and a handful of straight passages). There's something very mystical about the place, and the Society in general. Their meeting hall feels like an ancient pagan temple (though there is no idol, only a gong...which I can't see them using since the members only meet at appointed time and there are no rooms from which to call folks to gather). There are as many high level spell-casters as "thieves" among their members (two clerics, one magic-user) all of which are in leadership positions (unlike the thieves). There are their masking rituals and their oaths of secrecy and commitment, the headdress of their hidden leader. More than a fantasy Cosa Nostra, the trappings of the Society feels like that of a secret society, one with religious overtones, and one that's been operating in the depths beneath Specularum for generations...certainly before the Thyatia conquest.

Personally, I dig it. I've loved the feel of this module ever since I saw it's Roslof-illustrated cover, many years ago...and despite the overall weakness of the adventure design I've held onto it.  A hooded, murderous secret society knifing people in the dark alleys of Specularum after sundown? That's cool...probably should be kidnapping the odd virgin to sacrifice to some shadowy goddess every new moon as well (a ritual leftover from ancient times, blood of the innocent used to "resurrect" the moon). It doesn't have to be ultra-weird and Cthulhu-y...murderous fanaticism hidden behind the facade of "normal" friends and neighbors can be just as creepy.

Okay...I'll end the post here. Man, I am far behind this month. I had wanted to talk about the other thieves guilds as well (including the one located in Threshold...a town of 500...and how preposterous that is), and especially the Iron Ring slavers. But that'll have to wait till another day.

O is for Oligarch

[over the course of the month of April, I shall be posting a topic for each letter of the alphabet, sequentially, for every day of the week except Sunday. Our topic for this year's #AtoZchallenge? Revamping the Grand Duchy of Karameikos in a way that doesn't disregard its B/X roots]

O is for Oligarch. I had a few other thoughts on what "O" might stand for...things like Order of the Griffon or Offensive Stereotypes. But this one seemed like a better fit for a "revamp," thus keeping with my theme.

[going to try to make this a short post, as I've got a lot on my plate today]

In the city of Specularum, capitol of Karameikos, three Great Families struggle for power, wealth, and influence. Identified by their family name, they are Radu, Torenescu, and Vorloi.

These families, and the basic concept of their conflict, was first introduced in adventure module B6: The Veiled Society. I've owned my copy of this adventure since it was first published in 1984; it may have been the last published adventure module I ever purchased new, until 2nd edition's Return to White Plume Mountain (which is the absolute LAST Dungeons & Dragons adventure module I ever purchased new, off-the-shelf). I have an absolutely enormous collection of modules these days, but most have been picked up from used bookstores and bins, and at least a couple from eBay or similar.

B6: The Veiled Society was written by Dave Cook, co-author of the B/X Expert set and an adventure writer of whom I've spoken highly in the past. Unfortunately, B6 is not his best work; I haven't gotten nearly the mileage out of it that I have of works like Isle of Dread, Forbidden City, or even Blizzard Pass (whose small, non-solo dungeon I've used as an introductory adventure on numerous occasions).  GusL's review is pretty spot on, but as written the module may be even worse than that: take out the gimmicky cut-outs (which I've never bothered to assemble/use) and you're left with a 12 page adventure, most of which is box text or snippets of fiction. The adventure itself is next to worthless...it requires new adventurers to care about a murder mystery without providing anything in the way of motivation (neither carrot or stick). Should their consciences fail to incite them to action, the adventure is all of two-three encounters (none of which involve treasure) and a tiny stretch of underground...five combat encounters, no traps, and the only monster possessing treasure is a nonsensical, and gratuitous zombie fight. That's it...nada mas.

And why should the adventurers care about the murdered niece of a wealthy nobleman? Can't he afford to pay one of the city's (multiple) patriarchs to burn a raise dead on her? The spell is available to any 7th level cleric, and there are at least three clerics of 9th+ level residing in Specularum. Small change "murder mysteries" just don't work (or make sense) in a game where any found cadaver can be quickly (and easily) returned to life.

But I digress...despite the not-so-great adventure, the idea of competing rival factions, none of which are particularly "good" (and only one of which is outright villainous) is a good one. Three groups keeps it from being a black-white dichotomy...and the fact that all of them are (more or less) independent of the Duke gives plenty of opportunity for players to align with one or another (or none) and still get up to all sorts of hijinks and adventures.

Allston found the factions good enough to retain and embellish in GAZ1 (and gave kudos and thanks to Dave Cook for B6 in his introduction). If you want to use Karameikos (close to) as written in the gazetteer, I'd recommend keeping these Great Families. Upping Specularum's population from 5,000 (as per both B/X and module B6) to 50,000 (per GAZ1) just means more power, wealth, and influence in the hands of these ruthless rivals.

They are a tad boring though. Here are some possible ideas to "spice them up:"

Radu: I'm fairly good with the Radu as the kind of medieval Cosa Nostra. If anything, I think I'd  want to "Medici them up," getting them all involved in banking and patronizing the arts, etc. Even though the Grand Duchy of Karameikos has only existed for 30 years, it's important to remember that Marilenev was a thriving trading port even 100 years ago when Thyatis took it over, and the Radu clan (a Tralaldaran family) was probably operating even before then. The Veiled Society should be even more weird and cult-y, less like KKK clansmen and more like "The Hand" or similar fantasy ninjas/assassins. These guys should have their own weird temples, some sort of weird ancestor worship, maybe a pact with a Deep One like species made long ago, back when their ancestors were just pirates raiding coastal Traladara villages.

Gao as Anton (12th level thief);
"Come at me, Flameflicker!"

The main thing that bothers me about the Radu is the lack of female representation. Anton & Co. (his brother, his sons) and all the Veiled Society thugs are male. It would be nice to have at least some women in the mix...maybe a strong matriarch (since I brought up The Hand I now have an image of Madame Gao in my mind taking the place of Anton Radu). It's not just that I'm screaming for diversity here...part of B6 involves the attempted recruitment of player characters into the Veiled Society, and it would just be a little strange if the propositioned character(s) were female and then brought into this group of all male thugs. It would be a lot less random to depict them as equal opportunity villains from the outset.

Torenescu: So, stop me if you've heard this one before: head of family is murdered by uncle, too young son is forced to assume the mantle of leadership and figure stuff out even as evil uncle tries to wrest control of clan away from kid. Yeah? Me, too...many times.

The really dumb bit, of course, is that this isn't Narnia's Prince Caspian or Disney's The Lion King or whatever...it's D&D people! It's really hard for people to stay dead! At least if they're anyone that matters (i.e. anyone with a bit of coin in their pocket). You just can't assassinate a nobleman or woman and leave the body lying around...not if there's a even vaguely competent cleric in the vicinity. So why is it 26-year old Aleksander Torenescu is the head of the family and not his father, Christoph? Hmmm...

Making Torenescu interesting hinges on answering this question. While my Game of Thrones addled brain goes immediately to some sort of incest problem (the son with the father, the son with the uncle, the uncle with the father...your choice) that led to the clan not wanting Christoph raised from the dead, that's maybe too cut-and-dry. What if, instead of poison (also easily neutralized about raising...if not before), Christoph had been murdered in "the usual fashion" (garrote or a Charley Manson Special) and it took the loyal clan members a fortnite to find where his body had been dumped? And what if, upon finding Patriarch Aleksyev (leader of the Church of Traladara) was unable to raise Christoph (having passed the max number of days as limited by his level) they had taken the body to Patriarch Jowett, the 18th level head of the Church of Karameikos? And what if he had refused to perform the deed, on the grounds that they were outside the True Faith (being native Traladarans, natch) and had been rumored to be behind several religiously motivated attacks on the church (or at least the culprits had been members of the Torenescu controlled guilds)?

Heck, if you want to retain Jowett as the goody-good guy he's portrayed as (we'll get to him in a later post), you could say he was indisposed at the time and only his fanatical #2 (the 14th level, Traladara-hating Aldric Oderbey) had been available...and no way he was going to raise a tithing member of the rival church! Do you think maybe the Torenescu clan might (because of this) bear a bit of a grudge against the Church? Even as they already bear a grudge against the Duke for his "invasion" of 30 years prior that cost the family so much of their power? Make Torenescu the REAL Machiavallian schemers behind the scenes, not Radu.

Aleksander Torenescu:
"Vengeance is mine."

And make young Aleksander the new Lareth the Beautiful...just for fun.

Vorloi: And speaking of "forbidden worship," let's talk about the Sea Kings. Because that's what these guys are, right? Baron Vorloi as a "successful merchant prince" by the age of 30 (and in Thyatis no less). He has made his fortune (and continues to undercut his competition) by having the biggest and best fleet of merchant vessels operating out of Karameikos. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the Karameikan navy is financially beholden to his house. From whence comes this maritime power?

Reading between the lines, Vorloi is a jerk, but I don't want him to be a chaos worshipper...at least not of the mutating, Warhammer variety. But I would like him (and his family) to be secret cultists of some forbidden, "pagan" sea god (or goddess or demon...your choice). "Neutral," not chaotic, but utterly inhuman and lacking human compassion, empathy, or morality. A force of nature whose worship has long been prohibited in Thyatis (and would be in Karameikos, too, if Stefan had any inkling that the Vorloi clan were perpetuating its vile worship). The "idiot, feebleminded" son of Baron Vorloi? A necessary sacrifice to their deity, even as Phillip's older sister Michaela was similarly offered up and replaced with fey creature. Every generation's firstborn is given to their patron, receiving a strange changeling in the child's place...the weird offspring of the sea god.

Puny mortal

Thus does the Vorloi clan ensure their ships' fortune. The Baron's daughter Marianna knows that she, too, will someday need to give her own child to the Sea, if she wishes to continue the success of her clan. Will she be willing to do so? And will the father of her child acquiesce to such a tradition?

All right...that's enough for tonight.