Cloaks & Daggers: The Criminal Guilds of New Mithrak

Crime is a serious problem in Mithrak. The lack of proper law enforcement, the widespread injustice and inequality, and the opportunity available to those willing to do anything draw criminal enterprises from across the realm. The urbzthrong are able to respond to individual crimes done against them with their personal security but are hardly capable or interested in policing the city. Most of the business minded vithzar would rather pay off these criminals for some sort of immunity without really thinking about the naivete of trusting them. The citizens, particularly small business owners, have no choice but to deal with these crooks and thugs on a daily basis. Arguably, some of these organizations contribute to the city in more positive ways than their corporate overlords do and others are larger and more terrible than even Smaragdine the Green Dragon of the Emerald Bank.

Gangs 

The Bogeymen. Goblins and orcs are relative newcomers to Mithvale and it is a testament to the city's creedo of "opportunity for all" that they aren't run right out of town. After all, the reputation of goblins and orcs are that of invaders, cowardly and brutish, and their name is dirt with the native population. But just because their welcome and have "opportunity" doesn't mean the opportunity is equal to that available for dwarves, gnomes, halflings and humans. Goblins and orcs are expected to take what they can get, job-wise, and forced to live in ghettos by the urbzthrong who want to keep an eye on the "green bastards". This ill-will has led to the rise of the Bogeyman.

By positioning themselves as heroes of goblinoid and orcish kind, the bogeyman run a number rackets among the ghetto: they offer protection to their neighborhoods with armed thugs positioned to push out other gangs, they often enforced tolls, that are little more than polite theft, on those who travel through their neighborhoods, and are known for their lack of scrutiny. Bogeyman are popular hires for jobs that nobody else wants to do, whether due to the dangerous nature or the immoral nature. Bogeyman prey on men, women, children, dwarf, human and their own kind alike. Gold is gold.

Bogeyman have no honor. Or so the other gangs say.

The leadership of the bogeyman is often shifting between the hands of the toughest and meanest orcs and hobgoblins. Their symbol is a green humanoid figure.

The Brick Dragons. The Brick Dragons started out as an adventurers guild that tried to establish themselves in the city. After their membership ballooned, leadership changed hands several times, and they wound up embroiled in a gang war, the Brick Dragons became another street gang that, occasionally, offered mercenary and treasure hunting services, but more often than not engaged in the same sort of criminal enterprises of the other gangs. They still operate under the auspices of "an adventurer's guild" but it is merely a front for recruitment. Many young and naive adventurers wind up in the grip of the guild, bound by contract, debt or loyalty, and reduced to a life of petty crime.

The Brick Dragons can be spotted by their formal aesthetic, often wearing formal dressware and hats, adorned with patches of the red and brown dragon symbolizing their guild. 

 

Their leader is a human druid named Harlock, a bit of a nutjob, who says he can hear the city's thoughts.

 

The Clan Bastards. Dwarven culture is built upon family. Your clan name is your history and your history defines you. In a city partly ruled by prominent dwarven clans, those that come from lower families, those disowned and exiled by their clans, often turn to forming bands of mercenaries or, in the case of Mithrak, thugs. The Clan Bastards are small change crooks, running protection and shake-down rackets, and pitfighters in the outer rings of the city. They wear no symbols of their houses and abandon their family names. Instead, they wear the bastard's symbol of a boar's skull with crossbones, and go by nicknames specific to their reputation. The Clan Bastards are famous for riding pigs and boars around the city.

Their leader, Guncan Fingerbreaker, operates pit fights throughout the city, being a former champion of the ring himself.

The Hatpin Harpies. The city can be a tough place for anybody, including young women. This tough scene creates tough women and none are tougher than the Hatpin Harpies. The harpies often work in conjunction with the Washwomen's Guild but also provide protection for orphanages, widows, and women of "ill repute". The harpies have a reputation for their disrespect for patriarchy, particularly dwarven misogyny, and take pleasure in taking opportunities to show of their disrespect for the city's institutions and the other guilds (particularly the clan bastards and the brick dragons).

Their half-orc & half-elf leader, Arabella Halfsong, started the gang after being pushed out of the Bogeymen several times. Their symbol is a yellow canary carrying a pin.

The Midnight Revelers. Punks, junkies, carnies, and sadomasochists make up the nastiest gang in the city of Mithrak. They consider themselves "artists".

The revelers might be a guild if not for their chaotic nature, being joined by their involvement in various annual festivals and carnivals held throughout the regions, and are known for their "eccentric" appearances, random acts of frivolity and violence, and their relationship with pain, drugs, and insanity. The revelers often through block parties, without the permission of the urbzthrong, that get increasingly raucous. When challenged by authority figures or other gangs, they respond with horrible violence. Their gang are all known to use any number of concoctions to increase their revelry, all of which have turned them into little more than slaves to their addictions and appetites, and ruined their lives/minds.

Their business is mostly being paid to perform/NOT TO PERFORM by citizens but they also deal in the sell of drugs & contraband that even the most ruthless businessmen have the sense not to hoist upon the populace.

Their leader is a tiefling bard, Bungler, who often calls himself the "prince of mayhem". Bungler is believed to responsible for a string of elaborate murders....and taken credit for some elaborate atrocities. Their symbol is a purple and red jester's cap.

The Sewer Scorpions. Ratfolk, perhaps even more-so than orcs and goblinoids, have been slighted in New Mithrak. After all, they have been here longer than the Founder. They make their homes in the "under-city", in the sewers and ruins that New Mithrak is built upon, and provide services relevant to their knowledge of the under-city. With little opportunity above ground, and due to the harsh nature of under-city, it is no wonder that ratfolk turn to crime. Most are part of the criminal enterprises of the Santitation Union but many youths form their own sewer gangs. The biggest and most infamous, currently, are the Sewer Scorpions.

These young toughs and scrappers claim a large portion of the city's sewer ways and demand respect for any passerbys foolish enough to find themselves in the sewers. They are common pickpockets and thugs but, within the confines of their domain, are the only crooks who know the secrets of the sewers.

They are also the most notorious "taggers" in the city, using paint to mark their territory and sometimes even making elaborate murals depicting their heroes, and the symbol of the scorpion is found on walls all over. The fact it often looks like a spider with a spiked club is another story.

The Semi-Legitimate Guilds

Their is no formal guild system recognized in the city of Mithrak. That doesn't mean there aren't guilds with a formal structure, from membership dues to retirement funds, and that these organizations manage to find a way to exist in the city.... as long as they don't threaten to unite the laborers against the urbzthrong.

The Working Women's Guild.  Maybe the guild was formed by prostitutes or maybe they were formed by washwomen, seamstresses and midwives. Or maybe both. All that matters is that the Working Women's Guild, the WWG, is formed by like-minded ladies looking out for each other in business. In a city dominated by male ambitions, the WWG is formed of equally ambitious, industrious and business-minded women. And business is booming.

While the reputation of the WWG is often slighted by less-respectful opponents, they aren't afraid to defend their reputation. A fool who goes around calling a working-woman a "whore" is quickly going to find it hard to get his socks repaired and even harder to get his socks off. It is generally considered important to follow the rules set by the WWG to protect their members and they're not afraid to respond to any infractions by calling on the harpies or other hired muscle to teach them a little respect... or throw them in the sewer.

The leader of the WWG is Prudence Redlace who operates a home & school for wayward girls. Their symbol is a cursive WWG over a corset/hourglass.

The Bodysnatchers. In a city of Mithrak's population, death is an unavoidable part of every day life. Whether there is a work accident that needs to be discreetly cleaned up or a blight tearing through the outer ring, the snatchers are called into take care of the bodies. They store the bodies for a period of time until they are either claimed or left to rot. The snatchers collect fees from those claiming the bodies and provide funerary services in the graveyards that they have collectively gathered under the banner. The urbzthrong have paid for corporate cemetaries for the bodies of employees that aren't claimed, that might as well be mass graves. But even these mass graves are better than what happened to the bodies that go completely unclaimed.

The snatchers definitely sell of their possessions but rumors abound about what the guild does with the bodies: some say the guild just throw the bodies into the sewers, others say they sell their organs and body parts to alchemists and necromancers alike and the wildest rumors claim the snatchers eat the dead. They are called "ghouls" for a reason.

The guild is currently led by a council of their most elder members. Their symbol is a coffin with crossed shovels.

The Rubythroats. Entertainment is big in New Mithrak and professional actors, singers and dancers have formed the Rubythroats. Originally, the Rubythroats were a family of gnomish bards but quickly grew their theater company, expanding to providing all sorts of membership benefits and expanding until they shifted into an unofficial guild that controls the theatre and club scene within the city's walls. Membership is earned through audition, apprenticeship and due payments.

While other entertainers are allowed to entertain in the city, the Rubythroats are known to control the best spots and their reputation carries enough wait to encourage enrollment. They have a black list that is infamously effective and any artist who's name winds upon the list would be lucky to perform on a street corner without getting harassed by "critics".

They are known to carry business cards with the symbol of a green and pink hummingbird. They are still led by the Rubythroat family and their current matriarch, Guerda Rubythroat.

The Sanitation Union. The city of New Mithrak is filthy. It produces tons of waste, both industrial and humanoid, every day that are not only unsightly but often dangerous. And, if it wasn't for the Sanitation Unions efforts, the city would be up to its knees in trash and the sewer drains would back up with waste. They keep the sewers running and they clean the streets at night. They also help ship garbage off on barges going down river and bury it in the pits under the city. Without them? This city would fail. There is no guild as underestimated and omnipresent as the Sanitation Union.

There are many gangs in the sewers. There are many who operate in the sewers. But there is only one king in the sewers and the sanitation union, all ratfolk, are his subjects, his family, and his army in a socio-political game he has been waging for a decade. The Big Cheese is a legendary figure in the sewers and his name is well-known to hang on the breath of the vithzar. If it were up to him? He would be a vithzar. Whether or not this criminal genius will ever get his due, whether or not the ratfolk will ever get respect, and whether or not the sewers will remain in the hands of their native inhabitants remains to be seen.

The vithzar don't share power easily with non-dwarves and non-gnomes.

Secret Organizations

There are at least three organizations in the borderlands that don't want their name on any outsider's lips. They operate outside the law and prefer to operate outside of common knowledge. They oppose each other vehemently and the war that they fight in the shadows could determine, not only their own fates, but the fate of the world.

The Coil of Apophis

"The snake that cannot cast aside its old skin dies. The man who cannot cast aside his identity dies too." An Apophisian Proverb

There are many snake cults in Narya. Most of them are evildoers who have tried and failed to bring about their ascension to world dominance or the very end of the world. They have overthrown and foiled several times throughout history. But, like a hydra, every time a head is cut off, the serpent splits into new horrors. The most infamous of these organizations, known and feared by scholars, political leaders and do-gooders alike, is the Coil of Apophis.

The Coil can be traced back almost a thousand years ago, back to the snake cult that installed Apep II, the colossal demigod serpent, as the god-king of Ptah-Hamut, and their members would have you believe that they are much older than that. After the death of Apep II, the snake cult was banned in Hamutia but they have simply slunk into the shadows to grow into a new and terrible form as one of the premier organizations dealing in death.

The Coil takes in orphans, training them in stealth and martial arts, and build them into completely loyal servants of the Coil. These assassins are then let loose into the world, handed missions to be carried out with no hesitation, and serving the whims of their unseen masters. Most members don't even know the name of their organization or their master's identity as they take missions from handlers. Only those assassins who earn the trust of their masters, impressing them with their skill and loyalty, learn the true nature of their purpose. They are transformed and become part of the conspiracy leading the cult.

Currently? It is no known who bears the mantle of the guild's leader, the one they call the Apophis. It is also unknown what their larger goals are beyond destabilizing the power structure of the realms and growing their own power. It is possible that many of the leaders do not believe in the cult's goals and instead play along for their own power.

Traitors are dealt with and suffer horrible consequences.

The Coil's symbol is the ouroborus, a snake eating it's own tail, often with a body in an endless loop or a spiral, representing the endless cycle of birth, growth, death and rebirth that is the coda of the cult.

The Masquerade

"We are none and we are all." A Masquerade Assassin

The Coil is driven by ambition. That is clear. What drives their rivals? What drives the Masquerade?

The members of the Masquerade, the Masqs, are strange figures. When they choose to be seen, they are always wearing a mask that is unique to them. This guild item is something that they are said to make unique to them and the guild pays good coin for the return of these masks, as well as the bodies of their fallen members, and pay even more to punish those that would keep them.  They often wear cloaks, gloves and other clothing items to disguise as much of themselves as possible. They consider it a great dishonor if anyone ever learns more about them, whether it be their appearance or anything about the guild, than they would wish to share. While the Masquerade deals in assassination, their main business is the acquisition, silencing and sale of information & secrets. They have an affinity for espionage that leaves even their customers uncomfortable.

A member of the Masquerade will always choose death over capture and are known to be unbreakable under interrogation. While the members of the Coil are known for lurking in the shadows and using the cloak of night to commit their misdeeds, the Masquerade operates in a very different manner. Masqs operate in the open. They use a mix of research, craftsmanship, and magic to create disguises that are seamless. They create or steal personas that fit perfectly into their surroundings, tailored to achieving their missions, and can live out this false-life for years and, only upon completing their mission, disappear as if they never existed. Some are so capable that they create elaborate alibis for their personas disappearance-- either killing them off to avoid suspicion or having them leave for an extended period until they have need of them again. They pull of these disguises with supernatural ease that has many question whether they are even human or some sort of chameleon humanoids. If their conspiracy is uncovered, they will flee immediately and, if forced to fight, they are notoriously deadly and fearless. Or so it seems. It is impossible to read the face of a masked assassin.

At least one captured Masq was revealed to be a changeling, a shape-shifting human/doppelganger hybrid, but reports were unable to confirm this allegation after the prisoner committed suicide with a strange poison that reduced their body a heap of silver goo.

They have no symbols or known history.

The Shepherds Guild

"The good people are like sheep in a world filled with wolves. We are the shepherds. We are the sheepdogs." The Shepherd's Decree

Not all organizations that choose to operate in secret are assassins, thieves or worse. In the case of the Shepherds, they are the opposite. They are perhaps the only neutral adventurer's guild that puts itself above simple mercenary work or treasure hunting. They have no specific religious allegiance and act outside of any rigid system. They do not serve any particular state and they do not pick sides in times of war. They are independent and they fight evil at every turn. They, perhaps naively but definitely boldly, consider themselves heroes.

The Shepherd's Guild is a secret organization ran by and composed of like-minded adventurers with the objectives of exploring the world of Narya, acquiring powerful and dangerous magical items/artifacts, and opposing the worst sorts of villainy. Ultimately, they see themselves as defenders as against threats to the world. After all, it was formed after the second Dark Age, after the beastmen horde of Kalibos almost wiped out the northern continent and threatened all of Sublanarya. Their ultimate goal is to oppose the threats to peace, justice and life that are always present and to prepare for those that are waiting for their opportunity to strike. Without the actions of the goodhearted and brave, the world would've fallen into darkness countless times. The guild finds and recruits the brave, the goodhearted and the talented and puts them to work.

Up-and-coming adventurers that join the guild are called "sheepdogs" and are expected to go on quests posted at their secret guild headquarters by the senior members of the guild, "the shepherds". These locations are carefully guarded and, somehow, are all connected by a magical network that allows for instantaneous travel between each HQ's chimney. This network is just one of many reasons the guild operates in secret due to hot it could be used for great evil purpose. The guild doesn't collect dues but it does expect the members to utilize their services, hand over powerful and dangerous artifacts for research and share in information that is useful in their war against the forces of darkness.

 The Shepherds may not always be seen by their flock, but they are always vigilant and watching over them.