Players:DwarminGroup name: Nine Lions
Kind of group: Guild
Specialty: Entertainers Guild
Color: Purple
Backstory Founded by nine former mercenaries and adventures who desired a life of peace and wealth, the Nine Lions settled in Kha'Tivan when it was rich and beautiful, using their hard won gains to found their guild-and enriched themselves in it's age of glory.
The Nine Lions are a guild supporting and controlling major Kha'Tivan venues of entertainment-from gladiators to actors, dancers and singers, carnal pleasure to religious chorus. As long as you have the money, the lions will dance for you...recently, the Guild has become somewhat more active in politics and city life in general-leveraging their power and influence to change things. As it turns out, the current state of the city is fairly terrible for business. The Nine Lions are attempting to organize what's left of business in Kha'Tivan to improve the wealth and prestige of the city, to perhaps bring about a new golden age...and of course, to make sure they benefit from it.
The Symbol of the guild is, no surprise, nine red lions in a ring on a field of royal purple, holding each others tails.
2 Influence
3 Wealth
Gambling hall, +1 Influence/turn, +2 Wealth/turn
Apothecary, +2 Influence/turn , +3.5 Wealth/turn
The Pledge, Apartment +2 Influence/turn, 0.5 Wealth/turn
The Turn, Apartment, +2 Influence/turn, 0.5 Wealth/turn
The Prestige, Apartment, +2 Influence/turn, 0.5 Wealth/turn
Baths +2 Wealth/turn, +1 Influence/turn, Acces to rumors
Gambling hall +2 Wealth/turn, +2 Influence/Turn
Theatre +2 Wealth/turn, +3 Influence/turn
Bat Lane, +1 Influence/turn
Persus13Group name: The Hyenas
Kind of group: Gang
Specialty: Racketeering
Color: Blue
Backstory: The Hyenas were created by a disgruntled group of bodyguards who weren't being paid enough, so they killed the man they were hired to protect and fled to Kha'Tivan, where they started offering businesses "protection" in exchange for money. While that is how they began, their leaders have higher aspirations now, seeking to control the entire city and bring it under their control, and then restore it to its former glory.
0 Influence
1 Wealth
Gambling den, +1 Influence/turn, +2 Wealth/turn
Hut, +1 Influence/turn
Brothel +3 Wealth/turn, +2.5 Influence/turn
House +1 Influence/turn
House +1 Influence/turn
Inn +2 Wealth/turn +1.5 Influence/turn, acces to rumors
House +1 Influence/turn
Brothel +3 Wealth/turn, +2.5 Influence/turn
Animal Pens +1 Wealth/turn
Well +1.5 Influence/turn
Animal Pens +1 Wealth/turn
SilverdragonGroup name: The Thivinei
Kind of group: Guild
Specialty: Mercenary guild
Color: Dark Green
Backstory: The Thivinei were created from a group of ex soldiers from Kha'Tivan's guard. They had grown fed up with the corruption in the city, and hired several of the mercenaries inside of town. The three swordsmen decides to try and put a stop to the corruption of the city, and set about 'convincing' their mercenaries to install order, by force if necessary. The Thivinei introduced a series of rules that the people under their command had to follow, or be put to the sword.
Number 1: Any who have been caught or accused of stealing are to be held in a prison installed in the basement of the guild house, until such a time as they are found guilty by the three Thivinei leaders. A majority vote from the three seals the fate of the accused. This therefore is standard for all trials following.
Number 2: Any accused of murder and witnessed are to be executed on the spot. Any accused of murder are to stand trial before the leaders.
Number 3: Any who are accused or caught of accepting a bribe get one of their hand cut off. If it happens a third time, the accused is to be executed.
Number 4: Any who defy the guilds rule are to be put to death without mercy. Whether they are given a trial is up to the captain in charge of the area the defiance occurred.
With these three rules, the Thivinei set about installing order in as many sections of town as they could. The guild is met with scorn in most places they enter, and are commonly attacked by others when they think no-one will notice.
The three in charge of the Thivinei are as follows: Ildivar Orthein, Ariohn Sarrak and Garith Alysux.
12 Influence
10 Wealth
Headquarters of the Thivinei, +3 Influence/turn, +1 Wealth/turn
Tavern, +2 Wealth/turn, +1 Influence/turn, acces to rumors
Weaponsmith, +3 Wealth/turn, +1 Influence/turn
House, +1 Influence/turn
Patrick HuntGroup Name: The Platinum Coin.
Kind of Group: Guild.
Specialty: " Financial Consultants. "
Color: Green.
Backstory: The Platinum Coin came into being as a merchants guild rising to promenence quickly as bankers for the wealthy and lenders for the poor by undercutting the competition and bribing members of rival guilds for information on important clients.
This culminated in the outright purchase of several of the guilds rivals leading to the ultimately failed attempt to assassinate its head when the assassins were betrayed by the guard who was for a small sum supposed to grant them entrance but in actuality for a much larger sum.
His life, had led them into a trap, the following day the rivals who had hired them were found dead and the assassins were found considerably richer.
In the years since they had shed the simple title of banker and adopted that of financial consultants operating under the motto " money makes the world go round " and using contacts in all walks of life to supply anything the client desired if the price was right with the guarantee that no record of the transaction would be kept and no word would be spoken of it from the moment money changed hands.
It is a poorly kept secret that they finance criminal activities and are frequently hired by them to provide services discreetly however those few who attempted to bring them to justice were never found or upon consideration refused to give evidence against them.
3 Influence
4 Wealth
Graveyard, +1.5 Influence/turn
Shanty, +1 Influence/turn
Shanty, +1 Influence/turn
Liquor shop +1.5 Influence/turn, +2 Wealth/turn (-0.5)
Animal pens, +1 Wealth/turn
Brewers' Guild, +3.5 Influence/turn, +1 Wealth/turn
House+1.5 Influence/turn, Home of Roulant Ayoul and the Sapphire Scarabs
Warehouse+2 Wealth/turn, +1 Influence/turn
Bank+4 Wealth/turn, +2 Influence/turn
Tavern+2 Wealth/turn, +1 Influence/turn, acces to rumors
HarbingerjmGroup name: The Inquisitive Tower/Mushrooms
Kind of group: Guild/Gang
Specialty: Wizards Guild/Assorted shady dealings, primarily "Acquisition" and "Persuasion"
Color: AquamarineBackstory:In Kha'Tivan's glory days, The Inquisitives were a loose association of Wizards, Alchemists, doctors, and various other professions that relied upon and sought knowledge. Over time, the group built up impressive collections of knowledge, instituting membership fees and using them to maintain libraries, laboratories and more.
Eventually, it solidified into a formal Guild, The Inquisitive Tower, and many members worked on developing their own information networks, some adding them to the Guild's networks over time. At it's peak the Guild was a close-knit, collaborative affair, with wealth and influence to acquire virtually any scrap of knowledge its members desired, possessing vast stores of books, artifacts, rare materials and more stored in its impressive walled complex, subGuilds governing the various professions of members housed in towers reaching to the sky, surrounding the huge central tower topped with a state-of-the-art observatory built to incorporate a huge magical gemstone of far sight.
However, with the slow decay of the city, the Guild dwindled, many members moving elsewhere, fewer new recruits being drawn from the impoverished (and more importantly, generally
unschooled) inhabitants of the city, and less resources available to preserve their collections. At its lowest point, the Guild was barely a Guild at all, just a few lone Wizards living on the top floors or basements of some of the taller houses in the cheap districts, barely keeping in contact with each other, the subGuilds for the professions having mostly either died out, moved away, or split off, to the point the Wizard subGuild inherited the overall name by default, the Star-Grasping Tower a mere memory, much like the physical holdings of the Guild.
When the Mushrooms were founded exactly is difficult to say, given the necessary...
fluidity... of criminal groups. But since even before the decline of the city started to become apparent, when law was on the out and corruption on the rise, members of the Inquisitive Tower had dabbled in the
shadier sides of business, using them both to procure all manner of things needed for research, and to apply pressure to groups that frowned on their particular fields of interest. With the utter breakdown of order in the city, and the growing desperate situation of the Guild, not to mention the near total lack of oversight on the more amoral and/or obsessive members, the two fields grew ever more entwined, until the Mushrooms (the origin of the name being unknown, some saying it was given to the group by a particularly fungus-loving member of the Tower, others that it referred to the fact that they kept popping up again every time a rival thought they were dealt with) came out ahead of the other gangs that had dealings with the Tower (by (entirely unconfirmed) rumour, due to the fact that the leadership of the Mushrooms and the Tower has quite a bit of crossover), and since then the two organisations have shared very close interests.
Very close.
That The Inquisitive Tower is a front for the Mushrooms is well known in the right circles; that the Mushrooms are a gang of petty-magic thieves working for The Inquisitive Tower is well known in others. Which is
true... depends largely on who you
ask...
While business is improving, there is a long,
long way to go should they seek to regain the heights of their former glory.
0 Influence
0 Wealth
Embalmer's, +2 Influence/turn, +3 Wealth/turn
Mason, +3.5 Wealth/turn, +1.5 Influence/turn
Mason, +3.5 Wealth/turn, +1.5 Influence/turn
Apartment +1 Influence/turn
Alchemist+2 Wealth/turn
Library+3 Influence/turn, Acces to rumors
Mage's Guild+3 Influence/turn, +3 Wealth/turn