Chapter 1: Character Creation - Group Patrons

When creating characters for an Eberron campaign, consider choosing a patron for your adventuring party. This section describes general categories of patrons and also examples of each kind of patron from across Khorvaire. Work as a team with your DM to select a group patron. As an alternative, your characters could form your own organization that might one day stand among the great powers of the world.

Mighty dragonmarked houses, small home-town newspapers, national rulers, powerful immortals, and various other organizations and individuals hold the reins of power in Khorvaire. They bind the fabric of society together, and they are responsible for much of the change that occurs in the world—often by means of agents that include parties of adventurers. An adventuring group that has a powerful backer as a patron has a clear place in the world, access to additional resources, and a reason to work together in pursuit of a common cause.

How Patrons Work

Each type of patron in this section includes the following information:

• An example of the general type of patron, including information about its organization, headquarters, allies, and enemies
• Suggestions for various roles that characters in your party might take on, including classes, backgrounds, and skills that are useful for filling that role
• Possibilities regarding your patron’s background and your characters' roles in it, including the kinds of adventures and missions you might undertake on its behalf
• Benefits your group gets from your patron, which might include compensation, equipment, privileges, and proficiencies
• A list of potential contacts who can serve as your personal connection to your patron

Assignments

Patrons are more than a resource for your group to draw on, they are also a responsibility. Some patrons might be eager to support your group, while others might prove more demanding.

Your group’s patron might occasionally come to you and give you an assignment. This can be an easy way to get into an adventure. Of course, it’s up to you how you respond to your patron’s demands, and interesting stories can emerge if you decide to refuse an assignment.

Even a patron that isn’t heavy-handed can significantly motivate your group. Maybe you’ll seek adventures based on what pleases your patron and so earn a reward. A university, for example, might not send you on a particular mission, but you might decide to follow leads to an ancient artifact hoping the university might reward you for bringing it back. You have the freedom to chart your own destiny, while still letting the patron shape the nature of your group and the adventures you undertake.

It might help to think of the patrons in this section in terms of three broad categories of autonomy:

With a highly directive patron, you are an employee of an organization, and the organization often tells you what to do. Crime syndicates, dragonmarked houses, espionage agencies, military forces, and newspapers are typically highly directive.

With a highly autonomous patron, you are more like a freelancer. Your patron might offer you assignments or reward you for achieving certain objectives, but it doesn’t dictate your activities. Adventurers' guilds, heads of state, immortal beings, inquisitive agencies, religious orders, and universities are typically highly autonomous.

In a player-directed organization, you don’t have a patron because your adventuring party is in charge. You’re the boss; you tell others what to do, and you’re responsible to no one for your own activities. A criminal syndicate, inquisitive agency, military force, or newspaper can be a player-directed organization.

Benefits and Favors

Every group patron offers your party a number of benefits for your service. These benefits range from standard business arrangements, like a salary and access to staff facilities, to more extraordinary boons, like audiences with powerful figures or exceptions from certain laws. Specific benefits are presented in more detail in the benefits section of each group patron.

Beyond the benefits described in each group patron’s description, patrons can also grant additional favors. If your party is in good standing with your patron—proving yourselves reliable agents who fulfill the group’s goals—your patron might grant requests for additional favors. A favor might take a variety of forms appropriate to the patron’s area of influence or expertise, such as small loans, specialized equipment, or access to people and places you wouldn’t otherwise have. Patrons who you regularly find yourself in conflict with aren’t likely to grant you favors, unless doing so directly furthers their goals.

In any case, the DM shouldn’t feel limited to providing only the benefits noted in each group patron’s description. Patrons give a party access to solutions and support they wouldn’t have otherwise, and a patron might use their varied resources to guide their agents or prepare them for greater adventures.

Being Your Own Patron

For certain kinds of organizations, you can either join an existing group or found your own. For some players, the idea of running a crime syndicate, inquisitive agency, mercenary company, or newspaper is much more exciting than working for someone else. Founding your own organization offers a greater degree of autonomy, though potentially at the cost of support and reliable work.

The information in this section applies whether you join an organization or found your own. When you’re the boss, some of the benefits of belonging to an organization become expenses you have to worry about; when you run your own mercenary company, for example, you need to stock your own armory rather than drawing on an existing organization’s stockpile. The organization brings in income, but you’ll have to spend some of it to keep the organization running.

When you run your own organization, you can use the Running a Business downtime activity (see chapter 6 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide) to reflect your organization’s ongoing activities. More than one character can take part in this activity at a time. When rolling to determine the business’s performance, add the total days spent by all the characters to the roll to determine the business’s success (still observing the maximum of 30). If the business earns a profit, multiply that profit by 4 + the number of characters who took part in this downtime activity.

Patrons in Eberron

Here are the most likely types of patrons for an adventuring group in Eberron. Presented in alphabetical order, the patrons each include an example.

Patrons

Adventurers' Guild

Your group has ties to a network of professional adventurers. These experts share contacts, resources, and leads on all manner of unusual and often dangerous work. Joining such a guild makes an ideal choice if you want to keep your entanglements with a patron to a minimum, as an adventurers' guild doesn’t direct your activities or reward you for completing adventures.

With a few exceptions, adventurers' guilds are local in scope, since their primary benefits center on a guildhall. They might point you to adventures halfway across the world, but the general assumption is that you’ll always come home to your guildhall, sooner or later.

Clifftop Adventurers' Guild

Sharn’s Clifftop neighborhood, located in the upper part of the Dura district, has long served as a crossroads for adventurers and soldiers of fortune. A dwarf named Shekkal Korranor established the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild 150 years ago, intending it as a place where explorers and wanderers could find support and good company. Shekkal died in the Last War, but the guild remains—a social club for adventurers and a one-stop marketplace for anyone seeking capable champions.

The Clifftop guild has a reputation as a collection of helpful and good-hearted adventurers. Members who tarnish the guild’s reputation can no longer take advantage of the guild’s benefits.

Guildhall

The Clifftop Adventurers' Guild headquarters is the physical and social center of its district, a massive stone edifice built with the riches acquired over a lifetime of adventuring. Part quiet library, part comfortable inn, part active gymnasium, and part rowdy tavern, the guildhall contains practically every facility adventurers could need to train, study, and socialize. The neighborhood around it caters to adventurers' other needs with its variety of shops and services.

Membership

Most of the members of the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild have a modest amount of experience as successful adventurers. Nearly everyone can boast of a successful delve into the old ruins beneath Sharn or an expedition to the Talenta Plains. The guild’s leader, a dwarf named Sumara “Summer” Korranor, is a descendant of its founder and a fixture around the guildhall.

Allies

Relationships with most of the guild’s allies are based on business and built on upstanding reputations. Ultimately, though, the guild is a loose affiliation of groups, and organizations that have a good relationship with one of those groups might not transfer their good will to another. The following groups do brisk business with members of the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild:

Voice of Breland—Watch Commander or Crime Lord?

Watch Commander Lian Halamar, in charge of the large and prestigious Daggerwatch Garrison in Sharn’s Dura quarter, has long been suspected of ties to the infamous Boromar Clan. Though these suspicions are often dismissed as simple prejudice in the assumption that any halfling in Sharn must be associated with the crime syndicate, the Voice of Breland, in cooperation with civic-minded members of the Clifftop Adventurers' Guid, have uncovered stunning evidence confirming this connection. The Clifftop guild denies claims that these accusations embody the latest fracas in the long-running tensions between the Daggerwatch Garrison and the city’s various groups of heroes for hire.

Affiliated guilds. Beyond Sharn, the guild has established good relations with adventuring guilds across Khorvaire, many of which have reciprocal agreements: their members can use the Clifftop facilities when they are in Sharn, and Clifftop guild members can make use of their facilities as well. Lists of these other guilds are kept in the Sharn guildhall.

Clifftop businesses. The guild is a prominent feature in its neighborhood, and much of the area is dedicated to meeting guild’s needs. Some businesses there offer small (5 percent) discounts to guild members, and all businesses are eager to avoid angering members of the guild lest they lose the business of other members.

House Sivis. A Speakers' Guild enclave in Clifftop specializes in translating texts from Xen’drik. It also provides legal services for adventurers in trouble.

House Tharashk. The Tharashk enclave in Clifftop provides the services of guides with extensive experience exploring Xend’rik, and it is careful to retain only guides who receive positive referrals from guild members. House Tharashk also uses the guild as a means to hire adventurers to serve as bodyguards on their own prospecting expeditions.

Enemies

Individual adventuring groups readily make lasting enemies, and occasionally that animosity extends to the guild as a whole—as is the case with the following organizations:

Deathsgate Explorers' Club. A fierce rivalry simmers between the Clifftop guild and Sharn’s other local adventurers' guild. Sometimes the rivalry can be described as almost friendly, but the Deathsgate guild occasionally escalates it with vandalism of the Clifftop guildhall or even physical (but usually nonlethal) attacks on guild members in dark alleys.

Sharn Watch. Clifftop is protected of the Daggerwatch Garrison and Watch Commander Lian Halamar. Halamar has no love for adventurers and is happy to catch guild members on the wrong side of the law.

Guild Benefits

As members of an adventurers' guild, your group gains the following benefits:

Accommodations. Guild members can stay at the guildhall. The room is comparable to one you’d find in a comfortable inn, but at a modest price (5 sp per day).

Dues. These benefits require the annual contribution of 13 gp paid to the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild. These dues fund the guild’s services and activities. (Other guilds typically charge dues somewhere between 10 and 15 gp per year.)

Information. An adventurers' guild headquarters makes a good place to learn about topics relevant to adventurers' interests. If you need to find someone who’s knowledgeable about the Mournland, for example, the Clifftop guild’s headquarters in Sharn is a good place to look.

Referrals. The guild can recommend hired services to its members, drawing on other guild members' experiences to provide honest, reliable, and skillful hirelings.

Storage. The guild will store items for its members. The Clifftop guild has an account with House Kundarak banks that allow its members to store valuables in secure vaults. Some guilds have access to items such as a bag of holding or a safe that opens into a similar extradimensional space. In the worst case, an item can be hidden in a guildhall’s basement for a time.

Build Your Group

Membership in an adventurers' guild doesn’t affect the composition of your party in any way, though it may provide added reasons for why a party features a diverse array of characters with varied fields of expertise.

Adventurers' Guild Contacts

Typically, an adventuring group has no particular contact within the larger guild. There’s a local leader or bookkeeper who collects dues, but otherwise you might interact with a variety of different members of the guild in different contexts—when looking for a contract, gathering referrals, staying in the guildhall, and so on. The Guild Contact table provides inspiration for contacts you might encounter during any given encounter with your adventurer’s guild.

Guild Contacts

Guild Adventures

Among its various services, the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild offers a launchpad for all manner of adventures. Potential employers bring all manner of work to the guildhall, posting messages or seeking out those with specific fields of expertise. Guild members also relate news about opportunities via word of mouth. Such jobs might resemble those assigned by any other patron. Without a patron directing your assignments, your group is free to pursue its own goals, whether you’re seeking wealth, struggling against evil, pursuing a personal vendetta, or simply reacting to disastrous events around you. The Guild Adventures table refers to the descriptions of other patrons in this section; your DM can use the adventure ideas in those descriptions to flesh out job opportunities available through your guild.

Guild Adventures

In any of these cases, the potential employer might represent an established organization (a crime syndicate or university, for example) or might be independent like your party. In the latter case, there’s always the possibility that you could end up competing with an organization—running up against a crime syndicate while pursuing a criminal job, perhaps, or competing with university researchers to plunder a ruin. This competition might turn into a rivalry, or it could evolve into employment, with the crime syndicate or university recognizing your talent and becoming your patron.

Other Adventurers' Guilds

Few guilds besides the Clifftop guild are widely known, but the following organizations have carved out reputations for themselves:

Deathsgate Explorers' Club. Named for the lower-class district in Sharn where it maintains its guildhall, the Deathsgate Explorers' Club is a rough-and-tumble guild made up largely of Last War veterans. Deathsgaters rarely undertake adventures from altruistic motives, demanding prompt payment or other reciprocal arrangements. They have a fierce rivalry with the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild.

Wayfinder Foundation. Founded by a renowned hunter and explorer, Lord Boroman ir’Dayne, the Wayfinder Foundation is an exclusive adventurers' guild that welcomes only experienced and renowned members. Dayne suffers from a wasting curse that prevents him from undertaking further adventures of his own, so he has put his considerable fortune to use in sponsoring great expeditions. The Wayfinder Foundation has an unusually wide reach for an adventurers' guild, with guildhalls found across Khorvaire as well as in the city of Stormreach, in Xen’drik. Its headquarters, and the residence of its wealthy patron, is in Fairhaven.

Crime Syndicate

Your group is a team of crooks that’s part of an organized crime syndicate. You’re more talented and have a wider range of skills than most thugs and burglars, so your crew might be entrusted with more important tasks than simply roughing up local merchants or breaking into empty apartments. If you’re anything like a typical adventuring party, you bring a combination of powerful magic, physical might, and a broad selection of skills to your work, making you well suited to missions like grand heists, high-profile assassinations, and epic cons.

Crime syndicates thrived during the Last War. The war left many people desperate, driving them into lives of crime. The war also demanded huge numbers of able-bodied soldiers, which reduced the ranks of law enforcement across Khorvaire. As a result, most settlements have some organized criminal element, ranging from small local thieves' guilds to international organizations with dozens of interconnected branches.

Boromar Clan

The Boromar Clan is the most powerful criminal organization in the city of Sharn. From its humble start as a gang of smugglers and thieves, the Boromars have risen to become one of the most influential forces in the city. They have a stranglehold on the smuggling trade and own the majority of the gambling halls in the city, while most of the fences and thieves in Sharn either work directly for the them or pay tribute in exchange for independence. The Boromars control a vast network of extortion, blackmail, and graft that extends throughout the city, and their influence reaches far beyond the criminal underworld. The early Boromar patriarchs invested wisely over the centuries, and today the Boromars are one of the Sixty, the elite tier of Sharn’s aristocracy. The Boromar Clan owns warehouses, taverns, and inns throughout the city, and it has a considerable interest in the shipping trade. A Boromar heir sits on the city council of Sharn, and the current head of the clan is a member of the Gold Concord of the Aurum (described in chapter 4).

As much as some members of the Sharn Council and the Watch would like to see the Boromars disbanded, the syndicate is unlikely to collapse any time soon.

Membership

The core membership of the Boromar Clan—comprising about one in six of its members—is an extended family of halflings descended from immigrants who came to Sharn from the Talenta Plains. Another third of the members are unrelated halflings, and the rest belong to other species. The syndicate employs a wide variety of bookkeepers and administrators as well as burglars, con artists, smugglers, and other criminals. When a situation calls for physical violence, the Boromars usually hire freelancers—members of the Sharn Guard or agents of House Tarkanan. The Boromar family proper has a team of personal bodyguards called the Clawfoots, who are mostly fierce halfling warriors recently relocated from the Talenta Plains. They primarily defend Boromar holdings and headquarters in the halfling district of Little Plains.

Allies

The Boromar Clan has a reputation for omnipotence that makes even the forces of law and order in Sharn hesitant to cross it. It’s far safer to be an ally of the syndicate, or at least to stay out of its way, than it is to be its enemy—and it’s more lucrative to boot. The following groups count themselves among the Boromar Clan’s closest allies:

House Jorasco. The head of the Boromar Clan, Saidan Boromar, is married to an unmarked heir of House Jorasco, Mala Boromar d’Jorasco. This marriage has created important ties between the Boromars and the halfling healers of Sharn. Members of the Boromar family can secure healing for free, and other members of the syndicate receive a 10 percent discount at Jorasco houses of healing.

Sharn Council. Of the seventeen members of Sharn’s city council, four have close ties to the Boromar Clan—including one, Ilyra Boromar, who reports directly to the head of the syndicate. These four vote as a bloc to ensure that the council doesn’t take direct action against the Boromars, while enough of the other council members fear the syndicate that they tend to carry the vote. A member of the Boromar Clan can call in a favor to secure an audience with one of these councilors, though such does not guarantee aid.

Sharn Watch. The Boromars have been bribing captains of the Sharn Watch for generations. What’s more, if the Boromar Clan collapsed, the underworld would erupt in anarchy as dozens of petty crime lords fought for territory and position. As a result, a member of the Boromars can call in a favor to get minor criminal charges dismissed.

Enemies

Despite the Boromar Clan’s position of strength in Sharn, it has many foes, and their unrelenting assaults have put the syndicate in what might be its most precarious position ever. Currently, the following groups pose the greatest threats to Boromar interests:

Daask. The monstrous criminal guild called Daask, a pawn of the leaders of Droaam, has started launching violent raids against Boromar holdings over the last two years. A mobile organization using guerrilla tactics, Daask has managed to circumvent Boromar security and avoid serious reprisals for a range of violent thefts and sabotages. Agents of Daask go out of their way to harm up-and-coming Boromar agents.

Sharn Council. Despite four friends on the city council, the Boromar Clan has several enemies as well. At least three councilors oppose the Boromars because of genuine concern for their constituents; two more oppose the syndicate because they’re part of rival organizations (the Aurum and the Tyrants). Because of their influence, the council has so far refused to devote any resources to combating the rise of Daask, hoping the monstrous guild will bring down the Boromars. Individual members of the Boromar Clan can be sure that these councilors will oppose any petition they might bring to the council.

Patron Benefits

With a crime syndicate as your group’s patron, you gain the following benefits:

The Sharn Inquisitive—Savagery in style at Tain gala

The annual Tain Gala, as everyone knows, brings the wealthiest and most prominent citizens of Sharn together in a grand display of opulence and power. But last night, it also provided a shocking display of violence, as Saidan Boromar—head of the Boromar family, which is allegedly tied to all manner of criminal activities throughout the city—was confronted by a would-be assassin (whose name will not be made public until her next of kin have been identified and notified). Boromar and his wife, Mala Boromar d’Jorasco, escaped unharmed thanks to the timely intervention of their bodyguard, a recent immigrant from the Talenta Plains whose fascinating culture and fierce demeanor were both in plain view last night. A Boromar spokesperson identified the bodyguard as Halak Boromar, head of the Clawfoots—the Boromar family’s personal guard, named for the dinosaurs ridden by halflings in the Talenta Plains.

Assignments. The Boromar Clan doesn’t pay you, but it might assign you to particular tasks. Sometimes these are tasks someone has hired the syndicate to perform (such as an assassination), in which case the syndicate passes 85 percent of the fee on to your group. Other times, your aim is to enrich the syndicate (such as by pulling off a heist), in which case you have the privilege of keeping 85 percent of what you steal. Other syndicates might take more or less than a 15 percent share, at the DM’s discretion.

Contraband. You have access to your syndicate’s “business” of dealing with contraband, such as poisons or narcotics. You don’t receive a discount on these goods, but you can always find someplace to purchase them.

Fences. Members or associates of your syndicate are skilled at disposing of stolen goods, and you have access to this service as well. Fences are useful for selling not just illicit goods but also expensive items such as works of art and even magic items. In the case of magic items, this allows you to delegate the work of finding a buyer (a downtime activity described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) to the fence. The drawback is that you don’t get to choose whether to accept the offer you might receive—the fence makes that call for you.

Immunity. As a member of the Boromar Clan, you are protected from other members of the clan. No one in your syndicate targets you for their own criminal operations. (Of course, the same is expected of you.) On the other hand, if you have rivals within the clan, they might find other ways to interfere with your activities.

Syndicate-Owned Businesses. The Boromar Clan owns several businesses, primarily as fronts for laundering money. When you buy from one of these businesses, you get a 5 percent discount. The DM decides what goods and services are available.

Build Your Group

Naturally, a large portion of the Boromar Clan’s members come from a criminal background. There’s no reason characters with other backgrounds can’t be part of the syndicate, though. The Boromars recruit ex-soldiers as muscle, trained sages for research, sailors to crew smuggling vessels, and charlatans and urchins for their unique talents. Consider some or all of these roles for characters in your party:

Bruiser. Sometimes subtlety means breaking just one of a snitch’s kneecaps. The Bruiser uses force and the threat of force to make sure that the crime syndicate gets what it wants. Strength is a natural prerequisite for the role, but Charisma can also be useful, especially when combined with proficiency in Intimidation to reinforce the danger inherent in the Bruiser’s presence. Plenty of Bruisers have a criminal past, but former soldiers are often recruited into this role as well. Fighters and rogues make natural Bruisers.

Burglar. Agile and nimble, the Burglar relies on Dexterity and proficiency in skills such as Acrobatics, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth to get in to a target location, take valuables, and get out without being noticed. Some Burglars specialize in certain types of theft, such as housebreaking or picking pockets. Besides characters with the criminal background, young urchins often find a place in criminal syndicates by filling this role. Rogues are natural Burglars, but anyone else with the right combination of skills and abilities can do the job.

Mastermind. Somebody has to be the brains of any criminal operation—that’s where the Mastermind comes in. A high Intelligence benefits this character, as does proficiency in skills such as Insight and Investigation. Masterminds often come from backgrounds such as acolyte, noble, or sage, that give them a broad range of knowledge to support their schemes. Bards, rogues, and wizards are often drawn to this role.

Safecracker. The “breaking” part of “breaking and entering” is the Safecracker’s job. A typical Safecracker might have proficiency with thieves' tools, as well as the Dexterity required to use them expertly. Intelligence can be important for figuring out complicated locks and secret doors. Many Safecrackers also boast a high Strength for those cases where lockpicks fail. Safecrackers often come from criminal backgrounds, but characters with experience using other tools and devices, including guild artisans and even sailors, also fall naturally into this role. Artificer or rogue makes a natural class choice for the Safecracker.

Talker. From con artists to fences, anyone who relies on interpersonal skills and a network of contacts falls into the role of the Talker. Charisma proves useful for this role, along with proficiencies in skills such as Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion. The charlatan background is perfect for Talkers, but criminals, urchins, and others can fill the role with the right skills. Bards are a natural fit for the job as well.

Types of Crime

Your work as syndicate members involves more than simple street swindles or pickpocketing. A team with your skills comes together for greater purposes—more dangerous risks and far more splendid rewards. As a group, consider the options on the Syndicate Crimes table and work with your DM to decide what kinds of work you do for the Boromar Clan.

Syndicate Crimes

Infamy

Even among the notorious Boromar Clan, your group has a distinct identity and a reputation. What’s the event or unique trait that makes your crew stand out? Consult the Group Infamy table for suggestions on how your group might stand out within the larger syndicate.

Group Infamy

Rival Outfit

Some criminals believe you can’t do a job without betraying your partners. Perhaps you have your own share of adversaries you’ve angered. The Group Rivals table presents a host of groups and individuals who might—legitimately or otherwise—hold a grudge against you.

Group Rivals

Crime Syndicate Contacts

Everyone has a well-defined place in the Boromar Clan hierarchy. You report to a contact who oversees your work, giving you assignments, and collecting the syndicate’s cut. This person might be a criminal mastermind who plans all your exploits, or they could leave the planning to your group. In any case, the Syndicate Contact table can help you define the personality of this contact.

Syndicate Contact

Other Crime Syndicates

The city of Sharn is unusual in that it is home to no less than four powerful syndicates, which somehow have not yet managed to wipe each other out. The Boromar Clan is one crime syndicate, while the others include the following groups:

Voice of Breland—Blood ADDICTS' Dragon Drug

Imagine it: a long-lasting state of euphoria, a feeling of power and energy, a measurable impact on certain magical powers, and the risk of addiction and deadly overdose with every use. That’s the thrill of the drug called dragon’s blood, which currently enjoys skyrocketing popularity in Sharn. Every day the death toll from this mysterious substance rises among “blood addicts.” And no wonder, as it’s produced in Droaam and sold in drams or “veins” by the monstrous thugs of Daask, who surely seek nothing less than to destroy the prosperity of Sharn but targeting its most precious resource: its sober, hardworking people. Remember friends, “Stay on the wagon. Say NO to dragon!”

Daask. Daask is an aggressive criminal organization with cells across Khorvaire. Led by monstrous immigrants from Droaam—gnolls, harpies, medusas, minotaurs, ogres, trolls, and others—the group is ultimately under the command of Sora Katra, one of the rulers of Droaam. Physical violence is its specialty, but Daask also dabbles in illegal drugs.

House Tarkanan. House Tarkanan is known as a small order of highly skilled assassins and thieves in Sharn. Less well known is the fact that this guild consists primarily of criminals who bear aberrant dragonmarks—hence its choice of namesake, as Lord Halas Tarkanan united the bearers of these marks during the ancient War of the Mark.

The Tyrants. The Tyrants are a mysterious group of shapeshifters who traffic in all manner of information. They sell secrets, blackmail powerful people, and forge everything from identification papers to coins and works of art.

Running Your Own. Rather than join an existing syndicate, you can start your own. You need to establish your own headquarters and direct the activities of the 3d6 criminals who work for you. By claiming a 15 percent share of their take, you can rely on an income that will sustain you at a modest lifestyle, plus an additional 1d6 gp in profit per week. You can access contraband and fences as described earlier in this section, but you don’t get a discount at syndicate-owned businesses unless you acquire some businesses of your own. You can also use the Running a Business downtime activity to direct the activities of your syndicate.

Dragonmarked House

Your group works for one of the most influential organizations in Khorvaire: the dragonmarked houses. Whether or not any member of your group carries a dragonmark or is even related to one of the houses by blood, you act on behalf of a house to advance its interests. You might function openly as representatives of the house, wearing its badge and exerting its authority, or you could be covert or unacknowledged agents.

The thirteen dragonmarked houses are described in detail earlier in this chapter.

Patron Benefits

With a dragonmarked house as your group’s patron, you gain the following benefits:

Compensation. Your patron house pays you for the work you do on its behalf. On average, the house pays each member of your group an amount equal to 10 gp × the average level of your characters per day you spend on the mission.

House Services. When you require the services provided by your patron house, you can secure them at a discounted rate (10 percent off the normal charge). You might also be able to trade in a favor to get extraordinary services or a larger discount.

Independence. Each member of your group is issued papers that identifies you as agents of your patron house. Because the dragonmarked houses are bound to political neutrality by the terms of the ancient Korth Edicts, these papers guarantee you the right to travel freely across national borders on the business of your patron house. (If you assert that you are on the business of the house, even if you aren’t, border agents are unlikely to challenge you.)

Build Your Group

Dragonmarked houses employ adventurers who suit their needs. The roles characters play in a group with a dragonmarked house patron often have more to do with their relationship to the house than with the specific roles in the party. Consider some or all of these roles for your characters:

Adventurer. Some characters are associated with your patron house because of their connection to its ruling family or its businesses. The Adventurer, though, is hired by the house for more traditional adventuring skills—usually capabilities that the house’s other agents lack. The Adventurer might have a wide range of abilities, particular to whatever needs the House has at the time. Many with peculiar skills or highly specific fields of expertise find themselves in the employ of dragonmarked houses or house members with eccentric interests and deep pockets.

Guilder. Every dragonmarked house is more than a single family. Each house encompasses at least one guild that operates just like a traditional craft or trade guild, and hundreds of people associate with these guilds while having no other relationship to the houses that oversee them. The Guilder is among these, perhaps being a skilled physician or cleric in House Jorasco’s Healers Guild, for example, or an inquisitive associated with House Tharashk’s Finders Guild. The Guilder might have the guild artisan background or some other set of skills suited to the specialties of your patron house’s guilds.

Heir. The Heir is a member of your dragonmarked house patron, related by blood and carrying the house name. This character most likely chooses the race that matches the bloodline of the house. The Heir can be dragonmarked (with the appropriate marked subrace or racial variant) or unmarked. The house agent background (described in this chapter) proves particularly appropriate for this character.

House Missions

Your group and your DM should decide together which house employs you. The nature of the missions you undertake depends in part on the house or guild you work for, but there are general categories of work that every house needs agents to perform on its behalf. The House Missions table provides suggestions for which house might employ you along with multiple possibilities for adventures that overlap with their interests. For the more general kind of work you might carry out on behalf of any dragonmarked house, consult the General House Missions table.

General House Missions

House Missions

House Status

Politics within a dragonmarked house can be vicious. Perhaps your the house leadership’s favorite scion. Perhaps you’ve been exiled from your house for misdeeds—your own or another’s. In any case, use the Group Status table to determine your party’s standing within the organization.

Group Status

Dragonmarked House Contacts

Your primary contact within your patron house is another house agent—perhaps a dragonmarked heir, another family member, or a guild leader. Some contacts are devoted to the house and its interests, while others might use your group to pursue a personal agenda. Consult the House Contacts table to determine what sort of arbiter oversees your party.

House Contacts

The Twelve

Rather than working for one single house, your group could work for an organization that serves them all: the Twelve. This is a good option if you want to be involved in the intrigue among the dragonmarked houses while playing characters who come from different houses.

The Korranberg Chronicle—Feud within the Twelve?

Reports emerged this week of bitter disputes within the Twelve, the arcane institution that supposedly embodies the spirit of cooperation among the houses. According to a source that wished to remain anonymous, a special meeting of the Committee of Twelve was called last week to address accusations that researchers connected to House Kundarak had been diverting funds from the institute’s budget to fund their own private projects, then concealing the results of those projects from their colleagues. Kundarak’s representative, according to our source, denied the accusations, saying that the researchers are operating within their allotted budget and keeping their results secret only temporarily, as a matter of house security.

This matter is far from resolved, as the council meeting devolved into shouted arguments before disbanding. Representatives of House Medani and House Tharashk were particularly vocal in denouncing Kundarak, leaving this reporter to wonder whether a schism within the Council of Twelve might be imminent—and what that might mean for peaceful relations among the dragonmarked houses themselves.

The Twelve facilitates communication and cooperation among the dragonmarked houses. As part of the agreements that ended the War of the Mark, the houses agreed to create an institute for the application of magic—a foundation that would study dragonmarks, along with more traditional forms of magic. Over the centuries, the Twelve has been responsible for many magical advances, including the airships operated by House Lyrandar and the message stations of House Sivis

As an arm of the dragonmarked houses, the Twelve attempted to remain neutral during the Last War, but many of its wizards and artificers had national loyalties that were stronger than their ties to the institute. Now that the Twelve has resumed normal operations, it seeks to replace its lost members and make sure that each house is represented.

While the Twelve provides a way for your group to work for multiple dragonmarked houses, its goals and benefits are similar to those of an individual house. Consider using the following details as a template if there’s a particular dragonmarked house you wish to serve.

Patronage

As a patron, the Twelve is functionally similar to a dragonmarked house. Rather than advancing one house’s interests, though, the Twelve seeks to advance magical developments that have practical value to society as well as potential for profit. All the houses contribute to the operating budget of the institute, and in theory they all benefit from the results of its research.

As agents of the Twelve, you might undertake missions intended to help one house at a time or all of them at once, typically with a focus on magical research or problem-solving. Members of your group might have different status within their houses, but within the Twelve you’re held as equals. The Twelve pay you (see “Patron Benefits”), and as their agents, you receive a 5 percent discount on services from all the dragonmarked houses (rather than a 10 percent discount from one house).

Leadership

The Committee of Twelve oversees the institute. It currently has fifteen members, though its membership is a matter of significant disagreement within the council. There are of course only twelve dragonmarks, but the Mark of Shadow is represented by two different houses, and House Cannith is currently fragmented into three branches, each of which has claimed a seat on the council.

The Twelve is headquartered in a many-spired keep that floats in the air above the city of Korth in Karrnath. Most researchers funded by the Twelve operate within this structure, but the institute occasionally pays grants to researchers whose promising work can’t easily (or safely) be relocated inside the keep.

Allies

With a long record of providing benefit to society at large, the Twelve is widely respected. Some of their closest allies include the following groups:

Dragonmarked Houses. Above all, the Twelve has the almost universal support of the dragonmarked houses, which provide the funding to support its continued operation. One of the few things that all the houses agree on is that the Twelve should be allowed to do its work in peace. Agents of the Twelve can count on at least a minimal level of assistance from the houses in case of dire need.

King Kaius. Not every nation shares the same goodwill toward the Twelve, but the institutes’s location above the city of Korth makes its relationship with Karrnath particularly important. The kings of Karrnath have regularly sought council from the Twelve, and Kaius has not abandoned this practice. Agents of Karrnath’s government are inclined to trust agents of the Twelve and side with them in times of trouble.

Manifest Institute. In the city of Sharn, the Twelve sponsors the research of a number of scholars who make a study of the manifest zone that links the city to the plane of Syrania. Loosely organized as the Manifest Institute, these researchers include representatives from House Cannith, House Lyrandar, House Orien, and others, as well as those who work directly for the Twelve. The institute evaluates ways that the manifest zone might improve life in Sharn, seeks a deeper understanding of manifest zones in general, and plans contingencies in the event that the manifest zone ever evaporates.

Enemies

Most enemies of the Twelve are individuals with grudges against the institute, which often stem from hurt feelings over being excluded from it. Those noted here number among the Twelve’s fiercest foes:

Arcane Congress. Established by King Galifar I expressly to serve as a political answer to the Twelve, the Arcane Congress competes with the Twelve over resources and students. Some would argue that the ongoing rivalry encourages both institutions toward more and better arcane discoveries, but the animosity sometimes escalates to sabotage and researchers taking excessive risks.

Mordain the Fleshweaver. Not many personal grudges jeopardize the Twelve, but when a powerful wizard feels slighted, the impact can be significant. The elf wizard Mordain was banished from the Twelve more than two centuries ago because of his disturbing experiments related to the magic of the daelkyr. He dwells in Droaam now, focused on his research and plotting revenge. His reach isn’t long, but agents of the Twelve avoid Droaam if at all possible.

Espionage Agency

Secret agents, spies, undercover operatives—your group is part of an organization engaged in espionage. Most such agencies are attached to governments or dragonmarked houses, gathering information on the activities and plans of rival nations, houses, and businesses. Naturally, your affiliation with an espionage agency is a secret; you can’t advertise that connection, and if you get in trouble with law enforcement forces (especially in foreign nations), your home nation will disavow you and deny any knowledge of your activities.

It’s said the Last War was fought as much by spies as by armies. Espionage agencies in every nation sought secrets to bring military supremacy to their own lands and provide dominance over their neighbors. In the years since the end of the war, a clandestine struggle among these agencies (which the Korranberg Chronicle dubbed the Shadow War) has continued unabated, just outside of the public eye.

King’s Dark Lanterns

The King’s Dark Lanterns is the intelligence division of the King’s Citadel, an organization sworn to defend Breland from its enemies and dispense justice in the name of King Boranel. As the secret servants of the crown, members of the organization are granted the authority to conduct intelligence operations on foreign soil, execute covert missions across the globe, and prevent national secrets from falling into the hands of rival intelligence agencies. The Dark Lanterns also have an unwritten license to eliminate any creature that threatens their nation, its sovereign, or its citizens.

Headquarters

The King’s Citadel is based in Breland’s capital city of Wroat, under the command of the king’s brother, Lord Kor ir’Wynarn. A changeling named Captain Vron serves as the leader of the Dark Lanterns, with four subordinate knights marshal leading branch offices across Breland, in Sharn, Starilaskur, and Xandrar. A much smaller branch office keeps an eye on Brelish interests in the city of Stormreach, in Xen’drik. Small, temporary field offices are sometimes established to coordinate missions outside Breland; these offices double as safe houses for agents in trouble, and they are designed to be wiped clean at a moment’s notice if discovered by local authorities.

The Sharn office of the King’s Citadel is in Andith Tower in the Ambassador Towers district. Though a knight marshal commands the office, most of the King’s Citadel members in Sharn are Dark Lanterns, and thus under the authority of a scheming and ruthless gnome named Talleon Haliar Tonan.

Agents

The King’s Dark Lanterns includes more than 500 agents operating within Breland’s borders and roughly one-fifth that number stationed abroad. They often work in teams, and also work closely with the other divisions of the Citadel. Sometimes they recruit local talent, often under false pretenses, to help them accomplish their missions in foreign lands.

Allies

By their nature, espionage agencies must be cautious in choosing their allies, and the King’s Dark Lanterns is no exception. Its most trustworthy allies include the following facets of the Brelish government:

King Boranel. The King’s Dark Lanterns, as one would expect, serve the king of Breland, and he is their greatest advocate and ally. The king views loyalty as mutual: as long as an agent’s loyalty is irreproachable, Boranel is willing to exercise his considerable power on that agent’s behalf.

The King’s Citadel. The Citadel has three branches besides the Dark Lanterns. The King’s Swords are elite special combat forces. The King’s Shields protect the king and his closest family members and associates. The King’s Wands provide magical support to the other branches of the Citadel as well as other Brelish forces. Some Dark Lanterns might think themselves superior to members of the other branches, but even so they recognize other Citadel agents as players on the same team. When your group needs a little extra help, the other branches of the Citadel are there for you.

Enemies

Rare is the espionage agency that is loved. Even within Breland, the populace views the Dark Lanterns with suspicion, and powerful people outside the royal family harbor resentment at the influence of the Citadel. Many people and institutions outside Breland view the Dark Lanterns as a hostile force. As a result, the following groups account for just a few enemies of the Dark Lanterns:

Brelish Populists. As much as King Boranel is loved in his country, many Brelish voices argue that the era of monarchy is at an end, and the throne of Breland should be replaced by a government democratically elected by the citizenry. When these forces grow restless enough to plot and riot, the Citadel—and often the Dark Lanterns—work to bring them to heel. As a result, those who question the authority of the king are the most likely Brelish citizens to mistrust the Dark Lanterns or view them with open hostility. According to rumor some of those people even hold high positions in the Brelish government.

Foreign Nations. Every nation knows the King’s Dark Lanterns serves as an espionage force and do their best to track the movements of Dark Lantern agents within their borders. Foreign governments treat Dark Lantern agents with care to avoid sparking an international incident, but they are quick to arrest Dark Lantern agents suspected of wrongdoing.

New Cyre. One of the world’s largest concentrations of Cyran refugees settled in eastern Breland under the leadership of Oargev ir’Wynarn, the last prince of Cyre. Many voices among the Cyrans, possibly including Oargev himself, call for the establishment of an independent nation in what is now Brelish territory, but Boranel is determined to hold on to every acre of his land. The Dark Lanterns actively infiltrate the Cyran refugee community, rooting out those who would act against the king.

Patron Benefits

You gain the following benefits when your group’s patron is an espionage agency:

Assignments. Your agency might assign you specific tasks at any time, at the DM’s discretion. You have wide latitude regarding how you carry out a task, and your assignments can sometimes be very broad and require considerable time to complete.

Expense Account. You have access to an account maintained at the banks of House Kundarak. You can use this account to pay your daily living expenses, as well as for purchasing anything you need for completing your missions—equipment, transportation, bribes, and so on. Your normal spending limit is 100 gp per month for each member of your group. If you exceed that, your agency asks you to account for the month’s expenses, and they might require you to pay back the excess if you can’t justify it (at the DM’s discretion). You can’t carry over an unused amount from one month to the next, and your access to this account can be cut off at any time if you abuse it or fall out of the agency’s good graces. The agency is aware of every time you access the account and where you are when you do so.

Identification. Your agency provides you with identification papers establishing your true identity, and you also have ready access to false papers and matching travel documents showing different identities, when you need them for a mission. (Any time you enter a foreign nation, it is a good idea for you to do so under a false identity.)

Powerful Friends. An espionage agency, by nature, has a long reach and a lot of power to make things happen behind the scenes. You can call in a favor for a wide range of benefits: A legal case against you might be suddenly dropped. A rival might disappear. A much-needed magic item might be delivered to you. These favors can provide significant short-term benefit, but they can also come with equally significant long-term repercussions—which might lead to entirely new missions.

Build Your Group

Espionage agents are typically both highly trained and tightly specialized. The type of missions you undertake can shape your group’s composition; you might be a team of hunters or investigators, focused on tracking people down or gathering information. More likely, you’re a diverse team with a range of skills that allow you undertake a variety of different missions on your patron’s behalf. Consider some or all of these roles for the characters in your party:

Chameleon. A master of disguise, sleight of hand, and deception, the Chameleon can perform the work of the Investigator or a Confiscator right under a target’s nose—or provide cover to agents with different specialties as they do their jobs. A high Charisma, proficiency with the disguise kit (or access to spells that cloak or disguise one’s appearance), and proficiency with skills such as Deception, Performance, and Sleight of Hand all greatly benefit the Chameleon. Bards and rogues, as well as characters with the charlatan, entertainer, or urchin background, often excel in this role.

Breland Ledger—Lies on trial! karrn Spy faces justice

In a courthouse surrounded by agents of the King’s Citadel and thronged by reporters, judge Haliss ir’Cronn took her seat for the first session in what some are calling the “trial of the century.”

Barath Drinn, a Karrn who has been living in Wroat since the end of the Last War, stands accused of stealing state secrets, sabotage, and one count of murder—though an anonymous source suggests that he is guilty of many more killings.

A spokesperson for the King’s Citadel vehemently denied reports that Drinn is employed by the Citadel.

Confiscator. Sometimes an espionage agency needs something stolen—a document that incriminates a public figure to a prototype war machine. The Confiscator has the key skills for such jobs. A good Dexterity score proves helpful in undertaking such tasks, especially if it’s enhanced with proficiency with thieves' tools and the Sleight of Hand and Stealth skills. Confiscators are often rogues, and many have a history of stealing for profit rather than national interest.

Hunter. The Hunter stalks humanoid prey, for purposes of assassination, abduction, or gathering information. A combination of combat prowess with stealth and interaction skills makes for well-prepared Hunters. Rangers and rogues prove particularly adept at this role, as might anyone with proficiency in the Investigation, Perception and Stealth skills. A high Charisma and proficiency in Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion skills can also be useful. Hunters often come from backgrounds such as outlander or urchin.

Investigator. The Investigator is the archetypal spy, a master of deductive reasoning and suave interaction. Naturally, Investigation can be a crucial skill, which many characters in this role combine with magical means of scrying to learn about their enemies and objectives. Bards and wizards make natural Investigators, especially if they can acquire one or more skills from among Deception, Perception, Persuasion, and Stealth. Investigators come from backgrounds as varied as charlatans, nobles, sages, and urchins.

Operator. An Operator leads or organizes a team of agents in the field. Like a military officer, the Operator issues orders and bears responsibility for the agents on the team. High Charisma and Intelligence scores help make the Operator a strong leader, especially in conjunction with skill proficiencies such as Persuasion and Investigation. The wide array of skills used by other agents are also valuable to the Operator, who might end up stepping into a different role when the need arises. The Operator is often a bard and might come from a soldier or noble background (being accustomed to leadership in one form or another).

Saboteur. The Saboteur interferes with the functioning of enemy assets. More than a reckless bomber, they combine a willingness to destroy with a knack for infiltration. Proficiency with thieves' tools and in skills such as Deception, Investigation, and Stealth often serve the work of sabotage. The Saboteur benefits from an understanding of craft and magic items, making artificers particularly skilled in this role. Guild artisans might also disguise tools of destruction as mundane objects or works of art. Many Saboteurs come from backgrounds such as charlatans or soldiers.

Types of Espionage

Espionage activities can be classified in three broad categories: counterintelligence, covert action, and intelligence gathering. Your party might focus on one of those areas, or perhaps you’re the team that handles situations that other teams bungle. As a group, work with your DM and consult the Espionage Missions table to decide what kinds of missions you might undertake.

Espionage Missions

Secrets

Most likely, your espionage work will eventually put you in possession of secrets others don’t want you to know. When the time comes, consult the Secrets table to determine what clandestine knowledge your group possesses, and how it might make life complicated for you.

Secrets

Memorable Mission

You engaged in a mission that still overshadows your work. Was it the perfect operation, or do you still carry scars from a mission gone horribly wrong? Consult the Memorable Mission table to determine the details of your career-defining exploit.

Memorable Mission

Espionage Agency Contacts

Your assignments come from a superior in the agency who typically works at a desk rather than in the field—compiling intelligence into reports for their superiors and coordinating the activities of multiple groups. Use the Agency Contacts table to determine the character of your superior, which can shape the kinds of missions you undertake and the degree of support you receive.

Agency Contacts

Other Espionage Agencies

Every nation has some form of espionage agency, and two of the dragonmarked houses (House Phiarlan and House Thuranni) include specialized espionage forces as part of their businesses. Besides the King’s Dark Lanterns, some of Khorvaire’s more prominent espionage agencies include the following groups:

Argentum. The Argentum is a ministry within the Church of the Silver Flame. Originally dedicated to the acquisition, study, and redistribution of magic items and artifacts, it was repurposed during the Last War to serve as Thrane’s espionage agency.

Royal Eyes. Aundair is renowned for its wizards, and the Royal Eyes of Aundair excel at spellcraft and divination—almost every agent of the Royal Eyes has an arcane advantage. Agents spy on other nations, pursue notorious criminals, and engage in a host of other wand-and-dagger missions for the crown.

Serpentine Table. The Serpentine Table is the espionage arm of House Phiarlan. Few people outside the house even know of its existence, and hardly any of its lower-level operatives realize the full implication of their service. They simply collect and pass along information, never knowing how it is used.

The Trust. Zilargo’s secret police, the Trust maintains order in the service of the Triumvirate. This web of spies and ruthless assassins are known for their operations in Zilargo, but few realize that the Trust is also active in nations across Khorvaire. The gnomes believe knowledge is the greatest weapon of all, and Trust agents endlessly search for secrets that could prove useful to their nation.

Head of State

Your group serves a national ruler. You’re not simply a member of a military organization or an espionage agency (both of which are different patrons described in this section); you have the ear of a sovereign and you are expected to help them attain their goals at all costs.

Prince Oargev of New Cyre

The disaster of the Mourning wiped out much of the population of Cyre, but those living near the western border had time to cross into the Brelish countryside ahead of the strange wall of gray mist that now shrouds the Mournland. King Boranel of Breland took pity on the refugees and established camps for them, camps which have now grown into the town of New Cyre.

The mayor of New Cyre is Prince Oargev ir’Wynarn, the last son of Cyre’s ruling family. He was serving as an ambassador to Breland at the time of the Mourning, and Cyran refugees across Khorvaire now look to him for leadership as a sort of king in exile. He hopes to one day gather all of Cyre’s displaced children to a rebuilt Cyre.

Prince Oargev is obsessed with the Mourning. He is desperate to discover the truth behind the destruction of his country. He regularly seeks information from those who venture into the Mournland, and he funds expeditions into the remains of his once-proud nation, hoping to discover some clue as to the cause of Cyre’s demise.

Allies

Prince Oargev has a gift for diplomacy (and a number of talented ambassadors in his employ), which has enabled a widespread campaign of outreach to Cyran refugees across Khorvaire. He has a great deal of popular sympathy, as well as allies in every nation, including the following groups and individuals:

King Boranel. The ruler of Breland did a great kindness to the people of Cyre by establishing the refugee camps that have grown into New Cyre. Oargev has not forgotten that kindness, and he would prefer not to jeopardize his friendship with Boranel by seizing land from Breland. However, rumors persist that Oargev plans to secede, and the King’s Dark Lanterns frequently send agents into New Cyre to keep an eye on anti-Brelish sentiment. Oargev wisely views Boranel as an ally, but knows Breland could be a threat.

Q’barra. Aside from New Cyre, the largest population of Cyran refugees resides in Q’barra. Oargev has invited these displaced Cyrans to join him in New Cyre, but most of them have started putting down new roots in the jungle land. If Cyre could be reclaimed from the Mournland, many of them would probably return; in the meantime, they are a friendly force in the east, willing to offer shelter and aid to agents of Prince Oargev who find themselves among the settlements of Q’barra.

Refugees. Cyrans live across Khorvaire in the wake of the Last War. Oargev does significant work in reaching out to his displaced subjects, and the majority of them sympathize with his goals and aid his agents.

Enemies

Bitter Cyran avengers who punish those they believe responsible for the Mourning have cast shadows on Prince Oargev’s reputation. As a result, the following groups consider Prince Oargev their foe:

The Five Nations. Aundairians, Karrns, and Thranes are generally unsympathetic to the plight of displaced Cyrans. Many of them bitterly bear the scars of the war, their resentments reinforced by the deeds of violent Cyran extremists. Even the Brelish, for all their practiced indifference, become guarded when confronted by Cyrans, who represent a burden foisted upon them by their leaders. They tend to treat Cyran refugees as second-class citizens and vagabonds. Among non-Cyran communities, agents of Prince Oargev can’t rely on aid from any of Cyre’s former enemies.

The Lord of Blades. In the depths of the Mournland, the closest thing to a sovereign is the Lord of Blades—a heavily enhanced warforged who seeks vengeance against those who created his people to serve as weapons. He is hostile to adventurers who enter the Mournland on missions of plunder, and the idea of Prince Oargev reclaiming the Mournland fills him with fury. He shows Oargev’s agents no mercy.

Patron Benefits

With a head of state as your group’s patron, you gain the following benefits:

Voice of Breland—Pauper Prince Plots bandit barony

Prince Oargev, the exiled Cyran royal who governs the town of New Cyre by the sufferance of King Boranel, is planning a brazen act of secession, hoping to transform all of eastern Breland into a new Cyran realm, sources say. According to a group of adventurers recently employed by Oargev, the prince sent them into the Mournland to recover weapons of war so they could be wielded against the Brelish military during the secession. How will King Boranel respond to this treachery? Will the nations come to the defense of the displaced prince? Will Oargev’s scheming result in all of eastern Breland being swathed in the same gray mist that consumed Cyre?

Assignments. Your work is performed at the direction of your patron. That means you are usually under assignment and not entirely free to choose your own course. Depending on the ruler and the task, these assignments can be directive or more hands-off, as you pursue long-term goals.

Expenses. In addition to your salary, your patron reimburses you for extraordinary expenses incurred as part of your work. You are required to account for your expenses and might be called on to explain any extraordinary expenditures, but routine travel, ordinary equipment, and most services don’t draw a second glance.

Immunity. As long as you remain in the head of state’s good graces, you are nearly immune to prosecution under the laws of your home country. Committing serious crimes—especially if they are unrelated or unnecessary for the work you’ve been assigned—is a good way to fall out of your patron’s good graces, however. When you are carrying out your orders within your nation’s borders, though, you have a great deal of leeway in how you choose to do that, and the law isn’t an obstacle. (However, note that agents of Prince Oargev can’t necessarily expect the same clemency in Breland outside of New Cyre.)

Salary. Your employment for a head of state brings you an income of 1 gp per day, or enough to maintain a modest lifestyle. At the DM’s discretion, your salary might increase or decrease depending on which particular head of state you work for, the nature of your work, and the length of your employment.

Build Your Group

A head of state like Prince Oargev requires a variety of adventurers to do the range of tasks they require. Depending on the kinds of work you do, your party might include some or all of these roles:

Civil Servant. The vast majority of work performed on behalf of a head of state has very little to do with deadly adventure: it’s about prosecuting and judging criminals in the courts of law, hearing the petitions and complaints of citizens, collecting taxes, and interminable amounts of paperwork. Once in a while, though, a faithful Civil Servant gets forcefully pulled from this work and thrust into life-or-death situations, with or without help from more hardened adventurers. The knowledge and experience of a Civil Servant can often be useful, with some developing skills as clerics, rogues, wizards, or other classes. Such characters often come from the sage background and have proficiency in skills that reflect their studies, such as Arcana, History, Nature, and Religion.

Diplomat. Negotiating treaties, de-escalating conflicts, and issuing ultimatums are tasks that fall within the purview of the Diplomat, who typically puts their high Charisma to work in the service of the state. These characters often come from a noble background and bring proficiency in skills such as Intimidation and Persuasion to their work. Bards are natural fits in this role, as are paladins—as long as they aren’t asked to do things that violate the tenets of their oaths.

Marshal. Combat is the specialty of the Marshal, who focuses on enforcing the law of the land and bringing fugitives to justice. Fighters and paladins make natural Marshals, many being former soldiers who continue fighting the Last War in different venues. They often have reasonable Intelligence scores or proficiency in Investigation.

Warden. The Warden’s focus isn’t so much on the people of the nation, but on the land encompassed within its borders, both cultivated and wild. Sometimes that extends to protecting the border from incursions, but more often a Warden contend with monstrosities and wild beasts that threaten the populace, magical corruption that harms the land, and disasters jeopardizing the nation as a whole. Wardens are often rangers or druids, with proficiency in Nature and Perception. They might come from backgrounds as outlanders or hermits, making them more comfortable in the wilds than in cities or royal courts.

National Affairs

Sometimes there’s a fine line between the missions assigned by a head of state and those of an espionage agency or a military force, but your team’s central focus is politics. As a group, consult the Cyran Affairs table and work with your DM to decide what kinds of adventures you undertake on behalf of Prince Oargev. The Heads of State table at the end of the section offers additional options for leaders who might make appealing patrons.

Cyran Affairs

Official Status

Heads of state employ a variety of agents. Some are officially recognized, but others are expected to operate on the borders of legality. Consult the State Status table to determine the nature of your group’s work

State Status

Head of State Contacts

Often, your connection to your patron is quite direct—the head of state summons you, grants you an audience, and gives you an assignment or hears your report. Heads of state are busy people, though, and if your business isn’t pressing, you might be handled by a functionary of the court. The State Contacts table provides several options for what functionaries your group might work with when the head of state is indisposed.

State Contacts

Other Heads of State

The head of almost any nation described in chapter 2 could be your patron. For some nations and regions, it’s impossible to speak of a “head of state,” but you might enjoy the patronage of a powerful clan leader or other prominent figure—perhaps working to make that person a viable head of state in the long run.

The Heads of State table offers suggestions for the kind of work you might do for other national leaders in Khorvaire, if Prince Oargev isn’t your patron.

Heads of State

Immortal Being

A greater will than a mere mortal organization or nation drives your group. It is an ancient power of immortal majesty, and its purposes are cosmic and inscrutable.

Sora Kell, the Queen of the Night

A mysterious figure who appears in lofty myths and children’s fables, Sora Kell extends her reach across the world and through the myriad planes, claiming mystical knowledge by force and cunning. A mighty wizard with magic worthy of epic tales, she is a monster whose adamantine claws can flense whole armies before any soldier can land a blow on her plated hide. Tales of Sora Kell claim she is the first night hag, born from Khyber in the first age of the world alongside the ancient rakshasas. Some even claim that her daughters—the hags who rule Droaam—are either direct agents of her will or have trapped her and pursue their own goals.

One fact is indisputable: Sora Kell is an immortal being who employs mortals to do her bidding. In exchange, she trades lore from her boundless stores of magic items, racks of scrolls, libraries of ancient spells, maps of forgotten ruins, and tomes unveiling the mysteries of the multiverse, which she has secreted away in caches across the planes.

Appearances

Unlike some other immortal patrons, Sora Kell’s physical form has not been seen on Eberron for over a century. Perhaps she has set a task before her daughters and watches events unfold. Maybe she is trapped upon another plane of existence or is devising magic that could shake the foundations of existence. In any case, she appears in the dreams of her agents, or occasionally uses magical means to communicate, sometimes directly, other times through sinister omens.

Allies

As a creature of legend, Sora Kell can hardly be said to have allies, except for a handful of other legends like the following groups:

Daughters of Sora Kell. Sora Kell’s three daughters—the gifted oracle Sora Teraza, the cunning trickster Sora Katra, and the vicious monster Sora Maenya—rule the nation of Droaam, either to facilitate their own scheming or at their mother’s command. Adventurers who enjoy the patronage of Sora Kell can impose on her daughters for aid if they should ever find themselves in or near Droaam. They can also count on the aid of Daask, a criminal gang in Sharn, which is controlled by Sora Katra.

Lords of Dust. Ancient fiends number among Sora Kell’s allies—not the least of which are her daughters' three long-forgotten fathers. It isn’t for Sora Kell’s pawns to know which of the powerful villains are friendly to Sora Kell, but she occasionally sends adventurers to lend aid to rakshasas—often lesser fiends working to free the ancient overlords. Wise adventurers carefully weigh the rewards of working with such fiends against the costs—to themselves and the world.

Enemies

Like most immortal beings, Sora Kell has many enemies, though the mortal ones barely merit her attention. For the most part, only beings like those that follow dare oppose Sora Kell:

The Dreaming Dark. In Sora Kell’s estimation, the greatest threat to her are the quori of Dal Quor, and their minions, the Dreaming Dark. Fortunately for the adventurers that serve Sora Kell, few mortals register as worthy foes in the alien minds of the quori.

Lords of Dust. Sora Kell has allies among the Lords of Dust, but she also has bitter rivals. Like the quori, these fiends rarely pay much attention to Sora Kell’s mortal minions, but they aren’t above harming mortal adventurers just to spite her.

Patron Benefits

The patronage of an immortal being is a relationship built on favors, not on employment or service. Your group does favors for your patron, and you can ask favors in return. These favors are the benefits you gain for having an immortal being as your group’s patron, and they might include any of the following boons:

Contacts. Your group is almost certainly not the only one sponsored by your patron. Plans that span the world and the course of millennia require many agents to complete. If necessary, your patron can put you in contact with their other agents, who might be in a position to help you through status, influence, or magic.

Information. The most precious reward most immortals can give is a tidbit of their ages-spanning knowledge. Immortal beings often know secrets hidden from most mortals—including glimpses of possible futures. They don’t usually share secrets freely, but they might reward your group for the completion of a mission with a hint, a puzzle, or a morsel of information that sets you off in pursuit of more.

Magic. Immortal beings often have access to vast stores of magic, including their own spells and secret caches of magic items. They are mindful of the value of this magic, and grant spells and items as rewards appropriate to the favor and the power of the adventurers.

The Draconic Prophecy as Group Patron

Though it is not a sentient force that can control or reward your party, the Draconic Prophecy can be similar to an Immortal Being patron. The Prophecy can act as a guide for adventurers who seek to fulfill it—or to steer its fulfillment in a particular direction. You stand among the heroes of the present age; surely you have a role to play in the unfolding prophecy.

In order for the Draconic Prophecy to work as a patron, one or more of the characters needs to have access to words from the Prophecy. Your group might adventure to seek out places where the Prophecy is written: mountainsides and cavern walls, ancient text and crumbling ruins, or the patterns of moons, stars, and the Ring of Siberys (best interpreted at an observatory). A dragonmarked character might gain insight into the Prophecy from the marks on their skin. Alternatively, a character might hear words from the Prophecy in dreams or visions, or surfacing from some deeply buried memory of a traumatic event.

Given access to the words of the Prophecy, it’s up to the characters to decide what they mean. The Prophecy is notoriously difficult to interpret, and a given passage might be fulfilled in different ways (or, possibly, in multiple ways over the course of centuries). For example, take a prophetic snippet like the one mentioned in the book’s introduction: “If the Bear King is slain by a sorrowful assassin in the Shadow of the Mourning, the Crown will fall from his nation.” This might mean that if King Boranel of Breland is killed in the Mournland, the kingdom of Breland will be dissolved, and if dissolving the monarchy is the characters' goal, they can try to bring about those circumstances. On the other hand, it could mean that if an awakened bear in the Eldeen Reaches declares himself king of the forest, and if the bear is killed on the anniversary of the Mourning, the tallest tree in the domain he claimed (the Crown of his nation) will fall. If that is the characters' goal, for whatever reason, they might try to bring those circumstances about.

The currency of favors that defines most patronage relationships is tricky when your group’s patron is a series of vague oracular verses rather than a person. However, bringing about the fulfillment of the Prophecy in a certain way often has immediate or long-term benefits that are equivalent to the favors another patron might grant your group. Toppling the Crown in the Bear King’s domain might give you access to a spell inscribed in the ancient tree’s rings, for example.

Build Your Group

No common thread unites adventurers with an immortal patron, except perhaps uncommon openness to the mysterious and unknown. You haven’t been chosen because of your capabilities; they might have been chosen to fulfill the words of a prophecy, because they were born at auspicious times and places, or because they happened to be in a particular place at a certain time. Individual characters in your group might have different relationships with your patron, though; consider some or all of these roles for your characters:

Agent. The Agent doesn’t receive direct communications from an immortal patron, but puts faith in the dreams and inspiration of others, following such omens with an eager heart. This character is under no illusions of having a special role to play in the immortal’s grand plans, but is ready to make sure those with such roles play them. This is often a character with no magical ability or sometimes from a scholarly background, such as a sage or hermit—perhaps someone familiar with lore about the immortal but not directly inspired by it. Agents typically have proficiency in skills such as Arcana, History, and Religion.

Innocent. Some characters have no intention of becoming adventurers and desire no connection to the machinations of the immortals, but they get caught up in schemes and prophecies anyway. The Innocent might have been identified as a key part of a prophecy, or made what seemed like an innocent bargain with a harmless old hermit, or found an artifact with mysterious powers. The folk hero background is ideal for the Innocent, combining humble origins with a sense of destiny. Any class or proficiencies are suited for this role.

Visionary. At least one character in the party should have a particular connection to your immortal patron. The Visionary might hear the patron’s voice in dreams, see waking visions that convey the immortal’s will, or interpret signs in accordance with prophecy. Different backgrounds might suggest different stories for a Visionary: An acolyte might have had a revelatory experience that paved the way for the immortal’s communications. A hermit might have been plagued by disturbing dreams from youth. A sage might have made a lifetime study of the Draconic Prophecy. These characters are often clerics, druids, warlocks, or wizards, and typically proficient in skills such as Arcana and Religion.

Serving an Immortal

The tasks you perform for your immortal patron can be mysterious, even trivial seeming, but they always have implications within the immortal’s larger plans. Often it’s hard to tell what those implications might be—and stumbling upon hints of an immortal’s broader agenda might prove frightening. Your tasks could involve fulfilling prophecies in deliberate ways, preventing prophesied events from coming to pass, or even engaging in seemingly random actions that further designs invisible to mortal eyes. Immortal beings might send you on all manner of adventures, such as those shown on the Immortal Missions table.

Immortal Missions

Immortal Contacts

Immortal beings sometimes use mortal intermediaries to contact their agents, but most of them possess magic powerful enough to communicate with you directly, even over impossible distances. Consult the Immortal Communication table to determine what mysterious method your patron uses to direct your party.

Immortal Communication

Other Immortal Beings

The Korranberg Chronicle—Eldeen FRACAS Fulfills Prophecy

“In the darkest night of the Dragon Below, storm and dragon are reunited, and they break together upon the legions of the Blasphemer.” According to Thausil Kennar, a noted scholar at the Library of Korranberg, these words, translated from an ancient prophecy, foretell the course of recent events in the Eldeen Reaches, where an upstart warlord led a barbarian army from the Demon Wastes on a mission of plunder.

For all your news needs, be they ageless riddles or breaking modern developments, keep reading the Korranberg Chronicle!

Various immortal beings exert their will upon the people and nations of Eberron. Many are villainous forces that adventurers might find themselves resisting, such as the fiends of the Lords of Dust or the Quori and the Dreaming Dark. Even those without evil motives are often inscrutable—the agendas of immortal beings spanning millennia. What role you might play in an immortal’s schemes and what sorts of deeds you’ll be called on to perform varies from patron to patron. Consider the following options when determining what immortal patron your party might serve:

Flamewind. A gynosphinx with oracular powers came back to Morgrave University with a Xen’drik expedition two years ago, and took up residence there. In addition to her first-hand knowledge of Xen’drik, she is one of the few nondragons to have made extensive study of the Draconic Prophecy. She sometimes sends adventurers on missions by uttering a cryptic prophecy. “It is time for the Globe of Seven Lights to be brought out of Xen’drik,” she might say. She never explains her proclamations, and never provides information on mundane affairs.

Faerie Court. Somewhere deep in the western forest of the Eldeen Reaches lies the Twilight Demesne, where powerful archfey hold court over an ongoing revelry. It often appears as if nothing more than mischief and caprice governs the actions of the archfey, but they have ancient interests in the mortal world—as well as extensive rivalries among themselves.

Undying Court. The honored, undead ancestors of Aerenal rule the elven nation and shape their people’s destiny. These undead—known as deathless—despise evil undead, nurture an ancient grudge against dragons, and pursue the fulfillment of ancient prophecies.

Inquisitive Agency

Your party works for an agency offering investigative services, or you might run your own firm as a group. Inquisitives put their keen minds and dogged determination to use unraveling mysteries. Inquisitive agencies run the gamut from private investigators to networks of detectives supported by dragonmarked houses.

Finders Guild

Across Khorvaire, the inquisitives of House Tharashk have a reputation for discretion and cunning. Members of that house operate the Finders Guild, a loose collection of independent inquisitive agencies. Dragonmarked heirs of House Tharashk own and operate some of these agencies, but each employs unmarked inquisitives as well, leaving the heirs free to take on the most difficult cases. A connection with the Finders Guild is viewed as a mark of high quality, a guarantee that a particular agency numbers among the best in the business.

In the city of Sharn alone, four inquisitives with the Mark of Finding lead agencies in different parts of the city: Kurt Karr’Aashta’s Investigations in the neighborhood of Deathsgate, Information Acquisition in Underlook, Thuranne Velderan’s Investigative Services in Warden Towers, and Globe Information Agency in Dragon Towers. Your party might be associated with any of these groups, or you might operate your own affiliated agency. In any case, your connection to the Finders Guild means you have a sterling reputation to uphold.

Aundairian Scroll—Genius Inquisitive serves cold justice

In yet another embarrassing blow to the Fairhaven Watch, renowned inquisitive “Feather” Fallester has apparently solved yet another case she randomly pulled from the watch’s files of unsolved mysteries. The case—the theft of a bejeweled statuette on display in the University of Wynarn Museum of Antiquities—baffled watch officers seven years ago, but in a matter of five days, Fallester managed to pin the crime on a changeling thief called Spaut, who has confessed.

Allies

While the Finders' Guild’s greatest strength is its internal connections, it lacks many strong allies beyond House Tharashk’s holdings. That said, the following groups have had numerous interactions with the guild and generally view inquisitives in a positive light:

Droaam. Since the rise of the Daughters of Sora Kell in Droaam, members of House Tharashk have served as intermediaries between the realm of monsters and the east, bartering the services of monstrous mercenaries across Khorvaire. The house takes great pride in having forced mainstream Khorvaire to recognize that orcs and half-orcs are worthy of the same courtesies and opportunities as races long established in society, and house members are now using their status to do the same for various other races from Droaam. As a result, members of the Finders' Guild can expect at least a modicum of respect while traveling in Droaam

Gatekeepers. House Tharashk and the druidic sect of the Gatekeepers share common origins in the Shadow Marches, and the druids remain friendly with the house and its Finders' Guild. In the Marches, the guild often helps the druids locate stray aberrations and open portals between planes of existence. For their part, the Gatekeepers offer the support of their magic to aid guild members in whatever ways they can.

Enemies

The work of inquisitives naturally creates enemies, mostly on a local scale: con artists, gangs, and others who have had their unsavory deeds uncovered. Such groups are inclined to hold grudges against the guild as a whole. The guild’s enemies on a larger scale are few, but include the following groups.

Daask. The Finders Guild has a difficult relationship with the criminal organization called Daask. On the one hand, Daask is a violent criminal gang whose members are often targeted by Finders Guild inquisitives. On the other hand, Daask is a gang of monsters, many of whom actually left Droaam under the auspices of House Tharashk. Finders Guild inquisitives who pry too deeply into Daask business often feel pressure to back away coming from higher in House Tharashk. Those who ignore that pressure tend to end up the targets of Daask assassins.

House Deneith. For centuries, House Deneith cornered the market on mercenary forces in Khorvaire. It was an unpleasant surprise for them when House Tharashk entered the mercenary market in the later days of the war, bringing monsters from Droaam to bolster Five Nations armies. House Deneith still resents House Tharashk for this, and the animosity between the houses only increases when Finders' Guild inquisitives stick their noses into Sentinel Marshal business.

Patron Benefits

With an inquisitive agency as your group’s patron, you gain the following benefits:

Compensation. You can collect fees from your clients when you undertake investigations on their behalf. You can set those fees, and clients will often pay higher fees as your reputation and prestige increase. A fee of 5 sp to 10 sp per inquisitive per day, plus expenses incurred as part of the investigation, is a reasonable starting rate.

Contacts. Through the Finders' Guild, each associated inquisitive agency can benefit from the knowledge and experience of not only other inquisitives, but also bounty hunters, explorers, dragonshard prospectors, and others who make use of House Tharashk’s talent for finding. Thus, an affiliated agency might find helpful allies not only in cities throughout the Five Nations, but even in remote corners of the wilderness where trackers and prospectors ply their trade. At the DM’s discretion, your contacts might direct you to new cases, offer you leads in the case you’re working on, put you in touch with their own network of contacts, or show up suddenly to pull you out of the fire. You can call in a favor from your agency to draw on the resources of any of your contacts. At the start of the campaign, roll twice on the Contacts table to choose two contacts. You will certainly acquire new contacts in the course of your adventures, who might or might not fit the descriptions of contacts on this table.

Contacts

Build Your Group

A wide variety of talents can be useful in the work of an inquisitive, leading the Finders' Guild to employ specialists with diverse skill sets. Many inquisitives come from backgrounds such as criminal, sage, soldier, or urchin, regardless of the role they play in a group. Consider some or all of these roles for characters in your party:

Client. When a routine investigation goes sideways, sometimes innocents get unwillingly caught in the action. The common artisan who hired the party to find her missing partner might find herself and her hired inquisitives on the run when things take a deadly turn. Such a Client is often a nonplayer character whose connection with the party is dissolved at the end of an adventure, but sometimes a Client develops a taste for excitement and becomes a fixture in the campaign. A perfectly ordinary background such as guild artisan or folk hero often work well with this character, who otherwise needs no specific proficiencies or capabilities.

Consultant. Sometimes skilled individuals end up working alongside inquisitives for a time. Such Consultants might work for a newspaper, study an esoteric field, or write crime fiction for a living. This character is usually similar to an Investigator, but typically has an unusual background or expert knowledge. The relationship between a Consultant and the rest of the party can be a source of drama—or comedy.

Interrogator. The Interrogator specializes in interaction with suspects, witnesses, or others who need persuasion to reveal what they know. A high Charisma combined with proficiency in both Persuasion and Intimidation prove helpful in this role. Bards, paladins, and sorcerers have both the requisite talents and the ability to supplement their interrogations with magic.

Investigator. Investigators piece evidence into a coherent whole that explains a mystery. This character combines a high Intelligence score with proficiency in skills such as Investigation, Perception, and sometimes Medicine. The Investigator might also use divination and other forms of magic to supplement those skills, making wizards a natural fit for this role.

Tough. An inquisitive’s work is inherently dangerous, so it’s often important for their group to include someone who can physically intervene when situations devolve into combat. The Tough’s role might include fighting criminal thugs, kicking in doors, and even roughing up suspects, all of which suggests a high Strength score and combat ability. The Intimidation skill can also helpfully supplement the Tough’s work.

Types of Inquisitive Work

Much of the work done by inquisitives is relatively mundane: collecting evidence of marital infidelity, investigating insurance fraud, or finding runaways. Sometimes these relatively innocent investigations can lead into the shadowy underbelly of society and become more dangerous, but most adventurers prefer the more dangerous kinds of inquisitive work. Your group might specialize in one particular kind of work, or it might take whatever cases come its way. Roll or pick from the Investigative Expertise table to determine your agency’s specialty.

Investigative Expertise

Signature Case

Inquisitives occupy a significant place in the popular imagination, both in their real-life exploits (as reported in the newspapers) and in many fictionalized accounts. As romanticized heroes of many tales, they shed the light of truth into the shadows to uncover secret misdeeds. Equally romanticized as self-serving muckrakers, they often use questionable methods to bring to light secrets that might have better remained hidden, causing untold harm in the process.

Whether true or false, stories like these tend to cling to inquisitive agencies and color their reputations. What big story is associated with your agency (and possibly your party)? Are the stories accurate, or do they reflect only one side of a complicated situation? Roll on the Signature Case table or choose a case that cemented your reputation.

Signature Case

Clientele

Inquisitives tend to acquire a reputation for working with a certain type of person. Some are known for discretion, attracting wealthy clients who trust them to keep a secret. Others are known to have a soft spot for a sad story, drawing the type of client who has plenty of troubles but little money. Roll on or choose an option from the Clientele table to determine who tends to show up at your office with a case.

Clientele

Other Inquisitive Agencies

Beyond the Finders' Guild, the following inquisitive organizations solve mysteries across Khorvaire:

King’s Citadel. Part spy, part inquisitive, and part soldier, the agents of the King’s Citadel serve crown and country as the ultimate agency for dispensing the king’s justice in Breland. Local watches and constabularies can call on its agents when a crime or situation poses a threat that spreads beyond their jurisdiction.

Sentinel Marshals. The Sentinel Marshals are a multinational force administered by House Deneith and authorized to enforce the law across Khorvaire. As the only force that can cross borders in pursuit of fugitives, they are well trained to track renegades.

Sharn Watch. Like most local police forces of any size, the Sharn Watch includes inquisitives devoted to solving crimes and tracking down the perpetrators.

Warning Guild. Affiliated with but largely independent from House Medani, the Warning Guild provides certification and contract employment for bodyguards, inquisitives, and sentries across Khorvaire. The guild emphasizes the use of logic, perception, and deduction to assemble fragments of evidence into a recognizable whole. Its inquisitives are often called upon to solve mysteries that baffle local law enforcement.

Running Your Own. Rather than join an existing inquisitive agency, you can start your own. You need to establish your own office. You can collect the same fees as if you worked for another agency, and you have access to the same range of contacts. You can also use the Running a Business downtime activity to direct the activities of your agency, as described at the start of this section.

Military Force

Your group serves as a team of soldiers in a larger military force, one dedicated to combat missions or other dangerous tasks. You could be a team of mercenaries, a special forces unit, or an ordinary squad of infantry. Perhaps you protect a nation’s people from monsters, or even continue to fight the Last War in the shadows. There is plenty of work for military forces at the edges of civilization, such as protecting the Eldeen Reaches from the dangers of the Demon Marches or skirmishing with Droaam at the borders of Breland.

Redcloak Battalion

The soldiers of the Redcloak Battalion number among the deadliest warriors in Breland. When a situation calls for extreme military force, law enforcers turn to the Redcloak Battalion. This elite unit fought at the forefront of the Last War, and Brelish bards still sing of the exploits of Khandan the Hammer and Meira the Huntress. At the end of the war, the battalion was split up and its units assigned to cities and strongholds across Breland.

As an elite group of special forces, the Redcloaks don’t include inexperienced adventurers in their ranks. Considering that, there are two ways to use the Redcloak Battalion as a group patron.

First, the Redcloaks do sometimes take inexperienced adventurers under their wings. Existing Redcloaks proved themselves on the battlefields of the Last War; if the group is to continue, the Redcloaks of the future have to learn the soldier’s trade in different battles. To such ends, senior members of the battalion send your party on missions across Khorvaire to provide you with combat experience as well as to further Redcloak goals.

Alternatively, your DM might decide to start the campaign with your characters at a higher level and already established as members of the Redcloaks (see “Starting at Higher Level” in chapter 1 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide). In this case, you might also begin with magic items and other gear reflecting your status in the organization. The standard-issue uniform for the Redcloaks is a hooded crimson cloak of protection bearing two badges: the seal of the Brelish crown on the left shoulder and a snarling displacer beast surrounded by the words, “First in battle, last to fall”—the Redcloak insignia and motto—on the right.

Allies

As part of Breland’s military forces, the Redcloaks can count on the support of the crown, the King’s Citadel, and the larger Brelish army, largely summarized as the following parties:

King Boranel. The king of Breland is a cautious advocate of the Redcloaks. He values their contributions but fears their power, which is why he divided the battalion after the end of the war. Still, he rewards loyalty among the Redcloaks by showing loyalty to them in return. Again and again, he has proven himself willing to exercise his power on behalf of a loyal Redcloak.

Other Redcloaks. The first place any Redcloak turns for help is another Redcloak. No one else is as reliable and competent, while being unerringly faithful to the Brelish king and the battalion. Every Redcloak readily provides aid to other members, with no questions asked and no favor expected in return.

Enemies

As veterans of the Last War, many Redcloaks carry strong grudges against other nations. They tend to believe that the Treaty of Thronehold is merely an intermission in the ongoing conflict, and soon enough King Boranel will take his proper place on the throne of a reunited Galifar. Many of these grudges are personal based on an individual soldier’s experience in the war, but some of them run both ways. Among the Redcloaks, tensions still run hot regarding their former rivals, particularly those from the following nations:

Darguun. The hobgoblins of Darguun fought alongside Brelish forces at the Battle of Cairn Hill, but the cordial relations between the two nations frayed immediately after. The Redcloaks skirmished with hobgoblins who were leading Thrane civilians in chains back to Darguun. Few Darguuls remember the skirmish itself, but the “wicked red-cloaked Brelish” have an established place in the goblinoids' collective memory—and many Redcloaks do remember the event bitterly.

Thrane. In the waning years of the Last War, the Redcloaks played a major role in the devastating Battle of Cairn Hill between Brelish and Thrane forces. Thanks to heavy losses on both sides, veterans of that battle tend to nurse bitter grudges against their enemies.

Patron Benefits

With a military force as your group’s patron, you gain the following benefits:

Accommodations. You can always find a place to stay and meals on a base or fort connected to your military force. Your accommodations are appropriate to your rank and station, but never luxurious.

Newthrone Ledger—Thirteen dead in Blackscale Slaughter!

Venturing unusually far from their accustomed territory in the eastern jungles, a band of enormous lizardfolk—described by local experts as members of the Blackscale Tribe—broke through the fortifications at Adderport and killed thirteen residents before retreating back into the jungles. Khalar d’Tharashk has announced a plan to track the perpetrators and exact retribution under the sponsorship of King Sebastes.

Armory. You can purchase nonmagical weapons and armor at a 20 percent discount at a facility associated with your military force. This might also be a location where you can buy magic items, at the DM’s discretion, but you receive no discount.

Chain of Command. You are part of a rigid chain of command. In addition to providing you with orders, this structure reduces your responsibility for your own actions. If you land in trouble in your own nation, you answer to your officers, not local law enforcement.

Orders. You undertake your missions at the direction of a commanding officer. Your absolute obedience is expected. These missions are often explicit, leading you into the path of adventure. In some cases, though, you might be trusted with more open-ended tasks that afford you more leeway in interpreting orders.

Salary. Each member of your group is paid a regular salary. The amount varies depending on your organization and your position within it, but at minimum you enjoy a modest lifestyle. You might receive a small salary (as little as 1 sp per day) but also receive food and housing on a military base. Or you could receive 1 gp per day but rely on that money for room and board. With higher rank comes commensurately higher pay. As an officer, you can maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

Build Your Group

A military unit, like most adventuring parties, incorporates a range of useful skills while covering each member’s weaknesses with another’s strengths. Thus, characters of any class can find a home in such a unit, and a diversity of different skills and backgrounds benefits the group as a whole. Consider some or all of these roles for characters in your party:

Commander. Every band of infantry has its leader, even if that person isn’t a officer. The Commander earns that position through some combination of high Charisma and Intelligence—the ability to inspire and the capacity to plan. Proficiency in skills such as Persuasion and History can be helpful as well. The Commander might be a career soldier (with that background) or someone from a noble background placed in command by virtue of birth. A Commander might be a fighter, bard, cleric, paladin, or even wizard—as magic proves valuable in military engagements.

Medic. Keeping soldiers alive is essential to military success, and that’s the Medic’s job. In an elite unit of adventurers, the Medic is often a cleric or has another class with healing ability, but these characters are also often proficient in the Medicine skill or use of a herbalism kit. A Medic can be a soldier who demonstrated aptitude in healing and got moved into this position, or a character from a different background (such as acolyte, sage, or even hermit) who decided to put medical expertise to military use.

Scout. Trained in navigating the wilderness and laying ambushes for enemy soldiers, the Scout melds the combat skill of a fighter with the skills of a ranger or rogue. High Dexterity and Wisdom scores, combined with proficiency in the Nature, Perception, Stealth, and Survival skills, support this character’s core capabilities. Scouts are often recruited from people who are more familiar with the wilds than with city streets, including folk heroes, hermits, and outlanders.

Soldier. Soldiers make up the core of most military groups, whether they’re general infantry, magical artillery, or elite special forces. These characters come from all classes and backgrounds—for some, their background before joining the military is more important than their current role. No particular set of talents is common to all soldiers, but military units often strive to avoid duplication of skills.

Warforged. Literally made for war, most warforged characters have spent the years since the end of the Last War trying to find a new way of life. For some warforged, the answer is to continue fighting the war one way or another, often as part of an organized military unit. This experience, as a people created to fulfill a role and now seemingly locked into a destructive destiny, is just a part of life for many warforged.

Military Missions

The work involved in serving as a military unit is wide-ranging. Your missions potentially run the risk of shattering the fragile peace established by the Treaty of Thronehold and plunging all of Khorvaire back into war. Alternatively, you might consider running your campaign during the Last War, so your group’s missions influence the war effort and don’t risk violating the treaty. As a group, consider the options on the Military Missions table and work with your DM to decide how the work you do fits into the larger picture of war and peace in Khorvaire.

Military Missions

Defining Mission

You were there at a crucial moment that turned the tide of the Last War. Choose or roll an option on the Defining Mission table to determine what that moment was.

Defining Mission

Nemesis

During the Last War, you had a run-in with a particularly dangerous foe, one who still haunts your nightmares. One day you’ll have your revenge. Consult the Nemesis table to determine the identity of your foe.

Nemesis

Military Contacts

Your group’s primary contact within your hierarchy is generally your superior officer—the person who gives you orders and is responsible for your success or failure. The Commanding Officer table offers suggestions for the personality and goals of that officer.

Commanding Officer

Other Military Forces

Every nation in Khorvaire has its military forces. In addition to the Redcloak Battalion, the following groups number among the forces most likely to make use of a team of adventurers:

Blademarks Guild. House Deneith manages mercenary activities across Khorvaire through its Blademarks Guild, with house members serving as officers, trainers, and strategists. The rank-and-file soldiers of the guild are largely human mercenaries but also includes significant numbers of hobgoblins from Darguun, elves from Valenar, and Cyran soldiers who no longer have a nation to fight for.

Maruk Ghaash’kala. Among the orc tribes of the Demon Wastes, the Maruk tribe inhabits the deadly Labyrinth that lies between the wastes and the Eldeen Reaches. In its sacred dedication to containing the threat of the Lords of Dust, it draws significant numbers of orc barbarians from the Shadow Marches, human scouts from the Eldeen Reaches, and even youths from the Carrion Tribes that live deeper in the wastes.

Q’barra. The frontier nation of Q’barra has significant need for military forces to protect its communities from the lizardfolk, warbands from Valenar, Lhazaar marauders, and other dangers of the jungle.

Valenar. The elves of Valenar have no interest in peace, but they participated in the talks that led to the Treaty of Thronehold to gauge the measure of their enemies and gain acceptance in the human courts. Today, Valenar forces continue to raid the Talenta Plains and Q’barra on a regular basis, in stark defiance of the Treaty of Thronehold. A Valenar warband is unlikely to contain members of races other than elves and perhaps half-elves, but such a band could make an interesting military party.

Running Your Own

Rather than join an existing force, you might choose to form your own mercenary outfit. You can assemble a unit of 3d10 soldiers housed in a headquarters with an armory, barracks, and private quarters for you and any other officers. Your group earns 3d20 gp per month, plus enough money to maintain your headquarters. You might be able to acquire weapons and armor through an arms dealer at a 20 percent discount, at the DM’s discretion. You give the orders to those beneath you and take orders from no one, but that means that you are ultimately responsible for the activities of everyone in your outfit.

You can use the Running a Business downtime activity to direct the activities of your unit and potentially increase your earnings, as described at the start of this section.

Newspaper

Your group comprises a team of ace reporters working for a chronicle—one of the many newspapers that provide news and entertainment for readers across Khorvaire. You might be under contract to provide the paper with tales of your exploits as you search out adventure. Or you might be investigative reporters dedicated to shining the light of truth into the darkness of criminal, political, and religious corruption. You might have an unflinching commitment to the truth, or be more interested in selling papers—or you might be in conflict with the chronicle’s management over priorities.

The simplest chronicles appear as scrolls nailed to public message boards containing the pertinent news of the week. More ambitious chronicles—including the Aundairian Scroll, the Breland Ledger, and the Sharn Inquisitive—are presented as folded broadsheets nested together to form simple books.

Korranberg Chronicle

By far Khorvaire’s best known and most widely read newspaper is the Korranberg Chronicle. Thanks to its unflinching and mostly unbiased coverage of the Last War, combined with a distribution deal with House Orien, the Korranberg Chronicle enjoys a loyal and avid readership throughout central Khorvaire. The Chronicle is released three times a week (on Mol, Wir, and Far), and each edition features some mixture of news from around Khorvaire, stories of adventurers and exciting expeditions, business solicitations, royal proclamations, and almanac information.

Offices

The Chronicle’s main offices are located in Korranberg. The paper also maintains field offices in the Five Nations, the Mror Holds, and Zilargo. Each field office shares space with a House Sivis message station, giving reporters at the office the ready ability to communicate with the home office (at discounted rates).

Employees

The Chronicle sends reporters across Khorvaire. Most of them live in Korranberg or near one of the field offices, but correspondents might be stationed in more remote regions for long periods of time, and the paper frequently publishes stories written by freelancers from across the world. Your adventuring party most likely falls into that last category, at least at the start of your career.

A large staff of editors—mostly but not exclusively comprised of Zil gnomes—works out of the newspaper’s various offices. They are organized into an extensive hierarchy from senior to junior editors. The top tier of senior editors is responsible for broad categories of stories, such as crime or international affairs. Lower tiers take on increasingly specific subsets of that category, down to the junior editor responsible for the crime beat in Sharn’s Lower Dura district.

Even the most senior editors, though, are responsible to the top tier of the Chronicle’s management, including its publisher and its secretive board of owners.

Allies

The Korranberg Chronicle is widely known and respected as a source of balanced news coverage. As such, it has friends in many places, including some in positions of power. Some of the Chronicle’s closest allies come from the following groups:

House Orien. House Orien distributes the Chronicle along its mail and lightning rail runs across Khorvaire, helping the newspaper reach a huge audience. Employees of the Chronicle can travel on lightning rail coaches at a discounted rate of 15 cp/mile (instead of the usual 2 sp/mile).

House Sivis. The newspaper also cooperates closely with House Sivis to facilitate communication between the main office and the field offices, as well as between reporters and their editors. The house bills the Chronicle directly for communications using speaking stone or sending spells directed to the newspaper’s main office.

Zilargo. The gnome nation of Zilargo is generally friendly to the newspaper. The senior editors, publisher, and owners of the Chronicle are influential people in the city of Korranberg and Zilargo as a whole. In extreme circumstances Zilargo officials might be persuaded to advocate for the newspaper’s employees.

Enemies

The Korranberg Chronicle is dedicated to learning and reporting the truth, and such an attitude is always certain to arouse the ire of those who would rather keep their secrets hidden. The following represents just a fraction of the enemies the newspaper has made over the years:

The Boromar Clan. The dominant crime syndicate in Sharn is still stinging from an exposé published ten years ago that resulted in the arrest of many of the clan’s leaders and gave other gangs a foothold in the city. Members of the Boromar Clan go to great lengths—even murder—to sabotage Chronicle reporters who pry into their secrets.

Karrnath. King Kaius nurses a grudge against the newspaper stemming from its coverage of the peace process at the end of the war, blaming them for several setbacks along the way to the eventual signing of the Treaty of Thronehold. Chronicle reporters operating in Karrnath often face harassment and find bureaucracy impeding their every effort.

House Thuranni. The snoops and spies of the Chronicle have pried one time too many into House Thuranni’s private affairs. No member or agent of the house will cooperate with Chronicle reporters under any circumstances.

Patron Benefits

With a newspaper as your group’s patron, you gain the following benefits:

Compensation. Assuming that you regularly provide the newspaper with stories it can print, each member of your group earns 1 gp per day, or enough to sustain a modest lifestyle.

Expenses. In addition to your salary, your group can be reimbursed for expenses related to your work. The newspaper covers the cost of travel when it’s required for your stories, food when you perform an interview over a meal, communication costs using courier services or message stations, and similar work-related expenses. If your expenses are excessive, your patron might refuse to repay them.

Equipment. Your group can request access to equipment owned by the newspaper, such as a printing press. With permission, you can use this equipment for your private purposes, within reason.

Press Access. Each member of your group is issued identification papers from the nation where the newspaper is based. These papers establish your identity and identify you as a member of the press, which commands a certain amount of respect. You can often secure an audience with those you want to talk to. Of course, this isn’t a guarantee of safety—if you discover a damaging truth, some people will do whatever it takes to make sure it never sees print.

Build Your Group

Newspapers employ a wide range of adventurers to bring news back to the home office. Consider some or all of these roles for the characters in your party:

Voice of Breland—Korranberg Chronicle Exposed!

Who really pulls the strings behind the ostensibly unbiased news coverage of the Korranberg Chronicle? The Chronicle’s publisher, a wily Zil gnome named Cassia Lorridan Claddik, is the most public face of its leadership, and her connection to Korranberg’s ruling Council of Nine is well known. But she is not the ultimate authority determining what gets printed and what does not. No, that honor goes to the shadowy board of the Chronicle’s owners.

Voice reporters have uncovered the names and positions of several members of this board, and the results are nothing less than shocking. The Trust—the shadowy secret police who maintain order in Zilargo—is well represented on this board, raising questions about the extent to which the Chronicle is a propaganda engine for Zilargo. Worse still, several of the wealthiest and most influential members of the board are associated with the Aurum, a shadowy cabal whose primary interest seems to be increasing its members' wealth and influence. Whose interest, then, does the Chronicle serve?

All the more reason, loyal readers, to rely on the Voice of Breland for unbiased news you can use.

Civilian. Some groups include members whose skills are great for reporting but less useful on adventures. This could be the designated writer, a political cartoonist, or a chronicler who records the party’s adventures. This might be a challenging role for a player character to fill, but an NPC could provide services to the party, making them worth keeping around.

Face. Typically gifted with a high Charisma score and skilled in a combination of Persuasion, Intimidation, and Insight, the Face takes the lead in conducting interviews or talking the group’s way past obstacles. A character with access to enchantment magic (such as a bard or sorcerer) can supplement natural Charisma with magical persuasion. A character with the charlatan background, proficiency in Deception, or proficiency with a Disguise kit might also fill this role.

Muscle. Sometimes sources need a bit of physical cajoling to share their stories. The Muscle has a knack for getting people to talk. Alternatively, when those in power lock away the truth, the Muscle physically wrestles it free. Any character who’s proficient with armor and martial weapons (such as a fighter) makes a fine choice for this role. Characters in this role are often former soldiers or more-or-less reformed criminals.

Networker. The Networker knows exactly who can get the party what they need. This character makes extensive use of contacts and friends to facilitate the party’s work. A character with the criminal background likely has underworld contacts, while an urchin could be familiar with the ins and outs of the city. Interpersonal connections are typically more important than any particular skills or abilities for this character, although many Networkers have high Charisma scores.

Snoop. A Snoop pries into secrets and pieces together the clues behind a sensational story. High Intelligence and proficiency in Investigation often aids the core work of the Snoop, and knowledge of Arcana, History, or Religion can be helpful for background research. Divination magic can also prove useful (perhaps in the hands of a wizard or a cleric), while a character with the sage background might have a knack for research.

Types of Reporting

Decide as a group, in consultation with your DM, what kind of reporting you do for the newspaper. It’s possible that different members of your group have different specialties, or that only some members actually write stories while the rest aid the reporters. Choose an option or roll on the Journalistic Focus table to determine what sort of reporting you specialize in.

Journalistic Focus

Famous Story

Is there one story that hangs over your group’s head, for good or ill? Maybe it sets a high bar you might never reach again, or ensures you’ll never write a story of a different kind. Consult the Famous Story table to determine what reporting has most colored your career.

Famous Story

Reporting Repercussions

Your reporting changes lives—you like to think for the better. Sometimes, though, your work has drawn some fairly pointed criticism and earned you an enemy. Reference the Story Aftermath table to determine the repercussions of one of your most impactful stories.

Story Aftermath

Newspaper Contacts

Usually, your primary contact—the person who gives you assignments for the newspaper—is an editor of some kind, who takes the stories you write and makes them suitable for the printed page. Depending on the editor, you might not even recognize the stories when they’re printed, and your editor’s personality and goals can have a tremendous impact on your work for the paper. Consult the Newspaper Contact table to learn about the editor or other newspaper figure you’re responsible to.

Newspaper Contact

Other Newspapers

Besides the well-respected Korranberg Chronicle, other newspapers in Khorvaire can be grouped into a few different categories:

The Korranberg Chronicle Special Sul Edition—WAR IS OVER!

Treaty of Thronehold signed. Galifar is no more.

Local Rags. Small papers such as the Vathirond Journal, the Vedykar Sentinel, and the Write of Passage are limited in circulation to their own home city, and their coverage is similarly limited in perspective.

Mainstream Media. The Breland Ledger, the Sharn Inquisitive, the Aundairian Scroll, and papers like them present generally balanced coverage of world events. They are usually a little slanted in favor of their home nations.

Propaganda. Some newspapers, such as the Voice of Breland and similar papers in other nations, print fiercely partisan news that seems designed to fan the flames of resentment that linger after the Last War.

Running Your Own

Rather than work for an existing outlet, you can run your own newspaper. You own a small office and a printing press, and keep 2d4 employees to manage daily tasks and keep the paper going to press. You gain the benefit of press access as described earlier. Additionally, you can use the Running a Business downtime activity to direct the activities of your paper in hopes of increasing your earnings, as described at the start of this section.

Religious Order

Your group acts in the service of one of Khorvaire’s most prominent or obscure religious institutions. Perhaps you’re a team of devotees pursuing a cause for your faith, or maybe you’re a bunch of cynics taking advantage of a wealthy congregation. You could be on a mission to retrieve sacred relics lost in ancient ruins, holy objects from war-ravaged temples, or treasures to fill the church’s coffers. Your faith might drive you to hunt evil monsters or stave off interplanar invasions, to protect and defend the powerless from oppression and exploitation, or to spread the teachings of your religion in a land that’s hostile to it. Or you could serve a corrupt hierarchy by making its enemies quietly disappear—though even the most cynical mercenaries might become true believers when confronted with the miraculous.

The patronage of a religious order isn’t simply a matter of each member of your group belonging to the same faith. An actual organization—with its own resources, goals, and leaders—sponsors and directs your adventures.

Templars of the Silver Flame

The Church of the Silver Flame includes three orders of clergy: ministers who tend congregations, friars who spread the faith, and templars who fight evil in the flesh. Your group has been ordained as templars and sent into war against the forces of evil.

As templars of the Silver Flame, you have distinctive silver tabards to wear over your other clothing or armor. You also have the privilege of using a knightly honorific before your name (typically “sir” or “lady”), and you are immediately recognized as a knight, an agent of the church, and effectively a lesser member of Thrane’s aristocracy. This status guarantees the good will of members of the church and citizens of Thrane, but carries less weight and might even provoke animosity outside Thrane.

Hierarchy

The order of the Templars of the Silver Flame is represented on the Council of Cardinals that serves as the governing body of Thrane and the church. Seven commanders govern the knights of the order under the Grand Master’s leadership: one for each of the Five Nations of old, one for foreign lands, and one for the seas. Their assistants carry the title of marshal, but no real division of rank exists beneath them.

Knights templar are free to wander the world in pursuit of the order’s aims. When leaving the jurisdiction of one commander and entering that of another, it is a knight’s responsibility to promptly report to the commander of the new area, in case that commander has a pressing need for a knight to perform a mission. The commanders try to keep each other informed about where knights are operating and what they are doing, but this system works better in some places—and between some commanders—than others.

Allies

The other two orders of the Church of the Silver Flame’s clergy—ministers and friars—staunchly support the knights templar. Even when there is rivalry among the leaders of these orders and other officials of the church, the rank and file members support each other regardless of order. You can count on these clergy to help you secure spellcasting services, and to offer you other material aid within reason.

Enemies

Since the order of knights templar is sworn to exterminate supernatural evil, such creatures are always hostile when they recognize a knight templar. The following groups and creatures viciously oppose the templars of the Silver Flame:

Fiends and Undead. Unnatural beings loathe templars, as they represent everything these foul creatures despise—light, life, hope, and good. These menaces sometimes go to great lengths to trap and destroy templars, and fiends take particular pleasure in corrupting the faithful to evil.

Lycanthropes. All types and alignments of lycanthropes have a particular hatred for the Church of the Silver Flame, thanks to the crusade that nearly exterminated their kind over a century ago. Shifters are uncomfortable with the templars for the same reason.

The Order of the Emerald Claw. Tied as it is to the Blood of Vol and the worship of the undead, the Order of the Emerald Claw opposes the Church of the Silver Flame and its agents in the world.

Patron Benefits

With a religious order as your group’s patron, you gain the following benefits:

Divine Service. In times of need, your group can appeal to the priests of your faith for magical aid. A cleric or druid of your faith who is of sufficiently high level will cast any spell of up to 5th level on your group’s behalf, without charge. The priest even provides any costly material components needed for the spell, so long as you can demonstrate your need and are in good standing with the church.

Equipment. Each member of your party has a holy symbol or druidic focus, even if it isn’t needed for spellcasting. Each of you also has a book containing prayers, rites, and scriptures of your faith.

Proficiencies. Each member of your party gains proficiency in the Religion skill, if the character doesn’t already have it.

Build Your Group

Religious orders attract people from all walks of life. It can be fun to play against type—to make a devout character with the criminal or charlatan background, for example. Regardless of your origins, consider the following roles for the characters in your party:

The Voice of Thrane—Silver Flame’s Crisis of Faith!

The Templars of the Silver Flame are supposed to represent the Church and the nation in pursuit of the highest ideals of the faith, as they crusade against the forces of evil across Khorvaire. But are they fulfilling that high calling? Or are they just as mired in politics as the Brelish bureaucracy?

High Cardinal Baerdren ir’Davik, who also holds the rank of grand master of the templars, appears to be an exemplary templar, utterly dedicated to the mission of the order. Yet it is widely known that he chafes at the political and bureaucratic responsibilities that his position on the Council of Cardinals demands of him. This reporter has learned that Sir Baerdren would readily surrender his position, were it not for his distrust of his seneschal, Ofejjaia of Korth.

Lady Ofejjaia, it seems, has other issues on her personal agenda besides advancing the cause of the knights templar, and one wonders if those issues are tied to her Karrnathi origin. Though her wisdom and sound judgment are not in dispute, it seems that Sir Baerdren fears that she would drive the order into obsolescence or even banishment if she were in charge.

Does Lady Ofejjaia hold her lofty position because of her loyalty, her piety, and her qualifications? Or is she there simply so that Sir Baerdren can keep his eye on her and ensure that she doesn’t sabotage the templars from within?

Fixer. The Fixer might work for a religious order for entirely non-religious reasons. This character does the order’s dirty work and clears away its problems. It’s entirely possible for an entire party to be made up of Fixers, but rogues and fighters are especially well suited to this kind of work. Characters with the criminal background excel at putting their skills and contacts to use on the church’s behalf.

Prophet. The Prophet is a visionary with a more-or-less direct connection to the divine. This character might be the driving force behind the group’s quests, steering them according to divine will. Proficiency in skills such as Insight and Religion can help reflect this character’s divine connection. The Prophet is often a cleric or druid, but could also be an NPC with no real adventuring skills, who needs the group’s protection.

Scholar. The Scholar brings academic knowledge to bear in the religious order’s work, often in the form of proficiency in History and Religion. This character might be an expert on ancient ruins or know all the weaknesses of the demons they are hunting. Characters with access to divination magic (including clerics with the Knowledge domains as well as wizards) might excel at this role. Many Scholars come from the sage background. Unlike the Prophet and Zealot, the Scholar isn’t necessarily devout, just knowledgeable.

Teacher. Those in this role spread the teachings of the faith. This isn’t usually an effort to win converts—though it can be, especially in the case of the Church of the Silver Flame—but rather the task of encouraging people to live according to the highest ideals of faith. Proficiency in skills such as Persuasion (or sometimes Intimidation) and Religion can be useful for this character. Many clerics fill this role, but devout bards can also be effective Teachers. Some Teachers bring skills from the entertainer background into the service of their faith.

Zealot. Dedicated to smiting the foes of the faith, the Zealot focuses on combat above all. Clerics, druids, and paladins make iconic Zealots, but any character can play this role; there are barbarians whose fury is fueled by their devotion, and rangers sworn to track down the enemies of the faith. The soldier and folk hero backgrounds are well suited to such champions of the faith.

Serving the Order

What is the nature of your work for the religious order? As a group, consult the Religious Service table and work with your DM to decide what role you play—which likely shapes the kind of adventures you undertake.

Religious Service

Hierarchy

Some religious orders are viewed with suspicion by the priestly hierarchies of their faiths; others are viewed as champions who act as the gods' hands in the world. Within a religious order, some members are highly respected while others are seen as dangerous for one reason or another. What is your relationship to the hierarchy you’re a part of? Is your entire order held in particularly high or low esteem? Or does your adventuring party stand out from the larger order for some reason? Is your behavior in line with the expectations of your religion, or is it unorthodox in some way? Reference the Order Reputation table to determine how you’re viewed by your larger religious institution.

Order Reputation

Religious Order Contacts

Your primary contact within the religious order is usually some kind of priest—not necessarily a cleric or druid, but someone who holds a priestly office and a position of some authority in the hierarchy of the organization. This person might direct you and your adventures according to their interpretation of divine will, or they might trust the gods to lead you to do what needs to be done. Of course, some priests (as well as lay functionaries) are more interested in their own agendas than any supposed divine will. Consult the Order Contact table to determine your liaison within the religious order.

Order Contact

Other Religious Orders

In addition to the Templars of the Silver Flame, several other groups might sponsor your party, such as the following organizations:

The Deathguard. This elite order of elven priests and warriors from Aerenal is sworn to destroy all evil undead.

The Devout of the Celestial Crown. One of many liturgical councils that serve a mostly administrative role for the priests of the Sovereign Host, the Devout manage a large portion of the city of Sharn.

The Gatekeepers. This ancient druid sect seeks to defend nature against aberrations, fiends, and undead.

University

An institution of higher education sponsors your group. You might be researchers, bodyguards for scholars, or glorified treasure hunters searching for ancient artifacts. The university might regularly employ you or you might have a contact at the university who pays you any time you bring back something useful from your adventures. You could be a team of academics, or you could be employed to provide some (physical and magical) muscle that the university otherwise lacks.

Morgrave University

At the heart of Sharn’s Morgrave University is a sharp dichotomy: On the one hand, it is known as a nexus for scholars wishing to study Xen’drik, thanks in large part to Sharn’s proximity to the secret continent. Its collections of artifacts and scholarly works about ancient Xen’drik and the Dhakaan Empire are unparalleled. In many ways, it lives up to the shining vision of its founder, Lord Lareth ir’Morgrave, to be “a beacon of knowledge shining from the tallest towers of the city.”

On the other hand, the university’s reputation is tainted by allegations of smuggling, treasure hunting, and profiteering. Many priceless relics recovered from Xen’drik or Dhakaani ruins have disappeared from the university vaults and found their way to the black market or into the hands of the Aurum. It’s an open secret that some scholars, professors, and even students at the university have ties to smugglers and thieves. All these allegations, too, have ties to the university’s founding: Lord Morgrave himself is said to have made his fortune selling Dhakaani artifacts on the black market, and some have claimed that the true purpose of the university was to help him build his fortune through such questionable means.

Allies

The academic world is relatively small, and people at any one university tend to have connections at others. You might parlay such relationships into assistance from academies and institutions, such as the following organizations:

Flamewind. The sphinx Flamewind (described in the “Immortal Being” section) isn’t officially affiliated with the university, but she lives there and spends much of her time in its libraries and museums. As a scholar of the Draconic Prophecy, Flamewind often poses strange questions and sends adventurers on obscure missions.

Library of Korranberg. The Library of Korranberg boasts the greatest collection of learning in Khorvaire. Its prestige means that people associated with it often look down on their colleagues at Morgrave University, but they still celebrate the two institutions' common purpose of pursuing knowledge. If Morgrave’s own libraries are insufficient for the task at hand, your group can probably find help in Korranberg.

The Twelve. For many scholars of magical studies, the idea of pursuing their research under the auspices of the Twelve is a cherished dream. Some faculty members at Morgrave have had the opportunity to do just that, and many others have nurtured connections to the Twelve in an attempt to secure that honor. Those connections can give your group access to powerful magic and the other resources of the Twelve.

Wayfinder Foundation. Morgrave maintains extensive connections with the Wayfinder Foundation—an exclusive guild for adventurers, which funds expeditions to distant locales. Should your group needs a grant or resources from the Wayfinders, a letter of recommendation from someone at Morgrave carries some weight.

Enemies

Morgrave University has few true enemies but many rivals. Despite the friendly ties among academic institutions, Morgrave occupies the low end of the prestige scale among academic bodies, so its faculty tends to look for opportunities to steal glory from its academic peers. Beyond rivalries with allied organizations, Morgrave openly competes with the following group:

University of Wynarn. Foremost among Morgrave’s rivals is Aundair’s University of Wynarn, whose administrators have been known to refer to Morgrave as an “institute of learning, relic hunting, and grave robbing.” The University of Wynarn is ancient—the first university established in the Five Nations—and more prestigious than Morgrave. It sponsors many of the same kind of expeditions and can boast many great discoveries, yet, somehow, Morgrave is more famous, and that stings many among the university’s staff.

Patron Benefits

With a university as your group’s patron, you gain the following benefits:

Compensation. The university pays for the work you do on its behalf. The nature of your employment influences how you are paid. On average, the university pays each member of your group 1 gp per day, or enough to sustain a modest lifestyle. Or you might be paid a bounty for each ancient artifact you bring back from your adventures and give to the university.

Documentation. Each member of your group has identification papers that include your affiliation with the university, which carries some clout in academic circles. The university also secures documentation, letters of introduction, and traveling papers for you if your work requires them. Finally, if your adventures take you to Xen’drik, the university secures the necessary letters of marque issued by the king of Breland, which grant you permission to explore the ruins there.

Research. Research might be part of your group’s job, but your patron has abundant resources to facilitate it. You can call in a favor to delegate the work of researching lore (a downtime activity described in the Player’s Handbook or Xanathar’s Guide to Everything) to a colleague, contact, or research assistant. You’re responsible for covering all expenses occurred as part of this research, and the DM determines the success, failure, or other possible results.

Resources. Most universities have extensive libraries and museums, which you have access to. You can call in a favor to gain access to resources that are generally not on exhibit—dangerous relics or possibly magic items, spellbooks, and the like. Additionally, the faculty of your university might make it possible for you to consult with experts in various fields—so long as you can coax them away from their work.

Training. Because you’re associated with the university, you receive a discount on any education you wish to pursue. When you undergo training as a downtime activity (as described in the Player’s Handbook or Xanathar’s Guide to Everything), you pay only one-half the normal cost, assuming that what you are studying is something the university teaches. Training in languages, musical instruments, and other tools might also be available, at the DM’s discretion. In addition, you can gain proficiency in the Arcana, History, Nature, or Religion skills by this method, as if you were learning a language. A character can only learn one of these skills in this way.

Build Your Group

A group sponsored by a university might look very much like any other adventuring party, with a range of diverse skills and capabilities. The only significant distinction lies between characters who are scholars and those who are more traditional adventurers. Consider some or all of these roles for characters in your party:

Field Researcher. The academic in your group might also be a character with plenty of training and experience in the dangerous life of an adventurer. Sometimes called tomb raiders or grave robbers, such characters know that groundbreaking work requires firsthand experience with the creatures, cultures, forces, and histories being investigated, and the best way to get that is in the field. This role is similar to the Scholar, but the Field Researcher is armed with combat-oriented spells that supplement the knowledge-focused capabilities of the Scholar, preparing them to face those who guard the world’s greatest secrets.

Financier. Whether they’re hunting for grants or seeking donations from wealthy philanthropists, the Financier seeks the funds to pay for academic expeditions. Such characters might know their ways around ballrooms, boardrooms, and seedy taverns, willing to do whats necessary to get what they need. Those in this role often exude Charisma and might be adept with the Deception, Intimidation, and Persuasion skills. Bards and rogues make natural academic Financiers, as do those with the charlatan and noble backgrounds.

Research Assistant. Whether their seeking to graduate, get published, or make their academic mark, the Research Assistant’s fate is likely tied up in the success of another scholar or a specific project. Alternatively, the Research Assistant might just be along for the ride, helping a professor merely to pass a course. Regardless, such characters might come from any class or background and could have skills gathered from experiences far outside the academic sphere. While there are certainly legitimate Research Assistants who honestly pursue their studies, this role might suit characters without academic interests.

Scholar. Likely possessing a high Intelligence score and a focus on learning and research, the Scholar in your party might represent the academic emphasis of the university. This character is often a noncombatant, a professor or student the rest of the party protects. Alternatively, they might live a dual life, shedding their academic persona as soon as they’re off campus grounds. The Scholar might also be a nonplayer character, or the role could be filled by a player character whose spells and training don’t include combat. A wizard whose spellbook is filled with utility-focused spells makes a fine Scholar, as might some clerics and monks. In any case, the sage background is an obvious choice for the Scholar, with acolyte and hermit also providing fine alternatives. Proficiency in skills such as Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, and Religion often proves useful for this character.

Scholarly Missions

Decide as a group, in consultation with your DM, what kind of work your group does for the university. Consult the Scholarly Missions table to determine what sort of adventures you undertake.

Scholarly Missions

Scholarly Standing

Academics live and die by their reputation. Some stand as embodiments of their fields of expertise, others might be considered con artists who stigmatize whole academic fields. Roll on or choose an option from the Scholarly Standing table to determine what other people think about your research.

Scholarly Standing

University Contacts

With a university as your patron, you are part of a sprawling bureaucracy—maybe deep in the tangles of it or, more likely, lingering at the edges. Wherever you sit in the network of colleges, administrators, and faculty, a single person serves as your primary point of contact, someone who has a significant impact on the nature of your relationship with the university. Reference the University Contact table to help determine who manages the relationship between you and the university.

University Contact

Other Universities

The Sharn Inquisitive—Profits trump promises at Black market University

In response to last week’s exclusive report detailing a scheme to remove precious antiquities from storage at Morgrave University and sell them on the black market, Master Larrian ir’Morgrave has issued a statement full of the usual platitudes and empty promises we have grown accustomed to hearing from the Office of the University Master. In it, ir’Morgrave vows to put an end to the criminal activities occurring within the university and bolster the school’s academic reputation. As regular readers of this paper know, he makes such promises frequently, but we have yet to see him take any substantive action to back up his promises.

Numerous universities exist across Khorvaire. Morgrave University is the one most often connected to adventurous exploits, but the following institutes number among Khorvaire’s other prominent academic bodies:

Arcanix. Housed in elegant towers that float above southern Aundair, Arcanix is a place of arcane learning, where the next generation of spellcasters studies the intricacies of magic. The mentors at Arcanix comprise the Arcane Congress, a council of spellcasters who explore the limits of the arcane arts under a mandate instituted by King Galifar I.

Rekkenmark. The Military Academy of Rekkenmark has trained Galifar officers for hundreds of years and continues to excel as the premier combat training facility in all of Khorvaire. Nobles from every nation used to send their children to Rekkenmark for at least part of their education, but the Last War put an end to that practice. Now that the war is over, the academy hopes to welcome students from other nations once again, but so far only a handful of students from outside Galifar have come to Rekkenmark.

Library of Korranberg. Zilargo’s Library of Korranberg is the greatest repository of general knowledge in Khorvaire. More than just a library, it hosts eight attached colleges dedicated to different fields of study, drawing gentry from across Khorvaire who come to study there. In addition to serving as a resource for scholars and explorers, the library often funds expeditions to study ancient cultures or unexplored lands.