Rule No. 1 - no stealing from the Church of Ishtar.
Rule No. 2 - only Stilleto Jim is allowed to steal from ‘the party’ (Champions of Sophora).
All members recruited must be of
good alignment. (this check is provided by the church free of charge).
And all members must be practicing
worshippers of Ishtar.
These last two requirements have made recruiting for the guild much more difficult but as news of Ishtar’s deeds spread, its becoming easier.
The guild has resources within the church that provides free ceremonies, healing, confession, alignment counciling, atonement, and some clerical scrolls (fee necessary for this).
The guild has resources within the School of Shadow & Spellmixing, located in Babylon. For a fee, the school will provide magic item identification as well as some trades in magical items. The school has first pick of spellbooks and spells recovered by guild members (prices to be negotiated by the Guild and the School).
The guild maintains the service of a retired pirate smuggler and former guildmaster. This person is provided a healthy lifelong retirement package and emergency resurection in return for advice to the guild. The name and identity of this person should be known only by senior guild agents.
The guild maintains a small trade in poisons. The use of deadly poisons
is permitted for use on humans and demi-humans in only the most dire of
cuircumstances. Debilitating and sleep inducing drugs are the poisons of
chooice for the guild and can be obtained for a price. The following poisons
are sold at the following prices:
| Type | Cost per app/Avail | Type | Cost per app/Avail | Type | Cost per app/Avail |
| G | 5gp/ap | IM | 5gp/65% | N | 50gp/80% |
| G3 | 60gp/30% | IS5 | 30gp/65% | R | 300gp/50% |
| G1 | 10gp/100% | M | 200gp/30% | IS4 | 10gp/80% |
| S0 | 30gp/90% | S1 | 45gp/85% | S2 | 60gp/75% |
| S3 | 80gp/60% | S4 | 120gp/10% | IS2 | 5gp/100% |
| IM1 | 10gp/35% | A | 1sp/100%* | B | 5sp/100%* |
| F | 30gp/80%* |
The guild maintains a master locksmith for the teaching of lockpicking, lock copying, and lock smithing.
Mandatory skills for thieve's guild
members: religion (Ishtar), appraisal (agents trained by the guild gain
a +1 on this skill for every two levels of thieving ability). Gaming (agents
trained by the guild in this skill receive and automatic +1 for every three
levels of thieving ability). Cheating at gameing is also a required skill
(agents are required to work the gaming tables during training). This ability
comes with pickpocket ability. A successful pickpockets roll while gaming
will add +3 to the gaming check with and additional +1 for every -10% on
pickpockets roll. Other gamers have a chance to recognize cheating on a
failed roll and profesional gamers (with a skill at 17 or above, provide
a -5% to pickpockets roll for every skill level above 17).
Information: A guild agent may purchase information on a cost basis. The starting rate for minor information is 50gp. Such information may include dock schedules (times that boats are due to enter and leave as well as when regular and surprise inspections are planned), laiding lists and ship inventory, tariff records for city entry both from the Ways or the main gates. More expensive information may include maps of buildings in the city, personal information on various individuals, as well as actions of other guilds, etc. Basically anything known to the guild may be brought for a price. The guild has no secrets.
Special Services: To full
guild members some special services are available. Full guild members are
privy to more common knowledge about how the guild works and who is in
it. The higher level the more you can know. Agents who have attained seventh
level or above may request tails to be put on various targets. Up to one
tail per level above 6th is allowed. The usual prices for this
are 100gp per day for a low level tail or 500gp per day for high level
tails. Tails can be denied by higher level guild members but this is rare
and usually happens only when the guild is very short staffed. Full member
at seventh level may hire other lower level guild members at a cost of
100gp per level per day for jobs, etc.
Equipment & Prices. The
guild maintains a guild store.
Thieves Cant: Jim's guild
uses the normal dialect of thieves cant found throughout west and central
Oerth. As with all thieve's cants, a language must be spoken in common
between those holding the conversation. Jim's guild has a number of additional
words that deal with clerical topics, gambling, and bards.
Recruitment/Requirements: To be a full member of the guild, an agent must be a worshipper of Ishtar and good in alignment. New recruits are allowed leyway in one or the other but not both. They do not become full guildmembers until they meet both requirements and alignment and faith must be verified by the church of Ishtar. All members (including recruits) must go for regular confession of ALL actions. If new recruits do not meet guild requirements after three training periods they are let go from the guild. Exceptions may be made if a cleric intercedes on their behalf.
Duties: The guild retains
20% of all net income made in the city and 10% of all income made elsewhere.
A minimum 5% tithe to the church of net income is also expected. For legitimate
buisinesses owned by agents, the guild receives 10% of profits (buisness
advice is provided at low cost). All information gained during travel or
regular work should be shared with the guild. Cash and even magical item
bonuses for good information are common. At ninth level, full guild members
are often required to perform a service for the church.
Runs about 80% of the action in Chathold. Competition comes from a southlands guild based in Jalpa run my a man named Farnsnad Du'Koble. He was a man in the pocket of the Prelate of Almour (the former chief cleric and rler of Chathold and the Prelacy of Almour). Du'Koble is a very evil and selfish man. He has murdered a number of guildsmen and employs a variety of assasins and poisoners. Du'Koble's guild has about 20 members but all are of decent levels. They run out of a variety of establishments - never staying in any one place too long. Specifically on the list of people to watch for is the Black Archer (only known name for him). This assasin is great with a bow and has recently come to Chathold (2 yrs?). The archer is most defintely trained as an assasin but may have some tracking and ranger skills. He is known to own a ring of spell turning and bracers which allow double the number of arrows to be shot in a round. Others on the list include Drak Ashur, a thief of near master level who has twice stolen from the church of Ishtar and actually murdered one prostitute. He is from Jalpa and is working as Du'Koble's right hand man. Among other things he is known for a paralyzation poison that works instantly and can hav permanent side effects. Three guildsmen are now retired as a result of this. Considered VERY dangerous. Recent information from guildswoman Idari tells us Drak Ashur once held the second post in another guild and instituted a bloody coup during the Dark Times. He has been assisted by the clerics of Ramman and helped steal temple loot from the forces of Gilgamesh when they conquered the city. She rumours that he may have an item which can summon darkness and storms on command.
Chathold has a guild that was present before the conquest of Chathold. It has gone deeply underground and no information yet has been discovered. Rumour has it that it is run by an old woman but its tactics and actions have not been learned. General alignment of the guild is believed to be chaotic and neutral.
Kun Kholahm is another person that has come under scruitiny of the guild. He is a former merchant who built a fortune during his lifetime running guilds of assasins and thieves as well as gem merchanting. He is now retired but legend has it that near the time of his retirement he made some sort of a pact with a Nabasu demon (known by the Shool of Shadow & Spellmixing as a Death Stealer). Supposedly, in return for something he gained a long life and the power to will any person within the confines of the city of Chathold to die without chance of resistance and he may do so from the comforts of his own home! Whether this legend is true or not has not been ascertained as of yet. His residence is kept under constant watch by our agents. He rarely leaves his abode and has only a small staff of servants. No movements have been made against him for fear of this power.
Since the crackdown on the guilds, very little information on any of these agents or their guildswork has been ascertained. All tails have been called back.
Stilleto Jim’s Guild was founded several months into the initial building of the city of Babylon. At this time, thousands of soldiers loyal to Taran Soothra, and many others on loan from Furyondy were participating in the building. King Gambling’s dwarves were there as well, in exchange for unlimited mining rites into the gateway to the elemental plane of Earth built by the Archmage Sultan Zyntax, they would help build and fortify the walls and buildings of Babylon. Sultan Zyntax was the great architect of the building plan. During the building phase, soldiers lived in tents, etc. They were well payed but had little to spend their money on as trade from the rest of Oerth was very scarce. The long hours working at night and the scorching hot days were bringing morale very low. It was at this time Jim returned to Babylon from his extra planar travels with the Amulet of the Planes. The guild initially started with the importation of contraband - cigars, alcohol, etc coupled with a large gaming/gambling initiative. This gave the soldiers and dwarves something to spend their money on and a reason to gamble. Jim put a great amount of his earnings abroad into the building of his Casino/Taven/Inn/Entertainment complex. Hiring builders from abroad and importing all necessary goods, his buildings were the first ones actually finished. Stilleto Jim, making use of Zepplin’s network, brought many gleemen and aspiring bards to Babylon for training and to entertain the troops. Quickly, Stilleto Jim’s became a hot spot. Payments to Sultan’s Magic School bought small open gateways to the air elemental plane to bring in cool fresh air. The place was a big hit. To increase the trend, Jim payed for the transportation of many high stakes gamblers (mostly card players) from around Oerth - some from the Theocracy, others from Nyrond, Furyondy, Greyhawk City, and even a few from the Hold of The Sea Princes. Having free passage there and back they decided to make the journey. Having many very experienced, high stakes players in one area made them want to come back often. This started to bring a great deal of fame to Stilleto’ Jim’s. The many wonderous sights to see in Babylon (Tovag Baragu, the battlefield where the Dark One was fought and defeated, the chance to walk on the great Bridges, as well as later - the Tree of Life, and the great painted ceiling of the Cathedral to Ishtar) kept excitement to see Babylon at a very high level.
Stilleto Jim’s then proceeded into phase two. Good men and women were recruited to be trained in the thieves guild and to be trained as bards. The thieves guild then started extending out onto the Bridges. With the concent of Sultan and Taran, Jim built several ‘Way Stations’ or inns on the bridges. Since travel on the bridges took weeks and there were no other permanent structures there, most anyone who travelled on the bridges stopped for rest or entertainment. The bards in training were sent to entertain along the bridges and sing many of the stories of the fight at Tovag Baragu, the meaning and methods of the Dark One, the old stories of history that the party learned. In general they promoted the myths, legends, and spin that was decided upon in the true battle at Tovag.
The Church of Ishtar had placed Ser Ineluke as the head of the brothels. She became the "Whore of Babylon". She was requested by Rahasia to start opening a network of brothels in other cities. Because of the previouls relationship with Jim, Ser convinced him to undertake the project with her. Thus, Jim started to expand his netwrok into other cities in tandem with the brothels. Ser had her own information network carried via pigeons. The brothels then also became a place where Zepplin’s network of courriers and bards could rest, gain aid, and transfer information. When the month of May came, and the stars aligned so daemons could walk the world unhindered, Rahasia directed the prostitutes in all of the various cities to inform the rulers of the towns exactly what was going on. Some did so during sex, others made formal disclosures. This put the brothels of Ishtar in a well respected position in many towns thus facilitating their operation and the operation of the network and guild through them. Prostitutes often gain information from ‘bedtalk’ and with the bards abilities to promote sex, the partnership worked out very well.
Jim’s guild has major interests in Chathold (in the southlands), Dyvers (the capital of Furyondy) (both of these are directly off the bridges) as well as Beer (the city of the goddess Sin (very liberal, demon-fighting sister to Ishtar)). Minor interests are held in Greyhawk City and Rhadigast. Jim has found much competition from other guilds. In babylon and the bridges he has all but snuffed them out in a great part due to a deal made with Taran Soothra. Jim would inform him of ‘lawbreakers’ and Tarans men would bust them - for the price of a steady flow of information and an effort to keep evil crime off the bridges and out of Babylon. The Guild has met resistance from other guilds once off the bridges. The Greyhawk city guild has prevented him from getting any major toe hold there. A guild operating out of Trigol, in Nyrond, has also been able to strongarm Jim’s guild out of many cities in nyrond. Beer has been the exception. Jim’s guild in Dyvers has about 20% of the action, with the rest being sharred by two other guilds. 80% of the action in Chathold is run through Jim’s. The rest is illicit and comes from guilds in the southlands and one trying to establish itself from the Duchy of Urnst (which politically rules Chathold although it is a city to Ishtar).
Jim has made some recent purchases and new expansions. With the desert city of Altaruk being newly conquered by Babylon, jim is moving in. Its dificult because desert people (called hachdeshani or suleman) dont like dealing with wetlanders and recruiting desert folk into the guild has ben difficult. Sadira, an agent of a thing called the ‘Veiled Alliance’ - a desert group of good ‘preservers’ (druid/mu’s) with loose associations in all the desert cities may provide some help. Jim is ‘working’ on her currently. Also, on one of his trips, Jim encountered an arbiter of the Deck of Many Things and was able to convine him, for a large sum, to buy a Wheel of Many Things to place in the inn at Babylon. It costs 10,000gp a spin and the house retains the right to deny a spin at any time or to pick up the tab if it likes.
So, in summary, Jim has created three things. A string of profitable entertainment establishments complete with gambling, bards, and prostitues, a thieves guild specializing in all maner of crime, and maintanance of Zepplin’s information network of bards, gleemen, and townsfolk. Information learned by the network and the guild always finds its way back to Jim and is usually complimented by information supplied by prostitues or Ser Ineluke. The guild also has ‘agents’ in high places in the goverment of Babylon, Chathold, and Beer. Jim’s Inn in babylon remains the most profitable by far. As the wonders of Babylon increase and as trade increases, it promises only to do better.
Other notes:
Jim has opened up some possibilities in a place known as Avalon. Its another prime material plane that has trade with Babylon. They worship another god - a lawful good god of prophecy and war who fights the Dark One. They are a very interesting people. Also, Avalon is supposed to be the center of all prime material planes.
The Amulet of the Planes has been returned to the Church. Its maligning effects wer getting too strong to resist. Only because of you long dealings with the skull were you able to hold out so long.
The people of the desert are exceptional. The ‘evolution’ magic in the desert has given birth to a race of humans who have stats that can naturally go as high as 20. All of them have psionics. and many reach very high level. The guilds out there are commensuratley tough and will provide a great challenge.