Chapter V · Organizations

The Underworld

Under every city in Eldriloch is another one: the under-market, the back rooms, the alleys where the Peacekeepers don't go after dark. These are the people who run it.

The Veil

A dancer with a black lace fan in a lantern-lit underground market of jewelry stalls and cloaked figures. — The Veil's under-market, where almost anything can be bought.

An underground organization that uses fraud and bribery to win freedom from Regnant Sovereigni Gilirak. The Veil is chiefly responsible for the civil war in Staerhiel. It was started and is run by Zinrie. Most of its members are women, but many men work for it. The Veil runs the under-market and has significant dealings with fleshgrafters. It won't get directly involved itself, but it will help plan sieges on airships, coups and other complicated jobs for the right price, and it often hires the Gauntlet for security, muscle or collecting from unwilling payers. Its safehouses look condemned from outside and luxurious within, and they are warded by several aetheric practitioners working together.

Veil Runners are the Veil's scouts, smugglers and thugs, and they're what most people picture when the Veil is mentioned. They gave the runner class its name. Members identify each other with coded phrases about the weather: "When will the weather clear?"

Requirements: A sponsor in the Veil, and a job done for it without asking why.
Associate: Access to the under-market, and the weather code.
Member: Shelter in Veil safehouses, and forged papers at cost.
Trusted: Smuggling for people and goods out of any Staerhielian city, and access to the Veil's fleshgrafters.
Duties: Work against Gilirak when asked, keep Veil secrets, and never sell out a member.

Gutter Kings

A bald brawler in a gas mask and goggles with heavy pauldrons and chains, standing before a misty industrial city. — A Gutter King on the docks.

Specialists in intimidation, brawling and bounty hunting, with a strained relationship with the law. They'll hunt down the worst criminals for enough coin, but they cause trouble wherever they go. The Gutter Kings are feared because they literally pummel people into doing what they want. They fought beside the Sons of the Throneless to defeat Gilirak's attempt to retake Luton.

Requirements: Win a bare-knuckle fight against a Gutter King, or survive losing one well.
Associate: +2 on Intimidate checks in any city where the Gutter Kings hold the docks.
Member: First pick of bounty contracts, and bail paid once per year.
Trusted: A crew of four thugs (1st-level fighters) for one job a month.
Duties: Pay your share of every bounty, and show up when the Kings call a fight.

Sons of the Throneless

A mercenary company that fights by its own code, chief among its goals the freeing of slaves. Gilirak branded them a criminal organization after they and the Gutter Kings defeated his attempt to retake Luton. Many people consider them heroes, even saviors. Healers of Khareus serve among them, and their ranks are full of mercenaries who left better-paying work to join.

Requirements: Never having owned or sold a slave, and having freed someone from bondage.
Associate: Shelter and a meal with any band of the Sons, no questions asked.
Member: Mercenary contracts that pay fairly, and a +2 bonus on Diplomacy with former slaves and the poor.
Trusted: The company will come for you if you're taken.
Duties: Never take a contract that enslaves anyone, and free the enslaved when you find them, including souldriven, if you believe they count.

The Registry

Hired assassins well known in the underground. The Registry accepts payment only in a small silver coin stamped with a dagger and a cloud on one side and torn cloth on the other. The coins are usually given only to the elite, and the price is high. Even showing one in a tavern makes people nervous. Its killers are called shrouds, for the torn cloth on the coin and the last cloth a mark will ever wear.

Requirements: An invitation. Nobody applies to the Registry.
Associate: A single silver coin, to be used once.
Member: Registry contracts, and safe passage through any underworld that knows the coin.
Trusted: Entry to the shroud prestige class.
Duties: Never refuse a paid contract, never kill without one, and never speak of the Registry. It doesn't accept resignations.

The Gauntlet

Hired muscle, often contracted by the Veil for security and collections, and a driving force in the fight over Staerhiel's contested cities. The Gauntlet has no politics, only a rate card.

Requirements: Base attack bonus +2, and a willingness to sign a contract.
Associate: Steady guard and collection work at 1 gl per level per day.
Member: Arms and armor at cost from Gauntlet quartermasters.
Trusted: Command a squad on contract, and a share of the fee.
Duties: Honor the contract, whoever's paying.

Daughters of the Painted Mask

The power behind the Tepor Islands, which they run in all but name. The Daughters wear painted masks in public, so no one is quite sure who leads them, and they take a cut of every privateer prize that docks in their harbors.

Requirements: A sponsor among the Daughters, and a mask of your own.
Associate: Safe harbor in the Tepor Islands.
Member: Sell privateer prizes and stolen cargo at full value.
Trusted: Passage on any privateer ship that docks in the islands.
Duties: Never unmask a Daughter, and pay the harbor's cut.

Dancers in a dim stone cellar beside a cauldron of coins, watched by a seated man in a dark coat. — A Veil den: entertainment upstairs, business below.

A huge tattooed brawler with spiked bracers and a mohawk in a torchlit stone hall, hooded figures behind him. — A Gutter King enforcer.