The Argentum is a ministry within the Church of the Silver Flame dedicated to the acquisition, study, and redistribution of magic items and artifacts. Freed from all restrictions and disavowed by the Church at large, it sends agents abroad to retrieve items of power—things that can be used by Thrane to solidify its political and magical dominance. Some of these items languish in half-forgotten ruins. Others must be snatched from the clutches of their present owners. The Argentum is a shadow organization that cares not for treaties. It exists because Thrane needs powerful magic as much as it needs great armies.
Argentum Affiliation
The Argentum is looking for loyal Thranes (or foreigners whose loyalty can somehow be assured) with a penchant for espionage. The nature of the Argentum’s work demands a broad range of expertise. It needs agents skilled in the use of arcane and divine magic. It also needs agents who can verify an item’s authenticity, gather information about an item’s whereabouts, negotiate, lie, steal, fight, and escape.
Agents typically operate in teams of four, with each member bringing a unique set of skills and abilities to the team. New agents are assigned relatively low-risk missions, such as stealing potions from an alchemist’s shop or scrolls from a library. Agents who
complete their mission without drawing undue attention to the Argentum are rewarded for their good work and given more challenging missions. Missions rarely happen in quick succession, so the Argentum allows its agents to pursue their own goals between assignments (although agents cannot use the organization’s resources for unauthorized quests).
For the Argentum to hire you, you must be a Thrane citizen. The Argentum will also consider anyone recommended to them by at least two Thrane cardinals. The Minister of the Argentum has the authority to grant citizenship to any such candidate once he or she is indoctrinated into the organization, but that citizenship can be instantly revoked if the agent and the Argentum part company for any reason.
Once a character is accepted for membership in the Agrentum, he or she gains an affiliation score that shows the character’s standing in the organization. A new member begins with a base score of 1 plus one-half the character’s level. From there, the score increases or decreases, depending on which of the factors listed on the accompanying table apply. (A character can receive the “5 ranks” modifier for each of the listed skills.)
|
Modifier |
| Character level bonus |
+1/2 PC’s level |
| At least 5 ranks in a relevant skill: Gather Information, Knowledge (arcana), Search, Sleight of Hand, or Spellcraft |
+1 |
| Thrane military veteran |
+2 |
| Worshiper of the Silver Flame |
+2 |
| Per successful mission for the Argentum |
+3 |
| Aided a member of the Argentum in need |
+3 |
| Recommendation from a High Cardinal |
+4 |
| Recommendation from Queen Diani |
+4 |
| Evil alignment |
-2 |
| Per failed mission for the Argentum |
-2 |
| Convicted of a major crime in Thrane2 |
-3 |
| Fought for another nation during the war |
-3 |
| Known ties to an evil religion |
-4 |
| Your Argentum affiliation becomes known |
-4 |
Affiliation
| Score |
Consequence |
| 3 or less |
No affiliation. |
| 4–11 |
Potential Member: You might need to pass a test before membership is granted. |
| 12–19 |
White Agent: You gain a +2 circumstance bonus on attempts to influence the attitude of other Argentum members and Thrane cardinals. The Argentum will post and guarantee your freedom if you are arrested and detained for a minor crime in Thrane. You get 50% of the market price of an item as a reward for its safe recovery, paid in gold coins. |
| 20–27 |
Black Agent: You gain a +4 circumstance bonus on attempts to influence the attitude of other Argentum members and Thrane cardinals. The Argentum will post bail and guarantee your freedom if you are arrested and detained for any crime in Thrane. You get 75% of the market price of an item as a reward for its safe recovery, paid in gold coins. |
| 28 or more |
Gray Agent: You gain a +6 circumstance bonus on attempts to influence the attitude of other Argentum members and Thrane cardinals. The Argentum will post bail and guarantee your freedom if you are arrested and detained for any crime in Thrane. You get 100% of the market price of an item as a reward for its safe recovery, paid in gold or platinum coins. |
As your reputation within the Argentum improves, you’ll eventually be invited to join the inner circle, where you’ll have your pick of assignments as well as a heftier reward for delivering powerful items and artifacts into the Argentum’s clutches.
ARGENTUM BENEFITS
The Argentum takes care of its agents in direct proportion to how effective they are. Agents who retrieve difficult items with minimal fuss can become quite wealthy and earn more lucrative assignments. New agents have little more than a shadowy contact and the promise of a bag of gold for their work.
Detailed Briefs: Agents working for the Argentum are assigned a contact of similar rank who feeds them information about the mission at hand. They are given the name of the desired “deliverable” (usually a single item or small collection of items), a detailed description of the deliverable, and the most up-to-date information on the deliverable’s whereabouts and present owner (if one exists). Agents are also given
transportation options if the assignment isn’t local.
Services: The Argentum reimburses its agents for basic travel, food, and lodging expenses. Agents expecting recompense must record how much they’ve spent and file a verbal report upon their return. Agents may be asked to subject themselves willingly to a discern lies spell while filing such a report.
The Argentum prefers that its agents travel incognito and can provide false identification papers, traveling papers, and disguise kits as needed and at no cost.
If an agent is arrested and detained for a crime in Thrane, the Argentum may take steps to free the agent from custody. This process takes 2d12 hours. The organization won’t risk exposure to rescue a low-ranking agent accused of a major crime such as murder or treason, and unless the agent was detained while executing an assignment, he or she will almost certainly have the bail amount subtracted from his or her final payment.
Argent Sign: Argentum scholars have crafted a unique sign language called Argent Sign. Agents of the Argentum can spend a skill point on the Speak Language (Argent Sign) skill to learn the sign language. This language is taught only to members of the
organization. Comprehend languages spells cannot decipher Argent Sign because it has no spoken words.
Payment: Low-ranking agents (called white agents) are paid 50% of an item’s market price once it is successfully delivered into the hands of the Argentum. Mid-ranking agents (called black agents) are paid 75% of the market price. High-ranking agents (called gray agents) command full market price of the item for their hard work.
In addition to the flat payment, agents may keep any incidental items or treasure recovered during the course of the mission. They may also sell other magic items to
the Argentum, which pays 75% of the market price.
Note: The Argentum doesn’t sell magic items to its agents (or anyone else, for that matter). It pays its agents in gold or platinum and trusts that they will purchase or obtain their own magic items elsewhere.
Favors: An agent can reduce his current affiliation score to get favors from the Argentum beyond what is needed for the current mission. An agent who reduces his score by 1 point gains a simple favor, such as access to peripheral information, hard-to-get documents, or a meeting with an important Thrane official. An agent who reduces his score by 2 points may secure a dangerous, expensive, or illegal favor.
Argentum favors function like the Favored in House feat (E BERRON Campaign Setting, page 53) except that no favor check is required.
PLAYING AN ARGENTUM AGENT
Agents of the Argentum are paid to steal magic items. Some of these magic items lie in dusty sepulchers and sealed vaults, while others are worn around the fingers
and necks of Khorvairian nobility. Each mission presents its own unique challenges and requires a diverse array of skills, which is why Argentum agents usually operate in groups of four. In other words, working for the Argentum is rather like adventuring, except that you have a buyer already lined up for the items you acquire.
The Argentum asks that you keep your allegiance to the organization and your knowledge of its activities to yourself. While most intelligence agencies in Khorvaire are aware of the Argentum’s existence, they do not have a good handle on its membership, and the Argentum prefers to keep it that way, for your safety and the safety of every other agent and adventuring party affiliated with it.
If you are a low-ranking white agent, your primary contact within the Argentum is another white agent who serves as a courier and information broker, briefing you on missions and providing you with the necessary paperwork and travel arrangements to
execute your mission.
If you are a mid-ranking black agent, you can expect to deal with other members of the Argentum who are more intimately involved in uncovering and researching powerful magic items. The agent to whom you report is usually a director assigned to several groups of agents. Do well, and the highest echelons of the organization will recognize your handiwork.
If you are a high-ranking gray agent, you are invited into the Argentum’s inner circle. You gain the privilege to conduct your own missions, you get full market price for each deliverable you recover, and your boss is probably Minister Nystrum Shadar himself.
Once in a while, he may have a special mission for you . . . one that few other members of the organization could hope to accomplish.
Missions
Minister Shadar likes to call his agents “retrievers,” because that’s exactly what they do. Missions for the Argentum invariably begin the same way: Some deliverable (either a singular magic item or collection of magic items) is discovered and targeted by Argentum researchers, and retrievers are assigned to retrieve it. However, each mission presents its own unique challenges, depending on the location of the deliverable and what might be guarding it. The mission concludes once the item is safely returned to an Argentum vault or safehouse and payment is made in full.
Once in a while, something goes horribly awry. A gray agent defects or is captured alive and threatens to expose the entire organization. It then falls to agents of the Argentum to fix the problem, either by eliminating the defector or rescuing the unfortunate. Either way, the ministry loathes losing good agents.
Advancement
Minister Shadar and the directors who report to him watch their agents closely, looking for ones who display an uncanny knack for magic item theft. These sterling retrievers are well treated and carefully groomed. The Argentum gives them plenty of latitude to pursue their own quests between missions, and if they get into trouble, the Argentum does what it can to bail them out.
Responsibilities
The Argentum allows agents to pursue freelance assignments, providing they don’t conflict with the ministry’s agenda of keeping magic items out of the hands of Thrane’s enemies. As a member of the organization, you can turn down any mission you feel is
beyond or beneath your abilities. One word of caution: Turn down too many missions, and the Argentum may feel obliged to revoke your membership.
Should you choose to leave the Argentum or should your membership be revoked, you must submit to a geas/quest spell and swear not to divulge what you know about the organization and its members.
THE ARGENTUM IN THE WORLD
“I hear you’re good at plundering dungeons. Well, we’re good at finding them.”
—Nystrum Shadar, Minister of the Argentum
The Argentum’s researchers rely on Thrane’s libraries, bards, and spy networks to gather intelligence on specific magic items. In some rare instances, they employ
House Phiarlan or House Thuranni spies to help gather the information they require, although they call upon the servants of shadow houses only when the item they seek is particularly important or valuable.
If your players are tired of pillaging dungeons for no apparent reason or want more coin for their hard won magic items, the Argentum provides a new and interesting toy for them to play with. The structure of the Argentum allows the PCs to stick together as a group. After all, if they clearly work well together, the Argentum has little reason to split them up.
Organization
Minister Nystrum Shadar (LN male human fighter 10) answers to the Council of Cardinals and manages the entire organization, which is based in Flamekeep. He also shares information with Queen Diani ir’Wynarn, possibly out of respect for her position or perhaps because he longs to see her returned to power. A retired army general, Minister Shadar is very “hands on” but trusts his troops to get the job done. Shadar
has twenty-four directors who report to him. Each director manages a team of agents, couriers, spies, information gatherers, or researchers. Agents are split by color (black, white, and gray), as previously noted. Couriers, spies, and information gatherers are separated by nation and have false identification papers certifying them as citizens of the respective nations in which they operate. Research teams are divided up by magic item type (arms and armor, potions, rings, rods, scrolls, staffs, wands, wondrous items, and artifacts). The hard-nosed Director of Artifact Research, Lycia Velencor (LN female human wizard 9), serves as Minister in Shadar’s absence.
At any given time, the Argentum has a dozen or more operations underway. Most of the missions take place outside of Thrane’s borders, from the Shadow Marches and Demon Wastes to Q’barra and the Lhazaar Principalities. The Argentum even has operatives in Stormreach, on the continent of Xen’drik.
NPC Reactions
Very few citizens of Thrane know of the Argentum, but they know Nystrum Shadar well enough as a retired army general who won several decisive victories toward the end of the Last War. Most assume that he’s living the quiet life these days—a thought that Shadar himself finds quite humorous.
The Argentum is known throughout the intelligence community. The Royal Eyes of Aundair have pegged several of its agents and shared this information with the King’s Dark Lanterns in Breland. Aundair, Breland, and Karrnath have their own counterparts to the Argentum, although only Aundair’s society of “relic hunters” has the size and scope to rival Thrane’s organization. Agents of the Argentum captured in Aundair,
Breland, or Karrnath are treated harshly. Often the only way to escape imprisonment is to become a double or triple agent.
ARGENTUM LORE
Characters can make Gather Information checks to learn more about the Argentum.
DC 20: The Argentum is a ministry tied to the Council of Cardinals in Thrane. Its members research magic items.
DC 25: The Argentum not only studies magic items, but it pays people to retrieve them.
DC 30: The Argentum seeks to gather as many magic items as possible, keeping them for Thrane’s use and out of the hands of Thrane’s enemies. Agents of the Argentum can communicate with one another using a special sign language.
THE ARGENTUM IN THE GAME
The Argentum can appear wherever magic items are found. Characters might cross paths with Argentum agents while exploring a remote dungeon or meeting with an Aundairian wizard whose tower the agents intend to plunder.
Adaptation
Like so many organizations spawned during the Last War, the Argentum relies on stealth and subterfuge to get the job done. However, it needn’t be an arm of the Church of the Silver Flame. The Argentum could be an independent organization in Thrane, operated by Nystrum Shadar for reasons known only to him. Conversely, Shadar and his organization might be working for Queen Diani ir’Wynarn and embroiled in a plot to restore the Galifar line to power in Thrane.
You can also use the Argentum as a model to build similar organizations in Aundair, Breland, Karrnath, Q’barra, and Zilargo.
Encounters
An encounter with agents of the Argentum should not be some run-of-the-mill fight. Argentum agents are usually adventurers with class levels and plenty of magic items to spread between them. However, unless the agents are after an item that happens to
be in the PCs’ possession, characters have little to fear from them. As a general rule, Argentum agents are taught to choose their battles wisely and avoid unnecessary ones.
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