The Xanathar's Thieve's Guild
The Xanathar's Guild is a group of thieves and cutthroats operating out of the bowels of Waterdeep. From its main offices in Skullport, the Xanathar's Guild has access to several portals, with prominent ones leading to an alley in Waterdeep, a rock outcropping near Calimport, and a small Guild-owned warehouse in Westgate.
The Guild is led by an elder beholder called The Xanathar. It is at least the second such creature to claim the title, since it destroyed its predecessor. Few outside the inner circle of Masters know of The Xanathar's nature, because it is reclusive and guarded by undead beholders. Eleven Masters each control one of the Guild's businesses: assassination, blackmail, book-keeping, enforcement, extortion, information gathering, magical defenses, mercenaries, slavery, smuggling, and thievery. Most of the Guild's work involves slavery or thievery.
Members of the Guild are well trained and skilled in stealth, tactics, and discretion. They have excellent arms and armor, and those who need to use portals as part of their work are usually multiclass spellcasters or at least trained in rudimentary spellcasting. The elite troops that work for the slavers (known as the Hands of the Eye) are all at least 4th level.
Avaereene (LE female human Wiz11) is the First of the Hand and Master of Magic, a beautiful and cruel woman who has worked with the Xanathar for years and speaks for the beholder in most affairs. Colstan Rhuul (LE male human ClrlO of Bane) is the Second of the Hand and Master of Assassins, a patient and calculating man who personally leads an elite team of assassins as well as running the Guild's entire assassination business. Ahmaergo (LE male dwarf Ftr9) is the third of the Hand and Master of Slavers. Known as "the horned dwarf" for his magic spell-turning platemail, he's thinking about splitting his followers from the Guild to form another slaving group.
Typical Xanathar Slaver: Human Rog3/Ftr2; CR 5; Medium-size humanoid (human HD 3d6+3 plus 2d10+2; hp 27; Init +7; Spd 30 ft; AC 17 (touch 13, flat footed 14 Atk +6 melee (1d6+3/19-20, +1 short sword) and +6 melee (1d6+1/19-20, masterwork short sword) or +7 ranged (1d8/19-20, light crossbow SA Sneak attack +2(16; SQ Evasion, uncanny dodge (Dex bonus to AC AL CE; SV Fort +5, Ref +6, Will +1, Str 14, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8.
Skills and Feats: Appraise +3, Balance +5, Bluff +3, Climb +10, Escape Artist +5, Hide +9, Intimidate +5, Jump +8, Listen +6, Move Silently +9, Search +5, Spot +6, Tumble +7, Use Rope +7, Swim +4; Ambidexterity, Improved Initiative, Twin Sword Style, Two Weapon Fighting, Weapon Focus (short sword.)
Possessions: +1 studded leather, +1 short sword, potion of invisibility, potion of cure moderate wounds (3rd), masterwork short sword, light crossbow, 20 bolts.
Like all great cities, Waterdeep attracts its fair share of rogues who stalk the shadows and ruffians who prey on the weak. Waterdeep's only recognized thieves' guild, the Shadow Thieves, has been exiled for nearly a century, and the Lords have long sought to confine the city's inevitable illegal pursuits to the Port of Shadow. As a result, most Waterdhavian rogues are independent agents or members of organizations based outside the city. Since the Year of the Wave (1364 DR), those who practice bardcraft have been regaining their former prominence in the City of Splendors. Much of this ascendance can be ascribed to the founding of New Olamn (C72).
Agents of the Eye
The Xanathar, also known as the Eye, is Waterdeep's most powerful and successful beholder. It eliminated every rival eye tyrant in the City of Splendors and the dungeons below, leaving it the unquestioned master of its kind in the City of Splendors. The Eye is served by a large group of agents, known in Undermountain as the Agents of the Eye and in Waterdeep as the Xanathar Thieves' Guild. By either name, the Xanathar's operation controls a large fraction of Waterdeep's slave trade and is rivaled only by the Shadow Thieves in its dominance of petty thieving operations in the City of Splendors.
Base of Operations: The Xanathar Thieves' Guild maintains scattered "safe houses" throughout the sewers of Waterdeep, small rooms hidden behind secret doors among the warrens of passages. In Undermountain, the Agents of the Eye maintain a base in Skullport, the former residence of Misker the Pirate Tyrant, and control much of the Sargauth Level.
The Xanatharz’s Thfeues’ Guild A.K.A. The Xanathar Guild, The Xanathar’s Guild, The Xanathar Thieves’ Guild, Agents of the Eye (most are unaware that the leader of the Hand of the Eye is now running the Guild in the guise of its murdered former leader). Group Mark: The Xanathar’s Guild uses a symbol of a circle from which radiate ten lines, like a sun. The Agents of the Eye uses a manacle upon which a staring eye has been drawn or carved. Those who have heard of The Xanathar Thieves' Guild know it as a criminal organization that controls mercenaries, slavers, spies, and thieves in the vicinity of Waterdeep. It is not a true thieves’ guild as it does not actively promote thieving or actively recruit new thieves through the normal channels. This confusion has resulted in several different versions of the group’s name, a situation exacerbated by its members referring to the leader of the guild as “the Xanathar” instead of simply “Xanathar.” The Agents of the Eye are unknown to common folk outside of Undermountain. Those that know them consider them a very powerful and efficient group that moves across the Realms The combined organization (the Xanathar Thieves’ Guild and the Agents of the Eye) hopes to acquire fiscal and polit¬ical power through slaving, thievery, spying, information col¬lecting, and mercenary action. Long-term goals include taking control of Skullport and ruling Waterdeep, both of which would he accomplished through the use of human and demihuman agents of the guild. Avaereene is planning on cutting hack on her activities after her current tasks are done so that she may study more magic. With the Guild’s entry into Westgate, she sees the opportunity to interact with wizards from the eastern half of Faerun and learn more of their style of magic. She also would like to learn more about the wizards of Calimshan, and a brief encounter with Chechu al Khish, an earth elementalist from that region, has piqued her interest. Ahmaergo harbors thoughts of splitting the slaving divi¬sion (which he controls in Skullport as the guild’s liaison with the Iron Ring: see below) away from the rest of the guild, elevating his own status and getting out from under the Xanathar. So far, he has been able to keep himself from finding the flaws in this plan, hut he needs to acquire some¬thing to protect his thoughts now that his greenstone amulet's powers are waning. He also seeks some anti-magic (to pro¬tect him against attacks by the Xanathar, should his plan succeed) and possibly some way to control his death-tyrant guardians (which are programmed by the Xanathar). Histowy and Motivation The necromancer Shradin Mulophar discovered an aban¬doned Nctherese outpost deep under the City of Waterdeep near Undermounrajb in the Year of the Angry Sea (1148 DR). Shradin petitioned the wizard Halaster (who had claimed Undermountain as his own after driving out the drow in residence) to allow him to explore and study this ruin. Halaster agreed, and Shradin settled in. The wizard’s presence drew the attention of people on the surface as well as unsavory creatures such as drow, illithids, and derro from the Underdark. A small trading settlement formed there, eventually evolving into what is now the underground city of Skullport by the third quarter of the 12th century of the Dale Reckoning. One arrival in the Year of Seven Trinkets (1205 DR) was a beholder that was quickly nicknamed the Eye. It had already garnered a few charmed slaves for itself from its trav¬els through the Underdark and saw the demand in Skullport (and elsewhere) for slaves. It found itself uniquely suited to acquiring and distributing such a valuable commodity. With the help of its charmed servants, it roamed the nearby tunnels in search of stragglers, humanoid raiding parties, and poten¬tial competitors to its business, then returned with its incapacitated targets and sold them in Skullport to the highest bidder. Over time, it acquired more trustworthy agents and turned over portions of its slaving operation to these underlings while it looked at the bigger picture and ways to expand its business. In the controlled environment of Skullport (in which overt disturbances attract the attention of strange flying skulls that reprimand, imprison, or kill any offenders), the Eye’s business was able to grow to cover blackmail, extortion, spying, thievery, smuggling, and the employment of merce¬naries. While it welcomed a certain level of competition in its primary trade, the Eye stamped out anyone and anything that threatened its majority share of slaves coming through Skullport. Its fortunes rose and fell in relation to the pros¬perity of the underground city, sometimes controlling over half of the slave trade there and more than once dropping to a mere fifth of the flesh cargo. Its superior firepower, ease in acquiring new employees (through its charm abilities), and the docility of its goods (again assisted by charms) allowed it to recover every time. It chose one of these fallow periods to retreat into the background of its own organization. The Eye spread rumors of its demise, retirement, or relocation, and used its closest agents to orchestrate the highest levels semiautonomously. Eventually the fact that a beholder ran the Agents of the Eye \Vas forgotten by most, the Eye’s existence becoming a his¬torical footnote. By the time the Eye had reached a century in age in the Year of the Stag (1304 DR), the Agents of the Eye were feared and respected by residents of Skullport and all those who knew of its slaving practices. Although in the next fifty years the beholder lost function in two of its magical eye- stalks, it had amassed enough power to prevent anyone from challenging it, and the wisdom and experience it had acquired more than made up for any loss in magical power. The Eye began to look for other avenues to increase its area of influence, and began to investigate a group called the Xanathar’s Thieves' Guild. The performance and habits of that organization’s employees reminded it of its own group in subtle ways that only another beholder would recognize, and after asking the right questions to the right charmed people over the next ten years, the Eye determined that the myste¬rious Xanathar was an eye tyrant, and one from a different hive at that. Seeing an opportunity to gather more power for itself and eliminate a rival at the same time, the Eye plotted to have Xanathar eliminated. A few years of investigating its unknowing foe revealed the location of Xanathar's lair. The Eye carefully manipulated Uthh, another beholder of Skullport, and eventually tricked it into attacking Xanathar in the sewers beneath Waterdeep. While Xanathar was able to defeat Uthh, the Eye took advantage of its counterpart's weakened condition and slew Xanathar. The Eye then took over Xanathar’s operation, instructing its new minions to call it “the” Xanathar as if the name were a title. Most of the original Xanathar’s employees agreed to stay, coerced by charms or the fates of those who succumbed to the Eye’s death ray when they refused to serve. From that point forward, the Eye was a creature of tremendous power both in Skullport (especially after the elimination of Seirtych Xantaun, another beholder involved in smuggling there) and Waterdeep (in the guise of the Xanathar). Other than the ranking members of Xanathar’s entourage, no one realized that there was a change in power at the top of the Guild. Tlie Eye continues its criminal activities in Skullport and its new playground, Waterdeep. While it doubts it could serve as one of the Lords of Waterdeep, it believes that one of its agents could ascend to such a position with the proper assistance and timing. Until that time, it continues to direct its criminal organization to eliminate major opponents and secure its position as master of the slaving trade in Skullport. (Currently one third of the slaves coming through Skullport are bought or sold by the Agents of the Eye. The majority of the remaining slave trade in the city falls under the auspices of the Iron Ring.) Today, some of the people of Skullport (the well-informed ones) know that the Agents of the Eye are all employees of a beholder, and an equal number suspect it, but most do not care, since the identity of the Agents' leader is irrelevant to their daily lives. Likewise, only the senior members of the Xanathar Thieves’ Guild know that the Xanathar is a beholder, and those who get too curious tend to turn up dead. The Eye enjoys its casual anonymity and never leaves its underground lairs, secure in its paranoia and layers of deception. Onganization Although originally two separate organizations, the Eye has consolidated most- functions and some of the senior staff of the Agents of the Eye and the Xanathar’s Thieves’ Guild. At the head of the group is the Xanathar, who allocates the var¬ious subsections of the guild among senior staff members, all of whom have recently been given the title Master. The Xanathar has absolute authority over the Masters and can override their decisions at any point. There are eleven categories of business addressed by the Masters (also the number of eyes of a healthy beholder): assassination, blackmail, bookkeeping, enforcement, extor¬tion, information gathering, magical defenses, mercenaries, slavery, smuggling, and thievery. As some categories are more expansive than others, it is quite common for a Master to have some intluence over more than one category and for a single category to be under the control of more than one Master. Each of the Masters has a number of subordinate agents to handle lesser affairs and act as buffers between them and those who would shut down their operation. Very few of these lesser agents are aware of the Xanathar or members of other branches of the guild unless they tend to work in concert. (For example, the information gatherers are usually aware of a few of the slavers, and the slavers often work with the mercenaries and the smugglers.) Another division of the Xanathar’s organization lies within the slavers category. As this is the Eye’s main interest and the focus of its primary business for so long, there ate three members associated with it that are called the Hands of the Eye. Either in charge of the slaving operations or assisting them on a regular basis, these people are ranked as Command, Second, and Third of the Hand. These trusted positions are given only to the most experienced slavers in the organization and the Xanathar usually lets them work without interference, unless it has special plans or a major disruption to the slaving occurs. The lesser members of the slaving division are simply called Hands, are usually fighters or thieves of level 2-4, and operate in teams of ten to twenty; team leaders are often called Hand Leaders—a term that is catching on among the teams but is not formally recognized by the Guild. Communications below the Master level are entirely ver¬tical; a guild member gives orders to inferiors, confers with equals within a category, and reports to superiors. The Mas¬ters coordinate interaction between divisions, usually by des¬ignating one senior member of an acting division as a temporary superior for all other category teams involved. I
The heroes learn about an old, abandoned com-plex deep beneath Waterdeep. Those who have attempted to breach the threshold were deterred by active traps. Perhaps the place isn't as deserted as everyone thinks. Could it be the legendary lair of the mysterious Xanathar?
A party member who has a shady background or a reputation for unscrupulous activities is approached to join the guild. To prove her worth, the character must complete a job that is dan-gerous but lucrative. Her friends can help her accomplish the task, but she is ordered to keep her companions in the dark about the guild's involvement.
While passing through Waterdeep, the party thwarts an opportunity for the guild that would have been extremely profitable. Xanathar is furi-ous about the loss and puts a price on the heads of one or more of the heroes.
Agents of the Eye (Expansive Criminal): AL LE, NE, CE; 40,000 gp resource limit; Membership 360; Integrated (humans 133, half-orcs 72, halflings 64, dwarves 36, half-elves 25, others 18, elves 7, gnomes 4, and beholder 1 Dues 60 gp/month (300 gp to join).Authority Figure: The Eye (see below). Important Characters: Ahmaergo the "Horned Dwarf" (LE male shield dwarf fighter 9 Avaereene (see below Shindia Darkeyes (CE half-drow elf rogue 9 Orlpar Husteem; Slink Monteskor (CE male Chondathan expert 12 Randulaith of Mirabar (see below Colstan Rhuul (see below Ott Steeltoes (NE male shield dwarf rogue 1/fighter 4 Slan Thurbel (CE male Tethyrian fighter 9). Associated Classes: Expert, fighter, rogue, sorcerer, wizard. Associated Skills: Disable Device, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (dungeoneering), Knowledge (local), Search. Requirements: Do not divulge guild secrets to outsiders. You must obtain the guild's consent before attempting any large (a score of 1,000 gp or more) or high-profile crime, and the guild claims 10% of your profits for such crimes. Favored in Guild Fringe Benefit: You know the best markets for valuable merchandise. Once per character level, you can sell a magic item for 100% of its market value, or an art object or gem for 120% of its normal value. Special: The Eye is extremely careful, to the point of paranoia, about bringing new members into its inner circle. You must demonstrate ruthlessness and obedience in a test of loyalty (usually, killing or selling into slavery a former associate or family member). As the Xanathar Thieves' Guild grows in number, the Eye increasingly hides behind multiple layers of indirection, but even low-level agents of the Xanathar Thieves' Guild are secretly probed by the Eye before becoming members of the guild. Although no one has done so thus far, an agent of the Eye might become an ocular adept, but the Eye would view such individuals as self-aggrandizing, deluded pawns. Avaereene: Avaereene (LE female Tethyrian wizard 12) is a beautiful, cruel, and skilled mage and slaver who serves the Eye by picking up potential slaves in the seamier wards of Waterdeep by night. She leads the Eye's snatch-and-grab kidnapping agents, known as the Hand. She commands great loyalty from her forces, and they will do anything to prevent her harm or capture. In addition to her quarters in the stronghold of the Eye in Undermountain, she rents rooms in North Ward above the Bent Nail, where she keeps a workbook of spells beneath the floor. She hides an impressive cache of magic items and spellbooks in a cellar off the south end of Carter's Way. Avaereene enjoys creating darkenbeasts to serve her deadly whims, and she intends someday to supplant the Blackstaff as the most powerful mage of Waterdeep. The Eye: The Eye (LE advanced 33 HD elder orb sorcerer 12), also known the Xanathar, is an ancient, wrinkled, and extremely paranoid beholder of the Graypeaks Hive. Its primary base is in the southern half of the third level of Undermountain near Skullport in a fortified complex, but it also maintains an extensive lair in the sewers of Waterdeep, linked to its other lair by a keyed portal. The elder orb never ventures out from its dual lairs, preferring to work exclusively through intermediaries. It is attended at all times by swarms of lurking stranglers and eyeball beholderkin. The Eye controls an extensive slaving operation in the Port of Shadow, rivaled only by Zstulk Ssarmn's outfit, and the recently resurgent Shadow Thieves. It has also recently muscled in on Skullport's smuggling operations, at the expense of its beholder rival, Misker the Pirate Tyrant (LE advanced 22 HD beholder). In recent years, the Eye has extended its control over all the beholders of Undermountain, forcing those who refused to bow to its rule to flee into the Underdark or the surface. It sole remaining rival, Misker, was forced to flee into the depths and is now in hiding in the abandoned Trobriand's Graveyard. The Eye views all humanoids as slaves for the taking, but always interrogates captives to learn all that might be turned to its advantage, slaying only if it must. Randulaith of Mirabar: Randulaith (NE male Illuskan human wizard 9) guards the Eye's lair in Undermountain, but is a frequent habitué of Skullport and Dock Ward. This quiet, elegant man has a taste for good wine, clever jokes, and mermaids. He favors a plain tunic and breeches. He is not cruel and makes friends easily among beings of all races and alignments, making him a valued spy of the Eye. Randulaith has long aspired join the Lords of Waterdeep, and he has recently made progress toward that goal: He is now the engaged to be married to the widow Brianne Byndraeth, having learned from Colstan Thuul of her membership in that august group and then determinedly courted her. In the course of his courtship, he has also caught the eye of Caladorn Cassalanter and Sammereza Sulphontis, both of whom see the charming Randulaith as a possible future Lord, although, thus far, Randulaith has not discovered their secret roles or interest. Colstan Rhuul: Colstan (LE male Illuskan cleric 11 [Bane]) is a one-time adherent of Bane who briefly adopted Cyric as his god before returning to the Black Lord after his return. This haughty, cold man with thick black hair is a patient, calculating schemer who avoids personal danger whenever he can, preferring to work at a distance through hired knives and behind-the-scenes manipulation. He makes a patient, careful foe for those who injure or thwart him, tirelessly arranging opponent after opponent to bedevil his enemies. Colstan is Avaereene's second-in-command in the Hand and is based in the Eye's lair in Undermountain. The Banite's favorite tactic is to send hireswords to start a brawl or similar incident with adventurers newly arrived in Waterdeep, while he waits in the wings to steal unguarded belongings in their rooms or attack an isolated spellcaster. The Banite then takes what magic he can, and then calls in the Hand to capture the remaining adventurers. Colstan prides himself on knowing the faces of all important (not always prominent) Waterdhavians, and he has made a hobby of uncovering the identities of the Lords of Waterdeep. After several setbacks in his efforts to discover who is and is not a Lord, Colstan has identified the widow Brianne Byndraeth as a probable member of that group. The Xanathar’s Thieves’ Guild Primarily due to the efforts of Lhestyn, the "Masked Lady," and the guild's own arrogance and open opera¬tions, Waterdeep's "official" thieves' guild (the Shadow Thieves) was crushed by the Lords and driven from the city years ago. This did not end thievery and crime in the city, but simply drove it further into the shadows, splintering it into hundreds of small independent operations. Decades after the fall of the Shadow Thieves, the major advocate and support of these operations is the Xanathar, a name whispered by few but truly understood by only a handful of people up and down the Sword Coast. Xanathar is a collector of information from the Realms above and below, again through trusted third parties, by which it makes its plans. As it always has in the past, the Xanathar remains cloaked in secrecy, hidden behind a mul¬titude of aliases and powerful magical defenses. Rather than operating a strict Thieves' Guild, Xanathar works every¬thing with freelance thieves and mercenaries, operating through third and fourth parties in order prevent the agents from revealing its whereabouts, if caught. In fact, only its eight lieutenants know that the Xanathar is, in fact, an elder orb beholder once known as the Eye; many of its operatives within Waterdeep and Skullport do not even realize that the Xanathar is a beholder. Xanathar makes his home in a opulent chamber that is hidden behind a secret door leading from the sewers of Waterdeep. His main chamber has yet to be located by the forces of law, and, indeed, few know of its very existence in the city, including the Lords. In addition, new chambers and access points continue to be added to the sewers stronghold where it lives, allowing the Xanathar to reach its other holdings in Skullport, Undermountain, and other places. Xanathar's abode can be reached through a number of trapped passages, which only its seven lieutenants know the correct passage. (Of the eight, Randulaith, Avaereene, and Ahmaergo know of two different teleport gates that can take them directly to the Xanathar's lair.) Other interlopers are kept as pets briefly, wrung dry for information, then dis¬patched (for Xanathar's appetite is enormous). The series of chambers in Xanathar's lair contains a number of treasure vaults and libraries (with information by Slink written in a code). Xanathar itself reclines in a clear glass tank of scented water when not planning criminal activities. It is said that Xanathar has the best knowledge of the sewers and their entrance both into the major citadels and into Undermountain as well. It is confident of both its power and its secrecy from the Lords, and is willing to go to great lengths to maintain that secrecy. Operatives who begin to wonder who is giving the final orders get a midnight visit from an enforcement gang. (Slan and his men only break limbs, if the operative is still useful; Colstan is sent with his ritual slayers if the nosy operative is no longer needed. . . .) Xanathar is sure that the Lords would destroy the cellars stone by stone to find out where its lair is, if they knew where it existed. Xanathar's libraries keep extensive track of the abilities and weaknesses of the mages of Waterdeep. Xanathar's greatest defense is its secrecy. "If they do not ask the right questions, they do not get the right answers" is its comment on spellcasters seeking evil in the city. In addition to nondetection defenses in lair, Xanathar makes sure that its operation cannot be considered a true "Thieves' Guild," so it may chuckle over the Lords, secure in their knowledge that no such organization exists, while Xanathar grows rich on their lack of knowledge.
Ideals
Goals
Beleifs
Faction ranks
Eyestalker (1) Agent of the Eye (3) Eye Ray (10) Guild Boss (25) Hand of the Eye (50)Notable members
Xanathar and his Lieutenants The Xanathar Thieves' Guild, since it absorbed the Eye's slave trade in and around Skullport, is now larger and more powerful than ever. Xanathar maintains lieutenants from the Hand as well as the original Xanathar's underlings; cur¬rently, these eight persons know their master's true identity and form, but they appear as the powers behind their vari¬ous operations (diverting attention from the mastermind). The lieutenants of the Xanathar Thieves' Guild are the fol¬lowing characters. Ahmaergo (LE dm F9; STR 18(10), CON 19, WIS 16): Responsibilities - Slavery, Third of the Hand. Ahmaergo poses as the controller of the Eye's former holdings on Under¬mountain's Level Three, north of Skullport. Given freedom to control his aspects of the Xanathar's holdings, Ahmaergo has gotten a bit arrogant in Skullport, but fre¬quent visits from Avaereene (with reminders of his place in the operation) keep him in line. For more information on Ahmaergo, see Appendix Two of the Campaign Guide. Avaereene (LE hf W11; DEX 18, INT 17): Responsibili¬ties - Slavery, Command of the Hand. This beautiful, cruel woman is a skilled mage and slaver who picks up potential slaves in the seamier wards of the city at night. She is the Xanathar's voice to his snatch-and-grab kidnaping agents, known as the Hand; the Hand is based in the slavery com¬pound north of Skullport on Undermountain's Level Three and consists of fighters of 2nd through 4th level. Avaereene commands great loyalty from her forces, and they will do anything to prevent her harm or capture. Avaereene lives in rooms in North Ward, and she has an impressive cache of magical items and spellbooks (including the death field spell, the reverse of the life field spell created by Stavros of the Skulls—see Chapter Seven in the Campaign Guide). Shindia Darkey es (CE he (drow)f T9): Responsibilities- Blackmail, Extortion, Information Gathering. The personal favorite of the former Xanathar, Shindia is a conniving, opportunistic half-drow woman. While she helped Xanathar kill the invading beholder Utth, she was power¬less to save her master from the Eye's powerful counterat¬tack. Shindia now grudgingly works with the Eye, the new Xanathar, at her former tasks of blackmail and extortion; her information is funneled through the darker festhalls of Waterdeep and its more stylish parties. She bides her time, collecting information, all the while planning to have a hand in the Xanathar's downfall. Slink Monteskor (CE hm F0; CON 17, INT 18): Responsibilities - Bookkeeping, Information Gathering. Slink Monteskor is Xanathar's bookkeeper and main storehouse of information. (Slink's eidetic memory allows him to remember everything he reads, including all the accounts and dealings of both Xanathars, and the goings-on within the city.) He has a network of thieves and snitches scat¬tered throughout Dock and South Wards, who send him reports through a secondary network of contacts (none of whom are aware they work for the Xanathar). Randulaith (NE hm W9; DEX 18, INT 18): Responsibili¬ties-Magical Defenses, Information Gathering. Formerly of Mirabar, Randulaith is a quiet, elegant man with a taste for good wine, clever jokes, and mermaids. (He uses potions of waterbreathing to regularly visit Waterdeep's harbors to visit with his "ladies of the deep.") He likes to make friends among beings of all races and alignments. Xanathar, know¬ing his value as a handsome, smooth-tongued negotiator and spy, encourages him in this. Randulaith has a secret dream: He wants to become a Lord of Waterdeep — an influential, behind-the-scenes Lord who wields real power. Due to ESP and various scrying spells, Xanathar knows and encourages this dream secretly. It sees this as a great advan¬tage to trade and its power, and wants Randulaith to suc¬ceed. This quiet, dapper wizard just might have the intelligence, perception, and wariness necessary to pull it off. Xanathar can hardly wait for its puppet to begin pulling strings of its own. Colstan Rhuul (LE hm P10 of Cyric; DEX 18, INT 17): Responsibilities - Assassinations, Second of the Hand. Colstan is a patient, calculating schemer, who avoids personal dan¬ger whenever he can, preferring to work at a distance through hired knives and behind-the-scenes manipulation. His favorite tactic is to send hireswords to start a brawl or similar incident with adventurers newly arrived in Water- deep, while he waits in the wings to steal unguarded belongings in their rooms or attack an isolated spellcaster. Colstan takes what magic he can, and then calls in the Hand to capture the adventurers. Colstan also specializes in assassinations, often killing lone adventurers and dedicat¬ing the kills to Cyric. Colstan prides himself on knowing the faces of all important (not always prominent) Waterd- havians, and has made a hobby of uncovering the identities of all of the Lords. He once knew the names of all but four of the Lords of Waterdeep; in the ten-year interim, maneu¬vers by Mirt, Durnan, and Kitten (and the secret expansion in the Lords' ranks) made him doubt if he truly knew any of the Lords at all. . . . Ott Steeltoes (NE dm F7/T8): Responsibilities - Smug¬gling, Thieving. Ott Steeltoes is a renegade of Ironmaster, a one-eyed dwarven pirate who has worked for both Xanathars, preferring the good pay and relative power of his position over a life of piracy. Ott now coordinates the Xanathar's smuggling operations through Skullport, and has become good friends with Ahmaergo (the Xanathar's secret slaving partner in Skullport). Unlike his work with the previous Xanathar, he now uses a talent for planning and strategy to arrange some of the more daring thefts for the guild, taking care there are enough agents in between to take the fall before any activities can be traced to him or Xanathar. Slan Thurbel (CE hm F8; STR 18(63), CON 17): Responsibilities - Enforcement, Mercenaries. Slan Thurbel is the Xanathar's mercenary leader, who arranges crimes of violence and "examples" to be set for any who dare betray the Xanathar or any of his agents. Slan enjoys working for the current Xanathar, since its predecessor only insulted him and did not "respect his talents"—the current Xanathar feeds him false praise to keep his loy¬alty. Of all the lieutenants, Slan believes he controls the most power, as he has command (through contacts) of nearly 100 men (including a few servants of noble houses little does he realize that he is constantly watched by Avaereene, who is under orders to kill him if he moves against them. Xanathar (a.k.a. The Eye) (LE beholder (elder orb INT 21): The Xanathar is an elder orb, an ancient beholder that no longer has its disintegrate and flesh to stone eye powers, but has full elder orb powers and can cast one spell each from levels 1-8 (see the beholder-kin entry in the Monstrous Manual). The Xanathar was for¬merly a devious beholder who controlled much of Waterdeep's illegal activities. Through the plots of an ancient beholder called the Eye (a slavelord in Under¬mountain), Xanathar was killed and the Eye took over its operations. Now calling itself the Xanathar (using it as its title), the elder orb consolidated its own opera¬tions with its predecessor's. It once viewed all humans and humanoids as slaves for the taking; after years of repeated incursions by adventurers into its caverns, it now has a grudging respect for them. It now uses many of them as agents (via its charm person ability if facing a hostile character, it always questions or deals with such a being, learning all it can that might be turned to its advantage and slaying only if it must.The Xanatharz’s Thfeues’ Guild A.K.A. The Xanathar Guild, The Xanathar’s Guild, The Xanathar Thieves’ Guild, Agents of the Eye (most are unaware that the leader of the Hand of the Eye is now running the Guild in the guise of its murdered former leader). Group Mark: The Xanathar’s Guild uses a symbol of a circle from which radiate ten lines, like a sun. The Agents of the Eye uses a manacle upon which a staring eye has been drawn or carved. Those who have heard of The Xanathar Thieves' Guild know it as a criminal organization that controls mercenaries, slavers, spies, and thieves in the vicinity of Waterdeep. It is not a true thieves’ guild as it does not actively promote thieving or actively recruit new thieves through the normal channels. This confusion has resulted in several different versions of the group’s name, a situation exacerbated by its members referring to the leader of the guild as “the Xanathar” instead of simply “Xanathar.” The Agents of the Eye are unknown to common folk outside of Undermountain. Those that know them consider them a very powerful and efficient group that moves across the Realms The combined organization (the Xanathar Thieves’ Guild and the Agents of the Eye) hopes to acquire fiscal and polit¬ical power through slaving, thievery, spying, information col¬lecting, and mercenary action. Long-term goals include taking control of Skullport and ruling Waterdeep, both of which would he accomplished through the use of human and demihuman agents of the guild. Avaereene is planning on cutting hack on her activities after her current tasks are done so that she may study more magic. With the Guild’s entry into Westgate, she sees the opportunity to interact with wizards from the eastern half of Faerun and learn more of their style of magic. She also would like to learn more about the wizards of Calimshan, and a brief encounter with Chechu al Khish, an earth elementalist from that region, has piqued her interest. Ahmaergo harbors thoughts of splitting the slaving divi¬sion (which he controls in Skullport as the guild’s liaison with the Iron Ring: see below) away from the rest of the guild, elevating his own status and getting out from under the Xanathar. So far, he has been able to keep himself from finding the flaws in this plan, hut he needs to acquire some¬thing to protect his thoughts now that his greenstone amulet's powers are waning. He also seeks some anti-magic (to pro¬tect him against attacks by the Xanathar, should his plan succeed) and possibly some way to control his death-tyrant guardians (which are programmed by the Xanathar). Histowy and Motivation The necromancer Shradin Mulophar discovered an aban¬doned Nctherese outpost deep under the City of Waterdeep near Undermounrajb in the Year of the Angry Sea (1148 DR). Shradin petitioned the wizard Halaster (who had claimed Undermountain as his own after driving out the drow in residence) to allow him to explore and study this ruin. Halaster agreed, and Shradin settled in. The wizard’s presence drew the attention of people on the surface as well as unsavory creatures such as drow, illithids, and derro from the Underdark. A small trading settlement formed there, eventually evolving into what is now the underground city of Skullport by the third quarter of the 12th century of the Dale Reckoning. One arrival in the Year of Seven Trinkets (1205 DR) was a beholder that was quickly nicknamed the Eye. It had already garnered a few charmed slaves for itself from its trav¬els through the Underdark and saw the demand in Skullport (and elsewhere) for slaves. It found itself uniquely suited to acquiring and distributing such a valuable commodity. With the help of its charmed servants, it roamed the nearby tunnels in search of stragglers, humanoid raiding parties, and poten¬tial competitors to its business, then returned with its incapacitated targets and sold them in Skullport to the highest bidder. Over time, it acquired more trustworthy agents and turned over portions of its slaving operation to these underlings while it looked at the bigger picture and ways to expand its business. In the controlled environment of Skullport (in which overt disturbances attract the attention of strange flying skulls that reprimand, imprison, or kill any offenders), the Eye’s business was able to grow to cover blackmail, extortion, spying, thievery, smuggling, and the employment of merce¬naries. While it welcomed a certain level of competition in its primary trade, the Eye stamped out anyone and anything that threatened its majority share of slaves coming through Skullport. Its fortunes rose and fell in relation to the pros¬perity of the underground city, sometimes controlling over half of the slave trade there and more than once dropping to a mere fifth of the flesh cargo. Its superior firepower, ease in acquiring new employees (through its charm abilities), and the docility of its goods (again assisted by charms) allowed it to recover every time. It chose one of these fallow periods to retreat into the background of its own organization. The Eye spread rumors of its demise, retirement, or relocation, and used its closest agents to orchestrate the highest levels semiautonomously. Eventually the fact that a beholder ran the Agents of the Eye \Vas forgotten by most, the Eye’s existence becoming a his¬torical footnote. By the time the Eye had reached a century in age in the Year of the Stag (1304 DR), the Agents of the Eye were feared and respected by residents of Skullport and all those who knew of its slaving practices. Although in the next fifty years the beholder lost function in two of its magical eye- stalks, it had amassed enough power to prevent anyone from challenging it, and the wisdom and experience it had acquired more than made up for any loss in magical power. The Eye began to look for other avenues to increase its area of influence, and began to investigate a group called the Xanathar’s Thieves' Guild. The performance and habits of that organization’s employees reminded it of its own group in subtle ways that only another beholder would recognize, and after asking the right questions to the right charmed people over the next ten years, the Eye determined that the myste¬rious Xanathar was an eye tyrant, and one from a different hive at that. Seeing an opportunity to gather more power for itself and eliminate a rival at the same time, the Eye plotted to have Xanathar eliminated. A few years of investigating its unknowing foe revealed the location of Xanathar's lair. The Eye carefully manipulated Uthh, another beholder of Skullport, and eventually tricked it into attacking Xanathar in the sewers beneath Waterdeep. While Xanathar was able to defeat Uthh, the Eye took advantage of its counterpart's weakened condition and slew Xanathar. The Eye then took over Xanathar’s operation, instructing its new minions to call it “the” Xanathar as if the name were a title. Most of the original Xanathar’s employees agreed to stay, coerced by charms or the fates of those who succumbed to the Eye’s death ray when they refused to serve. From that point forward, the Eye was a creature of tremendous power both in Skullport (especially after the elimination of Seirtych Xantaun, another beholder involved in smuggling there) and Waterdeep (in the guise of the Xanathar). Other than the ranking members of Xanathar’s entourage, no one realized that there was a change in power at the top of the Guild. Tlie Eye continues its criminal activities in Skullport and its new playground, Waterdeep. While it doubts it could serve as one of the Lords of Waterdeep, it believes that one of its agents could ascend to such a position with the proper assistance and timing. Until that time, it continues to direct its criminal organization to eliminate major opponents and secure its position as master of the slaving trade in Skullport. (Currently one third of the slaves coming through Skullport are bought or sold by the Agents of the Eye. The majority of the remaining slave trade in the city falls under the auspices of the Iron Ring.) Today, some of the people of Skullport (the well-informed ones) know that the Agents of the Eye are all employees of a beholder, and an equal number suspect it, but most do not care, since the identity of the Agents' leader is irrelevant to their daily lives. Likewise, only the senior members of the Xanathar Thieves’ Guild know that the Xanathar is a beholder, and those who get too curious tend to turn up dead. The Eye enjoys its casual anonymity and never leaves its underground lairs, secure in its paranoia and layers of deception. Onganization Although originally two separate organizations, the Eye has consolidated most- functions and some of the senior staff of the Agents of the Eye and the Xanathar’s Thieves’ Guild. At the head of the group is the Xanathar, who allocates the var¬ious subsections of the guild among senior staff members, all of whom have recently been given the title Master. The Xanathar has absolute authority over the Masters and can override their decisions at any point. There are eleven categories of business addressed by the Masters (also the number of eyes of a healthy beholder): assassination, blackmail, bookkeeping, enforcement, extor¬tion, information gathering, magical defenses, mercenaries, slavery, smuggling, and thievery. As some categories are more expansive than others, it is quite common for a Master to have some intluence over more than one category and for a single category to be under the control of more than one Master. Each of the Masters has a number of subordinate agents to handle lesser affairs and act as buffers between them and those who would shut down their operation. Very few of these lesser agents are aware of the Xanathar or members of other branches of the guild unless they tend to work in concert. (For example, the information gatherers are usually aware of a few of the slavers, and the slavers often work with the mercenaries and the smugglers.) Another division of the Xanathar’s organization lies within the slavers category. As this is the Eye’s main interest and the focus of its primary business for so long, there ate three members associated with it that are called the Hands of the Eye. Either in charge of the slaving operations or assisting them on a regular basis, these people are ranked as Command, Second, and Third of the Hand. These trusted positions are given only to the most experienced slavers in the organization and the Xanathar usually lets them work without interference, unless it has special plans or a major disruption to the slaving occurs. The lesser members of the slaving division are simply called Hands, are usually fighters or thieves of level 2-4, and operate in teams of ten to twenty; team leaders are often called Hand Leaders—a term that is catching on among the teams but is not formally recognized by the Guild. Communications below the Master level are entirely ver¬tical; a guild member gives orders to inferiors, confers with equals within a category, and reports to superiors. The Mas¬ters coordinate interaction between divisions, usually by des¬ignating one senior member of an acting division as a temporary superior for all other category teams involved. I
Chain of Command
• Kirukeskai “The Eye” (LE elder orb beholder; hp 101, Int 21): The Xanathar of the Xanathar’s Thieves’ Guild is an incredibly intelligent business strategist, a megalomaniac, and a paranoid schemer. While it no longer has the use of its disintegrate or flesh to stone eyestalks and its charm person eyestalk has started to fail about 50% of the time, it has mastered several wizard spells and can create death tyrants (undead beholders) from beholder corpses (a power which it has put to great use in guarding its slaving operations). This being is so incredibly amoral that while it has chosen to give birth several times during its life (it is now too old to bear offspring), each of these times it has used its charm monster power to control its progeny until it was a mature adult, then slew it and made it into a death tyrant. It sees all of its employees as slaves (talented slaves, deserving a modicum of respect perhaps, but slaves nonetheless). It is not above sacrificing any or all of them to preserve its guild or its life. The Eye has a large arsenal of magic items available to it (which it lends to the Masters and elite agents as needed), including a ring of proof against detection of locatiori (worn on an eyestalk), a wand of lightning, beads of force, a staff of curing, a cloak of arachnida, a rod of flailing, a ring of feather falling, oil of time¬lessness, and a bag of holding of the largest size. It carries (via telekinesis) a unique weapon that looks like a longsword on one end (with vorpal properties) and a allows herself the minor vanity, since she believes that by the time she has surpassed Khelben she will have control of magic that allows her to stay young. She trusts nobody to be close to her and is actually feeling lonely these past few months. Colstan Rhuul (LE male human P10 of Cyric; hp 66, Dex 18, Int 17): The Second of the Hand, Master of Assassins, was once a priest of Bane, but turned to Cyric after the Time of Troubles. Until recently, he and Avaereene often worked together to collect valuable slaves from the streets of Waterdeep and other cities; her semiretirement as an active procurer has placed him in a position of greater power in terms of individual acquisitions. Now the Hands use different female wizards to act as bait for chivalric folk, and Colstan tests their worthiness personally. He is a haughty, cold individual that enjoys conflict and domi¬nating those weaker than himself. He is also patient and calculating, and he prefers to operate from a safe distance, supporting his team members with defensive spells and long-range attacks. Colstan also accepts contracts for assassinations (dedi¬cating the kills to his god), and he is in charge of a small team of assassins, which the Xanathar uses to eliminate potential rivals and troublesome opponents. At one time he knew the identities of many of the Lords of Waterdeep, but work within the Guild and the actions of some of the Lords have left him unsure of his prior conclusions. He seeks a position of power in the city someday, possibly after the Xanathar dies. For now he is content to be a leader in the largest part of the Guild. Colstan has a green¬stone amulet, a ring of spell turning, bracers of defense AC 2, a mace of disruption, and a periapt of proof against poison +2 (woven into his hair on a chain). Ahmaergo (LE male dwarf F9; Str 18/10, Con 19, Wis 16) - The Third of the Hand, Master of Slavery, repre¬sents the slave-trading interests of the Xanathar’s Thieves’ Guild in Skullport. While Avaereene and Colstan are in charge of “cold” acquisitions, Ahmaergo is in charge of the buying and selling of slaves within Skullport and the movement of living cargo to and from those interested in it. Fie is known as the “Horned Dwarf” in Skullport because of the magical, spiky, black- iron platemail (possibly of duergar origin) he wears. The armor is platemail +3 that also acts as a ring of spell turn¬ing and a ring of warmth; it has many places to conceal weapons, and the spikes on it damage anyone that attempts to grapple, wrestle, or overbear him (ld4 spikes doing ld3 damage each). He also has a greenstone amulet, a rod of lordly might, a hammer of thunderbolts, and a heavy crossbow of speed. Several death tyrants, traps, watch- beasts, and fighter and thief guards watch over his resi¬dence in Skullport’s sewers. Ahmaergo has been running the Guild’s slaving operations in Skullport for several years now. Though he performed well, the Xanathar continues to supervise the work here very closely (usual¬ly through Avaereene). Ahmaergo resents the intrusion, seeing it as an interference in his business. Rumors say that he’s getting ambitious and may try to break away from the Guild, becoming an independent partner in the Iron Ring (a consortium of slavers that control most of the remaining flesh trade in Skullport). If so, this would result in a^war between Ahmaergo’s group and Guild loyalists, which could disrupt all manner of life in Skullport. Shindia Darkeyes (CE female half-drow T9; Dex 18, lnt 17) : The Master of Blackmail, Extortion, and Information Gathering was the favorite servant of the former Xanathar, and while she was able to help it defeat the beholder Uthh, she was unable to keep the Eye from slay¬ing her employer. When given the opportunity to work for the Eye, she grudgingly accepted. The information she acquires comes from her contacts and employees, most of whom are paid courtesans or festhall girls who frequent the most stylish parties of Waterdeep and its most depraved festhalls. She often uses this information to coerce political powerhouses in Waterdeep to look the other way when the Xanathar needs to take advantage of an opportunity, or just to make a personal profit. She plots the Eye’s downfall, and to that end she has made a sort of alliance with Ilserv, a mind flayer from the illithid city of Ch’Chitl, with whom she keeps in contact via a psionically empowered diadem she wears. Unfortunately for her, the Eye knows of her plans through the use of its ESP spell (which it uses frequently on the less trustworthy Masters) and subtly moves to thwart whatever plans she makes. Shindia has a hat of disguise, a ring of free action, a greenstone amulet, and a belt of entan¬glement (as a rope of entanglement, but only affecting one- fourth as many creatures). Slink Monteskor (CE male human 0-level; Con 17, lnt 18) : Tlie Master of Information Gathering is a potbellied fellow with an eidetic memory, allowing him to remember anything he reads. Slink is the Xanathar’s bookkeeper and information storehouse; his network of spies and snitches send him reports (through a secondary level of contacts to protect his anonymity) from all over Waterdeep. Also, he sees reports from all of the other masters and whatever information the Xanathar passes to him about the dual operations. While Slink is independent-minded, the Xanathar pays him incredibly well and monitors his thoughts with ESP spells, and so far Slink intends not to leave the service of the beholder (an act which would quickly result in a manhunt for him). Likewise, if Slink were somehow captured, the Xanathar would mobilize all available employees to guarantee his safe return or elimination. He knows far too much about the beholder’s criminal empire to be allowed to tell what he knows. He wears a greenstone amulet at all times. Randulaith (NE male human M9; Dex 18, lnt 18, Cha 16): The Master of Magical Defenses and Information Gathering is a honey-tongued handsome man who dress¬es well and makes friends easily with all races and align¬ments. His secret goal is to become one of the Lords of Waterdeep, and the Eye knows about and encourages this dream (as the Xanathar realizes that having one of the Lords of Waterdeep under its power would bo a great asset to its business). Randu has a fondness for mermaids, and used to keep a number of potions of water breathing in his home, although he now owns a necklace of adaptation that allows him extended forays into the deep. (These absences are beginning to earn the ire of the Xanathar, who will set limits for such “vacations” if Randu does not control himself.) Randu’s main job is to maintain the magical defenses of the slavers’ entry cavern in Undermountain, as well as the protections around the Eye’s lairs and other key loca¬tions in the guild. Because of this work, he knows the third level of Undermountain better than anyone save Halaster. In addition to setting spell-traps to be triggered by intruders, he often waits in the entry cavern to assist the slavers with long-range spells to subdue any unruly slaves-to-be. He has a pet griffon (partly subdued by magic, partly by good treatment) which has curiously adapted to dwelling in Undermountain (although it still enjoys jaunts through a gate into the open air). The Eye hired a Calishite sorcerer to cast a variant con-tingency spell on Randu that activates if the wizard dies, teleporting his body to the Eye’s presence so that it may be brought to life again. In addition to his necklace of adaptation, Randu has a greenstone amulet, a cloak of dis¬placement, a ring of spell storing (wall of force), and a rod of ahsorpticm. Ott Steeltoes (NE male dwarf F7/T8): The Master of Smuggling and Thieving is a former pirate and renegade of the Ironmaster clan. He left piracy to work for the first Xanathar because he preferred the better pay and power of the beholder's employ, plus he was not looking forward to losing any more limbs. His “Steeltoes” nickname comes from his metal pegleg, which has been enchanted to hold onto surfaces with a spider climb effect. The enchantment is only on the pegleg and not on his real leg or shoe, and so he cannot walk across a ceiling, although he can plant the pegleg on the side of a cliff or a stalac¬tite and hang there indefinitely. While under the old Xanathar he did little more than follow orders, he now has the freedom to use his strategic knowledge to arrange daring thefts for the guild (after making sure that several layers of intermediaries exist so the theft cannot be traced to him). He also directs most levels of the Guild’s smuggling activities. He has become good friends with Ahmaergo, and the two dwarves have been known to lock themselves up in the slaver’s home to drink and tell stories for hours. He is familiar with smoke powder weapons and enjoys the times when his employees get their hands on the stuff, even if only temporarily. He has an harulax of hurling, a greenstone amulet, and a long sash tied around his waist that can be removed and used as a carpet of flying of the smallest size. Sian Thurbel (CE male human F8; Str 18/63, Con 17): The Master of Enforcement and Mercenaries used to work for the first Xanathar but is happy it’s dead, as the old one continually insulted him and did not “respect his talents." He enjoys his new employer much more, since the Eye feeds him much praise to keep his loyalty high. Sian leads the Guild’s groups of mercenaries, and commands (through various contacts to independent groups) over one hundred fighting men (including a few strategically placed guards in certain noble houses). His employees include the sorts of men who commit violent crimes and who make examples of those who betray the Xanathar or his agents. This power has gone to Sian's head somewhat, and he considers himself the most powerful of the masters. The Xanathar understands the man’s ego and has instructed Avaereene to keep a close watch on him, and to kill him if he tries to move against the guild. Sian has no plans to do so currently and seems content to revel in his power whenever he meets with the other masters (which annoys them, but doesn’t make it worth the effort of slapping him down or risking the anger of the Xanathar). Sian has a hont of blasting (which the Xanathar has forbidden him from using in any buildings or caverns that the Guild owns), a short sword +1/+4 vs. reptiles, a greenstone amulet, and studded leather armor +3.Rank and File
Rhetsim (LE female human Mil; Int 15, Cha 6): An alchemist, he works primarily for the Slaver division of the Guild. She knows Avaereene and Ahmaergo, and she supplies both with sleep smoke and night sleep (see below). She is a hideous, mean old crone with sparse white hair and numerous chemical scars on her face and hands from experiments gone wrong. Her shop in Waterdeep is very expensive (she charges double normal prices to outsiders in order to minimize her walk-in business as the Guild pays her well) but produces very high-quality potions (+50% to the duration) for those rates. She owns a dozen minor magic items useful only in alchemy (another alchemist might pay up to 1,000 gp each for them). The only item of interest to adventurers is her decanter of endless water (although she usually has 2d4+4 potions of various sorts around her lab, labeled with cryptic symbols that only she understands). Her lab is guarded by her own spells and those of Master Randulaith, who treats her kindly and is one of the few people who make her smile. “Nool” (NE doppleganger): A Hand Leader, it is in charge of one of the ten-member bands of slavers. Nool appears to be a male human with ruddy skin and dark hair. It is actually Cheg, a doppleganger and infiltrator from the Unseen, a Skullport group of shapechangers, thieves, illu¬sionists, and assassins (see the Monsters chapter). Nool always dresses in nondescript clothing and armor and car¬ries plain weapons so that if it needs to assume another persona it will not be identifiable by its belongings. (Wearing clothing allows it to blend in better than if it just simulated clothing with its body.) Cheg has been a member of the Guild for a year now and has earned his position by exploiting his natural ESP ability, which allows him to find targets that are distract¬ed or unsuspecting. Cheg’s goal is to find the location of the Xanathar so that the Unseen can track its movements and possibly assassinate it. The doppleganger keeps its prized belongings in a portable hole, which it keeps tied around a bicep; the hole contains some money, a potion of extra-healing, and a ring of swimming. Alek Lenter (NE male human M9; Int 16): A Waterdha- vian fence, he was approached by the Xanathar’s Thieves’ Guild a few years ago to act as a liaison for its operations in Skullport. Alek agreed, and has gained considerable wealth, not only from his fencing business but also by feeding information to his friends in the Shadow Thieves, which resent the Guild’s incursions into “its” town. Alek hopes to continue this arrangement as long as possible, hoping to betray the Guild in order to strengthen the influence of die Shadow Thieves in Waterdeep. If he’s lucky, the Guild will not discover his duplicity. Other¬wise, he’ll very quickly end up dead or on the run. Alek has a dagger of venom, which he keeps concealed in his sleeve. Raw Rec »aits • Turg Zhuroth (LE male half-ore F2; Str 17): One of the Hands, he’s equipped with chainmail, a short sword, a dagger, a club, and a light crossbow. He is brutish, efficient, and experienced in hit-and-run tactics on potential slaves. He and the other hands typically apply night sleep to their bladed weapons, ambush their foes (which have been dis¬tracted by a comely member of the Hand), and drag their unconscious victims to a secret entrance to Undcrmoun- tain via Waterdeep’s sewers. Loyal to the other members of his Hand (most Hands are made up of humans, half-ores, and occasionally full-blooded ores), he has the respect of his comrades. He may get the opportunity to become a Hand Leader in the next few years. • Veesh Restoon (NE female human T3; Dex 16): A Hand member, she specializes in sneak attacks. She waits along potential paths of escape of targeted victims, prepared to backstab any that come by. In preparation for this, she carries a bandoleer of daggers treated with night sleep, using a different dagger to attack each round (so even if her opponent makes a save vs. poison, they’ll have to save again with the next hit because it is from a “fresh” weapon). She wears slippers of spider climbing, which she uses to escape should she be confronted by more oppo¬nents than she can handle. Obsessive about cleanliness, she avoids entering the sewers whenever possible. Kriknar (NE gargoyle): A Hand Leader for the Guild, it normally dresses in a thick hooded robe that conceals its features (it covers its face in flesh-tone paint so that it can be mistaken for an exceptionally ugly half-ore). Kriknar placed special slits in the back that allow it to use its wings if necessary. It and the other four members of its small tribe (all of which work in different teams and are not Hand Leaders) serve the Agents of the Hand not for money (although they are paid) but for the opportunity to hunt intelligent beings. Often they are given useless slaves (or they buy them with their wages, since the gargoyles do not need to eat) that they can play with. Kriknar likes its job and does not have any reason to leave, it has learned how to use a short sword +1 that was given to it in trade for a service it rendered a few years ago, and it uses that in combat instead of one of its claw attacks. Hydee (LE female human P3 of Loviatar; Con 16, Wis 15): A plain-faced woman, she is one of the support mem¬bers of a slaving team. Her primary job is to cast silence, 15' radius spells on ambushes (both to prevent attracting attention and to neutralize spellcasters), although she usually cannot resist joining the tight after she has done so, getting great enjoyment out of beating the tar out of her opponents. She owns a shield +1 and a rod of cancella¬tion. Hydee has met Master Colstan on more than one occasion and is greatly attracted to his temperament, although he has so far rebuffed her in favor of more attrac¬tive partners. Hydee treacherously slew one of the female wizards he spumed her for recently and dumped the woman’s body in the sewer.Methods and Activities
Most groups of slavers that bring in slaves sold by the Guild in Skullport operate through banditry, ambushes, and by follow¬ing the carnage of war. The Hands of the Eye, however, are specially trained and work with incredible efficiency at their task—even capturing skilled adventurers. First, potential tar¬gets are observed by agents of the Guild to determine their level of skill and gullibility. Those chosen for enslavement are followed until they reach an arranged spot. At that spot, an attractive member of the slavers (the “lure”) approaches someone in the group and attempts to draw him or her aside in the interest of soliciting help. The lure pricks the target with a small blade envenomed with night sleep, and when that person succumbs to the poison, the lure acts distraught and calls for help. When the rest of the adventuring group approaches, the rest of the Hands (which have been hiding on rooftops and in windows nearby) launch volleys of poisoned crossbow bolts upon them. Spellcasters are targeted with silence spells or silence pebbles, and the lure uses magic and items (such as sleep smoke) to eliminate the most dangerous opponents. The typical attack results in the adventuring band falling unconscious due to the slaver drugs. They are carted off through a gate into a holding area in Undermountain, after which they are processed and sold in Skullport. The guild targets adventurers as their unique skills bring very high prices among those who seek such slaves, such as drow and wealthy Calishites. Capturing, holding, and selling adventurers brings many risks, along with high profit poten¬tial, but the guild takes these risks in stride. The other aspects of the Guild’s business work much like any similar operation in other parts of Faerun, except that most operations are separated from the Masters of the Guild by several layers of secrecy and anonymous contacts. Track¬ing the chain of command upward from a street-level agent of the Guild is thus very difficult.Guild Member* Abilities
As die Guild employs many people who are separated by several degrees from the nerve center in Undermountain, most of these employees do not have any abilities atypical to their careers, nor do they receive any special training from their mysterious employers. The direct employees of the Masters, such as the Hands, undergo rigorous training in weapons, tactics, stealth, and discretion. Those who fail tests in these areas are usually killed or sold into slavery in far-off lands to prevent them from revealing what they know about the Guild. The size of the Guild is kept small; potential members are carefully studied until it determined that they are ready to serve the Masters. The Hands are familiar with crossbows, short swords, and the poisons and drugs that the Guild uses, including the knowledge of how to avoid poisoning themselves, how to hide evidence of the poison’s presence, and how to move quietly. The Hand Leaders who use gates receive limited training in magical theory and are given the appropriate knowledge and tools to activate the gates that they will lie using. Those Hands who work in remote lands are schooled in the languages and customs of those places so that they can communicate with locals and not stand out. Note that within Skullport and Undermountain, the Guild does rely upon ores, kobolds, and gargoyles, but these troops are less disciplined and tend to attract more attention on the surface. They are rarely included in Hand raiding parties.Resources and Pocoeo
The Xanathar’s Thieves’ Guild likes its employees to have equipment and weapons of at least average quality. Most Hand Leaders and other superior members carry only a hand¬ful of coins unless they expect to pay someone. The Guild makes use of gates to reach remote parts of the world to col¬lect slaves and goods, and certain spells or unusual items activate some of these gates, and so teams that need to make use of these gates have the appropriate items. For example, a ship-sized gate in Skullport is opened by a targeted lightning bolt spell, and any team that uses it either has a wizard with that spell onboard or a wand or javelin of lightning. The group’s safehouses, access tunnels, and escape paths are heavily guarded, usually by physical traps, spells, charmed monsters, and even death tyrants. In addition to mundane equipment, four types of unusual items are common to the slaving agents of the Guild: greenstone amulets, night sleep, silence pebbles, and sleep smoke. Greenstone amulets come in a variety of forms but all have a single green polished stone. The amulets used to be more powerful but after the start of 1370 DR the amulets in the hands of the Guild have drastically decreased in power for an unknown reason, turning a more yellowish color. The being that created them has long since disappeared, making it dif¬ficult to find replacements. Now these items give a +4 saving throw to all mind-affecting spells and absorb up to eight spell levels per day. (Note that these effects trigger in this order, so a spell against which the wearer successfully saves does not trigger the absorbing power). The stones are brittle and glow bright green for one round when their powers are triggered (such as by its wearer being attacked with a spell of the appropriate type). Each of the Masters has a greenstone amulet, and the Guild has six others distributed among key agents and certain Hand Leaders. Night sleep is a sleep poison made by Rhetsim. It takes the form of a sticky, colorless liquid that smells very faintly of acrid spices. A weapon coated with it insinuates the poison for the first three hits before the poison has been worn off. If hit by an envenomed weapon, the target must save vs. poison at a —2 penalty. Success means that the target is not susceptible to poison from any later strikes by that weapon. If failed, the target has a -1 penalty to attack rolls and AC, and the victim attacks last in the round. One to three rounds after failing the save, the target falls into a drugged unconscious state for ld4+l hours. All members of the Hand are immune to night sleep after slowly building up immunity from increasingly large doses. Silence pebbles are spherical stones coated with a glasslike lacquer. When the lacquer is shattered (such as by a forceful impart against a floor or wall), a silence, 15' radius spell is acti-vated, lasting 10 rounds. These items are difficult to make because of the rare ingredients necessary tor the lacquer and are used only when other magical support against spellcasters (such as an actual silence spell) is unavailable. They are less common than the other three items listed here. Sleep smoke is a dark gray, smoky gas that mixes quickly with normal air. Normally kept in glass flasks, it expands in one round to fill a 10-foot-diameter sphere if its container is shattered, expands further on the second round to fill a 20- foot-diameter sphere, and dissipates harmlessly thereafter. All creatures within the sphere must save vs. poison (at a -3 penalty on the first round, and a -1 penalty on the second round) or fall into a drugged sleep ld4+l rounds later. This sleep lasts ldl2+4 rounds and cannot be negated without the use of stimulants or magic. As with night sleep, the mem¬bers of the Hand are immune to sleep smoke. Aueas of Ope nation The Xanathar’s Thieves' Guild operates primarily in Waterdeep, Undermountain, and Skullport. However, the numerous gates in Undermountain and Skullport allow the group incredible mobility; Skullport has gates to several major cities, and the Guild controls three smaller two-way gates accessible only from within its private tunnels. One leads to an alley in Waterdeep (allowing easy transport of adventurer-slaves to the pens), another to a rock outcrop¬ping a few miles outside of Calimport, and the third to a small Guild-owned warehouse in Westgate. The Guild has most of its power concentrated in its primary locations, with diffuse power in connecting it (through its many layers of agents) to the land surrounding Waterdeep and the far side of the gates it controls. The heart of the Guild’s power lies in the Undermountain lair of the Xanathar, and in the nearby offices of the guild’s Masters.ALLies/Enemfes
The best-known enemies of the Guild are the Lords of Waterdeep, which removed the last thieves’ guild that existed in the City of Splendors (the Shadow Thieves) and work actively to prevent any other guild from starting up similar operations. Fortunately, the Xanathar’s Guild avoids many overt activities typical of a thieves’ guild, and so they continue to work under the noses of the Lords, while the Lords brag that “no thieves’ guild exists in Waterdeep.” Should the Lords find out more about the activities of the guild, the Xanathar may need to take steps to find out the identities of key Lords and have them eliminated (possibly giving Randulaith the opportunity to throw his hat into the ring for a Lord position). The Guild faces a number of competitors in Skullport, from the Dark Dagger, other beholder-run businesses such as that of Misker the Pirate Tyrant, and any other group that covets its majority position in slaving. The Xanathar enjoys the competition and allows the smaller groups to snipe at its organization and kill each other off. These other groups are considered enemies only if they represent a threat to its guild as a whole. Often, the Guild secretly assists a competitor in a scheme to eliminate a common rival, only to turn against that group later. The only true allies that the Guild has are the Iron Ring and the many minor groups that work for the guild (usually without knowing the true identity of their employers). Even the Iron Ring is a potential threat, given that the Guild's representative in that alliance (Ahmaergo) is stubborn andStatus Quo
The Xanathar has been sending representatives to meet with the semiretired Misker the Pirate Tyrant, proposing a tenta¬tive alliance to enhance each others' businesses (the guild’s slaving, Misker’s smuggling). Misker has so far refused to see these representatives, probably expecting some sort of trap. Ahmaergo searches for a suitable replacement for his greenstone amulet. He wants a magic item that protects against the reading of thoughts. The current price for such an item is thirty' thousand gold pieces worth of gems or slaves. He claims that the device would ensure no spying on his mind by his yuan-ti cohorts in the Iron Ring, but the rumor is that he's planning a break from the Xanathar’s guild. Avaereene has been sent through the gate to Westgate to help set up a guild-slaving operation there. She has pur¬chased the gate’s warehouse destination and has brought through two ten-man Hand teams to Westgate to learn the lay of the land and determine the prospects for establishing a slave trade on the western end of the Sea of Fallen Stars.A typical Xanathar's Thieve's Guild cache
(Often protected by glyphs of warding and mechanical traps with poisoned traps)3 mundane melee weapons (one silvered) 1 pieces of medium armour 1 piece of heavy armour 1 shields a barrel of water a crate of travelling rations 2 potions of healing 2 potions of greater healing 2 bottles of holy water 1 holy symbol A level 1 spell scroll (defensive)The name “Xanathar” (or often “the Xanathar”) has been whispered in the shadows of Waterdeep for over a century. Although the identity of the infamous leader of the Xanathar's Guild has never been dis-covered, rogues, thieves, cutpurses, and smugglers operating in the city know better than to dismiss stories of his existence. Many believe that the Xanathar is a fictitious villain whose name is invoked to instill fear in the weak. It's not possible, they reason, for one individual to run an organization as large and complex as a Waterdeep thieves' guild for such a long time. After all, the sto¬ries of the Xanathar go back more than a hundred years. Perhaps the crime lord existed in the past, but common wisdom suggests that he is surely dead now.
STRANGE SUCCESSION
The Xanathar is quite real, and one of the best- kept secrets in Waterdeep is that the head of the Xanathar's Guild is a beholder. Many beholders have taken up the mantle of Xanathar during the guild's long history; the current holder of the title has been operating in the city for the past thirteen years. Xanathar was the true name of the first beholder to run the guild. After it attained significant power over the criminal underworld in Waterdeep, other beholders took notice. Xanathar was assassinated by a rival called The Eye, which secretly took the dead leader's place. When The Eye was killed by adventur¬ers, a third beholder stepped in to assume the role. Over the years, many beholders have likewise claimed the title of Xanathar, some after killing their predecessors and some in a peaceful transition. The elder beholder Xandulzrithral fell into the latter cat¬egory, choosing to retire from the role rather than continue to live as a target. Adding to the potential confusion, other beholders also lurk in Waterdeep, and although they have nothing to do with the Xanathar's Guild, their activities are often mistaken for the work ofXanathar. One such rival is Xloro- thxrau, better known as “Lothjaws.” The beholders that fill the role of Xanathar are usually happy to see their crimes pinned on others. The penultimate Xanathar (once called Izulktur) held power for only a short time. It was originally part of a beholder cluster working alongside four others of its race. After becoming Xanathar, Izulktur continued to communicate magically with the other members of its cluster, sharing reports on its progress and the state of affairs in Waterdeep. Eventually the creature grew bored. The beholder disliked the restrictions necessary to keep its identity secret, especially being confined to its lair for so long. Xanathar ordered its cluster to send a replacement. The group sent a ser-vant, a drow named Kal'dir, to Waterdeep to assist with the transition. Kal'dir revealed that Zushaxx, a beholder new to the cluster, was interested in taking over as Xanathar. Before Zushaxx came to Waterdeep to assume the office, Izulktur took Kal'dir into its confidence and shared many secrets. The drow was instructed to assist Zushaxx during the transition and serve the new leader. The cluster agreed to repay Kal'dir's loyalty by exacting revenge on those who killed the drow's family. When Zushaxx took over, it immediately replaced the guild's top lieutenants and promoted new agents, starting with Kal'dir. The drow was a valuable aide in the selection process. Zushaxx spent much of its first year as Xanathar reading through the vast library amassed by its predecessors. Exposure to so much information drove its thirst for more knowledge. The current Xanathar, young and ambitious, is more impulsive than its predecessor. The guild leader is willing to take chances to increase its power, and it thinks the time might soon be right to emerge from the shadows to reveal its true identity as a beholder to more than just its trusted lieutenants.THE INNER CIRCLE
One of the keys to the lasting success of the Xanathar is anonymity. The fewer people who know the guild leader is a beholder, the better. Thus, it has four lieutenants who carry out its daily operations in Waterdeep: Kal'dir, Quid, Sial Sapphire, and Draak. On occasion they have masqueraded as the Xanathar, their identities magically protected when undertak¬ing the role. Each lieutenant has a different area of responsibility, but they usually work together to ensure the guild's overall success. Although the Xanathar tells its lieutenants that they are all equally important, the four compete with one another constantly. The beholder believes that the struggle keeps them sharp. It encourages their rivalry and often manipulates them into confronta¬tions with one another. Quid, Sial, and Draak suspect that Kal'dir works with the Xanathar to fuel the strife among the group. They're right. The beholder is fascinated by the drow's prowess at scheming and realizes that it has much to gain by ensuring that its lieutenants never completely trust one another.GUILD POLITICS
The Xanathar's Guild has hundreds of members. The four lieutenants have their own areas of influ¬ence and are responsible for the guild members who operate within those spheres. The lieutenants encourage their members to actively oppose other guild members who report to one of the rival lieuten-ants. This practice keeps the true nature of the guild's leadership shrouded in mystery and further deflects suspicion about Xanathar's identity. The beholder has contacts up and down the Sword Coast. In the proper circles, a letter bearing the guild leader's mark carries great influence. Xanathar has many connections in Luskan to the north and in the thieves' guild in Baldur's Gate to the south, and it also has considerable pull in the Underdark far north and west of Waterdeep. Kal'dir is often sent to these areas as an emissary to reaffirm the beholder's strength and its loyalty to its allies. Occasionally, Xanathar sends one of its lieutenants outside Waterdeep to take on a particularly dangerous or high-profile job.XANATHAR’S LAIRS
The true nature of the Xanathar has remained hidden for so long in part because the beholders that previously bore the title maintained multiple lairs and changed locations constantly. At any given time, Xanathar (Zushaxx) has three active lairs and has its network on the lookout for suitable new loca¬tions. The longest it has kept any lair operational is five years. All of Xanathar's lairs are underground and well guarded. Its lieutenants know how to find and enter each one. Each lair is equipped with a teleportation circle that allows the beholder to move between them effortlessly. Xanathar finds elves fascinating and has more than a dozen elf slaves that tend to the day-to-day tasks required to maintain the lairs. Draak breaks the will and spirit of all slaves before the beholder charms them with magic. One notable exception is Arizza, a human who works as Xanathar's book¬keeper. Although she lacks social graces, she has an eidetic memory, which makes her exceptionally good with numbers and figures. Arizza has no family or friends and lives with Xanathar. She has developed a strange attachment to the beholder and would never betray it or do anything to hurt it. Arizza attends most of Xanathar's business meetings so the guild leader can exploit her memory to recall small details. Like many beholders, Xanathar enjoys bright and vivid colors. Over the past decade, it has chosen a dominant color for each lair, and the guild lieuten¬ants refer to each location by its hue.Red Lair
Red Lair is located beneath Dock Ward, the main entrance deep within the sewers. This lair has been maintained the longest and is the most heav¬ily guarded. Xanathar has expanded Red Lair into multiple rooms, many of which are accessible only through vertical shafts up or down from the main floor.Blue Lair
Blue Lair is located beneath the ruins of an old ware-house near Skullport. Here, Xanathar does most of its business and maintains the bulk of its mate¬rial wealth. Of the three currently active lairs, Blue Lair has the fewest number of rooms. Its traps and defenses rely more on physical deterrents than on magic and were created by Draak, which gives the dragonborn great pride. He has his own quarters here, and it's the only lair where he spends any great amount of time.Purple Lair
Purple Lair is located in the Warrens. Due to the abundance of foot traffic in the tunnels and the lack of law and order, Xanathar's lieutenants and agents can use Purple Lair without arousing suspicion. Xanathar's meetings with associates or business part-ners take place here. The lair contains many secret rooms and hidden passages, and the design of the central meeting chamber allows sound to travel with remarkable clarity to the adjacent chambers. Purple Lair is the closest thing the guild has to a base of operations. It's the only lair where Xanathar allows its lieutenants to bring strangers. Due to wor-ries about infiltration, the beholder is making plans to abandon Purple Lair and has started moving its most valuable possessions to Blue Lair and Red Lair.Hidden Library
Of all the things that Xanathar has acquired over the years, it is most proud of its vast library. The beholder guards the place jealously and has taken great steps to ensure that it is well protected from plunderers. Years earlier, Xanathar lost many precious books when it was forced to abandon a lair ahead of schedule. To prevent that from happening again, the beholder put safeguards in place to protect its collection if it has to desert another lair unexpectedly. Xanathar's books are kept hundreds of miles away from Waterdeep in a sealed chamber deep within the Underdark. The only way to access the library is through one of the portals in the currently active lairs. The portals are attuned to Xanathar, allowing the beholder to use them freely. Anyone else attempt-ing to do so must carry the right portal key. The guild leader gave keys to Quid and Kal'dir, and, unknown to Xanathar, Sial has recently acquired one from the elf. As an added defense mechanism, Xanathar can permanently collapse any of the portals by speaking a command phrase. Quid knows the phrase because he helped to perform the ritual that created it.ADVENTURE HOOKS
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Тип
Guild, Thieves
Место
Известные участники
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