The Broker of Death and the Addertongues

One evening in a small hamlet in the center of Maiara, a man discovered a bizarre resistance to poisons in himself. He was the son of an alchemist and had aided his father throughout his entire life, but even with the exposure to toxins and reagents that he had accumulated over his nineteen years, his talent was downright mystical in nature. A gift that saved his life when his own father tipped a decanter of volitile compound onto his back as a row over the family business turned violent. The elder of the two proved not to posess this same gift when his toxin-soaked son leapt upon him and took his life, fleeing into the night shortly after. The mercantile gift of a silver tongue and honed skill in the family craft led him to assume a new identity across the country, gathering to himself lowlifes and thugs of all sorts to pad out the ranks surrounding a group of bandits, cutpurses and assassins crafted painstakingly in the interest of keeping his work and "work" lives separate,. A single man whose penchant for distinct poisons has made him an infamous figure among the nobility and whose very existance is hotly contested, he has killed political, social and even religious figures both on contract and according to his own whims. The infamy of course attracted those who would follow in his footsteps and led to the formation of multiple groups that, while independant, all respect him as the one to pull them together in the web of an actual underworld organization. While the thieves guild and their contemporaries make up the outer edges of the group, the ones known as the Addertongues are elite assassins from across the country that operate under a mutual destruction pact with a certain well-connected poisoner, known to the underworld as Hroak Malkior the Adder, broker of death. Everyone that deals with the man in person describes a different figure, whose appearance warps and shifts depending on the volitile fumes of his surrounding experiments. Supposedly, he operates some form of legitimate front outside of his bloody business, but no one trusts in their poison testers ability to perform enough to seek the man outside of his chosen appointments.

Structure

The Broker both handles disputes and contracts for the Addertongues and the Guilds, and leads in an unofficial capacity.

History

While there have been assassins guilds and thieves guilds in Maiara before, the Broker has brought the two together in a new and interesting way and has helped them both to cement themselves further than ever before.

Type

Guild, Assassins

Alternative Names

The City Beneath The City; The Poisoned Circle; The Broker of Death; The Broker's Web