Travelers_Guide_to_New_Dunhaven

149

DWoh?at Can Alchemy

Alchemy involves the combination and transmutation of matter through
highly specialized chemical processes. All alchemy uses a special substance
known as joining powder to alter the properties of matter in rapid,
complex ways, far beyond what can be accomplished without the powder.
Moreover, alchemy can be used to capture, preserve, spread, and magnify
chemical processes through physical substances to astonishing effect.

Fundamentally, alchemy is a chemical art that works best when applied
to nonliving matter. Though alchemical botany is a hobby for some
alchemists, living creatures either react poorly to exposure to joining
powder, or don’t react at all. As such, biological experimentation remains
the domain of physickers and poisoners.

Alchemists use established formulae, perfected over hundreds of
years of research and use, to achieve their extraordinary outcomes.
Some alchemists dabble in experimental formulae, but the results of
untested processes can be disastrous. Still, alchemy adheres to accepted
underlying principles, and alchemists believe that the sum total of all
alchemical knowledge currently known represents only a fraction of what
is ultimately possible.

Joining Powder

The substance that makes all alchemy possible, joining powder, is far and
away the alchemists’ most carefully guarded secret. They protect its exact
makeup as zealously as the Red Lotus Society protects the formula for
gunpowder. Joining powder appears as a gray-white powdery substance
with a soft, slightly sticky texture. It smells strongly of ammonia, though
when mixed during the alchemical process it loses all odor and is
completely consumed. All alchemical formulae include joining powder;
this substance separates the miracles of alchemy from the explicable,
mundane workings of chemistry.

Alchemists obtain joining powder directly from their guild. Joining
powder refineries are heavily guarded fortress-like manufactories that
maintain their own gondola docks. Most areas of the refinery are off-
limits to everyone except approved overseers and workers, and no one not
in the alchemist’s guild can even enter the grounds. Infiltrating a joining
powder refinery is as difficult as breaking into the Royal Palace.

150

Alterations

Alchemy can alter the basic, measurable properties of a substance,
including size, color, texture, flavor, flexibility, and brittleness. The most
common uses for alchemy involve deceptively simple, yet powerful
changes. Alteration represents the cornerstone of alchemy; all the other
applications of alchemy are outgrowths, albeit complex ones, of property
alteration. The uses for alchemical alteration range from the cosmetic (a
noble might own several pieces of alchemically treated jewelry that have
been altered to match different clothing color schemes) to the functional
(sailors carry alchemically treated bricks whose weight can be changed
with a touch, to use as ballast on heavily laden ships).

Some common examples of alchemical alteration include:
Dye Powder: Comes in a variety of colors. When the powder is
applied to cloth, it rapidly spreads across the threads and dyes the entire
article of clothing.
Gel Glass: Transparent sheets that appear to be glass, but small objects
can be pushed through them as through a gelatinous substance. Large
objects cause irreparable holes.
Statue Dust: A powder that, when sprinkled over a flexible, non-living
solid object (for example, a rope or clothing) causes the object to become
rigid and inflexible for one hour.

Transmutations

Alchemy can change the fundamental nature of the state of matter of
an object. Transmutation turns solids into gases, liquids into gels, and
converts matter into energy. It creates gelatinous objects and traps objects
in a state of transition between two states of matter. It can turn a steel rod
into a mist of metal motes that hang in the air, capture a person’s breath
and compress it into a crystal, and flash-freeze a stretch of a canal in a
matter of seconds.

Some common examples of alchemical transmutation include:
Alchemist’s Fire: A liquid solution combined with combustibles and
infused with intense heat. When exposed to the air, the liquid becomes a
gel that clings to surfaces and burns with white-hot intensity.
Donnigan’s Bridge: A compressed powder pellet that, when dropped
in water, turns the top three inches into solid ice, up to a distance of
one hundred feet.
Fish Bladder: A device that covers the nose and mouth, containing a
filter that alchemically converts water into breathable air for one hour.

151

Capturing Energy

Alchemy is capable of creating objects that absorb, trap, and redirect
energy. Typically, this is used in conjunction with other alchemical
alterations, capturing a certain kind of energy (heat, light, kinetic, and the
like) and either storing it or channeling it into something else. Alchemy
can even be used to convert matter into energy, albeit inefficiently. A
common use of alchemy allows for the creation of heat or light without
the need for combustible materials.

Some common examples of alchemical energy capture include:
Binder’s Cuffs: A set of manacles that allows only very slow
movements. Any rapid movement causes the chains to freeze in place,
completely immobilizing the captive.
Ghost Screens: Decorative wooden frames holding alchemically
treated paper screens that absorb and deaden sound, allowing for privacy
even in a crowded space.
Quenching Stone: Stone blocks that absorb the energy from a fire and
diminish it. Used in the construction of some buildings to make them
fire resistant.

Combinations

Perhaps no aspect of alchemy is more exciting than its ability to take
two objects and intertwine their physical properties, creating a hybrid
item. This is the most difficult aspect to master, since finding the correct
formula as well as the correct base materials for a fruitful combination
requires extensive trial and error. The massive towers known as the Tines
stand at such a great height only through a marvel of engineering and the
use of alchemy to create stone blocks infused with the strength of steel.

Some common examples of alchemical transmutation include:
Alchemical Sealant: A clear solution that can be slathered over a
document, sealing it and making it both immutable and nonflammable,
created by combining a viscous gel with amber. Alchemical sealant can
be removed only by a specific alchemical solvent created at the same time
as the sealant.
Ironwood: Wood treated with an alchemical solution that infuses
it with the strength of iron, yet leaves the wood light and pliable.
Commonly used in the construction of armored gondolas, safe rooms,
and jewelry boxes.
Viper Blades: Knives and swords forged from steel infused with snake
venom, creating blades that deliver poisonous wounds.

152

Complex Interactions

Some miraculous uses of alchemy defy simple categorization. The
most valuable formulae combine alteration, transmutation, and energy
capture and conversion in complex ways, chaining these effects together
to produce exceptional results. Moreover, such combinations can have
far more complicated triggering mechanisms. Some alchemical objects
activate only when exposed to a rapid impact against a stone surface, or
slowly turn red as they absorb water from a puddle over the course of
minutes before exploding in a blast of flame.

Examples of complex alchemical interactions include:
Alchemist’s Acid: Each vial of alchemist’s acid is attuned to a particular
material (iron, wood, stone, and so on). The acid eats through that
substance quickly. When it comes into contact with any other material, it
rolls off like water.
Blast Daggers: These objects resemble ornate daggers capped with
decorative gemstones. When the user drives a blast dagger into a solid
surface, the force of impact activates an alchemical fuse connected to the
gemstone, which is an alchemical construct that detonates like dynamite
when the fuse reaches its end after a short period of time.
Courtier’s Pigeons: Handheld folding fans that, when held close to
the mouth, change colors and textures when certain words and phrases
are spoken into them, allowing two people to discreetly communicate
from across a room.
Victavius’s Cushion: A small vial of liquid that expands rapidly to
cover the ground in a ten-foot area when exposed to air. Intense physical
force causes the liquid to expand rapidly into a semi-solid foam. Used for
cushioning falls and softening impacts.

Thief Signs: Black Market Alchemy

When the law-abiding sheep of this city talk about alchemy, they focus on the wonders it produces, the
things that make the lives of the fat and comfortable that much easier. But they forget that alchemy is one
of the best tools that the Right Kind of People ever got our hands on. I’m not just talking about things that
go“boom,”though you know I love a good explosion. I’m talking about the corrosives we use to bypass
safes, the crossbow bolts that disintegrate within minutes of being exposed to air, the lamp oil that puts out
an oily black smoke to cover our escape. If you aren’t hitting up the black market alchemists, you’re wasting
a potential advantage.

—Suzie Q. Temple, Red Lotus Society brawler

153

Alchemists

Alchemy produces wonders, but it doesn’t work on its own. It takes
hundreds of skilled artisan alchemists to keep the city’s alchemical
resources in working order. The Crown employs full-time alchemists
to oversee multiple aspects of the city’s alchemical needs, such as
construction maintenance, agricultural enhancement, water purification,
waste disposal, and fire prevention.

Other alchemists are private practitioners. Some own shops where they
offer their alchemical services, while others contract out as temporary
consultants for a specific need. Merchants and nobles pay a hefty coin for
access to alchemy, and some alchemists cater exclusively to the aristocracy.

The Honorable Order of Transmuters

Like most other crafts, alchemy inspired the formation of a guild: the
Honorable Order of Transmuters. Unlike other trade guilds, everyone in
the city who practices alchemy must be a member of the Order, and not
just because the guild cannot suffer the thought of someone operating
outside its influence. The Crown has charged the Order with acting as
overseers and regulators for all alchemical activity. The guild watches to
ensure that alchemists don’t do anything dangerous or illicit with their
alchemy, and in turn the Crown does not try to interfere or otherwise
restrict their alchemical practices. All alchemists are required to have
documentation showing that they are registered members of the Order,
and failure to produce such papers results both in fines and potentially
losing the freedom to practice their livelihood.

Of course, many within the city’s government hunger for power over
the city’s alchemists and have long lobbied to disband the guild and have
the Crown provide such oversight. Authoritarian extremists believe that
alchemy should be treated like firearms and made illegal except by special
dispensation from the Crown. These factions are always looking for an
excuse to intervene in the Order’s affairs, just waiting for something to go
catastrophically wrong so that they can once again make their push for
seizing control of the city’s alchemical resources. Many within the Order
fear a potential act of sabotage that results in an alchemical accident
(especially one that endangers or costs lives) could be instigated by a
desperate or power-hungry member of one of those factions.

154

Training and Education

Knowledge of alchemy comes largely through apprenticeships. Some
of the city’s private academies (attended by the sons and daughters of
wealthy merchants) teach basic alchemical principles, but true mastery
requires a lengthy apprenticeship under one of the city’s established
alchemists. Alchemists’ apprentices are hand-picked from the many
hopefuls who apply, and an apprenticeship lasts for half a decade or
longer, meaning that each year very few who seek to become alchemists
are able to do so.

That, of course, is for people who play by the rules. After being rejected
for an apprenticeship, some would-be alchemists take it upon themselves
to learn alchemy without the benefit of a master. Doing so isn’t easy; the
masters are understandably protective
of their books of formulae and
alchemical theory, and they keep
them under lock and key. Even
partial copies of alchemical tomes
are extremely valuable, and
desperate amateurs may resort
to engage in espionage to obtain
copies. Any unusual purchase
of highly specialized alchemical
laboratory equipment
would draw eyes, so these
underground alchemists
resort to skullduggery to
obtain such equipment.
Likewise, joining powder
is highly restricted
and a thriving black
market persists
for the substance,
largely trafficked
to underground,
untrained alchemists.

155

WHoowrkD?oes Sorcery

Unlike alchemy, which has practiced formulae and centuries of well-
proven tradition behind it, sorcery is an esoteric and forbidden art that
has little rhyme or reason to how it functions. There is no overarching
study of sorcery. Scholarly examination of these dark arts proves
impossible, because these supernatural phenomena follow no decipherable
principles. Instead, those who practice sorcery do so by gaining fleeting
glimpses into the realms of dark magic, snippets gleaned from moldering
tomes or passed down from one person to another along with dire
warnings for the consequences of misuse. No two instances of sorcery
work in the same way, and the origin and mechanics behind any given
sorcerous event are a complete mystery.

Sorcery is Costly

One thing is certain: sorcery always imposes a price that must be paid.
In some cases, this means making a sacrifice to achieve what you want
out of sorcery. In other cases, the toll is collected in an unpredictable
way; tales abound of rituals used to achieve a sorcerous effect that struck
down not the practitioners engaged in the ritual, but one of their relatives,
or an innocent bystander, or even someone on the other side of the
city. The price to be paid for sorcery isn’t always death, but it is always
painful in some way. Whether that pain is physical (wracking agony),
disabling (losing a hand or an eye), or emotional (sacrificing a beloved pet,
destroying an object of great monetary value), pain must be inflicted on
the world for sorcery to work.

Sorcery is Unpredictable

Despite the fact that sorcery’s workings are a mystery, that doesn’t stop
the foolhardy and power-hungry from experimenting. Practitioners
never completely achieve the desired results, and in many instances
the dark power they tap into produces catastrophic and unforeseen
effects. Occult scholars (such as they are) agree that it is not merely
mankind’s understanding of sorcery that is flawed and produces flawed
results, it is the sorcery itself. While some of the unexpected results
are mild, other outcomes have been known to scar people and even
locations permanently, forever reminding people that the dark forces
practitioners attempt to harness with the use of sorcery are simply not
meant to be tamed.
156

Thief Signs: The Esoteric Volumes

When one thinks of a grand score, one’s mind is drawn to glittering jewels, shining coins, and other
traditional symbols of wealth. Yet I can attest that books, scrolls, and other writings can be just as valuable,
if not more so, due to the fact that they are branded as heresy and are quite illegal to own. Tucked away in
dark nooks of the libraries of noble estates, on dusty shelves in curio shops in Little Taona, and deep within
vaults beneath the cathedrals of the Silver Judge, these esoteric volumes are filled with the scrawlings of
madmen and sorcerers that offer us the only clues we have to the nature of sorcerous power.

—Vazima Dubois, Vesper masquerader

The Forbidden Practices

Though sorcery works in no true pattern, general categories of sorcery are
bound together by the kinds of effects they produce.

Blood Sorcery

So named because this kind of sorcery requires the practitioner to obtain a
sample of blood from another individual, blood sorcery involves inflicting
direct pain and harm on another person’s body. These attacks use the
sample of blood as a binding force, serving as a proxy for the individual
and transferring harm through a sorcerous link.

Some examples of the use of blood sorcery include:
✦✦ Causing wracking pains that seem to come from inside
✦✦ Suddenly blinding or deafening someone
✦✦ Stopping a victim’s heart

Breaking the Laws of Nature

A catch-all term used for any number of amazing physical feats, sorcery
that violates the laws of nature deals with fundamental forces of the
world: gravity, energy, momentum, heat, electricity, and so on. The
particular use of sorcery either amplifies or dampens the effect of a
fundamental force, allowing the practitioner to accomplish incredible,
otherwise impossible feats. Sorcery that breaks the laws of nature tends
to be highly specialized, and very few practitioners who master one
particular sorcerous technique can use any others.

Examples of unnatural sorcery include:
✦✦ Vanishing from one spot to appear somewhere else
✦✦ Turning invisible
✦✦ Leaping or falling as though not fully in the grasp of gravity

157

Curses and Hexes

Another broad term for many variations of sorcery, curses and hexes
induce a malady or unusual condition in an individual when a particular
triggering event occurs. Unlike blood magic, curses are more focused on
suffering, ill fortune, and frustration than straight-up pain. Most curses
involve a condition that causes them to take effect (“Whenever the victim
rides a horse” or “Every night the moon is visible in the sky”).

Some examples of the use of hexing sorcery include:
✦✦ Causing victims to become violently ill every time they tell a lie
✦✦ Imposing a rash of bad luck on a person
✦✦ Inflicting a wasting disease upon someone until they confess

to a crime or sin

Death and the Spirit Realm

The Church assiduously prosecutes the highest heresy of sorcery,
that which pierces the veil between the world of the living and the
realm where spirits roam, waiting to be reincarnated. Practitioners of
necromancy not only touch the spirit realm, but they also draw upon the
inevitable power of death, decay, and oblivion. Necromancy is the most
unpredictable sorcery, intruding on a domain where the living are not
meant to tread.

Some example uses of necromantic sorcery include:
✦✦ Speaking with the spirits of the dead
✦✦ Animating a corpse in a blasphemous semblance of life
✦✦ Causing, or preventing, rapid decay of something that has died

Thief Signs: Séances

Young, rebellious members of the nobility love nothing more than to partake in a séance as a way of feeling
like they are dabbling in dark forces better left undisturbed. During a séance, the facilitator (a medium, or
at least supposedly one) makes contact with the spirits of the dead through incantations, ominous rituals,
and the use of esoteric devices and accouterments. Though much of the ceremony surrounding a séance
is more for dramatic flair and distraction than is necessary (something the Mummers surely appreciate),
many séances do indeed contact spirits in the afterlife, and sometimes the sons and daughters of noble
houses who came looking for a forbidden thrill leave shaken by what they saw or heard. The Gravediggers
specialize in performing séances, not just for rebellious young aristocrats, but also for the grieving wealthy
who wish to speak to the departed one last time. The shadowed chambers, eerie candlelight, and generally
unsettling environment put marks off-balance, distracting them from thefts or con-games.

—Ethel Snodgrass, Gravedigger pallbearer

158

Destructive Sorcery

The simplest types of sorcery cause destruction, satisfying sorcery’s
need to inflict pain and associated with expectedly unpredictable results.
Destructive sorcery is usually targeted at inanimate objects (anything that
directly targets a living victim falls under the header of blood magic) and
causes everything from subtle breaks to loud, flashy explosions. Skilled
practitioners of destructive sorcery hurl fire and lightning from their
hands, stomp the ground to create a rippling wave of earth, and shatter
solid stone with a blast of dark magic. Destructive sorcery is flashy and
draws attention, and the cartels sometimes use it to send a message meant
to be heard by many people.

Some examples of the use of destructive sorcery include:
✦✦ Causing explosions or bursts of flame
✦✦ Creating earthquakes or other upheaval in the ground
✦✦ Shattering walls or doors with a touch

Enchantment

This chilling field of sorcery focuses on robbing a victim of his or her
free will, supplanting it with the will of the sorcerer. The powers of
enchantment range from completely dominating the mind of another
person, to subtly affecting their emotions and attitudes, nudging them
gently in the direction the sorcerer wishes. Mind-affecting sorcery often
has the unintended consequence of addling the wits of the person being
affected, or even creating gaps in their memory or conflicting memories.

Examples of enchantment include:
✦✦ Stoking or dampening a particular emotion in an individual
✦✦ Increasing an individual’s gullibility or pliability
✦✦ Dominating someone else’s mind

Glamers and Illusions

The art of making something appear contrary to reality, the sorcery of
illusion changes only how something looks, not how it interacts with any
of the other senses. A glamer might look completely real, but any attempt
to touch it proves it to be an illusion. Some glamers conjure entire images,
while others change details of existing objects.

Some example uses of illusionary sorcery include:
✦✦ Creating the image of a person or animal where there is none
✦✦ Hiding a door by making a wall seem to be completely solid
✦✦ Weaving an illusionary mask over the practitioner’s face

159

Projection

One of the rarest form of sorcery and found more in the lands outside
New Dunhaven than within the city, projection sorcery involves the
practitioner casting his or her mind or spirit out of their body, leaving
their physical form behind. While the sorcerer’s mind or spirit is roaming
elsewhere, they remain completely oblivious to what is going on around
their physical body, which rests in a hibernation-like state, breathing
shallowly and requiring additional food or water only for prolonged
projections. Sorcerers who use projection frequently find themselves
unable discern dreams from waking, and sometimes become distant or
distracted at inopportune moments as their minds try to reconcile their
current reality.

Some example of the use of astral projection include:
✦✦ Projecting the practitioner’s mind into the mind of a lesser animal
✦✦ A practitioner stepping out of their body and roaming the

world as a spirit
✦✦ Temporarily projecting the practitioner’s spirit into the realm of the

dead to speak with a spirit that is between incarnations

Sculpting Flesh

Dangerous due to the complexities of the human body, flesh sculpting
sorcery leaves the user permanently damaged if things go wrong. Flesh
sculptors shape their bodies how they wish, changing their appearance
and giving them much-desired control over their physical forms.
Sorcerers who practice flesh sculpting sometimes make themselves
bigger, stronger, and more athletic, or instead make themselves appear
more diminutive and less threatening. Some flesh sculptors are said to
have so much control over their bodies that they can make themselves
younger, effectively becoming immortal. Sorcerers who use flesh
sculpting too frequently have difficulty remembering their true identities,
especially if they do not return to their natural form between adopting
alternate appearances.

Some examples of the use of flesh-sculpting sorcery include:
✦✦ Changing the practitioner’s face or body to look like someone

else, either a specific person or using sorcery to craft an
impenetrable disguise
✦✦ Giving the practitioner unnaturally large muscles, extra height, or
more limber physicality to make a particular task easier
✦✦ Transforming the practitioner’s body to the opposite sex

160

Sortilege

Another broad term, sortilege refers to any of the sorcerous practices
that let the sorcerer peer into the future, the past, or another location, or
sense something about another person’s nature. Other common terms for
sortilege include divination and the concept of the sixth sense or third
eye, giving the practitioner a perception far beyond that of the average
mortal. Practitioners of sortilege have the uncanny ability to see hidden
lies and come across as unnerving due to their knowledge of things that
other people would prefer remained secret.

Some example uses of sortilege include:
✦✦ Reading the future in a crystal ball, a mirror, a bowl of water, or in

the casting of bones, dice, runes, or other implements
✦✦ Seeing or hearing events in a remote location
✦✦ Sensing a particular aspect of another person’s history or nature

Permanent Consequences

When things go wrong with sorcery, the unexpected effects can leave
a permanent scar on the locale where the forbidden powers were used.
This can be a harmless reminder, like charring on the floor or walls that
won’t scrape up and can’t be painted over, or a cloud of smoke that hangs
in the air and never disperses, no matter how strong
the breeze. In other cases, these permanent
consequences can be unsettling or
even frightening, such as rooms
where the whispers of the dead can
be heard at nighttime, streets where
demonic eyes glare out of
the darkness at passersby,
stone walls that drip with
blood when someone who
has killed another person
walks by, and buildings where
reality seems to warp and doors
change into walls when no
one is looking at them. Dozens
such sites exist throughout the
city, inspiring chills even in the
locals accustomed to seeing
them every day.

161

TThheouCsualntdoEfyaes

An insidious group that has infiltrated all aspects of New Dunhaven’s
society, the Cult of a Thousand Eyes is a secret society composed of
people who believe that power belongs to those bold enough to wield it.
At its core, the Cult of a Thousand Eyes seeks to overthrow the Crown
and install its members as the rulers of New Dunhaven, replacing the
current government with a tyrannical magocracy. Unsurprisingly, most of
the city’s residents are not in favor of this.

Unlike other organizations that divide themselves along the strict
class lines of the current oligarchy, the Cult of a Thousand Eyes includes
members from every class, from the lowliest beggars living in the slums
all the way up to the highest echelons of noble society. This is perhaps the
most chilling aspect of the cult: that anyone could secretly be a member,
and there would be no way of knowing until they revealed themselves.
Within the cult, rank and influence derive not from birthright or wealth,
but from mastery of sorcerous arts. Among cultists, the meanest slum
dweller commands the deference of a noble lady from an ancient house if
he has strong talents in the dark arts.

Though the true depths of its history remain unknown except to the
cult members themselves, some claim that the Cult of a Thousand Eyes
has existed for longer than Dunhaven. Sealed Church records, forbidden
to the eyes of all but the most senior clergy, purport that members of
the Cult of a Thousand Eyes hid among the settlers who first arrived
from Elderland to found the fortress of Kalat Wadun. If true, this means
that the cult not only has roots in Elderland (and thus supporters in the
nations across the ocean), but that it has managed to survive centuries of
being hunted by the Crown and the Church alike. The cult is a rotting
disease that the populace of New Dunhaven can’t quite shake, no matter
how zealously they try to burn it out.

The cult takes its name from a common refrain: that every crowd of
people holds a thousand sets of eyes belonging to members of the cult.
Though this is obviously a boast about the cult’s reach, the cult’s true
numbers are hard to pin down. The Church publicly claims that there are
no more than a dozen members of the cult in the city at any given time,
though less conservative estimates put their number at a few hundred.

162

Dark Rites

The sorcerous knowledge hoarded by the Cult of a Thousand Eyes
is rarely put to benevolent use. The cult has been known to perform
profane rituals with horrific sacrifices at their core, as a means of gaining
further power for themselves or weakening the Crown. These dark rites
are not common, but when they are set into motion the cult becomes a
visible threat.

All sorcery comes at a cost, and the Cult of a Thousand Eyes is not shy
about paying that cost in the blood of innocents. The cult has knowledge
of many blasphemous arts, and telltale signs point to the cult setting
a scheme in motion: a rash of kidnappings with no clear connection
between the victims, robberies of funeral parlors, alchemy shops, and
cathedrals, and the appearance of strange phenomena (hovering lights,
strange noises, arcane symbols carved into walls, and so on). These
occurrences usually coincide with another celestial or seasonal event
of note, like the nearing of the full moon, an equinox or solstice, or an
alignment of the stars or planets.

The Cult of a Thousand Eyes enacts these dark rites to bolster its
sorcerous knowledge and power. Sometimes, these rituals bring about
great calamities (plagues, earthquakes, or the appearance of monsters)
while other times the effects are more subtle, like making a piece of
knowledge disappear or bestowing a supernatural gift upon a cultist.

Thief Signs: Cartel Cultists

I am not going to coat this in sugar for you: yes, members of this Cult of a Thousand Eyes lurk among the
Right Kind of People. Take solace in the fact that they are very rare, though. We already operate on the
outside of the law; what is a little heresy to us? As you no doubt know, the cartels practice illegal sorcery
from time to time, and though it is not common it is also not forbidden. There is very little need to go to
this cult if sorcery holds your interest. Yet we must also be realists. The Cult of a Thousand Eyes has members
among us, and so the Black Council has anyone who shows an interest in the dark arts watched very
carefully. There have been times when failing to discover a cultist in our midst has gone badly. Entire crews
have been killed as a part of the cult’s profane rituals. Jobs that seemed legitimate ended up serving the
goals of the cult, like the time that crew thought they were stealing a file of blackmail, only to discover that
they were actually occult scrolls, and that their broker was a member of the Cult of a Thousand Eyes. The
worst thing that the cult does to the Right Kind of People is sowing doubt about the intentions of people
that we are supposed to be working with.

—Vitaly Petranko, Circle magus

163

Charlatans

Sorcery is dark, mysterious, forbidden, and esoteric—and the perfect
excuse for a con game. For all the occult mysteries and practitioners
of dark arts in New Dunhaven, thousands more charlatans and con
artists are perfectly willing to use sorcery as the veneer for complicated
confidence schemes and elaborate heists. It is not difficult to see why;
the mystery and misinformation surrounding sorcery leaves most people
confused as to what sorcery can actually do, meaning that a confidence
artist with enough charm and creativity can convince people that what
they are seeing isn’t trickery, but sorcery.

Charlatans in New Dunhaven play a dangerous game. Accusations
of heresy from the Church are taken very seriously, and the Cult of a
Thousand Eyes is so voracious in seeking occult knowledge that anyone
showing prowess with sorcery become a target for recruitment or
interrogation. To make claims of sorcerous mastery, even false ones, is to
draw unwanted attention.

Despite this, the forbidden retains a certain undeniable allure, especially
when dealing with the privileged and jaded aristocracy. Anything
touching the taboo becomes immediately intriguing, and interest is the
hook that draws in the mark.

Séances

The false séance is a favorite con game among charlatans. They gather
a group of nobles looking for a thrill and perform a ceremony where the
charlatan acts as a medium for communication with spirits beyond the
veil of death. These charlatan séances are dramatic, theatrical events, with
spirits supposedly knocking on tables, moving objects around the room,
and snuffing out candles to communicate with the participants in the
séance in response to their questions. Of course, all this communication is
faked by the charlatan, and the nobles leave with their purses lighter and
filled with stories of speaking with the dead.

Interestingly, some among the Gravediggers can perform actual, true
séances, making this confidence scheme one of the more believable
ones. In fact, the Gravediggers excel at this particular confidence
scheme, putting theatrical touches into their false séances that would
make the Mummers proud. When this con goes off, the charlatan uses
communication from the dead to nudge the mark to do something,
give up a piece of information, turn over a unique and valuable
164 heirloom, and so forth.

Wards, Talismans, & Tinctures

Rather than claiming to have a direct conduit to the sorcerous arts, many
charlatans instead take the opposite approach, promising to have access to
items that protect a person from evil spirits and dark magic. This object
can ward off sorcery, or that concoction provides protection against occult
forces for a period of time. By and large, these wards and potions are
harmless, made to look more arcane through common tricks.

The key to these confidence schemes is tailoring the protective ward
to the fears of the mark. Dealing with a noblewoman who is afraid
her husband is cheating on her? Sell her a powder she sprinkles on
his pillow to protect him against being enchanted by a temptress’s
sorcery. Working on a merchant whose business partner just died under
mysterious circumstances? Sell him a pendant that wards off visitations by
vengeful spirits.

Fortune-Tellers

Charlatans in the city commonly take the role of fortune-tellers. The
idle rich put great stock in the idea of fates, fortunes, and predestination,
beliefs that the Church constantly works to dispel yet which keep the
fascination of the nobility. Some charlatans paint themselves as seers of
the future who, with a cast of the runes or a gaze into a crystal ball, see
cryptic visions of a person’s fate and offer warnings about what may yet
come to pass. This con is used as the set-up for something larger, like
convincing the mark to go somewhere at a certain time or to avoid a
particular location. Since the predictions of a fortune-telling charlatan
need to be vague enough that the marks fill in the details on their own,
rarely does the reading convince the marks to do anything elaborate or
outside their normal behavior.

Thief Signs: The Memento Deck

Want to run a fortune-telling con? Pick up a memento deck. These things have been around for ages,
and each one has about fifty cards with different symbols on them. A really nice deck sets you back a few
crowns, but the more elaborate the paintings on the cards, the more convincing the prop. Get good enough
with a memento deck and you can draw any card you want at any time without looking, using it to back up
your grift. Of course, every memento deck is supposed to be haunted, but you don’t believe that, do you?

—Yasir the Seer, Forgotten fortune-teller

165

The Right Kind
of People

The Right Kind of People is the commonly used nickname for criminals
who are members of cartels that abide by the Arrangement.

The Arrangement

The Arrangement is an agreement between the eight dominant cartels
that serves one purpose: to unite the cartels and keep them from
descending into open warfare or being crushed by the agents of the
Crown. The basic idea behind the Arrangement is simple. All of the
criminals in the city are looking to get rich at the expense of law-abiding
citizens, so why waste time fighting with each other when there’s
coin to be won?

The Arrangement has been in place for nearly twenty years now, and
in that time the cartels have grown stronger and gained a firmer hold
on their turf. At the time it went into place, however, the situation was
a bit more dire for the cartels, and the process of implementing the
Arrangement did not run smoothly. Members of the Family who refused
to abide by the Arrangement splintered off and formed a new group,
the Blooded, that refuses to acknowledge the agreement. Another cartel,
the Spiders, turned Crown and betrayed the cartels, becoming the city’s
secret police force. This betrayal hit every cartel hard, but one cartel (the
Wraiths) was so devastated by the defection that it collapsed entirely
under the weight of arrests and executions of its members. Despite this
tumult, the Arrangement held firm and the tenuous peace between the
cartels solidified.

There are three important aspects of the Arrangement:
✦✦ No cartel can engage in open gang warfare with another cartel.

Squabbling and limited fighting (knuckle games only) is fine, but
prolonged disputes must be settled peacefully.
✦✦ No cartel can forcefully take over another cartel’s turf.
✦✦ Each cartel must use crews composed of members of multiple
cartels for important and lucrative Jobs. The cartel that brokers
the Job gets the bulk of the score, but each cartel with members
involved must receive a cut of the profits from the Job.

166

167

The Black Council

The Black Council is the governing body that enforces the Arrangement.
Its members are the most powerful criminals in the city, and they have
the resources of all eight cartels at their disposal. Their identities are kept
secret, and they remain shrouded in mystery even as they pull the strings
to make nearly every criminal dance to their tune.

Seats on the Council

There are five named seats on the Black Council, plus two unnamed
members who temporarily step in if the person sitting in one of the
named seats is unable to fulfill his or her duties. When a seat is vacated
due to death, imprisonment, or retirement, that seat is not filled
immediately. Instead, at the next Thiefmoot, the remaining members
of the Council send messages to each cartel that a seat is open, and
each cartel sends a single member (cloaked, hooded, and completely
anonymous) to be its candidate for the open seat. Before the Thiefmoot
ends, the Black Council chooses which cartel member will assume the
responsibilities of that seat, and announces that the seat has been filled—
though they remain silent on who was chosen for the seat.

The Grandmaster Assassin

The Grandmaster Assassin’s domain is the carefully monitored business
of murder. Since the cartels strive not to attract too much attention from
the City Watch, they frown on too frequent, or too overt, killings. The
Grandmaster Assassin monitors all lethal action among the cartels to
make sure it’s not getting out of hand.

The Grandmaster Assassin also commands the corrupt plague doctors
among the Gravediggers, one of the few examples of direct control by
the Black Council over a resource belonging to one of the cartels. These
plague doctors make the displeasure of the Black Council known to any
criminal who becomes a nuisance, sometimes through intimidation, but
other times by eliminating the nuisance entirely.

The Chief Moneychanger

The Chief Moneychanger monitors all the financial matters concerning
the cartels. The Chief Moneychanger’s agents mediate disputes between
cartels (which arise when divvying up the goods from a multi-crew Job),
and broker financial deals between cartels (such as the fees the Family
charges for doing business in its turf ).

168

The Lord Commodore 169

The Lord Commodore oversees all the seafaring business of the
cartels, which includes the use of cartel-owned ships in criminal
enterprises as well as seaborne smuggling and the arrival of foreign
criminals into the city.

The Gray Bishop

The Gray Bishop is the liaison between the Black Council and the
Church of the Silver Judge. This seat’s duties are largely diplomatic,
ensuring that the Church continues to maintain its friendly relationship
with the Right Kind of People . . . for the right price.

The Master of Whispers

The Master of Whispers is the head information monger of the cartels.
This seat commands the largest number of Chosen among the Right
Kind of People who do not reveal their role to other criminals. The
Master of Whispers knows about every criminal endeavor in the city and
keeps tabs on the Crown’s movements against the cartels.

Agents of the Council

When the Black Council identifies a cartel member who they believe
is reliable and trustworthy enough to handle its business, that criminal
is summoned before the Black Council and initiated into its service.
Once tapped by the Black Council, one cannot refuse the summons to
become the Chosen.

Those among the Right Kind of People who serve the Black Council
are marked as Chosen by a pin depicting a snake coiled around a crown,
worn so that is concealed most of the time but easily revealed on the
inside of a lapel or in the lining of a cloak. When such an agent is on the
business of the Council, any interference with that Chosen is considered
to be a direct rebellion against the Black Council.

Council Business

The Chosen serve in many capacities, but the most common tasks
performed by agents of the Black Council include the following:

✦✦ Deliver a warning that the Black Council is displeased with a
particular course of action

✦✦ Oversee a Job that risks running afoul of the Arrangement and
report back to the Black Council on its events

✦✦ Reward an individual, crew, or cartel for a great service
✦✦ Mediate a dispute between two cartels
✦✦ Enforce the sharing of resources or information between cartels

The Circle

“I can’t become king if someone else already sits on the throne.” —Nikolai
Luzhin, Eastern Promises

“Hell, I’ll kill a man in a fair fight . . . or if I think he’s gonna start a fair
fight, or if he bothers me, or if there’s a woman, or if I’m gettin’ paid. Mostly
only when I’m gettin’ paid.” —Jayne Cobb, Serenity

The Circle is the city’s newest criminal organization, which swiftly gained
a reputation as the most physical of the cartels. Officially called the House
of Alvarov, the cartel’s more common name derives from two sources: the
ruling council of the cartel, who are reputed to meet around a circular
table to discuss business, and the ring-shaped tattoo that all members of
the cartel have on the backs of their left hands, just to the left of where
the thumb joins the palm.

The Circle makes violence its business. No cartel does a better job of
intimidating its enemies and cowing those it preys upon. Every aspect of
the cartel is carefully cultivated to remind others that its members are not
afraid to use violence to achieve their goals.

Though new to the city, the Circle has grown rapidly, and it has
cannibalized territory from the other major cartels. Its members have
taken, by force and by threat of force, control of all criminal enterprise in
the northern districts of the city. They excel in criminal ventures where
intimidation and violence are useful: extortion, assassination, protection
rackets, and coercion are standard elements of the Circle’s repertoire.
Crews bring along a member of the Circle to be the muscle on a Job.

Forged by Strife

Though members of the Circle tend to be big, tough, and brawny, it
would be a mistake to dismiss them as unintelligent or oafish. Many
members of the Circle have noble roots and keen minds for political
maneuvering. The cartel was founded by refugees from the collapse of
a great and militaristic empire, one in which those who rose to power
were those who could take it by force. The Vladov Empire’s collapse was
neither slow nor peaceful, and the survivors fought their way to escape
through fields of fire and blood.

Upon arriving on New Dunhaven’s shores, the refugees were all unjustly
branded as criminals and sentenced to hard time in the Castle, the city’s
fortress-like prison. Though many were eventually released by Senate
decree, they were hardened by their time in prison, like cold steel forged
170

into the head of a war hammer.
Since the cartel’s founding, the Vladov elders of the Circle have

extended membership to others not of their homeland. Many non-Vladov
members of the Circle proved their worth as allies while doing hard
time with an existing member, drawn into the cartel’s confidences as a
reward for their loyalty in prison. Though the ruling council of the cartel
and a large number of its members are of Vladov descent, a significant
portion of the cartel’s newer members were born in New Dunhaven.
Circle members not of Vladov heritage learn the language, customs, and
traditions of the Empire, and they are encouraged to take new Vladich
names (see the Circle cartel sheet for a list).

A Threat to the

Arrangement 171

Of all the cartels in the Arrangement,
the Circle comes closest to breaking
the truce on a frequent basis. The
Circle had recently been formed when
the Arrangement was put into place,
and it was granted full cartel status
due to its rapid rise to power. Yet the
Circle leadership chafes under the
Arrangement, longing to expand their
territory and take over the criminal
enterprises of the cartels they see as
weak or decadent.

The House of Alvarov knows its
strengths, and its leadership considers
many of the other cartels to be
undeserving and lazy. Although the
Circle abides by the Arrangement,
it also believes these “unworthy”
cartels make all the Right Kind of
People weaker. As long as the Black
Council continues to protect the
ineffective and vulnerable cartels, it
allows its strength to be diluted. If the
Circle was given free rein to cull the
weaker criminals and take the areas
of undeserving cartels by force, not

only would the Circle grow stronger, it would also shore up the vulnerable
cracks in the Black Council’s control over the city’s criminal underworld.
Though the Circle is driven by greed as much as any other cartel, its
aggressive ways reflect a twisted sort of nobility. Like the Vladov Empire
at its height, the Circle wants to bring strength and prosperity to the
Right Kind of People through an iron grip.

The Ruling Council

The ruling council of the Circle consists mostly of members of the
nobility who fled the collapsing Vladov Empire, bringing as much of
their wealth with them as they could pack onto their ships. Some of those
ships never reached New Dunhaven, fueling rumors and treasure hunts
for sunken ships full of Imperial gold that persist to this day. For most of
the new arrivals, the nobles’ wealth and power were unable to shield them
from the cold reception and imprisonment that awaited them in the city.
Greedy agents of the Crown impounded their ships, and their contents
were quickly distributed while their rightful owners rotted in the Castle.

A scant few Vladov nobles managed to make it to the shores of New
Dunhaven with their fortunes intact. While some leveraged their wealth
and titles into positions of power in New Dunhaven (some even earned
new noble titles from the Crown in the intervening years), others formed
the ruling council of the Circle, taking command of their people once
more. Though they agreed to abide by the Arrangement, the fires of noble
ambition still burn within the Circle’s leadership, and they slowly work in
the shadows to return the House of Alvarov to its former glory.

The Circle at a Glance

The Circle is a physically imposing cartel that isn’t afraid to play rough to get what it wants.
Core Desire: Conquest. The Circle seeks to dominate all crime through force and willpower.
Primary Business: Intimidation, extortion, racketeering, burglary, assassination
Territories: The Castle, plus a significant contiguous territory in the northern portion of the city
Typical Appearance: Common clothing in winter colors, visible prison tattoos, circle tattooed on the
back of the left hand
Valued on Jobs for: Pure muscle, prison connections, willingness to use fists to do the talking
Play a member of the Circle if you want to . . .
• Play a hardened criminal with an edge
• Play a character with a penchant for violence
• Play a character who is feared by others
• Play a killer for hire

172

Under the Eyes of the Circle

The Circle controls crime in its districts with the iron fist of people
accustomed to crushing any opposition. Other cartels rarely have any
presence in Circle turf, with the exception of the Mummers who establish
safe houses everywhere. The Circle brooks no intrusion into its turf from
other cartels, and even the Forgotten steer clear of Circle territory. Few
beggars, urchins, pickpockets, or independent thieves work the streets
of Circle-controlled districts, since the cartel’s Wolves (its enforcers) are
quick to send a violent message that any violation of the Circle’s turf will
not be tolerated.

A significant portion of the population in Circle turf, especially in
commoners’ districts and slums, is of Vladov heritage. These immigrants,
many of whom spent time in prison despite not being members of the
cartel, are keenly aware of who controls the streets of their districts, and
step lightly to avoid drawing the ire of the Circle. The Dunhaveners who
aren’t descended from refugees from the Empire and live in districts under
Circle control know only that dangerous criminals prowl the streets in
organized gangs. They might have noticed the Circle’s distinctive hand
tattoos, but most honest folk don’t look too closely at men and women
with hard eyes and prison tattoos.

Attitudes Toward the Other Cartels

The Circle has the following attitudes toward the other cartels.
The Family: Dismissal. The Family is like a once-great empire on the edge of collapse, decadent and

arrogant. The House of Alvarov has seen this before.
The Forgotten: Disgust. The Forgotten are human debris that should be either brought to heel or

disposed of. We tolerate them only because we must.
The Gravediggers: Superstition. The Gravediggers spend too much of their time in places that the

wise avoid. They are to be dealt with warily.
The Mummers: Suspicion. The Mummers play the jester, but the Circle is not distracted by japes. Their

smiles hide knives.
The Red Lotus Society: Respect. Like the Circle, it has earned what it has through strength, cunning,

and ruthlessness.
The Vespers: Predation. The Vespers should have been disbanded and absorbed long ago. The fact that

they are their own masters is a testament to the weakness of the other cartels.
The Wardens of the Night: Admiration. The Wardens have proven willing to put up a fight. They will

not let themselves be chained, and the Circle respects that.

173

The Family

“ You wanna be a gangster, kid? Go be a gangster. But if you want to
be a gangster in my town, then you’ll pay me for the privilege.” —Nucky
Thompson, Boardwalk Empire

“Those who want respect give respect.” —Tony Soprano, The Sopranos

When the law-abiding people of the city whisper about organized
crime in the city, most of the time they are talking about the Family.
The iconic image of the city’s gangsters derives from the appearance of
Family enforcers: well dressed, well groomed, menacing, and possessing
the confidence that comes with believing that anyone who opposes
them will soon be taking a swim to the bottom of the canal and never
coming back up.

Far and away the oldest and most established cartel, the Family can
quite literally trace its origins to ancient settlers who were among the
founding families of the city. Though over the centuries the Family has
brought in members through marriage and adoption, certain members
of the Family can still trace blood lineage back to the original settlers of
Kalat Wadun. Among the Family, these descendants of proven lineage
enjoy a prestigious status, and the cartel’s Patriarchs and Matriarchs
almost always come from such a bloodline.

Many commoners regard the Family enforcers as their protectors and
benefactors. The streets are safer at night because the Family doesn’t
allow any criminals except the ones it approves of to operate on its
turf. They quickly chastise anyone who preys upon commoners unduly
(especially the poor and destitute) . The Family focuses its extortions on
those who can afford it and maintains control by winning the respect
of the commoners.

A Family Business

The Family is the wealthiest of the cartels. Though not above petty
crimes and violent outbursts, the Family’s efforts focus on profitable
racketeering: gambling dens, simple narcotics, black market sales,
protection rackets, extortion, and all manner of other lucrative larcenies.
Its leaders employ bookkeepers, keep their money in counting houses, and
see to it that all members of the Family get their fair share for the work
they do. The fact that their money is earned at the end of the blade or in
dark alley dealings is immaterial to the Family; to most members, it’s just
a business that happens to be against the law.
174

The Family is flush with wealth, and its members show off their
prosperity. They dress in the finest clothing adorned with bright (and
sometimes gaudy) jewelry, and dine at the finest supper clubs. They ride
well-bred horses, live in opulent manor houses, and always wear the
cutting edge of fashion. The Family is rich, powerful, and as old as the
city, and its members are not afraid to flaunt that fact—or dare the other
cartels to oppose them.

Comes with the Territory

The Family controls the largest area of the city in terms of simple size.
Within its territories, local businesses pay protection fees, the City Watch
takes bribes to look the other way, and other cartels pay for the privilege
of doing business on its turf. The Family demands a steep
tribute from every operation undertaken by other
cartels in its territory.

When Family members gather for a
meeting, they do so at a fancy supper club,
in an upscale tavern, or at one of the
city’s beautiful outdoor garden
cafés. A Family gathering isn’t
complete without food and
wine, and the cartel has a
penchant for taking over
fine establishments,
kicking out any previous
customers, and closing
the business for a “private
party.” Folk who live in the Family’s
territory know to keep walking
and avert their eyes when they see a
handful of extremely well dressed but
tough-looking goons standing at the
doors to a business.

Honor Among

Thieves

The Family instills two values in
its members above all else: respect
and loyalty. These two attributes
are considered to be even more

175

important than the Family business. Any sign of disrespect, both from
other Family members and those not in the cartel, is a grave offense, one
that can earn the enmity of the wealthiest cartel in the city in the span
of a heartbeat. Any betrayal, no matter how minor, is a dagger to the
back of the Family.

As a member of the Family, you respect your elders. You keep your
mouth shut and your ears open when your betters are talking. You go to
church and say your prayers and listen when the priest gives his sermon.
You give someone your word, and then you keep it. You don’t discuss
Family business outside the Family. You show them the knife, but offer a
threat first, then the blade if they don’t cooperate. If someone crosses you,
don’t just punish them; send a message.

Sending a Message

Most members of the Family would rather not resort to violence to get
what they want. Violence is messy, costly, and having to whack someone
cuts down on the number of people under the cartel’s control. Yet from
time to time, it’s necessary to send a message by breaking a few bones or
giving someone a permanent tour of the bottom of the canals. The Family
resorts to such violence in two situations: as vengeance for a slight of
honor, and to send a message that the cartel is not to be messed with. The
Family mastered the carrot-and-stick philosophy of organized crime; the
cartel offers great rewards to anyone who serves it well, and the threat of
pain or death to anyone who opposes it.

The Family at a Glance

The Family is the oldest and most traditional criminal organization in New Dunhaven.
Core Desire: Respect. The Family wants the entire city to acknowledge its power and prestige.
Primary Business: Racketeering, blackmail, extortion, black market sales, some vice, enforcement
Territories: The Family controls the largest contiguous territory in New Dunhaven at the center of the city,
as well as the city’s canal system.
Typical Appearance: Fine clothes, gaudy jewelry, imposing countenance
Valued on Jobs for: Muscle, connections and influence, dealing with merchants, making it rain gold
Play a member of the Family if you want to . . .
• Play a classic gangster through a fantasy lens
• Play a wealthy and powerful character
• Play a character with extensive influence over law-abiding citizens
• Play a character with a well-connected network of fellow criminals

176

Canal Control

The Family controls the city’s canal system, and its members are the
undisputed masters of these waterways. This extends their reach well
beyond the canals that run through Family turf. The other cartels, and
even the Blooded, recognize that the Family has a vice-like grip on
the canal system. Where the canals pass through other cartels’ turf,
those cartels beef up their own presence to try to assert dominance, but
the Family has shown time and again that just because a canal passes
through a district controlled by another cartel, it doesn’t mean that the
Family’s grip on the waterways is any less tight. Any group that thinks it
can control a stretch of the canals as it passes through its turf is quickly
disabused of that notion by a cadre of Family enforcers.

The Family forms the other half of the city’s primary smuggling
network. While the Red Lotus Society oversees contraband being
brought in by ship, the Family sees to it that smuggled goods make their
way quickly and quietly to all corners of the city via gondola. If another
cartel wants to make use of the canals for criminal activity, they must
either approach the Family and pay a tribute (as the other cartels of the
Arrangement do), or be so secretive about their activity that neither the
Family or the City Watch finds out. If the Family discovers that someone
has been using the canals for criminal activity without their permission,
the cartel exacts swift vengeance in the form of a mob of enforcers, silent
assassins, vandalism, arson, and other forms of violent retribution.

Attitudes Toward the Other Cartels

The Family has the following attitudes toward the other cartels.
The Circle: Rivalry. They want what the Family has, and they are a threat to be taken seriously.
The Forgotten: Pragmatism. The Forgotten are always good for information, but their lot is

still to be pitied.
The Gravediggers: Partnership. They are valuable for when Family business gets messy.
The Mummers: Mild mistrust. The Mummers are valuable to have around for food, wine, and music,

but they can’t be trusted with work.
The Red Lotus Society: Wariness. The Family can do business with the Taonans, but they should be

watched carefully.
The Vespers: Aggression. The Vespers’business should be under Family control, if there was any justice

in the world. Let them play at being a cartel as long as they pay their dues.
The Wardens of the Night: Caution. The Wardens are paranoid outlaws, too unstable to be of much

use in most situations.

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The Forgotten

“I come from the gutter. I know that. I got no education, but that’s okay.
I know the street, and I’m making all the right connections.” —Tony
Montana, Scarface

“If you’re in trouble or hurt or need—go to the poor people. They’re the only
ones that’ll help—the only ones.” —Ma Joad, The Grapes of Wrath

When a group of nobles laments the abundance of “filthy thieves” in the
city, chances are they are referring to the Forgotten. Less an organized
cartel and more a loose affiliation of the city’s petty criminals, the
Forgotten provide a place for the thousands of disorganized thieves and
con artists to come together and participate in the Arrangement without
the need for a structured hierarchy. Additionally, most of the city’s actual
beggars—poverty-stricken individuals who beg on street corners for small
coins—are also members of this cartel, and they form the core of the most
effective, if disorganized, information network among all the cartels.

The Forgotten are simultaneously the most visible and the most
overlooked of the cartels. Members of this cartel lurk everywhere; in
alleys, on the steps of the church, skulking in doorframes, huddled
around dirty tables in seedy alehouses, and playing dice in the shadows of
legitimate businesses. To most people, the Forgotten are just another part
of the landscape: an expected, if distasteful, elements of living in a large
urban environment.

Despite their relative disorganization, the Forgotten are as valuable
to the Arrangement as the other major cartels. The Forgotten provide
some semblance of order for the largely disjointed street gangs and petty
criminals, allowing the Black Council to at least feel as though it has
control over a large population that doesn’t fit into other cartels. The
fact that the Forgotten have no real leadership to speak of appeals to
independent thieves, assassins, and other criminals. To operate as a true
independent in the city is to court the anger of the cartels; many criminals
declare themselves members of the Forgotten while still choosing their
own jobs and keeping the profits for themselves. Additionally, the
Forgotten largely operate in “unclaimed turf,” imposing a small amount of
order in places where the Right Kind of People operate without binding
allegiance to any other cartel.

178

Gangs of New Dunhaven

When the Arrangement was made, the Black Council recognized the
value of having a handle on the city’s hundreds of small, roving street
gangs, and the Forgotten became the means of accomplishing that.
These street gangs boast less than a dozen members and have none of the
organization or resources to directly compete with the other cartels. Each
gang has its own colorful name (for example, the River Street Crew, the
Headthumpers, the Alley Hawks, and the Knives of St. Rearden), and
wears clothing that identify them as members of the same gang. While
they quarrel with other street gangs from time to time, membership in
the Forgotten gives these gangs protection from the other cartels, and in
exchange they hold to the Arrangement along with the rest of their cartel.

Conflicts between Forgotten street gangs are
intensely personal and based on feuds that spring
up around petty grievances and perceived slights.
One street gang member steals another street
gang member’s paramour and a fight breaks out;
another gang runs petty cons on a street
corner that another gang has claimed,
leading to a scuffle. Most of the
time, these squabbles result in
little more than harsh words
and a fistfight, but occasionally
knives flash and someone dies,
causing elder members of the cartel step in
and dole out swift admonishments.

A Web

of Whispers

A tradition that dates back to the days
before the Arrangement, the Forgotten
make up the most comprehensive and
widespread information gathering and
distribution network among the Right
Kind of People. The basis of the Forgotten
network is the fact that they have people
everywhere. The literal beggars in the cartel
are allowed, as part of the Arrangement, to
beg on street corners anywhere in the city,

179

including inside other cartels’ turf. The Forgotten street gangs lurk in the
alleys of unclaimed territory, giving them eyes and ears in places without
other cartel presence. Every tavern has a Forgotten drowning his sorrows
at the end of the bar; every street corner has a Forgotten listening to the
idle conversations of the passing citizens; every wealthy neighborhood has
a Forgotten thief casing the houses for signs of opportunity.

Word spreads quickly through the Forgotten. Every member knows
every other member within a radius of a few city blocks, and when a
request for information goes out, it spreads outward from the source like
cracks in the surface of a frozen pond. Juicy bits of gossip, important
news, and warnings about the movements of the City Watch race through
the Forgotten network like wildfire.

Disinformation Network

The Forgotten provide another oft-overlooked service: using their
information network not to obtain information, but to willfully spread it.
Need a nasty rumor spread about an officer of the Watch to make him
desperate to clear his name? Feed the rumor to the Forgotten. Want to
lay a trap for a Blooded lieutenant in a seldom-visited warehouse? Spread
word of the bait through the beggars and street gangs. Clever crews use
the Forgotten as a way of getting the information they want to someone
without leaving a trail back to the crew.

The Forgotten at a Glance

The Forgotten are the largest cartel in the city, composed mostly of petty criminals and actual beggars.
Core Desire: Freedom. The Forgotten want to be left to their own devices and to determine their own
fates. They work with under the Arrangement for self-preservation.
Primary Business: Begging, information brokering, pickpocketing, petty crimes
Territories: The Old City
Typical Appearance: Dirty and unkempt; for some, a carefully crafted disguise that can
be donned or shed
Valued on Jobs For: Obtaining information from city-wide network, legerdemain and simple cons, safe
passage through the Old City, operating in the open while being overlooked
Play a member of the Forgotten if you want to . . .
• Be more independent than the members of other cartels
• Specialize in gathering information
• Act as a local contact for a Job
• Play a member of a colorful street gang

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A Society of Beggars

Aside from the street gangs, the second-largest contingent of criminals
in the cartel are the beggars. Before the Arrangement forced the
city’s independent criminals to band together under the banner of the
Forgotten, the beggars were one of the only groups of criminals in
the city to have any kind of guild. New Dunhaven’s beggars have long
worked in concert to make sure that no two beggars compete over the
same handouts, and under the Arrangement they brought much-needed
organization to the fragmented street gangs and criminals that formed
the Forgotten. Even with two decades of experience behind them, the
Forgotten still rely on the beggars to provide the underlying structure for
the cartel, and most of those considered “leadership” for the cartel are
beggars. Between that factor and the constant flow of information passing
through the beggars’ word-of-mouth network, the Forgotten depend on
these vagrants to bind together the competing and feuding street gangs
and make sure the cartel can fulfill its obligations to the Black Council.

Attitudes Toward the Other Cartels

The Forgotten have the following attitudes toward the other cartels.
The Circle: Defensiveness. The Forgotten think that the Circle would crush them and dispose of

them, if it could.
The Family: Tolerance. They Family puts too much stock in pretty clothes and fancy jewelry, but at least

its members don’t treat the Forgotten badly.
The Gravediggers: Disregard. The dead are dead; why go to so much fuss about it? The Gravediggers

act like their work is so important, but it isn’t.
The Mummers: Respect. One of the only cartels that treats the Forgotten like humans

most of the time.
The Red Lotus Society: Caution. The Society is always respectful, but they also act like the Forgotten

are constantly plotting some greater scheme under the surface. Their suspicion is enough to make a
person nervous.

The Vespers: Exasperation. The Vespers like to pretend they are clean and classy, but they are as dirty
as the rest of us.

The Wardens of the Night: Respect. They invite the Forgotten to join them out of a sense of duty,
which is kind, but roughing it in the Reserves is for suckers.

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The Gravediggers

“And when you are asked this question next, say ‘a grave-maker.’ The
houses that he makes last till doomsday.” —Gravedigger, Hamlet

“My dear dead mother wanted me to go into an honorable trade, like grave
robbing. Would I listen? No. Be an assassin, like your uncle Gustav, she said.”
—Ghuda Bule, Prince of the Blood

Though its formal name is the Honorable Order of Cemetery Caretakers
and Groundskeepers, the Right People simply refer to this cartel as the
Gravediggers. Gravediggers see the name as unfitting of their stature, but
they grudgingly accept the moniker. However, there is no greater insult
to members of the Order than to call them Graverobbers—even though
their actions frequently live up to the disparaging name.

To the average citizen, the Order is a guild of morticians and funeral
parlor operators who can be relied upon to facilitate the sad and
uncomfortable business of arranging the disposition of a deceased loved
one’s remains. Despite their legitimate front, the Gravediggers are as
involved in the business of the Right Kind of People as the other cartels.
The city’s wealthy dead are buried in finery with jewelry and other
expensive adornments, and the Gravediggers see to it that such wealth
does not go to waste decorating the dead who have no use for it.

The Order is contracted to work as a cleanup crew for other cartels’
dirty work. When bodies need to be disposed of and the scene of a crime
cleaned, the other cartels pay significant sums of money to have the
Gravediggers bring in one of their cleaning crews—led by a parlor man
or parlor woman—and sanitize the scene with unparalleled skill and
efficiency. Bodies vanish into graveyards, bloody evidence is thoroughly
cleaned from the scene, and all sign of illegal activity is scrubbed away
with clinical precision.

The Gravediggers believe in hiding in plain sight by involving
themselves with business that most Dunhaveners find distasteful or
disturbing. The cartel’s unofficial motto is, “You can’t see someone clearly
if you won’t look them in the eye,” meaning that they reduce the risk
of being caught in their criminal endeavors by shrouding themselves in
death. The Gravediggers embrace their reputation as creepy, unsettling
people, and they dress the part. Even those who choose to interact with
the law-abiding on a daily basis affect a mournful or gloomy air, using
their disturbing countenance to put potential marks off-balance.

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Plague Doctors

When disease breaks out in the city and ordinary physicians are unable
to contain it, the Crown contracts the plague doctors, many of whom
are members of the Order, to quarantine the sick and cart off the bodies
of the dead who succumb to the illness. Garbed in black long coats and
wearing raven-inspired masks, the plague doctors who answer the call are
an imposing sight; the fact that none of their skin is exposed and visible
makes them seem like inhuman agents of death. They conduct their
business completely silently, maintaining their anonymity and adding an
all-too-chilling air of mystery as they go about their grim work.

The sight of a plague doctor strikes a far more immediate fear into the
Right Kind of People. Though the Order denies it,
Gravedigger plague doctors also act as assassins
who specialize in the disposal of criminals who
have lost the trust of their cartels. When a
cartel has grown displeased with one of their
number, especially if it involves a violation of
the Arrangement or its tenets, they sometimes
petition the Black Council to dispatch a plague
doctor, either to send a message of warning or
to eliminate the troublesome individual in such
a way that it sends a message to others.

Hearses

The Gravediggers count among their resources
a fleet of black coaches led by teams of jet
black horses, which provide a unique means
of conveyance. To ordinary citizens, these
coaches appear to be normal hearses; thick
black curtains hide the mourners within from
the prying eyes of passersby. For the Right
Kind of People, however, the Gravediggers’
hearses serve as a popular form of discreet travel
throughout the city. The Gravediggers hire out
their hearses to move members of the criminal
underworld without being observed, allowing
them to travel on clandestine business without
worrying that they will be spotted by the City
Watch or the members of rival cartels.

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Professional Mourners

Gravediggers understand that people are at their most vulnerable during
a funeral. When the Gravediggers are tasked with the job of preparing
the funeral of a wealthy or influential citizen, members of the cartel pose
as mourners to infiltrate the crowd of weeping friends and family. These
planted mourners use the vulnerability of the deceased’s loved ones to
gather information and run confidence schemes to part the grieving from
their money. They employ a variety of approaches, from a sympathetic
shoulder to cry on to the picture of gothic allure, capitalizing on the
survivors’ need to feel alive in the face of a confrontation with death.
Other cartels sometimes hire the Gravediggers to run such cons on their
behalf or to gather information during a particular funeral.

The Gravediggers sometimes choose not to wait for such an
opportunity to present itself, and instead create the opportunity by
provoking a funeral by offing a beloved individual. In these cases, the
Gravediggers’ assassins subtly make it appear that the individual died of
natural causes. The cartel employs poisoners for just this occasion, since
their arts are easily disguised as illness or naturally failing health.

The Gravediggers at a Glance

The Honorable Order of Cemetery Caretakers and Groundskeepers is a cartel composed of people who deal
with the city’s dead.
Core Desire: Misdirection. Get rich, and don’t let anyone see you doing it.
Primary Business: Corpse disposal, clean-up work, quarantine enforcement, assassination
Territories: Cemeteries, funeral parlors, ward houses, mortuaries, catacombs, some merchant districts
Typical Appearance: Formerly elegant black mourner’s clothes, now moth-eaten and musty
Valued on Jobs for: Clean-up work, safe and secret passage through city streets
Play a member of the Gravediggers if you want to . . .
• Specialize in keeping the heat off of your crew
• Be a fixer or cleaner
• Play a character who is good at making things (and people) disappear
• Play someone a little creepy

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In the Shadow of the Grave

Of the cartels that control entire districts as a part of their turf, the
Gravediggers control the fewest. Most districts under their control are
merchant districts, where a large portion of the district is given over to
ward houses, funeral parlors, or cemeteries. With space at a premium in
the city, only the very wealthy can afford to be interred inside the city.
Since the nobility does not want something as unsightly as a cemetery in
their districts, most cemeteries tend to be found in merchant districts.

The Gravediggers also have a significant presence in places associated
with medicine and healing. Many of the city’s crooked physickers are
Gravediggers, and most ward houses (places where the sick and injured go
to receive medical care) are under Gravedigger control.

Though the Gravediggers are not as protective of their turf as some
cartels, they nonetheless jealously guard certain areas of criminal activity.
Not a funeral in the city happens without a Gravedigger present in one
form or another, even if the cartel has no criminal scheme taking place at
that event. Every floor of a ward house has at least one Gravedigger on
duty at a given time, keeping watch for signs of other cartels.

Attitudes Toward the Other Cartels

The Gravediggers have the following attitudes toward the other cartels.
The Circle: Wariness. The Circle is dangerous and to be defended against. The Circle has made

moves to take over the work of the Order; its ruthlessness and ambition makes such a thing a distinct
possibility in the future.

The Family: Partnership. The Family has used the Order’s services for decades and has never failed to
maintain an excellent business relationship.

The Forgotten: Disregard. The Forgotten are undignified paupers. There’s no profit to be gained in
dealing with them.

The Mummers: Annoyance. Those fops seem to take the Order’s dour countenance as an invitation for
sport, and the Gravediggers find themselves the butt of their mischief.

The Red Lotus Society: Uncertainty. Though they always uphold their contracts, the Society’s
customs make dealing with them a hassle. The Order ends up spending twice the effort for the same
amount of profit.

The Vespers: Neutrality. They Vespers are both carefree and careless. Yet after spending so much time
around the dead, it is good to spend time around those who enjoy living.

The Wardens of the Night: Skepticism. The Wardens bury their dead in the Reserves and have no
need of the Order’s services, so the Order has no need of them.

185

The Mummers

“All the world’s a stage,/And all the men and women merely players;/They
have their exits and their entrances,/And one man in his time plays many
parts.” —Jaques, As You Like It

“Think you only kings have power? Stand on a stage and hold the hearts
of men in your hands. Make them laugh with a gesture, cry with a word.
Make them love you. And you will know what power is.” —Alexandrine
Paradis, Revolution

The only cartel that was not actually a criminal organization when the
Arrangement was conceived, the Mummers were once merely a guild of
playwrights, actors, musicians, storytellers, dancers, jugglers, and street
magicians who stuck together to support one another when the City
Watch inevitably arrived to disrupt a performance. Seen as peddlers of
low art, these entertainers were constant targets for shakedowns at the
hands of agents of the Crown, even when they hadn’t done anything
wrong. When the Black Council formed and the Arrangement was put
into place, it was a small step for the guild to fully slip into the shadows of
New Dunhaven’s criminal underworld as a cartel.

That’s not to say every entertainer in the city is a criminal with
allegiance to the Mummers . . . but most are. The skills that make a
good entertainer translate to the kinds of skills cultivated by the Right
Kind of People, and it is an easy transition from an actor to a con artist,
from a bard to a blackmailer, from a magician to a pickpocket. Some
independent entertainers do ply their trade in the city, and the Mummers
do not begrudge them their craft, allowing them to operate freely and
without interference. Of course, the invitation to join is always open, and
the Mummers can be very persuasive when they want to be.

The Mummers are obsessive artisans. They hone their craft, whether
acting, music, or writing, and members of the cartel specialize in tangible
areas of their craft; for example, some “scribes” within the cartel specialize
in the production of perfect forgeries whose quality rivals that of the
great works of art. Likewise, stage actors in the cartel are exceptional
sword fighters, using the choreography of stage fights as a chance to hone
their skill with a blade. Not a few criminals and noble bravos have been
surprised to find out that the supposedly foppish actor they have been
bullying turns out to be a master of swordplay.

186

Working from the Inside

Ask members of the cartel’s leadership why they focus so much on the
art of entertainment, and they recite an old adage of the Mummers:
Entertainers are welcome anywhere. Musicians, poets, and actors provide
the entertainment everywhere from impromptu commoner street
celebrations to the elaborate galas and parties hosted by the Crown and
the nobility. With unfettered access to almost any location, regardless
of class or purpose, the Mummers have a legitimate way of infiltrating
almost any target without arousing suspicion of law-abiding citizens—or
the City Watch. They rarely need a cover story, simply showing up as
themselves and weaving their way in, another nearly invisible decoration
or source of background noise to be glanced at and then forgotten.

Of course, the Mummers are entertainers, and for its burglars this
translates into behaving like daredevils while
on the Job. Other cartels call such
behavior everything from “reckless” to
“foolhardy” to “endangering the success
of the Job just to show off to your idiot
friends,” but the Mummers know that
anyone can pull off a smash-and-grab
burglary; it takes a true artist to rob a
place with finesse, panache, and charm.

Embassies and

Safe Houses

Unlike the other cartels, the
Mummers do not have any single
contiguous area that they call
their turf. Instead, as a part of
the Arrangement, the Mummers
control the vast majority of taverns,
inns, alehouses, and public houses in
the city. Rather than declaring these
locations off-limits to the other cartels,
they pronounced them places of peace
and sanctuary where the Arrangement
is enforced to the strictest letter. Any
member of any cartel is welcome in a
Mummers establishment, and no one is

187

allowed to cause the Right Kind of People harm in these places. While
the occasional brawl might break out in the common room of a tavern
over ill-chosen words, no true violence can be done to the Right Kind
of People by any member of the cartels, on pain of permanent expulsion
from the establishment. As a result, the public establishments under
Mummers control serve as safe houses, sanctuaries, neutral meeting
grounds, and embassies within the territories of the other cartels.

The Binding Cartel

More so than any other cartel, the Mummers are the glue that holds the
cartels of the Arrangement together. While the Black Council ostensibly
is the binding body that enforces the Arrangement, the Mummers see
to the day-to-day, down-on-the-streets encouragement of cooperation
among the cartels. The Mummers have no direct feud (at least on their
end) with any other cartel, and they work to keep it that way. That
doesn’t mean that squabbles don’t pop up from time to time; individual
entertainers or troupes within the Mummers sometimes develop grudges
and rivalries with other cartels, but on a high level the Mummers do not
stoke the fires of enmity with any cartel.

Likewise, the Mummers go out of their way to smooth over conflicts
between the other cartels. Besides allowing their inns to be used as
embassies in other cartels’ turf, Mummers frequently join multi-cartel
crews with the express purpose of helping them all work together. The
Mummers fully embrace the cooperation inherent in the Arrangement.

The Mummers at a Glance

The Mummers are a cartel composed largely of bards, artists, jugglers, jesters, actors, tumblers, singers, and
other entertainers.
Core Desire: Cooperation. Keep the Arrangement running smoothly by keeping peace between cartels.
Primary Business: Thievery, con artistry, forgery, some espionage
Territories: Inns, taverns, ale-houses, theaters, and other places of entertainment
Typical Appearance: Flamboyantly dressed; some Mummers paint their faces and dress in motley
Valued on Jobs For: Second-story work, impersonation, fake identities, safe houses
Play a member of the Mummers if you want to . . .
• Be charismatic and entertaining
• Do everything with a flair for the dramatic
• Be good at spinning a web of lies
• Keep the peace between members of other cartels

188

Troupes

Although they value their freedom as independent entertainers, the
Mummers do organize into troupes from time to time. Mummers who
work together frequently form small groups that resemble acting troupes.
Just as a performing troupe includes actors, musicians, makeup artists,
stage crew, and other roles, Mummer troupes are made up of individuals
with diverse skill sets: thieves, grifters, alchemists, and moles, all bringing
their unique talents together to pull off schemes of greater complexity
than any individual could manage on their own. In some ways, these
troupes reflect the Mummers’ embrace of the Arrangement and the
diverse multi-cartel crews. These troupes are not as tightly bound as
Forgotten street gangs or Society schools, and individual Mummers drift
in and out of multiple troupes over the course of their careers.

When a Mummer is on the Job with a multi-cartel crew, they tap
their own troupe for assistance, calling in the entire group for backup. A
Mummer troupe can serve as a back-up crew, pulling off slightly more
complex schemes as a part of the larger Job and leaving the main crew to
focus on difficult or risky elements of the plan.

Attitudes Toward the Other Cartels

The Mummers have the following attitudes toward the other cartels.
The Circle: Caution. The Circle is not to be trifled with; what its members lack in a sense of humor and

fun they make up for in unpredictability and violence.
The Family: Kinship. The Family is indulgent in its decadence. Its members might be arrogant and

vengeful, but at least they enjoy the finer things in life.
The Forgotten: Respect. The Forgotten are good people and good allies. They might not have a bent

penny to their names, but they’d toss it onto the stage after a performance if they had it.
The Gravediggers: Challenge. Their dour demeanor makes cracking the shell difficult. The tallest

mountain the Mummers climb is getting a parlor man to crack a smile.
The Red Lotus Society: Puzzlement. Humor doesn’t always translate well across cultures. Society

members never seem to enjoy any show except for those put on in their own theaters, and their sense of
entertainment is alien at best.

The Vespers: Warmth. The Vespers are brothers and sisters in revelry. They provide the best venues,
while the Mummers provide the best entertainment.

The Wardens of the Night: Uncertainty. The Wardens are recluses. Who can say what draws them
into the dull darkness of the Reserves, but at least they keep to themselves.

189

Red Lotus Society

“Very few people can be totally ruthless. It isn’t easy; it takes more strength
than you might believe.” —Han, Enter the Dragon

“To you, I’m a criminal. To my mum, I’m a son. To the triads, I’m a hero.”
—Alan Kong Leung, Hard Boiled

One of the two newest cartels in the city, the Red Lotus Society was
founded by immigrants from nations on the far side of the world,
collectively known as Taona. Yet within less than a century, the
Society has not only managed to become firmly entrenched into the
criminal underworld, but has earned a high degree of respect from
the other cartels.

The Red Lotus Society’s success hinges on the fact that the cartel
cornered the market on certain areas of illicit activity without infringing
on the turf of the other cartels. They managed this by crafting and
selling black powder weapons and by being the only cartel to maintain
true maritime power. Additionally, the Red Lotus Society caters to a
noble clientele with a taste for art, smuggling rare artifacts from their
homelands into the city where priceless pieces of Taonan heritage end up
in private collections of the wealthy.

Several generations have passed since the original members of the Red
Lotus Society landed on the city’s shores, and in that time the cartel’s
membership has blended ancestral Taonan culture with a willingness to
embrace New Dunhaven attitudes. Taonan customs and philosophies
remain strong within the Society, even as its members grow up knowing
the city as their home. Further, the Society now accepts members of any
ancestry, provided that they show proper respect and adherence to the
teaching of the school that they join. These applicants are allowed to take
the surname of the person or family that sponsors their admittance into
the Society, a sign that they have been welcomed into the school.

Though the larger portion of the turf claimed by the Society is in
the group of districts commonly referred to as Little Taona, the cartel’s
influence spreads much farther than that. The Red Lotus Society controls
the docks that stretch up and down the city’s entire seaboard, and out
into the waters beyond the city as well. The Red Lotus Society is the only
cartel with a significant presence in the waters off the coast.

190

Black Powder Monopoly

The most important aspect of the Red Lotus Society’s rapid rise to power
is its complete monopoly on black powder weapons and ammunition.
Even the Crown buys its guns and ammunition from the Red Lotus
Society—or rather, from the Taonan Trade Company, the legitimate
business face of the cartel. If any of the Right Kind of People want to
obtain a firearm, the Red Lotus Society is more than happy to sell them
one, provided they can pay the exorbitant costs. The Society’s formula for
gunpowder is one of its most closely guarded secrets; only a handful of
cartel members know it, and their identities are kept secret as well.

Rival Schools

Unlike some other cartels, the Red Lotus Society does not have a rigid
hierarchy. In fact, the cartel is more like a loose
collection of smaller affiliated groups drawn
together by their similar heritage. The smaller
cells within the Society are the various schools,
each of which has its own traditions and customs.
These schools are bound together by shared
philosophies that reach back to the Taonan
homeland, and rivalries between these
schools sometimes run as hot as the
rivalries between the cartels.

Each school is responsible for
educating its members in that school’s
secret teachings. Pupils must prove
themselves both dedicated and willing to
set aside everything they think they know
to be molded by the school, and they must
earn sponsorship from a current member
of the school. By the time they reach the
end of their training, Society members have
learned their school’s secret fighting techniques,
its esoteric philosophies, and its rituals. Though
outsiders would be hard pressed to differentiate
between a student of the Three Cranes school
and a student of the River Viper school, the
differences are apparent at a moment’s glance to
members of the Society.

191

Dragon Ships

The Red Lotus Society is the only cartel in the city to boast any real naval
power, aside from the gondoliers of the Family. The Society controls the
docks and shipyards on the eastern coast of the city, and while the Crown
maintains customs inspections and enforcement in the area, the cartel
has no difficulty avoiding the meddling of the City Watch. Although
the city’s Royal Navy does guard against the pirates that skulk within the
island chains off the coast, those ships can be in only so many places at
once, and Red Lotus Society ships are armed with cannons capable of
driving off all but the most tenacious marauders.

The dragon ships give the Society significant control over the seaborne
smuggling in and out of New Dunhaven. Any contraband that comes in
via oceangoing vessels must pass through Red Lotus turf, and much as
the Family charges a tribute in exchange for doing business on its canals,
the Red Lotus Society charges the other cartels a tax on any contraband
smuggled into the city by ship. This ends up being a mutually beneficial
relationship, however, since the Red Lotus Society uses its ships to
ensure that neither pirates nor the Royal Navy interfere in shipments
coming into the city under the cartel’s protection. For an additional fee,
the Society contracts out individual dragon ships to serve as escorts for
smuggling vessels for the complete duration of their journey; such a
contract includes a Red Lotus Society financial guarantee that the goods
will arrive at their destination safely.

The Red Lotus Society at a Glance

The Red Lotus Society is a cartel composed of multiple schools and based in Little Taona.
Core Desire: Power. The Society wants to rival other cartels, but without direct conflict.
Primary Business: Seaborne smuggling, black powder weapons dealing, illegal antiquities trafficking
Territories: Little Taona, the docks
Typical Appearance: Dockworkers’garb, frequently with bare chests or vests only, displaying
significant tattoo work
Valued on Jobs for: Access to gunpowder, proficiency with firearms, naval superiority
Play a member of the Red Lotus Society if you want to . . .
• Play a character who uses firearms
• Have access to ships and dockside resources
• Be in a cartel with strong cultural bond
• Play a character with strong rivalries, even within your own cartel

192

The Gray Watch

The Red Lotus Society has a somewhat different relationship with
the City Watch than other cartels. In most districts of the city, the
Watch and the Red Lotus Society are, as would be expected, enemies
on opposite sides of the law. In Little Taona, and in some places on the
docks (especially near the middle of the city), that relationship becomes
somewhat more blurred. The Crown has long made it a policy to station
officers of the City Watch in Little Taona who were raised there, or
have a strong connection to its people. This helps ease cultural tensions
between the agents of the Crown and the people of Little Taona, and in
some ways, allows the people of those districts to govern themselves.

The Society helps to take care of the common people in these districts,
and even law-abiding citizens sometimes come into contact with Society
members from time to time. Many City Watch officers in Little Taona
grew up right alongside the members of the Red Lotus Society, living
in the same buildings and working at the same shops. It is much more
common for officers of the Watch and members of the Society to warily
meet to trade information in Little Taona than in other parts of the city.
They are by no means allies, but the relationship is much less tense.

Attitudes Toward the Other Cartels

The Red Lotus Society has the following attitudes toward the other cartels.
The Circle: Wary sympathy. The refugees from the House of Alvarov suffered far more during their

integration into the city than the Taonan peoples, but their trials made them hard and dangerous.
The Family: Prickly. Family members act like they are superior just because they have been here

longer; they are wrong.
The Forgotten: Caution. Like the Society, the Forgotten are fragmented. Only the fools in the other

cartels overlook the power that the Forgotten’s anonymity gives them.
The Gravediggers: Discomfort. The Gravediggers spend too much of their time around the dead; they

must have one foot in the spirit world.
The Mummers: Respect. The Society acknowledges the fact that the Mummers are skilled artisans.

Few other cartels appreciate that entertainment is a profession all its own.
The Vespers: Partnership. The Vespers’pleasure houses and poppy dens are frequently supplied by Red

Lotus Society imports.
The Wardens of the Night: Mild enmity. The Wardens are arrogant meddlers who think their

righteous cause makes them superior, when in truth the dirt is just as filthy in the Reserves.

193

The Vespers

“Secrets are my currency: I deal in them for a living. The secrets of desire,
of what people really want, and of what they fear the most.” —Jamal Khan,
Something to Tell You

“Every decent con man knows that the simplest truth is more powerful
than even the most elaborate lie.” —Katrina Bishop, Uncommon Criminals

The Vespers are the masters of high-society crime. Though associated
most strongly with the city’s vice trade, which the cartel widely influenced
since the establishment of the Arrangement, in truth the bulk of the
Vespers’ Jobs focus on the infiltration, extortion, and deception of the
city’s nobility. They target the richest marks, risking the wrath of the City
Watch by committing crimes against the privileged class, and execute
their schemes from within blue-blooded society.

The Vespers control the greatest percentage of the city’s vice crime.
The cartel runs dozens of high-stakes gambling halls, which are more
like luxurious private leisure clubs than the card sharp dens of the other
cartels. In Vesper-run gambling establishments, the clothes are expensive,
the tobacco of the highest quality, the decor on the cutting edge of
class and fashion, and the wine of a vintage that would make the Royal
Family sit up and take notice. These establishments are traps meant
to lure in the nobility and wear an legal and aboveboard public face; as
far as the Crown is concerned, these are simply private, invitation-only
clubs where the nobility goes for fellowship and leisure. The Vespers are
extremely protective of their members who run such establishments, and
patrons who choose to frequent them obey strict rules. To violate the
rules of a Vesper poppy den or brothel is to end up blacklisted from such
establishments across the city—forever.

The Vespers are among the most educated of all the Right Kind of
People, having benefited from an educational program that rivals the
private tutors who teach the children of the nobility; in fact, many of
the instructors are noble educators pressed into service by blackmail.
All cartel members receive an education in the arts, sciences, history,
etiquette, culinary and sommelier skill, gossip-mongering, seduction,
mimicry, deception, disguise, and the development of a near-eidetic
memory. Young Vespers emerging from this training are better educated
and more savvy than the nobles themselves; unlike the nobility, Vespers in
training do not have the luxury and distraction of wealth to cause them to

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be lax in their studies, and they end up being more serious students than
their spoiled noble counterparts.

A Library of Blackmail

When the Vespers single out a member of the nobility as a mark, they
first consult the Deep Ledgers. The Deep Ledgers consist of hundreds
of thousands of secrets inscribed on alchemically locked pages bound
together in tomes so large that they require two people to carry. Vesper
archivists, skilled in navigating the seemingly disjointed tomes, comb
through several lifetimes’ worth of secrets for anything that might be used
to gain leverage on the mark. Considering this information more valuable
than pay or reputation, Vespers want most to finish a
Job having acquired a secret worthy of being added
to the Deep Ledgers. Other cartels have long
sought to obtain even one of the tomes, and the
Spiders consider the location of the Deep Ledgers
to be a prize equal to arresting the members of
the Black Council. As a result, the Vespers keep a
tight rein on knowledge of the location of any of
the Deep Ledgers.

Dark Chemistry

More subtle than a knife but potentially far
more painful, poison is the weapon of choice
for Vespers. Although the less refined criminals
think of poison only in terms of substances that kill,
the Vespers know that the wide array of chemicals
colloquially known as poisons include a constellation
of uses, from the inducement of maladies and death
to altering the chemical balance of a target’s mind.

The Vespers’ study and use of poison mimics the
herbological training that physickers undertake in
the pursuit of the healing arts. Just as a physicker
might give leaves for a tea that soothes the nerves
to a patient suffering from anxiety, a Vesper
poisoner might splash a few droplets of a distilled
extract of those leaves into the drink to make a
noble more pliable. The most skilled poisoners
in the cartel learn the deep secrets of herbology,
medicine, chemistry, biology, and alchemy.

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The Finest Domain

Like the Gravediggers, the Vespers control only a relatively small number
of districts in the city in their entirety. On Vesper turf, the cartel works
hand-in-hand with the nobles to keep out the riffraff and ensure that the
peace, tranquility, prosperity, and decadence of the district is maintained
at all costs. Of course, the nobility never really knows that criminals help
maintain the integrity of their home districts; the Vespers don the guise
of a visiting Elderlander noble, or a member of a minor house from the
other side of the city, to exert their influence among the aristocracy.

The Vespers keep eyes and ears in every corner of the districts that
make up their turf, watching for interlopers from other cartels (and
regular, law-abiding citizens who don’t belong there, too). When a person
who the Vespers do not approve of wanders into the area, they quietly
dispatch a small number of cartel members to cordially, but firmly, escort
that person out of the district. If that person makes a scene, the Vesper
agents melt away into the shadows, and then immediately alert the City
Watch that someone unsavory has been causing trouble for the members
of the nobility. As long as a person is at least reasonably well dressed
and politely behaved, the Vespers make no effort to run them off. They
do not tolerate anyone who ruins the ambiance of their turf; they want
their marks among the nobility to be happy and indulging in vices, not
worrying about where that beggar came from.

The Vespers at a Glance

The Vespers have firm control over the majority of the city’s vice crime.
Core Desire: Influence. The Vespers want to rule the city, but by pulling strings from the shadows.
Primary Business: Blackmail, confidence schemes, rigged gambling, vice
Territories: The Vespers control the city’s claimed noble districts.
Typical Appearance: Members of the cartel dress comparable to the nobility.
Valued on Jobs for: The ability to function in noble society, diverse education
Play a member of the Vespers if you want to . . .
• Play a refined con artist, thief, or assassin
• Play one of the most educated criminals in the city
• Specialize in Jobs targeting the nobility
• Spend much of your time in high society

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Privileged Impostors

Given that the nobility is a closed society and a privileged class, it is
a testament to the resourcefulness of the Vespers that they routinely
infiltrate the aristocracy, choosing marks from the wealthiest and
most powerful people in the city. The key to a good Vesper scheme is
establishing and maintaining a believable cover story, one that breaches
the exclusive noble society and renders an air of legitimacy around the
Vesper’s words and actions.

The Vespers frequently use a common cover story: they pretend to be
visiting nobility from Elderland. These nations are so distant, and their
noble lineages so convolutedly intertwined, that disproving a claim of
noble title from Elderland is nearly impossible. Another favored cover
identity is that of a wealthy socialite, someone technically a commoner
but with enough money to never have to work and who is solely focused
on making a splash in high society. Through bribery and blackmail, the
Vespers can sometimes convince members of the lesser houses to vouch
that an individual cartel member is a “distant cousin” or “from a minor
branch of the family” when a more legitimate claim to Dunhavener
nobility is necessary, though these cover stories are risky because they
hold up to scrutiny only as long as the leveraged noble is willing to
maintain the charade.

Attitudes Toward the Other Cartels

The Vespers have the following attitudes toward the other cartels.
The Circle: Defensiveness. The Vespers believe the Circle wants to take over their business and shackle

them to the Circle’s control.
The Family: Acceptance. Family members know how to dress and put on a good facsimile of

being civilized.
The Forgotten: Disgust. The Vespers see no need to associate with the dregs of society unless they

must, even if they are the Right Kind of People.
The Gravediggers: Respect. The Vespers ply secrets out of people by making them feel alive; the

Gravediggers do it by reminding them of death.
The Mummers: Pragmatism. The Mummers as good companions and entertaining at parties, but they

are better as servants than partners due to their flightiness.
The Red Lotus Society: Caution. The Society members have different customs that makes it hard to

fit in with their elite, but they share a love of the finer things in life.
The Wardens of the Night: Resignation. The Wardens are bafflingly rustic; why would you ever want

to live so far from good food, good music, and good times?

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Wardens of the Night

“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better
than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask
not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed
you.” —Samuel Adams

“Heroism is a badly remunerated occupation, and often it leads to an
early end, which is why it appeals to fanatics or persons with an unhealthy
fascination with death.” —Isabel Alende, Zorro

Not all who operate outside of the law are villains; for some, lawbreaking
is not done out of greed or weakness, but rebellion. The Wardens of the
Night reject the authority of the Crown, and in doing so have made
themselves into outlaws. Senators and propagandists call them anarchists
and traitors. The nobility calls them ungrateful commoners with no
respect for their place in the world. Merchants call them highwaymen
and robbers. The Wardens choose a different word to describe
themselves: free.

Most members of the cartel begin their life of crime out of either
desperation or idealism. As they sit around the crackling campfire at
night, telling tales of what turned them into the Right Kind of People, the
stories start to sound the same: a carpenter who lost everything when a
counting house called in his debts, forcing him to turn to theft to provide
for his family; a young commoner trying to shed light on a Senator’s
corruption was branded as seditious and forced to hide from agents of the
Crown; a baker who refused to bribe the tax collector and escaped into a
Reserve before she could be clapped in irons.

The cartel offers a home for malcontents of all stripes, from opponents
of the aristocracy to those who see themselves as liberators of the people
from the fascist control of the Crown and the City Watch. They see
the Royal Family as tyrants, the aristocracy as oppressors, merchants as
greedy abusers, and the Senate as a gang of corrupt lackeys complicit
in the ongoing abuse of power rampant in the city. In response to what
they see as the injustices inherent in the city’s government and society,
the Wardens of the Night act as vigilantes, taking matters of justice and
vengeance into their own hands. They choose their targets from among
those they believe have abused their positions of privilege, and they
frequently seek to pull down those in power. Make no mistake, though;
the Wardens of the Night are still criminals. They steal, they burgle,

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