178 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
178 lines
10 KiB
Markdown
# The Guild of Knives — Assassins
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*"We are not murderers. Murderers are sloppy, emotional, and cheap. We are professionals who provide a service that civilized society pretends it doesn't need. There is a difference."*
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— Sevra
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---
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## The Guild
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The Guild of Knives is the city's oldest professional assassination ring. They operate on a strict code: clean kills, no collateral, no civilians, no suffering. They view their work as a craft — ugly but necessary, and deserving of the same discipline as surgery or law. Payment is always upfront, contracts are honored, and the guild's reputation is its currency.
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The guild has been in quiet conflict with the Lambent Order for months. The cultists have been taking side jobs — messy, ritualistic kills that undercut the guild's market and damage its reputation. Worse, someone within the guild has been *cooperating* with them.
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Tonight, three named members are present, plus three unnamed guild soldiers.
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---
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## Sevra — The Commander
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*"I don't need you to like me. I need you to be honest with me. Those are very different requests, and one of them will keep you alive."*
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### Stat Block
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**Sevra** — Medium humanoid (human), lawful evil
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**AC** 16 (studded leather + DEX) | **HP** 52 (8d8+16) | **Speed** 30 ft.
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| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
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|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
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| 11 (+0) | 18 (+4) | 14 (+2) | 16 (+3) | 15 (+2) | 14 (+2) |
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**Saving Throws** DEX +7, INT +6
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**Skills** Stealth +7, Deception +5, Insight +5, Perception +5, Investigation +6
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**Senses** passive Perception 15
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**Languages** Common, Elvish, Thieves' Cant
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**Assassinate.** During the first round of combat, Sevra has advantage on attacks against any creature that hasn't taken a turn yet. Any hit against a surprised creature is a critical hit.
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**Sneak Attack (1/turn).** 3d6 extra damage when she has advantage or an ally is within 5 ft. of the target.
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**Evasion.** Half damage on failed DEX saves, no damage on success.
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### Actions
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**Multiattack.** Two shortsword attacks.
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**Shortsword.** Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing damage.
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**Hand Crossbow.** Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 30/120 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+4) piercing damage.
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### Appearance & Personality
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Mid-forties, lean, angular face, dark skin, close-cropped black hair. Every movement is deliberate. She sits with her back to the wall, eyes on every entrance. Wears practical dark clothing — no ornamentation, no vanity. A thin scar crosses her throat — someone tried to cut it years ago. The someone is dead.
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Sevra is the senior guild member present. She's holding the guild together through sheer authority while dealing with the mole, the territorial dispute with the cultists, and now a murder investigation. She's stretched thin but would die before showing it.
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**Key traits:**
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- Utterly composed. Speaks in measured, precise sentences.
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- Values honesty in a transactional sense — she keeps her word because her word has value.
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- Pragmatic to the bone. She'll work with players if the math works out.
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- Suspects Dace is the traitor but needs proof. Moving on a guild member without evidence breaks the code and fractures the guild.
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### What She Knows
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**Will share if players approach professionally (show competence, don't moralize):**
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- The brawl started because Kael confronted the cultists about a contract kill in the Merchant Quarter — a noble found dead with ritual marks. It was the guild's contract, paid for and accepted. Someone else did the kill.
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- The guild has a mole. Kills are being sold to outside buyers. Bodies are showing up wrong — missing parts, ritualistic damage.
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- She didn't kill Orenn. The guild respected the rules. "Orenn was worth more alive to us than anyone in this room."
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**Will trade for proof of the traitor's identity:**
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- The guild will withdraw from the tavern peacefully — no faction war.
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- She'll share everything she knows about the cultists' activities, including safe house locations.
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- She owes the party a favor — one job, any target, with the usual code in place.
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---
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## Dace — The Traitor
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*"Relax, friend. Drink? It's going to be a long night — might as well be comfortable."*
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### Stat Block
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**Dace** — Medium humanoid (human), neutral evil
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**AC** 15 (studded leather + DEX) | **HP** 44 (8d8+8) | **Speed** 30 ft.
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| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
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|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
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| 12 (+1) | 16 (+3) | 12 (+1) | 14 (+2) | 10 (+0) | 18 (+4) |
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**Skills** Deception +8, Persuasion +8, Stealth +5, Performance +6, Sleight of Hand +5
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**Senses** passive Perception 10
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**Languages** Common, Thieves' Cant, Halfling
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**Sneak Attack (1/turn).** 2d6 extra damage.
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### Actions
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**Shortsword.** +6 to hit, 1d6+3 piercing.
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**Dagger (concealed).** +6 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing. Coated with **Essence of Ether** (DC 13 CON save or fall unconscious for 1 minute).
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### Appearance & Personality
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Late twenties, handsome, easy smile. Sandy hair, bright eyes, the kind of face you'd trust to watch your drink. He's the assassin who doesn't look like an assassin — the one who gets close to targets through charm, not stealth. He's everyone's friend at the table and nobody's friend in truth.
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Dace has been selling guild contracts to the Lambent Order for six months. The cultists need fresh kills for ritual components — hearts still warm, blood drained into sanctified vessels. Dace provides the bodies and takes a cut on top of his guild pay. He doesn't believe in the cult's ideology — he just likes money, and he finds the moral panic about his sideline amusing.
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**Key traits:**
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- The most likeable person in the room. Friendly, warm, buys drinks, makes jokes.
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- A clinical sociopath who learned charm as a professional skill.
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- Will actively "help" the investigation — volunteering theories, offering to search rooms, being useful — while subtly steering suspicion toward the cultists.
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- If cornered with evidence, his warmth evaporates instantly. The real Dace is cold, calculating, and willing to fight his way out.
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### His Secret
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Dace has been meeting a Lambent Order contact in the tavern's private room to arrange deliveries. The ward-sigil diagram scratched into the table was made during one of these meetings — the contact was Haddon, mapping the wards as part of the cult's broader plan. Dace didn't care what the diagram meant; he was there to negotiate prices.
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**Evidence linking Dace:**
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- DC 16 Insight during conversation: Something about his helpfulness is *too* practiced. He's performing.
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- Tallow (for a price) will confirm that Dace has been meeting "a scholar type" in the private room regularly.
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- Kael, if asked privately, will say Dace was the last person to take a guild contract that ended up with ritual marks on the body. "He said he subcontracted the cleanup. Since when do we subcontract?"
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- The cultist pin found in the private room — Dace pockets things. A DC 14 Investigation of his person finds a **second cultist pin** hidden in his boot, kept as insurance.
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### If Exposed
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Dace tries to talk his way out first (Deception +8). If that fails, he turns violent — he'll grab the nearest person as a hostage (likely Vetch or Bren) and demand safe passage. If that fails, he fights. He's dangerous but not suicidal — at half HP, he surrenders.
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Sevra's reaction to proof: cold fury. She won't kill him in the bar (the rules still matter to her, even now), but she will restrain him and promise that guild justice will follow. This is worse than a quick death and everyone knows it.
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---
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## Kael — The Hothead
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*"I'm done talking. I've been done talking since they started poaching our work. Every day we sit here is a day they get bolder."*
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### Stat Block
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**Kael** — Medium humanoid (half-orc), chaotic evil
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**AC** 15 (chain shirt + DEX) | **HP** 45 (6d8+18) | **Speed** 30 ft.
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| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
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|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|
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| 16 (+3) | 14 (+2) | 16 (+3) | 10 (+0) | 11 (+0) | 12 (+1) |
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**Skills** Intimidation +4, Athletics +6, Perception +3
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**Senses** darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13
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**Languages** Common, Orc, Thieves' Cant
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**Relentless Endurance.** Drops to 1 HP instead of 0, once per long rest.
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**Savage Attacks.** Extra damage die on critical hits.
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### Actions
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**Multiattack.** Two handaxe attacks.
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**Handaxe.** +6 to hit, 1d6+3 slashing. Can be thrown (20/60 ft.).
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### Appearance & Personality
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Big, scarred, half-orc with a shaved head and a permanent scowl. He's the guild's enforcer — the one they send when subtlety isn't required. His arms are a map of old fights and he wears them like medals.
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Kael is loyal to the guild with the fervor of someone who found a family after a lifetime without one. The cult's disrespect enrages him on a personal level — they're not just poaching contracts, they're mocking the guild's code, the only code Kael has ever believed in.
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**Key traits:**
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- Aggressive but not stupid. He reads rooms badly but reads people well.
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- Fiercely loyal to Sevra. He'll follow her lead even when he disagrees.
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- Honest to a fault. He cannot and will not lie convincingly. If asked direct questions, he answers directly. This makes him the easiest assassin to talk to, despite his hostility.
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- He didn't kill Orenn. He's the most vocally angry about the death, not because of Orenn personally, but because killing in neutral ground is a violation of everything he believes in.
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### What He Knows
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- The brawl started because he found out about the Merchant Quarter kill. He lost his temper. He'll admit this.
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- He suspects Dace — "Too smooth. Nobody's that nice in this business." But Kael is biased (he's suspicious of everyone personable) and Sevra has told him to drop it without evidence.
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- He saw Bren acting strangely during the brawl — "The crazy one went rigid. Stiff as a board. Staring at the bar. Not at the fight. At the *bar*." This is because Bren/Skein was watching Xarrul kill Orenn.
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---
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## Unnamed Guild Members (3)
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Use **Spy** stat block (MM p.349) for all three. They stay quiet, defer to Sevra, and watch the room. If combat starts, they fight as a unit with Sevra. None of them have useful information — they're muscle.
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