Canonfire!

Tue Oct 16, 2012 4:50 am Thieves in Verbobonc

I downloaded a description and map of Verbobonc. It is completely awsome but i am confused about thievery. Does this city have a thieves guild? I don't see one in the description.

Tue Oct 16, 2012 7:18 am

WG8 mentions some thieves and brigands, but no formal guilds. The "bad guys" are cultists of Iuz and the Cult of Elemental Evil. Vecna Lives! mentions a cult of Vecna in the city. There are also Rhennee.

You could invent a thieves' guild for Verbobonc if you wanted, but I like the idea that not every city has one. Verbobonc is primarily lawful and good, so it seems less likely to have a formal guild of thieves than many other towns.

A guild of gnomish thieves, like the mouseburglars and vanishers from The Complete Book of Gnomes & Halflings, might be an interesting addition given the city's heavy gnome population.

Oerth Journal #8 presented a mostly human thieves guild in Verbobonc called the Owl's Talons. It's not "canon" but if you like the idea, you should download the issue; there's quite a bit of detail.

Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:04 am

thanks rasgon. You got some good ideas. I kinda like that no guild idea in verbobonc. My problem comes from the boys leveling up. With no guild the thief cannot do it in verbobonc. He is a gnome from Pricipality of Ulek and started out in a thieves guild down in Gryrax.
Maybe he could be trained in the Kron hills? The party rescued the gnome and got the iron ring. Like most things in the world of DnD the possiblities are endless.
We are playing friday night so i better get my **** together. thanks again.

Tue Oct 16, 2012 8:18 am

Tue Oct 16, 2012 9:42 am

Tue Oct 16, 2012 2:41 pm

Tue Oct 16, 2012 3:13 pm

Here's my 2e plug...get your hands on the "Complete Guide to Thieves" if you like, as it's a good sourceguide (technically, it may be considered 1e, but let's not split hairs). Wink

Not all Thieves' Guilds need to be of the shady variety. Some could have a front of legitimacy, serving various 'legal' avenues, such as trade and commerce, and either work with OR against the local Merchant's Guildhall. There are many types of rogues in this world, from beggars and pickpockets to thugs, assassins, and con artists. All alignments, save Lawful Good, are permitted, allowing a wide variety of archetypes to exist among this class.

-Lanthorn

Tue Oct 16, 2012 9:06 pm

Wed Oct 17, 2012 3:20 am

Wed Oct 17, 2012 6:24 am

Wed Oct 17, 2012 9:13 am Thieves Guild in Verbobonc

As previously mentioned, not everywhere has to have an 'overt' Thieves Guild but in some towns & cities I have sited Thieves Guilds within outwardly respectable(ish) organisations such as 'Detective Agencies' or even Inns - dig deep enough and ask the right people the right questions and PCs will probably find someone who knows someone who can put them in touch with who (or what) they are looking for.
Cool

Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:12 am

As far as the thief being trained i am thinking i will have an npc in Etterbroek. So its lunch and i am reading Oerth Journal #9. Trying to figure out where to make somewhere the thief can train. Etterbroek is on the way. Lets read on that town.

Let me preface this with something i had been considering since we last gamed. The party had defeated Lareth but had not got to the ghouls. So while they are gone i needed something to move in that they would have to battle when returning to the moathouse. I thought the bodies could bring in some wolves on the upper part but i wanted something nastier in the dungeon. Nothing in MM or MMII so i dig out the Fiend folio and have a look. The ettercap catches my eye but as far as storyline what the heck would an ettercap be doing here?

As i begin to read the journal on Etterbroek i learn the name is derived from the ettercaps roaming the area. To much drinking beer from aluminum cans means i don't remember what an ettercap is. Not in MM or MMII. Low and behold it is the very monster i was gonna put in the moathouse. I love it when a plan comes together intentional or not.

Wed Oct 17, 2012 10:53 am

Fri Mar 01, 2013 9:32 pm

When I developed all that Verbobonc stuff, it was before some of the other things that eventually came out. I believe I started even before Fate of Istus, which really was the first time we had serious Verbobonc info in a canon source. Anyway, the map came from a book I found at college, and the funny thing is, when I saw it, I though, "Holy crap! That's Verbobonc!"

Anyway, I never considered a Thieve's Guild. I had a very active Thieve's and Assassins Guild in Dyvers, which pretty much covered Verbobonc as well. Gremag, the assassin in Hommlet, originally came from Dyvers, IMC. He had been driven from the city for taking a job assassinating a fellow assassin. I guess that was frowned upon. I had envisioned him starting a Guild in Verbobonc eventually.