It's time to meet a select body of august personages from diverse thieves' guilds. The NPCs here are presented with fine-grain detail, and they can be used in several ways. They can be used by any DM as "off the rack" NPCs ready for play, they can be slightly modified to suit the DM's ongoing campaign, or they can be used as an inspiration for the DM to devise his own NPCs along the same lines. These NPCs are also characters who will hold dominant positions in any thieves guild.
To give these NPCs a rounded, full character, each has been given a history and location within one of TSR's game worlds; Oerth, the world of Greyhawk, or Faerun, also known as the Forgotten Realms. If the DM does not wish to use these histories and locations, he can change them as he wishes, relocating the NPCs as desired.
Stats: Thief skill values listed include all bonuses from dexterity, race, non-use of armor, and magical items, as appropriate.
Guildmaster Septien Selfareine, the "White Lily"[]
AC 1 (cloak of displacement, ring of protection +3, boots of striding and springing); T 10/ M 9; hp 32; #AT 1; Dmg by weapon type; Str 9, Int 17, Wis 16, Dex 17, Con 9, Cha 16; THAC0 see below; AL CG; SA quadruple damage on backstab, thief skills, sword of dancing, spells; SD thief skills, magical items (listed below), spells. Languages spoken: Common, no align languages, elven, gnome, halfling, thieves cant. Thief skills: PP 60, OL 80, FRT 75, MS 85, HS 80, DN 40, CW 70, RL 30. Experience Point Total: 212,465 (in each class).
Spells usually memorized: charm person, feather fall, protection from evil, sleep, forget, invisibility, knock, dispel magic, fly, spectral force, dimension door, wizard eye, teleport.
Weapon Proficiencies: dagger, longsword, short bow, shortsword.
Nonweapon Proficiencies: artistic ability (Wis; composition), disguise (Cha; double proficiency, checks at +1), etiquette (Cha), musicianship (Dex; stringed keyboard instruments).
Combat Stats: Melee: Base THAC0 16. Uses shortsword +2, +4 versus dwarves (THAC0 13/11, Dmg 1d6+2 (+4)/ 1d8+2). Also has longsword of dancing, THAC0 14 if hand-held, 16 if used in nondominant hand, 15 descending to 12 if used as a dancing weapon; Dmg 1d8 +1 to +4/1d12 +1 to +4.
Combat Stats: Missiles: Base THAC0 14. Uses shortbow +1 (THAC0 12, ROF 2, Dmg 1d6+1) and has 15 arrows +2 (THAC0 10, Dmg 1d6+3).
Additional Magic Items: amulet of proof versus detection and location, periapt of proof versus poison +4, Nolzur's marvellous pigments (6 jars), rings of chameleon power and water walking, wand of secret door and trap location (52 charges).
Physical Details: Age 37 (human equivalent approximately 28), height 5'11", weight 131 lbs, silver-blond hair, light blue eyes, very clear and somewhat pale skin, high cheekbones, long and slender limbs.
Key Idiosyncrasies: Septien has an infamous "ego signature," as explained below. He also has a real loathing of dwarves, and his shortsword is his most treasured magical item. He does not attempt to expel dwarves from his guild, but they do not advance easily, and Septien has even shopped one or two to the law by anonymous tip-offs.
Cover: Septien is a well-known and appreciated musician who gives well-attended public performances of his playing on harpsichord-like instruments.
Guild and Leadership: The Gryrax Guild has a complex/mix structure; the guildmaster co-rules with a ruling council of three. Septien's style of guildmastering is slightly weak (he shares power), just, and fairly populist (the council attends to general feelings within the guild and Septien listens to them).
History: Septien Selfareine is Guildmaster in Gryrax of the Principality of Ulek, of Oerth (in the World of Greyhawk). His identity as guildmaster is known only to the three members of the ruling council of this guild; he is known to everyone else as "White Lily." This pseudonym comes from a weakness he has for leaving a fresh white lily at the scene of his audacious burglaries.
Septien was born the illegitimate son of a minor female elven noble in Celene, where such a birth is no stigma. The half-elf's quick wits and skill soon brought him private training in magic from his doting mother, and he began adventuring early in life. The evils of the Pomarj, so close to Celene, offered ample opportunity for a mage to gain experience and prosper. But Septien's light-fingered talents found employment in the tolerant, liberal capital of Celene as well.
Septien made happy progress as mage and thief, all the while cultivating his social graces and musicianship. It took the ravages of a broken love affair with a haughty grey elf ballerina to drive Septien first to drink and then to exile. Septien grew lazy, fat, and depressed in the lands of Ulek, until the day his second love entered his life—the White Lily Diamond. Found in the Kron Hills, bought by the Prince of Ulek and exhibited at the Gryrax Palace of Culture, the heavily-guarded diamond was irresistible. Septien brought off a daring robbery, and left a flower behind; the origins of his name. He privately sold the gem back to the Prince for 25,000 gp, a fraction of its value, later. Septien does not want riches. He does not steal for the wealth. He steals for the joy of being skilled and smart enough to get away with it.
Septien avoided joining the thieves' guild for some years, but bumped into the acting guildmaster when the two decided to rob the same place at the same time. Septien was just putting his flower in place when the second thief arrived! The old guildmaster had just died, and to have the famous White Lily as guildmaster was a decision which unified the squabbling and divided membership and ruling council. Septien was drafted in, and somewhat regrets this. In truth, there is little burden on him, since the council makes all the day-to-day decisions and his freedom of action is little curtailed. But Septien regrets the day his identity was discovered. On the other hand, his increasing success as a musician (he is much in demand for concerts and as an accompanist) brings him good fees, public acclaim, and a steady rate of arrival of hopeful females at his secluded town house. There is word of his being made a Court Companion, the formal title given to an adviser to the Prince, who is thought to seek his views on elven and cultural affairs.
Septien in Game Play: As "White Lily," Septien is the classic mystery figure. PCs may have a wild range of adventures trying to find him, stop his robberies, foil his schemes, etc. Putting PCs up against an enemy who will only wish to outsmart them, and will never kill unless he is forced to, will make a nice change of atmosphere. A medium-level thief needing training in Ulek might find that only Septien can train him, and part of the guildmaster's terms might be that the PC will have to find him first! Given his concerts, his liking for female company, and his activity as a mage (although he is not a member of the Mages guild of Ulek), there are several ways in which PCs can meet Septien while, at the same time, hunting the infamous White Lily!
Tactical Notes: With his amulet, Septien is almost impossible to scry. Adding his ring of chameleon power to his thief skills makes this no easier. His major advantage is his amazing ability to get into and out of places, and with spells such as wizard eye he does his best to scry places in advance. Nolzur's marvellous pigments are ideal for getting into places (hey presto! a door!) if Septien's half-elf skill and wand don't find the secret doors.
Septien does not use aggressive, damaging evocation-type spells and the like if at all possible. He prefers subtlety and guile, and a spell such as spectral force to cover his escapes (using teleport to his villa in dire necessity). Septien is not strong and has few hit points, and so he will avoid melee combat if possible. If he must fight, unleashing his longsword of dancing while he fights with his magical shortsword can make him quite formidable. However, his cloak of displacement makes it virtually certain that he will be able to escape at least a first blow in melee, and he often takes advantage of this to teleport (or dimension door if he has this spell memorized, having scried in advance with wizard eye) away. His magical boots also enable him to make fast escapes.
Guildmaster Tulmara Zir Bharann, "Cruelty's Mask"[]
AC -5 (bracers of defense AC3, ring of protection +2, cloak of the bat); MV 12 (15 as bat); T 16; hp 62; #AT 1; Dmg by weapon type (+6 with gauntlets of ogre power in melee); Str 9 (18[00] with gauntlets of ogre power), Int 16, Wis 12, Dex 18, Con 15, Cha 15; THAC0 see below; AL NE; SA quintuple damage on backstab, thief abilities, cloak of the bat; SD thief skills, necklace of adaptation, cloak of the bat, rod of alertness, ring of free action. Languages spoken: Common, Thieves Cant. Thief skills: PP 25, OL 95, FRT 95, MS 95, HS 95, DN 90, CW 95, RL 65. Experience Point Total: 1,432,155.
Weapon Proficiencies: dagger, hand crossbow, longsword, quarterstaff, short bow, short sword.
Nonweapon Proficiencies: Appraising (Int), Disguise (Cha), Jumping (Str), Lip Reading (Int; double proficiency, +1 to checks), Rope Use (Dex), Tightrope Walking (Dex).
Combat Stats: Melee: Base THAC0 13. Usually uses gauntlets of ogre power together with longsword +2, +4 versus Good-aligned creatures in dominant (right) hand; gives THAC0 8, 6 versus Good enemies; Dmg 1d8+8 (+10)/ 1d12+8 (+10). Also possesses dagger of venom used in secondary hand; THAC0 11, dmg 1d4+7 (+9)/1d3+7 (+9) plus special (lethal poison).
Combat Stats: Missiles: Base THAC0 10; uses short bow +1 (THAC0 9; ROF 2; ranges 5/10/15; Dmg 1d6+1) and also has normal hand crossbow (THAC0 10, ROF 1; ranges 2/4/ 6; Dmg 1d3/ 1d2).
Additional Magic Items: Bag of holding (250 cu. ft. capacity), censer of summoning hostile air elementals, oil of etherealness, other minor magical potions (ESP, healing, etc.) as desired by the DM.
Physical Details: Age 38, height 5'5", weight 107 lbs., short-cut curly black hair, very dark brown eyes, tanned olive skin, dark complexion, ear-lobes virtually absent.
Key Idiosyncrasies: Tulmara suffers periodic blackouts, about once a month, each lasting 1d8 hours. She is wholly amnesic for what happens during this time. In her conscious personality, her most striking feature is her dead-eyed, emotionless mask of a face when listening to others.
Cover: Tulmara is well-known as a merchant, dealing in staple commodities. Cloths, foodstuffs, and livestock are her major business interests. She has many people working for her and is rarely seen herself; this is not unusual in her homeland.
Guild and Leadership: The Zazesspur thieves' guild has a traditional single-guildmaster leadership. Tulmara's rule is strong, cruel, and despotic.
History: Tulmara Zir Bharann is Guildmaster of thieves in the city of Zazesspur, one of the "Big Four" cities of Tethyr in Faerun (see FR3, Empires of the Sands, for some further details on Zazesspur). She rules tyrannically over a large guild in this trade city, with some 140 thieves who are full-time members of the guild.
Tulmara was born into opulence. The Bharann family is one of the older, more important ones in Zazesspur, and Tulmara received an extensive training in commerce and merchant life when young. Her naturally greedy and selfish temperament was exacerbated by being spoiled as an only child, and made more strident by this early coaching in personal greed. Her physical brutality, however, is something of an oddball characteristic, perhaps a throwback to her great-great-grandfather. Old Sulmair Bharann suffered fits of maniacal violence, but Tulmara's brutishness is more coldly controlled. Her gauntlets of ogre power aid her considerably in this respect; if she strikes or flails someone, they know they've been hit! Importantly, Tulmara has never picked a pocket in her life. Such vulgar street crime is beneath her.
Soon after poisoning her parents to advance her inheritance, Tulmara began thieving. From her commercial work, she learned of the activities of other merchants, and began to plan and execute robberies of their premises. Expanding into blackmail and kidnapping, she was recruited into the thieves' guild by an early paramour, Arkail Rhassan. These two became rising stars in the guild, arranging for the old guildmaster to have an "accident" and then taking over the Guild themselves. The Guild prospered, and became wealthy; the junior thieves and apprentices, subjected to harsh discipline, could accept it if the rewards were good. And they were.
Arkail was killed, murdered by an assassin; Tulmara has not been able to find out why (it was on the orders of the Shadow Thieves of Amn, who feared the rise of the Zazesspur Guild). Since this time, Tulmara has become more withdrawn and harsh, more cruel and evil, and more paranoid; the killing destroyed what little humanity remained in her. Now she strengthens the guild, and indulges herself in a few big heists, to pass the time; her heart is empty, her zest for life almost wholly gone. Her odd nickname in certain quartersó"Cruelty's Mask"ócomes from a middling-rank guild member who knew of her cult sympathies (see below), contrasting them with the lifeless persona and deadpan facial expression of his Guildmaster.
Tulmara is a devotee of Loviatar, and attends secret ceremonies and rituals of that faith. She rules her guild absolutely, and she rules it through fear. She respects only force and power in other people; intelligence, wisdom, and other gentler qualities are held for nothing. She has the force to back her cruel edicts, and while the Guild juniors sufferóand no few flee the landóthe fear of her is so widespread that she stays in control of her guild, at least for the time being.
In Zazesspur, there are some notable political intrigues involving royalists of various persuasion (see Empires of the Sands). Tulmara doesn't get involved in this; and allied with her guild's predominant preying on outsiders and foreigners, this has allowed the Zazesspur guild (and Tulmara) to grow strong and powerful without the authorities getting too fearful.
Tulmara in Game Play: Tulmara makes for excellent intrigue adventures, and is a good nemesis figure if crossed (paranoids always fit the bill on this count). It may take the PCs many adventures even to realize she is at the center of activities they are fighting against. It should be very hard to find her, even harder to pin her down and overcome her. PCs might be terrorized by Tulmara's servants, hired to recover someone kidnapped by her, paid to act as bodyguards or couriers who are later attacked by thieves instructed by Tulmara, and the like. Tulmara strikes ruthlessly at those who thwart her, and since the scope of her operations is very wide, she can be thwarted in many ways!
The key element is always to make PCs work hard to get closer to the identity of their nemesis. Tulmara's identity as guildmaster is known to few, and the familiar working up the ladder from apprentices or thugs, to middle-rank people, and then closing in on the heart of the operation should be the PCs' goal. Even then, gaining any proof of Tulmara's activities should be very difficult.
Tactical Notes: Tulmara's own lair is protected by her rod of alertness (used as a magical alarm) and by her censer of summoning hostile air elementals which is used as a trap (opening a certain door causes a lever to fall, oil to pour along a narrow channel and be set alight, and then the oil runs into the censer, lighting it). Other magical alarms (magic mouths and the like) and numerous mechanical traps are present. A permanent stinking cloud in a corridor leading direct to her personal chamber can be bypassed by her with the magical necklace she wears, but could be a problem for PCs! Tulmara favors the use of many secret doors in her personal lair, below her private villa.
In combat, Tulmara always uses the sneak backstab when she can, but is not scared to slug it out toe-to-toe even with a plate-clad warrior. With her armor class and her magical gauntlets, she is a fearsome fighter. Her escape routes (notably oil of etherealness and her magical cloak) are important, likewise her protections against certain attack forms (the ring of free action makes her immune to hold spells, the necklace of adaptation protects against gases, and so on). Tulmara often spies on people in the form of a bat, and the powerful webs she can cast from her cloak of the bat don't affect her (ring of free action). Tulmara has a fortune stashed away in various business premises, and can summon up a bunch of thugs to attack her enemies at very short notice, both guildmembers and hired mercenaries.
Quartermaster Marmel Raveiz[]
AC 7 (unarmored) or 4 (leather armor +1); MV 12; M 4/ T 8; hp 26; #AT 1; Dmg by weapon type -1 (usually 1d4+1/ 1d3+1 with dagger +2); Str 7, Int 17, Wis 14, Dex 17, Con 11, Cha 10; THAC0 18 (16 with dagger +2); AL N; SA triple damage on backstab, thief skills, spells; SD thief skills, ring of blinking, ring of immunity to enchantment (see below), spells. Languages spoken: Common, thieves cant. Thief skills: PP 45, OL 45, FRT 30, MS 40, HS 40, DN 45, CW 70, RL 70 (skill values not adjusted for armorless state). Experience Point Total: 12,045 (as mage), 94,130 (as thief).
Spell books (usually memorized spells in bold): cantrip, charm person, detect magic, friends, hypnotism, identify, message, protection from evil, spider climb, unseen servant; alter self, detect invisibility, ESP, forget, invisibility, know alignment, magic mouth, rope trick, scare, wizard lock.
Weapon Proficiencies: dagger, longsword, quarterstaff, one unlearned.
Nonweapon Proficiencies: Appraising (Int; triple proficiency, all checks at +2), forgery (Dex; DM may use Int for detecting other people's forgeries), heraldry.
Additional Magic Items: bags of holding (2 x 250 cu. ft., one of 150 cu. ft., one of 70 cu. ft.), wand of identification with 44 charges (see below).
Physical Details: Age 41, height 5'8", weight 132 lbs., long and lank stringy fair hair, green-blue eyes, weathered pale skin, slightly hooked nose, long fingers with knobby, large knuckles.
Key Idiosyncrasies: Marmel has a paranoid belief pertaining to servants of a long-dead master seeking him out to kill him, as explained below. More mundanely, he has an inordinate fondness for humbugs and will cheerfully suck his way through a large bag of them given the chance. As a result, most of his teeth have fallen out, and his speech contains many breezily gumless sibilants.
Cover: None; Marmel spends his time in hiding; see below.
Guild and Leadership: The Monmurg thieves' guild has a complex/mix structureóspecifically, it has a ruling council (of 4) elected by allegedly democratic elections from the guild membership for 7-year terms. The leadership style of this council is strong, just, and populist. Marmel isn't much affected by all this, because he doesn't get involved in guild politics and council members (of whatever persuasion) appreciate his loyalty and usefulness to the guild.
History: Marmel Raveiz is quartermaster of the thieves' guild in Monmurg, capital city of the Hold of the Sea Princes in Oerth (see World of Greyhawk for some additional details). He keeps the magical items the guild possesses as a group, stocks of specialist thief equipment, and ledgers and accounts of the guild (membership dues and the like). These are all retained in his bags of holding. Marmel is not an expert fence, although he may use his Appraising proficiency to purchase and check items for the guild.
Marmel began life as an apprentice to a Furyondian mage, and had to suffer ill-treatment as the mage developed an insidious form of insanity. His master refused to allow Marmel to make his own way in the world, but the unfortunate apprentice got his chance when the mage was forced to accompany a Furyondian naval foray against some of the declining piratical force of the Sea Princes. Their ship was sunk, and Marmel took the opportunity to kill his hateful and cruel master, grab a couple of travelling spell books with low-level spells, and levitate to safety. The pirates decided to capture him rather than shoot him down, their own flying mage bringing down the unhappy apprentice, and Marmel became a reluctant pirate.
As piracy declined in the Sea Prince's lands, Marmel stayed with bad company in the form of thieves. His magic helped them, and they trained him. Marmel got safety and obscurity, staying in the guild house, in return for learning the skills of the thief. Marmel was very fearful that his old master might have been raised; his mage's guild might come looking for him; the old mage's relatives might come for him; in short, obscurity suited Marmel perfectly. It even overcame his fear of going robbing by night, and Marmel began an adventuring life anew as a thief, not wanting to work further as a mage, lest those he feared would be looking for a hapless young mage should find him and punish him for killing his master.
Marmel is not now an active, adventuring thief. He is too valuable to the guild to be allowed to risk this. Happily, he has retired to a life of quartermastering. He maintains and administers the finances of the guild, and shepherds supplies and magical items for use by guild members. The availability of supplies is always good, due to Marmel's lines of supply and meticulous checks on his stocks. He also evaluates items brought in to the guild house by thieves, who must pay a 10% flat tithe of all earnings to the guild. Marmel's tripled Appraising proficiency makes him highly valuable in this respect. He routinely uses detect magic on anything which looks even remotely interesting. He can use an identify spell, and also has a wand of identification (duplicates the effects of an identify spell, with no Con loss to the mage) if several items turn up at once and the "owner" is in a hurry for any reason (he is reluctant to use his wand, since he can't recharge it, and charges 150 gp per charge for this service). If he is curious or suspicious about a guild member, or a seller to the guild, he will use investigative spells (or hypnotism) to learn more.
Marmel is a gentle enough soul, rather other-worldly at times. He likes a spot of haggling, although it's almost impossible to get the better of him. He has a strange fondness for heraldry, and may purchase items with unusual heraldic design for himself. He has a modest fortune from his own thieving days, and is paid a good salary by the guild. He rarely leaves the guild house, and when he does it is in the guise of a merchant's clerk (often accompanied by a guildmember who has a cover identity as a merchant).
Marmel in Game Play: Meeting Marmel is obviously easiest for guildmembers. They pay their tithes to him (10 gp per year for an apprentice, 50 gp per level per year from others to a maximum of 500 gp), may bring items to him to be valued, and come to him for supplies, or even the loan of magical items. Non-guildmembers can meet him for the sale or exchange of items, come across him at a sale of heraldic items, in an antique shop, or even possibly for training (for thief PCs)óat a very steep price!
A major role for any quartermaster is as a source of supplies. The DM can use a quartermaster to introduce new equipment items (the guild needs cash and the quartermaster is on a sales drive). "Hot" magic items (e.g., a sword with a non-erasable and unique design feature) can be sold to the quartermaster. New magic items could be had for sale (rarely), or exchange (more likely), or even borrowed for a security deposit. The DM should arrange these practicalities as he sees fit. You don't need tables of random determinations; you should use a quartermaster to bring in pet ideas, items you think are nifty, as you want to. Marmel has placed a magic mouth on each of his bags of holding, of course, so that if anyone other than him even touches them the magic mouth will scream out, "Get your paws off!." Of course, maybe after all these years a relative of the Furyondian mage wants to know where the apprentice who killed his uncle (say) has gone with those spell books, and the PCs are hired to do the job. Who would expect to find him in a thieves' guild??
Tactical Notes: Marmel is protected against undue influence. His ring of immunity to enchantment makes him immune to enchantment/charm spells of 4th level or below. His ring of blinking helps to protect him. Marmel isn't much of a fighter, and the guild will usually have some bodyguards with him in the event of major transactions or trips into the outside world. Marmel does not take his bags of holding outside the guildhouse with him!
Durdlan Silverpalm, Master Fence[]
AC 4 (dwarf-sized leather armor +2); MV 9; T 5; hp 28; #AT 1; Dmg by weapon type +1 (usually 2d4+2/ d6+3 with broadsword +1); Str 16, Int 15, Wis 11, Dex 16, Con 16, Cha 11; THAC0 18 (17 with magical sword); AL N; SA triple damage on backstab, thief skills; SD thief skills, 60' infravision, rings of mind shielding and invisibility. Languages spoken: Common, dwarf, gnome. Thief skills: PP 40, OL 40, FRT 50, MS 15 (95+*), HS 30, DN 45, CW 50, RL 15. Experience Point Total: 19,620.
Weapon Proficiencies: dagger, broad sword, quarterstaff.
Nonweapon Proficiencies: Appraising (Int; double proficiency, checks made with +1 bonus), Forgery Detection (use Int), Gather Information (Int).
Additional Magic Item: Boots of elvenkind*.
Physical Details: Age 144 (human equivalent 52); height 4'4"; weight 162 lbs; long wavy black hair, thick beard plaited with gold threading, very large hands with thick, sausage-like fingers, strikingly bad breath.
Key Idiosyncrasies: Durdlan has an amazing number of pet animals and is very fond of them. He does use them to smuggle things inside and to send messages with, but he also simply likes animals a great deal. In cages in his back yard, attic, etc., he has pigeons, ferrets, guinea pigs, chickens (Durdlan likes omelettes), hamsters, a sleek black rat named Nasher which does tumbling tricks, small black rock lizards, and a pair of small flightless birds from Nesme which are brightly colored and awesomely stupid. Nasher is often in Durdlan's waistcoat pocket or in the kitchen hunting scraps (PCs are warned not to eat any of Durdlan's omelettes or anything else prepared here). Durdlan also has a horrible collection of pottery and ceramic halflings in a large glass-fronted display cabinet.
Cover: Durdlan has a primary cover and a secondary cover; this is a complex business, explained fully below.
Guild and Leadership: The thieves' guild of Mirabar is ruled by a single guildmaster, whose style of rulership is strong, moderately cruel, and moderately despotic. Durdlan operates independently of the guild, and is a consultant to them, so this doesn't unduly trouble him.
History: Durdlan Silverpalm is a fence who works closely with the thieves' guild of Mirabar in the northwest of Faerun (see FR5, The Savage Frontier, for details). The guild here is small—some 25-40 thieves at any given time will be in this large city—but trade through Durdlan is brisk. Durdlan owns a couple of moneylender and pawnbroker shops, and lives in a small terraced house in a street of granite houses all occupied by dwarves (there are some 4,000 dwarves in Mirabar). His primary cover is as a moneylender, and his family has long been engaged in this trade, hence their surname. Other family members are moneylenders, pawnbrokers, and locksmiths, and Durdlan has a share in several of these, including his brother Glengar's famous Rig-A-Mortice locksmith's shop. Durdlan thus has a primary cover as a moneylending small businessman.
Durdlan also has a secondary cover, a screen cover. He has been seen in disreputable company in Mirabar once too often in his 144 years, and the wily dwarf realizes that he cannot escape the scrutiny of the law all the time. So, Durdlan runs a small numbers racket (illegal and unlicensed gambling) betting on various events—rat races (literally), ship sailing rates and arrival times and the like. The authorities thus know that Durdlan is a bad sort, but believe that he is just a small-time gambler and thus don't bother him much. Durdlan's screen cover (a petty crook to cover for his real big-time crook identity) works perfectly. The thieves Durdlan meets now and then in back alleys (seen by the agents of the authorities) also see the dwarf in the reinforced cellars of his home—unseen by the authorities. There, they bring goods for sale and trade.
Durdlan's primary specialty is gemstones and jewelry. Appraising such items, Durdlan is 95% likely to have an accurate estimate of their value. His secondary specialty is barbarian relics and icons—items of antique nature, religious significance, or exceptional workmanship. With such items, from the Uthgardt barbarians of the north, Durdlan is 90% likely to estimate their value correctly. With all other items a standard Appraising test (Int+1, roll 16 or below) is made. When he is wrong, allow him an Int test. If this is made, he knows his estimate is uncertain and he will state a value some 50% of his original estimate. An incorrect estimate will be from 10-40% above the true value or 10-50% below it (perceived value= 50% of actual value, plus dice roll x10%. A roll of 0 is taken as zero).
Durdlan offers a percentage of the true value of a hot item to his supplier. This is usually approximately 30-50%, depending on the "hotness" of the item, its absolute value (it is harder to sell very pricey items in many cases), the Charisma of the seller (no more than +4% for this), and the like. If the DM is very uncertain, simply offer 30+1d20%.
Durdlan can dispose of hot property fast because he has connections with many merchant families in Mirabar who aren't too fussy about where their secret treasures come from. Indeed, the strongly competitive nature of these families means that they are often eager to have better relics and treasures than other families, or even to steal their rivals treasures and enjoy them in illicit secrecy. One of Durdlan's favorite memories is of selling a sapphire and emerald brooch from Evereska to five different families, for ever-increasing profit margins, within the space of a single year, as each family in turn commissioned thieves to steal the item from their neighbors. Durdlan made sure that when the brooch was secretly held by one family, the next rival along the social line got to hear of it.
Durdlan has many friends in the dwarven merchant community who regularly dispatch wagon trains to Luskan on the coast. These caravans rarely get thoroughly searched; the guards have scruples which are alcohol—soluble provided a few gold coins are put their way. This access to a major coastal port (where again the customs guards can easily be bought off) gives Durdlan the chance to sell his goods for export, where their identity as stolen goods will not be known.
Durdlan is also ready, for a fat fee, to trade in human cargoes. That is, he will conceal people in his home (locking them into a cellar), and smuggle them out of Mirabar (usually in barrels or boxes bound for Luskan). Durdlan is believed to have helped one or two assassins in this way in his time.
Durdlan in Game Play: Durdlan has only a handful of contacts from the thieves' guild, almost all dwarves. He never trusts elves (he denies vehemently that his boots of elvenkind are anything of the sort, claiming they are boots of silent dwarfcraft) and he avoids direct contact with almost anyone, working through intermediaries. He will try to stay invisible during a meeting if he can. He certainly doesn't like the location of his home being known.
Durdlan is a fine fence to sell many items to, and he rarely attempts to swindle his customers. He is the person to see for a fast escape from the city. He is also a moneylender, of course, and can be encountered in that guise. His love of animals or bizarre fondness for ceramic halflings could also be exploited to bring him into contact with PCs (not necessarily as a fence).
Durdlan also has connections; in wealthy merchant families, the thieves' guild, other merchants, the dwarven community, an assassin or two, and amongst officers, guards, and similar men who will look the other way if enough gold is put in their pockets. If Durdlan can't do something for a paying customer, the odds are that he knows a man who can. This makes him a very versatile walking game mechanic for any DM.