1. Organizations

Clifftop Adventuring Guild

Adventuring Guild

Located in the Clifftop district of Upper Dura, this organization has a sterling reputation as a source of reliable explorers and champions. Clifftop adventurers are known for their courage and integrity, and guildmaster Summer Korranor holds members to a high standard of virtuous behavior. As a Clifftop adventurer, you’re expected to keep your word, to stand by your comrades, to uphold the law, and never to intentionally endanger innocents with your actions. Many of the local businesses cater to adventurers, and if you’re a member of the guild, you can expect a warm welcome in the taverns of Clifftop.

Rising from the Last War

Sharn’s Clifftop neighborhood, located in the upper part of the Dura district, has long served as a crossroads for adventurers and soldiers of fortune. A dwarf named Shekkal Korranor established the Clifftop Adventurers’ Guild 150 years ago, intending it as a place where explorers and wanderers could find support and good company. Shekkal died in the Last War, but the guild remains—a social club for adventurers and a one-stop marketplace for anyone seeking capable champions.

The Clifftop guild has a reputation as a collection of helpful and good-hearted adventurers. Members who tarnish the guild’s reputation can no longer take advantage of the guild’s benefits.

Guildhall. The Clifftop Adventurers’ Guild headquarters is the physical and social center of its district, a massive stone edifice built with the riches acquired over a lifetime of adventuring. Part quiet library, part comfortable inn, part active gymnasium, and part rowdy tavern, the guildhall contains practically every facility adventurers could need to train, study, and socialize. The neighborhood around it caters to adventurers’ other needs with its variety of shops and services.

Membership. Most of the members of the Clifftop Adventurers’ Guild have a modest amount of experience as successful adventurers. Nearly everyone can boast of a successful delve into the old ruins beneath Sharn or an expedition to the Talenta Plains. The guild’s leader, a dwarf named Sumara “Summer” Korranor, is a descendant of its founder and a fixture around the guildhall.

Allies. Relationships with most of the guild’s allies are based on business and built on upstanding reputations. Ultimately, though, the guild is a loose affiliation of groups, and organizations that have a good relationship with one of those groups might not transfer their good will to another. The following groups do brisk business with members of the Clifftop Adventurers’ Guild:

  • Affiliated guilds. Beyond Sharn, the guild has established good relations with adventuring guilds across Khorvaire, many of which have reciprocal agreements: their members can use the Clifftop facilities when they are in Sharn, and Clifftop guild members can make use of their facilities as well. Lists of these other guilds are kept in the Sharn guildhall.
  • Clifftop businesses. The guild is a prominent feature in its neighborhood, and much of the area is dedicated to meeting guild’s needs. Some businesses there offer small (5 percent) discounts to guild members, and all businesses are eager to avoid angering members of the guild lest they lose the business of other members.
  • House Sivis. A Speakers’ Guild enclave in Clifftop specializes in translating texts from Xen’drik. It also provides legal services for adventurers in trouble.
  • House Tharashk. The Tharashk enclave in Clifftop provides the services of guides with extensive experience exploring Xend’rik, and it is careful to retain only guides who receive positive referrals from guild members. House Tharashk also uses the guild as a means to hire adventurers to serve as bodyguards on their own prospecting expeditions.

Enemies. Individual adventuring groups readily make lasting enemies, and occasionally that animosity extends to the guild as a whole—as is the case with the following organizations:

  • Deathsgate Explorers’ Club. A fierce rivalry simmers between the Clifftop guild and Sharn’s other local adventurers’ guild. Sometimes the rivalry can be described as almost friendly, but the Deathsgate guild occasionally escalates it with vandalism of the Clifftop guildhall or even physical (but usually nonlethal) attacks on guild members in dark alleys.
  • Sharn Watch. Clifftop is protected of the Daggerwatch Garrison and Watch Commander Lian Halamar. Halamar has no love for adventurers and is happy to catch guild members on the wrong side of the law.

Guild Benefits

As members of an adventurers’ guild, your group gains the following benefits:

Accommodations. Guild members can stay at the guildhall. The room is comparable to one you’d find in a comfortable inn, but at a modest price (5 sp per day).

Dues. These benefits require the annual contribution of 13 gp paid to the Clifftop Adventurers’ Guild. These dues fund the guild’s services and activities. (Other guilds typically charge dues somewhere between 10 and 15 gp per year.)

Information. An adventurers’ guild headquarters makes a good place to learn about topics relevant to adventurers’ interests. If you need to find someone who’s knowledgeable about the Mournland, for example, the Clifftop guild’s headquarters in Sharn is a good place to look.

Referrals. The guild can recommend hired services to its members, drawing on other guild members’ experiences to provide honest, reliable, and skillful hirelings.

Storage. The guild will store items for its members. The Clifftop guild has an account with House Kundarak banks that allow its members to store valuables in secure vaults. Some guilds have access to items such as a bag of holding or a safe that opens into a similar extradimensional space. In the worst case, an item can be hidden in a guildhall’s basement for a time.

Adventurer's Guild Contacts

Typically, an adventuring group has no particular contact within the larger guild. There’s a local leader or bookkeeper who collects dues, but otherwise you might interact with a variety of different members of the guild in different contexts—when looking for a contract, gathering referrals, staying in the guildhall, and so on. The Guild Contact table provides inspiration for contacts you might encounter during any given encounter with your adventurer’s guild.

Guild Contacts

d10 Contact
1 The charismatic leader of the guild, who doesn’t actually do very much except inspire and encourage members
2 A retired adventurer who works hard to connect member groups with employment opportunities that match their skills
3 A petty rival who continually tries to claim jobs, bounties, and rewards before you can
4 A bitter enemy who nurtures a grudge over some past wrong (real or imagined) and does everything possible to undermine you
5 A naive adventurer who admires you and tries to emulate you in every way
6 A hardened adventurer who thinks a moral compass is akin to a pair of manacles
7 An injured retired adventurer who can’t quite let go of the adventuring life and experiences it vicariously by spending time in the guildhall
8 A grouchy employee who keeps the guildhall clean and cares for its guests while quietly complaining about how adventurers should “grow up,” get a “real job,” and contribute to society
9 A kindly mentor who loves to tell stories of past exploits in front of the guildhall fireplace
10 A sad, older adventurer who tells cautionary tales in the vain hope that younger members avoid making the same mistakes

Guild Adventures

Among its various services, the Clifftop Adventurers’ Guild offers a launchpad for all manner of adventures. Potential employers bring all manner of work to the guildhall, posting messages or seeking out those with specific fields of expertise. Guild members also relate news about opportunities via word of mouth. Such jobs might resemble those assigned by any other patron. Without a patron directing your assignments, your group is free to pursue its own goals, whether you’re seeking wealth, struggling against evil, pursuing a personal vendetta, or simply reacting to disastrous events around you. The Guild Adventures table refers to the descriptions of other patrons in this section; your DM can use the adventure ideas in those descriptions to flesh out job opportunities available through your guild.

Guild Adventures

d10 Adventures
1 Crime. You have to break the law to administer justice or thwart a criminal act (see “Crime Syndicate”).
2 Dragonmarked Affairs. The job involves some dragonmarked house concern (see “Dragonmarked House”).
3 Espionage. Someone requires some spying or sabotage (see “Espionage Agency”).
4 Statecraft. You’re involved in national or international affairs (see “Head of State”).
5 Cryptic Mystery. The job is linked to the concerns of immortals (see “Immortal Being”).
6 Investigation. An assignment involves finding something or solving a mystery (see “Inquisitive Agency”).
7 Military Action. Your party is invited to serve as a military unit (see “Military Force”).
8 Gathering News. You’re called on to act as freelance reporters (see “Newspaper”).
9 Religious Work. The job involves the work of faith (see “Religious Order”).
10 Field Research. The job involves research or relic-hunting (see “University”).

In any of these cases, the potential employer might represent an established organization (a crime syndicate or university, for example) or might be independent like your party. In the latter case, there’s always the possibility that you could end up competing with an organization—running up against a crime syndicate while pursuing a criminal job, perhaps, or competing with university researchers to plunder a ruin. This competition might turn into a rivalry, or it could evolve into employment, with the crime syndicate or university recognizing your talent and becoming your patron.

All characters that are members of this organization.