The Merchant's Guild Hall
by Mark HowardLocated just south of the Central Market in the city of Darokin, the Guild Hall is the largest building in the Republic. It is said that more important decisions about the fate of the Republic are made in the Guild Hall in one day than in the Capitol and the DDC Compound in a week. The Merchant's Guild is by far the most powerful force in the Republic, and the focus of their influence is this hall.
The Hall itself is an impressive stone and mortar structure, with gargoyle statues leering down from the corners. The Guild Hall is one of the few buildings in all of Darokin with a sort of indoor plumbing, and objects with continual light spells on them are used for lighting throughout the building. Ventilation is provided by an ingenious system of vents and ducts that provide fresh air to every room in this five-story building. A detailed map of the Hall is on pp.48-49, and the key is as follows:
Ground Floor
1. Concert Hall: The Merchant's Guild Hall is also a cultural centre for the city, and the Guild sponsors many concerts, operas, plays, readings, and other such events. The concert hall will easily seat over, 10,000 patrons. This is also where the Merchant's Guild holds its annual conclave (it's the only place big enough).
2. Stage: For events requiring more stag area, the hemispherical curtain is drawn.
3. Backstage: This area is used for prop storage and stage management.
4. Workshop: This room is two stories tall, and has large doors leading to the backstage area and to the outside. When large scenery or other bulky items are Guild Hall for a performance, they are brought in and stored here. There is a trap door down the long corridor for lowering bulky items into the storage areas in the basement and sub-basement. Also down the long corridor are work benches and equipment for building and painting scenery, props, and the like.
5. Office: The cultural events at the Guild Hall require their own staff to handle bookings, oversee workers, etc. The various offices on the ground floor are used by the Concert Hall manager and his two assistants. They often work odd hours, so they have their own entrance to the building that does not allow access to other parts of the Guild Hall.
6. Locked Storeroom: Some props, scenery, costumes and equipment used by the Concert Hall is considered valuable enough to be locked in this store-room. The Director. his two assistants, and the Property Master have keys. The tools and equipment in here are worth no more than 500 daros. though some of the props may have great value to fans of the theatre. but do not look particularly expensive at first glance. Hidden behind a false shelf is the jewellery used by the costume department; most of it is fake, but some of it is real, donated by wealthy patrons of the arts. All told, these objects have a total value of some 3,700 daros.
7. Security Office: Four guards (2nd level, AC 6, armed with a Darokin rapier and a dagger) are on standby here during events in case the ticket-takers, ushers, or anyone else needs assistance.
8. Foyer: This is the main entrance to the Guild Hall. People going to an event in the Concert Hall go through one of the two curtained openings to the hallway beyond.
9. Men's Bathroom
10. Women's Bathroom
11. Refreshment Stand: Food and drinks are sold here to concert patrons. The long hallway connects with the kitchen, so the stand can be resupplied conveniently.
12. Grand Stairway: This is a grand, marble staircase some 50' wide which is kept perfectly polished and gleaming. It goes all the way to the fourth floor.
13. Stairs Down: These stairs lead to dressing and make-up rooms in the basement for the performers.
14. Stairs Up: Most Guild Hall employees know about this stairway which connects the first and second floors, despite the fact that it is hidden by secret doors at both ends.
15. Stairs Down: Only a few people know about this set of stairs that leads to the basement.
16. Refreshment Stand: One door leads directly to the kitchen, while a secret door leads to stairs to the basement.
17. Kitchen: The staff here can handle anything from a formal banquet for 1,000 or fine cuisine for two. There is a dumbwaiter. counter-weighted with a block-and-tackle arrangement, in the northwest corner. It can deliver cooked food (and other things) as far up as the fourth floor.
18. Food Storeroom: The storeroom has its own door to the outside, to make delivery of supplies easier.
19. Banquet Hall: When the Guild holds a dinner reception, formal banquet, or just a civic breakfast, this is where it happens. The Banquet Hall also has its own entrance to the outside.
20. Cloak Room: During any gathering at the Guild Hall this room is used to store the coats, jackets, and outer wraps of guests.
Second Floor
21. Dressing Rooms: These serve as make-up and preparations areas for actors and the like getting ready to go on stage.
22. Secret Stairway: From here, stairs lead to both the first and third floors. A secret door allows entrance into the ball-room.
23. Refreshment Stand: Supplies are delivered through the dumbwaiter
24. Dumbwaiter: Connects to the kitchen on the first floor (room 16)
25. Private Bathroom: For the Guildmaster's guards and staff.
26. Guard Room: Twenty guards with magic armour and weapons are assigned here. They range from 4th to 6th level, have armour which provides them with AC 3, and employ Darokin rapiers + 2. Stairs at the north end lead to their quarters, where another 20 are off duty. Secret doors allow the guards to surprise intruders.
27. Offices: The four Assistant Guild-masters have their offices here.
28. Stairs Up: Only the Guildmaster and his most trusted staff know about this stairway to the third floor.
29. Grand Bathroom: This very luxurious facility is for the private use of the Guildmaster and includes a bath and sauna. A secret door in the back leads to a stairway to the third floor.
30. Entry Hall: Visitors who have official business with the Guildmaster must enter this room first, where they can be secretly observed by the guards in area 24.
31. Receptionist: Visitors continue to this room, where a secretary confirms the visitor's appointment.
32. Waiting Room: This very comfort-able room is for visitors waiting to see the Guildmaster.
33. Guildmaster's Office: A luxurious office befitting the stature of one of the most powerful men in Darokin. The Guildmaster often sits behind a huge, ornate desk at the north end of the room, but in less formal situations, he will meet visitors in the south end, where a hearth, serving cart, and several comfortable chairs await.
34. Audience Chamber: The Guildmaster sees large groups of visitors in this room.
35. Meeting Rooms: Many high-level business deals are struck in the Merchant's Guild Hall, and the Guild provides well-appointed, private meeting rooms for these negotiations. Although rooms can be reserved in advance, they don't have to be. Use of the rooms is free to Guild members.
36. Hall of Glory: Various portraits and statues line the walls of this area, depicting famous figures from Darokin's past. Included are all former Chancellors of the Republic and most of the former Guildmasters of the Merchant's Guild.
37. Musical Storage: Musical instruments, stands, chairs, and sheet music are stored here
38. Loft: This is the extension of area 4 on the first floor. Heavy items can be brought in on the first floor, hoisted up into this area, and then stored in area 36.
39. Offices: The Guild Hall Manager's staff works here.
40. Manager's Office: Running the Merchant's Guild Hall is a big job which the manager does from here. The Guild Hall manager is responsible for security, the kitchen staff cleaning, routine maintenance, and all the other things which are needed to operate this huge building.
41. Bathroom: For use of the staff.
42. Assistant's Offices: The Guild Hall Manager has two assistants, and these are their offices.
43. Ballroom Stage: This is where the orchestra performs during formal balls.
44. Ballroom: The largest in Darokin, this is where the annual Masked Ball is held in the capital city. Many other social events, including dances, receptions, and similar formal events are also held in this beautifully decorated room. It is the secret dream of every Darokin girl to be married in the Merchant's Guild Hall ballroom.
Third Floor
45. Secret Corridor: There is a stairway down to the second floor on the west end and a secret door in the south wall. Building staff use this corridor all the time, but try to be discreet about it.
46. Staff Quarters: Living quarters for some of the staff, including the Guildmaster's servants and some of the menial labour.
47. Bathroom: Used by the staff living in this area, this bathroom also has several bathtubs with privacy screens.
48. The Pit: The Pit is a large meeting room, with dozens of small tables and lots of chairs. Many building staff members use this room to relax and meet friends, and some merchants like the room's jovial atmosphere for meeting new customers on an informal basis. Many a lucrative business deal has been made in the Pit by a trader who knows how to put someone at ease.
49. Scribe's Rooms: This is an area where another of the services offered by the Guild is available. Deals are being made nearly around the clock in this building, and scribes are available at all times to commit those agreements to parchment. These rooms are all identical, and contain a wide array of scribe's equipment including inks, parchments, waxes, various seals, and other expensive tools. The seals used to authenticate important documents, like certified letters of credit or official Guild decrees, are nor kept here.
50. Guard's Quarters: Twenty guards are asleep in this room. They are the other half of the force in room 25 on the second floor, and a stairway at the north end of the room connects the two.
51. Security Corridor: Guards can observe (and, if necessary, ambush) people entering the Guildmaster's Apartment through a section of this floor.
52. Armoury: Weapons and armour for the sleeping guards, as well as special items for emergencies, are stored here. The secret door is both locked and trapped. Only the captain of the guard and his two lieutenants knows how to get past both.
53. Art Gallery: This room shows off the Guild's extensive (and expensive) art collection. It also serves as a waiting room for people visiting the Guildmaster in his apartment.
54. Living Rooms: These are typical living rooms-typical, that is, for the apartment of a man who's worth over 32 million daros. In keeping with Darokin traditions, the furnishings are of the finest quality, but are not flashy. Some of the rarest books in the Known World are on the shelves of this room.
55. Bathroom.
56. Dining Room: The table in this area can seat up to 26 persons. This room is used for the Guildmaster's private social events, and for the most delicate of negotiations.
57. Study: Anyone ever invited to meet with the Guildmaster in his private study knows they've made the elite list. This room is, like all the others, beautifully appointed and is used for the Guildmaster's most important business.
58. Bedroom: The Guildmaster's private quarters. There is a teleport spot in the southeast corner that, when activated with the proper secret word, will teleport anyone standing on into room (75) on the fourth floor.
59. Bathroom: The Guildmaster's private bath. There is a secret door in the back of this room, which leads (after another secret door) to a stairway to the second floor
Fourth Floor
60. Treasure Room: The Merchant's Guild issues its own certified letters of credit, and while many of them are backed solely by the Guild's reputation, some of the clocs are backed by cold, hard cash. That cash (or at least a good part of it) is kept in this room. This room has piles and piles of gold bars, 500-daro ingots stacked conveniently. There's probably over 2,000,000 daros here. It is, of course, well guarded (for more on the guards, see below).
61. Treasure Room: Hidden behind a secret door is a smaller room with even more riches inside. This room contains some platinum (about 800,000 daros' worth), plus a number of cut and uncut loose gems. Although the value of the platinum stored in this room is fairly static, the number of jewels kept here changes frequently. As a rule, the value of gems runs between 1 and 2 million daros.
62. Treasure Room: The door to this room is trapped. Inside are hundreds of small boxes built into the walls, each with an individual lock (many of them trapped as well). Inside these boxes, wrapped in fine cloth, are some of the finest jewellery and gems in all of Darokin. The total value of the items in this room is probably in excess of 15 million daros.
63. Mess Hall: Many of the building staff eat inexpensive meals here.
64. Foyer: Two guards with pikes stand at the north end of this room, making sure that anyone that wanders up here goes no farther than the mess hall with out the proper papers.
65. Guard Room: Ten more guards (4th level, AC6, Darokin rapiers +2 and pikes) and their captain (7th level, AC2, Darokin rapier +3, ring of human control)wait here for trouble.
66. Armoury: Numerous extra sets of armour and weapons are stored here.
67. First Defence Room: This room is empty except for three doors, all of which require a different spoken password to open.
68. Second Defence Room: This room is also empty, except for the door on the north wall. This door is locked and trapped.
69. Third Defence Room: This room, too, is empty. The door on the north wall is not locked, but it is guarded with a deadly area effect trap.
70. Fourth Defence Room: This room is, you guessed it, empty. Two secret doors lead to the big treasure room (to the west) and a secret stairway to the fifth floor (to the east). The north door, like the secret doors is locked and trapped.
71. Fifth Defence Room: In keeping with tradition. this room is also empty. The door on the north wall is locked and trapped.
72. Sixth Defence Room: This room, like the rest, is empty. This one, however, has a permanent anti-magic shell cast around its perimeter in all directions, so no spell may enter or leave the room. The door on the west wall is false; it will not open. and if it should be pried off the wall by brute force, a blank wall is all that is behind it. What's more, the door that leads to this room is a one-way door; that is, once everyone in a group enters this room, the door will shut behind them and disappear. If only part of a group enters the room, then the one-way door will not disappear Only when the entire group enters this room will the one-way door's properties become apparent. By then, of course, it will be too late, and intruders who have gotten this far will be trapped like rats and picked up at the Guildmaster's convenience.
73. Scribemaster's Office: The Master Scribe of the Merchant's Guild works here, constantly accompanied by two guards, putting the final touches on important papers, including all certified letters of credit in amounts greater than 50,000 daros. There are several special seals required to prove the legitimacy of large clocs, and the Scribemaster is the only person who has copies of all of them.
74. Scribes' Office: Four scribes work in here, under the direct supervision of the Scribemaster. These scribes prepare the body of most of the important documents, leaving the finishing touches and the all-important seals to their boss.
75. Teleport Room: There is a teleport spot in the northwest corner that goes with the one in room 55 on the third floor. Like that spot, a password is required for the teleport to operate. There is a secret door in this room. too. and it leads to a stairway which ascends to the fifth floor.
Fifth Floor
76. Observation Platform: This is the highest point in the city, and it provides a clear view for miles in all directions. The stairway that exits to the north is obvious but another one, which exits to the south, is hidden by a secret door in the floor of the platform.
77. Emergency Cache: The Merchant's Guild plans to be a power in Darokin for-ever; but they also know that natural disasters, wars, riots, and other unpleasantries are a possibility Should the worst happen, there is an emergency cache underneath the spiral staircase leading to the observation platform. The cache contains the following: 5,000 daros in coins; another 15,000 daros worth of jewellery; assorted certified letters of credit (issued by a wide variety of institutions) totalling 300,000 daros; one of each of the important Merchant's Guild seals; several books of financial information; and a magic carpet In an extreme emergency, the Guildmaster is supposed to take the items and fly on the carpet off the observation platform to safety. Only the Guildmaster knows the command word for the carpet. In fact, only the Guildmaster is supposed to know that the cache itself even exists. (However, two other people - one of the Assistant Guildmasters, and a sharp-eyed servant-also know of the cache. No one knows that they know, not even each other.)
Basement
78. Dressing Rooms: These rooms are for Concert Hall performers to change costumes, put on make-up, etc.
79. Loading Area: Goods are sent through trap doors from this area as needed, either up to area 4 on the first floor, or down to area 85 in the sub-basement. The goods are moved with a block and tackle. There is a spiral staircase in the northwest corner that leads to the sub-basement.
80. Storage: Large bulky items are stored here. Everything from impounded cargo wagons to broken furniture and crates of unclaimed merchandise end up in this room. Some of the workers down here claim that they know exactly where everything is, but that's hard to believe given the disorganised nature of the area.
81. Livestock Pens: Impounded and sick animals are kept here, along with livestock for the kitchen staff when they need the freshest possible meat. Occasionally, a captured monster may also be found down here, while a decision is being made on what to do with it.
82. Guard Room: The dungeon guards stay here, usually playing cards or dice. Both doors in this room are always locked, and only one may be opened at any one time.
83. Records Room: The door to this room is locked, but not trapped. Inside are numerous shelves of financial records which, although of great importance to the Guild, are of little value to anyone else.
84. Workshop: The door to this room is not locked or trapped. Inside, wizards and alchemists work on various experiments sponsored by the Guild. There is a great deal of equipment in here, but the most powerful magic items are usually kept by the wizards using them, rather than left here. No matter what the time, day or night, there is an excellent chance (90%) that 1d6 magic-users and id4 alchemists are in here, plugging away.
85. Storeroom: The secret door to this room is locked and trapped. Many of the magical and alchemical supplies used in the workshop are stored here. Few individual items arc exceptionally valuable, but taken as a whole, there's quite a lot of valuable material here.
86. Dungeon Cells: These are typical dark, dank, smelly, and uncomfortable dungeon cells. The four larger cells are kept a little cleaner than the rest and are used for important prisoners. Usually, prisoners are kept here only for a short time, until the Guild finds out whatever it is they need to know, and then they are turned over to the City Guard. There usually aren't very many prisoners here, but the Guild believes in being prepared for all eventualities.
Sub-Basement
85. Loading Area: Large items are loaded through the trap door in area 77 of the basement to this area for long-term storage. In the northwest corner there is a spiral staircase that leads up to the basement.
86. Storeroom: The things in here are even older than the stuff in the basement storeroom. Some of it is undoubtedly valuable, some of it is junk. Telling the difference between the two is not be easy.
87. Trapped Room: The secret door to this room is locked and trapped. Crossing the room, any intruders should encounter three more separate traps, all designed for maximum lethality.
88. Trapped Room: The door to this area from room 87 is trapped and locked. There are three more separate traps in this room, even more dangerous than the first three (if possible). There is another locked and trapped door on the west wall, and a secret door on the north wall.
89. Magical Guardian: This room is the lair of several foul-tempered, deadly magical guardians, whose only purpose in this life is to rip any and all intruders into small, bite-sized pieces and eat them. The Guildmaster has a special charm which he wears when he comes down here that protects him from the beasts. The charm is a one-of-a-kind item. If a group of adventurers should ever come into this area, the GM should present them with almost certain death by some sort of magical monsters which serve as guardians.
90. Treasure Rooms: The doors to each of these rooms are, of course, locked and trapped. In each room is a variety of valuable items, ranging from gems and jewellery to magic wands, armour, and weapons, to powerful magical artifacts. In these rooms are the most valuable and powerful things which the Merchant's Guild owns.
91. Magical Workshop: Magical experiments that are too sensitive or dangerous to perform in area 84 of the basement are undertaken here. This is a secret facility and most of the Guild's magic-users don't even know that it exists. Only the top three wizards in the Guild's employ, the Guildmaster, and one Assistant Guildmaster know of it. The equipment and materials in this workshop are worth a fortune.
92. Magical Stores: The door to this room is neither locked or trapped, the wizards figuring that anyone that's got-ten this fat either belongs here or isn't going to be fazed by one more trap. Practically every spell component known to the magical community is in this room, and in abundance. Only the most expensive and valuable components and equipment are not here, which might lead the observant to think there may be a hidden vault of some sort.
93. Hidden Vault: Good guess. The secret door that leads to this small room is locked twice and trapped three times. Inside are the most valuable magical components known-diamond dust, dragon's bones, books with the true names of some very nasty creatures from the lower-planes, and more.
In addition to the standing guards listed in their various locations. a number of guards walk regular patrols throughout the building. Strangers can roam unchallenged through the public areas of the Guild Hall (many areas are quite crowded well into the night), but unfamiliar faces in places they don't belong will be immediately investigated in a friendly way. "Good evening, sir, may I help you find your way?" is a typical greeting from a guard who doesn't think you belong where you are. if any resistance is encountered, the guards' mood quickly sours, reinforcements are called in, and the situation is resolved with as much force as seems necessary.