The Silent Guard
by Scott MooreI created the Silent Guard to serve as an intelligence gathering network within Dave Arneson's Blackmoor MMRPG campaign. The original d20-based write up on the organization can be found at: http://www.dablackmoor.com/MMRPG/index.php?name=Downloads&req=getit&lid=86.
Since I'm also a huge fan of the earlier version of D&D which was based in Mystara (the world in which Blackmoor existed in the ancient past), I decided to convert the organization for those who might want to use its members within a Mystara-based OD&D game. The full background and details of the organization can be obtained at the above link. The requirements and benefits, revised in terms of General Skills, are detailed below.
For an OD&D campaign based in Blackmoor, members of the Silent Guard can be introduced as NPCs while running modules DA1-DA4. As an alternative, perhaps the organization has continued as a secret society since the fall of Blackmoor and still exists in the present Mystara timeline.
Informant
Requirements
- Alignment Restriction: Cannot be chaotic.
- General Skills: Bargaining, Detect Deception, Knowledge (Local).
- Membership cost is 20 days per year.
Benefits
- The character gains the Knowledge (History) general skill. Those already possessing the skill gain a +1 bonus to it.
- The character can pick out and follow a conversation between individual voices in a noisy environment, such as a loud tavern, as if they possessed the Hear Noise thief's ability at one-third their character level, rounded down. Assassin, rake, and thief characters instead gain a +3 level bonus to their Hear Noise ability.
- Informants may use their contacts once per year to get themselves (and their party) out of legal trouble, an audience with a local noble, or an equivalent favour. No matter what, this favour may not have effects outside of the adventure it is used in.
Agent
Requirements
- Alignment Restriction: Cannot be chaotic.
- Character must have been an Informant for at least six months or have the recommendation of a current member.
- General Skills: Knowledge (Investigation).
- Membership cost is 40 days per year.
Benefits
- The character gains a +1 bonus to the Knowledge (History) and Knowledge (Local) general skills.
- The character gains a +2 bonus to the Bargaining and Knowledge (Investigation) general skills in their home region.
- Agents also gain a secret language known as Shorthand, which they use to pass messages back and forth to those higher up within the organization. Shorthand uses a unique symbolic alphabet and has no spoken form; it is a written language only. Shorthand may only be gained by reaching the rank of Agent within the Silent Guard.
- Agents may use their contacts three times per year to get themselves (and their party) out of legal trouble, an audience with a local noble, or an equivalent favour. No matter what, this favour may not have effects outside of the adventure it is used in.
Agents also gain access to things that wouldn't normally be available in their home region. All standard equipment is available to them in their home region if they take 2d6 hours to try and find it.
Filter
Requirements
- Alignment Restriction: Cannot be chaotic.
- Character must have been an Agent for at least six months.
- Character must receive a favourable notice from at least two members of Collector level or higher.
- General Skills: One additional skill slot spent in any one of the following: Bargaining, Detect Deception, or Knowledge (Investigation).
- Membership cost is 60 days per year.
Benefits
- The character gains a +2 bonus to the Knowledge (History) and Knowledge (Local) general skills.
- The character gains a +4 bonus to the Bargaining and Knowledge (Investigation) general skills in their home city.
- The character gains a +2 bonus to the Bargaining and Knowledge (Investigation) general skills in their home region (does not stack with home city bonus).
- Filters expand their influence to include their larger region.
- Filters may use agent level qualities anywhere in their region.
- Filters may use their pull to get out of any minor legal trouble they get into within their home city (unless the authority holding them is against the Silent Guard).
- Filters also gain access to things that wouldn't normally be available in their home city. All standard equipment is available to them in their home city if they take 1 hour to try and find it.