Emerald Enclave Faction

The Emerald Enclave

Membership

Common Descriptors: Individualist, rugged, survivalist, wild

Primary Classes: Barbarian, druid, ranger

Alignments: Any neutral

Locations

Shadowtop Cathedral (High Forest), Fireshear

Ranks

• Springwarden: Rank 1. You are newly brought into the Enclave, and have much to prove yet. • Summerstrider: Rank 2. Your contributions to the Enclave's goals and philosophies have been acknowledged, and you are counted among those the Masters can reliably call upon for aid. • Autumnreaver: Rank 3. Your leadership and mentorship potential has elevated you to a position of renown among the Enclave's stalwarts. • Winterstalker: Rank 4. You are a leader in your own right, mobilizing and teaching parts of the Enclave entrusted to you by the Masters of the Wild. • Master of the Wild: Rank 5. You are one of the few true leaders of the Enclave, acknowledged both as wise and fierce in your defense of the Enclave's highest aims.

The Emerald Enclave is a widespread group of wilderness survivalists who preserve the natural order while rooting out unnatural threats. The organization is decentralized, hardy, and reclusive. Barbarians, druids, and rangers of good or neutral alignments are commonly drawn to the Emerald Enclave.

Overview

The Emerald Enclave is a far- ranging group that opposes threats to the natural world and helps others survive in the wilderness. Branches of the organization are scattered throughout Faerûn and often operate in isolation from the others. This existence teaches the Enclave’s members a fierce self-reliance and mastery of certain fighting and survival skills.

Goals & Philosophy

Members of the Emerald Enclave know how to survive and, more importantly, to help others do the same. They are not opposed to civilization or progress, but they strive to keep it in balance with the wild. They restore and preserve the natural order, even as they root out and destroy all that is unnatural. They keep the elemental forces of the world in check and keep civilization and the wilderness from destroying one another.

Emerald Enclave believe:

• The natural order must be respected and preserved.
• Forces that upset the natural order must be destroyed.
• Civilization and the wilderness must learn to coexist peacefully.

Activities

A ranger of the Enclave might be hired to lead a caravan through a treacherous mountain pass or the frozen tundra of Icewind Dale. A druid might volunteer to help a village prepare for a long, brutal winter. Barbarians and druids who live as hermits might appear from nowhere to help defend a town against marauding orcs.

Emerald Enclave seek to:

• Preserve and restore the natural order.
• Destroy all that is unnatural.
• Keep the elemental forces of the world in check.
• Keep civilization and the wilderness from destroying one another.

Typical agent assignments for members of the Emerald Enclave include:

• Scout out a new logging operation to make sure they are replacing what they cut and destroying no more than necessary.
• Deliver a warning to someone responsible for environmental damage – and perhaps even deal with them if they do not change their ways.
• Investigate a strange blight or disease making its way through a natural population, and discern the cause of it.
• Destroy a portal to another plane, the existence of which is warping or damaging the land and its inhabitants.

Faction Ranks

Members of the Emerald Enclave are spread far and wide, and usually operate in isolation. They learn to depend on themselves more than others. Survival in a harsh world also demands great fortitude and mastery of certain fighting and survival skills. Members of the Enclave who dedicate themselves to helping others survive the perils of the wilderness are more social than others who are charged with defending sacred glades and preserving the natural balance.

Springwarden (Rank 1)

Prerequisite: Emerald Enclave renown 1+

• Sponsor: You have a sponsor in the Emerald Enclave to whom you report. They are likely to assign you any faction missions, and are responsible for the imparting of Enclave renown when appropriate.
• Insignia: You receive an insignia in the shape of a copper leaf stamped with the stag symbol of the Emerald Enclave. Magics are worked into it which allow Enclave members to identify if it is a real insignia by touch. Animals trained to do so can also identify real clasps by smell or taste.
• Druidic Secrets: You can understand the secret language of druids. If you already have this from a class ability, you instead gain the druidcraft cantrip.

Summerstrider (Rank 2)

Prerequisite: Rank 1 and Emerald Enclave renown 3+

• Natural Introductions: Upon arriving in a new area, it is customary for Enclave members to introduce themselves to their faction-mates who are already there. Once per day, you can cast animal messenger without expending any spell slots or material components. This message is carried to the highest ranking member of the Enclave in the spell's range automatically. You regain this ability when you complete a long rest.
• Tool Training: You may go to the faction for training in useful tools. When you take the Training downtime action to gain proficiency with the herbalism kit, woodcarver's tools, or cartographer's tools, you may do so at half the time and cost.
• At Home in Nature: Emerald Enclave learn to work in natural environs comfortably. You become proficient in the Nature or Survival skill. If you are already proficient in both, choose another skill from your class list options instead.
• Magic Access: You can get access to Common potions and scrolls at half the cost it takes to create those items, and have them within one day. You can get access to Uncommon potions and scrolls at the cost it takes to create those items, and have them within 1d6 days.

Autumnreaver (Rank 3)

Prerequisite: Rank 2 and Emerald Enclave renown 10+

• Companions: You gain companions which are either humanoids or beasts, gaining either two CR 1/4 companions, or one CR 1/2. Humanoids are apprentices, junior Enclave members, or just folk aligned with the philosophy of the Enclave who have come to aid you. Beasts are animals who sense in you an alignment to the natural order and wish to accompany you. You gain the same number of new companions for each 3 full points of renown you gain beyond 2. These companions are loyal to you; if they die, they are replaced by other companions within the next tenday.
• Item Procurement: Though an expenditure of time and coin, you can secure access to magic items the Emerald Enclave find particularly useful. For 5 tendays and 500 gp, you can secure a +1 weapon, a +1 shield, or cloak of the manta ray. For 10 tendays and 5000 gp, you can secure +1 armor or a ring of animal influence.
• Tool Training: Your cost to train proficiency in an herbalism kit, woodcarver's tools, or cartographer's tools is now free, though you must still spend half the time to do so.

Winterstalker (Rank 4)

Prerequisite: Rank 3 and Emerald Enclave renown 25+

• xxx

Master of the Wild (Rank 5)

Prerequisite: Rank 4 and Emerald Enclave renown 50+

• xxx

Faction Roles

There are three primary roles within the Emerald Enclave.

Cityspeaker

The least numerous of the Enclave are its cityspeakers, members of the Enclave who focus on the faction's missions within the towns and cities of the Realms. They familiarize themselves with the customs and power structures of civilized areas, in order to better engage with its people to convince them to keep the natural balance in mind even within walls. Cityspeakers often find their task difficult: their fellow Enclave members often blame them when they "fail to keep settled folk in line," and to settled folk they represent a faction that will use whatever means necessary to maintain balance.

Greenwarden

Greenwardens focus on the protection of specific areas of wilderness, choosing a single geographical feature (such as a forest or swath of hills) as their warded area. They come to know that are incredibly well, and can often identify imbalances to them early, allowing them to take steps to repair such imbalance before it becomes damage. Greenwardens occasionally get to know the peoples who live within their warded areas, although they tend to leave anything larger than a small village to the care of the faction's cityspeakers. Still, nomadic tribes, solitary foresters and trappers, settlements of elves, and others who make that wilderness their home tend to be on good terms with the greenwarden there. Greenwardens often use subtle signs and markings in their territory to mark the fact that it is protected.

Wildwalker

Wildwalkers are roamers first and foremost. Nomadic by nature, they travel both wildways and highways, and tend to have the best idea of how seemingly solitary events fit into the bigger picture. They are comfortable in both civilized and wild areas, and they often are in good standing with other traveling folk, such as the nomadic Uthgardt or bands of wild elves.

Faction Titles

The Emerald Enclave doesn't use other titles within its organization.