Black Shield

The Black Shield

Membership

Common Descriptors: Stealthy, cunning, perceptive

Primary Classes: Rangers, rogues, druids

Alignments: primarily lawful

Locations

Anvil Vale

Ranks

• Apprentice: Rank 1. x • Shieldbearer: Rank 3. x • The Aragoth: Rank 10. x

The Black Shield is an organization of largely dwarven rangers and scouts who explore the underdark around Hammer Peak and the other dwarven citadels of the Anvil Vale, seeking out potential threats and eliminating them because they grown into dangers for the Valefolk.

Overview

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Goals & Philosophy

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The Black Shield are expected, above all things, to do the following:

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Activities

The Black Shield's core duty is the exploration and pacification of the underdark in direct contact with the dwarven citadels and the Vale. This usually translates as interminable patrols over the area, armed with maps on which the Shield takes notations. It also means fighting creatures that may be dangerous, or otherwise scouting out concentrations of them too large to deal with alone.

Quests undertaken by the Black Shield might include the following:

• To go on patrol with other Black Shields.
• To seek out and slay an enemy of the Vale, or rescue goodly folk from such.
• To act as a guardian for a valued ally of the Great Clans, or other important personages, as they travel through the underdark.

Perks

Black Shields in good standing might receive the following benefits:

• Barracks Access: Rank 1+. A Black Shield dwelling in any of the dwarven citadels may use the barracks of the Black Shield for his lifestyle. Though this is a Poor Lifestyle for apprentices and a Modest Lifestyle for shieldbearers, it is provided to Shields at no cost.
• Mentor: Rank 1-2. Apprentices of the order are assigned to a shieldbearer who acts as their mentor, teaching them the ways of the order and its tradition, and educating them in fighting skills. You also receive a chain shirt and a shield or pendant set with a piece of dorchasolas.
• Donning the Shield: Rank 3+. The apprentice becomes a shieldbearer and receives the Gatemail of the Black Shields, a set of mithril armor enchanted with the ability to open the Dark Gates.
• Patrol Maps: Rank 3+. Black Shields are also given a set of maps of the Patrolled Undervale which are annotated as Shields patrol and those annotations compiled and shared to everyone's maps on a monthly basis.
• Shield Sanctuaries: Rank 3+. The Black Shield maintains secret sanctuaries out in the Underwild around the Vale. These sanctuaries are equipped with food, water, 1d4 potions of healing, and a strong stone door that can only be sealed or unsealed by the wearer of a suit of Gatemail. In the Patrolled Undervale, a Black Shield may simply refer to their map for the location of the nearest sanctuary (a distance of about 1d4 hours; if lacking a map, it is a Survival DC 12). If in the Near-Wilds, it is a Survival DC 14 test, and a travel of about 2d4 hours.
• Underdark Experience: Rank 5+. After this long of being out in the underdark, the Black Shield has picked up a canny awareness of its dark expanses. You gain either the Deep Delver or Underdark Experience feature.

Important Members

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