Emerald Enclave Faction

The Emerald Enclave

Membership

Common Descriptors: Individualist, rugged, survivalist, wild

Primary Classes: Barbarian, druid, ranger

Alignments: Any neutral

Locations

Shadowtop Cathedral, the High Forest

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:

• x

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.
• xxx: xxx

• Funding: You may acquire funding from your sponsor if necessary for your mission. Ideally, you cover monetary needs yourself, but if necessary, your sponsor is willing to lend you a number of gold pieces equal to your Zhentarim renown times 100. You must pay this back; though the loan is interest-free, you may not borrow more coin until it has been paid back. (And you will not be granted a new point of renown until the loan is paid back, either.)

Summerstrider (Rank 2)

Prerequisite: Rank 1 and Emerald Enclave renown 3+ xxx

• 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 anothe rskill from your class list options instead.

• Secret Missions: You may now occasionally be assigned secret missions that you are required to fulfill. Though you do not have a sponsor any longer, you are part of a pyramid of operatives, and the assignment may come down from any part of that chain above you. Though you may not be required to accept the mission, they are often the most reliable way to continue advancing in the organization.
• Flying Snake: You are granted a flying snake. During a long rest, it becomes accustomed to you and stays near you at all times. Its only benefit is to deliver written missives or small bags (with single gems or a few coins). During a short rest, you can write a message and release your flying snake, which will fly back to a single central point, usually to the handler where you got the snake from. Flying snakes can fly 72 miles per day. If you will be in the same place, the snake can be sent back to you. Alternately, you can simply pick another one up at a Zhentarim stronghold elsewhere.
• Operating Capital Loans: By this point, you are expected to manage your finances and accomplish things on behalf of the faction based on your own prosperity. That said, this is not always possible. You have the option of sacrificing a point of your Zhentarim renown to gain funds for a Zhentarim project. This amount is 300gp plus 100gp per your rating in Zhentarim renown before you sacrifice the point. If you pay the loan back, you may recover the point of renown; there is no requirement that you do so, however. You will not be able to use this feature again, in either case, until your renown is at least one point higher than it was before you made the sacrifice.
• Lifestyle Increase: Money travels up the chain in the Zhentarim, and you are expected to show the coin of your success to your superiors, to help finance their endeavors. Your Lifestyle costs increase by 1gp per tenday (or 3gp per month).
• Mercenaries: Because Zhentarim plans may require some extra muscle, you have the right to requisition a small group of Zhentarim mercenaries. You may keep them for up to a month, without charge; when you do so, you may receive one guard for every point of renown you have above 2. You may trade in two of these mercenaries to gain a veteran, though you can only do this once. These mercenaries work for one of your superiors, but are willing to follow you during that time.

• 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 disguise kit, forgery kit, poisoner's kit, or thieves' tools, you may do so at half the time and cost.

Autumnreaver (Rank 3)

Prerequisite: Rank 2 and Emerald Enclave renown 10+ xxx

• Tool Training: Your cost to gain 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.
• 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.

• Lifestyle Increase: Now that you are solidly a stalwart agent of the Zhentarim, you are expected to be bringing in greater wealth...with the attendant expectation of sending more of it up the chain. Your Lifestyle costs increase by 5gp per tenday (or 15gp per month).
• Mercenaries: Now a solidly proven Zhentarim agent, you may hire Zhentarim mercenaries to act as part of your normal retinue, and the organization will pay half of their fees. You can gain a guard for 1gp per tenday, or a veteran for 10gp per tenday. There must be at least three guards for every veteran, and you are responsible for the costs for outfitting them with arms and armor, as well. You may support up to your Zhentarim renown in guards as part of this – any additional troops are paid for in full by you (double the costs listed here).

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

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Arcanist

Arcanist agents specialize in arcane knowledge, magic, and esoteric disciplines such as alchemy. This explicitly does not include clerical magic, as the Zhentarim learned a long time ago that any religious order they permit within the faction inevitably attempts to subvert the Zhentarim to the service of that faith.

Intelligence

Intelligence agents are involved in skulduggery and subterfuge. They are spies, thieves, assassins, and everyone else who accomplishes their ends in the dark with no one the wiser.

Mercenary

Mercenary agents are front-line warriors and frequently end up leading troops of Zhentarim mercenaries.

Supply

Supply agents are usually merchants and craftsfolk, those who work in shops and marketplaces, aboard trading vessels, and as part of merchant caravans.

Faction Titles

Titles within the Zhentarim aren't given: they are won. While the Masters of the Zhentarim are certainly acknowledged by the Pereghost in their roles, that nod is only given when there is clearly no one else who could possibly fill that role. This is certainly indicative of how the Zhentarim prefers to operate: to elevate oneself far above one's competitors, and to undermine and sabotage anyone who could come close to challenging that position.

Master of the Black Network

Only one Dread Lord ever occupies this vaunted position. The other Masters all answer to the foremost of their number, and are accountable to them. Currently, this position is occupied by the mysterious Pereghost, operating out of the citadel of Darkhold.

Master of Arms

The Master of Arms is the head of the Zhentarim's mercenary troops, in effect the general of the Black Network's martial forces. It is not enough to simply be a warrior to be Master of Arms: one must be tactician, businessman, and leader as well. Mercenaries, sellswords, and warriors all fall under the Master of Arms' aegis.

Master of Art

The Master of Art is the foremost arcanist and magician, knowledgeable and skilled, but above all powerful. In eras past, those who sought occult power among the Zhentarim were likely to be wizards in the tradition of Manshoon, but these days the Black Network's many warlocks seek power from otherworldly patrons and use it to further their own aims within the faction. Magicians, alchemists, and esotericists of all stripes (including theologists) are all under the Master of Art's bailiwick.

Master of Extortion

To the Master of Extortion is passed all useful, currency-generating gossip and information, and it is the Master of Extortion who ensures that it is deployed in the most profitable fashion. The Master of Extortion is more than a clearinghouse of blackmail, however: they must have a solid understanding of politics, of the ebb and flow of influence, so as to enact their schemes to the best benefit. Spies, blackmailers, kidnappers, and myriad folk who profit by taking from others answer to the Master of Extortion.

Master of Murder

Lethal and secretive, the Master of Murder oversees assassinations for the Black Network. It isn't enough to personally be a superior ender-of-lives: the Master of Murder must know the skills of thier subordinates, know how to adjudicate the slaying of targets, and to even know when to refuse to deploy killers at all. The myriad poisoners, assassins, and holy slayers of the Zhentarim answer to the Master of Murder.

Master of Sails

To the Master of Sails is given the naval force of the Zhentarim. They are ultimately the admiral of the Black Network's fleet, a combination of war ships (which they work with the Master of Arms to best deploy) and shipping vessels involved in constant trade. The Master of Sails is always an experienced sailor, but must also be more: a master trader, a maritime tactician, and a politician with a grasp of the nuances of seagoing trade and influences. All sailors within the Zhentarim ultimately take orders from the Master of Sails.

Master of Wheels

The many trading caravans and expeditions that fly Zhentarim colors all answer to the Master of Wheels. None of the Masters equal the Master of Wheels in understanding mercantilism and trade trends. If there is a Master who singlehandedly keeps the Zhentarim operating, it is the Master of Wheels, for their efforts bring coin constantly into the Black Network's vaults. This Master is not just a trader: they are also a master banker, a politician whose coin gains entry into even the most exalted courts, and an investor of thousands upon thousands of businesses. All traders, bankers, and other coin-wielders in the Black Network answer to the Master of Wheels.