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

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.