1354 DR Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors
The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors
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Tower of the Order, Street of Bells, Castle Ward
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Personages
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Guild Master
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| Mhair Szeltune, Lady Master of the Order |
Primary Contact
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| Orlar Thammas, Speaker for the Order, Tower of the Order |
Other Guild Members
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| Membership: 864 None |
Membership
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Livery
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| Dark purple cloaks, with a white human hand, fingers together and uppermost, on the left shoulder. |
Dues
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| Entry Dues: 35 gp and majority vote of the members • Annual Dues: 7 gp/month |
Goods & Services
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| • Scrolls: prices vary • Minor Magic Items: prices vary • Fire Guard: 5 gp per night • Spell Guard: 10 gp per day |
Member Shops
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| None |
Faction Details
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| Common Descriptors: {{{descriptors}}} Primary Classes: {{{classes}}} Alignments: {{{alignments}}} |
Faction Ranks
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This guild protects the less-powerful wizards (and novices to the Art) of Waterdeep, and attempts to influence the powerful loners (wizards outside the guild) of magical power in the city (such as Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun and Maaril) to be prudent and conservative, wielding magic little in public, so that mages will be respected and looked up to, rather than feared and actively opposed. Guild activities have little effect on the city's more powerful wizards who are not guild members and who do what they like anyway (although Khelben's quiet support in its early years allowed the Order to establish itself). They are effective in policing mages of low- and mid-levels who visit the city, in matters of not throwing spells around to influence the populace, and respecting colleagues of all power levels.
- The membership gains great benefits through the Order: Members can readily communicate with fellow members to arrange training and buy magical information with assurances that they are not dealing with charlatans (the Order will expel and publicly vilify members who practice deceit on fellow members).
- Members can readily purchase rare material components (such components are not cheap, but the time necessary to procure them personally is saved) from the golem-guarded cellars of the Tower of the Order. Member and nonmember adventurers can make fairly good money by selling materials to the Order, but they won't buy overpriced or overstocked substances.
- Once the Watchful Order became well established in the City of Splendors, they began selling minor magical items and scrolls (of a single spell each) to their members. A member of the Order may, of course, resell a scroll or item purchased from the Order to a nonmember (usually for a 75% markup). This resale is rarely done, since the Order will stop selling items to a member who does it too often. The Order makes these items and scrolls available to its members.
- Members short of cash can earn ready money by serving as fire guards, spell guards, or firefighters (see "Guard Duty" below).
Guard Duty
- A fire guard is hired for a building (often only when it con- tains valuables, although DMs should note that many nobles consider themselves valuable, night and day, as long as their money holds out) for 5 gold pieces/night. The guild keeps 1 gold piece of the fee, and gives the guarding member 4 gold pieces. Such duty consists of loading up with affect normal fires, cone of cold, conjure water elemental, and similar spells and standing watch, with a guardian pigeon. If the pigeon is released, it will fly back to the Tower, and firefighting mages will come quickly, sometimes by aerial steed (the Lady Master has a Pegasus, who will carry one other with her, so long as Mhair is mounted too).
- Firefighting mages, of whom the Order retains four to six a night, are paid 9 gold pieces each by the Order directly. If summoned by a fire guard, they cost the building owner nothing. If they arrive to fight an unguarded building, the city will pay the Order a fee of 10 gold pieces per building if the owner cannot be found, is deceased, or is unwilling to pay. Otherwise, owners are charged 10 gold pieces per fire-fighting mage.
- A spell guard costs 10 gold pieces per day (of which the Order gets 1 gold piece, and the guard 9 gold pieces), and the duty is simply accompanying a merchant, noble, or other paranoid individual through a day of living, partying, or working, to detect and counter spells cast at him or her (obviously, detect magic and dispel magic are needed here).
Notable Members
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Mhair Szeltune Lady Master of the Order Lady Master of the Order Mhair Szeltune is the head of the Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors, the mages guild of Waterdeep. A serene, efficient lady of iron will and persistence, Mhair can be a kind and loyal friend or a harsh, dangerous enemy. Unlike many of the other guild masters in the city, Mhair is an uncanny judge of character and has never assessed any- one wrongly in the politics and power-plays among (and within) the guilds. |
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Thyriellentha Snome Arcane Watchlord of the Waterdeep Watch A master in the Order and now the highest-ranking wizard in the Waterdhavian Watch, Thyrillentha ("Thyri" to her friends and family) is a skilled political player, as befits the granddaughter and heir of the head of House Snome. Everyone generally agrees that Mhair maneuvered her rise in position within the Watch as a way of counterbalancing her growing influence in the Order, but not only does Thyri not seem to mind, but the two seem to have become the best of friends as a result. |
Spells of the Order
Spell Scrolls for Sale
Cantrips: control flames (35 gp, EEPC), light (35 gp), mending (25 gp), prestidigitation (25 gp)
First Level: comprehend languages (60 gp), detect magic (50 gp), identify (65 gp), protection from good and evil (65 gp), shield (55 gp)
Second Level: arcane lock (180 gp), darkvision (175 gp), knock (180 gp), locate object (175 gp), reveal magic (180 gp, see below), wound bind (170 gp, see below)
Third Level: dispel magic (325 gp), glyph of warding (350 gp), remove curse (300 gp), tongues (325 gp), water breathing (350 gp)
Fourth Level: arcane eye (950 gp)
Magic Items for Sale
Common: broom of evercleaning (100 gp) • stamp of the messenger, silver (150 gp)
Uncommon: dagger of homing (650 gp) • stamp of the messenger, gold (500 gp)
The Order created the following spells, and offers them for sale.
Reveal Magic
2nd-level divination (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
You can make the hidden auras of magical spells and items visible to all, rather than personally viewing them with detect magic. When cast, the spell reveals all magic within a 20 foot radius as radiance, and you may move around an area while the spell is active, as it remains centered on you. The magic does not differentiate between different intensities or types of magic when used thus.
Anyone may choose to study a source of magic within the revealed area in order to learn more about it. This requires an Intelligence (Arcana) check, DC 14, with success revealing a rough idea of the intensity of the magic (as determined by spell level or magical item rarity), and the primary color of the studied radiance revealing to what school of magic that effect belongs.
Like detect magic, this spell is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the area affected by the spell increases by 10 feet in radius per spell level above 2nd.
Wound Bind
2nd-level necromancy
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
You can cause wounds to stop bleeding and being knitting immediately, drawing on the body's own natural vitality to do so. The target you touch with this spell may immediately spend one hit die as a Reaction, rolling it and adding his Constitution bonus to the result, gaining that many hit points.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the target may spend one additional hit die for every spell level above 2nd.
Magic Items of the Order
The Order created the following magic items, and offers them for sale.
Broom of Evercleaning
Wondrous item, common
This pedestrian magic item is in great demand, and thus far only the only source of them is the Order. They are magical cleaning tools - when a command word is spoken, the broom animates and vigorously cleans a 10 foot radius circle around its starting point, leaving a small pile to be collected later. This process takes only two minutes for the entire twenty foot diameter circle. The magic in the broom lasts for one year, and it eventually crumbles into its own swept pile of dust.
Dagger of Homing
Weapon, uncommon
These appear to be daggers of average heft, balanced for throwing. They all come with a leather sheath with a metal mouth, and the engraved designs on the weapon's hilt flow down to the mouth of the sheathe - when it is sheathed, it is difficult to tell where weapon ends and sheathe begins. When the dagger is separated from its sheathe for more than a heartbeat or two, it immediately teleports back into its sheathe unless it is actively being held by the one who bears the sheathe. The bearer may also choose to delay this teleportation by up to one minute. The dagger has no magical bonuses to hit or damage otherwise, however.
Stamp of the Messenger
Wondrous item, common (silver) or uncommon (gold)
These stamps are made to order only, as they must incorporate the heraldry of the purchaser in question, and the Watchful Order is careful to work with the other Guilds and the Herald of Waterdeep to ensure that only legitimate persons are given stamps of official heraldry. There are two of these stamps: the more common silver, and the uncommon gold.
Silver stamps are well-crafted wax stamps, with silver handle. When applied to a document, edges of an envelope or edge of a rolled scroll and the command word is spoken, it immediately creates a blob of silvery wax, imprints it with the sigil on the stamp, and then rapidly dries, sealing it perfectly.
Golden stamps have one additional feature - the circle which surrounds the heraldry has wings incorporated into its design. When a second command word is spoken, and the name of the intended recipient (who must be known to the user and within two miles by crow), the wings pull themselves free of the surrounding wax and begin to flap with the speed of a dragonfly's wings, flying away (flying speed of 60, at a height of about ten feet off the ground), heading directly to the one so named. If that person is not a viable target (they are too far away, for instance), the wings simply do not move at all.
