Secretarian

My daughter Certainty created the secretarian role. Proved it out as a concept. I told her we didn’t need them. I was wrong.

As a secretarian, you are respected for having the fortitude to listen to both customers and coworkers without going insane. You help advance your franchise by keeping staff happy (enough), hiring competent (enough) workers, coming up with slogans and catchphrases, launching marketing schemes, and getting jingles and slogans stuck in customer’s heads.
Essential Functions: Extract information; assess the strengths and weaknesses of others
Position Proficiency: In addition to the proficiencies noted below, you can add your proficiency bonus to an ability check to convince a suspicious crowd of your good (or at least non-evil) intentions, encourage franchise hirelings to work faster, or improvise a jingle extolling the virtues of your franchise.

Ardent Rank I

Proficiencies and Starting Equipment As a rank 1 secretarian, you gain proficiency with one of the following of your choice: gaming set, musical instrument, or disguise kit.
Head office also grants you the use of a tool kit for your chosen proficiency, a collection of sales brochures, a set of business cards, a metal bell, and a set of fine clothes.
Sending Stone Also at rank 1, you are given use of an Ardante sending stone, an uncommon magic item that resembles a gemstone in a bold setting. It functions like a normal sending stone, except that it has no matching stone and allows communication with Head Office, specific secretarians you know, and the secretarian nearest your location. You must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check to establish contact. Once the stone is successfully used, it can’t be used again until the next dawn.
Making contact with another secretarian assumes that they are in possession of their own sending stone.

Ardent Rank II

Portfolio Keeper At rank 2, you gain the use of a weathered leather pouch that is an uncommon magic item. The portfolio keeper holds and organizes notes, brochures, and business cards bearing your contact information. It also has an inexhaustible supply of brochures related to your franchise’s current branding scheme.
When you meet someone for the first time, their details and a rough sketch are magically stored on a small parchment card in the portfolio keeper. You can access the details of any such stored card as a bonus action.
Rumor Mill Also at rank 2, whenever your franchise begins a major quest or mission, make a DC 15 Intelligence (History) check. On a success, you can learn up to three rumors related to creatures or organizations involved in the mission, which come to you through your sending stone. These rumors reflect current or historical knowledge possessed by the Knights or the organization’s many contacts.

Ardante Rank III

Cards of Sending At rank 3, the power of your portfolio keeper becomes more potent, making it a rare magic item. When you give out a business card stored in your portfolio keeper, you can choose to have the card allow its recipient to contact you through your sending stone as if they had cast a sending spell. A business card loses this power seven days after it has been given out, and no more than five cards can have this power at one time.
You can also use your sending stone to cast sending and contact anyone who has one of your business cards. Once you use this feature of the stone, you cannot use it again until dawn seven days later.
Improved Rumor Mill At rank 3, when you use your Rumor Mill feature, the DM provides you with a sense of which parts of a particular rumor are inaccurate, if any. You do not necessarily learn the truth behind those false rumors.

Ardante Rank IV

Always Hiring At rank 4, you have little trouble finding the right people for the job. As an action, while in a populated area, you can make a DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check to locate an NPC who can provide a service immediately, no questions asked, for the standard fee (see “Services” in chapter 5 of the Player’s Handbook). On a successful check, information regarding the potential hire comes to you as supernatural insight, word of mouth, an advertisement blowing into your face, or a similarly convenient method. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it again until you finish a long rest.
Hirelings acquired through this feature are in addition to any franchise staff. They can be invited to bolster existing staff or fill a sudden need, but they are not part of the baseline staff gained through a franchise’s rank. Their pay is not covered by the franchise’s normal costs.
Charming Introduction Also at rank 4, you are able to make a focused effort to keep a potential customer’s attention. When you provide a humanoid with a business card from your portfolio keeper, you can cast charm person on them (save DC 15). The spell ends prematurely if the character loses the business card.
Why Be a Secretarian?
d8 Reason

1. You believe that people shouldn’t work harder; they should work smarter. And then they should work harder.
2. You’ve always yearned to be in the people business, because inanimate objects can’t pay you.
3. Being able to hand out “Employee of the Month” stickers has been a life-long dream.
4. You believe that customer loyalty can’t be bought, but that it can be rented at reasonable terms and rates.
5. Your habit of constantly telling other people how they can improve makes you a master of performance reviews.
6. You’ve always believed that the customer is satisfied when you say the customer is satisfied, and not a second before.
7. You love the joy that other people get when you tell them what to do.
8. Buzzwords was your first language.

Renowned Secretarian

DUNBAR OF SPRECK

Sun Elf Secretarian (Barbarian)
Spreck isn’t a real place, but Dunbar knows most people won’t check. They’ll see the “of” in there and think, “Spreck, you say! Sounds fancy.” Maintaining a protective patina of efficiency around himself, the franchise, and the larger organization is his specialty. Secretarians talk to each other more than they talk to their own party members. But that works out in the end, because the secretarian network’s limitless perspectives mean that the network often knows more about franchisees than they do themselves.