F5: Ahlissan Merchants’ Headquarters

F5: Ahlissan Merchants’ Headquarters. This huge, four-story block of offices is rented by the Royal Guild of Merchants of Aerdy, the only official guild of traders in the United Kingdom of Ahlissa. The Royal Guild has held a monopoly over nearly all trade in the Great Kingdom lands since the Turmoil Between Crowns over 150 years ago, when House Darmen cast its lot with House Naelax (Ivid I). House Darmen was then given the authority to license and regulate all trade and crafts guilds in the Great Kingdom, and it formed the Royal Guild to oversee its immense operations. The guild is not evil in the main, and it is heavily backed by the Ahlissan priesthood of Zilchus. However, the Royal Guild is wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of the guilds in Greyhawk, and it has huge landholdings in Ahlissa. The current Overking of the United Kingdom, Xavener I, is the leader of House Darmen, and he receives a part of its profits.

When the United Kingdom of Ahlissa was formed, many in the west did not trust it,, fearing it would be as bad as the old Great Kingdom. This has not proven true (so far), and Overking Xavener has granted permission for the Royal Guild to seek markets in those lands that allow it. With grave misgivings, the Directing Oligarchy allowed the Royal Guild to rent a large building in the Foreign Quarter for its operations, for an absurdly high rent-The Royal Guild paid the fee for 10 years in advance from its petty cash reserves, to the Oligarchy’s astonishment and horror, and took up residence within a month. The building is still in chaos, with Ahlissan merchants arguing with architects and engineers over how their offices should be set up, but it has already begun to serve as the hub of Ahlissan business west of the Nyrond/Ahlissan border.

From Adventure Begins

DM's Notes: The Western Major Guildmaster here is Skreyn Oldsaen of House Darmen [N hm T6; hp 16; Int 18, Cha 17; cloak of protection +3}, a bald and eccentric man who refuses to eat meat but is a superb diplomat. He ultimately aims to overwhelm local guilds with his own, but he is having great difficulty breaking into the local market. (The internal conflicts of his own guild branch are also getting in the way of business.) Skreyn loves to talk about the good old days when the City of Greyhawk was a part of the Great Kingdom (as the Barony of Selintan, before Nyrond rebelled in 356 Cy), but this unnetves Greyhawkers who do their best to pretend this part of history never happened. If there were ever a flashpoint for international trouble in the City of Greyhawk, the Ahlissan Merchants’ Headquarters (as it is unofficially called) is it.