S5: Assassins' Guildhall

This nondescnpt building looks like a run-down boarding house or tenement. Only rarely is anyone observed entering or leaving.

See "The Assassins' Guild" in Ch5 FFF for more information on the guildhouse and guild.

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S5: Assassins’ Guildhall. This building looks like an old, ill-kept boarding house. It even has a bad-tempered innkeeper and guests, though rooms are never available except to a few. The locals call it “that old place” but have no specific term for it. There is a general sense of uneasiness felt by many about the building, generated by whispered rumors that certain “bad people” live there who are very dangerous to anger.

DM's Notes: This is the secret headquarters of the Guild of Assassins. The public imagination has this guild filled with hundreds of cutthroats, mass murderers, madmen, and worse. Every death in Greyhawk is suspected by someone, somewhere as being the result of a hired killing. Greyhawk’s notorious thief-operated government has only encouraged the spread of such rumots. Interestingly, though the majority of citizens believe murder-for-pay is rampant, they do _not feel particularly threatened themselves. Staying out of other people’s business and not doing anything to fatally anger others are common practices, and few believe they could possibly be the target of an assassination, even if they think everyone else might be.

The Guild of Assassins is a very old institution, dating back centuries to the hiring of mercenaries (by Greyhawk’s rulers) to slay the leaders of a humanoid army that unsuccessfully attacked Greyhawk. It recently achieved great power under Turin Deathstalker (see F1), a supremely talented guildmaster who was both an excellent leader and a skilled member of the Directing Oligarchy, Turin is also a dangerous killer with literally hundreds of killings to his credit, most of them humanoids. When Turin left Greyhawk in 582 Cy to fight Iuz in the Shield Lands, his position as guildmaster was taken over by Vesparian “Vesper” Lafanel [NE em T] 1/W10; hp 58; Dex 17, Con 16, Int 17, Cha 15; boots of speed, bracers of defense AC 3, amulet of proof against detection and location, many magical weapons, scrolls, potions]. Vesper is a grey elf with black-dyed hair. He appears in public to be a conservative noble and is known to be one of the Directing Oligarchs with mercantile interests. It is also generally believed he has darker ties, but no one dares name him as the assassins’ guildmaster. He is a superb administrator, though compulsive about record-keeping. He is not sociable and doesn’t drink. He is a cold-blooded psychopath with a veneer of reason and respectability. His past is unknown.