The Assassins' Guild

Assassinations of Greyhawkers are rarely commissioned by other city residents, if only because of the fear of reprisals. The Master of the Guild of Assassins Turin Deathstalker, is never openly referred to as such, but his name is mentioned with fear, and most will say that he has connections with the dread killers. It is also known, of course, that he is a Director of the city. Hence, any commissioned killing may well get back to the Directors, so that many potential patrons for assassins are frightened off by the fear that the rulers will know who is planning to assassinate whom. Hence, native Greyhawkers are very rarely the targets of members of the Assassins' Guild. Rather, it is outsiders who are the prime targets. The rulers are less likely to care about such people, unless they are of exceptional importance (nobility and the like).

Given this lack of business, there are relatively few assassins in Greyhawk; Turin has Just 25 people as guildmembers. They are, however, mostly highly competent and accomplished assassins. At any given time, 5-16 (1d12 +4) of them will be absent from the city, on mis sions elsewhere. Greyhawk is known as a place where one can hire a very good assassin who will travel far to eliminate almost anyone, if the price is right. The Thieves' Guild and Assassins' Guild are on good terms generally, since their Guildmasters are likewise friendly and cooperative with each other.

The Assassins' Guildhall is very carefully concealed. It is a subterranean complex of chambers, partly created by magical means, lymg deep underneath the surface of the Thieves' Quarter. There are several secret doors in sewer walls (all locked and frequently trapped with devices which only guildmembers can open automatically) in the Thieves', Slum, and River Quarters, and also a passage below a secret trap door in the floor of Gundri Garraldson's locksmith's shop (location S6). Turin Deathstalker has a set of rooms on the top floor of this building.

Contacting the Guild of Assassins is not an easy matter. PCs will need to ask very discreetly in disreputable taverns in the River, Thieves', or Slum Quarter to have any chance of being referred to an assassin, who will usually agree to a meeting on his own "turf' with 1-2 other assassins, and a 50% chance of 1-4 thieves also, quietly dotted about the place-a busy, noisy tavern is preferred.

Rich merchants and the like have quite different ways of contacting assassins, often using intermediaries and "dead letter drops," which PCs cannot normally expect to have mentioned to them. The DM must script subsequent events depending on the nature of the target (which will be referred to Turin if it is a person of social importance), fee offered, and the like. Notably, the assassin available will never be a half-orc; Turin does not permit such creatures in the guild. However, the alignments of the assassins in the guild show that PCs should be wary of dealing with them: 4 are lawful neutral 3 are neutral, 1 is chaotic neutral, 10 are lawful evil, 3 are neutral evil, and 4 are chaotic evil.