The People's Constables

These very special individuals maintain law and order, and assess fines against offenders, for trivial crimes not worthy of the time of magistrates. Their appointment began in 575 CY, following a suggestion by Glodreddi that was approved by the other Directors.

In brief, the large majority of the 200 or so People's Constables are low-level members of the Thieves ' Guild (75% T1, 25% T2), the few others being adolescent and young adult males with a little literacy from apprenticeships who have set out to make some money for themselves. The Directors appoint a People's Consta ble (up to a limit of 200) upon payment of 10 gp for a year's license and a personal reference from some reputable person (these are never checked-which is just as well, since they are almost always forged). The license is jealously guarded by the new constable, and such documents are very rarely stolen or forged the penalties are too great.

The public constables are then empowered to fine offenders for trivial crimes such as obstruction, threatening language, slanderous utterances against ordinary persons, emptying foul refuse into the street, and so on. Such fines vary from as little as 1 cp to a maximum of 10 sp.

However, matters do not end there. Certain enterprising thieves have discovered that there are a large number of wholly bizarre by-laws enacted by Zagig Yrageme when his madness was most full, which have never actually been repealed due to clerical oversights. The offenses specified are quite ridiculous. Fiendish DMs are strongly encouraged to add to the list given below:

- Eating kara-fruit on a Starday when there is a "Y" in the month

- Fondling a duck or related waterfowl on the Processional (i.e., carrying it, but Zagig preferred "fondling" in the word ing of the law)

- Helping a halfling across the road (this can be construed as occurring when ever one merely accompanies such a half ling)

-Conspiring to belch in the direction of a scribe, sage, or other Learned Gentleman in a public place

-Conveying vegetables in excess of one grommitt upon one's person in the presence of an elf or person with similarly pointed ears (the grommitt is an archaic unit of weight equal to roughly 6 oz.)

The People's Constables who have been operating for any length of time often have a large, leatherbound book in which they have a written record of 5-100 (5d20) such ludicrous offenses, plus a ledger of levied fines in the case of those who can write. The fact that many of these constables cannot read is no great hindrance, since the people they charge are almost invariably illiterate anyway; guilty parties just see the official license and pay up if they can.

These constables, for obvious reasons, work in the Old City. They pick on soft targets-washerwomen, old people, street urchins, beggars (but are careful not to offend the Beggars' Union by making their fining light and infrequent), and the like, taking care not to hit the same person too often (fining someone who's broke is no way to make money). However, if there is a group of these constables, and especially if they have had a few beers, they may well pick on foreigners and try to swindle a few silvers out of them.

Further, the constables' ability to extract a fine often depends on whether they can run faster than their prey, although their readily apparent daggers and good leather armor (with a few having short swords in scabbards) usually make their poor targets too fearful even to resist capture. Still, it is not so rare for a People's Constable to be found with a knife in the back or floating in the river. Despite this, many desperate young thieves or similar types who can steal 10 gp are only too ready to try to recoup their investment with a few weeks of frantic fining, and there is a healthy turnover of constables-as Glodreddi expected, this brings thousands of gold pieces into Greyhawk's coffers each year.

The people's constables are heartily detested in Greyhawk, but the people they annoy are not exactly able to express their irritation in ways which make much difference to the authorities. The members of the Watch dislike the People's Constables and do not usually assist them unless they are threatened with violence, but they also know that this ragtag bunch saves them a lot of time bothering with trivial crime, so they put up with them. These characters offer the DM a chance to annoy and pester PCs to no end, at least in their first visits to Greyhawk and when they enter the Old City.