The Midnight Exchange

Secretive and elusive, the Midnight Exchange is the name of an alliance of smugglers, thieves, murderers and procurers as well as the event this shadowy organization hosts at the end of each month somewhere in Druvenia. Those who wish to broker with these villains have to first figure out where the next titular exchange is going to be held.

The Exchange and how to attend

The Midnight Exchange is held during the last night of each month, but attendance is not a simple matter of looking for a flier stuck to a notice board at one of the taverns lining the streets of Druvenia. Each invitation is hidden behind a meticulous chain of dead drops, riddles and contacts that usually starts via locating the organization's symbol emblazoned onto some inconspicuous wall on some forgotten alley in the Druvenian slums. Once a prospective attendant has completed the required steps to be invited, they will be given an invitation by an anonymous courier, usually through some clandestine manner, such as the courier bumping into them and slipping them the card with the location and time of the exchange written onto it before walking away.

Attendance

The Midnight Exchange demands complete anonymity from everyone attending, and thus every attendant is required to wear an all-black attire with a masked hood. This ensures that no one knows who they are dealing with and thus the attendants cannot be linked back to the members of the exchange should they get into hot water due to their dealings. Due to this, there is a protocol to communication in the exchange.

The one wishing to find someone to serve their needs goes about asking the other attendants the question "What do you deal in?". Depending on their trade, the other party answers with "Death" if they are in the business of murder, "Flesh" if they broker slaves or trade prisoners, "Gold", if they are versed in larceny and trade in stolen goods or "What you desire" if they are capable of procuring all kinds of goods and services. If the other party is also an outside attendee, they will respond with "I am not who you seek".

Services and goods

Instead of asking what can you get at the Midnight Exchange, perhaps a more apt question would be the inverse, what can't you get at the exchange? Frequented by skilled assassins, wealthy slavers and masterful thieves, one need only ask the right questions from the right individual and have a heavy purse of coin on their person and practically nothing is off the table.

Need to get a political opponent out of your way and make it look like an accident? Need "workers" on the down low? Want that pendant you saw dangling on the neck of that rich bastard you passed on the street on the way to the exchange? Is your sibling on the way of you getting a sizable inheritance and you want it taken care of? Want love, or the closest approximation? All of this and more is possible as long as you can pay.

Legality

As the leaders of Druvenia, the Sullen Council has decreed that the citizens of Druvenia are to be free of policing and rule of law, so why is the Midnight Exchange so secretive if they have no fear of legal ramifications for their illicit dealings? The answer is simple; because the operations of the Midnight Exchange are not constrained solely within the walls of Druvenia, but rather all across Nascindor.

If someone needs something done in any of the other city-states, the metropolises of the S'aue or even the burrow-homes of the Arachnitha, the right amount of coin will see it done. Therefore, while the Midnight Exchange in itself might not be illegal in Druvenia, the prosecution of any illicit deals regarding goods and services outside the walls of Druvenia fall under outside jurisdictions.

That's nothing but a graffiti. C'mon, let's go.

–A street urchin to another upon finding the emblem of the Midnight Exchange painted onto the side of a building

by Midjourney

_{Attendees (or members?) of the Midnight Exchange}