Wizards Trading Magic

Guilds of mages are many and varied across Faerun, and unofficial, secretive cabals of wiz¬ards are far more common than formal guilds. The trade of magic or lore will always take place very gingerly, in one of two ways: private deals between members (kept secret even from other members), and formal deals (known to other members and regulated by intricate, written guild rules that have been tested and refined and com¬plained about and refined again for decades or longer). Because of suspicion and paranoia, pri¬vate deals are rare without a master-apprentice relationship being involved, or some kind of agreement that involves hostages or collateral or third-party scrutinizers. In Waterdeep’s Watchful Order of Magists & Protectors, one of the best-known mage guilds, senior members rule openly (in quorum coun¬cil) on all dissemination of lore or spells between members, and often order such transfers to be executed for the good of the order (that is, to strengthen all members, or to arm all the order’s mages to better defend Waterdeep or carry out the aims of the order).
Claims of theft, cheating, and deception are always investigated by order members who use mind-probing magic. Refusal to cooperate is in¬terpreted as an admission of guilt, and usually punishable by expulsion and defanging, in which the order sends a large force of mages to strip the offending member of dangerously powerful spells or items, to protect the order against retaliation. If spell-battles result and such expelled mages end up brain-burned or trapped in a beast’s shape during such a defanging, so be it. The choice of action was theirs, so the consequences are also their responsibility. Problems arise when the of¬fenders in such matters are senior order members who also have access to mind-probing magic, but such are the perils of interesting lives.
The Watchful Order holds mini-moots when¬ever circumstances dictate, trying wherever possible not to hear matters involving specific members without those members being present. The order also holds monthly moots at its head¬quarters or at another designated place. These monthly moots are largely “good cheeses and better wine” gossip sessions wherein members are encouraged to point out trends and oddities they’ve noticed in the city, new arrivals selling or practicing magic, rumors from afar brought by visiting traders, and the like. At any meeting, order members have the right to raise complaints and concerns with senior officers, in front of all other members present.
Mystra smiles upon the spread of magic, so under the urging of her clergy, and the dreams she sends, most wizards and sorcerers will at¬tempt to give a spell to a stranger at least once during their lives. Moreover, the Chosen of Mys¬tra and servitors of Azuth are commanded to covertly and frequently place spell scrolls and spellbooks in tombs, dungeons, ruins, and other places where the adventurous will find them.
Two mages desiring to trade in magic will probably call in a priest or a priestess of Mystra to secretly handle the exchange, if possible. Only clerical superiors would know about the transaction, and even they would know only what was being exchanged and not between whom (unless one was nosy and did some eavesdropping). One of the chief daily functions of the clergy of Mystra is being neutral councilors and facilitators be-tween justifiably paranoid mages.
Such an exchange might go like this:
“Will you accept Shreena handling this?” asks one mage.
“Who’s Shreena?” asks a second mage warily. “Anointed of Mystra, of the Weavehouse tem¬ple. You know, the tall quiet one with the green eyes and the hair down to here. Stands behind the scrying font sometimes, when you come to pray.”
“Oh, aye. Her. All right. Shall you go to her first, or shall I?”
“You decide, but I want this to be open: Whichever one of us goes tells the name of the other to her. I don’t want her giving either of us funny looks for a tenday while she wonders who’s going to show up as the ‘other half.’ ”
“I’ll go. Tomorrow morn acceptable?”
“Yes. Leave word here if you can’t get in to speak to her, and let that word be ‘skyblue.’ If no message is left, I’ll assume you have seen her, and go to see her myself tomorrow even.”
And so on. Some mages see it as an honor to have a Chosen of Mystra act as their go-between, and others shun this attention because of the notice others might take of what they’re up to as a re¬sult. Rarely, a mutually trusted person who has no magic will be agreed upon as a go-between—a noble, for example, or a monarch, or perhaps even an ordinary person beloved by both mages.