Tightpurse

Tightpurse is the most powerful thieves' guild in the Bloodstone Lands. The guild has been around longer than the Kingdom of Damara, a natural human reaction to the wealth represented by the merchants who flocked into the area to deal for bloodstone bars.

Housed in Heliogabalus, this underground society numbers several hundred, with branch organizations operating in every major Damaran city except Bloodstone City. There is even an associated group in Sarshel in the Kingdom of Impiltur. The rumors imply that every Damaran town and village houses at least one scout who owes allegiance to the guild.

Only recently has Tightpurse become a political entity. The Master of the Guild is thought to be Tarkos Ree, first cousin of the Baron of Morov, Dimian Ree. If Dimian Ree wins the kingship of Damara, the implications for Tightpurse are grand indeed. "Truly," say Dimian Ree's opponents, "the thieves shall have free run of all the cities, without the normal restraints respectable thieves' guilds usually impose on themselves!"

It is no secret that Tightpurse backs Dimian Ree. Tightpurse spies for Ree, like Spysong works for Gareth Dragonsbane, and it even tries counterintelligence.

But Tightpurse may be overreaching its abilities. Severely limited outside Damara's borders, it is only truly effective in the major cities of the southern provinces even within the kingdom. Tightpurse lacks the wide-ranging network that serves Spysong. The thieves have no contact with the Monastery of the Yellow Rose, nor with Impiltur beyond the city of Sarshel. They know nothing of the Nars in Narfell, and they haven't a single agent in all of Vaasa.