Pathfinder Chronicles - Faction Guide (oef).pdf - WORLDWAKE

Pathfinder Chronicles: Faction Guide
asPis XX co X n X s X o Rt X i u M
Most people of Avistan and northern Garund
view the Aspis Consortium as just another trade
syndicate, albeit possibly the largest and one neither
controlled by a specific state entity nor bound within any
single nation’s borders. Aspis employs a vast pool of hired
mercenaries and local labor eager to earn Consortium
coin, and their business certainly enriches many. Clients
and employees alike are puppets for the Consortium’s
agents and merchant lords, earning them considerable
good will and oftentimes a blind eye turned to other,
darker rumors.
go a l: PR o f i t aB ov e all
Morals, laws, loyalties, and national boundaries fall by the
wayside in the name of wealth. The Aspis Consortium acts
superficially like many other merchant and trade cabals,
but unlike them, it actively manipulates the market and
its patrons to achieve its vast wealth. From the lowest dock
worker who cares for nothing save for earning his promised
pay, to the soldier of fortune willing to spill blood for coin,
the Consortium’s masters rely on the supreme power of
human greed to further even darker aims.
al i g n M e n t: ne
Aspis Consortium members are in it for themselves and
their own profit. But they realize that by working within
the Consortium’s loose framework and increasing its
profit, they enrich themselves, even if they must be the
tools of their superiors at times, while likewise using their
inferiors as ignorant puppets. Members will do anything
in the name of monetary profit, from slave trading and
smuggling to market manipulation by extreme means such
as engineering crop failure, causing plague, sinking ships
to lower availability of imported goods, and obtaining
exclusive development and import rights by any means
necessary (including wiping out indigenous natives who
prove uncooperative).
le a d e R
The Aspis Patrons each have their own personal goals, which
they attempt to keep secret from their fellows; of course, they
all ultimately work toward an unknown goal at the direction
of the Aspis Prophet, the enigmatic and possibly inhuman
person manipulating them all. The three Patrons living
in Westcrown who are likely to interact with immediate
underlings are Arvemis the Benighted (NE male half-fiend
human sorcerer 8), Muriel Azphitra (LE female human cleric
of Zon-Kuthon 7), and Kara Thistlecauldron (NE female
bleachling gnome alchemist 8).
8
go o d cl a s s ch o i c e s
Fighter, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard
ch a l l e n g i n g cl a s s ch o i c e s
Cleric (of a good deity), Druid, Paladin
he a d q ua Rt e R s
The Aspis Consortium maintains powerful centers of
inf luence regionally in areas of interest and exploitation
(such the Mwangi port of Bloodcove and Magnimar in
Varisia). However, the strongest of these power centers is
found in the city where the Aspis Consortium was first
founded—the old Chelish capital of Westcrown. This
branch shifts the location of its meetings more than any
other branch; locations vary between heavily warded
mansions, crypts, and even private rooms at inns.
Jo i n i n g
The Consortium has many hirelings, but becoming an
actual employee or member of the organization requires
dedication and talent—a common laborer gains none of
the benefits of this faction other than the daily silver of
his wage. Unusual folk (such as adventurers) can join after
proving themselves in specialized missions.
ga i n i n g PR e s t i g e
Achieving goals that lead to profit, access to resources, or
the elimination of competitors is the key to gaining status
in the Consortium.
Re s o u Rc e s
The Aspis Consortium has money, and given that its
members are spread across much of Avistan and Garund, it
can count on ready assistance from either formal members
or locally hired muscle, even in remote regions. It has access
to raw and manufactured goods from those distant places
as well, often for much cheaper costs and in more abundant
supply than the market typically supports. As Aspis agents
tap into markets in corners of the globe barely known to
most nations and only tentatively explored by groups such
as the Pathfinders, they often have exclusive access to
resources found there.
1 CPA: Arrange overland or ocean-going transport from
Avistan to the Mwangi port of Bloodcove or the Sargavan
port of Eleder.
10 TPA: Acquire the Bronze rank and a bronze
Consortium badge.
10 TPA, 1 CPA: Intercept a caravan (or other mundane,
ground-based transportation) or cargo ship at a specific
location, seizing the goods and hiding them nearby. Add 1
CPA to the cost to spare the lives of the victims. If multiple
agents are interested in the same shipment, whoever
spends the most CPA ends up in control of it.