QuaziquestGM
First Post
The following is an extended character background that I wrote for a prospective play by post. I wanted to run a "fixer" for a semi-legal gnome trading outfit. The GM asked for details about the outfit....I apparently have too much time on my hands. For everyone's amusement:
(parts about Immortals and mistrusted gnomes are campaign specific)
The truth about gnomes (cont)
(The source of this is a combination of the histories of the Mafia & Labour Unions, medieval and renaissance trade and skill guild operations, Wall Street history including Berni Madolf, The Protocols of the Elders Of Zion forgery, Mexican migrant worker documentation methods, Gypsy practices, The Acorn scandal, the Feragi Rules of Acquisition, The Sting, and a couple of episodes of Bonanza.)
A small group of gnomes run “the game”, and are careful to keep its existence secret from even other gnomes. The game runs on 6 basic principles.
1) Limited Liability Corporations (the shell game)
2) Multiple Identities (Funny how the big folk have trouble telling us apart when we change hats?)
3) What ever works.
4) Don’t be any more evil than everyone else.(often worded “don’t be the most evil guy in a sticky deal”)
5) Maintain the gnome reputation.
6) Everyone gets a taste, no one complains about their cut, no one gets cut. (There are several understood “or else”’s in this)
Examples:
1: (LLCs)Sorry, we’re not the gnomes that own the docks, we’re just the ones with the administration sub contract. You don’t want to talk to them anyway, you want to talk to the New Accounts officer for the (gnomish) accounting firm that handles scheduling for the Brotherhood of Dock Workers. All we do is inspect the docks for damage to report to the Maintenance sub contractor, pay the Harbor Master, and collect slip fees….
2: (MID’s)Ok, let’s go though the check list…Ship name changed to “Eastern Star”?…check!…Paint dry? Well, it will be when we get there…Flying Eastern flag?…Check! ….We’re all in the RED uniforms?…Check!….Bob is dressed as “Captain Jon(v)es”?…Check!…Ok looks like we’re ready to go into NorthPort. Everybody revembor tha vues yha Evestorn axhents! //
There are actually far fewer gnomes in business than the big folk think.
3: (whatever)In one town, the gnomish owned pottery factory is refusing to let the workers unionize as it interferes with the right of individual contracts, and have a goon squad ready to use strikebreaking tactics if needed.
In the next town, the gnomes are organizing a (corrupt) labor union so that they can control the labor at the human owned pottery factory.
In another town, the gnomes are helping to organize a labor union, and help management come to a reasonable contract with it….so the gnomish bank can administrate the pension fund.
What ever works.
4) (Not the most evil)
Wanting to take over a toy contract from a competitor who ships from WestPort to EastPort, the gnomes buy the shipping company that he uses to ship his goods via a non-gnome intermediary. They then heavily insure the ship and cargo, and add an extra out of the way stop to the ship’s route.
Though another intermediary, they hire pirates to capture the ship and steal the cargo, instructing them to “at least spare the cabin boy and leave him adrift in a row boat”. The pirates, who have only been paid a relatively small advance, are then to leave the cargo at one smugglers cove to be picked up by a fence (a gnome privateer who is never seen by the pirates, who sails to NorthPort and sales the cargo), and then go to another to await their cut of the sale of the cargo on the black market. The pirates are told that after receiving their cut that it will be decided if the “heat is off” enough to also sale the cargo ship, or if it would be better just to scuttle it.
A ship from the gnome transit company that carries goods for the gnome trading company (if you are loosing track see first line, they are different gnomes but all part of the game) happens to rescue the cabin boy, also happens to be carrying a roughly equivalent cargo (dolls instead of stuffed dragons, yo-yos instead of hula hoops…) at a slightly better price, and also happens to be going to the same port and pulling into the adjacent slip….and are the first to tell the buyer waiting at the dock that his shipment was taken by pirates…”hey, do you know where we can sale some toys?”//
The gnome shipping company and trading company then rally the merchant community to put a price on the heads of the pirates, and contribute 10% of the pot. Then they send an intermediary to an adventuring company that happens to owe a gnome banker some money, the day after the banker’s ½ ogre collection agent gently reminds them that “interests will start to accrue”. The intermediary offers to give the adventurers the location of the pirates, and to provide a small ship to get them there, for 30% of the bounty. They accept. After the fighting gets hot and heavy, the gnomish privateer swoops in with his heavily armed ship (The Southern Star, with a crew in blue uniforms) , ensuring that all of the pirates die. He claims 50% of the bounty for himself, and the adventurers are not in a position to refuse. He then returns the cargo ship to the shipping company, and also claims the pirate ship.
The insurance company is thrilled that they only have to pay the claim on the cargo. The buyer gives the gnomes the contract. The gnomes offer to buy a share of their competitors business so they can ‘expand their catalog’ (now we have yo-yos and hula hoops). They also make space for the cabin boy in the orphanage of the Gnomish Society for Benevolence, and drop off toys for the kids.
Profits: The toy contract, the profit from the black market sale of the cargo, the insurance money for the cargo, the pirate ship, part of the other trading company, most of the bounty on the pirates, cleared the adventurers’ debt, smiling orphans, and a reputation for community leadership and pirate hunting.
And since they didn’t tell the pirates to “Kill everyone except the cabin boy”, but rather “at least leave the cabin boy alive”, then the gnomes consider themselves less evil than the pirates, and think themselves “good” for getting rid of them.
5) (rep) Gnomes in general (in the game or not) take pains to try to make themselves less distrusted. They will often pay for community improvements such as cobbling a major street, or contributing to the construction of Churches to the Immortals which for the most part, they don’t worship. “The new chapel is a thing of High Art that improves the city that we all live in.” (it was common for Jewish groups to contribute to the construction of Christian cathedrals in Europe) Gnomes in the game do this even more so.
They set up orphanages, sponsor hospitals, and make sure that gnomish businessmen are considered, in general, less corrupt than others. If there isn’t enough of a base of legitimate gnome operations in an area to safely conduct cons and scams, then they will set a few up. These firms only do legitimate business and keep impeccable records. After the firm has established a reputation as a “honest Gnome run enterprise” they will often bring in a non gnome partner to run it, with the gnomes becoming silent partners and figureheads in the operation. These new partners are often halflings, with the intent that the big folk start to think that short = good. When they do run scams involving wide spread deception, such as ponzi schemes, they use big folk front men, who disappear when the gig is up, and some “gnomes in the know” set them selves up as victims.
Most gnomes not in the Game are completely unaware that the game exists, though a few suspect. Often a legitimate gnome business will have a partner or two who are in the game unknown to the others. In these cases the business itself is run completely honestly, but the “connected” partners will use illegal means to hamper the competition, usually by simple trickery (fake maps, stealing horseshoes, detours, placing fake orders, contaminating goods…..) but sometimes by more devious means (tipping off raiders to shipping schedules, warehouse fires…). These things just don’t seem to happen as often to gnome businesses, so gnomes have a reputation for being lucky, a reputation that the game actively attempts to maintain.
Another reason for the luck reputation is that the gnomes make their own business luck though a process called “Fadding” . This involves creating demand for an obscure product though salesmanship, flattery, actors wearing the product while other actors “whisper” about how much they want one too, suggestion spells, gifts to celebrities…..Of course only the gnomes, or a gnome backed or supplied retailer has any, supplies are controlled to never quite meet demand (Toys R Us and Cabbage Patch Kids), and the fad ends as soon as the gnomes sale out, which is always just as competitors are stocked up on a copycat product. (Ok guys, this month it is going to be acorn shaped cod pieces, and next season will be neon paisley print hose for men. In spring the pastel parasols from 2 years ago will come back into style…) Most of the profit made by the game comes not from actual criminal activity, but rather by market manipulation and price fixing. (they own Gnome Depo Tool Supply, and are silent partners in Lowe’s (halfling) Hardware, who everyone assumes are in a competitive death struggle).
They also maintain a good reputation in the criminal underworld by never betraying their contacts and intermediaries. So long as you are directly working for a gnome….
However, not all gnome criminals are in the game.
6) Everyone gets a taste, no one complains about their cut, no one gets cut. (There are several understood “or else”’s in this)
The organization of the game is not hierarchical. It is actually a commune. Accounting officers of trusted members are elected to oversee various accounts, investments, and slush funds, track some details of their various boards of directors on LLCs and Multiple identities, and handle planning and recruitment for various schemes.
Everyone gets a taste. After a scam is over, everyone who worked it gets a cut of something. What this cut is is up the ringleader of the scam, though smart leaders give good cuts so they won’t have trouble finding help for the next operation. If the scam was financed by a slush fund, then the fund is paid back with a little interest. Also, 10 % of the take goes into a joint account held by the game, which invests it and pay dividends to all members on a periodic basis. Residuals are paid to retired members, and the families of deceased members. It is understood that sometimes things just don’t work out, so slush fund money lost in a failed operation is considered a joint lost.
No one complains about their cut. There are various degrees of risk, difficulty, performance, effort, experience, and skill that each member of a crew demonstrates, possesses or is exposed to in the course of an operation. Evaluating the proper reward for this is a subjective process, and is at the sole discretion of the ringleader. Also, some times the take isn’t just cash, so some creative accounting maybe employed. Someone gets the gold, someone gets the candlesticks, someone gets the pirate ship, someone gets a box of hula hoops…..It is understood, that as long as you get something, and that something is more than what you would have got if you spent the day doing honest labor, then you have no right to complain. Sometimes a job goes bust, and the equipment acquired for the job is divvied up. Every ringleader handles the distribution of accents after a job differently. “Hey, wait a minute, I had to pay 50 silver to pay off that guard, I should get that back.” is a legitimate point. “Hey, how come I only get 50 and he gets 5000?” is NOT. You are going to get a dividend as long as you work, and residuals as long as you live anyway.
No one gets cut. This has several meanings.
First, it means that members in the game do not fight each other. This isn’t a thieves guild!
Second, Gnomes are avoided as targets. A company with a couple of gnome partners not in the game may be it if no other targets are available, but the gnomes are not physically hurt. Completely gnome owned business is never targeted, whether they are in the game or not. Individual gnomes, and even gnome corporations may be collateral damage in investment fraud schemes, but only as much as anyone else who invests. Occasionally two players will discover that they inadvertently ran a con on each other. This is treated as a joke, and not a personal insult. “You mean they where cheap knock offs? Good thing most of what I paid for them was counterfeit!”
Third, the game does not run protection rackets or blackmail for profit operations. The gnomes don’t threaten to cut anybody. They may blackmail a customs agent, or burn down some buildings and then open a fire insurance agency, but they never do “pay us or else”. They have more class than that. The game is played with the tone of a continuing joke, it is not something to take too seriously.
Forth, it is the “or else” clause for everyone gets a taste, and no one complains about their cut. If someone is complaining to the point where it may cause a problem, pressure is brought to bare to remind him of what a good thing we have going here, would you rather be sweeping floors? If that doesn’t work, then he may be “cut” out of jobs for a while. If he still complains….oh well. By the same token, if someone is suspected of cheating the game, then a quiet investigation is started, followed by a louder investigation, and if the suspect does not offer a defense or “correct his accounting error”, or otherwise make amends….oh, well. It is also the “or else” clause for itself. If one player kills another with out just cause, ….oh, well. This rarely happens, and it is usually “over a dame”.
Finally, it means that they don’t cut and run on each other. Oh, some running away may occur, but if someone gets caught, once things have settled, bribes are paid, lawyers are hired, merks are contracted for the jail break…..they aren’t left to rot if it can at all be helped.
Erasers and Fixers.
In any operation, sometimes things go wrong.
If a source of a problem for the game’s enterprises is determined to be criminal or monstrous, then an eraser is sent to “make it go away”. Erasers do not exist. They are the gnomes that go bump in the night, or control a pet that does. The problem goes away, suddenly and quietly.
If a source of a problem is unknown, or is administrative, or could best be fixed though less drastic means, then a Fixer is sent. Fixers act openly, or at least have the potential to. They usually have a public identity and some form of authority or official authorization to act. Though not limited to, they often use legal or semi legal means to solve the problem. They often take a non-combatant unaware of the game along on their missions such as an accountant, engineer, or cleric to give an added air of legitimacy and to provide cover. So while the cleric is tending to the wounded caravan drivers, the fixer is organizing a posse, and covertly torturing the captured ork for the location of his camp, and has his body guard watching the freight master for any indication that he is working for the orks….
Sometimes the game dispatches fixers to solve problems that do not affect the game in particular, but rather trade or gnomes in general. Also, a fixer may use his “authority” as he sees fit on his travels to improve the gnome reputation.
Headquarters.
The game is run out of social clubs and guild halls under various names in various places.
One such club is the Orleans Society. It is styled as a Gnome Entrepreneurs’ Gentleman’s’ Club for Societal Improvement. The membership requirements are nebulous and Byzantine. It promotes social causes, runs an orphanage, and gives out plaques to gnome philanthropists. If the honored gnome is not in the game, then the award comes with an honorary membership, but that only gets you into the dining hall and the smoking room. The upper chamber, lower chamber, and the secrete passages connecting the two are for full members only and where the game operates it’s affairs.
(parts about Immortals and mistrusted gnomes are campaign specific)
The truth about gnomes (cont)
(The source of this is a combination of the histories of the Mafia & Labour Unions, medieval and renaissance trade and skill guild operations, Wall Street history including Berni Madolf, The Protocols of the Elders Of Zion forgery, Mexican migrant worker documentation methods, Gypsy practices, The Acorn scandal, the Feragi Rules of Acquisition, The Sting, and a couple of episodes of Bonanza.)
A small group of gnomes run “the game”, and are careful to keep its existence secret from even other gnomes. The game runs on 6 basic principles.
1) Limited Liability Corporations (the shell game)
2) Multiple Identities (Funny how the big folk have trouble telling us apart when we change hats?)
3) What ever works.
4) Don’t be any more evil than everyone else.(often worded “don’t be the most evil guy in a sticky deal”)
5) Maintain the gnome reputation.
6) Everyone gets a taste, no one complains about their cut, no one gets cut. (There are several understood “or else”’s in this)
Examples:
1: (LLCs)Sorry, we’re not the gnomes that own the docks, we’re just the ones with the administration sub contract. You don’t want to talk to them anyway, you want to talk to the New Accounts officer for the (gnomish) accounting firm that handles scheduling for the Brotherhood of Dock Workers. All we do is inspect the docks for damage to report to the Maintenance sub contractor, pay the Harbor Master, and collect slip fees….
2: (MID’s)Ok, let’s go though the check list…Ship name changed to “Eastern Star”?…check!…Paint dry? Well, it will be when we get there…Flying Eastern flag?…Check! ….We’re all in the RED uniforms?…Check!….Bob is dressed as “Captain Jon(v)es”?…Check!…Ok looks like we’re ready to go into NorthPort. Everybody revembor tha vues yha Evestorn axhents! //
There are actually far fewer gnomes in business than the big folk think.
3: (whatever)In one town, the gnomish owned pottery factory is refusing to let the workers unionize as it interferes with the right of individual contracts, and have a goon squad ready to use strikebreaking tactics if needed.
In the next town, the gnomes are organizing a (corrupt) labor union so that they can control the labor at the human owned pottery factory.
In another town, the gnomes are helping to organize a labor union, and help management come to a reasonable contract with it….so the gnomish bank can administrate the pension fund.
What ever works.
4) (Not the most evil)
Wanting to take over a toy contract from a competitor who ships from WestPort to EastPort, the gnomes buy the shipping company that he uses to ship his goods via a non-gnome intermediary. They then heavily insure the ship and cargo, and add an extra out of the way stop to the ship’s route.
Though another intermediary, they hire pirates to capture the ship and steal the cargo, instructing them to “at least spare the cabin boy and leave him adrift in a row boat”. The pirates, who have only been paid a relatively small advance, are then to leave the cargo at one smugglers cove to be picked up by a fence (a gnome privateer who is never seen by the pirates, who sails to NorthPort and sales the cargo), and then go to another to await their cut of the sale of the cargo on the black market. The pirates are told that after receiving their cut that it will be decided if the “heat is off” enough to also sale the cargo ship, or if it would be better just to scuttle it.
A ship from the gnome transit company that carries goods for the gnome trading company (if you are loosing track see first line, they are different gnomes but all part of the game) happens to rescue the cabin boy, also happens to be carrying a roughly equivalent cargo (dolls instead of stuffed dragons, yo-yos instead of hula hoops…) at a slightly better price, and also happens to be going to the same port and pulling into the adjacent slip….and are the first to tell the buyer waiting at the dock that his shipment was taken by pirates…”hey, do you know where we can sale some toys?”//
The gnome shipping company and trading company then rally the merchant community to put a price on the heads of the pirates, and contribute 10% of the pot. Then they send an intermediary to an adventuring company that happens to owe a gnome banker some money, the day after the banker’s ½ ogre collection agent gently reminds them that “interests will start to accrue”. The intermediary offers to give the adventurers the location of the pirates, and to provide a small ship to get them there, for 30% of the bounty. They accept. After the fighting gets hot and heavy, the gnomish privateer swoops in with his heavily armed ship (The Southern Star, with a crew in blue uniforms) , ensuring that all of the pirates die. He claims 50% of the bounty for himself, and the adventurers are not in a position to refuse. He then returns the cargo ship to the shipping company, and also claims the pirate ship.
The insurance company is thrilled that they only have to pay the claim on the cargo. The buyer gives the gnomes the contract. The gnomes offer to buy a share of their competitors business so they can ‘expand their catalog’ (now we have yo-yos and hula hoops). They also make space for the cabin boy in the orphanage of the Gnomish Society for Benevolence, and drop off toys for the kids.
Profits: The toy contract, the profit from the black market sale of the cargo, the insurance money for the cargo, the pirate ship, part of the other trading company, most of the bounty on the pirates, cleared the adventurers’ debt, smiling orphans, and a reputation for community leadership and pirate hunting.
And since they didn’t tell the pirates to “Kill everyone except the cabin boy”, but rather “at least leave the cabin boy alive”, then the gnomes consider themselves less evil than the pirates, and think themselves “good” for getting rid of them.
5) (rep) Gnomes in general (in the game or not) take pains to try to make themselves less distrusted. They will often pay for community improvements such as cobbling a major street, or contributing to the construction of Churches to the Immortals which for the most part, they don’t worship. “The new chapel is a thing of High Art that improves the city that we all live in.” (it was common for Jewish groups to contribute to the construction of Christian cathedrals in Europe) Gnomes in the game do this even more so.
They set up orphanages, sponsor hospitals, and make sure that gnomish businessmen are considered, in general, less corrupt than others. If there isn’t enough of a base of legitimate gnome operations in an area to safely conduct cons and scams, then they will set a few up. These firms only do legitimate business and keep impeccable records. After the firm has established a reputation as a “honest Gnome run enterprise” they will often bring in a non gnome partner to run it, with the gnomes becoming silent partners and figureheads in the operation. These new partners are often halflings, with the intent that the big folk start to think that short = good. When they do run scams involving wide spread deception, such as ponzi schemes, they use big folk front men, who disappear when the gig is up, and some “gnomes in the know” set them selves up as victims.
Most gnomes not in the Game are completely unaware that the game exists, though a few suspect. Often a legitimate gnome business will have a partner or two who are in the game unknown to the others. In these cases the business itself is run completely honestly, but the “connected” partners will use illegal means to hamper the competition, usually by simple trickery (fake maps, stealing horseshoes, detours, placing fake orders, contaminating goods…..) but sometimes by more devious means (tipping off raiders to shipping schedules, warehouse fires…). These things just don’t seem to happen as often to gnome businesses, so gnomes have a reputation for being lucky, a reputation that the game actively attempts to maintain.
Another reason for the luck reputation is that the gnomes make their own business luck though a process called “Fadding” . This involves creating demand for an obscure product though salesmanship, flattery, actors wearing the product while other actors “whisper” about how much they want one too, suggestion spells, gifts to celebrities…..Of course only the gnomes, or a gnome backed or supplied retailer has any, supplies are controlled to never quite meet demand (Toys R Us and Cabbage Patch Kids), and the fad ends as soon as the gnomes sale out, which is always just as competitors are stocked up on a copycat product. (Ok guys, this month it is going to be acorn shaped cod pieces, and next season will be neon paisley print hose for men. In spring the pastel parasols from 2 years ago will come back into style…) Most of the profit made by the game comes not from actual criminal activity, but rather by market manipulation and price fixing. (they own Gnome Depo Tool Supply, and are silent partners in Lowe’s (halfling) Hardware, who everyone assumes are in a competitive death struggle).
They also maintain a good reputation in the criminal underworld by never betraying their contacts and intermediaries. So long as you are directly working for a gnome….
However, not all gnome criminals are in the game.
6) Everyone gets a taste, no one complains about their cut, no one gets cut. (There are several understood “or else”’s in this)
The organization of the game is not hierarchical. It is actually a commune. Accounting officers of trusted members are elected to oversee various accounts, investments, and slush funds, track some details of their various boards of directors on LLCs and Multiple identities, and handle planning and recruitment for various schemes.
Everyone gets a taste. After a scam is over, everyone who worked it gets a cut of something. What this cut is is up the ringleader of the scam, though smart leaders give good cuts so they won’t have trouble finding help for the next operation. If the scam was financed by a slush fund, then the fund is paid back with a little interest. Also, 10 % of the take goes into a joint account held by the game, which invests it and pay dividends to all members on a periodic basis. Residuals are paid to retired members, and the families of deceased members. It is understood that sometimes things just don’t work out, so slush fund money lost in a failed operation is considered a joint lost.
No one complains about their cut. There are various degrees of risk, difficulty, performance, effort, experience, and skill that each member of a crew demonstrates, possesses or is exposed to in the course of an operation. Evaluating the proper reward for this is a subjective process, and is at the sole discretion of the ringleader. Also, some times the take isn’t just cash, so some creative accounting maybe employed. Someone gets the gold, someone gets the candlesticks, someone gets the pirate ship, someone gets a box of hula hoops…..It is understood, that as long as you get something, and that something is more than what you would have got if you spent the day doing honest labor, then you have no right to complain. Sometimes a job goes bust, and the equipment acquired for the job is divvied up. Every ringleader handles the distribution of accents after a job differently. “Hey, wait a minute, I had to pay 50 silver to pay off that guard, I should get that back.” is a legitimate point. “Hey, how come I only get 50 and he gets 5000?” is NOT. You are going to get a dividend as long as you work, and residuals as long as you live anyway.
No one gets cut. This has several meanings.
First, it means that members in the game do not fight each other. This isn’t a thieves guild!
Second, Gnomes are avoided as targets. A company with a couple of gnome partners not in the game may be it if no other targets are available, but the gnomes are not physically hurt. Completely gnome owned business is never targeted, whether they are in the game or not. Individual gnomes, and even gnome corporations may be collateral damage in investment fraud schemes, but only as much as anyone else who invests. Occasionally two players will discover that they inadvertently ran a con on each other. This is treated as a joke, and not a personal insult. “You mean they where cheap knock offs? Good thing most of what I paid for them was counterfeit!”
Third, the game does not run protection rackets or blackmail for profit operations. The gnomes don’t threaten to cut anybody. They may blackmail a customs agent, or burn down some buildings and then open a fire insurance agency, but they never do “pay us or else”. They have more class than that. The game is played with the tone of a continuing joke, it is not something to take too seriously.
Forth, it is the “or else” clause for everyone gets a taste, and no one complains about their cut. If someone is complaining to the point where it may cause a problem, pressure is brought to bare to remind him of what a good thing we have going here, would you rather be sweeping floors? If that doesn’t work, then he may be “cut” out of jobs for a while. If he still complains….oh well. By the same token, if someone is suspected of cheating the game, then a quiet investigation is started, followed by a louder investigation, and if the suspect does not offer a defense or “correct his accounting error”, or otherwise make amends….oh, well. It is also the “or else” clause for itself. If one player kills another with out just cause, ….oh, well. This rarely happens, and it is usually “over a dame”.
Finally, it means that they don’t cut and run on each other. Oh, some running away may occur, but if someone gets caught, once things have settled, bribes are paid, lawyers are hired, merks are contracted for the jail break…..they aren’t left to rot if it can at all be helped.
Erasers and Fixers.
In any operation, sometimes things go wrong.
If a source of a problem for the game’s enterprises is determined to be criminal or monstrous, then an eraser is sent to “make it go away”. Erasers do not exist. They are the gnomes that go bump in the night, or control a pet that does. The problem goes away, suddenly and quietly.
If a source of a problem is unknown, or is administrative, or could best be fixed though less drastic means, then a Fixer is sent. Fixers act openly, or at least have the potential to. They usually have a public identity and some form of authority or official authorization to act. Though not limited to, they often use legal or semi legal means to solve the problem. They often take a non-combatant unaware of the game along on their missions such as an accountant, engineer, or cleric to give an added air of legitimacy and to provide cover. So while the cleric is tending to the wounded caravan drivers, the fixer is organizing a posse, and covertly torturing the captured ork for the location of his camp, and has his body guard watching the freight master for any indication that he is working for the orks….
Sometimes the game dispatches fixers to solve problems that do not affect the game in particular, but rather trade or gnomes in general. Also, a fixer may use his “authority” as he sees fit on his travels to improve the gnome reputation.
Headquarters.
The game is run out of social clubs and guild halls under various names in various places.
One such club is the Orleans Society. It is styled as a Gnome Entrepreneurs’ Gentleman’s’ Club for Societal Improvement. The membership requirements are nebulous and Byzantine. It promotes social causes, runs an orphanage, and gives out plaques to gnome philanthropists. If the honored gnome is not in the game, then the award comes with an honorary membership, but that only gets you into the dining hall and the smoking room. The upper chamber, lower chamber, and the secrete passages connecting the two are for full members only and where the game operates it’s affairs.
