Underworld Organizations

After the assassination of Boris the Beast, Craven’s criminal underworld has never been more fractured, with dozens of minor gangs rising and falling through its ranks at any given time. However—whether through strategy, scare tactics, or sheer dumb luck—the groups mentioned below seem to have the most staying power, in a society that’s dominated by freedom fighters and genuine crime syndicates (see The Fireflies and The Hexers, respectively).

In the South Quarter, poverty and superstition intermingle to create a unique sense of shared suffering that actually brings its communities together, rather than drive them apart. So, the gangs found there are an exception rather than the rule. In fact, after a series of unfortunate events, both of the following groups are on the verge of vanishing. The Vultures, who were mostly thieves and contract killers, had all but one of their members butchered, and the Goon Squad, a street gang of goblinoid miscreants, suffered a similar fate after they accidentally conjured an aspect of the Grim Reaper himself using a stolen deck of magical cards.

In the West Quarter, where Boris originally rose to power, the struggle for supremacy has reached its fever pitch with three groups in particular. The first, most well funded of these are the Monarchs, who currently prevail as the last drug cartel in the city — using the Royals Pub in Stonegarden to preside over their empire in decline. The second, most ambitious of the West Quarter gangs are the Sea Dogs, a gambling and smuggling ring of dockworkers who are on a trajectory toward taking all of Westerly. The third and final of these gangs are a small group of ex-convicts known as the Whitecaps, who run a protection racket and underground fighting ring out of an upscale tavern called the Velvet Ditch.

In the East Quarter, a gang called the Dragon’s Maw reigns supreme, for they are unparalleled in number and allegedly receive financial backing from the Hashibiras — whether their House matriarch condones it or not. Also known simply as the Maw, these Hashibira underlings, both current and former, have been brought together under the united cause of restoring their House to its “former glory” as a crime syndicate of imperial descent. The Maw are as brutal as they are cunning, and nobody is quite sure who leads them, though there are rumors that one of the Hashibira family’s original patriarchs—a dragonborn by the name of Sabe Hashibira—survived the Syzygy and seeks to regain his sovereignty.

In the North Quarter, due to the presence of Fort Zenith and the Ordiner, organized crime as a whole has trouble finding a foothold without being wiped off the face of the Material Plane. However, one organization somehow manages to keep a stranglehold over its meager territory, but not without great effort and blood foaming through gritted teeth: The Warmongers. Composed primarily of orcish fanatics and berserkers, these savage warriors fuel their trance-like fury with a highly addictive drug called Rage, which neither Crownsguard nor private investigators are able to trace back to a particular dealer.