The Thieves' Guild in
Pells Hold
is an ancient organisation almost as old as the city itself but has fallen into decline in recent years. The reasons for this
decline are many and are due to the changing nature of the city and its power structures but may be listed as follows
- Rival organisations have grown up and the Guild have lost their near-monopoly on crime.
- The Guild now lack any effective enforcers. They lost many in brutal street wars as the rival gangs emerged and those that survived deserted the Guild
for better offers.
- Recent Guild heads frittered away the common reserves of the Guild leaving them short of the gold they needed to compete with the newer gangs.
- The Guild have lost the patronage of the wealthy who needed arms' length illegal activities carried out. Many such indivduals are said to have a
direct stake in rival gangs.
- In recent years the houses of the nobles have greatly increased their level of security, employing not only extra guards but also magical defences. As a
result the Guild's members have reluctantly come to the conclusion that such lucrative targets are no longer worth the risk.
- New recruits are scarce due to the competition of both rival gangs and the
Geogoths
The Guild have now become something of a niche organisation specialisation in crimes which require a high degree of skill such as forgery and
lockpicking and their most lucrative targets have become the wealthy merchants who live outside the Nobles' Quarter.
Although in decline numerically the Guild are still proud of their standards and many deplore the often crude methods of their rivals. They
also recognise that the Watch are in an eerily similar position to themselves - dependent on middle-aged professionals who take pride in their job
and refuse to listen to the lure of better money elsewhere.