Twilitespace: Organizations

For the heck of it, here's a couple of organizations native to
Twilitespace:)

Spacefaring Companies 
	Within Twilitespace, there are perhaps hundreds of spelljamming
companies in operation.  The most prominent and important are detailed
below, but any type of ship can be encountered in the sphere.  As
befitting a sphere sitting upon the only flow access to several other
spheres, Twilitespace sees more than its fair share of merchants and
travelers.  Pirates are fairly rare, given the strong militaries of the
Sunflow Republic and the Elvish Fleet, but those pirates that do prey
upon the merchants of the sphere are usually found around the moons of
Chaos.

Grand Endeavors  
	A fairly new company with roots on Ethwold, the Grand Endeavors is
owned by the trader Zarmic, a half elf from Lefton.  He bought a
spelljammer from a captain who was retiring for a quiet life in the
countryside, and began exploring space with it.  After a few initial
trips into space to learn the art of jamming and to discover what
markets are out there, Zarmic loaded his craft down with goods and began
a long career of trading and profiteering.  He normally runs a route
taking him from the Sun's Girdle to Ethwold to the moons of Artimis and
back again, hauling all sorts of goods.  He deals largely with luxury
goods, given the small size of his craft, but also takes passengers for
a small fee.
	Zarmic has hired Kwan Vince, a warrior from the Sunflow Republic, to
captain his vessel.  Zarmic realizes that his own skills as captain
would be useless in a battle, and has instead decided to trust his life
to another.  He has also hired two mages, both natives to wildspace, and
a priest of Celestian to pilot his craft.  The priest's faith is
somewhat strange and unusual to him; he had never realized that deities
exist other than those native to Twilitespace.  He tolerates the
priest's ceremonies and preaching because he is probably the best
helmsman Zarmic has ever meet.
	The Endeavor, Zarmic's pride and joy, is a modified lamprey.  The
grappling ram has been replaced by a blunt ram, and the bridge has been
moved forward to provide extra cabins for the crew.  The cargo hold has
been enlarged by means of a hold of holding, allowing the ship to carry
5 additional tons, for a total of 11 tons.  To improve speed, he has had
the sails magically enchanted to give the ship a +1 bonus to its SR. 
The total crew complement of the Endeavor is 22, of which 15 are
half-elves native to Lefton.  The rest are humans or dwarves that have
been hired sometime on the ship's many trips.
Zarmic: 0-level half-elf male, lawful good.  Zarmic is a middle aged
merchant with the following stats: Str 10, Dex 13, Con 15, Int 14, Wis
14, Cha 13.  Though not a warrior of any skill or mage of note, Zarmic
does have own a cloak of protection +2 (which is always worn) and a
potion of healing.
	The owner of the Endeavor, Zarmic is a successful merchant.  He has
earned a great deal of money from his voyages, and has plans to retire
eventually.  Until then, he takes his ship from port to port, trading in
goods that are rare in many parts of wildspace.  Normally, he is the
captain of the Endeavor, but when battle starts, Kwan takes over.  The
two have developed a close friendship, both recognizing each other
skills.  Zarmic has a wife and two grown children on Ethwold, and will
probably pass the ship on to his eldest son.
Kwan Vince: human male fighter 7th level, neutral good.  A young warrior
from the Sunflow Republic, Kwan has the following stats: Str 16, Dex 12,
Con 14, Int 12, Wis 12, Cha 14.  A warrior of some ability, Kwan has won
the following magical items during his career as a soldier: longsword+2,
studded leather armor +1, potion of levitation, and a ring of jumping.  
	First mate on the Endeavor and close friend to Zarmic, Kwan is the
defacto leader of the ship on the rare occasions it engages in combat. 
Kwan has proven to be a capable leader, managing to pull the ship out of
danger on at least a half a dozen occasions.  He prefers to run from a
fight, not because of personal cowardice but because he does not wish to
cause undo damage to the Endeavor.  He feels responsible for every
crewman on the ship.
	Kwan is a native of the Sunflow Republic, and was the youngest son of a
farmer.  He joined the military when he came of age, eventually winning
the rank of Bloodwing Rider.  His bright career in the military was cut
tragically short when a pirate spelljammer attacked the outpost he was
assigned to.  All of his fellow Bloodwing Riders were cut down by enemy
fire; Kwan was knocked off his bloodwing but survived the fall.  When he
awoke, all of his fellows were dead.  The pirates were dead as well, but
the shock of what happened was too much for the young Kwan.  He
resigned, and sought work on spelljammers.  After working on four
spelljammers as a sailor, he hired onto the Endeavor.  After a couple of
months, he had become close friends with the captain, Zarmic, and was
promoted to first officer after an incident with a pirate ship in which
he took command when the former first officer turned stag.  He is now
happy with his position, and enjoys the company of everyone on the
Endeavor greatly.

Dreamius' Emporium 
	An infamous company operating out of Ethwold, the Emporium deal
exclusively with Cruxan artifacts.  The Emporium usually deals in small,
portable artifacts that are easily smuggled out of the Crux valley to be
sold to art dealers around the spheres.  The owner, Dreamius, is a
ghoulish necromancer and noted tomb robber, has few moral values and
thinks nothing of stealing from the dead, including dead bodies.  His
contacts are equally gruesome; he deals with necromancers, nobles, and
wealthy merchants all wanting relics from the past.  Though he regularly
raids Ethwold's Crux valley, Dreamius is often found at the Rock of
Bral, selling his illicit goods to buyers in that city.
	Dreamius runs his business out of his ship, a modified vipership.  He
has removed the center ballista to gain some internal space and to
create a large space on his deck for bulky goods such a statues.  The
heavy jettison has been downgraded to a medium for the extra range it
gives him, but the other weapons are unmodified.  The catapult has been
magically augmented with a +1 value, but the other weapons are
non-magical.  The Emporium's hull has also been magically enchanted to
repel weapon hits, giving it a +1 bonus to its armor rating (AR 4). 
Because of the lesser weapons, the ship can carry 20 tons worth of
cargo.  The ship has a crew of four humans (in addition to Dreamius), a
flesh golem, and twenty skeletons.  When the ship is not engaged in
battle, the skeletons are stored in the cargo hold along the walls
(sacrificing a mere 1 ton of space).  When the Emporium enters battle,
the skeletons boil out of the hold and swarm over the weapon pits.  The
flesh golem is always on deck, but fully armored in plate armor (which
hides its true nature).  The humans share one of the cabins.  If battle
breaks out, each is assigned to direct the crew of a weapon.
Dreamius human male necromancer 9th level, lawful evil.  Not a physical
man, Dreamius has the following stats: Str 12, Dex 7, Con 12, Int 15,
Wis 12, Cha 10.  This vile man has the following magical items:
scroll-protection from electricity, wand of magic detection, a cube of
force, and a decanter of endless water.
	Dreamius is captain, owner, and chief helmsman of the Emporium.  He is
a greedy, egotistical man who seeks only money.  It was about two
decades ago that he hit upon the idea of tomb raiding, and has become
quite skilled at ransacking the tombs of the dead.  On one of his raids,
he found references to the Crux Valley, a treasure trove of ancient
magic and relics.  Using the wealth he had stolen, Dreamius bought the
Emporium and began his raiding of the ancient tombs of Crux.  Since
then, he has gained a vast fortune of wealth and works for a business
out of Bral that specializes in stolen ancient artifacts.  Dreamius
acquires the artifacts, which he takes to Bral, where they are auctioned
off to the highest bidder.  To help him, he has hired a crack crew of
tomb raiders, thieves, and mages specialized in bypassing traps and
guardians.



-- 
Night Druid