For hundreds of years, the city of Rastonia has been under the de facto rule of three guilds of varying legitimacy: The Moneylenders, the Shadow Guild, and the Crafters’ Guild. Each of the guilds is headed by a vampire, the three of which make no attempts to hide their nature.

The Moneylenders is headed by Lord de Blays, and as the name implies it is a guild of bankers. The guild’s reach is far and as a result its coffers deep, for it is actually quite active all throughout the country and neighboring states as well. A moneylender agent can be found in every large city and many smaller ones as well, and offer travelers a safe and convenient way to store and transfer funds. They also make many investments, including backing both business ventures and exploration. Of the three vampire lords, de Blays schemes the least and seems more or less content to run an honest trade.

The Shadow Guild, headed by Lord Marchant, is well known to be involved in many highly-illegal activities, but it continues to exist because it would be incredibly difficult to oppose. Marchant has spies everywhere, it seems, and if he cannot bribe you he’ll kill you. The Shadow Guild facilitates everything from gambling to protection rackets to slave trading.

Lady Puchot of the Crafters’ Guild originally hailed from Shentreau. Her background is less a mystery than the other two vampires; it’s known that she was one of the first great artists to emerge from the city. Her art gained her the attention of another vampire, and thus gained her her immortality. The Crafters’ Guild reaches out to artisans of all types and has established trade schools in some of the larger cities. Lady Puchot herself seems nice, and is quite lovely, but she gives off an intensely ominous vibe. No one can quite put their finger on it, but any who meet her immediately get the feeling that she has some great scheme working.

Each of the guilds is quite wide-spread, and so many find it odd that the three would all be based in an otherwise-unassuming city such as Rastonia. This leads many to believe that there is some connection among the vampires, but if there is it is unclear.

Encounters with The Vampire City

Lady Puchot, having heard about a wonderful new talent in Shentreau, could hire the PCs to bring her the artist known as “M.”

The PCs find a gang of thugs harassing an old woman who runs a pottery stand. After sending them off, the thugs warn them that they’ve incurred the wrath of The Shadow Guild. Sure enough, they soon find themselves being targeted by thieves, leg-breakers, assassins and worse.

Lord Marchant hears about a particularly daring and skillful bit of thievery performed by one of the PCs, and invites the character to Rastonia. Marchant wants to recruit him, and will not take no as an answer.

Despite relatively sophisticated magical techniques, someone is forging counterfeit letters of credit and defrauding The Moneylenders of large sums of gold. Lord de Blays hires the PCs to find out who’s doing it, how, and to put a stop to it by any means necessary.