Crafting Motif 33: Thieves Guild Style

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By Kari Coin-Counter

Do you know what's a good way to waste money? ...Actually, you probably know a lot of ways to waste money. Let me rephrase that: do you know a good way to save money? I'll tell you–buy in bulk, and have any manufactured goods made to specific standards. Economy: that's the reason Thieves Guild arms and armor need to follow the specifications below.

\n\nAXES\n\nThieves Guild axes are sturdy, made to open up both armored opponents and reluctant doors. Also, note the way our axes have hooked blades so they can act as prying tools when necessary. The Guild triple-dagger symbol appears in the center of the head. \n\nBELTS\n\nActually, the Guild is not all that finicky about belts, so long as they're strong and made of top-grain hide, whether from cattle, welwa, or kagouti. Design of the metal buckle is less important than the fact that it shouldn't be shiny. \n\nBOOTS\n\nGuild boots should be of sturdy leather, with stiff uppers but soft and flexible soles. Get a pair from the supplier and test them yourself: if they creak or rustle when you walk, they're not suitable for the Thieves Guild. \n\nBOWS\n\nA Thieves Guild bow should be of dense but springy ash or yew, powerful enough to drop a guard at medium range. The front of the limbs should be faced with (dull) metal sheathing for parrying purposes. Arrowheads should be steel, but once again, not shiny: you don't want a glint from your arrow to betray your position as your draw down on your target. \n\nCHEST PIECES\n\nOur cuirasses are constructed of overlapping layers of articulated tooled leather, well-oiled to keep the armor both flexible and silent. Heavier versions will be faced with light steel plates to protect critical areas, but the metal must be matte and dullish. A round boss with the three-bladed Guild symbol is to appear on both chest and upper back. \n\nDAGGERS\n\nThe official Guild dagger is a double-edged stabbing weapon with a broad bladeâ€”almost a short sword. The flaring three-bladed Guild symbol at the hilt serves as a crossguard. \n\nGLOVES\n\nThieves Guild gloves may look like warrior's gauntlets above the wrist, but the fingers must be sheathed in soft kid or chamois so as not to interfere with the delicate manipulation so critical to thieving. \n\nHELMETS\n\nWe're thieves, so we don't wear steel pots on our heads: metal helmets are noisy, shiny, and would impair our vision. We want a nice, flexible, dark leather cowl, with a feature-concealing mask covering the lower half of the face. \n\nLEG GREAVES\n\nGuild greaves are nothing fancy, just gaiters of dark oiled leather with attachment points for dull steel overplates. As with the rest of the armor, they mustn't creak during movement. \n\nMACES\n\nA Thieves Guild warhammer doubles as both weapon and tool: the heavy, flat head is backed with a spike that can also serve as a crowbar. The three-bladed Guild symbol should appear on both sides of the hammer head. \n\nSHIELDS\n\nDeciding to encumber oneself with a shield can be a difficult decision for a thief, so we allow a fair amount of variation is both shape and size: anything from a medium round shield up to a full kite shield is acceptable. The Guild symbol should appear in the center on a (rather large) round boss. \n\nSHOULDER ARMOR\n\nThe fact is, thieves often run away, and when you're running away you tend to get hit on the shoulders. So for us, shoulder armor is not a good place to economize. We want multiple layers of thick, articulated leather on our pauldrons, with buckle points for adding additional layers of non-shiny metal. Don't skimp. \n \nSTAVES\n\nThieves Guild spell staves are pretty low profile, of dark hardwood with a finial in the shape of our familiar three-bladed symbol. It's a good idea to add metal prongs to the foot so the staff can help add stability when thieving on uncertain surfaces. \n\nSWORDS\n\nA thief doesn't really want to close with an opponent (except by surprise), so our Thieves Guild swords are broad, double-edged affairs made for slashing so as to keep an enemy at bay. As with the daggers, our flaring three-bladed Guild symbol provides a crossguard at the haft.

AXES

We have a number of those axes with the double-crescent blades down in the water-level warehouse. They're very similar to what I sold the Iron Wheel; let's equip our own axe-wielders with those arms.

BELTS

That shipment of heavy wool sashes we got from Rihad will do fine as belts: just put a round metal boss on front to cinch it through, and hang metal tassets at the hips for the more heavily-armored guards.

BOOTS

The basic goat-leather boots shipped in from Senchal ought to do fine: we have plenty of them, and nobody looks at a guard's feet anyway. But make sure they have good quality straps at the ankle to attach to the bottom of the greaves.

BOWS

We're arming town guards here: they don't need to shoot arrows at battlefield ranges, so there's no point in giving them powerful (and expensive) composite bows. Simple self bows will do fine–and as a matter of fact, we just got a ship load of those from Velyn Harbor!

CHEST PIECES

It was smart to buy out that entire shipment of mix-and-match layered cuirass pieces from that forge that went out of business in Satakalaam. We sold most of them to the Iron Wheel, but there are enough pieces left over to equip our own Abah's Watch guards.

DAGGERS

Redguard blades–swords and daggers–are just the best, even simple, relatively plain stabbers like those crates of used weapons we got from the school at Leki's Blade. They may have been forged as practice blades, but they're none the less lethal for that. Make sure every one of our guards has one of those simple curved daggers.

GLOVES

When we bought those Satakalaam cuirasses, I got them to throw in two crates of matching gauntlets constructed along similar lines: a sturdy leather base that supports layers of mix-and-match plates mounted on top. Those are good combat gloves; it's almost a shame not to sell them. But the guards must have gauntlets!

HELMETS

We sold the Iron Wheel three crates of those turbaned conical helmets from Gilane. I think we have one crate left, so let's issue those to the Abah's Watch guards. If we run out of the conical helms, give them metal skullcaps to wear under the turbans.

LEG GREAVES

The greaves we're using follow the same design principle as the gauntlets and cuirass: they're heavy top-grain leather lined with strap-points for buckling on layered metal plates. Leave off the metal plates for the guards working beats on the docks–if they fall in the harbor, we want them to be able to get out again.

MACES

We got the maces from the same forge as the axes and shields, and they have that same double-crescent motif, in this case as the shape of the sharp flanges on the maces' heads. That double crescent: I wonder what it means?

SHIELDS

Even after equipping the Iron Wheel, we still have a lot of those round shields faced with the double-crescent design. Put a slightly different tint on them and issue those to our guards.

SHOULDER ARMOR

We have a fair number of sets of pauldrons from Satakalaam that match the cuirass and gauntlets–heavy leather with attachments for overlapping metal plates. In for a copper, in for a drake: might as well give those to the Landing guards as well.

STAVES

In the warehouse at the outer harbor you'll find a round dozen spell-staves topped with double-crescent finials. That ought to be enough to equip our spellcasting officers, and as a bonus they match the design on the axes, maces, and shields.

SWORDS

We got both one-handed and two-handed swords from the school at Leki's Blade, and from their quality and condition you'd never know they'd been used as practice blades by students for years. Redguards take care of their swords like nobody else.