Wayfarers' Union
| Wayfarers' Union | |
|---|---|
| Alignment: | Varies |
| Type: | Arcane services |
| Members: | Teleportation specialists |
The Wayfarers' Union is an organization of spellcasters specializing in using teleportation for commercial transportation.
Description
"These spellcasters specialize in travel magic and offer their services for a price. Community and royal officials use members of the Union when traveling on official business, as do wealthy patrons who want the best transport that money can buy. ...
The Wayfarers’ Union prides itself on delivering its customers to any location that can be identified and sufficiently described, although they reserve the right to refuse transportation to a particularly dangerous or imprecise destination."[1]
History
"In lands where arcane spellcasters are common and magic is prevalent, people in a hurry can avail themselves of a particularly useful trick: hiring a wizard to cast teleport to take them where they need to go. The Wayfarers Union grew out of an effort to standardize the rates and procedures for such travel, to provide a medium through which willing spellcasters could earn the high fees associated with such services, and to give paying clients a way to quickly find spellcasters capable of taking them where they want to go."[1]
Members
Though the majority of Wayfarers are arcanists of one stripe or another (many being conjuration specialists), there are also some few clerics who follow a deity whose portfolio includes Travel and grants access to the Travel domain. These are sometimes multiclass bards, rangers, or wizards.[2] While most members are spell casters, there are even some non-arcanists who rely on magical items to be able to participate in the guild.[3]
"Many Boccobites pursue prestige classes that enhance their ability to ... build and concentrate their power in spectacular ways ... using classes like the ... wayfarer guide."[4]
Wayfarers support the Union by giving 200gp upon their initiation to the organizaiton, and in annual dues comprising 20% of the total value of the services they provide through the Union.[1][3]
"Union members must serve on the Travel Board, which is based in the Union’s headquarters (see below) in a given city and deals with clients seeking magical travel."[1]
"The Travel Board oversees the operation of the desk, collects dues from members, and administers the queue of on-call spellcasters. A character serving his stint on the Travel Board can expect union business to require his presence in the office one or two days per week. There’s no reason why Travel Board members can’t keep their place in queue and continue to accept assignments, but in very busy offices it’s considered good form to drop out of queue while serving on the Board."[5]
Structure
Each member of a Travel Board is considered co-equal with each other, and run their local branch essentially autonomously. Although when situations impact multiple branches, "current Board members from all branches can easily arrange to meet (via teleportation) for a quick vote, if necessary."[1]
Alignment
The organization as a whole does not have any particular alignment. Its constituent members may have any alignment, but evil spellcasters must be willing to work the Travel Board, and accept jobs, like any other member. Delivering clients or goods on time to the correct location is paramount, and regarded above alignment.
Headquarters
The Wayfarer's Union has offices in many places, but typically in larger towns or large cities[6][1] where the hustle and bustle bears the kind of commerce which brings their clientele. They own (or rent) offices in the The office is usually just a small space where agents of the Union (non-Wayfarers) man a front desk. There are usually not more than two or three Wayfarers on call at any given time.[5]
In addition to the public front desk, some of the larger branches in major cities may have storage warehouse for shipping items, as well as "staging area for outgoing and incoming teleportation", and quarters for those agents on the Travel Board.[1]
Resources
"Wayfarers have numerous contracts to supply teleportational shipping (only very wealthy clients can afford this sort of luxury), and they also undertake particularly dangerous travel assignments—for a premium (at least double the normal price or more, based on personal danger to the spellcaster)."[1]
"When a client comes in seeking quick transportation, the agents contact whichever union spellcaster happens to be available. A wayfarer can usually be ready to travel within the hour, but it’s not unusual for all the union spellcasters in an office to be away at the same time or booked ahead by other clients, so that additional teleportation services might not be available for several days. Offices in large or prosperous cities tend to have more union spellcasters available, with correspondingly shorter and fewer periods of unavailability."[5]
In Living Greyhawk
 | This section contains content from the Living Greyhawk organized-play campaign. |
Some regions in Living Greyhawk gave access to the "Wayfarer Guide"[7][8] prestige class. Some are:
- Bandit Kingdoms—Outer Circle practitioners at Hellstone Tower or Arcane Blade Masters of the Fanlareshen slyvan elves.
- Duchy of Urnst—the College of Sages and Sorcery gave access to the Wayfarer's Guide prestige class (called "Apporters") to Fellows, Preceptors, Academicians, and Directors. The Wayfarer's Union was not used in the Duchy, but instead Wayfarers were members of the college, and "the College of Sages and Sorcery hires out the services of its Wayfarer Guides. A handful of Apporters are stationed in each of the major cities."[9]
- Dyvers—members of the "Messenger's Guild", and "Walkers" (members of the church of Fharlanghn).
- Keoland—members of the "Teamsters and Wayfarers' Guild", or members of the "National Academy of Wizardry", or a Sea Mages journeyman or higher.
- Nyrond—members of the "Greater Gnomish Union of Apothecaries, Alchemists, Abjurationists, and Astrologers" (AAAA) are sometimes Wafarer Guides).
- Tusmit—the Mouqollad Consortium merchants' guild has Wayfarers as members.
Publication history
The Wayfarer's Union organization originally appeared in Tome and Blood: A Guidebook to Wizards and Sorcerers (2000)[1] with an associated prestige class.[6] It remained primarily unchanged, but was updated in Complete Arcane (2004),[5] still with the associated prestige class.[8] The Union itself was essentially the same, but the updated Wayfarer Guide gained the ability for improved range, allowing them to teleport 50% further than usual. The updated version also no longer had feat prerequisites—Spell Focus, and another older feat from the previous source, Sanctum Spell. It was otherwise unchanged.[10][11]
References
Notes
Citations
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Tome and Blood (2001), p.28.
- ↑ Complete Arcane (2004), p.65.
- ↑ a b Complete Arcane (2004), p.84.
- ↑ "Core Beliefs: Boccob". Dragon #338 (Dec 2005), p.46.
- ↑ a b c d Complete Arcane (2004), p.184-185.
- ↑ a b Tome and Blood (2001), p.70.
- ↑ Tome and Blood (2001), p.70-71.
- ↑ a b Complete Arcane (2004), p.65-68.
- ↑ Living Greyhawk Duchy of Urnst Meta-Org Book (2007) v1 , p.19.
- ↑ Complete Arcane (2004), p.65, 66.
- ↑ Tome and Blood (2001), p.70, 71.
Bibliography
Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index
The Encyclopedia Greyhawkania Index (EGI) is based on previous work of Jason Zavoda through '08, continued by numerous other fans. The EGI article has a list of sources, product names, abbreviations, and a link to the full, downloadable index.
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