You're a guild member of the Guild of All Magic, known to the common folk as the Rune Keepers. You're a seeker, guardian, and unraveller of secrets. The guild takes promising individuals of keen inquisitive intellect, or extreme determination and perseverance, and preferably both. The guild's goal is to preserve and further magic in the world, and it seeks to acquire, or at the very least copy, the world's most hidden secrets. The guild will then decide on whether the knowledge found is beneficial or detrimental to the world, and will either sell their acquisitions or store them in vaults that are protected by traps and wards crafted by the greatest masters among the guild. Guild members make themselves known to each other and the knowledgeable by use of runes, which they display proudly or hide well, depending on where they are, hence their nickname.
Most rune keepers are dwarves and gnomes, but certainly not all. Anyone who is inquisitive enough, but careful not to destroy what they find, is welcome to the guild. Dominant classes within the guild are wizards of abjuration and divination, clerics with the arcana domain, arcane tricksters, and bards, but there are others. The runes, and the secrets, need guarding, tending, and finding. As an adventurer, you're most likely a journeyman to the guild, setting out on your own to find magical lore to sell to the guild. Or, you could still be an apprentice, looking for their first true achievement. Masters of the guild tend to stay put, to manage guild affairs, and rarely set out by themselves anymore, except to lead great expeditions of exploration or research.
Whether you're true to the guild, or are faking allegiance for your own purposes, the guild has taught you. You have extensive knowledge of mundane traps, magical wards, and secretive languages. The guild teaches its members in matters of research and exploration, so as to improve their chances of finding forgotten or new lore. Even if you're simply a warrior who guards for the guild, you probably have theoretical knowledge aplenty to hold your ground in discourse with sharp witted wizards.
- Skill Proficiencies: Arcana, Investigation
- Tool Proficiencies: Thieves' tools
- Languages: One language of your choice
During the first half of your training as a guild novice, you went through the grueling process of solving countless lock puzzles, bypassing many magical wards, and getting your instructions in previously unknown ciphers in boxes with unknown locks and traps. You might have been frustrated or ecstatic about it, but whatever your disposition, you've become good at it. During the second half of your training, you were tasked with setting up all those puzzles, locks, traps, wards, and ciphers correctly for the newer students, with only your own notes made earlier to guide you, and not a mistake tolerated. It was in this period that many guild novices quit the guild, but you've made it through.
Once you've picked a lock, disarmed a trap, bypassed a ward, or deciphered a cipher, your training enables you to reproduce it. You'll need access to the proper skills, tools and spells, or the language you're applying the cipher to. You don't necessarily need to be able to work or cast anything yourself, as long as you have allies who can, and who are willing to follow your direction. You may make minor adjustments at the Dungeon Master's discretion, like swapping lethal acid for cold water in a trap, or the casting of a weak shocking grasp cantrip for a brutal synaptic static spell. Other adjustments could, for example include a larger or smaller area, appliance to a chest instead of a door, or using the same cipher in a different language.
When you've actually copied, with or without adjustments, a certain specific lock, trap, ward, or cipher, you have advantage on any future checks involving locks, traps, wards, and ciphers that use the exact same principle, as adjudicated by the Dungeon Master.
Suggested Characteristics
Seekers
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I love a good puzzle or mystery. |
| 2 | I might fail, but I will never give up. |
| 3 | I like to pretend that I know more than I do. |
| 4 | I just assume that everyone is as enthusiastic about research as I am. |
| 5 | I often refer to obscure lore or knowledge as if anyone would know what I'd be talking about. |
| 6 | When explaining or telling anything to anyone, I present my own opinion as universal truth. |
| 7 | I'm a little paranoid of intellectual theft when it comes to divulging my findings or knowledge. |
| 8 | I've grown accustomed to living within a guild, and am a little uneasy when I'm free to do as I please. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Rubrication. The wise masters know what's best for the world, and should be trusted to care for any magical knowledge found. (Lawful) |
| 2 | Improvement. I wish to discover and divulge great magics for the benefit of all. (Good) |
| 3 | Discovery. I live to find secrets and solve puzzles in the strangest of places. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Acquisition. I mean to use my place in the guild to learn the darkest secrets and use them to further my own ends. (Evil) |
| 5 | Knowledge. I seek to learn about everything and anything magical. (Any) |
| 6 | Preservation. Magic should be protected and furthered for its own sake, regardless of its prescence or absence of usefulness. (Neutral) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | I would die to recover an ancient artifact that was lost long ago. |
| 2 | I will someday get revenge on the master that expunged me from the guild. |
| 3 | The guild is what gave purpose to my life, and I live to serve it to the best of my ability. |
| 4 | I was once saved/hurt by great magic, and I very much appreciate its value/danger. |
| 5 | One day I will get into the deepest of the guild vaults, I simply must know what it holds. |
| 6 | I don't believe in evil magic or magic that's too dangerous. Any magic is but a tool, which can be used for good or evil, and foolishly or responsibly. I seek to make all magic available to the great minds of the world. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I consider practitioners of or beings of magic as a higher form. Mundane lives matter less. |
| 2 | I put too much trust in those who wield power within the guild’s hierarchy. |
| 3 | I consider non-guild members to be unfit for ownership of anything but the simplest magic. |
| 4 | The promise of a magic discovery or acquisition makes me gullible. |
| 5 | I usually don't inform others of any risks involved in finding magic. They have their own brain, after all. |
| 6 | Once I pick a goal, I become obsessed with it to the detriment of everything else in my life. |
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