Crime does pay, but sometimes in blood. This lesson is learned by criminals across the Wraith Coast, from the syndicates to the vicious guilds of the underworld to feral gangs. You and your fellow characters are members of a close-knit gang of criminals, ruffians, and thugs motivated by the promise of coin or blood for blood’s sake.
Downtime: Crime Spree
As a downtime activity (/dt-outlaws) you can launch a reckless spree of thieving, picking pockets, looting, and hijacking goods from caravans or your local area. For each day spent on a crime spree, you choose and roll a d4, d6, d8, or d10 and earn 10 gp times the result of the roll in stolen goods. However, if any die roll is a 1, or if the total of the roll during the crime spree is higher than the character’s Wisdom modifier + proficiency bonus, that member has slipped up and drawn the attention of local law enforcement. After securing funds in exchange for loot, the character is incarcerated for 1 day for every 10 gp worth of stolen goods.
Company Accomplishments
Your company’s prestige increases whenever you prove your criminal superiority through acts such as the following:
- Destroying a rival gang and claiming its territory
- Breaking someone out of prison
- Stealing an item worth at least 1,000 gp
- Smuggling illegal goods worth at least 1,000 gp
Prerequisites
Each member of an Outlaws company must have at least one of the following:
- The Criminal or Pauper background
- Proficiency in Deception, Intimidation, Sleight of Hand, or Stealth
- Proficiency with thieves’ tools
Tier 1 : Local Hoods
At this tier, your company is a small-time outfit with a limited scope of operations. You might be a group of bandits who prey on a stretch of highway, a gang that holds sway over a small village, or an outfit that operates out of a single district in a city. You might be part of a larger criminal organization looking to expand its interests or small-time hoods just beginning your careers as outlaws.
Benefits
Hideout. Your company has a hideout watched over by a network of gang affiliates who keep an eye out for dangerous rivals and the law. When a threat is spotted, you are quickly alerted. The hideout itself consists of a meeting area, an administrative office, sleeping chambers, hidden cells, and several secret exits or hidden passages.
Thieves Cant. You the ability to communicate with Thieves Cant.
Criminal Info. You can hit the streets to gather information about potential targets in the vicinity of your hideout. Collecting information can involve numerous approaches, such as buying drinks in a local tavern, bribing corrupt city guards for information about new prospects, or scouting nearby businesses for vulnerabilities.
Gathering information about a possible score is a downtime activity (a special use of the /dt-carousing activity).
At this tier, your targets are usually minor scores of coins or goods worth no more than 100 gp.
Tier 2 : Criminal Outfit
Your company’s criminal operations expand in scope and notoriety. Contacts in your territory begin to offer information about more lucrative scores, local businesses know that they’ll have to pay you to stay on your good side, and crooks looking to join a gang come calling. Smaller gangs try to avoid getting on your bad side, while larger ones might seek you out for support on more lucrative heists.
Benefits
Improved Criminal Info. At this tier, the targets your company learns about from the Criminal Info benefit increase in value. After successfully gathering information, you can learn of targets worth up to 200 gp.
Protection Racket. Local vendors provide you with a steady income of 100 gp in protection money each month.
New Recruits. Up-and-coming criminals seek out your gang to prove their worth. You gain 1d4 criminal hirelings you can use to gather information, shake down businesses for money, or take the fall for your crimes. Hirelings gained by this benefit must have a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower.
Tier 3 : Underworld Bosses
At this tier, your gang has become one of the foremost criminal outfits in your home region. Other criminal outfits defer to you out of respect, as any hostile action is perceived as an attack on a potentially city-spanning criminal empire.
Benefits
Eyes on the Street. Information about targets the company learns about from the Criminal Info benefit arrives daily, citizens of your territory treat gang members like visiting nobles, and your protection money increases to 200 gp each month.
Additional Hideouts. No matter where you and other members of your gang travel inside your territory, lesser criminal operations provide you with safe and secure hideouts. Each such location is equivalent to your company’s tier 1 Hideout benefit.
Better Recruits. An increasing number of skilled criminals seek out your company in order to join it. The number of hirelings you can have increases by 1d4, and your hirelings can have a challenge rating of 1 or lower.
Tier 4 : Crime Syndicate
At this tier, your company is one of the most powerful criminal organizations in your kingdom, and your influence has spread to most developed communities across the kingdom in the form of small chapter houses.
Benefits
Gang Tithes. Lesser gangs pay a percentage of their scores to you, amounting to 500 gp each month.
Premier Recruits. Top-level criminals seek out your company. The number of hirelings you can have increases by 2d4, and these NPCs can have a challenge rating of 2 or lower.