Skip to content

Shadow Network

AX.C.07.05.06

A body organized around doing what the Martial Order and Mercantile Network won't put their names to: fencing, forgery, smuggling, quiet violence. It has no legal existence and prefers it that way. Its value to a member is access to what can't be gotten through legitimate channels, and its price is that it owns a piece of your exposure the moment you use it.

  • Domain: Underground
  • Faction Access (circumstantial, Affiliated Standing or higher): +1D to Deceive when operating under a Shadow Network-supplied cover or arrangement

Standing Drivers

  • Gains: Successfully moving contraband, information, or people without drawing attention; protecting the Network's anonymity; settling a debt cleanly.
  • Losses: Drawing law enforcement or rival attention to a Network operation; talking about the Network to the wrong people; stiffing a deal.

Boons

Fence | Organizational | Stage 1 | Free Action | Self | Session

Once per session, move goods of questionable provenance through the Network's channels, no questions asked, at a fair (not generous) rate, or acquire a specific illicit item the Network plausibly has access to.

Limit: Once per session.

Clean Papers | Organizational | Stage 2 | Primary Action | Self | Long Rest

Once per Long Rest, the Network supplies a set of credentials, cover documents, or a scrubbed record good enough to withstand routine scrutiny (not a deep, targeted investigation).

Limit: Once per Long Rest. If the cover is blown, the Network's exposure is part of what's blown with it.

Called In | Organizational | Stage 3 | Primary Action | Organization-scale | Full Rest

Call on the Network to make a problem disappear: a witness relocated, a debt erased from records that shouldn't exist anyway, a small crew provided for a job the Network has a stake in.

Limit: Once per Full Rest. Costs 10 Standing Points, per AX.C.07.02. The Network doesn't do anything for free, even for its own; this one goes on account.

Adventure Hooks

  • Clean Papers holds up right until the one person who'd recognize the cover for what it is turns up.
  • Called In gets exercised, and the "problem that disappears" was a person someone else in the party cared about.
  • The Network's anonymity depends on a PC's Standing staying quiet, and a rival Faction is actively trying to expose the connection.