Calmorian Way
The Calmorian Way is a well organised and very well connected grey and black market organisation that primarily operates out of Abbatchtka.
Description
A lot of goods and services are required at times when they might otherwise be seen to be not politically expedient. As experts in the logistical nightmare that can surface when there are issues regarding ownership of goods and the location thereof, the Calmorian Way utilises a well practiced methodology that gets what they want. A less sophisticated organisation might call this thievery or mob behaviour, but the Calmorian Way has standards.
Current Activity
The Calmorian Way is rumoured to still be active and working out of a location in the midlands of Abbatchtka, but confirmation of any activity in the area of Tor Valnari cannot be corroborated.
History
Founded many centuries ago as a thieves cooperative, the Way has been active on the Abbatchtkan continent ever since. What started out as a small enterprise in Calmore and Spinner's Fell, soon became the leading organised criminal network in the world and was feared whenever it was mentioned in popular culture. A systemic organisation that prides itself on its own secrecy and trust in its associates, it has been led by a personage known as Alsander Maplewood for many decades.
Since its inception the Way has been slow to claim responsibility itself for its own achievements, instead allowing public opinion to weave its own tales of derring-do and crime across the world. It is true that the Way were involved in the evacuation of the residential population of Calmore and Ettinsmore during the dragon attacks that destroyed both towns during the adventures of The Joeshoes; that the Way were instrumental in the procurement of various artefacts that were useful in the defeat of Ser Traintel and Tiamat.
Organisation
The Way is thought to operate in plain sight and with the tacit approval of the majority of major legal institutions on the continent of Abbatchtka. Most new recruits are found through a talent spotter known as a Waymarker, who often pulls double duty as a fence for the group. After an appropriate task has been accomplished, the Waymarker may involve the potential recruit in a grander scheme, often involving the choice between greed and the greater good of the Way. The correct choice will be noted, and the recruit will be inducted into the organisation and given appropriate work or options on work by a taskmaster known as the 'Farer. Most of the time the work is done in secret, with the Way managing to stay out of the public view; this has led to the mystique of the Way being preserved as that of a Mafia, or a bogeyman, without the true understanding that the organisation bends international law enough to provide the grease for the wheels. When secrecy is not an option, or the high ranking members of the Way need to be involved directly, there has been historical precedent that the entirety of the group use the same name - Alsander - to provide some smokescreen to the individual in question.
After the events of Campaign 1 it is unclear how the organisation has changed; it is believed that the current leadership has returned to the secrecy of their original organisation.
The group operates in small cells of interconnected thieves, fences and barkers. Identification of members is through a series of call-and-answer phrases, or tic-tac signs known to the general public as a Cant.
Alleged Members of the Calmorian Way
- Alsander Nymes
- Corriander Heretofore
- Seraphine