The Tarnar Syndicate, called the Eels, is the black market of Argentum and the main conduit for illegal trade in the city. Nobility and officials hate them as thieves and murderers, and people who need something done outside the law go to them anyway.
Thieves’ Cant
The Syndicate marks messages in a written cant. Luma drew Tarnar cant symbols on a tavern table in wine during Session 2, and dissolved them afterwards with alchemist’s solvent.1
The Syndicate writes messages in a fairly complex code that looks like Common but makes no sense, meant to hide information in plain sight. The Stone Shields and the Order of the Lantern have never managed to crack it. Luma, a linguistics expert, decoded a short message in about half an hour, and recognized its writing from Syndicate marks she had seen on pipes underground.2 A note she decoded was signed with an eel eating its own tail.2 The Syndicate also goes by the Eels, so that fewer people know it is there.2
Members
Miles Quickstep is suspected of ties to the Syndicate. High Inquisitor Westra Saelis told the party so during the interview on 25 Coldrise, 1714 PSF.1 Silas Wintermist, called the Ferryman, works with the Syndicate and speaks for it in a negotiation.3
Dead Drops
The Syndicate kept three dead drops for Iva, one for each part of the week, where things could be left at any time: a potted plant, an old manhole cover over a caved-in stretch of sewer, and an alley between a dive bar and an apartment building. A Light Warden willing to work with the Syndicate was an important asset to it.4
Forgery
The birth certificate Iva carried as a Light Warden was forged by the Syndicate’s best forger, who does nothing else.4
Favors
The Syndicate deals in favors owed. In the sewers beneath Argentum, Silas offered the party a choice between letting Miles go and being owed a favor, or turning him in and owing one.3 The party turned Miles in.3 Hazel later argued against asking the Syndicate for help, since asking a favor of someone you already owe is hardly ever a good idea.4 She also held that refusing payment from the Syndicate would not free the party of the favor they already owed it.2
History
Session 9
Iva checked her dead drops on 29 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, and found them empty but recently checked.4
Session 11
One of Iva’s dead drops held a note on 30 Coldrise, 1714 PSF, saying only “we’ll be in touch”.5
Session 12
Behind a cupboard in the sealed vaults beneath the Silver Archives, the party found a Syndicate cache on the Vigil of Remembrance, 1714 PSF: rations, silk rope, torches, ten platinum dragons, and a coded note.2 The note gave a route from a locked iron door much deeper into the vaults, and ended “Locks don’t turn, but stone does”.2 The party copied the note and took the dragons.6 Luma concluded that the cache was a dead drop prepared in case the Syndicate ever needed to send someone down, not something left for them.2 The same day, Iva admitted that she had written to the Syndicate asking for work, and Temerity told her she had to get untangled from it.2
Session 13
The party followed the note’s route beneath the Lantern Wards on the Vigil of Remembrance, 1714 PSF (see Syndicate route).6 A whistle rigged to the storeroom door would have warned the Syndicate of anyone who picked its lock the wrong way, and a tripwire and a covered pit lay further on.6 Apart from the whistle, every trap on the route was basic.6 The route ended at the Fardrimm Gate, where someone had used up a Tarnar Turnstone on the wall.6 Luma asked why the Syndicate had a map to the place at all.6
Session 14
On the night of the Vigil of Remembrance, 1714 PSF, one of Iva’s dead drops held a note calling her to a meeting at sunset on 2 Nightdeep (see Dead-Drop Note (Handout)).7 It asked her to bring a familiar face, which suggested the Syndicate did not know what she looked like.7 Iva had asked the Syndicate for work, and took the note to mean they had found some.7
Session 15
Silas Wintermist met Iva at sunset on 2 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, and asked her to help break Miles Quickstep out of prison and get him out of the city. Iva D’Aquino would appear to die in the attempt, ending the investigations into her.8 Iva was not the Syndicate’s only contact inside the Order of the Lantern.8 Silas has people skilled in alchemy and in illusion.8 Iva agreed to the one job, and was to watch her dead drops for the plan.8
Session 16
Amber Deepdraft warned Luma on 3 Nightdeep, 1714 PSF, that working with the Syndicate was not a good idea, as she had on the day they first met. She had not known what a Tarnar Turnstone was, and had assumed the Syndicate used forbidden magic.9