The Darkeners

**The Darkeners**

The Darkeners are a sect
of adherents to what they call “The Dark Man”, a being colloquially known to be
a major player among organized crime within the major cities of Urats and
potentially beyond.  Colloquially, The
Darkeners are devoted to thievery, assassination, human trafficking, and
more.  Rumors proliferate about them, and
some citizens hold a secret suspicion or two about each other and their
allegiance to The Dark Man.  Membership
is kept secret and not generally advertised.
Individual Darkeners are said to recognize each other through a series
of coded phrases and greetings used in normal conversation, so that only
another Darkener might be able to recognize the deeper messages hidden within
their seemingly typical speech.  These
stories, however, are all anecdotal, as a Darkener would never admit to their
affiliations in public.  Most Darkeners
never meet another, at least not obviously, and adherents are summoned to visit
The Dark Man only individually.  Rumors
fly about The Dark Man wildly, some say he is made of shadow, others that he is
a black dragon in human shape, others that he is a being of infernal influence,
and yet others state he is all of humanoid vice made flesh by some
deeply-corrupted sorcery.  The reality of
it is, though, that no-one knows.
Darkeners don’t share their affiliations, or their secrets.  What is known of them may or may not be true,
but every rumor seems to eventually hold a grain of truth.

**Theories about the identity of The Dark Man**

These rumors were recorded by a half-elf named Eliros Liamaer in Austberg, where he traveled to in order to satisfy his conspiratorial fascination with The Darkeners. He later was paid a visit and beaten, learning that it was not proper etiquette to go around asking about a bunch of murderers in crowded bar rooms. Luckily he wrote down some of the possibilities that were presented to him, as he was afterward unable to speak for a very long time.

A drunk man claimed to know that The Dark Man was one of the secret identities of Vecna.

A vagrant, plied with a hot meal and a cold drink, claimed to have seen The Dark Man once, near the docks, standing on the rocky outcroppings to the south and watching the bay.

A barmaid claimed that The Dark Man was some sort of evil wizard, who could teleport incredible distances, and always appeared in places where disaster was about to strike.

A drunken half-elf with a scruffy beard claimed he had hidden behind a bush one night while he watched The Dark Man climb out of a well in a small farming town.

A man who would not show anyone his face and wore a mask believed that the Dark Man came from a city on another continent called Gandahar.

A halfling began crying at the mention of The Dark Man and The Darkeners and would not stop, even after repeated attempts to console her. She would not elaborate on why.

An elven man became apparently offended at the suggestion that he may know anything on the subject, and claimed he would summon the City Watch if the inappropriate line of questioning continued.

An elf, apparently a drug addict, claimed to know that The Dark Man was actually the Grand Patrician of Austberg.

An off-duty watchman claimed that The Dark Man was the king of the Wymore Empire.