The Clasp

# **The Modern Clasp**

The Clasp is an organization known throughout the land, but for all the wrong reasons. They serve as one of the largest international crime organizations on the whole of Solan. Their exploits include smuggling, theft, racketeering, bribery, drug making and distribution, as well as a host of crimes related to the practice of various black magics. Their redeeming traits are reliability and an abiding loathing for slavery in all its forms. The Clasp does not double cross, the Clasp does not double deal, the Clasp doubles down. Because of this, from Akeyi to Volskad, the Clasp is the preferred escape route for former slaves, one of the few underground organizations guaranteed not to sell them out, and by far the most competent, and in fact many former slaves are recruited to join the Clasp.

They find many different niches in different regions, always securing both a place and a profit for themselves. In Rakshavim the Clasp is one of the few smuggling groups willing to risk the Everblight, and the most reliable among them, entreated by desperate villages and warring kings to break the stranglehold of the Gulthias Groves. The Clasp of Volskad are the premier supplier of exotic reagents and extraplanar materials to the Snow Priestess and her servants as well as the myriad pockets of resistance spread through the wastes, withstanding the Snow Priestess’ threats and torture to reveal their other clients, all it has ever accomplished is a pause in trade with her until she returns to cordiality.

In Akeyi they are the largest supplier of divine relics and forbidden prophecies, sought by cultists and priests, the agents of devils and the lovers of fey. Among Castians the Clasp are the undisputed masters of the drug trade, wound so tightly into society that even the matriarchs of the Spindle Theocracy and Sylair’s Gloaming Court cannot break their grasp.

In Indoria the Clasp take a cut from almost every sale of ancient artifacts, from tapestries woven by dragons to the gleaming goblets of giants. The Arkanosi Clasp are as reliable as the dawn with their prices, the only source of medicinal supplies and weapons not to raise their prices with the tides of war.

Auroria remains the only known continent beyond their reach. Auril’s distant rule has no need for their treasures and trinkets, and most of the various cultures within are so focused on survival that trade is a foreign concept to them. The only major trade center, the Vasti, are too loyal to their queen to allow the Clasp a true foothold in their port.

*By The Deal we abide,*

*And The Clasp provides,*

*~**Popular Rhyme***

# **The First Deal**

The Clasp was founded near the end of the Age of Mists on the isle of Khurz off the coast of Rakshavim by an unlikely trio. A hobgoblin kingpin, a drow smuggler queen, and a rodentfolk drug baron. Their names have been taken by The Fade and the organization's own secrecy, but the reasons for the First Deal remain. When Khurz was first rediscovered during a renewal of intercontinental trade it was flooded with nations competing for its resources, and under the surface the same competition took place between a dozen different criminal groups from every continent. Legends say that the rivers ran red with blood and the roads were clogged with corpses, strangers were greeted with knives as often as a handshake, and even the gods forsook Khurz for a time. Pirates burned ships so often they found no time to sell their loot before they too were burned, gangs of thieves went to war over a single necklace, and the new "godsbreath" crystals proved so addictive that almost all cooks became customers rather than crafters.

In the midst of this haze of greed and bloodlust, three leaders in the underground broke from the cycle, choosing to build towards their future profits. The smuggler queen was the first to reach out, she knew her hidden caches and secret passages were useless without steady suppliers to refill her goods and reliable fences to sell them. The hobgoblin kingpin was the first to respond, his sons and daughters had already paid the price for his territories, at least his grandchildren could inherit a shared empire rather than their own bloody streets. It was the rodentfolk drug baron who made the pact last however, making their promises of rewarded loyalties a reality, and bringing the iron discipline necessary for those first years.

After the success of such collaboration was established, the newly-formed Clasp used their profits to subtly influence their contacts in the nations around them to move towards peace. A devotee of Leira the Mistmaiden, the smuggler queen bribed diplomats to open negotiations, seduced princes and duchesses to convince them of the merits of foreigners, and assassinated officers too consumed by vengeance or ambition to settle for peace. To their competitors in the underground, the honor-bound kingpin offered a choice: join the Clasp or be buried by them. To the people of Khurz the cunning rodentfolk baron earned their trust by setting limits to their consumption of drugs to avoid burnout, certifying the quality of his goods with honest inspections, and never ratting out his customers.

A business-friendly peace established, the Clasp looked out at Solan, seeing a world brimming with conflict and opportunity, and set sail in search of Deals to be sealed.

# **The Deal**

The Clasp prides itself in always delivering on its end of the bargain, no matter the cost. To the Clasp, failure is not an option, though deals that prove to be impossible at first might be interpreted very legalistically or might be resolved in an unexpectedly creative way. Likewise, the Clasp punishes extremely harshly those who do not hold their end of the bargain. The Clasp always takes its due, one way or another, plus an additional punishment for deal-breaking, and then usually adds the transgressor to a blacklist so that they find it impossible to make another deal with the Clasp again.

# **The Claps Provides**

Not only does the Clasp deliver on its deals because it treats them as binding, but it also takes care of its members, ensuring they and their families are taken care of economically and are kept safe from retaliation from the Clasp's enemies. Especially in small towns where the Clasp has a great deal of influence, 'the Clasp provides' is a saying that reaches an almost religious level of reverence for the organization, since more than once the Clasp has committed forces and supplies to protect an area it controls from monsters or natural disasters.