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Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica

Golgari Agent

Ability Scores:

Feat:

Skill Proficiencies: Nature, Survival

Tool Proficiency: Poisoner’s kit

Equipment: A Golgari insignia, a poisoner’s kit, a pet beetle or spider, a set of common clothes, and a belt pouch containing 10 gp worth of mixed coins

Languages: Choose one of Elvish, Giant, or Kraul

Prerequisite: Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica only

You are a member of a teeming horde — one small part of a sprawling organism. Just as you are part of the swarm, the swarm is part of a larger ecosystem, a never-ending cycle of life, death, rot, and rebirth. You have spent your life in the slow churn of that ecosystem, in the dark places of the city where the messy parts of existence are on display. There is little squeamishness among the Golgari, no fear of death or taboo about the dead, just a fierce affirmation of the cycle.

Features

  • Undercity Paths
  • You know hidden, underground pathways that you can use to bypass crowds, obstacles, and observation as you move through the city. When you aren’t in combat, you and companions you lead can travel between any two locations in the city twice as fast as your speed would normally allow. The paths of the undercity are haunted by dangers that rarely brave the light of the surface world, so your journey isn’t guaranteed to be safe.

  • Spell List
  • For you, the spells on the Golgari Guild Spells table are added to the spell list of your spellcasting class. (If you are a multiclass character with multiple spell lists, these spells are added to all of them.)
    Golgari Guild Spells
    Golgari magic is often accompanied by a sickly green glow and a rotting stench.

  • Contacts
  • To the extent that the Golgari Swarm acts like a single organism, you are connected to every other member in some way or another. Convinced that the rest of the world is out to get you, you find it easy to form close bonds with your guild mates, and harder to make meaningful connections with others.
    Roll twice on the Golgari Contacts table (for an ally and a rival) and once on the Non-Golgari Contacts table.
    Golgari Contacts
    d8Contact
    1One of my parents is an elite assassin, a member of the Ochran.
    2I learned combat from a kraul.
    3I know a medusa who is stationed in the guildhall.
    4I had a torrid romance with a spore druid responsible for a large rot farm.
    5There’s a troll in a remote area of the undercity who seems to find me interesting — and who knows more than you’d think.
    6An elf lich is determined to see me become a lich someday, too.
    7A medusa decided it would be more fun to recruit me into the guild than to kill me.
    8I know a findbroker who can locate just about anything, for the right price.

     
    Non-Golgari Contacts
    d10Non-contact
    1An Azorius arrester I literally pulled out of the gutter will do anything for me.
    2Someone joined the Gruul in a battle against the Boros once, and the sergeant of that Boros squad would love to prove that it was me.
    3I had a romance with a Dimir agent whom I still feed secrets to.
    4Roll an additional Golgari contact; you can decide if the contact is an ally or a rival.
    5I joined the Gruul in a battle against the Boros once, and the chief of that small clan thanks me for turning the tide.
    6An Izzet scientist resents that I sold a scrapped invention I found in the sewer.
    7My undercity explorations led me into an Orzhov vault, and a spirit thinks I stole something valuable.
    8I found a baby beast and sold it to a Rakdos wrangler who remains grateful to me.
    9A Selesnya druid and I share an interest in the same garden, and we have enjoyable arguments there.
    10I regularly pick up refuse from beneath a Simic laboratory, and sometimes I talk to the researcher who dumps it there.

     

    As part of the Golgari Swarm, you are a specialized instrument of the greater body. Your orders, when you have such, come from the guildmaster by way of his chancellors, who carry his messages throughout the guild. The swarm relies on you to advance the greater good by protecting some part, however small, of its teeming existence. That responsibility doesn’t mean you’re indispensable; your eventual death is part of your purpose and function, too, and you’ll be replaced even as your body provides nutrients to further the swarm’s growth.
    A classic adventuring role for a member of the Golgari involves crawling through dungeon-like environments — the sewers and ancient vaults of the undercity — in search of treasures left behind by the dead. Sometimes you might be sent to find a specific item believed lost in a dangerous part of the undercity. At other times, you could be asked to collect samples of a specific fungus, retrieve a body floating in the muck of the sewers, or bring back whatever booty you can to help fill the swarm’s coffers.
    You might gain enough renown to become a member of the Ochran, assigned to a variety of tasks concerning thievery, assassination, or the protection of important figures in your guild. You might steal something because the guild needs it, or because its loss will bring harm to another guild, hastening that group’s decline. You could be assigned to kill an outspoken and active enemy of the Golgari, such as an overzealous Boros captain whose raids into the undercity have approached dangerously close to the swarm’s inner sanctum. Or you could serve as a bodyguard to one of Guildmaster Jarad’s high chancellors, escorting this figure through the undercity while being ready to intervene at a moment’s notice if things go wrong.
    The shamans of the Golgari use their magic to accelerate the cycle of decay and regrowth. You might be sent to spread spores throughout an area that the Golgari want to claim as their territory or to convince the inhabitants of such a territory to abandon it. You might also contend with the ever-present threat of hostile monsters encroaching into Golgari-controlled regions.

    Suggested Motivations

    Members of the Golgari Swarm are unmistakably products of the undercity, ill at ease amid the comforts of civilization. They bring about the same discomfort in others by reminding them of death’s inevitable approach.
    Trait
    d8Personality Trait
    1Remember, I could kill you in your sleep. Or put centipedes in your bedroll.
    2I like to remind people of their inevitable demise.
    3Sometimes I give voice to the whispers of the rot, which I hear but no one else does.
    4I do my best to discourage anyone from approaching or talking to me.
    5I have accepted my death. Hence, I don’t fear it.
    6Like roots growing through stone, I am relentless and determined in my action.
    7I put my knowledge of anatomy to use by narrating the injuries my enemies suffer in grisly detail.
    8Like a wild animal, I lash out viciously when I’m provoked — and I’m easily provoked.
    Ideal
    d6Ideal
    1Guild. My guild is all that really matters. (Any)
    2Stoicism. All of us are part of the cyclical march of nature, which will continue with or without us. (Neutral)
    3Nature. The natural world is more important than the edifices of the city and civilization. (Neutral)
    4Interdependence. We are all part of nature’s web. (Lawful)
    5Ambition. The time of Golgari ascendance is at hand, and I intend to have a prominent place in the new world order. (Evil)
    6Live and Let Live. Meddling in the affairs of other guilds is a great way to get squashed like a bug. (Neutral)
    Bond
    d6Bond
    1I cherish the finger of a family member who was petrified by a medusa.
    2I have an identical twin who is as different from me as any person could be.
    3I want to lead one faction of the guild to a new position of dominance.
    4I love spending time in the moss-covered building where I took part in my first reclamation mission.
    5I found something in the sewer that must never come to light.
    6I am forever grateful to the reclaimer who found me floating facedown in the sewer, moments from death.
    Flaw
    d6Flaw
    1Death comes for us all, so you can’t expect me to take care of someone who can’t fight it off.
    2I assume that anyone outside the Golgari looks down on me.
    3I feel a need for revenge against those who enjoy the privilege of living above ground.
    4I don’t bother to couch my opinions in flattering words.
    5I can’t help but pocket any trinket or coin I come across, no matter how worthless.
    6I’m convinced that I’m better and stronger than members of other guilds, isolated as they are from the realities of life and death.

    Created by

    tokranepo.

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