Faction Retinues

Faction Retinues

A rules reference for the faction personnel your characters command. Each retinue has its own page with the letter that came with it, the people in it, and their current postings. This page covers how they work in general.

What a retinue is

When you reach Rank 3 with a faction, that faction assigns you a group of its people. This group is your retinue.

A retinue is a standing resource, in the way that a stronghold is a standing resource. It exists between sessions. You decide where its members are stationed and what they work on, and you keep those decisions until you change them. Members can be lost.

The people in a retinue are skilled professionals at their own trade. They are not adventurers. They do not travel with the party, they do not enter dungeons, and they do not fight in your battles. What they do is your faction's ordinary work, in places you are not, on your instructions.

Each faction uses its own word for the group it assigns. The Order of the Gauntlet and the Dawnbringers say lance. The Harpers say cell, the Zhentarim say crew, the Talons of Veylan say flight, and the Scales of Eldath say hearth. "Retinue" is the general term for all of them.

Higher faction ranks grant command of larger groups.

Size

Your retinue contains a number of members equal to your proficiency bonus, plus a leader who is not counted against that number.

Character level	Members
5–8	3
9–12 (current)	4
13–16	5
17+	6

The size increases on its own as you gain levels. You do not need to request the new member, pay for them, or spend downtime recruiting.

Your squire is not part of your retinue and does not count against its size. A squire can carry messages or act as a go-between without using one of your slots.

The leader

Every retinue has a leader, and that leader stays at Nuts Deep. The leader does not travel, does not take field assignments, and cannot be reassigned. You give your instructions to the leader, who passes them on to the members in the field.

Retinue	Leader	Where they work
The Anvil	Knight-Sergeant Bertrand Kell	The fort
The Nightingales	Merrivet Ashcombe	The fort, reading the notebook
Talonfall	Nettle	The treeline outside the walls
The Broken Latch	Ollam Pryce	The fort, handling freight
The Hearthwardens	Aldith Fenn	The fort, running the yard
The Dawnwatch	Brother Ovid Morningward	The fort, keeping the flame

Nettle is an exception in placement only. She refuses to come inside the walls and works from the treeline instead. She still does not travel and cannot be reassigned.

Postings and travel

At any time, each member of your retinue is either posted — assigned to a place and a job — or in transit. A member in transit does no work for you.

Moving a member	Time required
Within the same settlement	Hours
Within a region	3–5 days
Across the Sword Coast	10 days or more

Where a member is posted often matters more than the order you give them. A Harper agent already living in a city can find things that were never written down anywhere. A Talon posted on a road knows what crossed it. Decide where your people should be and leave them there, rather than moving them to chase each new problem.

Posted members also work on their own initiative. Expect occasional reports and results you did not ask for. These cost you nothing.

Giving orders

You give orders to your retinue's leader. Each retinue has its own set of standing orders, listed in the table at the end of this page and in full on its own page.

Routine work within a retinue's specialty succeeds without a roll. These are professionals doing their own job.

When an order is contested or dangerous, the DM resolves it. There are three possible results:

• Success. The work is done.
• Success at a cost. The work is done, but something comes with it — a delay, a debt owed to somebody, an injury, or attention from the wrong quarter.
• Failure. The work is not done, and you may lose a member of your retinue.

Retinues in combat

A retinue never rolls initiative and never takes a turn. Its members have no stat blocks at the table.

If a retinue is attacked or caught up in violence while carrying out an order, the DM resolves that as part of the order rather than running a combat.

If a member happens to be present during a fight you are in, the DM may narrate one effect from them — holding a door, calling out where a second group is coming from. They do not act on their own turn and you do not control them.

Taking retinue members into a dungeon, a lair, or any of the places this party normally works will get them killed. They are not equipped for that kind of fight, and they will not refuse the order.

Losing members

A retinue member can be killed, captured, bribed, or otherwise removed. Each faction's people tend to fail in a particular way, and the letter that came with your retinue describes yours.

Replacing a member takes one downtime week and your faction's agreement. A faction that is unhappy with how you have used its people may refuse to send a replacement.

Upkeep

Between adventures, tell the DM where each member of your retinue is posted and what they are working on. That is the only record you need to keep.

The six retinues

Retinue	Held by	Faction	Standing orders
The Anvil	Xanphina	Order of the Gauntlet	Hold — they occupy a place and it stays held · Escort — what they escort arrives · Lend — detach them to an ally, which counts as your company's work
The Nightingales	Gootcha	Harpers	The notebook — one open question at a time, answered in anything from ten minutes to ten days depending on the subject · The field — an agent posted where you are asking makes the answer faster and better
Talonfall	Keyleth	Talons of Veylan	Watch — you learn what moves through a place before it reaches you · Guide — safe passage through dangerous country · Cull — they hunt and kill a named target, nothing larger than a young wyrm, taking weeks
The Broken Latch	Shade	Zhentarim	Move — anything or anyone, with no record kept · Acquire — buy what is not for sale, including magic items, on a timetable set by rarity · Lean — pressure a person or business until it reconsiders
The Hearthwardens	Karma	Scales of Eldath	Mollify — a village the Cult is working on does not turn against you · Forage — name a type of reagent and they find it · Tend — one week rebuilding a damaged settlement, which earns lasting goodwill
The Dawnwatch	Baelgrum	Dawnbringers	Consecrate — ground that undead and fiends cannot easily hold · Ward — warning of undead and fiends before they arrive · Carry the light — relief and morale work. Not yet conferred.

The Dawnwatch has not been granted yet. Baelgrum has not reached the rank that provides it. The page exists so he can read what is coming.

Goodwill

The Tend order used by The Hearthwardens earns goodwill with the settlements they repair. Goodwill is recorded on the Council Disposition Tracker.

Goodwill applies to your associates as well as to the party itself. Associates include every retinue and every squire. A village that Karma's people rebuilt will give a Nightingale a bed, walk a Talon to the right trailhead, and say nothing about either afterward, without needing to be told whose people they are.

See also

• The Anvil · The Nightingales · Talonfall · The Broken Latch · The Hearthwardens · The Dawnwatch
• Renown Tracker — the faction ranks that grant these
• Council Disposition Tracker — goodwill and coalition standing
• Nuts Deep — where each retinue's leader works
• House Rules