[RPG] How to make a Dark Brotherhood-esque Job Request System in D&D 3.5 E6

assassindnd-3.5ee6magicrituals

The Goal

In a E6 campaign I am playing in I want my character to start an assassins guild similar to The Dark Brotherhood from The Elder Scrolls games.

The Problem/Question

I am stuck on how to set up the job notification ritual. I want NPC's to have to perform a ritual to show that they are committed to having the person killed. The Dark Brotherhood had the help of a demi god named The Night Mother who would be attracted by "The Black Sacrament" and would then tell decide the jobs to take and would inform her "Listener" who would then tell the leaders. As we do not have this luxury I need to find another way to achieve a similar effect. Of-course if you know a demigod in the D&D Pantheon that would be into this sorta thing that would be good to know also because I may be able to get my DM to allow me to get that Demi's help.

It is also desirable that this be able to be accomplished by commoners and without the help of a spellcaster.

Ritual Example

For those who do not know The Dark Brotherhood or those who need a refresher.

When someone wants The Dark Brotherhood to kill for them they perform a ritual called "The Black Sacrament".

In order to perform the Black Sacrament, the invoker must create an effigy of the intended victim, assembled from actual body parts, including a heart, skull, bones, and flesh. They must then encircle that effigy with candles. [1] The ritual itself must then commence. The invoker must proceed to stab the effigy repeatedly with a dagger rubbed with petals of a Nightshade plant while whispering this plea: "Sweet Mother, sweet Mother, send your child unto me, for the sins of the unworthy must be baptized in blood and fear."

Current Ideas

I am thinking that something like a message spell could be used to deliver the message to the guild somehow. Or have a paper involved in the ritual that they write the details of the kill on which is then transcribed via magic to a tome of jobs at the headquarters of the guild. Which the administrators can read through and then research the job requests and decide who to contact to accept the jobs.

Best Answer

Incantations

Unearthed Arcana has rules for Incantations, rituals similar to spells that can be performed by anyone. And, since Unearthed Arcana is one of the books released under the Open Game License, all of those rules can be found on the System Resource Document.

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