The Ravenblack Grimoire

The guilds are where you get powers or are given instructions for a quest to attain them. The powers are discussed next in better detail, but for now, here is a list of which guilds carry what powers and for how much. We'll address the quirks of guild use after this. Note that little is known about Telepathy yet, but here we go.

While not technically a guild, the Peacekeeper Missions are the ones you must go to in order to attain the power of Neutrality. Just for the sake of being inclusive, here is their information as well.

Now, the guilds are secretive, roving groups who offer powers for vampires within our great city of... City. Yeah, anyway, they are sort of on the shadey side of law-enforcement, according to RB, so they have no signs which reveal their locations like Omnibanks, Pubs and Shops. To see the guild options you must be in the exact right square.

Now, if you remember from the City page, I mentioned that all the addresses given in the City are for the black square down and right of the intersection named. If you forgot this bit, go to the City page and re-read it. That link will open in a new window, BTW.

I wanted to make sure that addressing is made absolutely clear because I can't count the number of times a new player has posted to a message board crying wolf that "the guild moved!" when, in fact, they simply hadn't gone into the right square. I actually address this in the FAQ, it happens so bloody much.

Not only do you need to be in the right square, but the options show up below the map view, so you may need to scroll down to see them, like in the Pubs and Banks and Shops and Transits. So the guild locations, while on the move, bear no signs showing them to the 'on the street' viewer. You must go 'down the alleyway' (that black square Southeast of the intersection) to get to the guild master.

Oh yes, moving. I almost neglected the other important factor about the guilds. At about every 4 days, the guilds move locations to escape detection by the ubiquitous yet unseen authorities. No, there is no readily discernible pattern to where they move and it isn't always exactly four days.

The guilds do move in concert, for the most part. Meaning that if one Empaths guild moves, all three of them have moved. But that won't certainly mean that Thieves guilds have moved. It seems, lately, that Thieves guilds move every four or five days independently of the other guilds and that the other guilds all seem to move on the same day. Odd, but that's what seems to happen, usually.

This is why so much of the message board info you will see will relate to guild movements. The FTA mods and long-time contributers regularly post the most recent known locations of the guilds. The format for the GUILD INFO posts was mine and seems to have spread to many different boards as the typical way of noting guild locations. The posts besides that will often be in a sort of short hand in discussing guilds. The abbreviations for each guild are as follows:

Another common uncertainty to the new player is as to which guild you go to. Many seem to think you can get Thievery level 3 right away by simply going to Thieves Guild 3 and paying for it. I'm sorry, no. You need to attain them as levels, the levels must be done in order and the guild number indicates the one and only level of the power available there. So Empaths Guild 1 carries only level one of Locate and is the guild you must go to if you wish to begin learning the power Locate. Same thing for EG2 carrying only level 2 and so on. This is true of every guild and power.

Of course, certain powers have no levels. Those powers are available at any of the three level guilds. So while you may not be able to learn Stamina 3, yet, if you go to Immolators Guild 3 you can still buy Suction, as it has no levels.

Another quirk about guilds is the addressing used by them. See, I told you in the City page that all the addresses you receive for a building in The City will be the intersection address and the actual building the Southeast black square to it. That's still true. But when you get an address for a quest from the guild master, it's a little different. There's a logic here, so please bear with me.

The Stamina quest is a good example. Suppose you went to The Gunny's Shack, at Obsidian and 54th (that's a pub), and bought a couple drinks of Blood. The barman tells you that "Immolators Guild 1 is on the corner of Diamond and 51st today." He doesn't know how much longer it'll be there, though, regardless of how lovely your cape is. You trek off to the guild and get into the correct square, pay the 1000 coins to begin your quest.

When you do this, the guild master says:
"To gain a level of STAMINA, you must go to the corner of Lion and 60th and say 'Jay-Mock'. It will cost you 500 blood.
You have ten days."

Now, this is a quest goal and not a building, so this address is meant to be the actual intersection of the streets Lion and 60th, where you see the little green address box. When you quest, you are enacting an area effect, of sorts, not going into a building. Like a ritual done outdoors as opposed to a service being rendered in an establishment. I know, it's odd to most people, but it does make sense if you think of it as I've described in terms of buildings and rituals.

Ok, it's time we get on to the best part... The powers.