The Watchful Order is also a Guild (among other things).

But The Watchful Order of Magists and Protectors also functions as a Faction - tracking Renown and such.

Where once this guild was a haven for less-powerful wizards seeking to influence more powerful peers to be judicious and cautious in the wielding of their power, the Watchful Order is now the central established authority for wizardly power in Waterdeep, full stop.

All wizards and sorcerers are required to register with the guild if they intend to call Waterdeep home. And only actual guild members (membership costs extra after the registration) are exempt from rules against the use of magic outside of private residences.

In return, however, the Watchful Order has a responsibility to protect Waterdeep from magical dangers and threats, aiding by various degrees the Lords, the Guilds, the Watch, and the Guard however they are called upon to do so.

The membership gains great benefits through the Order:

Members can readily communicate with fellow members to arrange training and buy magical information with assurances that they are not dealing with charlatans (the Order will expel and publicly vilify members who practice deceit on fellow members).

Members can readily purchase rare material components (such components are not cheap, but the time necessary to procure them personally is saved) from the golem-guarded cellars of the Tower of the Order. Member and nonmember adventurers can make fairly good money by selling materials to the Order, but they won't buy overpriced or overstocked substances.

Once the Watchful Order became well established in the City of Splendors, they began selling minor magical items and scrolls (of a single spell each) to their members. A member of the Order may, of course, resell a scroll or item purchased from the Order to a nonmember (usually for a 75% markup). This resale is rarely done, since the Order will stop selling items to a member who does it too often. The Order makes these items and scrolls available to its members.

Members short of cash can earn ready money by serving as fire guards, spell guards, or firefighters (see “Guard Duty” below).

Entry Dues: 35 gp and majority vote of the members Annual Dues: 7 gp/month

The Watchful Order offers a variety of useful services to the general public.

Over the years, the Watchful Order has taken over several wizardly academies, taking up the curriculum and administration of these vital sources of arcane knowledge when their original founders could not continue to do so.

Most of these have no more than twenty or so students at any given time, and they all provide a graduation upon their achievement of the First Circle of magic spellcasting ability. While other academies may offer higher learning, the benefits of the Watchful Order's academies is simple: upon graduation, the Order guarantees acceptance as an apprentice in the Order, including the finding of a master to continue the young wizard's education.

The academic and intellectual elite of the Watchful Order's academies are taught at the Tower of the Order itself, and graduates may expect to have their guild fees for joining waived, with the best masters waiting to take them into apprenticeships. The Lady Master of the Order is among those who devote themselves to the teaching in this academy.

Named for one of the old Waterdhavian Houses known for their magical education, the Eltorchul Academy was the first academy the Watchful Order ever took over from someone else.

Based out of the North Ward, Eltorchul students tend to be nobles without connections to get them proper training. Noble scions with the intellect and inclination toward arcane mastery study here under noble members of the Watchful Order who can best teach them about the realities of being a spell-wielding noble in Waterdeep.

Funded by Aurora's Emporium trading coster, Aurora's Academy teaches working class young magicians, with a focus on the employment opportunities available to those with magic at their command.

There are no fees for learning here, as students are expected to work through their apprentice and journeyman years for the Emporium, tending to the low-magic requirements of the business. This academy meets in the Emporium's central Castle Ward offices.

Run almost entirely by charitable donations (half of which is provided by the Watchful Order itself), the Waymoot Academy in the South Ward takes in youths from disadvantaged backgrounds before street crime and manual labor can destroy any potential they have for the Art, training them in its use.

In operation for almost twenty years now, there are a number of adventuring magicians who got their start at spellcasting here, and still contribute coin to it to this day.

Per its name, the Waymoot Academy is located in the Waymoot neighborhood of the South Ward. While the academy is in a large building with plenty of room, cruel young mages in the other academies sometimes call them “stablemages,” as the building was once a large stable business.

A fire guard is hired for a building (often only when it contains valuables, although many nobles consider themselves valuable, night and day, as long as their money holds out) for 5 gold pieces/night. The guild keeps 1 gold piece of the fee, and gives the guarding member 4 gold pieces.

Such duty consists of loading up with Affect Normal Fires, Cone of Cold, Conjure Water Elemental, and similar spells and standing watch, with a guardian pigeon. If the pigeon is released, it will fly back to the Tower, and firefighting mages will come quickly, sometimes by aerial steed (the Lady Master has a Pegasus, who will carry one other with her, so long as Mhair is mounted too).

Firefighting mages, of whom the Order retains four to six a night, are paid 9 gold pieces each by the Order directly. If summoned by a fire guard, they cost the building owner nothing. If they arrive to fight an unguarded building, the city will pay the Order a fee of 10 gold pieces per building if the owner cannot be found, is deceased, or is unwilling to pay. Otherwise, owners are charged 10 gold pieces per fire-fighting mage.

A spell guard costs 10 gold pieces per day (of which the Order gets 1 gold piece, and the guard 9 gold pieces), and the duty is simply accompanying a merchant, noble, or other paranoid individual through a day of living, partying, or working, to detect and counter spells cast at him or her (obviously, Detect Magic and Dispel Magic are needed here).

Member support could come in these ways:

• Access to research-library - perhaps with (lowlevel) spellbooks
• Reduced prices on material components
• Reduced prices on spell-scrolls
• Reduced prices on spellcasting services
• Access to training and teachers

• Apprentice: Renown 1+. You are apprenticed to a master within the Guild.
• Journeyman: Renown 3+. You have completed your Journeyman's Work, and may now work within your guild's specialty, albeit under the direction of a master.
• Master: Renown 10+. You are an acknowledged master of your art in your own right.
• Lord/Lady Master: Renown 25. You are the head of the order.

Bowgentra Summertaen, Lady Master of the Order (Rank 4)

Having once been betrayed by the Order's Speaker (who was central in a plot that assassinated multiple Masked Lords), Bowgentra has become more reclusive and suspicious by nature. She passes this off as an increasing desire to do research and experimentation, but the whispers say that she is simply fearful of letting anyone get too close to her again.

Jonnus Torgorn, Speaker for the Order (Rank 3)

With the Lady Master's increasing reclusiveness, the Watchful Order is fortunate to have Jonnus as its Speaker. He is very aware that the last one to hold his position used it to do great harm, and so is dedicated to redeeming the position. Fortunately, he is charismatic and cultured, a social chameleon as comfortable with peasantry as he is with nobility. He also has an incisive wit, and his apprentices all show great promise. Most assume he is the next Master of the Order.

Xorone of the Libram, Arcane Watchlord of the Waterdeep Watch (Rank 3)

A wide-waisted dragonborn wizard, Xorone is the keeper of something called the Libram of Bahamut, an artifact spellbook that contains lore, schema, and a spells of the dragonborn people. A cultural relic, he has been entrusted with not only protecting the Libram, but also with passing its knowledge on to promising dragonborn wizards, and choosing one of them to one day inherit protection of the Libram.

Lady Castigation, Master (Rank 3)

As one of the newest Masters of the Watchful Order, Lady Castigation has the dubious honor of acting as wrangler and tester for the journeymen members of the guild. She is a sarcastic, snippy tiefling wizardess who takes joy from the academic panic of her students. Still, she must be doing something right, as her immediate apprentices all promise to be quite adept in the Art.

Zalyreen Moonhair, Master (Rank 3)

Not only is Zalyreen a wizard of the Order, but she also works as a sage for arcane, occult, and extraplanar lore. She is a quiet but magnetic personality, and easily one of the most knowledgeable of the masters in esoteric and rare magical knowledge. Of course, this isn't altogether surprising: her half-elven father Ithandyl Moonhair and her human mother Maell were wizards, with Ithandyl serving as one of the Watchful Order's guildmasters in decades past. She grew up around wizardry and the Art. She has thirteen daughters, one of whom, Hemel, has just joined the Watchful Order as an apprentice.

Jesker Eltorchul, Master (Rank 3) • Headmaster of the Eltorchul Academy

A scion of House Eltorchul, a former noble house of Waterdeep, Jesker is overweeningly proud of his familial legacy and one of the most active members of the House seeking to regain their title. He is known to very actively cultivate contacts and influence within the Watchful Order to accomplish this, and is known to have the support of the Lady Guildmaster in this. He oversees the Eltorchul Academy, and takes great pride in turning the scions of noble Houses into credible mages.

Yurir Runewright, Master (Rank 3) • Headmaster of the Aurora's Academy

A dwarven wizard who was nearly into retirement as a stonecarver before he was discovered to have the potential for spellcasting by Ahmadar of the Seven Runes, Yurir has taken to his new career with dedication and a true craftsman's attention to detail. He teaches the working-magi of the Aurora's Academy, drawing on many years of workfolk's ethic before he gained his magic.

Varenda L'aejis, Master (Rank 3) • Headmaster of the Waymoot Academy

The headmaster of the Waymoot Academy is perfectly capable in her task. She also knows that it's the less-prestigious of the headmaster assignments, and clearly resents it, however. Still, it is clear that she intends to shine in the post, no matter what prestige fails to come with the office, and she does just that.

Barnabus Blastwind, Journeyman (Rank 2) • Investigator with the City Watch

Helps out the City Watch whenever an investigation contains something magical in nature. Has is own squad of magical investigators within the Watchful Order, which he trains.

Aspires to become a Master, and create his own academy of magical investigation.

Rangur Wands, Journeyman (Rank 2)

A prominent and rising wizard with the Order, Rangur Wands is a proud inheritor of his family's arcane legacy. He tends to distrust “the rabble” with the powers of arcane magic, finding them selfish, boorish, and insufficiently civic-minded to be trusted with the heights of the Art.

Colfast Ovorn, Apprentice (Rank 1)

Something of a prodigy in the Art, Colfast is the youngest member of the Watchful Order. He has also been a member for two years, since he was thirteen, and has not advanced beyond apprentice ranking because of his age. To say that this rankles the young man - who has plenty of skill in wizardry - is an understatement. He spends a great deal of his time working in the workshops, honing his skills at alchemy, as he has reached the limits of what the Order will teach him until he is an adult.

Hemel Moonhair, Apprentice (Rank 1)

The daughter of master Zalyreen Moonhair and the granddaughter of a former guildmaster of the Watchful Order, Hemel has recently joined the Order and begun her training. she is bright and eager to learn, though quite willful.