The Night Daisy

There are many rumours and tales as to how the rogues acquired the paint they offer as gifts to their new members. Some say it’s purchased from the mages while others care not to reason or fathom at all. However, the tale itself is as old as the guild if not older and involves that time honoured guild tradition of theft.

Ages ago, deep within the murky reaches of an area yet undiscovered by most mortal men, in a time when few had a care past their own desires and aspirations; a new breed of adventurer had stepped forth from that same undiscovered area.

It required time, but eventually they integrated themselves into the everyday lives of the people they had avoided for so many years. Few understood them; they varied from the norm to a considerable extent. They were the lizardmen.

Though some called them savage, others had befriended them. They were scowled upon and looked down upon by many; through that many thieves knew they had a new breed of brother and sister. One of these thieves was quick to make alliances with the newly arrived lizard people from the unknown marsh, knowing there was information to be acquired and new things to discover.

It took some time in learning the foreign language the lizard people spoke, but in time they did it and the rewards were great. They learnt of many things hidden just off the causeway that had yet to be discovered and in many other areas where common races had yet to reach. The one thing however that intrigued them the greatest was a tale concerning something most people of the city had thought above the lizard race. It was tales of a flower. An appreciation of the night daisy.

There are many breeds of flora to be discovered in those marshy areas, but this flower was by far a greatly different, greatly more marvellous plant. Disguised as it were as a sleeping daisy by day (if it could be seen at all), this flower bloomed not under the brilliant life giving sun, but instead the full sleep-gifting moon.

They listened to their new friends laugh as they told the tale of the unfortunate insects to touch the plant. How in their curiosity towards the night daisies’ iridescent deep purple petals and the eerie light that shone from its centre they would touch it then slowly disappear. The lizardmen explained how it took them some time to discover the flowers truly brilliant abilities and how to apply it, but the downfall lay in the fact that, though it could help them in sneaking up on their advocacies, they did however live in a marsh and the flowers delicate pollen had a habit of washing away if they moved too quickly.

This of course intrigued the thief. Being curious by nature and the type to enjoy any challenge when few other things grab their attention, the thief set off the next full moon to those lands the lizardmen had called the Evermarsh.

Word had spread amongst their fellow lawbreakers of late. Discussions of a greater guild to be built within daring full view of the rest of the city to celebrate the anniversary of freedom and brotherhood. This flower, they wished, would be the symbol of a new era. A symbol and a new advantage. If they could locate these flowers and discover a way to harness their secret the new guild would have for itself a powerful new tool.

Following a small group of lizardmen home, into the marsh they snuck. Ever so quietly they manoeuvred the murky marsh in search of the flower they new would betray itself under its coveted moonlight. Nearing the end of the night, they finally discovered what they sought. Deep within the marsh along the folds of marsh marigolds, cattails and bracken a small field of night daisies had bloomed during the night.

Opening their pouch they deftly reached beneath the waters surface to dislodge from the marsh bed a small bushel of daisies, roots and all. Securing the pouch mouth about their stems, the roots safely nestled inside the pouch; the thief made their way back town and into the sewers where they knew their brethren rested.

The art of alchemy was revived with a new fervour. Now beyond poisoning, the denizens of the town set upon creating from the flowers a substance that would harness the flowers powers of invisibility. Recreating the environmental conditions for the flower inside the sewers turned out to be more easily done then first assumed. As it needed no sunlight, the dank dark depths were perfect for it. Deep within the old guild a garden was constructed and soon the flowers secrets were all but figured out.

By the light of a moon that shone through a secret grate in a seldom-wandered section of the lands a paste was discovered that the thieves named paint. Into tins they placed them and handed them to their members who soon discovered that the flower had the ability to cheat the very sun itself in spells. And so it came to be that the Thieves Guild acquired their coveted paint.

As for the garden, it’s rumoured that only two guild elders know of it, tend to it and produce the paint. Few are trusted in keeping its secrets or tending the lot, and the night daisy rumoured to have slept in Evermarsh; it’s said they have all but died away over the years on account of cumbersome, clumsy adventurers.