The Thieves’ Highway runs across all of the rooftops of Avalon; even into the Noble District. While most of it is available to those who can get to it, there are parts that are best avoided. The Silk Road is one of those parts. You can tell it apart from the strips of crimson silk and the occasional dead body.
This section of the Thieves Highway is where the Knives Assassins Guild and the Masks Thieves’ Guild, travel and transport certain products best not moved on the streets below. Those without legitimate business who try running the Silk Road generally don’t see the ground alive again.
Why is this dangerous?
- Any Knife or Mask on the Silk Road that encounters a non-guild member is instructed to kill them, no questions asked, just a lot of stabbing, blood, and death.
- Lotus Dealers are given leave to travel the Silk Road, providing a monthly payment to the guilds for the privilege, and they do not take kindly to any unauthorized persons intruding on their path. See aforementioned stabbing, blood, and death.
- Access to the Silk Road is possible via a steep payment to the Masks or Knives, and even then, you best have the required yellow silk, green silk, and black silk ribbons displayed in the proper order to prove you have paid for access. If you don’t, once again see aforementioned stabbing, blood, and death.
- It is possible to encounter inter guild business deals between the Knives and Masks on the Silk Road. These meetings are of the utmost secrecy and intrusion is dealt with swiftly. But this time there is some questioning along with the stabbing, blood, and death.
Uses in your Game
The Silk Road can be part of just about any Streets of Avalon Game.
- When it comes to Dangerous Explorations the Silk Road can be part of the upper floors of any buildings you might have a scenario set in. This opens up options for flavor encounters outside of the scenarios main premise, meetings stumbled across, dead drug transporters still with their deliveries on them, Knife or Mask guards patrolling the Silk Road.
- For Heists the Silk Road can be an Obstacle that must be dealt with or it becomes a problem during the heist. It might even be an Obstacle the PCs don’t know about and need to discover.
- Investigations could have the Silk Road and the people on it as clues to be looked into. This can lead to interactions with the Knives and Masks and potentially even conflict if the mystery of the scenario has to do with the Silk Road.