Criminal Gangs of Houlm

The urban centre of Houlm is expansive, having long ago swallowed up smaller villages and towns that surrounded the original city. Such a sprawl allows for individuals to easily blend in and disappear among the populace, hiding in its corners and nooks to avoid detection. This anonymity has allowed and even encouraged the growth of crime gangs in the city, offering a place relatively free from oversight to use as their personal playground. Organized into bands of varying sizes and types, they compete amongst themselves for territory and control, an almost constantly shifting war in the underworld of Houlm. Some more notable leaders are captured and thrown into the Fronde or other prisons, though for the most part the city's leadership is content to leave the criminals be as long as the affairs of nobles are not disturbed, and the streets remain free of outright violence.

List of Gangs

Yellowjackets

Little more than your typical rural brigands, the Yellowjackets are named for their iconic yellow clothing. Most typically it is a simple bandana, though other more elaborate jerkins or tunics can be found among some. The Yellowjackets are known for their spectacular aggression, violently robbing and extorting their victims. They tend to operate more on the outskirts of the city, spreading into the countryside to cause mayhem and find new victims. Their members tend to be uncouth and uneducated, lacking the leadership that could make them more than a simple force of violence in the city. Nonetheless, they have plenty of members, and the potential is there for them to become a dominant force in the city.

Saor Trodaire

The Saor Trodaire are an all Halfling gang operating in Houlm, with contacts stretching all the way back into the Midlands. They consist mostly of Halflings exiled from their homelands, and act with a chip on their shoulder towards all humans. They mostly target human businesses, thieving and robbing to serve their own communities. Kidnapping and ransoms are another speciality. They are not above outright violence, but tend to strategically employ it in service to their own goals. Overall, they aspire to reclaim their homeland of Muselle from Muerthe, but how they plan to do this is anyone's guess.

The Milieu

The Milieu is a sprawling crime family operating across most of Houlm. They dominate the underworld in the city, controlling a huge portion of turf and territory across its various neighbourhoods and boroughs. They deal in practically every sort of illegal activity, with racketeering and extortion being their most common. They rely on corrupt officials to maintain their monopoly, using their tremendous influence to blackmail or otherwise buy the loyalty of the ruling class. Their size makes them a target for those seeking to move up in the world, and they face conflicts on many fronts. Their leader, Guy Bonnot, is a very paranoid man, constantly in hiding to avoid assassination.

The Grey Shroud

A band of smugglers operating mostly in the dock area of Houlm. They take on a dramatic flair, and tend to attract bombastic personalities, despite their clandestine nature. The Shroud is a fairly low level gang, but they are by far the most successful smugglers in the city. They work with all sorts of cargo, and have very few qualms about moving anything either into or out of the city. Their influence extends to the other side of the lake, but they rarely travel upriver to Cars. Grey cloaks are their uniform, though they do not always wear them to remain undiscovered.

Muscadins

Prostitution and brothels are a huge business in Houlm. Scattered throughout the city, they vary in quality from servicing nobles in upscale bathhouses, to back-alley hovels for vagrants and beggars. Many of the more upscale establishments are run by the Muscadins, a gang run by Guillemette, an older Noreya madame. She runs her business well, and uses her clients visits as blackmail to secure her future success. The Muscadins also include a tremendous amount of bouncers, both to keep clients and the prostitutes themselves in line. Their name comes from the musky perfume they tend to favour.