The Bellflower Network

Slavery is a common practice in areas of Faerun, particularly in the the lands of Calimshan, where all manner of human and non-human humanoids, but especially halflings, make up the majority of the slave workforce. Since the nation’s founding at the hands of Djinn and Efreet lords, the small folk have been a commodity, even after humans shed the shackles of their genie masters. The hin being as tight knit as they are, chose to take it into their hands to gain their freedom, and that of their kindred. Thus was born the Bellflower Network, a centuries-old, ultra-secretive society of freed halfling slaves who engage in a wide range of subversive and rebellious activities to free their compatriot halflings from slavery. Their formation and deeds gained the attention of the Watchful Mother, Sheela Peryroyl, and she showed favor upon the faction, becoming its sponsor, much as Lliira keeps divine vigil over the Scarlet Mummers.

The Bellflower Network is so named because of the blue bellflower members use for their token. They leave it carved on fence posts, embroider it into tunics, and grow it around their important buildings. Members of the network can always spot other members on official business by identifying some sort of blue bellflower symbol on their person—a tattoo, a pin, or even an actual bellflower stuck in the lapel. In addition, the group communicates using its own set of code words (see below). The network maintains hundreds of paths to freedom from Calishite cities; and their operations have spread across the continent in the years since their founding into other regions where slavery thrives, including Thay.

Goals

The Bellflower Network is focused on one thing: freeing slaves, especially halfling slaves. Its members are unafraid to murder slavers or slave owners to do so, though they prefer to grab slaves in the night and quickly get them into the network where they are much less likely to be found. Those freed often dress as slaves and sneak back into halfling slave communities or households where they stay for a time, encouraging the halflings still in captivity to flee with them come the next harvest moon. The network maintains its secrecy by never divulging too much information to a single tiller or the owner of a single barn. Tillers typically only know one or two barns along a given row and the owners of those barns usually don’t know to what barns they are linked. Should a tiller be captured and tortured, he could only ever give away at most two locations and the owners of those locations could reveal none. Tillers typically only lead their crop by moonlight, as it’s much easier to hide the short-statured halflings when fewer people are around to see them. Nearly all of the barns in Calimshan are located outside the major cities, also reducing the chance the network will be uncovered. Though a few barns have been found and destroyed, the network has never seen a major infiltration in its history — much due to the fact that the Watchful Mother directly vets those who seek to join — and remains largely a secret.

Members of the Bellflower Network are unafraid to dirty their hands in the name of freedom. Slavers, slave owners, and unfortunate witnesses have all fallen to their blades and bows in the name of halfling emancipation. Bellflower members avoid direct confrontation whenever and wherever possible, but they don’t flinch from it when it’s necessary. Though the group has a rigid organizational structure, the secretive nature of that structure leaves the day-to-day operations of each part of the network largely up to the whims and ideas of the individual, and the means taken to achieve their goals are whatever is necessary with no codes or ethics to stand in their way — thus resulting in the faction’s less than lawful alignment.

Leadership

The mysterious leader of the Bellflower Network is known only as the Farmer. Those who have met him (or who claim to have met him) all say that he’s a male halfling who walks with a limp and wears a black hood with a bellflower symbol stitched onto one side. Some tillers believe that the Farmer is in reality many halfling men, each of whom wears the hood when it’s his turn to guide the network. The tillers who claim this are those who have seen the Farmer on many occasions and swear that his limp shifts from one leg to the other, his voice is sometimes different, and his mannerisms and accent change frequently. Whether this is proof of several shadowy governors at the head of the network or simply the Farmer’s way of keeping his tillers on their toes will likely never be known. The most consistent rumor between network members is that the Farmer was a slave in Calimport, that he was mistreated and abused, and that he killed his slave master when he escaped by ship to the coast of Purple Hills where he found sanctuary among the hin communities there.

Headquarters

Though no one knows where the Farmer is actually located, there are several locations in Calimshan and Thay that are considered to be central gathering points for Bellflower Network members. In Manshaka, there is a weekly meeting of freed slaves in hiding and several Bellflower halflings who serve in households and plantations outside the city as spies. They spend the meetings strategizing the next household to target for freedom, and they never meet in the same place twice. The entire group only works with one tiller to minimize the damage that one or all of them being captured would cause, but despite that precaution, the Farmer has asked them not to gather so brazenly — a request they are determined to ignore. In Calimshan there is a halfling-owned private pub close to the docks that’s run by a Bellflower Tiller called the Copper Ante. The ground floor of the Ante is a typical pub and restaurant, but the basement is a meeting place for Bellflower tillers and functions as the harvest moon barn for all slaves freed from that area.

Membership

The network welcomes nonevil, trustworthy folk, particularly those skilled at stealth and wilderness survival. In most cases, a member who is not a halfling is sought out by the faction, rather than the other way around, usually once the character establishes they’re against slavery and a friend to halflings.

Gaining Prestige

In addition to performing tasks for the group, a person directly responsible for delivering a halfling from slavery earns 1 faction for every 10 halflings so freed. This means that if a faction mission involves freeing halfling slaves, the character earns points for completing the mission and points for freeing the slaves.

Resources

Freeing slaves and slowly moving them across the countryside by night requires a lot of resources. For members with sufficient prestige, the Bellflower Network has certain goods and services available. These items or services are nearly always based out of a barn or hidden along a row.

• 1 TPA: Find a hidden location along a known row marked by a bellflower that contains enough trail rations and water for up to 10 people for a week. Finding this cache requires a DC 10 Survival check.
• 1 TPA: Purchase simple weapons, light armor, and shields at the normal price from most barns (the network routinely supplies barns with these items so that freed slaves can defend themselves as they travel).
• 5 TPA: Purchase mundane items, such as rope, pitons, tents, blankets, clothes, and so on, at half price from most barns.
• 5 TPA: Purchase certain travel-related magic items from a barn from the following list at a 10% discount: cloak of elvenkind, dust of disappearance, dust of tracelessness, elixir of hiding, hat of disguise, robe of blending, or vest of escape. The barn will purchase these same items from a member with this prestige for 65% of their normal sale price.
• 10 TPA: Rest at any readily identifiable network location (one marked with a bellflower symbol) without being turned away (though there are exceptions, such as if a group of pursuers follows right on the character’s heels). At such a location, network members are fed, clothed, and provided with basic medical attention (as if attended by a person whose Heal bonus is +10) at no cost.
• 20 TPA: Purchase or upgrade magical armor or shields with abilities from the following list at a 10% discount: arrow catching, arrow deflection, darkwood buckler, darkwood shield, glamered, mithral shirt, shadow (all), slick (all).
• 20 TPA: Purchase or upgrade magical weapons with abilities from the following list: defending, merciful, returning, throwing, sleep arrow, sword of subtlety.