Silver Sheaf

The Silver Sheaf was a secret mercantile organization in the city of Ravens Bluff during the late 14 century DR. It was a network of merchants, traders and business-people who could lend and borrow money from one another without fear of fraud, deception or non-payment. There was no known organization or hierarchy to the group and they seemed to have no headquarters where more than a few of their members would meet together at any given time.

Members served the group by identifying traders and lenders not to deal with, recruiting those that could be trusted, and obeying these trade directives.

Membership
To join the Silver Sheaf, a prospective member would pay 7,000 gp and receive two identical silver rings, engraved with a wheat sheaf on the inside of the band. One was kept on the member's person, to identify themselves to others, and another was hidden away, to be granted to a future potential member of the Sheaf. Due to their method of recruitment, someone within the organization coulde only know the member who recruited them, the member they recruited, and any others with which they had business dealings.

The motto of the Silver Sheaf was "Confidentiality and in confidence". The utterance of this phrase was perhaps the only other way, besides the ring, to identify a member of the Silver Sheaf.