30 Treasure Hunters

1-The Legal

This person searches for treasure in the legal way, and is a firm friend of the Archaeologist. He gets the legal OK of any landowners to search, informs the local government and the Archaeologist of any finds of value, and is paid a certain amount for his troubles, as it is better from the Law’s point of view to have people like him find treasures then Nighthawks finding them.

2-The Nighthawk

Unlike the Legal, the Nighthawk looks for treasure illegally, often under the cover of night, hence his moniker. He trespasses without asking permission, digs up his ill-gotten gains without informing the landowner or the local government and sells them to the Black Marketeer, who in turn sells them to wealthy people so they vanish into private collections.

The Archaeologist sees him as the bane of his existence and the Undercover Agent is trying to track him down so that he can be punished for his thievery.

3-The Royal Recoverer

This member of The Royal Recoverers is one of the treasure hunters who serves the Law rather than the underworld. The early rulers of his country were buried with immense treasures for their use in the afterlife, and more of their tombs remained unrobbed than one might think. When the state religion changed and the current ruler badly needed money, he ordered the state sanctioned robbery of the unrobbed tombs.

It’s a dangerous job as the tombs often have booby traps and furious Undead but it pays well.

4-The Archaeologist 

For this person, there is a great joy in finding out about the past every time a new treasure is unearthed. Another fully legal treasure hunter, the treasures uncovered by him or her end up in museums for people to view and enjoy. He hates the Nighthawk for getting to so many treasures first and spiriting them away.

5-The Indiana Jones

Somewhere between an Archaeologist and a Nighthawk, the Indiana Jones does give the treasures he uncovers to museums but cuts corners, with the result that some of the information about the treasure is lost. 

6-The Gyre Explorer 

This prolific explorer of the Gygaxian Gyre has made a lot of money out of the dungeon, even after paying his taxes every time he or she comes out with a successful haul, going deeper into the dungeon each time. Sooner or later, he or she is likely either to meet their death down there or be captured by the Wights, but until then he or she enjoys the good things in life.

7-The Tomb Robber

The Tomb Robber robs tombs and graves, ranging from those that are thousands of years old and contain very valuable treasures indeed to relatively recent ones to steal the Funeral Gold and Grave Silver inside, horrifying the relatives who have to find their family graves have been desecrated.

8-The Bog Searcher

After the King of Karnivhal’s  favourite golden coronet fell off his head when he was riding and ended up in a bog known locally as the Great Stink, a thrall was sent along with a colonel and several soldiers so that said thrall could find said coronet in exchange for his freedom and a small pouch of gold. It will be a messy, mucky, smelly job which is why a thrall was the one who was ordered to carry it out.

9-The Black Marketeer

The Black Marketeer buys any treasure of value and asks no questions about how it was acquired or where it came from. Without him or her, illicit treasure hunters would have no way of turning their loot into spendable wealth.

10-The Faker 

The Faker sells things like fake treasure maps, fake letters of marque and fake permissions  to dig on private or state owned land and then vanishes before either the Law or angry adventurers come after him or her.

11-The Mudlark

The Mudlark or Tosher searches the river banks and the sewers for objects of value and finds them more often than you might expect.

12-The Salvager

The Salvager is in charge of salvaging wrecks and operates with the consent of the Law, sharing the proceeds with the legal owner of the ship.

13-The Illegal Salvager

The illegal salvager steals from wrecks, including war graves, and keeps the proceeds for himself or herself.

14-The Trader

He is not a full time Black Marketeer but he sometimes turns a blind eye to certain pieces of treasure that he should not legally buy.

15-The Shopkeeper 

The Shopkeeper, rather than look for treasure himself or herself, sells shovels, metal detectors and other such treasure hunting equipment to legitimate and illegal treasure hunters alike and has made a lot of money out of it.

16-The Fantasist

For reasons of his or her own the Fantasist has convinced his cellmates to  break out of prison with him, by telling them about a non existent treasure that will make them all very rich.

17-The Prospector

The Prospector pans for gold in the rivers or mines it in the mountains, normally legally although some prospectors are claim jumpers who steal from others.

18-The Illegal Miner

The Illegal Miner breaks into disused mines or occasionally even into working ones to steal the gold or other valuable minerals deep within. It’s a dangerous life, as the disused mines often have poisonous gasses, pools of tainted water or dangerous animals within, and on top of that are prone to sudden cave ins.

19-The Exiled

He has been sent by his King to find a treasure that grants immortality and ordered not to return without it on penalty of death, but he and everyone else knows that said particular treasure is just a myth.

20-The Kidnapper

The Kidnapper is after a treasure that is defiantly not for the legal taking, a wealthy noblewoman that he is deeply in love with. Not only is his love very much of the unrequited variety but she is far above his social class and betrothed to another man. He is determined to have her, whatever the danger. The PCs could be trying to help him, or be the bodyguards of the noblewoman and be trying to keep her safe. 

21-The Hoarder

The Hoarder could be a mighty dragon with a huge treasure of gold and precious stones or  he or she could just have acquired a hoard of junk with perhaps one or two genuinely valuable items somewhere deep within it.

22-The Don Quixote 

This rather crazy crusader is hunting for a treasure that does not exist for a noble lady who is in fact a common serving wench.

23-The Robber

Why go through all the hassle of looking for treasure and digging it up when you can just follow the ones who are doing it and then just rob them at sword point or gunpoint? The illegal kinds of treasure hunters can hardly go to the Law for help after all or they will be in trouble.

24-The Oologist

The Oologist has a huge collection of eggs from every kind of bird and reptile. How legal this is depends on the laws of the country where he or she lives. He or she wishes to hire the PCs to steal an egg from a dragon.

25-The Desert Delver

The Desert Delver lives on the edge of The Diamond Desert and makes his money venturing into that dangerous place to get hold of diamonds and semi precious stones that he sells to nearby jewellers to pay for his food and housing.

26-The Finder

The Finder is sent by wealthy patrons to uncover certain treasures, and whilst what he does is often not exactly legal, his or her rich patrons will normally pay a few bribes to the right people to get him or her out of trouble, as long as he or she does not do anything outrageously bad.

27-The Knight Errant 

On holiday, he is out questing for a treasure that may or may not turn out to be mythical.

28-The Follower

The Follower is one of those hired goons that can serve either Good or Evil, and either the Law or the criminals, depending on who can offer more, and does a lot of the grunt work of finding the treasure.

29-The Deluded

The Deluded thinks he or she has a treasure  map but it is false, and all he or she is likely to find is trouble of some sort.

30-The Undercover Agent 

He is on the hunt for a Nighthawk who has stolen a lot of treasure and just as importantly, the Black Marketeer who buys the treasure from him. If he can take them both down the Law will be very pleased with him.