Fence
From ThreadsOfTime
The Fence is a black marketeer, a seller of stolen or otherwise illegal goods. He is almost always found in a city setting, where there are large numbers of people to serve as customers as well as prey for the thieves who supply him.
The Fence is the linchpin in the complicated web of the black market. Thieves sell their illicit acquisitions to the Fence, for some amount of money below their actual value. The Fence then resells the "hot" goods on the black market. If the city in which he operates is large and the goods are minor enough (not the crown jewels of the local royalty), they may be sold directly to local buyers. If the Fence thinks they're "too hot," though, he will probably arrange to have them smuggled and sold elsewhere.
Power for Fences is rarely measured in terms of character level. Instead, it is a matter of the breadth of the Fence's network and the reliability of his contacts. Of course, to acquire or retain an extensive network, a Fence needs much cunning and experience—which may coincidentally result in a high character level.
The most powerful Fences keep their identities secret, and may never see their clients, neither thieves nor buyers. They coordinate things from behind the scenes, and have minor Fences to serve as intermediaries. Even a close contact may never have seen the face of a great Fence—at least, not knowingly. A Fence may secretly play the role of an underling in his own network—or even that of a rival or freelancer!
This may all start to sound familiar to those who know something about thieves' guilds. The networks of a powerful Fence look increasingly like the structure of a thieves' guild. This is no coincidence. Those who are knowledgeable in these matters speculate that the thieves' guild was originally, and in many respects still is, a black market network made into a formal entity.
Fences may be of any social background, though wealthy and noble Fences are rare. Certainly those that do exist diligently keep their identities well-hidden, for obvious reasons. The stakes must be high to claim the attention of the socially and financially elevated.
For example, a rich merchant may deal with stolen jewelry on the side. Or a baron may be the secret mastermind behind a network of thieves smuggling and selling contraband. The real world offers other examples—such as petty dictators who do not only accept bribes and turn a blind eye to drug smugglers but are in fact a drug lord themselves!
The black market network transfers information as well as goods. Fences are probably the best-informed figures of the underworld.
