The Zhentarim

An unscrupulous shadow network expanding its influence across Faerûn — ambitious, opportunistic, and meritocratic. Publicly a mercenary and protection outfit; secretly running smuggling, extortion, and worse.

The party’s entanglement

• Guildmaster Holia Thornton of Phandalin’s Miner’s Exchange wears the Zhentarim dragon pin. Hamish recognized the mark (Session 4).
• Her guard — the strange figure who watched the party at the inn back in Session 1 — is one of her people. The Network had eyes on the party from their first night in town.
• At crossbow-point, Thornton pressed the party into an information-sharing pact: all dragon intelligence flows to her, and she pays for updates (Session 4).
• Dax, whose original contract was with Thornton, remains pragmatically willing to keep working with her so long as coin is on the table.
• Bean holds Harbin’s stolen private notes on Thornton — contents so far unexamined at the table.