Followers of Captain Ludd: A Faction

The followers of the secretive Captain Ludd are utterly dedicated to the preservation of remarkable artisan craftsmanship and to the destruction of any who would try to weaken the integrity of their honorable crafting by producing cheaper goods.

The followers of Captain Ludd, who call themselves Luddites, are widespread -- they've sprung up in any city with a significant artisanal craftsman population. Acting across guilds, the followers of Ludd identify targets -- people and technology that would threaten their traditional work -- and then strike with a military precision. In general, the Luddites do not seek to kill, though they are not afraid of it; instead, their goal is the destruction of what makes unskilled labor possible. They will smash machines, destroy (or steal and hide) magic items, and desecrate holy spaces that are creating divinely blessed objects.

They drill by night so as not to be identified and so that their enemies do not know their numbers. Identities are strictly kept secret -- to reveal your name to another Luddite is a show of utmost trust, and to reveal the name of another Luddite will earn you a black mark and a promise of death from the rest of the group.

In these pages are the secrets of this hidden group -- details for using them as a faction that the PCs can join, stat blocks for using them as enemies compatible with D&D 5e, plot hooks, and 5e character backgrounds.