Adventurers' Guild of Selenica
by The StalkerSince I'll be playing an adventure from Dungeon no. 58 called "Challenge of Champions" with my group tomorrow, I needed a bit of detail for it so that the Adventurers' Guild doesn't drop on the head of the players without at least an explanation. Toward that end I've added a little detail to my campaign and set up an aging adventurer as a useful NPC in my campaign.
This material is set for the year AC 1008 because that's where my campaign is at now. Here is what I came up with...
THE STREEL HUNTERS.
This was a group of adventurers active in Darokin about fifty or so years ago. People such as the fighter Sir Randolph Wystead and his later wife Marita Hallonica, a priest of Ixion, were among the members of this group.
Most of the group were beknighted as Knights of the Roads in Darokin for the deeds while adventuring the land. The group was far from exclusively Darokinian, though. In fact, it would seem that only Sir Randolph and Marita of Ixion were Darokinians, while other members might have come from nations such as Traladara (now Karameikos), Ylaruam, Thyatis, the Five Shires, Rockhome, Alfheim, and perhaps even Glantri. Since the known activities of the group took place mostly in Darokin, the Darokinian members are those best known, but it is clear that other people belonged to the group as well.
RANDOLPH WYSTEAD.
Lord Randolph Wystead is a retired Darokinian Fighter and a former colonel in the Darokinian militia and adventurer. He used to be part of the group known as the Streel Hunters, and was declared a Knight of the Roads decades ago. He eventually retired and married his former adventuring companion Martia Hallonica, a high-priest of Ixion, and they settled near Selenica, where Marita was high-priest for years. She died of natural causes in AC 998 and Lord Wystead never having been too popular among the Hallonica family, they had turned a cold shoulder toward him. Still, Lord Wystead has gone about his business without paying attention to the Hallonicas.
He is too old to adventure now, but a few years he set up the Adventurers' Guild in Selenica. He has a small estate with a house in the city where he had a tavern-house built to serve as headquarters for the guild, and many young adventurers have come to the support of his initiative, making the guild buzz with rumour, tall tales, new events in the world, stories of lost treasures, etc. Lord Wystead hopes The Adventurers' Guild will grow to cross the boundaries of nations, so he set it up in Selenica where it would be close to both Darokin, Karameikos, Ylaruam, and Thyatis. As a consequence, some has seen it as a competitor to the Darokin's Diplomatic Corps, but there are those who belong both the Guild and the DDC, while real diplomats claim the two organisations have nothing in common.
However, since the guild has become somewhat successful, Lord Wystead spends less time in Selenica, preferring to enjoy his remaining years in his much grander estate near the Altan Tepes mountains close to the town of Reedle.
In Selenica, it is one of his hopes that he can revive the following of Ixion, the patron of his wife and the patron of the city itself, as Ixion's worship has been declining in the later years.
Inspired by the Ierendi Crown Tourney, in AC 1007 he came upon the idea that to further the spirit of cooperation among adventurers, who often lead solitary lives in their various groups, by setting up a competition for groups of adventurers. The first of these is to take place in the summer of AC 1008.
In AC 1008, Lord Wystead was an old widower of 81 years. Even though he is retired, he remains a reserve colonel in the Army of Darokin and may be called upon as an adviser or leader.
A coupe of things for those who wonder...
1. Naturally the "Challenge of Champions" is sort of the predecessor to the later World Games which Darokin will begin in AC 1012. One of the PWAs say that Corwyn Mauntea thought of the games at the height of the war, yet couldn't go through with them at the time. Well, he thought of them by taking the idea from the "Challenge of Champions" (which was in turn taken from the Ierendi Crown Tourney). This was one reason why the first World Games were set in Selenica.
2. Although Darokin City is obviously the capital of Darokin, I've put the Adventurers' Guild in Selenica partially because of the "cross-national" nature Wystead hopes the further, but also because of his association with the Hallonica family, of course. I wanted the Guild not to be too 'national', and Selenica seems to see itself as fairly independent...
I'm not sure if it was the ideal choice, though, so feedback on that issue would be appreciated if anyone has something to share...