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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8868942" data-attributes="member: 27780">The Raven's Buff Trumpeter 2-3: March 199810 pages. The majority of the news is devoted to the noble classes attempting to reassert their dominance after being decimated by the war. The surviving houses are now under extra pressure to find suitable people to marry and produce new heirs. Maybe some up and coming adventurers would fit the bill and would relish the opportunity to marry into old money and improve their social status? Of course, there's also the question of what to do with those abandoned manors where no extant heirs are to be found, and what lurks within them. At least one family was engaged in demon summoning and secret sacrifices to evil gods, and even though it might have ended badly for them, that doesn't mean there aren't still dangers lurking in there for anyone trying to reclaim them. Once again, this seems like prime opportunities for adventurers to go in and make a difference. The religious problems continue, but take up a smaller part of the wordcount this time. This time it's the temple of Lathander that's been unexpectedly destroyed by a very suspicious earthquake. Being optimistic sorts, they look on this as an opportunity to build a bigger, better one, and have employed a famous sembian architect to do the honors. Let's hope the people behind the destruction don't strike again and turn the whole thing into a mess of ever escalating costs. There's also the ongoing suspicion about the two establishments devoted to the worship of Sharess in the city. Would you want your kids going to her services? Do we really have the energy for that much hedonism? Even with the Code of Conduct gone, they're not going to immediately leap to encouraging pansexual orgies in the official FR books. There's no OOC rules questions this issue. Instead, a full 7 pages are devoted to expanding the knightly orders and their specialist sub-orders. If you want to join any of these, now you have the full requirements, behavioural restrictions and benefits. The Blood Guard are Griffin Knights who've finally earned their own griffin, although the admins reserve the right to disallow it in tournaments. They need to donate 10% of their income to the order, but get a 20% discount on weapons & armor, resistance to fear effects and cheap raising if they die on a mission. (as long as the body is recovered.) Dove Emissaries take the pacifistic agenda of the order and promote it in foreign lands. This means they're unavailable for play for 3 months out of the year, but you can choose which months, so it'll only be a problem for the most prolific of tournamentgoers. They have fairly stiff requirements in terms of social proficiencies, but will get another bonus one when they qualify, plus a potion of extra-healing every mission instead of a regular strength one. The Pillars of the Realm are servants of the Clerical Circle devoted to protecting and upholding religions in general, rather than any one faith. This means they have to support and protect all but the most obviously evil religions regardless of their personal feelings on them and settle disputes between them on top of the usual knightly stuff like tithing and going on specific missions. In return they get a bonus ancient religion proficiency, discount access to magical healing at any temple and a token of faith that gives a slim second chance at saving throws. Golden Crown Roosters are an upgrade path from the regular ones that doesn't require them to switch to a whole different order. If you've spent at least a year as one already, have at least 100,000xp and have generally proved yourself not only heroic but also actively promoted & recruited for the order, you get a neat badge and your own room with an actual bath, so you don't have to wait for the communal ones to be free to stay clean & shiny-armored. Oh, the luxury. Knights of the Hawk are trained as undercover agents to protect Raven's Bluff against more subtle threats. This means they aren't bound to the same kind of obvious code of honor as other knighthoods, but still need to be ready to adopt any guise and go anywhere at a moment's notice to fulfil assignments and keep full records of their actions so their superiors can judge if they were justified afterwards. They get an appropriately sneaky bonus proficiency, contacts in law enforcement and the right to order their martinis shaken, not stirred as a reward. The Keepers of the Mystic Flame are a somewhat mistrusted secret society devoted to protecting arcane magic from misuse. Considering part of the initiation is swearing a magically enforced oath that results in instant death if you reveal the secrets of the order to outsiders, they'll probably remain misunderstood even with current attempts to improve their image. They do get a couple of interesting minor magic items for joining, their own secret language and room & board at the temple of Mystra though so I guess high risk, high reward. Hopefully some players like that kind of style enough to apply.</blockquote>

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