Well, time to lay down my cards.
Adventurers in the Kingdom of Nemassa are seen as a mixed blessing. Useful for the rich and mighty, effective in collecting bounties (and thus keeping down dangerous criminals) and source of some great heroes, they are also often fools that cause more trouble than they solve and stir up things they shouldn't.
To keep the downside of inevitable adventurers as minimal as possible, adventurers must be officially recognized and declare their membership of a known group through a displayed symbol, when "on business". Recognized adventurers are lizensed to carry out bountyhunting and mercenary work and can gain passage to areas otherwhise closed from citizens (such as the keep at the borderlands and passage to the caves of chaos).
In addition, adventurers have their own legal status, though this doesn't overwrite the priviledges of nobles, recognized clergy or dwarfs (yes, dwarfs have their own unigue legal status in my setting)
The Steelfalcons are an example of a newly founded group (between level 1 and 5, no matter the edition).
The group has no real leader. The boisterous (and not very wise!) warpriest Palhan (human cleric lvl 1 CN of a homebrewed god- any god of battle works here) thinks himself as leader and hero, but no one follow his lead.
The simple instinctual warrior "Dog" (elf barbarian lvl1 N), a simpleton who grew up an orphan in the slums, and the professional delver Golan (dwarf rogue level 1 LN) usually follow the lead of the groups last two members.
The mysterious foreign knight Abarista takes charge of most combat situations, but otherwhise keeps her counsel and agenda to herself. In truth she is an initiate of the Knights of the Talon, a mostly benign knight order, whose inner circles are sworn to Pazuzu and her soul belongs to the Demon Prince, she just doesn't know it yet (human, slightly higher level than the others, whatever class works for a knight whose order follows Pazuzu, N).
The beautiful seemingly human Lia guides the groups actions, through knowledge and charm, but seems rather useless in combat. Still, she has displayed suprising abilities and it's odd you never see her without a hat. Lia is actually a spy for a neighbouring country and more powerful than the rest (bard 5 NE). To disguise her inhuman features she wears a hat of disguise (she's of a hombrewed race, but tiefling works to).
I've created the group for an upcomming campaign as a hopefully interesting early challenge. Depending on the players action this group would arrive at a site before or after the pc's, but always with the same objective. A real battle could spell mutual destruction (and loss of her guise for Lia the spy), so both sides will have to find an agreement.
Unless the players manage to whipe out the falcons, they are the kind of guys that keep cropping up. Palhan, Groran and "Dog" aren't really suited for anything but adventuring and could make rivals or even friends for PC's. Lia is villain material and as a character avoiding combat just might become a recurring antagonist even after being exposed. Lastly Arbarista could go any way. What is her quest for the Knights of the Talon and will she embrace evil as she advances in rank and rite of her order?
Well, that's a bit of a wall of text
Yer gonna have to at least buy me dinner first.
...n', ya know, stuff.
