Avalon Societies

A Town of Societies

BrimRose Commons has room for many kinds of ambition. A merchant may arrive with a cart of goods, a scholar with a spell book, or a young fighter in search of someone willing to teach. The societies give those people a place to begin. Through them, an interest becomes an apprenticeship, a useful acquaintance becomes a colleague, and a traveler gains a reason to return.

These institutions grew around the life of one town. Their customs describe BrimRose and its associations. Travelers from elsewhere in Avalon may recognize much of their work without finding the same arrangements in their own homes.

The name began with the BrimRose estate. Farms, lodgings, and the households of relatives gathered around the original family until the settlement could support itself. Much of the village remained connected by blood or marriage. Those connections helped turn the family name into a name for the whole community.

The family also produced inventors. Perry White, a cousin and the son of Lady Ann BrimRose, contributed his share of ingenious devices. His neighbors had ample opportunity to admire his work, though the occasional burned barn and minor injury gave them other reasons to remember it. BrimRose was becoming a place where people pursued their interests with considerable enthusiasm.

As the town grew, people with similar trades and talents began to gather. Outsiders joined them, bringing goods, experience, and news. The societies developed from that exchange. Some now provide instruction, some support commerce, and others bring people together to consider the responsibilities that accompany rank or learning.

Meeting the Societies

Aspirants Day opens the societies to prospective members. Visitors can discuss their interests with officers, ask what a society expects, and learn about its meetings, planned events, and future home. The BrimRose Journal carries the announcement once arrangements are settled.

Each society supplies a banner and written information for applicants. Its Head Master gives two hours to recruitment, with the Seneschal also attending.

Interest alone does not satisfy every charter. The Court welcomes an entertainer's willingness to perform, while the magical Orders require established proficiency. A visitor should speak to the particular society rather than assume that one application process serves them all.

Trade Performance and Noble Service

The societies meet different needs within the same community. A well-equipped traveler depends on the work of craftsmen. An evening gathering depends on someone willing to entertain. Noble members must consider the roads, alliances, and defenses that allow both kinds of work to continue.

Craftsman and Merchant Society

BrimRose invites people who can supply useful goods and skilled labor. Its recruitment lists call for bakers, weapon makers, leatherworkers, seamstresses, general merchants, and makers of chainmail armor. A trade absent from that list may still be proposed to the Society. The purpose is to develop commerce, with room for the goods that people actually need.

The town planned booths for displaying wares. Monthly society gatherings offered a concentration of potential customers.

A merchant could leave purchases at the Post Office for collection, including goods awaiting payment on delivery. The monthly newspaper itself brought society news, announcements, classified advertisements, and current events to members.

Some support did not require membership. With enough advance notice, the Society Mistress would put a business name in event material at no charge. Requests traveled through the town's mail. Merchants were encouraged to offer townspeople a discount in return for local support.

Jesters Court

An entertainer needs an audience, but also benefits from other entertainers. The Court provides both. Members can rehearse together, exchange instruction, and bring their work before the town. Singers, dancers, actors, musicians, puppeteers, and comic performers all fall within its welcome.

The charter asks for the wish to entertain a crowd. It sets no further artistic qualification. Subjects for meetings depend on the talents represented, with a Head Master arranging instruction and pairing students with mentors. Performances may accompany society events, an evening at the tavern, the carnival, a theatre outing, or the winter celebration.

The Court uses the common elected Head Master and appointed Seneschal. An applicant accepted by the Court is recognized as a member after attending the first monthly meeting.

Lion Society

The Lions draw their membership from selected nobles. Their shared work concerns the people and territories entrusted to them. Protecting a road, supporting trade, or improving conditions in a settlement may require cooperation across the boundaries of several estates. The Society gives its members a place to develop that cooperation.

Its expectations of conduct apply as much within a noble household as in public. Fairness, charity, humility, and integrity are the qualities the Lions seek. Newly elevated nobles should be able to look to existing members for an example of how to exercise authority.

Discussions include the defense of duchies, baronies, and estates, the security of commerce, and the strength of alliances. Members also consider living conditions, current events, recruitment, and the Society's own affairs. Votes determine its business and the admission of candidates. When the members agree to consider someone for peerage in the Society, a vote may be requested.

The specific enrollment instruction calls for three recommendations, each supplied by a different noble, together with the applicant's name. Acceptance takes effect as official membership after the new member's first monthly gathering. The Lions elect their Head Master, who appoints the Seneschal.

Prospective noble members may be invited to social occasions and the Annual Masquerade Ball. Such invitations do not admit them to monthly business meetings. The distinction allows the Society to introduce a guest socially without extending access to its internal deliberations.

Learning Magic at BrimRose

The Dragon and Unicorn Orders provide separate communities for the two schools of magic. Each expects experienced members to teach newcomers. A magician who develops in both schools may eventually seek a place among the Master Wizards, whose studies build on that combined preparation.

Dragon Order

Celestial practice is the Dragon Order's field. Members work with the energies of the stars under the guidance of Dragon Masters. Instruction continues until a caster has the proficiency to mentor someone else. Teaching therefore forms part of the Order's ordinary life, rather than being left entirely to its most senior members.

A candidate must already cast Celestial spells. Six hours are devoted to welcoming new casters and helping them learn offensive spell casting. The applicant also needs a spell book, travel experience, and attendance at no fewer than half of the monthly meetings.

Knowledge must accompany the ability to cast. At the applicant's level of study, the wording and effects of spells must be understood precisely. That includes knowing how helpful magic can counter harmful magic.

The Order elects a Head Master and uses the common Seneschal arrangement. Officers retain the names of interested people, direct qualified applicants to the six hours of mentorship, and collect recommendations. An accepted candidate acquires official membership after the first monthly meeting. Completion of the Dragon and Unicorn courses opens the possibility of further consideration by the Master Wizards.

Unicorn Order

Earth magic gives the Unicorn Order its purpose. Its Masters guide practitioners toward the ability to instruct others, with particular attention to healing and to welcoming those beginning their studies. A caster's growing understanding should become useful to the next person who comes to learn.

The six-hour service requirement can be met by introducing new Earth casters to BrimRose and teaching healing spells. Applicants bring their own spell books, must be well traveled, and are expected at at least half of the Order's monthly gatherings.

As in the Dragon Order, applicants need accurate knowledge of their spells, including wording, results, and the relationship between harmful magic and the beneficial magic that counters it. Its charter explicitly concerns Earth's energies.

Unicorn members choose a Head Master, with an appointed Seneschal handling the supporting office. The recruitment process records interested applicants, arranges service for those who qualify, and gathers the necessary letters. Following acceptance, the first monthly meeting establishes official membership. Combined achievement in the Unicorn and Dragon Orders can lead toward the Master Wizards.

Recommendations

Each charter calls for three character recommendations from friends or acquaintances.

Master Wizards Order

The Master Wizards pursue Formal Magic and formal cantrips, and study scrolls, potions, healing pools, and the creation of enchanted weapons and other magical objects. Their members, described as Grand Wizards, bring training from both schools to that work.

An applicant must have proficiency in Earth as well as Celestial Magic. Membership in both the Unicorn and Dragon Orders is required, along with a recommendation from each Head Master.

The members consider a candidate and may call a vote on elevation. An accepted applicant becomes an official member after the first monthly meeting.

The general enrollment instructions add three letters from three nobles.

The Master Wizards follow the usual arrangement of an elected Head Master and an appointed Seneschal. Their correspondence package includes a seal of their own Order.

Training and Hired Service

BrimRose's two martial institutions provide a path from weapon instruction to advanced professional service. Academy mastery is a qualification for approaching the Rangers, whose admission remains a decision of their own membership.

BrimRose Combat Academy

The Academy trains students in the use of weapons. A student may take up several kinds, but advancement rests on being able to meet the final test. Those who succeed may receive peerage as Masters. They can remain as teachers, seek further development with the Rangers, or pursue both opportunities.

The range of instruction covers missile weapons, weapons for close fighting, and the shield. The following list retains each field named in the curriculum.

Field	Weapons and equipment
Missile and thrown weapons	Crossbow, bow, javelin, throwing dagger
Blades and hafted blades	Two-handed sword, long sword, short sword, dagger, long axe, short axe, hatchet
Blunt weapons	Two-handed blunt, long hammer, short hammer, long mace, short mace, bludgeon, sap
Long weapons and defense	Staff, polearm, spear, shield

Candidates are also expected to have traveled and to attend at least half of the Academy's monthly meetings.

The charter requests three character references from acquaintances or friends.

Members elect the Head Master. The office arranges mentors, prepares instruction in fighting, and represents the Academy to the other societies and the Society Mistress. An appointed Seneschal supports that work and may act when the Head Master is unavailable.

Rangers Guild

The Rangers recruit from Masters of the Academy. They develop a combatant's judgment as well as weapon skill, with a professional standard of conduct expected in their dealings. Members also learn sword making and repair, including strengthening and silvering weapons.

That preparation supports work beyond the practice ground. A Ranger might escort a noble, a tax collector, a wealthy traveler, or a merchant. The Guild undertakes rescues where a captive is being held for ransom and may assist in strengthening the Commons' defenses.

Applicants submit three recommendations and their particulars for consideration. The Guild deliberates and elects its members. A qualified applicant who is unsuccessful is encouraged to return within a moon and ask again.

Rangers elect a Captain. Along with the usual duties of instruction, mentoring, and representation, the Captain chooses which members will answer requests involving the defense of life and justice. The Seneschal is appointed by the Captain and can perform the supporting and substitute duties of that office.

The distinction between pay and recovered magic matters to Guild service. A hired Ranger keeps all money earned by that swordsman. Magical items acquired through the work enter a shared Guild treasury, from which members may request their use.

Raven Society Confidential

The Ravens cultivate opportunity through stealth, trade, and adventure. A profitable undertaking is more useful when capable companions can be trusted to share it. Membership therefore depends on the Society's own judgment, with much of the process deliberately concealed from outsiders.

A rogue may apply regardless of culture or race. The invitation expresses a preference for Gypsies, Pirates, and Dark Elves, without making those identities a limit on eligibility. Six private tests await an aspirant. Passing creates the possibility of acceptance, not an entitlement to it.

Initial contact is made through a notice at the tavern kiosk. A reply, if one comes, specifies a confidential meeting. The letter is to be destroyed after reading, and the meeting itself must remain undisclosed. The Society warns of prompt punishment for betrayal and requires members to deny its existence.

At public gatherings, Ravens use prospective-member invitations as cover, appearing to consider another society. A member who is questioned must supply an explanation for being there. Their organization can change as circumstances require; loyalty to the brethren and competence in theft remain its basic expectations.

Correspondence uses aliases rather than the writer's own name and passes through the BrimRose Post Office. The advertised mail arrangement promises confidentiality and says a deposited letter will remain in the box without removal for any purpose.

Articles Recorded in 609 ER

The ten articles below set out the Ravens' internal law.

I. Important decisions give each member the same voting power. Seized fresh food and strong drink are available on equal terms. If supplies become scarce, a company vote may limit consumption for everyone's benefit.

II. Fraud against the company brings marooning, even when the value amounts to only one silver noble in money, jewels, or plate. Theft from a fellow member may instead bring expulsion or abandonment on a shore where the offender will face hardship.

III. Information about the Guild must remain among its members. The punishment described for disclosure includes removal of a finger and the tongue, followed by a year of nightmares. The offender may also lose association with the Guild and be shunned.

IV. Raiding begins at eight at night or at sunset. Members are directed to seize what they can and surrender none of the taking.

V. Members remain prepared to act, with a sap, a dagger, and a sword readily available.

VI. Abandoning a battle assignment or betraying the brethren in combat can lead to execution or marooning.

VII. A dispute between members is settled by a sword duel. The first wound determines the winner; striking a fellow member outside that prescribed settlement is prohibited.

VIII. Discussion of retiring from this life is barred until every member's share reaches 1,000. A member who meets obligations to the Guild and loses a limb or is crippled in its service receives five pieces of the shared stock. Smaller injuries receive proportionately smaller compensation.

IX. Private members undertaking profitable ventures owe the Guild fifty percent of their prizes and twenty percent of their coin.

X. Assassinating a fellow member carries a sentence requiring the offender's death on two occasions.

Applications Officers and Correspondence

Joining a Society

An applicant begins by identifying the society and supplying enough information for its members to assess the request.

Officers keep the names of interested people so they can be contacted again. Recommendation letters then accompany the application according to that society's requirements.

The first monthly meeting establishes official membership for accepted applicants to the Dragon Order, Unicorn Order, Master Wizards, Lion Society, and Jesters Court. This provision follows acceptance; it does not replace a society's other qualifications or admission vote.

Running the Meetings

The Head Master's authority comes from the members' election. During a meeting, the officer brings business forward, allows members to raise matters, and conducts requested votes. Between meetings, the Head Master prepares a relevant subject for study, pairs learners with mentors, and represents the society before its neighbors and the Society Mistress.

Recruitment is part of the office. Potential members must receive impartial consideration. Aspirants Day requires preparation of the society's banner and its own invitation.

The appointed Seneschal maintains minutes and correspondence and serves as another point of contact with the Society Mistress. The Seneschal can also replace the Head Master when the latter is unable to carry out the role.

Rangers use an elected Captain in place of the Head Master. Merchant trading arrangements and Raven articles provide their own structures; the general offices should not be imposed on them as additional rules.

Letters and Town News

The original correspondence kit supplied a quill, sealing wax, antiqued writing paper, and the society's wax seal. Members used it for society letters. Ownership of the seal remained with the society, and departure required its return.

Mail was handled at the Drunken Parrot Tavern. Any later change in Post Office location was to appear in the BrimRose Journal. Members sent advertisements or announcements to the Society Mistress through that service. The Journal combined society reports with local events and classified notices.

Invitations supplied the details that a general calendar could not settle: where to arrive, when to be there, how to dress, and what food to expect when a menu was available.

The Annual Program

BrimRose planned occasions for members to meet beyond the business of their own societies.

Dinners and Evenings Out

The casual dinner brought leading citizens together with representatives of the Rangers, Lions, and Master Wizards. Conversation could turn to improvements for the Commons, new ideas, and ways to support its growth.

The Masquerade provided a more formal meeting of the societies. A feast, dancing, and music accompanied costume and masks. The Society Mistress intended to offer masks at monthly gatherings for those needing them. Members presented visiting candidates by name, identifying them as new Aspirants.

Tournament Competitions

Tournament Day made room for different professions and kinds of skill. The martial contests included a main fighter competition using two weapons or a weapon with a shield. Other proposed divisions separated a single weapon, paired weapons, a shield with one weapon, polearms, a shield with a blunt weapon, and unrestricted weapon choices.

A team contest paired a fighter with an Earth caster or healer. Fighters selected their own equipment. Other listed competitions covered archery, thrown knives, thrown axes, arm wrestling, darts, horseshoes, chess, and checkers. Badminton, tug-of-war, and paired-leg racing also appeared among the proposed divisions.

Tavern Adventures and Carnival

Tavern Night invited characters to spend an evening at the Drunken Parrot with food, ale, cards, darts, and music. Performers could discuss payment in silver with the hostess.

The associated adventure began at a new museum. Its curator displayed a dead king, preserved as a mummy, with the treasures placed around him. That visit led toward a haunted forest route, with concealed dangers, witches, night ghouls, and a monster.

At the carnival, visitors moved among prize booths and performances. Games included knocking milk bottles down with a softball, throwing hoops, aiming darts at balloons, putting a ball into a glass, selecting a lucky number, spinning a fortune wheel, horseshoes, and shooting an arrow to ring a bell. A fortune teller, magician, marionette show, and musicians added attractions. Entertainment was intended to suit the town's period and setting.

Jokes and funny stories supplied further contests. The Drunken Parrot grill provided barbecue and other fair food, including turkey legs and sausage with peppers. Visitors could also find pickles, pretzels, cotton candy, and candied apples.

Two adventure ideas accompanied the fair. One centered on a carnival murder. The other supplied an employer, Mr. Flair, with unusual keys. Those keys opened unknown doorways leading toward treasure. Participants would need to interpret messages and riddles, exercise judgment, deal with unfamiliar people, and fight creatures of myth. Flair offered a portion of recovered treasure as their reward.

Mystery Gambling and Winter Celebrations

The adventure, titled Death of the Herald, made the town herald a murder victim. Guests examined the scene and body, gathered evidence, and questioned residents and suspects to uncover the victim's concealed affairs and enemies and identify the murderer.

At Casino Night, gold, silver, and platinum could be wagered, with magical items also accepted as stakes. Draw and stud poker, dealer-selected games, blackjack, craps, and roulette were proposed alongside bingo and lottery drawings.

The winter gathering brought a holiday market, entertainment, and a five-course feast together around the lighting of the town tree. Merchants were invited to sell or barter, with the Journal naming them and advertising their goods as they registered. Singers, poets, bards, and minstrels were welcome to perform. A final talent competition awarded the first three places and acknowledged fourth and fifth.

The Antique House Dossier

The Collection and Its Keeper

Christopher's archaeological work occupied much of his twenties and thirties. During his travels he recovered objects whose nature he did not understand. Retirement brought him into the antiques trade, with nearly thirty valuable finds intended to give the shop a profitable start. Sales initially provided a comfortable living.

The consequences of those sales gradually became impossible for him to dismiss. Six months after opening, he stopped selling the troublesome pieces. The rest of his life was spent trying to recover them. The collection became private, secured below the shop, while ordinary stock remained on public display. An old staff, a dwarven lamp, or a vintage chair could be offered over the counter; the contents of the vault were neither offered nor shown.

Three incidents explained his change of purpose. A pair of small figures recovered in Rumania depicted a man and a girl, with pronounced fangs, and were dated to the 1300s. A buyer paid twice their value. Within a week, he was dead and his blood was gone.

Another find, recovered in China, was identified as a Japanese wishing amulet. Its purchaser was struggling financially. Two days after the sale, a head-on collision between his family's car and a semi killed the family. An insurance payment of ten million followed, but grief drove the purchaser to kill himself with a firearm.

A wealthy opera patron bought a detailed hair fastener of carved bone and ivory to match her gown. She brought it back five days later, visibly pale and worn down. Sleep had failed her since the purchase. Dreams brought a horrifying presence that whispered beside her throughout the night.

Christopher eventually warned that the pieces must stay out of ordinary commerce. Personal profit or advantage was precisely the temptation that made them dangerous. The vault's objects were to be used only when needed to bring other objects back. He could not say whether he had spent his life finding them or whether some force had brought them to him.

The Inheritance Dispute

Ryan had spent nearly every childhood summer with his great-uncle, hearing frightening stories about the hidden collection. Christopher died in the summer preceding Ryan's appeal. His will left Ryan the shop, but Christopher's daughter Catherine contested the inheritance. Ryan knew her as his Aunt Catherine, also called Mrs. O'Toole, a woman practiced in business law and challenges to wills. Legal papers reached him within two hours of the will being read.

Ryan's lawyers obtained a reversal before the Duke within a week. Half the shop's sale stock had already gone by then. Ryan was relieved to regain the property, valuing his uncle's private memories more than the ordinary merchandise that had disappeared.

On his first day in possession, the executor arrived with a withheld envelope. Christopher had anticipated Catherine's challenge and instructed that the message wait until Ryan controlled the shop. The executor congratulated Ryan on prevailing, expressed sympathy, and delivered the letter.

That message made the childhood stories a warning. Christopher had collected fifty objects in the full inventory. Forty-seven were now in the vault and three remained missing. Thirty-two had never been sold, and their powers were still uncertain. Eighteen earlier sales were recorded in a second journal. A separate list described eighteen objects, including jewelry and amulets, that might assist recovery. Its relationship to the list of sold pieces was not explained.

The vault also held the collection record and Christopher's private archaeological journal. The ledger described the objects and their origins; the journal supplied further information from his working years. He asked Ryan to complete the recovery so that his spirit could find peace.

Recruiting the Orders

Ryan sought help through an advertisement for Mullegan's Antique House in BrimRose. Applicants were expected to investigate rare objects, determine where they were, and retrieve them, with frequent travel part of the work. Familiarity with antique myths and folklore was useful. Artistic knowledge was welcome without being compulsory. Interviews were to be in person with Ryan, and successful applicants could start at once.

The Society Mistress noticed this advertisement in her morning newspaper and wrote to Ryan in her official capacity. His response described the inheritance and the concealed collection. He feared a connection between the missing antiques and the deaths and accidents repeatedly appearing in the BrimRose Journal. He had neither the knowledge to locate the objects nor the means to retrieve them.

The Mistress forwarded both papers to the two magical Orders, Unicorn and Dragon. Their magical experience made them the people she believed best able to investigate. She asked them to respond promptly and report how many volunteers would undertake the danger.