Because my players are currently focused within a fairly small area of land within my south-easternmost kingdom, they are beginning to run into a few factions with various goals. I thought it may be a fun exercise to flesh some of these out more thoroughly, so today we're taking a look at...

Factions of Aaval

There are three main factions that our players have interacted with in some way so far. We'll start with the two most directly connected to my players:

The Bandyhand Institute

Primarily seen as one of the foremost libraries within Aaval, the Bandyhand Institute has a reach far beyond that of a simple university or library. While these act as useful fronts and the leadership of the Bandyhand Institute is quite proud of their accomplishments, they are not the main focus of the faction.

Goal:
Acquire, catalogue, and safeguard magical books, scrolls, items, and artifacts.

Philosophy:
Some magic is too powerful or unpredictable to be left unguarded.

Lines & Limits:
The Bandyhand Institute are not killers, and will not collect items by force under any circumstances. They do employ a network of spies that keep tabs on known items that could be problematic, and if by misfortune or outside acts, one of the items they are interested in is parted from its owner they will take that opportunity to collect it.

Connection to the players:
The players are currently aiding a researcher at the Bandyhand Institute and will be offered a job as contractors if they succeed in returning the researcher to his home plane. Some of the items this group collects come with unexpected trouble, so having adventurers on hand to deal with the unintended consequences of trying to understand a particular item is valuable.

The Adventurer's Guild of Aaval

Every Kingdom on the continent has both an Adventurer's Guild and a Mercenary's Guild. They are separate organizations but do occasionally have overlapping responsibilities. My players have yet to interact with a local branch of the Mercenary's Guild, but they are all employed as Adventurers. This Adventurer's guild is something I've talked about previously, but to sum it up here:

The Guild effectively acts as a bounty board for small jobs that folks can claim. These range from escort duties acting as caravan guards for merchants, to investigating strange ruins or clearing out a small den of monsters.

This is where there can be overlap with the Mercenary's Guild, as larger merchant caravans aren't suitable for a small group to protect, and some monster dens require a larger military force to clear.

Goals:
Provide a safe and verifiable means of tracking and completing small to medium sized bounties for local communities.

Philosophy:
Someone has to look out for the under-serviced communities that local government can't.

Lines & Limits:
The Guild is aware of the inherent risks of adventuring and as such tries to ensure that new adventurers are given jobs befitting their experience. Naturally, there's no way to account for unpredictable factors, so this is more of a goal than a science. They do not want to waste lives, but they also work effectively at cost. Adventures are expected to provide their own kits and maintain their equipment. Very little help will be spared for a group that takes a job and goes missing - at most, the Guild may fund one attempt to rescue or recover, but that's it.

Player Connection:
The Guild provided my players with their initial mission: escorting a merchant during their week-long journey between two cities. Outside of gameplay, most of the characters had done previous one-off jobs with the Guild as well as it's a good way to get jobs that don't rely on "I heard a rumour in a tavern once".

Additional jobs will be provided as the characters check in with the Guild.

The Quill

The Players don't know much about this faction so far - having only once interacted with an agent of the group. Even saying they interacted is a bit of a stretch, a member was spotted and chased but disappeared through a Dimension Door or Gate spell (they don't currently know which). As such their motivations are currently unclear. We will almost certainly see more of this group though, as they seem to have an interest in strange and powerful books popping up within Aaval that are causing chaos.

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