Lord Davben of Triln succeeded his father to the throne, and has been ruling Triln for the last 25 years. Since then, Triln has grown significantly more powerful and has more influence over the other cities than ever before.
Being a major proponent of trade and maintaining a large force of Knights and Guards, he has cleared many of the bandit packs near to the city, and is quite favored by most, but the poor of the city have been suffering. Most attention has been put toward outside the city, so the slums have gotten worse.
Lord Davben is now 44 years old and age is showing. He isn't expected to live too many more years, so more and more pressure has steadily been put upon his son Adolin.
Beneath Lord Davben are the Nobles, whom are often large landowners or control aspects of trade. Below the Nobles is a sort of middle-class citizenry that lives within or just outside the city and has a decent standard of living. Below them are the farmers who live outside the city walls. At the bottom are the poor and homeless, who have congregated into areas called slums.
In terms of layout, the city is surrounded by large farming tracts and the area is well settled. There are many homes around the outskirts of the walls as well. The city walls are large and strong, and would be hard to assault. Within the walls are various districts and areas, markets, etc., nothing too special. Near the center is the Citadel, which is a fortified mix between a manor and a castle, and is where Lord Davben and other politically important individuals reside.
Adolin has never spent much time on the thought that he would eventually rule this city. He has always supported his father, despite not always seeing eye-to-eye with him on certain issues. He always remained steadfastly obedient, listening to his father and following his rulings.
Most of Adolin's recent efforts have been in trying to help improve his father's reputation as opposed to building his own as a future leader. Adolin spends much of his free time courting noble women, and after the last two years is currently on bad terms with many of them. This is a result of the death of his mother.
Just over two years ago, an underground organization within Triln, known as "Teir", was attempting to assassinate Lord Davben and his entire family, Adolin included. This was due to the poor conditions of the slums and lack of effort by the Lord to help support the homeless and downtrodden.
The assassination attempt was mostly thwarted, except they succeeded in killing Adolin's mother, Lady Davben. Immediately afterward, a large investigation began, trying to find the culprits. The investigation was a success, the hideout of Teir was discovered and raided, and nearly every member of it was executed. A few did escape, however, and their whereabouts are unknown.
After the successful destruction of Teir, details of their organization were discovered. They were a group that could be contracted to perform assassinations for a price, and so this raised the question: who hired them to assassinate Lord Davben? It must have been a large sum of money to get Teir to take the job, narrowing the possibilities.
Fingers began to be pointed by the noble families at each other. It was time of uncertainty and in some cases hostilities between the noble houses. In one case, a Noble accused a dignitary from Gellantara of being part of the conspiracy.
It ended up leading to a duel where the person that did the accusing got killed. One of the dignitary's friends championed for him in the fight, and his sword cut straight through the accusor's blade and then into his right shoulder, dealing a fatal blow. Afterward, the dignitaries and the friend who championed for them all fled the city to avoid repercussions, and most Nobles agree that they were the ones who hired Teir to assassinate the Lord.
This was because before Triln grew into a powerhouse of trade, Gellantara had been the center of it. As Triln grew, more and more ships began heading to the port of Trannyth instead of Gellantara. And the Gellantarans were not very happy about it. The city, of course, denies any involvement and refuses to hand over the dignitaries who had fled the city after the duel.
A year later, Adolin started to hear a few whispers that instead the Mages Guild was involved in it somehow. None of the rumors were very clear about how or why, and all of them were stated by other Nobles who despised the Mages Guild for various reasons. Adolin never fully believed them, but after hearing it enough he has grown very suspicious of the Mages Guild.
Adolin preferred not getting too involved with politics on his own, mainly keeping his political pursuits to assisting his father. He often would give advisement focused more toward poverty and corruption issues.
One day while wandering the Citadel, Adolin overhears several nobles speaking about some activity of the Mages Guild. Instantly, this caught Adolin's attention. It seemed the nobles doing the speaking had a notable dislike of them, and after a few moments of listening Adolin discerns that it has something to do with field research the Mages want to do outside the city, and that some knights will end up escorting them.
Intriqued, Adolin continues listening for a bit, but it seems the nobles had no other useful information. He decides that he should try speaking with some of the knights who would be escorting them to find out more.
He heads to the training fields, and after arriving sees that near the middle of the field, all the knights are gathered. On a raised platform are several Knight Captains, speaking to the gathered knights, as well as a hooded figure off to one side.
Adolin cannot see the face of the hooded figure, but recognizes the robes as being from the Mages Guild. Seeing them, he frowns deeply but moves closer in order to listen in.
Adolin hears that the Captains are speaking about the mission and asking for a few volunteers for it. Several knights come forward to volunteer, and six are selected. The remainder are dismissed to return to drills as the volunteers, the captains, and the hooded figure head off toward a structure on the edge of the field.
Adolin recognizes one of the volunteers as a knight who he occasionally spars with. Jogging to catch up with them, he calls out, "Hey! Holland!"
The entire group turns at the outburst as Adolin heads toward Holland. As he approaches, Adolin looks briefly at the rest of the group, taking in faces and seeing if he recognizes any of them. One of them is a female knight, and he thinks he has likely tried making advances on her in the past, although he doubts any were successful.
Trying to steer clear of her just in case, he heads to Holland and asks about the situation and what the gathering was about. Holland turns away from him and briefly explains about the escort mission, although he said nothing that Adolin didn't already know.
Holland begins walking away, and Adolin is confused by the strange behavior. He catchs up with Holland again and asks, "Holland? What is going on?" After the two get a bit farther from the others, "We are away from the others now. Why are you acting so oddly?"
Holland responds, "You know why, Adolin... The last 'opportunity' you convinced me into got me paid next to nothing, and I've had to nearly starve myself and live on the goodwill of others recently. If you've got another 'proposition' for me, I'll have no part in it, and I've already volunteered for this expedition thing."
Adolin is a bit confused, but realize that he's talking about some of the side jobs Adolin mentioned to him in the past trying to give him something to do instead of just sit around the city all day. Apparently they haven't all worked out, but he didn't come for anything along those lines.
Adolin asks again, "Anyways, that expedition thing is why I'm here... What's it all about?"
Holland stops and looks at him, "They haven't given us any details yet, just that the Mages Guild was getting an escort for it. It was a chance to get outside of this boring city, so I took it."
Adolin considers this for a moment, and then explains, "If you can help me out and keep a close eye on the Mages Guild and report back to me what the mages are up to, then I will in return help you out with your financial situation. All you would need to do is keep a close eye on them and try to gather what you can. Try to guard their meetings, stick close to them while they are talking and gain their trust. I have a feeling something incredibly bad is about to occur in this city, and I think the Mages Guild is directly in the heart of it."
It takes a moment, but Holland responds, "I'll do what I can, but don't expect anything too much, not sure they'd let me get too close to anything important. Now, if you'll excuse me, they are about to begin briefing us."
He begins to walk off with the others now. Adolin, still mostly unaware of the true situation, realizes he might have better luck back at the Citadel, so he heads in that direction now.
About a third of the way back to the Citadel, Adolin is walking through a large public courtyard. It's commonly a gathering place for citizens and it's generally a very relaxing place. It's one of only a few areas in the city that isn't paved and walled by buildings.
It's a smooth grassy hill with a single lone tree in the middle. There are several young kids playing around the area, and near one side of the courtyard he spots several individuals wearing the recognizable robes of Mages Guild members.
They appear to be speaking amongst themselves about a few things, but they aren't speaking loudly so Adolin cannot hear what they are saying. They are mostly keeping away from others.
Adolin is perplexed by all the strange Mages Guild activity today. This public courtyard is not a common place for them to hang around as they normally stay near the Guild's central building and surrounding housings.
He tries to edge a little closer to the mages, staying as inconspicuous as possible. He cannot get close enough to hear most of what they are saying, but what was initially a quiet discussion is becoming a heated argument now.
"It doesn't matter what some crackpot researcher thinks he saw! No one else can tell any difference!" Said one of them loudly.
The other was more calm, but was also speaking louder now, "He's not just some crackpot researcher, he's one of the Archmages! And he's spent more time studying the aura than anyone else in the Guild!"
"Yeah, and even the other Archmages disagree with him! Archmage Tranan was only able to get his little research trip approved in the first place because it would get him out of the hair of the other Archmages for awhile!"
"Oh? And where did you hear this from? The Archmages haven't announced anything about it, so don't believe everything you hear in rumors and gossip. They all know it's a legitimate concern and just want it verified before anything is done."
"Just wait. When they return empty-handed and prove themselves wrong, just remember our bet." One of them turns and walks away, out of the courtyard. Adolin realizes that it seems the entire argument was about them betting on the success of the expedition.
The second Mages Guild member heads toward the tree in the middle of the courtyard, and Adolin chooses to follow him a bit, seeing what he is planning. Keeping a good distance away, Adolin watches as the man sits with his back against the tree, seemingly doing nothing at all.
After several minutes, Adolin begins thinking that he is just wasting his time now, but eventually another Mages Guild member approaches the tree. This new person's cloak appears more ornate than usual, and as he approaches he says, "An escort of six knights will be accompanying us as we leave in the morning. Is everything else prepared?"
"Yes, we will be ready to leave by first light, Archmage Tranan. Myself and the others will meet you at the gate as planned, although there will only be four others. Ianden won't be coming with us."
Tranan reponds, "That is regrettable, but nonetheless we go as planned." They continued speaking for a few minutes, but the rest was inconsequential, mostly of general supplies for the trip.
They begin walking away from the tree and out of the courtyard, in the same direction that the previous Mages Guild member had left in. Adolin decides to return to the Citadel now, with the intention of speaking with his father about his suspicions...
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