The Expeditionary Corps

The silver, black, and Red of the Expeditionary Corps brings a feeling a safety to those who travel far from the safety of the stronghold walls. Likewise the image of the silver sword with a crimson rose winding up the blade to flower at the hilt inspire dreams of adventure and heroism from the citizens within the walls.

*Unique subclass option: Oath of the Expedition Paladin. Consult DM for further details.*

## Function

The Expeditionary Corps functions as an independently run, state funded military organization. Their main purview encompasses any activities outside the safety of the strongholds. The main operations of the corps are the protection of trade and civilian caravans as they travel between population centers, and item retrieval requests from The Shifting Athenaeum and The Chimera Concord. In times of conflict the Corps also consolidates its self into a highly effective fighting force.

## Structure

The HQ of the corps is located in Stronghold Toroban, with barracks, offices, and training grounds located in every sovereign stronghold. Outer towns have outposts, with lodgings for members out on assignments, and a few staff to recruit people and send requests to the nearest strongholds. There is also a small house in Kitalis that members stay at when business takes the past sovereign territory, but due to politics they cannot leave the house for their stay in Kitalis.

The corps is divided into 5 divisions. There are the Sentinels, Rangers, Seekers, the Firebreak, and the Rift fleet. Each division has a different main objective, and operates with-in very different circumstances.

1. **The Sentinels.** Theses corps members are the most visible of all the divisions to the public. They are tasked with patrolling the long roads that stretch for miles between population centers. The Sentinels ensure the roads are safe and clear, and make note of any potentially hostile activity along the way. As well as frequent patrolling, they act as escorts for almost all civilian and mercantile caravans traveling between strongholds. A team of sentinels may be on escort for upwards of two weeks before they finally return to their home. Raids on the caravans is not uncommon, even with the presence of the sentinels. Teams are formed in groups of 4, each having two martial specialists (usually fighters), an arcane specialist, and a paladin of the corps. The larger or more heavily laden transports will frequently have multiple teams assigned to them to better ensure safety. Sentinels carry their heads high and ride as the face of the corps, they are the ones who paid the price in sweat and blood to cement the outstanding reputation that the corps currently holds.
	* **Motto** Usque in Finem
2. **Rangers.** Working in pairs, rangers spend their time gathering information, mapping the region, and delivering requests and requisitions throughout the corps network. It is a Rangers job to venture out into the wilderness and gather all the information they can during their deployment window, before returning to civilization. Rangers are highly skilled specialists that excel at surviving in the harsh wilds with minimal supplies, they move quickly and leave little trace they were ever there to begin with. Once they return form a deployment they are assigned to act a couriers for a deployment in order the give them time to unwind and not lose tough with civilization. Ranger pairs are unique among the corps due to their recruitment process. A senior ranger will observe the training of new recruits during scorch adn then hand pick a recruit to train. If by the end of the next year the young prospect passes their tests then they become a Ranger team until the older one retires, at which point the apprentice is not the senior ranger and gets to handpick a new partner to train. There are a few Ranger lineages that can be traced back to the founding of the corps, and Rangers of those lineages have a certain reputation attached to them.
	* **Motto** Scientia ex Obumbratio
3. **Seekers.** Retrieval of long lost artifacts, investigations into strange occurrences, general requests from the populous, and a myriad of other duties, Seekers fulfill a multipurpose roll in the corps. When the Shifting Athenaeum finds records of a long lost relic it is the task of the Seekers to retrieve it. If an outlying farm gets attacked, the Seekers are deployed to investigate and see if they cant solve the problem. Seekers also get loaned out to the Chimera Concord and the city guard if they need extra help in their own endeavors. Seekers groups are constructed by the corps and traditionally consist of a cleric, two martial specialists, an arcane specialist, a bard of the corps, and a paladin of the corps. These teams are meticulously constructed to ensure the greatest chance of survivability in the majority of situation the Seekers many run into.
	* **Motto** Semper Quaeritis
4. **The Firebreak.** By far the most dangerous of the divisions, it is the job of the Firebreak team to pick a fight in one location in order to draw attention away from somewhere else. If Rangers or sentinels report massing orcs near a road, and there is a heavily laden merchant caravan due past that point soon, then the Firebreak team rides out and pick a fight with the orcs if it looks like they are planning on hitting the caravan. If kobolds raid an outer town, the Firebreak roll up to their lair and do as much damage as they can. The Firebreak are 10 man teams that recruit from veterans of the corps or outsiders that can demonstrate their combat prowess. Firebreak members are often ex-members of Ranger, Sentinel, and Seeker teams that suffer losses and had to disband. Bitter and filled with a desire for vengeance these members make for the most ruthless of the order. Due to the extreme danger of the job, it is uncommon for a Stronghold to be able to field more than two or three Firebreak teams, and sometimes they only have a single team. Firebreakers are treated with the utmost respect by the other members of the corps.
	* **Motto** Resiste Et Mords
5. **The Rift fleet.** As part of a treaty between Chalisar, Leorin, Osden, and the Volarin nations of Silverbrush and Grazull, each Nation provides crews to sail with the Devils Armada. This Armada was created to fight the devils that sporadically spew forth from a massive rift that sits out in the heart of Devil's rift (the sea east of Chalisar). members of the Rift Fleet sail for a season and a half, then get half a season to rest before sailing again. The majority of the recruits for the Rift fleet come from strongholds Dragir and Langston.

**Paladins of the corps** are the team leads and are the ones vested with the authority of the corps when out on deployments. They have sworn an oath to protect their team above all else, and to ensure that every one makes it home alive. Through this oath they are granted the power to protect their team from a great array of harm that may come to them.

**Bards of the corps** travel with the Seekers and record the stories of their group. They carry their weight in the fight and assist in navigating the many challenges of their missions, and when they return home they turn their records over to the corps chronicler who enters it into the legacy of the corps. The stories are then edited and sold to story makers who turn the adventures into books.

## Locations

**Fool's Fate**: The Headquarters of the entire Corps, and also the location of the Toroban detachment.

**Fool's Finale**: Built by the waters edge, on the west side of Langston, the Finale also serves as one of the major graving docks of the kingdom.

*Madman's Merriment:* Both a bar and a barracks, corps members staying the night in Ryissine are treated to modest accommodations and good food.

## Teams

**Fools' Judgement:** Campaign 3 party, Seekers

**The Seekers Inverness:** Seekers

**Twin Star:** Rangers

**Blashko and Corvit:** Rangers

**Kraisl and Langer**: Rangers