Since I was going to see what they could do, I needed to project strength. "I heard that you wanted our order's protection. Is this true?" The chief looked at me and smirked. "Yeah. Your answer?" he said. "I can see you guys as a branch of our order. You are not religious, so I do not see a way to raise you as paladins. I bet I can still make you a knight if you prove yourself worthy." I told him. The others made noises of encouragement. The chief leaned back with a knowing look on his face. "And what would you have us do, sir harpy?" he mocked. That got the others to laugh. I had to think of something. "How about this? A fraternal order dedicated to the collection and devoted protection of religious artifacts." The chief looked at me and said "You want us to go around Ether looking for relics? What type of fools do you take us for? You think we don't know how dangerous those ruins and dungeons are, crawling with monsters and traps!?" I shrugged. "I take you for thieves that would love the chance to steal from a ruin or catacomb and sell some artifacts back to the churches that want them."
They were not getting the picture, so I clarified for them. The chief whistled at me and looked closer at me. "You really are a thieves' guild member, through and through." he said. I just crossed my arms. "So, let's say we did this little operation. What do you get out of it?" That was easy. "I get a 15% cut of all the sales you make. I also will call on you if the Order of the Rose Bud needs allies." I informed him. "10%!" he tried to haggle. "15% is good. Now are you in or are you out?" The other bandits looked at him. He took a moment to think before smiling widely at his men. "I guess we're knights now, boys!" They cheered and I cleared my throat. "Not so fast. You still have to go and prove yourselves worthy. I'll wait until you get something actually worth calling a relic back here. I'll be drafting up the paperwork in the meantime." I let them know. The chief stood up and took out his battleaxe. "You do us a real service, Sir Hawks. Let's go get us a relic." They all left and I stayed back with a pen and paper to draft the vows and the terms of their enterprise. This would set the terms they would follow.
Under the document, I had them vow several things. I put "Mercy" where they would stop attacking an enemy that stops being hostile or surrenders. "Chivalry" meant the knight would step into to protect women and children if being attacked. The third vow was to "Yield only to might". That meant that they would do a task for anyone who defeated them in solo combat. That would be good enough to keep them from getting to big for their boots. There was always the risk of them all getting wiped out. If that happened, we could swoop in and take the fort. It took them a few days but they returned with a coffin. I looked at it and asked who was inside. "You would not know this, but I have the corpse of Saint Talmira the Wise. Buried with her last diary, said to contain knowledge of the living and the dead." the chief said with a grin. I opened the coffin and there was a skeleton with a book. I took it and a dark aura rose from the skeleton. I slammed the lid of the coffin back down and cast Turn Undead. That did not work. It was a really bad sign. The heavy lid was thrown open and the skeleton got up.
I watched as the dust rose from the bottom of the coffin. It covered her like a shroud. We all could see rotten fibers of flesh and muscle began to grow on all the bleached white bones. As time went on, the flesh rejuvenated itself in the span of minutes. When she had finally been reconstructed, her body took the form of a young woman. It was as if she had never died. She looked at me and said "I am Talmira. What need have you with my diary?" It was my time to shine. Everyone else was struck dumb with fear. "I am Sir Canan Hawks. This is the headquarters of the Order of the Thorny Bush. These knights you see before you are in the enterprise of searching for lost relics for protection and releasing them into the capable hands of the Church that desires them. Your book is known to contain knowledge of the living and the dead. It is for the best that these knights keep such knowledge safe from the wiles of grave robbers and heretics." She looked at me and frowned. "The able clerics of the Church of the Moon are sufficient to keep my secrets safe. Return me to them or be cursed." she said.
