The Aspirants of Fang and Antler exist to connect adventurous individuals with suitable animal companions. After abandoning their own unsatisfying paths as spell-slingers, swords for hire, and tree wardens, the founding Aspirants gave their lives over to the task of tending, training, and healing beasts of all types, from hares to drakes.

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Aspirants of Fang and Antler

Many aspirants live quietly within rural communities, tending to swine with sore trotters while encouraging the occasional owlbear to find somewhere else to nest. Others cling to the lifestyle of the wandering adventurer, though their ventures focus on keeping animal habitats safe more than delving into dungeons and looting tombs.

Aspirants of Fang and Antler are well-regarded by the populace. In many sparsely populated rural areas, they are reliable experts on the local fauna.

Joining the Aspirants

The requirements to become an Aspirant are not onerous. Prospective members must have a pet, mount, or other living, non-humanoid companion. They must show that this creature is well cared for when presenting themselves to one of the organization’s leaders. They must undergo 12 weeks of initial training. Finally, they must donate 1,000 gold pieces. Once initiated, each spring, Aspirants are required to check in with one of the leaders and donate 4 weeks of their time to the organization throughout the year.

If a character wishes to join the Aspirants, they don’t need a feat, spell, or class feature that gives them a creature companion or familiar, they simply need to have a pet of some sort that they care about.

What is Expected of a Member?

Aspirants of Fang and Antler are to help non-humanoid creatures in any way they can. Some members keep farms, sanctuaries, aviaries, or other fixed locations, while others are itinerant and lend a hand wherever their talents are called upon.

Axioms of the Sun Seekers

The core beliefs of the Aspirants are as follows:

• All living beings are part of a never-ending cycle.

• Most natural creatures are not malicious. They act out of fear, hunger, or a drive to survive.

• Be wary of creatures originating from other planes, as they are beholden to laws other than the ones of the natural world.

Important Texts or Dogma

Every Aspirant is expected to own a copy of A Pedagogy on the Tutelage and Husbandry of Beasts Various by Heyronomous the Sage. Many Aspirants can cite specific passages of the text, including page references.

Allies and Enemies

Few other organizations care enough about the Aspirants of Fang and Antler to oppose them, if they even know they exist. Many individuals have earned the ire of the Aspirants, namely farmers who are known to work their animals too hard and people who hunt for sport rather than subsistence. During its short history, a few Aspirants have abused their positions and the benefits of membership, and used them to harm the creatures the organization exists to aid. These former members are summarily struck from the rolls and their removal is delivered by messenger to every other Aspirant that can be reached.

Benefits of Membership

There are a number of helpful benefits to joining the Aspirants of Fang and Antler:

• Members gain proficiency in Animal Handling. If they already have proficiency in that skill, they can instead gain proficiency in their choice of either Nature or Survival.

• Members can cast speak with animals as a ritual. If the member has levels in a spellcasting class, they also add the spell to their list of spells known, and it is treated as a spell of the class’s source.

• A member that is at least 4th level can cast animal messenger as a ritual. If the member has levels in a spellcasting class, they also add the spell to their list of spells known, and it is treated as a spell of the class’s source.

In Midgard: Aspirants of Fang and Antler

Type of Organization: Farming Collective
Symbol: Silhouette of a wolpertinger rearing on its hind legs with its wings outspread
Disciplines Taught: Animal husbandry, beast training, riding
Affiliated Weapon: Curved dagger

Important NPCs: Arturisk (centaur scout),Kam Lamczuk (human mage),Mikala Trymn (human mage), Septimous Yartrus (minotaur priest),Venespa Threepebble (halfling druid)

Primary Sanctuary: Trymn Farm, near Clarsaya

Major Sanctuaries: Peregrine’s Rest Bird Sanctuary near Orkasa, Bitter Boar Kennel in Revskaya

Important NPCs

Mikala Trymn. After flunking out of Zobeck’s Arcane Collegium, Mikala adventured for a time, earning the money she eventually used to by a farm near the city of Clarsaya in Perunalia. Mikala has been romantically involved with both Kam Lamczuk, the lead falconer at Peregrine’s Rest, and Venespa Threepebble, who trains rodents at her home near the White Citadel, but her true loves remain the beasts and small monsters she tends at her farm. She is a plump woman with rosy cheeks and wild graying hair, but her cheerfulness dissolves into cold anger when she learns of or witnesses the mistreatment of animals. Mikala can’t cast spells of 3rdlevel or higher.

Arturisk. Arturisk ranges from the periphery of the Khanate of the Khazzaki in the east, to the Wandering Realms of the Kariv in the north, to the Magdar Kingdom in the west. On his travels, he rescues predatory beasts in distress, nurtures them back to health, and trains them to follow his commands. He then sells the trained creatures to people seeking guard or hunting animal. If a purchaser of one of his animals attacks or otherwise mistreats it, they discover that Arturisk has trained his animals to protect themselves, even against their owners. Arturisk adds Animal Handling +3 to his list of skills.

Organizational Hook

The Aspirants of Fang and Antler are based out of Perunalia, and their members are centered there, though they have spread onto the Rothenian Plains and the Magdar Kingdom. Consider the following hooks, if you want to introduce them into your campaign:

• Along the River Argent, between the cities of Clarsaya and Sveretska, wild bears, coyotes, foxes and mink have been viciously attacking travelers. When the characters are hired to look into the matter, they discover a former Aspirant has been using the speak with animals spell and his skill at Animal Handling to drive the animals against the people of the region.

• The number of lantern and keyhole dragonettes in the town of Senyerstad is getting out of hand. To determine the cause of the population explosion, the characters seek out Septimous Yartrous, an eccentric minotaur Aspirant of Fang and Antler who is staying in the area.

•  The characters are hired to find a pair of Aspirants of Fang and Antler who have gone missing in Gennecka Forest. When they arrive, they find they must extricate the pair of animal enthusiasts from the amorous owlbear that has adopted them during mating season.

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