The City of Bastogne
It is spring in the Ardennes. The icy grip of winter has receded and the rivers run full and cold. The chill still dominates the nights and mornings even when out in the fields where cold fog billows down from the hills and lurks past noon in the forests and valleys.
In the west commerce along the River Meuse is already bustling while the interior of the Duchy is just starting to turn the earth. The east meanwhile is still frozen in the high parts but watchmen are on guard for any sign of Saxon incursion. The Rhine is swollen and fast, but Saxon and Danish raiders are rarely turned back by the rough waters alone.
Easter is fast approaching and with it the summons for all of the lords of the land and knights of Bastogne to attend Duke Thierry at his court. There the Counts and Bannerets will speak with the Duke about the upcoming year and the knights will learn their garrison assignments.
As the nobles begin to gather word arrives of two disturbing goings on.
The first is that a robber knight with a large, green jewel on his shield has been waylaying travelers on the road to Liege.
This concerns the Duke as last year he had requested that the Prince-Bishop of Liege lend him a prized relic of Saint Marcian. The Bishop has agreed, but the party escorting the relic was set upon by the robber knight who gravely wounded two knights and then even slew a priest as he tried to protect the sacred device. The villain then pried the silver reliquary from the dead man's grip and absconded with it.
It is an outrage to all people of faith and many have already begun to clamor for vengeance. Duke Thierry assures them that justice will be done and that he will announce his plan on Easter after he speaks to his councilors.
As if that were not peril enough so early in the year tales are told also of a monstrous wolf who's howl casts a spell over other wolves so that they become savage and bound to the monster's will. They have been seen attacking flocks across half a dozen villages south of Esneux (itself a bare 3 leagues south from Liege).
Normal wolves are dangerous enough but the herders are helpless against these, driven as they are by a malign will. All fear for their lives and relate the same, terrifying account of how the great wolf stared at them with shining blue eyes as its minions took away their livelihood.
Whatever the Duke decides to do about these threats one thing is certain: he will send his knights against them, and already the young knights are eager to stand out and be chosen.