I've always been curious what the vibe behind Irovetti and Pitax was supposed to be. Typically I can peg an author's influence, but this one continues to elude me. At best, I figured the city was supposed to be representative of what might happen it a two bit ner'do well gambler won an entire kingdom and tried to turn it into his bachelor pad.
Personally, I completely altered this book. By the time the PC's reached Pitax, Nyrissa had turned the populace to harmless animals ala a massive baleful polymorph. However, Irovetti and his goons still remained at the center awaiting the group.
Did any one else do anything creative with Pitax?
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Dudemeister turned it into Steampunk Latveria, with Irovetti as a well-intentioned Gearhead Doctor Doom preparing to wage war on the fey, catching the PCs in the crossfire. (Details in one of his threads, I don't remember which one.) I would like to have borrowed that, but in my setting Kingmaker is pre-gunpowder age, much less steam age, so no go.
So instead in my game it's the puppet kingdom of one of the dragons of the region, who play intermillennial chess with the lesser creatures of the territory to the north and consider the Stolen Lands part of their board. I haven't decided if it's Ilthuliak's puppet and Choral is moving in due to her absence, or if it's Choral's puppet and he's coming down in response to the PCs moving in on his turf.
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You know the funny thing is that Pitax might be a nicer place than Mivon. I sort of missed how seedy and shifty Mivon is the first time I read thru the Guide to the River Kingdoms. Instead I ended up more focused on the fact they were a kingdom of ex-patriate Brevoy aldori.
The mayor and his understudy are both CE and pretty much any organized group in the kingdom more closely resembles a mafia organization or thieves guild than kingdom faction.
Problems with this strategy are the queen is going to have no knowledge of why this colony is being built due to fear of spies overhearing, and it is going to eventually anger the Mayor of Mivon. The mayor will capture the lord in question and plan a public display of execution unless the queen journeys south to stop it. Several Aldori duels will have to be fought in order to prevail, including Gaspar Tellick.
The party's relations with Mivon after these events will color much of what Pitax plans, and could set the stage for the party to trust Pitax more than they otherwise might, if Irovetti hints at an alliance to defeat Mivon.
My Pitax has been really friendly with the PCs to their face, sent an ambassedor, gifted the PCs with some BP while pulling the crap they did with Gregori and will with Drelev.
When the PCs confronted them about Gregori, oh here's a wanted poster in our very lands- have you caught the villian? Oh you did well if you have evidence there was a reward offered...
When the PCs confront them about Drelev, oh yes we did in fact try to make the man a vassal, twas a failed experiment as he was a bit of a twat and immediately wasted the BPs we gave him to turn around his economy. We then tried to negotiate further but the man wasn't just incompetent he was obstinent so we briefly allied with some barbarians to cow him. Oh that turned into a disaster, well mistakes were made please let us know what the appropriate dontation would be as a diplomatic apology.
My Pitax will send a sacrificial force to Mivon 1wst comprised mostly of mercenaries that are entirely disposable. My PCs are more closely tied to Mivon as allies then anyone else and will likely send aid, this is when Ivoritti will strike once the PCs have commited troops to the wrong place. IF that fails Pitax will pince a section of the PCs kingdom and cut it off and claim it. Little by little unless the PCs straight out try to confront the army, when that happens Mivon rebel forces allied with Pitax will strike.
Ultimately Mivon loyalists will come to the PCs aid but I intend to muddy the battlefield with switching allegences and messy messy mass combats b/c WAR right?
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In my game, Mivon is pretty interested in friendly relations for a few reasons. First, the new kingdom just north of them has PC Aldori swordlord as part of the leadership. The best part of it is that the PC is a bit of an outcast and considered "unpure" by most of the Restov Swordlords, and Mivon likes the idea of an ally that shares a common background while pissing off the homeland.
The new kingdom also has become a good trade partner, and Mivon is very encouraging towards opening up routes to Brevoy as Drelev has closed them off. The PCs are talking about opening up the rivers even more with locks and bypasses around the falls that block river trade to Restov. Mivon has already sent up river boats, and a totally open river would cause commerce to explode.
Mivon also enjoys the idea of a friendly barrier between them and Brevoy, as well as a possible ally in case of a war with Pitax.
When it comes to Pitax, Irovetti is a cool player who speaks with a silver tongue. He wants to expand his holding and wealth to keep his play boy life style going but doesn't want to risk his own hide.
He has been keeping an eye on some of the land claimed by Mivon, but the Hooktongue and lands east were not really something he was interested in until Drelev's actions caught his eye. This has led to some small fights with Mivon over orchards and farm land but nothing that led to full scale wars. A war would probably destory the orchards both nations want to control.
That leaves him to try other ways to make money. The arts academy that he set up but failed to keep running. The somewhat successful trade in finely made musical instruments has been good for Pitax. So has their trade in dried fruits. Numerian artifacts make their way into Pitax, mostly through their black markets, but Irovetti has been avoiding doing a great deal of trade with Numeria because of his past and the fact that he wants to avoid certain people there. He did, in fact, steal his two Numerian artifacts from the Technic League along with a good many other pieces. Certain people would do horrible things to him should his past identity and theft be discovered.
As for sending agents out to cause trouble, he is doing a couple things with that. Grigori was a test that the PCs passed. He learned a great deal by how they dealt with him. He was very careful to not be connected to him though, and actually was able to have him connected to the cult of Gyronna. He also didn't like Grigori, and sending him to annoy the PCs was going to destroy a potential enemy no matter what happened.
Later, his actions are spelled out and are pretty clear in Part 4. When things are getting hot between the Tiger Lords and Drelev, he ends up using the situation to his benefit. In my game, his contacts with the cult of Gyronna gain him the Tiger Lords as allies. With barbarian armies marching on the fort, Drelev calls for peach before any blood is shed and Irovetti is the one who capitalizes on it.
Drelev is just a horrible person though, and ends up botching it all when he tries to attack the PC's kingdom. Instead of doing what Irovetti hoped and make a mistake he could use to take over that area, the mistake is one the PCs are able to use in their favor. This creates a force he cannot ignore. Their aggressive expansion is something he fears is going to be turned upon his kingdom. Their nation is also very enticing, with no much developed land and cities.
The war starts just as it does in the book. He invites the party to the tournament, and while they are there he moves his armies in for an attack. I don't have a specific battle plan yet, but he is going to be both sneaky and agressive. Of course, in the end he is going to have to hole up in his castle and endure a siege.
Listen to Azmyth's podcast Chronicles, specifically the one that covers part 5. There is so much good stuff there that you can pull into your own game that covers this.
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I plan to break things down to more of component level with Mivon, Pitax and Brevoy. Also going to play on some upheavel in Galt to create some instability in the River Kingdoms, which should explain where immigrants are coming from that aren't from Brevoy.
For Mivon I'm developing the nine Great Houses, with lesser nobles finding themselves affiliated with one or another. I've named all but two, and gave each one their own colors, and symbols. I need to decide on what personalities I want for each house leader and their deeper agendas though. I've included what I have in the spoiler below.
I plan to at one point have one of the house's militia to get slaughtered by their successor and be forces to feel into the PC Kingdom. I also plan to have two of the houses to send agents to offer and train the Aldori PC in the party. The prestige the earn might gain them a new client for their mercenary armies along with the possibility of earning the same rights in the PC Kingdom that they have in Mivoni.
Family|Colors|Symbol
Buchev| Black & Green| Green Bull
Dudin| Red & Black| Bugle
Gisvet| Black & Yellow| 3 White Lilies
Kholodinin| Green & Yellow| ---
Mechnik|White| 7 Black Swords Pointing Down
Rosanov|Orange & Red| Rose
Zhuralev|Red & White|Two Cranes with Necks Entwined
(Unamed 1)|Green & White| Serpent
(Unamed 2)| Puple| Key
Mecknik and Zhuralev are the two houses hoping to influence the player kingdom's Marshall. Gisvet has the speaker of the house of exiles and largely remains neutral. The unnamed house with the Serpent is a weaker house that is in the mayor's pocket and has them do his dirty work. I think Kholodinin will be the house I have suffer defeat at the hands of a rival and head north in desperation to attempt to pledge fealty to the PCs.
For Pitax I want to do something similar with the trading houses bidding to have trade between themselves and the new kingdoms in the east. I might even have the Cattaneis or the Liacenzases be desperate enough to try and start an unaffiliated trade house in the capital of the PC kingdom.
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I plan to break things down to more of component level with Mivon, Pitax and Brevoy. Also going to play on some upheavel in Galt to create some instability in the River Kingdoms, which should explain where immigrants are coming from that aren't from Brevoy.
For Mivon I'm developing the nine Great Houses, with lesser nobles finding themselves affiliated with one or another. I've named all but two, and gave each one their own colors, and symbols. I need to decide on what personalities I want for each house leader and their deeper agendas though. I've included what I have in the spoiler below.
Othniel, this is awesome. I am definitely borrowing this work if that is okay. Frankly at this point, after developing most of the houses of Brevoy with sayings and working through coat of arms and knights, I am semi-burned out on making houses, so your work is pefect for my game.
As a side note, I had to move away from the italian/eastern European name types that Breovy and Mivon seem to be using because my players were A) butchering them, and B) could not for the life of them remember them. I had to go with typical GoT names since most of them are familiar with the series. That seems to have improved their memory some.
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Each of the names I chose for each house is tied to the symbols for the them. Buchev literally means Bull. And Zhuralev means Crane. If you want I can come up with Anglized versions like GoT. I'm chill with sharing too. When I get a bit more done I'll put up a thread.
Hey Othaniel, do you have more about Mivon?
I'm only in book 4 and still have a ways to go so I haven't fully fleshed out my idea of Irovetti yet. The PCs have met him a few times, once right at the beginning and think of him as an ally. I don't even think they remember Grigori (the ruler's Diplomancy skill was so high, it was over in seconds). They just sacked Drelev and know that the mercenaries came from Pitax but that fact didn't seem to concern them. However, they did just learn that the tiger lord barbarians were initially driven towards Pitax and then returned to Drelev better armed, so maybe they will get a sneaking suspicion that Irovetti's up to something.
I do know that he is going to be in control of some of the robots from the Inner Sea Bestiary. I haven't fully fleshed it out, but at the beginning of book 4, my players had a lot of different leads they could follow. One was a plea from the centaurs that someone was raiding their tombs and accompanied by flying suits of armor that shot fire from their eyes. Basically, Irovetti is looking for energon cubes (like in the original Transformers) to power the really big robots. He doesn't really realize the destruction they can cost, just that he'll have a weapon that no one else has.