Greenmarch Kingmaker Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Harad Navar

Aqueduct to Leverton?

Aqueduct to Leverton?

I don't think we can yet. If I am reading the rules correctly (and Raz can correct me if I'm wrong) then in order to build the aqueduct, we first have to build a resevoir. At least that's the way it sounds. If you read the description of Resevoir, it says, "an aqueduct can be built from the reservoir."

Harad Navar wrote:

Please decide how you want to man the patrols, and how you want the timing to go.

Osvaldt will offer to accompnay the men on the third route. that covers the most of the kingdom's territiry, and is generally over more open terrain. let's face it, the platemail wearing charger isn't built for the woods.

Tavius would accompany the Baron on the Patrol, not allowing him to wander around without protection. Ettore, if not making things, should be with Eirwulf.

Tavius would accompany the Baron on the Patrol, not allowing him to wander around without protection.

He always carries protection...

oh wait, that's not the kind you meant.

Turn 7 Development Proposal

Claim Hex E4
Build a Road and a Farm in E4 (note - farming in a hill hex costs more)

We are now in turn 8

That would put the farm distance from everything else in the kingdom. May I suggest building a farm in D3 instead? You can still build the road in E4 which would connect the (now rebuilt) bridge with the ford.

Either way is fine with me.

In the long run, we're probably going to need to farm both, to support our aggressive growth agenda.

Should we think about a house and a weaver/tannery? Or a house and a town commons?
With that good roll of course we could get 1/3 of the way to a market place... :)

Agenda for Greenmarch Council Meeting - End of Year 4709

1) Celebration – Milestones achieved
2) Advisors Report
3) Defense & Intelligence Discussion
4) Short-Term Planning
5) Long-Term Planning

First Item - Celebration
First of all, Happy New Year! We have survived to see the Winter Solstice come and go. While we aren't out of the woods yet, Spring will be here before you know it.

We have achieved a couple of important milestones:
The Kingdom has grown to 10 Hexes. That's about 3,750 square miles, or about half the size of the state of New Jersey.

We have also filled in 3 full blocks of buildings in Leveton. We have a ways to go yet, but we're getting steadily closer to filling the distrcit.

We have a couple of other milestones looming ahead of us:
With one more hex, we will have the scale to build more than one thing per turn.

We are only one hex away from claiming the site of the Stag Lord's fort, the planned location of our second city.

We are only 4 months away from the first anniversay of our founding.

Item 2 - Advisors Report

We have heard from the GM that the patrols by the Warden have not run into anything in particular. Does anyone else have anything in particular to report? (noting, of course, that we have some specific items already on the Agenda)

The Kingdom has grown to 10 Hexes. That's about 3,750 square miles, or about half the size of the state of New Jersey.

Not quite. The 375 square miles for a hex was derived from a hex being 12 miles along one side of the hex, not across the flats. For a hex that is 12 miles across the flats the area is 125 square miles. For the hex with a 12 mile side it is 21 miles across the flats. We are using hexes that are 12 miles across flats.

The Kingdom has grown to 10 Hexes. That's about 3,750 square miles, or about half the size of the state of New Jersey.

Not quite. The 375 square miles for a hex was derived from a hex being 12 miles along one side of the hex, not across the flats. For a hex that is 12 miles across the flats the area is 125 square miles. For the hex with a 12 mile side it is 21 miles across the flats. We are using hexes that are 12 miles across flats.

Let's not stretch ourselves too thin...remember we still need loyalty and it is pretty low if we need to make a check. Maybe a turn to consolidate?
Also Tavius is getting more sold on the idea of a permanent force. He has started training one and expects to have the 50 men and horses required ready by the end of the first year.

Who occupies the Stag Lord Fort?

Who occupies the Stag Lord Fort?

Who occupies the Stag Lord Fort?

Your Baron has a spymaster report that could shed some light on that.

A note about Patrols
The total days of patrolling exceed the length of a month. To execute each patrol each month will mean that twice each month where all 4 members of the party will be out of Leveton for 2 to 4 days.

Not quite. The 375 square miles for a hex was derived from a hex being 12 miles along one side of the hex, not across the flats.

Not terribly important - just pulling the example given in the River Kingdoms book.

Who occupies the Stag Lord Fort?

Defense & Intelligence is Item 3 on the Agenda.

Let's not stretch ourselves too thin...remember we still need loyalty and it is pretty low if we need to make a check. Maybe a turn to consolidate?

Also Tavius is getting more sold on the idea of a permanent force. He has started training one and expects to have the 50 men and horses required ready by the end of the first year.

Defense is Item 3 on the Agenda.

Item 3 - Defense & Intelligence Report

There have been some monster sightings around the kingdom, including forest drakes and trolls, so be on the lookout.

There have been reports of a group of humans acompanied by a Hill giant having occupied the Stag Lord's fort. We'll need to go investigate and figure out who they are and what they're up to.

as an aside to the GM, does their presence there mean we can't claim and develop the hex?

The 4 drunk adventurers that were thrown out of the Broken Moon Inn appear to be responsible for the damage to the brewery. They were all magically disguised and as such hard to track down. They appear to be the Black Hats, a notorious band of muscle for hire, typically hired by the mid-level (Silver) agents of the Aspis Consortium to disrupt the commerce of rival trading groups. They are known to have an fire based magic user, a monk, a rouge, and a fighter. The number of members varies but these seem to be the core. Our sources are not sure if they were under orders or just doing their own work, but it does appear that they were faking being drunk in any event. The Aspis Consortium also appears to have been the group who contacted Peter about opening the new trade route along the river. We aren’t sure what game they’re playing, but everyone should be on the lookout.

There are reports of a cult of Gyronna operating in the area. That is the same deity that we found references to at the stag lord’s fort. Evil deity of hags if I remember correctly.

Building an Army. I agree taht we want to get this done sooner, rather than later. Definately before we complete the river route and open the country to a higher volume of trade. that means we need to plan for a barracks in Leveton, and we need to build up our farming production to a level where we have enough excess to support an army.

Any other Defense and Intel new business?

Item 4 - Planning

Here are the goals I'd like to accomplish by the end of our first year:
I would like to establish our second city on the banks of the Tuskwater. Currently, we have an obstacle to that, namely someone else seems to ahve moved in.

I would like to create a small mounted army. To do taht, we need a barracks.

We have already met the size and economy goals I had in mind when we started, so any more growth from here is gravy.

For the next couple of months, here are some options:
- Build a barracks in Leveton so we can build our army
- make a couple more loyalty-increasing improvements (a monument might be nice, and I'd also like to consider a Town Hall).
- Claim E5 and build a mine to take advantage of the silver there

Any preferences or alternative suggestions?

Defense & Intelligence Update

If I am understanding my sources properly, the item about the squatters at the fort and the cult of Gyronna appear to be reports of the same incident. Without giong don there to see for ourselves, this is speculation, but it appears the fort is occupied by:

A Hag
One or more Clerics of Gyronna
A Hill Giant
One or more skeletons

That's prety crowded, so I propose we have some further discussion about strategy befroe we go charging in on them.

Blah! Kick in the door and start taking heads!

Blah! Kick in the door and start taking heads!

I never suggested we would do otherwise. I said we should plan before, not rather than.

haven't heard any comments on the topic of planning, so hre's a proposal:

Claim E5. Build a road and a Mine.
Build a Town Coomons in Leveton (at A5)

That nets +2 economy; +1 Loyalty; and +2 Stability.

Our treasury would be at 12 before income. With decent rolls to sell the magic item and for incmoe, we should have enough to build something like a town hall next turn.

Also in this month, I'd like to attempt to evict the monsters from the Fort. Let's do what we can to research:
Hill giants
Hags
Gyronna (what domains does she grant, etc)

I presume we'll have to play out that encounter, so we might be on hold for a little whil in terms of another kingdom turn.

haven't heard any comments on the topic of planning, so hre's a proposal:

Claim E5. Build a road and a Mine.
Build a Town Coomons in Leveton (at A5)

That nets +2 economy; +1 Loyalty; and +2 Stability.

Our treasury would be at 12 before income. With decent rolls to sell the magic item and for incmoe, we should have enough to build something like a town hall next turn.

I think that is a good idea for this turn.

As far as the creatures go, this sounds like a group that is tougher than the original fort inhabitants we originally fought.
I would recommend we let them sit for a little while and keep a couple of the rangers watching them from hidden positions and just continue to develop the kingdom, possibly raising the militia in two turns...

Tavius is unsure we can even defeat a group of creatures such as these. I think we would have to lure them out somehow or at least wait for the hill giant to leave to hunt and ambush him before trying to tackle the rest. You would assume they would have to leave eventually as a hill giant probably eat a hundred pouns or so of food per day.

Between Tavius, Ettore, and the library, let's hope we can find out some information about the creatures and be more prepared.

From a GM perspective, I would like to keep focusing on Serpent's skull. We have at least 3 sessions still left as long as you defeat the Serpent's in a timely manner next week. We can pick up with KM then and hopefully have a couple of turns planned out after the encounter with the fort.

Claim E5. Build a road and a Mine.

Build a Town Coomons in Leveton (at A5)

With the claiming of the 11th Greenmarch hex (E5) the party can now claim 2 hexes (thus you can claim a second hex this turn), build 2 buildings and 2 roads.

I will let you claim both E5 and D5 as 1 hex, as they are half hexes. The cost would still be 1 BP, but the hex size for Greenmarch would be 11, not 12. This would allow you to claim D4 as well (cost additional 1 BP). You can therefore build roads into E4 & D5 for the same cost as a whole hex set of roads and a second set of roads can be bought this turn for D4.

If we can do E5 and D5 as a package set, I'm cool with that. I don't think we want to claim a second hex this turn. We still need to be careful about outgrowing our production and keeping our control DC manageable.

Question for the group. Should we proceed with Turn 10, or do we need to put this on hold until we can play out evicting the monsters from the Fort?

If we play it out, I was thinking of not doing any hex claims, and spending the turn building a town hall, and then possibly a barracks.

Question for Raz - the Town Hall cuts the price for the barracks by 50%. Can we get that benefit if we build them both in the same month, or do we have to wait until the next month to build the discounted barracks?

If we have to wait the extra month, we could do something like build another house, or something else cheap. Or, we could just hold on to a few BP. We'll need them soon enough.

Question for Raz

I was doing some thinking about longer term plans (next year kind of stuff) and ran into something. The River Nations book does not say that the Market city improvement takes up more than one block. However, it is pictured as a 1x2 in the original city building rules, and it halves the cost of other buildings. Pretty much everything else that does that is at least 2 blocks. I ask because I am starting to think about where we could put one, since it needs to be adjacent to 2 houses.

Figured I'd check so I can look for ways to make ti fit.

Another discussion topic for the group.

When we build our first Army, I think we're aiming for a small CR1 mounted army. That means the army is made up of CR3 creatures.

The Horses add CR1, so the soldiers are CR2 creatures.

CR2 creatures are NPCs with 4 levels in an NPC class or 3 levels in a PC Class.

Training time is one week per NPC level (4 weeks)or 2 weeks per PC level (6 weeks).

So we can do Human Warrior 4
or Human Fighter 3
or Human Ranger 3

In terms of the Army's stats within the mass combat rules, they are all the same thing. It's just a flavor question.

Warrior 4 as they extra +1 and d10 if i read them correctly.

Question for Raz - the Town Hall cuts the price for the barracks by 50%. Can we get that benefit if we build them both in the same month, or do we have to wait until the next month to build the discounted barracks?

You can not claim a benefit for a building until the building is built. The bonuses for buildings built each turn are applied to the turn after Phase 2 - Step 3 Improvements because the are counted as built at the end of that phase/step. As I write this I realize that the kingdom could not claim an extra hex (2 instead of 1) in Turn 9 because the kingdom size is not adjusted until the completion of hex claiming. Since you didn't claim a second hex in Turn 9 it makes no difference to game play. It would apply to the number of buildings and roads you can build in Turn 9 also, but you didn't build any extra of those either.

Question for Raz - The River Nations book does not say that the Market city improvement takes up more than one block.

It does take up 2 blocks and will have to be adjacent to 2 housing blocks. However, adjacency should be evaluated as if the roads did not exist. Hence a housing block across the road from the market is considered adjacent.

Warrior 4 as they extra +1 and d10 if i read them correctly.

As I read it a small mounted army of warrior 4 would have 5 hp and CR1. If Tavious leads the army and has 5 ranks in Profession (soldier) the army would have a DV = 12 and a OM = +2. Consumption would be 1 BP per week, or 4 BP per month(turn).

A medium mounted army of warrior 4 would have 16 hp and CR3. Again if Tavius has 5 ranks in Profession (soldier) the army would have a DV = 14 and a OM = +4. Consumption would be 1 BP per week (3/2 rounded down), or 4 per month(turn).

Tavius does not have 5 ranks in profession soldier...I can start working on that next level...probably have them by level 8....

we using the book of river nations guide for combat?

we using the book of river nations guide for combat?

Yes.

Warrior 4 as they extra +1 and d10 if i read them correctly.

In terms of mass combat rules, it wouldn't make a difference.

"If an army is composed of units with multiple HD (such as the case of multiclassed characters, monsters with class levels, or mounted armies), use the lowest HD type." (Book of the River Nations, Page 19)

That means the mounted army will have a d8 hit die regardless. The army's total HP is the average on a d8 (4.5) times its CR (1) dropping any fractions, making it 4. The only way to get more HP is a higher CR army, which increases its consumption costs.

Eirwulf wrote:

Warrior 4 as they extra +1 and d10 if i read them correctly.

As I read it a small mounted army of warrior 4 would have 5 hp and CR1. If Tavious leads the army and has 5 ranks in Profession (soldier) the army would have a DV = 12 and a OM = +2. Consumption would be 1 BP per week, or 4 BP per month(turn).

I thought in a previous post, you said you would allow the CR1 army to keep the 1/2 and add up to 2 BP/month.

I thought in a previous post, you said you would allow the CR1 army to keep the 1/2 and add up to 2 BP/month.

Ah, you are correct. As the cost is per week I saw no reason to force a round up from fractions, as long as the fractions still make sense. The small mounted warrior4 would be CR1 (4 hp) and cost 0.5 BP per week or 2 BP per kingdom turn. The downside of that ruling is that a medium army of mounted warrior4 would be CR3 (13 hp) and and 1.5 BP per week, or 6 BP per kingdom turn, not twice the cost of a small version of the same army. Consumption is based on CR and not number of units in army.

OK. I wasn't planning on building a larger army at this time. I just want to have a few armed men at our disposal.

Next question about the army rules has to do with resources. Am I reading that right, the BP cost of adding a resource is:
(a) paid weekly - so providing your soldiers with bows costs 2 BP per week or 8 BP (32,000 GP) per month; and
(b) independent of army size - so providing bows to 50 men costs the same as providing bows to 1,000 men.

And another mass combat question. I'm wondering if there is any reason to make an army with charactres with PC levels such as Ranger or Fighter rather than NPC levels like Warrior. Since the Army's stat block is determined by its CR, and all the martial classes, PC or NPC get the same hit die, does the army of fighters get anything? Would an army of Rangers get favored enemy? Would an army of paladins get smite evil once per day, or lay on hands? or is the decision of what kind of creatures to use purely flavor?

(a) paid weekly - so providing your soldiers with bows costs 2 BP per week or 8 BP (32,000 GP) per month; and

(b) independent of army size - so providing bows to 50 men costs the same as providing bows to 1,000 men.

The weekly consumption cost is calculated by week by dividing CR by 2. The Book of the River Nations rules say round up, but I believe that as we pay consumption by turn fractional BP weekly cost are rational. A CR1 army is .5 BP per week or 2 BP per turn. This is the same for a medium CR1 army (100 warrior3) or a small CR1 army (50 warrior4 with horses). The assumption appears to be that higher level soldiers cost more to pay, equip, and maintain. A medium army with warrior4 and horses would be CR3 at 1.5 BP per week or 6 BP per turn.

(b) independent of army size - so providing bows to 50 men costs the same as providing bows to 1,000 men.

I rule that the costs (in most cases) for additional equipment is based of a medium army of 100 solders. Note the rules say that the costs increase the army's weekly consumption. I believe that the costs should be based on a monthly cost and should be divided by 4 (except for things like mounts, siege engines and boats). Therefore to add ranged weapons to a small army would be 2 BP divided by 2 (for 50 verses 100 solders) and then divided by 4 (to get weekly rate) would be an extra .25 BP per week or 1 BP per turn. This accounts for the initial equipping and then for regular resupply costs.

I'm wondering if there is any reason to make an army with charactres with PC levels such as Ranger or Fighter rather than NPC levels like Warrior.

An army of PC classes will have a CR2 increase automatically which impacts offense and defense. I'm not sure how easy it would be (or how much it would cost) to find 50 rangers with the same favored enemy. An army of paladins with 1 holy smite per day would do no good against a neutral human army. Also, battle with army's usually takes minutes not rounds (except for ranged attacks).

An army of PC classes will have a CR2 increase automatically which impacts offense and defense.

That's how I read it as well. If the army's CR is equal, PC Classes take longer to train and carry no benefits.

Picking back up the discussion about Greenmarch's claim to hex A7.

First, from a practical point of view, if Restov wants it, there is squat we can do about it. From a political point of view, we need their products and their markets too much to tick them off.

It could be argued that the area in question is actually Southeast of Leveton. If you orient the map according to the compass rose and measure out a rectangle 36 miles east and west and 60 miles south, it actually includes Fort Serenko and several other hexes which are not within the area highlighted on the first map you gave us when the kingdom was chartered.

However, so long as Valotte is here, we might as well have mroe of a conversation with him about it.

I need to work on the pitch a little bit, but I want to basically have Valotte bear a proposal back to Restov, regarding the idea of developing the trade route around the Shrike River falls.

the basic pitch is something like:
- Greenmarch has no interest in challenging Brevoy's sovereignty
- Osvaldt is a proud Rostlander by birth, and will always consider Restov his native land.
- However, a river route that doesn't go all the way around through Pitax would benefit both Greenmarch and Rostland
- Greenmarch proposes to build such a route. We would bear all the expense and all the risk, but we would be willing to share in the rewards.
- Restov has already shown that it is not interested in developing the area around Fort Serenko.
- there must be some sort of deal that we could work out that would not allow the land to lay fallow when it could be put to productive use.

Raginare Vallotte says that he is only delivering a message. He is not an official emissary of the Restov Swordlords. While the letter is sealed by the Swordlords, it is not an official proclamation, just a letter one ruler to another.