Awesome!
I plan on using alot of your ideas for my game. I do have a question regarding your take on Necro and mind effecting spells. I have a player how wants to be a bard nd another that wants to be a inquisitor. Will the spell limitations nurf those classes?
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I do have an update soon on the last game session, which involved warring fleets, wizard rocket tag, an enemy shark shaman druid, and wyvern bombing runs.
Also, since my players have now turned their attention to Mivon (mercenaries or not, they are more pissed at the Mivonese lord than they are the man who hired them) I have begun fleshing out the Lords of Mivon and the Carousel of Houses. Since I am basically interpreting Swordlord doctrine as a cross between Spartan philosphy and Bushido, the meriticracy of Mivon is rather like a tank full of hungry sharks. Othniel gets a lot of credit for getting me started here with his initial breakout of the Houses, names, and crests. I sort of took his framework and ran with it, making some changes based on existing story material from player backgrounds.
Also, I am giving my players a break from some of the constant onslaught of political and literal attacks on their fledgling nation, as the beginnings stages of a Brevic civil war have begun.
Finishing up my very last class of my Bachelors in Business today, so afterwards, the updates will commence :)
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I plan on using alot of your ideas for my game. I do have a question regarding your take on Necro and mind effecting spells. I have a player how wants to be a bard nd another that wants to be a inquisitor. Will the spell limitations nurf those classes?
Hugo,
The Brevoy bans on these magics came from the following root causes:
-Nothing is more disturbing to peasants than ghost stories that are true. Plus Pharasma is the diety of choice among the smallfolk, so she would not approve. Pitchforks and mobs come out when they even catch a whiff that necromancy is afoot. Mobs tend to get redirected easily, so you can understand the need for nobles to address this issue.
-Nothing is more disturbing to nobility than the idea that someone else has made them a puppet is is controlling them. That is their role to play, not someone else's. Now obviously there is divination magic, plots, schemes, lies, conspiracies, misdirection, etc. So charming smallfolk in order to maintain the peace, gather info is completely acceptable (off the record), whereas using anything other than logic, passion, and gold to sway nobility is a hanging offense. Subtle magic or using mind control to nudge nobility is usually begudgingly tolerated, but outright domination, long term charm, etc is a death sentence if discovered.
To answer your question with this background, inquisitors uphold the law and church law, and primarily use intimidation and magic to extract secrets and expose the truth. In the mind of nobles, this makes them an extremely useful tool or an obstacle to be worked around. Totally acceptable. If they go off the reservation, ie- break from the church, where a priest cannot control his pet, then perhaps they would be more at risk.
Bards are a mainstay of Brevic culture. They entertain, have great info, make excellent spies, and can sway the masses for the right price. What more could a noble ask for? :)
However, if a bard starts an anti-ruling class campaign or a smear campaign against a particular noble ruler (as they have in my campaign), they are likely to find all sorts of traps and conspiracies against them. Bards have to walk a fine line between being useful to nobility and being a danger to them, in order to stay on their good side. In general, bards that are discreet and at least occasionally useful to someone, find themselves a highly valued commodity.
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Thanks for the shout out. I'd love to see how you put my list to work. I wonder if you've had a chance to look over the Aldori Swordlord class from Paths of Prestige? A culture with that class at the center with no kings or fealty to anyone other than family should be a rather interesting one, no? Anyways, just here to say I'm a fan of your work, and that I'm glad that I could help.
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Thanks for the shout out. I'd love to see how you put my list to work. I wonder if you've had a chance to look over the Aldori Swordlord class from Paths of Prestige? A culture with that class at the center with no kings or fealty to anyone other than family should be a rather interesting one, no? Anyways, just here to say I'm a fan of your work, and that I'm glad that I could help.
I bought the Paths of Prestige specifically for the queen in my game, who is an Aldori swordlord, and had to make her character a strength based weaponmaster fighter to stay relevant with a dual wielding kukri cavalier and a a greatsword wielding paladin. I really wanted her to be a dex based awe-inspiring character, but sadly the rules up until PoP produced a sad lot. She, and most of the Aldori are all PoP based swordlords, at least those who are of any significant talent. I also went so far as to give Brevic swordlords a free improved disarm feat only when they are fighting with the aldori blade, and gave Mivonese swordlords a feat that allows them to fight with their blade using it as if it had the Keen magical attribute for 1rd/lvl per day. I felt this differentiated them sufficiently in fighting style and seemed to fit the descriptive differences for the two groups.
Mivon IMC is sort of like a shart tank, where the top 9 houses are all looking to either stay where they are in ranking or move up. Everyone below is looking to weaken one of the lower ranks a bit and strike, allowing them to change places. The higher ranks are watching ambitious lower ranking houses, evaluating who needs a slap down and who might aid them with a hand up among the lower 20 houses. Even though the mayor belongs to a house, he attempts to establish the perception that he is above and outside of the "Carousel of Houses".
A more formal writeup will get added when I find the time here in the next day or two.
Hmm also doting for interest. (I had been GM-ing Kingmaker (once upon a time) and really enjoyed it ... and I had to quietly cancel it for various reasons).
But, I had also played around with thoughts/ties/similarities to Game of Thrones and like what you've presented here.
Well Done!
~Dean
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I am still finishing up my last class, but as a teaser, here is a prophecy the high priestess of Pharasma dropped on the head of the queen last game session. The party is still trying to figure out who the fourth queen is. They have correctly guessed that one is the Winter Queen (Fey) and one is the Summer Queen (Fey). The PC Queen has a lion as her house symbol and she is trying to mend the rift between Mivonese swordlords and Brevic swordlords. Three guesses who the fourth queen is :)
FOUR QUEENS
Four queens where one would suffice
Frost and Flame, Emptiness and Pride
who will rule the ancients fields where fey lords once played?
Air and Darkness would wrap the land in cool white blankets, preserving that which is held within
Light and Magic would unleash the fury of the woodlands, spreading green over all despite the cost
Empty Beauty burns for the land bright and glorious, the price of that which was Lost.
The Lioness, her pride with flashing claws, would mend that once sundered, restoring honor to the broken.
Only one can claim the Land, where the elements still war
Will the field and forest remain raw, or be tapped for their power and beauty
Those that were locked away will once again roam free, their terrible beauty and power unleashed
The Stolen Lands will be reclaimed once more
But which Heads will bow and which will reign supreme.
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Funny you should ask that, since next game session is the first one that should be "normal" since like 3rd level. They have to explore the Narlmarches and the southern end of their charter now, since they have no clue what is down there. They know Hargulka is down there somewhere though, and that makes them nervous. :)
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College classes finally eased up enough for me to recap the last few game sessions.
Game Session Recap – Defending the Capitol (Serpentstone)
Setting:
The Battle of Stonebridge - 300 Aldori mercenary troops held this ancient stone bridge of elven construction that has spanned the Gudrin River (the hex to the east of the one where the Gudrin dumps into the Tuskwater).
Why:
The party initially headed here to hold off what they thought was an army marching on their capitol. It was actually a fleet of warships carrying the troops moving upriver from Mivon. Later, they were baffled as to why the Aldori established this beachhead until they realized the warships lined up well with the bridge, allowing a quick mass-offloading of troops at the bridge.
Defenses:
The Aldori had felled trees to build a makeshift defensive wall of stacked reinforced logs. Their command tents, 200 men, and handful of scouting horses were all kept on the side of the bridge the party attacked. The other side held 100 men plus most of the army's supplies. There were twelve men on guard and four with horns. Since there was several feet of snow on the ground, and theoretically the party was completely unaware they were even coming, the Aldori watch was fairly lax.
The Assault:
The rogue and sorcerer slipped into camp using invisibility and stealth and released the horses into the camp of sleeping men. This was the signal for the attack to begin. While the guards were caught off-guard, the frost giants assaulted the defensive wall, using the felled trees as makeshift great mauls and opening a hole in the perimeter for the small band of the PCs own Aldori riders to charge through the gap and into the sleeping camp.
The bard stayed in the shadows outside of camp singing and shooting his bow and casting spells to silence hornblowers. The inquisitor and NPC barbarian executioner led the PCs snow barbarians in separate attacks over the walls. The wizard flew overhead unleashing fireballs from his wand, scorching rays, and other assorted mayhem on the camp. The general (cavalier), queen (aldori sworlord PrC) and marshall (paladin of abadar) headed straight for the leaders' command tent. The frost giants headed straight for the bridge and began damaging the supports in an attempt to drop the bridge.
It was completely a one-sided battle until the Aldori's camp wizard showed up and began laying into the frost giants with fire spells. There was a minor surge among the leaders, dropping a few NPCs, and the Aldori defenders began to come to life. The frost giants begin to take heavy damage and the strongest melee character, an NPC aldori called the Weeping Warrior (he serves the queen’s future husband as his second, which is very important in Mivon) was barely alive. He had charged the leader of the Aldori troops and even though he managed to defeat him, had been surrounded by the remaining commanders and whittled down. The rest of the party had made a tactical error and allowed themselves to be pinned down in combat about 150 feet away and could not come to his aid.
Victory seemed in serious doubt and the queen’s aldori riders were surprised as they turned for another charge and were ground up against the defensive walls, decimating their number. The party could hear the enemy troops on the other side of the bridge clamoring and heading across to their side to reinforced their commanders.
The entire battle was saved by a timely casting of black tentacles on the center of the bridge, blocking the remaining hundred troops. The party wizard had finally won the battle with the enemy wizard, and halted the reinforcements in their tracks by pulling a Black Tentacles spell from his bonded object and casting it on the center of the bridge. After several of the enemy Aldori were quickly crushed to death, they backed off and tried to find another way across.
The queen and her contingent used this reprieve to defeat their opponents and quickly moved to engage the enemy commanders. By this time, the Weeping Warrior was down, along with nearly all the senior officers. The remaining officer was assaulted by the queen, who switched up and rolled a nat 20 to disarm the final commander. She commanded him to surrender, offering mercy to his troop.
The entire battle lasted about three hours of real time and about 3 minutes of game time.
(A little aside of key import: Much earlier in the game, I told the queen that Mivonese Aldori mercenary units were highly honor bound and could be claimed by defeating their commander and demanding the unit surrender. This changes their allegiance to that of the victor for the duration, with several understandings. One is that they be ransomed back to their lord at the earliest possible opportunity, and second that they will never disclose information they knew in their former role of opponent. She remembered this and used her extremely high intimidate and diplomacy scores to effect a surrender.)
Victory! Or is it?:
By defeating the commander, she basically gained 113 aldori mercenaries until such time as the battle was complete. She loaded the men and all their supplies from the depot onto the two commandeered merchant ships also at the camp and headed back towards Serpentstone, the PC’s capitol.
They stopped at an agreed upon spot along the way to meet with their two wyvern riders and find out any intel about where the rest of the Aldori mercenaries were. The riders reported that there were six more ships downriver, three of them heavy warships with catapults and ballista and two re-purposed merchant ships, all of which were currently carrying troops. They had stopped because one of the ships had a damaged mainmast (thanks to sabotage efforts from allies of the queen’s future husband).
They also reported two other armies moving towards the Serpentstone. One was a large band of several hundred barbarians, many of who were riding mammoths. They were further out, but moving fairly quickly through the snows heading towards the Serpentstone from the southeast.
The last group appeared to be hunters or woodsmen with longbows, moving along the west river bank in the forest and staying mostly under cover. They also appeared to be a hundred or more, and were heading north towards the Capitol.
Now the party was deeply torn and launched into several hours of heated debate about “what to do next”. The main two ideas were to retreat back to Castle Serpentstone with their newly acquired troops and reinforce. The second idea was to head downriver and assault the ships while they were stopped, hoping to cripple enough of them to disrupt the apparently coordinated journey towards sieging the Capitol.
In the end, the idea of attacking the ships with surprise won out, and so began the second major event, the Battle of River’s Bend.
Fun recap!
Great stuff! Eager to hear what happens next.
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@pennywit: This might be true in Mivon, where the swordlords are the ruling class. They are not the rulers in Brevoy but rather the overthrown rulers who use to be in charge. While they still wield power and clout on their own merit, they would not factor into Brevoy laws or justice (Brevoy justice...wow that is almost an oxymoron). Perhaps if two swordlords had a difference they might request being able to settle the dispute through a duel, but it would be one-sided and completely unworthy of them to duel an unqualified (ie-not a member of the swordpact or a hero of renown) opponent.
Speaking of Mivon, I am busy at work on the 9 and 20 houses, plus a whole lot more.. here's a sneak preview- Rainbow's Daughter and some of her core bandits are fey...displaced, angry, native fey who want their lands back from the swordlords.
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This thread just shows how much of a real need there is for a supplement covering Brevoy. It's true that Kingmaker doesn't take place there but it's so close that what happens there does have a effect on the campaign. There is a supplement covering the River Kingdoms but it doesn't have the scope. It seems that Paizo has in the past oriented it's new releases towards supporting adventure paths but this seems to be a phenomenon that occurred with Jade Regent and Carrion Crown. Makes me wonder if there is going to be a world book for Mendev to support Wrath of the Righteous.
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I agree, and would say that the same applies to Mivon. Even though there is a large section in the River Kingdoms on it, try to discuss the political situation, when there are not even some sample houses listed. There are lots of big holes in both Brevoy and the River Kingdoms, but then again, thats why GMs get paid the big bucks, to fill them in :)
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"The Irovettis send their regards." *coup de grace*
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So much has happened since I last updated this thread:
- The party ransomed the captured Aldori mercenaries back to their liege lord, who offered the queen gold and a letter of command for his other mercenary forces currently helping her enemy occupy Tammerling (her brevoy hometown). A potential enemy was turned into a friendly neighbor, if not an ally.
- party went back to Tammerling (starting town) and led an uprising against the occupying forces (Baron Reyne, who wants to become Duke of Rogarvia). Party had to infiltrate the town, gain the allegiance of the smuggler's guild, turn the Aldori mercenaries to their side, spy out where key political prisoners were being held, and fight off the Inquisitor captain and mage who were controlling the town. There were many epic fights, including an aerial battle between the Dawnriders (elves mounted on giant owls) and an evil cavalier riding a blue dragon. The party ended up on the short end of that one, but eventually managed to reclaim the town and hold it long enough for the other Swordlord forces backing the true heir to move their forces in as relief.
The party quickly headed back home in order to help break a siege of their own walled town of Knight's Rest (previously Oleg's). For about 5 minutes, no one was attacking their kingdom. Except of course the lumber consortium on the far side of the Narlmarches, who was continuing to cut wood from the Queen's Royal Reserve hexes. And of course the future threat of Hargulka, who the party has not heard from in over a year(hes building a real kindom, sort of a warmup for events in Book 5)
The party actually spent about 4-5 months catching up with crafting, polticking with allies in Brevoy, spying on their neighbors, and kingdom building. The queen continued to correspond with her chosen future husband Lord Giovanni, leader of one of the lesser houses in Mivon. He currently owns three hexes adjacent to their kingdom and Lord Scarlotti's lands. Given the relatively quiet moment in her kingdom's history, she elected to travel south and meet up with her intended, with the idea tha the would formally propose to her at a festival held in her honor in his lands in Mivon.
It is currently September in game, and the party has to hurry back to counter another potential
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The Red Engagement
The lastest drama in our campaign involves Mivon and the queen's upcoming engagement to one of the Lords of Mivon. As far as the players are concerned, Lord Giovanni is a just, noble, courageous Aldori swordlord who is completely devoted to their queen. However:
The party's kingdom is nearly as large now (32 hexes) as Mivon, and there is absolutely no way that the 9 largest houses of Mivon will allow one of the lords from a lesser house (Giovanni is ranked 18th currently) to marry the PC queen and become more powerful than any of them. They certainly won't allow him to retain his Mivonese holdings. He knows this and is playing a dangerous game. He is running a gambit, betting that he can outmaneuver the Lords of Mivon, take all of his resources except his actual land, and still marry the queen. He has hinted to the PC queen that she should trust him no matter what the appearance of the situation is, and gave her a gift that hinted at disguised intentions. She has shared this information with no one as of yet.
More to come soon!
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The Red Engagement (cont'd)
One – Asperia, a Hellknight of the Order of the Gate shows up with an urgent message for the queen. She says her order is concerned about the activities of the Champion of Dagon, and wants to be sure the Queen stays on the throne in Vallis to deal with this threat. Because of this, Asperia was sent to warn her that she will be assassinated at the festival by an agent hired by Lord Giovanni. She offers her protection and assistance until the threat of the Champion has past. The queen accepts her aid and she is now part of the entourage from Vallis.
Two - The party hears of this threat and the general immediately goes to warn their ship captain, telling him to stand ready to leave at a moments notice. When he gets to the docks, he finds that five more large ships are arriving to disembark men. Three are smaller houses apparently hoping to gain power and standing from negotiating with Vallis. The other two contain a very large contingent of House Selline. Lord Scarlotti and Lord Giovani join the Vallis general on the docks and warn him not to say anything about Newhall, but offer no explanation. These new arrivals disembark and offer greetings to Lord Giovanni, Lord Scarlotti, and the General on behalf of their houses and the Mayor of Mivon.
Three - Meanwhile the spymaster has been skulking about camp and noticed a figure watching the Vallis tents. He followed the figure, who meets up with a retainer of House Selline. Edging close, he overhears a conversation where the figure tells the retainer that Lord Giovanni is just as ruthless and ambitious as we thought, and that his plan is proceeding. He also reveals that Lord Scarlotti is not in on the plot. The spy follows the figure about the camp a while, before he and a few other PCs capture the spy. The PC inquisitor and the Hellknight use magic, intimidation, and mild torture to get information from him. He confesses that he knows the queen is going to be assassinated by Lord Giovanni, who plans to invade and take over Vallis once the queen and council are dealt with. The inquisitor suffocates him and stuffs his corpse in their bag of holding for later disposal.
Having heard of the assasin from two separate source, most of the party is now sure that Giovanni is a traitor. After a long debate about whether to pack up and go home or not, whether to trust Lord Giovanni or not, and whether to trust Asperia the Hellknight or not, the queen convinces the party she can survive the attempt and then mete out justice. They decide to stay and attend the evening banquet of doom.
The goal of this action is simple…to ensure the queen is protected from the assasins of other Mivonese houses while appearing to be plotting treachery. There are at least three Houses plotting her death (and have tried in the past while the queen was in Vallis, but she does not know who sent the assasins). In a tradition not widely known outside of Mivon, Lord Scarlotti as host, would be honor bound to assign a contingent of men as an honor guard that follows the queen everywhere while in Mivon. Lord Giovanni has instructed his guards to kill the assassin instead of taking him prisoner, so he cannot be questioned by the other Houses. I gave the spymaster and queen chances to know of this honor rule, but one rolled a 2 and the other a 1 for knowledge (local)!
As a last note, Asperia knows of Lord Giovanni’s true intentions, but is taking advantage of this opportunity to win the queens trust in hopes of getting a chapterhouse of the Hellknights in Vallis.
There are many things that could go wrong, and this could end up being a TPK or something else equally bad for the party. However, since they are 9th level now, and they have some facts, they do have the ability to navigate the dangerous political landscape of Mivon. Next session we get to see who dies and whether the queen manages to get engaged and return to her kingdom in one piece. And whether her betrothed survives to pull of his gambit successfully….
The next post will be about the Houses of Mivon as I have laid them out. I borrowed quite a bit from Othnell, but also included minor houses and a bit of their backstories.
Ha.... "mild torture."
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Somewhat unrelatedly, I just watched the finale of the TV miniseries "The White Queen" about the War of the Roses, which is supposedly a large influence of Game of Thrones (Starks=Yorks and Lannister=Lancaster).
I really want to steal the final scene, where a powerful retainer of the king remains undeclared in his intentions until the very last minute. King Richard and Henry Tudor's armies are locked in battle and Lord Stanley leads a charge downhill onto the massed forces. Both sides stop and turn to see who he is going to start killing. I am so doing this to my players at some point :)
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Mivonese Factions
These factions were named and drawn primarily from terminology gained reading about Renaissance Italian fencing and sword fighting schools and practices. So things like Broca’s traverse are real, though in this case it had another proper name I didn’t like as much. The swordfighting books listed under the Houses spreadsheet are also real. If anyone out is a sword fighting aficionado and doesn’t like how I used the terms, feel free to change them for your world. My entire write-up of Mivon is based on expanding the canon version of the kingdom into a larger framework, much like I did made the 7 houses of Brevoy (canon) into duchies with sub baronies, to allow for more complicated politics. This may or may not support your vision for Mivon, so adjust as necessary.
Sangue(The Blood) – These houses were the most powerful 9 when they originally left Brevoy. These represent the old guard, who follow the swordlord traditions strictly, including the belief that you are cheating if you are raised or resurrected from the dead, and therefore any duel you fight afterwards is meaningless. They desire to maintain the status quo and support a strict interpretation of the Sword Pact laws.
La Mazza(Informal woodland duel) - Splinter group of Sangue. These houses adhere to all the beliefs of La Sangue, however they believe it is their destiny and duty to expand their holdings for the honor of the Swordpact. These houses are warhawks who advocate conquering the lands surrounding Mivon, both the other River Kingdoms (including Pitax) and the PCs kingdom.
Caminieri(Changes in line of attack) – These houses desire to reform the laws and strictures of the Swordpact to better conform to the realities of life, rather than ideals. Specifically, they wish to reduce the offenses against the honor of a swordlord (many of which demand a duel to the death under the laws of the Swordpact), which often complicate dealings with other kingdoms and outside groups. Parallel to this effort is their desire to reform the way that Brevoy is run, though only in small ways, like removing some of the stricter, exacting interpretations of law that result in some extremism. There are several subgroups, who desire these changes in specific directions.
Bravazzi(swaggerers, ruffians, swashbuckler) – Splinter group of Caminieri. Somewhat derogatory term that was originally assigned by Sangue in reference to their opinion of the PCs kingdom. These houses wish to directly ally with the PCs kingdom, assuming they have been friendly and have at least one Aldori swordlord on their ruling council. Otherwise consider them as Cavazione or Misura.
Cavazione(Changing sides of sword) - Splinter group of Caminieri. These houses wish to work towards a reconciliation with Brevoy. While reasons may vary from house to house (return to old glory, wanting to more easily prove who is superior in duels, or just plain desire to better survive their enemies), all want the same thing –one nation of Swordlords. How exactly to make this happen has not been decided at present. They would be very open to any solid ideas the PCs might make, assuming they have an Aldori among those making the suggestion.
Misura (Measure, distance) - Splinter group of Caminieri. These houses desire to split from Mivon and have two separate kingdoms, Old Mivon and New Mivon. They believe that the more traditional houses that tend to be situated towards the eastern part of Mivon should stay, and those more reformist houses towards the western portion of Mivon should secede into new Mivon. They know they risk open war with the more traditional houses, in particular La Mezza, since the western portion of the kingdom contains the only iron mine in Mivon and some of the best farmland. This faction tries to openly remain at the casual discussion level in their public beliefs, while most are ready to split, assuming they feel they have an opening and the leverage to pull it off. For instance, a war with the PCs kingdom, in particular if Mivon takes some initial losses, would allow them to pull away.
Raffines (Ruffians) – independent splinter group. These people are more interested in the wealth and power to be gained from outsiders by trading Aldori swordlord training for gold or favors. The fact that this goes completely against the laws of the Swordpact in regards to determining the worthiness of training candidates make this group undesirable, and accusing someone of being a Raffine is a high insult among the Mivonese swordlords. Regardless, there are those who are strongly suspected of following this practice. Often it is only the fact that such an accusation in public would demand a duel to the death for honor that prevents this from becoming an openly declared fact for some houses.
Brocans or The Ninth(After Broca’s Traverse – a maneuver where you continue to strategically retreat during a swordfight, sometimes called the Ninth Parry) - Splinter group who wants to focus more on making a name for themselves through trade and by economic means. They secretly desire to move away from the rule by meritocracy to either a straight feudal ruling system. The PCs will find these houses will partners for trade pacts, investments, or financial endeavors.
Rainbow’s Daughter (bandits) – Rainbow’s Daughter is actually a dryad named Persimone who was captured when she tried to stop the logging of her tree by House Gisveti. They chopped down her tree and left her to die, having slain or driven off the other wyldfae who tried to help her. She lay among the mud and stumps of her destroyed forest for three days suffering a slow death, until a sympathetic druid took pity on her. He was a follower of Erastil and unhappy himself with the excessive logging in pursuit of gold, rather than balance and conservation. He used magic to craft a bow from the stump of her old tree, and infused the spirit of her tree into the bow. She now is bound to her bow, in the same manner dryads are bound to their trees, and she can speak telepathically with the spirit of her tree in her bow at will. The bow also grants her other powers, like tree stride when she holds it in hand. Now recovered, she swore revenge upon those who would harvest trees from “her” forest, and has been waging a war against the lumbering houses ever since. Gathering to her the woodland fey as well as those humans who are outcast or unhappy with the rulers of Mivon, she has formed quite a formidable band of forest guerrillas. I will post her Herolab portfolio in the near future.
More Notes
I thought there were several other issues that I have not expanded upon or explored, but thought I would include for consideration by anyone else using Mivon in Kingmaker.
- Hiring out of mercenaries vs growing ther armies of Mivon for military annexation of neighboring kingdoms.
- Conserving remaining forests vs exploiting resources in order to expand
- I completely ignored Naval issues and ideas outside of noting who the shipbuilding Houses were in my chart.
- Also completely ignored at present is the role of the Church of Gorum in their politics, way of life, and how it fits into the Swordpact. I have quite enough religious issues between Sarenrae, Abadar, the Heresy of Abadar, Rovagug barbarians, and the cults of Gyronna and Dagon. I thought it a small kindness not to inflict more religious issues on my players.
- Identity and role of druids and arcane NPCs in Mivon. I did add a couple of war-wizards who used battlefield control spells or were evokers. Also included a shark druid who had a dire shark as a AC and could summon more. Primarily I envisioned these groups as specialized mercenary talents who are hired for top prices to augment regular swordlord units.
- I have so far avoided the rabbit hole of having to detail ALL of the specific details of the Swordpact laws and protocols, primarily by describing it to my PCs as a Brevic Bushido code. It also leaves me free to invent new ones on the fly if appropriate. Feel free to go there if you have more free time than me.
- Imports/exports – I have no idea what these should be but these are what I have put together based on the description of the lands in the River Kingdoms guide and other sources. Feel free to add/subtract if these don’t suit your game.
Exports (mercenaries, wool, high quality clay, blades, peat, eel , fish, fruit, ale, wine)
Imports (grain, hops, iron(!!), fine goods, silk, coal, beef, horses, oil, stone, armor)
Misc Info
I decided that the basic concepts for the Aldori Swordlord style talks about the “Four Governors” ie- forward, left, right, and back quadrants of attack. It also includes a total of 19 stances, 8 parries, and 47 steps. Four Governors is based on real technique, the rest is invented as it suited me. I I used the interwebs for my research, specifically, I used Wikipedia (Italian sword fighting and Italian fencing for details, house names, and book names. I used the following link for most of the terms LINK .
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I really think Maguses and Bards would be amongst the Aldori ranks. When I started developing my houses Rosanov specialized in Magus training as they were attracted to the flare that spell combat added.
League of Merchants probably handles most of the Naval stuff, but they terrify me as much as the Lords of Mivon. Every time they are mentioned its negative. In Thornkeep they are mentioned and basically they are racketeers.
Religiously I think you can say Milani is very popular here.There are likely plenty that wish to take back the homeland and revolt. Seeing an inflammatory priest of one take root and trying to stir rebellion and unification for the Stolen Lands, Mivon and Rostland is definitely possible. You did say they are already hawkish in Mivon (which is true)so a transfer of that revolutionary spirit seems likely at least in part.
Guide to the River Kingdoms also mentions a group of Elves in exile to Mivon's northeast.
Mivon also seems like a logical place for those outside of Nystra at the time of its destruction to settle, along with their wares. I'd assume at least one house is involved with that.
If you want to deal at all with their relationship with Pitax it seems that the Liacenza's are persona non grata in Mivon.
I have been really enjoying reading through this thread. The bits about tensions in Brevoy politics are great. I run a game for players with a great interest in politics and am hoping to leverage a ton of your material.
One question, have you posted a list of the minor houses you have in play in your version of Brevoy? I saw the names from the GoT module you used to start off your campaign, but something similar to the table you created for Mivon would be amazing.
Kudos and thanks for the great ideas Redcelt32!
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On Rhoswyn
[spoilers]
In my game she is the daughter of Nyrissa and Zon-Kuthon after his return from the Shadow Realm, renamed "The Fellnight Princess", she is trapped and bound to her Felnight Realm it is both her place of power and her prison for long centuries.
In my game the instigating event happened at the wedding of two of my player characters to each other (their wedding was held in Tatzlford). The entire Kingdom fell into a powerful sleep during which the council all fell under the effects of a nightmare (where I ran the final battle against Rhoswyn, but the PCs had no chance to Prebuff, turning them into birds, etc). The PCs realized they had to travel through the elfgate on Candlemere Island, they also visited the Old Beldame who was a long time enemy of both Nyrissa and Rhoswyn, she gave the PCs fetishes which if they failed a Fortitude Save against a transmutation spell could cause the fetish to change shape instead.
The PCs defeated Rhoswyn, but did not destroy the Felnight Realm. In my game Fellnight Queen was mashed up with Bloodsworn Veil, and the Rosethorn Court was where one of the keys to her realm was. A Gnome PC, with the Destined Bloodline became the Baron of Rosethorn Court, turning it into a fey sanctuary.
Later on Nyrissa returned, and I ran the second half of Armageddon Echo when the some PCs got dragged through the Elfgate by an elder thing's tentacle. Nyrissa had reshaped the Fellnight realm in the image of an ancient elven city that stood where the PC's kingdom stands today. She was going to use the echo of Earthfall to power a spell to escape her realm.
The PCs thwarted her again.
Although she had kidnapped the Baron of the Rosethorn Court, and placed a seed of her mind in his head. She finally escaped the Fellnight Realm, although was now trapped in Zool's body.
Later when Zool read Zuddiger's Picnic (a storybook rumoured to drive the reader mad), Zool failed the Will save but Rhoswyn didn't gaining more of a foothold. Then when the PCs tried to close a Shadowheart hidden beneath the sewers of Pitax Rhoswyn entered it restoring her body using raw shadowstuff and moxy, but Zool reasserted himself and in the process Rhoswyn and Zool became one: Rhozool.
She might very well be the end of Nyrissa.
Anyway feel free to chop change and steal such seeds as you require for your own campaign :)
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Forgive me, but every time I read 'Zool', I imagine you meant 'Zuul' (the Destroyer) and it makes everything infinitely funnier.
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I have been really enjoying reading through this thread. The bits about tensions in Brevoy politics are great. I run a game for players with a great interest in politics and am hoping to leverage a ton of your material.
One question, have you posted a list of the minor houses you have in play in your version of Brevoy? I saw the names from the GoT module you used to start off your campaign, but something similar to the table you created for Mivon would be amazing.
Kudos and thanks for the great ideas Redcelt32!
Here is th link to the spreadsheet for all the lesser houses of Brevoy and their mottoes. Note that the family names and mottoes are a mishmash borrowed from books, movies, etc, with a few originals thrown in, though most were borrowed from GoT or inspired by it. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the spreadsheet for all the lesser houses of Brevoy and their mottoes. Note that the family names and mottoes are a mishmash borrowed from books, movies, etc, with a few originals thrown in, though most were borrowed from GoT or inspired by it. Enjoy!
This looks great! This will work wonders for me as names are nearly always a challenge for me to come up with.
Thanks again.
Excellent thread redcelt32. Thanks for some superb information and guidance. Dotted for future reference.
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Here is the link to the spreadsheet for all the lesser houses of Brevoy and their mottoes. Note that the family names and mottoes are a mishmash borrowed from books, movies, etc, with a few originals thrown in, though most were borrowed from GoT or inspired by it. Enjoy!This looks great! This will work wonders for me as names are nearly always a challenge for me to come up with.
Thanks again.
The best part about laying out all the noble house names in Brevoy is having the party meet various nobles before they understand the Brevoy hierarchy in depth. I had several nobles assist the party and several others really cause problems. Once the party moved more into the political arena (kingdom size 10+ and character level around 5-7) they understood why the different houses acted the way they did towards the party.
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The best part about laying out all the noble house names in Brevoy is having the party meet various nobles before they understand the Brevoy hierarchy in depth. I had several nobles assist the party and several others really cause problems. Once the party moved more into the political arena (kingdom size 10+ and character level around 5-7) they understood why the different houses acted the way they did towards the party.Here is the link to the spreadsheet for all the lesser houses of Brevoy and their mottoes. Note that the family names and mottoes are a mishmash borrowed from books, movies, etc, with a few originals thrown in, though most were borrowed from GoT or inspired by it. Enjoy!This looks great! This will work wonders for me as names are nearly always a challenge for me to come up with.
Thanks again.
Thanks again Red for sharing.
Thanks so much for sharing all of this. I'm just about to start a Kingmaker campaign, and I fully intend to leverage a bunch of this into my own campaign.
So are we due for an update yet? The masses desire more Redcelt!
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I haven't posted any updates recently because we took a break and went back to our very first Pathfinder game- Rise of the Runelords. We have one player away at school and another deployed until October, so we probably wont go back until after the summer. I am working on a full write up of the Fey courts I used in my game as well as the Mythic location The Gate of Endless Worlds on Candlemere Isle. I also have some upcoming fey events planned...Winter Ball with Queen Mab and May Day Festival with Queen Titania anyone?
That's too bad for us all. This is an incredible resource, and I've drawn heavily from it while developing my "Venture Capital" scenario. If my players like it I'll go more ASOIF in my game. Just wanted to let you know how awesome this has been for me.
Yeah I'm doing my own homebrew in Brevoy and a lot of your ideas are really spot on, best source of info/inspiration I've found on Brevoy.