I did some poking around on the boards, and didn't see too much about this yet. My players have just completed RRR and have a bit of kingdom building downtime ahead of them. One of my player characters, a shamanistic barbarian, is interested in meeting the Talon Lord Barbarians (I changed the name because tigers in this region seemed silly to me) after hearing rumors of their existence to the west. I'm thinking meeting them would be good as part of a side excursion to visit the Drelev Demesne a little early. Namely, before Pitax has had too much influence on the area.
The players have met the Drelev Company before in Restov when the charters were given, so they at least would recognize Hannis and Pavetta, as well as Imeckus Stroon (as well as Terrion Numesti and Satinder Morne; IMC they were hired by Hannis to come along on their charter, and is the reason they are in the Demesne to begin with). The question is though, what would Fort Drelev look like before Irovetti's minions (that is, Armag) cowed it?
I'm conceptualizing it as a fairly prosperous port city on the Slough, bustling with trade and basically having the city have a lot more life than described in the AP. Drelev isn't really a bad guy in this case, he's just a little apathetic, and has spent a lot of the kingdom's money on luxuries for himself (when welcoming the PCs, he will be sure to impress upon them how prosperous his nation is). I'm also thinking of adding a few small settlements in the areas nearby, like a small town on Wyvernstone Bridge, for example.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this, or advice on how to proceed? Did anyone else encounter a similar issue? Further, how should I deal with meeting the barbarians? I'd like to keep the Black Sisters out of the picture for now, perhaps hinting at "wise women" who assist Armag (would he even be called Armag at this point?)
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It seemed to me best to keep Drelev and that whole region somewhat fuzzy before Book 4, while still dropping hints and puzzle pieces until the time is right for the party to engage that side of their adjoining kingdom.
I have been throwing a bunch of Varnhold politics and economic situations at my players to try and lean their future focus towards the east when they start thinking outside their kingdom.
I did however have their barbarian NPC journey there over the winter (he is from the far north) and meet with some of the other barbarian leaders and see if any would be interested in an alliance or to act as mercenaries. This let the players hear tidbits about some of the tribes and a very general picture of Drelev. He brought back a group of warriors from another smaller tribe, so there are experts available when the party needs information later on.
Right now the only info I have given my party is that Drelev is there, is alive and well and has a settlement and a kingdom going, and trade is doing well. This last is no surprise since all the river trade into Brevoy has to go through the Hooktongue. I also had the ballad of Armag the Twice-Born revealed to the players through their bard hearing about it from the tribesmen (ballad was borrowed from this forum, sorry I don't recall the generous sharer of said song). The NPC also told the council that the biggest tribe there, the Tiger Lords, were not very friendly and were very iconclastic and standoffish towards "civilized" people.
Noty sure if this helps or not. If your PCs go there, I would try to keep their focus on one or two of the smaller barbarian tribes, perhaps by welcoming your PC there and being friendly. By contrast, I would have Drelev be rather irritated with them (insecure about his kingdom advancement), claim to be extremely busy, and remind them they have a kingdom of their own to look after as well. You could drop other hints, but I suggest not giving them enough info to form opinions unless you are getting ready to start Book 4.
Thanks for your feedback, Redcelt.
I plan on running it as an abstract RP encounter, rather than with full maps, etc.. Basically, if they do pursue going to Fort Drelev, I want to use it as a foreshadowing opportunity to acquaint them with the area before Book 4. I've already done this for Varnhold, the PCs were invited to a banquet there to celebrate Varnhold's first anniversary as a barony. I'm not worried about them not pursuing the Varnhold thread, they're already focusing expansion east and planning on creating a trade route through the pass. This will make it all the more conspicuous when its townsfolk suddenly go missing. (As a side note, I plan on running Dudemeister's Brevic Betrothal after Book 3; Varnhold has not been doing so well financially since the PCs last visited on its anniversary.)
But back to Drelev - I like your idea of smaller ancillary tribes. I might have them meet these peoples if they do pursue the barbarian thread. I'll also try to impress on them that this area is much more dangerous than the Narlmarches to discourage them from too much combat. I'll have to find the ballad; that's a great legend to spread since my party has a bard as well.
I'll probably have Drelev be a little annoyed with them as you suggest, particularly since river traffic is waning somewhat (due to boggards). This will be exacerbated if my PCs open up locks on the Shrike to create a new efficient trade route to Restov like they plan to.
Well since you asked...
Drelev in my world is actually a thriving port for a long while. Allot of his money goes into his castle, which is going to have allot more functon and defense. It should be scary enough to make the PCs want to avoid mustering an army to solve the problem, it also sets up a scarier Pitax down the road.
Of course I plan on my Pitax having a clockwork dragon, now that I have stats for one (thanks shattered star!.) A clockwork dragon would give Numeria pause hehehe. I'm also planning on giving Pitax a new Bard Archetype called a metronome bard, basically all the performance abilities are replaced with various effects based on efficient Rhythm based motions that improve action economy. My Pitax is filled with souless art and inspired alchemy, enough magic and technology to counter nearby Numeria but somehow more civil and stylish. I want more Alexandria-like rather than steam-punk.
Also remember the courts belong to kings bit in the river freedoms. If they visit Drelev he has a huge social advantage. Maybe he shows them his powerful castle, or shows off some of his magic items. They would get the sense from me of a man overcompensating because he feels inferior. Actually if you watch Suits on USA Louis Litt is the perfect vibe.
(thanks shattered star!.)
Well dangit. Now I need that. Which book is it in?
book 6 along with some nice goodies in general
Well I know where a few chunks from my next couple of paychecks are going....
Also remember the courts belong to kings bit in the river freedoms. If they visit Drelev he has a huge social advantage. Maybe he shows them his powerful castle, or shows off some of his magic items.
This is a really good point. I need to start invoking "Courts Are for Kings" more often. :)
The party in my campaign just visited Varnhold (before the disappearance, of course) and I suspect that they'll want to visit - or, at least, scout/spy - Drelev's territory. The PCs are good friends with Maegar Varn, and are negotiating a pact of mutual assistance, trade, etc. In my campaign, Drelev, on the other hand, is from the beginning on bent on annexing the Greenbelt to his own barony. Varn warned the PCs of Drelev's intentions, so there's always a possibility they'll never actually get into Fort Drelev before hostilities ensue. In my campaign, Hannis is also close to the Surtovas, who want a southern ally to keep an eye on House Lebeda. This is before the trouble with Pitax.
I've also added two other settlements: Cloudberry Fields (at the location of...), and Wyvernstone (at Wyvernstone bridge, obviously).
Sharasvar - It sounds like you and I think alike! The Drelev group is referred to as the "Surtovan Envoy" in my campaign; Pavetta and Hannis are minor relations to Noleski, and this group was essentially "his entry" into the land grab, thinking that controlling the East Sellen would be key. The PC's group was Jamandi Aldori's "pick", similarly.
I'm not sure if I'll be quite so overt with Varn warning them... I'm not sure how he'd even know, really, being on the other side of the PC kingdom. I think I'll steal your settlements, however!
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Credit goes to Rhys Grey for the Prophecy of Armag the Twice-Born.
Well, Varn "knows" because as a governor of the "Nomen Province", a direct vassal to the Restov Swordlords, he regularly corresponds with Jamandi Aldori. :)
IMC, Drelevshelm has been in bad shape since it started. In fact, Hannis Drelev has always been angry at the PCs since he feels they got the easy contract in a good area, while he was stuck trying to develop in a land surrounding by powerful enemies (Pitax, the Tiger Lords, multiple tribes of Boggards stopping trade).
He's spent most of his resources on his monster of a castle, and has generally remained small due to mismanagement and fear of growing too fast and attracting Pitax's attention...didn't help him much, since Pitax eventually placed his Barony under their 'Protection'.
In short, I felt it necessary to justify why Fort Drelev (and Varnhold too, for that matter) were positively tiny in comparison to the PCs realm, and a large Barony suddenly shrunk would have required far more rewrites that the assumption that it never got very large or prosperous in the first place.
In short, I felt it necessary to justify why Fort Drelev (and Varnhold too, for that matter) were positively tiny in comparison to the PCs realm
I kind of had the opposite, in that my PCs have only just defeated the Stag Lord and founded their first settlement, but know that Fort Drelev and Varnhold already exist.
So I reasoned that since they didn't have a base of operations comparable to Oleg's, and were in areas known to have longer term problems than the bandits, the other two had been given charters which permitted fortification prior to exploring and pacifying the area. This explains why they are settled early but expand slowly; Drelev isn't very good at (or interested in) the exploration part, and Varn is just unlucky.
And I also had Drelev as the 'official' settlement, given his charter publically and including Surtova representatives, in order to keep the king from looking too closely at the others.
In that, we pretty much are the same; Varn and Drelev were both given founding charters immediately, but I needed a reason that neither leader had a much larger kingdom than the PCs by the time they really interacted.
In Varn's case, it was that he absolutely refused to make peace with the Nomen. He was played as a nice guy, very personable, but monumentally stubborn on that point (part of his charter was to 'deal with the Nomen threat', and he saw only one way to do that).
For Drelev, it was partly that he was in more dangerous territory, but mostly because he was a @sshat, spending most of his resources on his citadel, and leaving exploration and taming of the lands around him to hired mercenaries and adventurers.
Hmm - The Slough south of Fort Drelev is a dangerous place and trade through there has been stopped by the Frog-men in the Slough. One of the original reasons for sending a delegation there was to unblock the trade route and negotiate with Pitax.
In my game, Fort Drelev is small and has always been a failure.
- Drelev never really cleared the Southern Slough and few ships travel that way. There is no great trade up and down the East Sellen for it to benefit from - most of Restov's goods currently go out through Port Ice.
- Nor did he make a deal with Pitax and build a road that would allow trans-shipment of goods between the cities. That would have opened up an alternate trade route.
- There are unfriendly barbarians on in the North West (who were supposed to be dealt with by The Iron Wraiths) but who make any land based expansions that way difficult.
In my world Fort Drelev is subsidised by The Sutovas, Lebedas and New Stetven - it controls one extra hex in each direction (at most).
None of my characters have been there yet. They 'live' by the Stag Lord's Fort, so we measured the distance to Fort Drelev and they realised it was quite a long trip and travelling there and back would be time consuming. Then I kept the party just busy enough that the journey never quite seemed 'reasonable at this time' to them. However, they did meet the main leaders from Fort Drelev at a ball in Restov, and one character (A bard, who is the baron) exchanges letters with Tamary Numesti.
So in my world, Fort Drelev is a fortified Military Town with limited fishing and farming industries - and some really frustrated rulers ...
Great feedback, JohnB. I think I'm going to go with a bit of a hybrid of the two - ostensibly wealthy, but it's really just a show Baron Drelev has put on. I've already hinted at stops in river traffic, so perhaps Fort Drelev is simply on the wane.