Renegade Crowns Writeup Part 3

 Last blog post I introduced two of the three Princes that occupy the region of Two Geysers. The first was Throndrig Goldbuckle, a Dwarf ex-Mercenary who is a minor Prince with aspirations to start a Dwarven dynasty.  The second Prince, was an extremely veteran Dark Elf Knight, Nounic Shadowreaver, who is a major power in the region and has an unquenchable thirst for slaying monsters and unnatural beasts. 

I said I need a third Prince to round out the region, and for this minor power I rolled up a Human who is native to the Borderlands region.  He is deep into his third career, and curiously enough also an ex-Mercenary.  Turning to a webpage of random name generators, I find that his name is Diethard Fried and he has titled himself Gildemeister. Evidently ‘Gildemeister’ is Low German for ‘guild master’; so, I decide that Diethard, though retired, never really got out of the mercenary game. He considers himself a ruler by virtue of being the most veteran of his mercenary band, which he has organized along guild lines.  Given that King Throndrig Goldbuckle is also an ex-Mercenary I make a mental note that there should be at least some professional rivalry between the two. Maybe it has even festered over the years as they plied their trade in opposing mercenary warbands and it has turned into a deep poisonous grudge. Further rolls will define what relationships the Princes have with one another so I end this line of thought and continue rolling on the Renegade Crown tables.

For Diethard Fried, I rolled his goal as being This Power is Mine, and his principle turns out to be My Word is My Bond. Thus, Diethard wants to maintain his grasp on power in his minor domain and he will only be happy if he does so. My Word is My Bond means Diethard has more than a sparkle of nobility in his actions, but because of his background as a former (successful, he did survive after all) mercenary captain he also has a very serious grounding in realpolitik. Together I decide that though he keeps his word, he is very damn careful with his words, reluctant to make a clear stand unless he is fully committed on a situation or backed into a dangerous corner.    

Further rolling reveals that Diethard’s style is Lets Get to Business, very much fitting for a former mercenary captain and for his careful-with-words personality.  I note that Throndrig Goldbuckle, the Dwarf ex-Mercenary Prince, also shares the same style of how he interacts with others.  Perhaps there is the possibility of friendship or at least friendly relations between the two minor nations assuming that they could both see past their rivalry. More on that later.

I actually got the result Roll Twice for Diethard’s Princely Secrets.  Further, I rolled up the Secrets, Open Book and Act of Virtue.  These seem a bit contradictory at first, but I figure I can meld them together.  Recalling Diethard’s background as a Human of the Border Princes region, I rule that he is a local of the area and his mercenary band were very expressive about their exploits. Given this is Warhammer, this suggests to me that a minstrel, or more than one, followed Diethard’s warband and spread news of their exploits and misadventures from town to town in the Borderlands region. Thus his history is an Open Book. 

With Diethard’s Act of Virtue I get the inkling that he saved a village somehow. Being unsure about where to go with that, I leave it and find that Diethard has 6 courtiers. Great! One of them must be the mercenary group’s old bard that traveled with them I mentioned above, and the remaining five would be mercenaries that are part of Diethard’s “guild”.  In fact, let us make Diethard’s political governance similar in style to a circle of guild masters debating matters, but with an autocratic leader, himself. Do the people in his domain like being ruled over by a bunch of crusty veteran mercenaries? Well, it is better than being ruled over by bandits or the like. We shall see.

There is one feature in Renegade Crowns that I did not use for the Princes. That was the Quirks table (2-9).  I understand the utility of having a table of roleplaying features for the Princes, but simply I didn’t like any of the ten choices given. The Quirks table is ultimately for fleshing out Princes that are good targets for the players to overthrow by giving the Princes a personal weakness for the players to exploit. Personally, I would rather have my Princes of Two Geysers be a bit more noble than that.  Not much, just a bit.

The next large section of Renegade Crowns details Princely Relations.  Presumably these are messy interactions so let’s get started!  First up is Dwarf King Throndrig Goldbuckle’s relation with Dark Elf Viscount Nounic Shadowreaver. I roll up that a state of War has existed between these two Princes for about six months.  This is a relatively recent war. Interesting. As to the motivation for the War, I roll up Envy and Glorious Reputation.  Let’s look at the participants of this conflict in detail to figure out who would be most likely envious of whom and thus be the aggressor. Now the Dwarf King is a minor Prince and will have holdings smaller than the major Prince, the Dark Elven Viscount.  I could see either one wanting to extend their territory, but the trick is, the Dark Elven Viscount is a very dangerous senior warlord and could cut a rival Prince in half were the war to boil down to personal combat.  So maybe this is more of a proxy war where there are several border skirmishes but major gains/losses in territory have yet to be taken.  After all, as I mentioned, this is a young war that has only been going on six months. Also, I decide that the Dark Elven Viscount’s total forces cannot fully engage the Dwarf King because there is some sort of distraction. I have yet to roll up Hazards of the Borderlands like Greenskins, Undead or Chaos forces, but I make a mental note that some threat equally dangerous to the Dwarven King’s forces assails the Dark Elf’s territory and splits his forces.  Maybe King Throndrig even decided to attack Viscount Nounic’s territory knowing the Viscount would be distracted. Yes, that fits.  I decide the Dwarven King is envious of Viscount Nounic’s glorious reputation as a warlord and monster slayer, so he decided to raid the Viscount’s territory for more fertile farmland for his people and bolster his people’s opinion of himself.  Sounds like a Dwarfy thing to do. Stick it to that Dark Elf!

So, what about the relations between King Throndrig Goldbuckle and Gildemeister Diethard Fried? I roll up Bitter relations that have lasted a good decade. I don’t bother to roll for reasons behind the bitterness because I am sure I know why the Dwarf and the Human have this relationship. The fact that they came from rival mercenary groups just fits so well here.  They remember the bad old days when both up and coming mercenary captains had to fight against each other for their respective employer’s gold and they never forgot the scars, slights or dead brothers they buried as they worked against one another.  This poison of memory shades their every action against each other as they bitterly politic for land and resources.

Right then, so what about Viscount Nounic and Gildemeister Diethard? The dice say there is a state of Hatred between the Princes that has lasted one year because of someone’s Public Humiliation.  I decide that Gidemeister Diethard’s forces are not in a state of war with the Dark Elf’s, but strong words have been uttered from both sides. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the minor Prince Diethard did something to humiliate Viscount Nounic, the seemingly unassailable veteran monster slayer?  I imagine there was a particularly wily Orc warboss (lets call him One-Eye) who was an expert in guerilla tactics that continually harassed Viscount Nounic’s lands.  He escaped time and time again from the Dark Elf but when he went south to Gidemeister Diethard’s lands, Diethard simply bombarded an important bridge, destroying it but also sinking One-Eye in the fast-moving rapids.  This sticks in Viscount Nounic’s craw as being a “dishonorable” action, particularly since some of Nounic’s people regard Diethard highly as the slayer of One-Eye.  Perhaps One-Eye’s band of Greenskins is still operating in Nounic’s region. I’ll have to remember this when I roll up Borderlands Hazards.

So, all in all we have a powder keg of a region politically.  In fact, the most stable relationship is that between the two mercenary veterans as they draft veiled threats and polemics against each other. A happy little slice of the world we have here, but hey, it is Warhammer after all.  Next time we will discuss in detail the communities that populate the regions lorded over by these warring Princes and how the economic landscape is set.