Talls Strongholds and Followers adventure - Full

jmucchiello · Dec 27, 2018

TallIan said:
You really wanted that hand crossbow? Poor Justincase's Pally is going to be soaking a lot of damage then If I throw some retainer in that should not be an issue.

I wanted the hand crossbow with magic arrows

I was never going tank. I was going swashbuckler (lowercase s), rapier in one hand, hand crossbow in the other.

TallIan · Dec 27, 2018

Shayuri said:
Here's my sheet so far. I'm leaving the family name blank for the moment, seeking input on whether or not you have suggestions for established noble families in the area, or if it's alright to just make one up. There's also a few spell prep slots open while I mull what kind of spells to prep. Overall though, I think I have the rules covered. I'll add in a writeup for the background, but the broad sweep is that Arcata was born of a local noble house, was found to have magical talent and went to go study in a larger city. While she was away, the disaster back home struck with the Baron overthrown and this new Lord stepping in and purging dissent, breaking her House. She found out about it, possibly even fending off an attempt on her life depending on how aggressive Lord Saxon is, and returned home to set things right/exact vengeance.

Looks good so far. Feel free to make up a family name - and as much of your family as you like. I haven't got a lot of detail for this fleshed out, we can all make stuff up as we go along.

My limited, casual knowledge of feudalism leads me to think this: Bedegar has around 35 to 45 knights fees* (this would be a very large barony, but fantasy tends towards things being bigger than they would be). Most of these would be knights that owe fealty to the Baron, but around a third would be wealthy commoners who pay scutage** for their land tenure. Add in family ties*** and the fact that some knights (or tenured land holders) would owe fealty to another knight and you can get some fairly complex factions and family houses to play with. A VERY powerful knight would have at most three or four vassal landholders, probably only one or two a noble.

In case you don't know what I'm on about:
* Very much like a manor (almost the same thing). A plot of land big enough to support a knight, complete with retainers (men-at arms; archers and in the case of fantasy, wizards), servants and horses, arms and armour for the lot. Around 1000 to 5000 acres depending on resources. The holder of the knights fee would owe service to the Baron for 40 days a year.
**A payment to cover the cost of the 40 days service from the above
***This could be between nobles and commoners as only the eldest gets the noble title, unless the parent has multiple titles as inheritance, rare at this level of nobility.

Shayuri · Dec 27, 2018

Given that Arcata's father would be noble, but would owe fealty to the Baron, a landed knight seems most appropriate. Thus, not a very high ranking house, but assuming he earned title and land through deeds, Arcata's father could still have been respected, which would be good enough for the backstory. Presumably male heirs were killed as part of the purging, which in theory ends the line...though there's ways Arcata could potentially get around that, if given a chance.

Good deal, thanks for the info! I'll see what I can spin up.

TallIan · Dec 27, 2018

Shayuri said:
Given that Arcata's father would be noble, but would owe fealty to the Baron, a landed knight seems most appropriate. Thus, not a very high ranking house, but assuming he earned title and land through deeds, Arcata's father could still have been respected, which would be good enough for the backstory. Presumably male heirs were killed as part of the purging, which in theory ends the line...though there's ways Arcata could potentially get around that, if given a chance.

Good deal, thanks for the info! I'll see what I can spin up.

There was no purge, Sir Saxton was a good friend and powerful vassal to Lord Bedegar and found himself in a good position to declare himself Lord Saxton. He has some solid support from the other knights and the rest simply don't see another clear candidate. If he embarked on an all out purge, he'd quickly lose support, so he has to play a careful game of undermining potential claimants without raising suspicion. So Arcata's father could be close to a potential rival of Lord Saxton, likely to back the rival should it come to it.

I've always been very relaxed about the chauvinistic patriarchal structure of medieval European society. It has never made the game more fun in any group I've played in, so feel free to make as much or as little about it as you like.

Shayuri · Dec 27, 2018

Ahh! My bad then, I completely misread what was going on.

Hmm! Well, clearly vengeance isn't on the cards. There must be some other reason Arcata has returned. Perhaps she's just visiting. Or perhaps her father senses trouble afoot, and has asked her to come help him sort it out.

As for the patriarchy, if a Lady can be head of a house, no complaints here. I figure Arcata has an older brother who will inherit, barring any unfortunate circumstances, but Arcata's personal ambitions don't really include ruling over peasants on a landhold. She'd much prefer a wizard's abode if given a choice.

TallIan · Dec 27, 2018

Shayuri said:
Ahh! My bad then, I completely misread what was going on.

Hmm! Well, clearly vengeance isn't on the cards. There must be some other reason Arcata has returned. Perhaps she's just visiting. Or perhaps her father senses trouble afoot, and has asked her to come help him sort it out.

Lord Saxton isn't wholesale purging the landed of the barony, but he is getting rid of those he can find an excuse to, so Arcata's family being killed, exiled or imprisoned is certainly on the cards if it suits you. Saxton would just need an excuse - treason, heresy or whatever. Something that allows him to take the land back and give it to his own supporters, thereby undermining his rivals (say a family friend) while strengthening his own power.

As for the patriarchy, if a Lady can be head of a house, no complaints here. I figure Arcata has an older brother who will inherit, barring any unfortunate circumstances, but Arcata's personal ambitions don't really include ruling over peasants on a landhold. She'd much prefer a wizard's abode if given a choice.

Given this is a fantasy setting I can see a wizard's tower being equivalent to a knights fee. I would imagine that any baron would need some kind of magical protection and what better way that vassalage?

TallIan · Dec 27, 2018

As I posted that I realised that I'm given away a lot of the plot that should really be found out during play.

Write something up, and I'll fit it in unless it really pulls the story somewhere I don't want to go.

I think I'm tinkering with your every post as a way to procrastinate doing actual work.

Shayuri · Dec 28, 2018

Arcata's family would have more of a keep or a fort of some kind. Her dad's much more of a warrior sort than a mage. Her brother too.

The details of any family holdings I shall leave to you. It's not my intention that Arcata would have much use of them.

JustinCase · Dec 28, 2018

Alright, I'm still working on my dragonborn paladin but several ideas are forming in my head that I would like your feedback on.

First, as the murder of King Ormund was half a century ago, I don't see my guy being that old. Instead, I'm thinking he's the offspring of one of the original Dragon Knights; perhaps his egg (is that how it works in this world?) was smuggled to Bedegar, out of reach of Ajax and his troops. His father, a famous old paladin, raised the boy but was killed some years ago after being betrayed to the Hawk Lords.

My guy, angry at the death of his father, almost swore an oath of vengeance, but at the last minute refrained and went for the Oath of Devotion instead. He hopes to honour his father, while giving hope to the people. He worked for baron and was away when the baron was killed, which he feels very guilty about.

I'm hoping that one of the bad guys in the adventure can be a sort of nemesis, possibly a Hawk Lord who killed his father. Is that possible?

TallIan · Dec 28, 2018

[MENTION=6776182]JustinCase[/MENTION]

I've seen nothing to suggest they don't hatch in Collville's world (Valoria? I think that is the continent), so the egg idea is fine. I'm not sure how true this is to Vasloria but I see the destruction of the dragon flights as something that took 15 to 20 years - it's hard to kill that many people - and even then, many dragonborn were left, just the units were broken. Now the dragonborn are hunted by the Hawklords to prevent any kind of regroup. I know Collville uses a unit of Dragonborn in his own story telling so there is at least one dragon flight left.

You can certainly write in your own enemy NPC as plot device for me. If it is a Hawklord he probably won't feature in this part of the adventure, but it gives me a good link to the part 2 I'd like to run after, when you guys have a stronghold.