Rageburg

Rageburg Domain Notes

540 Families

Neutrally Aligned

Worships Northron Gods

68 square miles (~4.6 mile radius around Rageburg itself)

Market Class VI*

The Stronghold
Rageburg was built on an ancient Ardean guardpost abandoned as the Empire fell. It consists of a large round tower 30' in diameter, with an abandoned dungeon level that are said to be "haunted". It is said that this was once one of the Ardean Augur's Towers. Surrounding the tower is an earthen rampart topped with 20' high stone walls in a state of disrepair. Rageburgers aren't very handy, apparently.

The Garrison
The garrison of Rageburg consists of:

30 Light Infantry (non-berserking scout types)

60 Berserkers (BR as heavy infantry, but in chain and two-handed weapon)

30 Bowmen

15 Light Cavalry

They live in barracks just outside the stronghold and wander the countryside protecting the populace.

The Guild
There is a criminal guild operating in Rageburg acting as a trading house. It has been a public "secret" that anyone who wants to do business in Rageburg must make an offering to the Medusa's Glance Trading Company "or else". Furthermore, in order to control a monopoly on hard goods in Rageburg, Medusa's Glance won't let anyone else come and trade for iron or wood. That makes creating metal armor or weapons twice the cost and raises the cost of any construction by 2.5 times the cost it would normally be.

The Big Game

What's the plan for next game? I'm happy to continue to judge lightning round weeks. I promise to do a better job of balancing fights, though. I made a mistake and had *way* too many were-pigs at the last scrap. I've also got plans for preparing some new NPC bad guys to choose from including:

Kinevil Rampage and the "Law Friends"

"The Cyclone" and his agent

Khan Shaka and his goons

Griggle the Wormpriest

Gaius Antonius Octavius
...and more!

We've still got pushbacks we can resolve, and Dengwur should soon start to go back to war with the Old Ones. We should discuss what is up and where we are going.

What does everyone's character want to do next game?

Hail Hydra

The attack on the Hydra Legion as they build up their stronghold in the ashes of Edge was a short skirmish. It lasted only one "battle round" before the bugbears fled, and was a pretty even exchange. I divided the troops into platoons of 30 men each and cavalry lances of 15 riders. I rounded the light and heavy infantry together as "light infantry" and rounded the berserkers up to an even three platoons. The bowmen were one shy of two platoons, so I figured the lone crossbowman made a perfect two platoons. All the remaining cavalry just totalled over fifteen, which made a single lance. The forces and associated battle ratings were:

The Hydra Legion

3 Platoons of Berserkers -- BR 3 (3*1)

2 Platoons of Light Infantry -- BR 3 (3*1)

2 Platoons of Bowmen -- BR 3 (3*1.5)

1 Lance of Light Cavalry -- BR 3.5 (1*3.5)

Vanec's Raiders

4 Platoons of Bugbear Infantry -- BR 24 (4*6)

4 Platoons of Goblin Infantry -- BR 2 (4*0.5)

2 Platoons of Goblin Archers -- BR 1 (2*0.5)

4 Platoons of Hobgoblin Infantry -- BR 4 (4*1)

The Hydra Legion gets 4 hits, but the Bugbears get 5. The Berserkers and two platoons of light infantry are lost, as well as 4 platoons of goblin infantry, 2 platoons of goblin archers, and a platoon of hobgoblin infantry. The bugbears withdraw and Hydra decides not to pursue into the forest for fear of a trap.

After the battle, 50% of each unit that was destroyed are crippled or dead while the other 50% are lightly wounded. The victorious army's wounded troops return to their unit in one week. The defeated army's wounded troops become prisoners.

So of the 84 berserkers, 42 will return in a week (assuming they aren't just summoned constructs, which I'm betting they are). Of the infantry, 26 light infantry are dead, with the remainder returning to duty in a week. Of the 17 heavy infantry, 8 are slain and the remainder will return in a week. No Hydra bowmen or cavalry were lost.

The spoils of war for defeating the raiders is equal to a month's wages for each defeated unit. That comes to 540gp total. Of the raiders, a full 90 goblins survived with wounds, as well as 15 hobgoblins. Each slave is worth 40gp if sold into slavery. I'm quite sure that the Clockwork Horrors would pay that price in gems for slave labor if it were offered, but that's up to Jason. Alternately, some or all of these prisoners may be kept as slave laborers (see page 250-251 of the main rulebook).

The men of the Hydra Legion expect at least 50% of these proceeds to go to them on a pro rata basis in relation to their wages. Each gp they earn equals an XP they earn. Track troop XP on a unit-by-unit basis. Troops become 1st level fighters after earning 100gp. Troops do not earn XP for fighting, only the spoils of war.

However, Tiberio himself as overall leader of the force earns XP equal to 50% of the units defeated. He would have to split the remaining 50% with any sub-commanders he employs, but since Helpful Bill was not available he gets all the XP. Goblins at 5XP each earn him (120*5 + 60*5) 900XP. The Hobgoblins at 15XP each earn him (30*15) 450XP for a total of 1350XP.

New Plans

Since the Clockwork Horror threat has been addressed (for now), I'll be taking over as GM this week. I figure we'll do the weekly lightning rounds as we had done before with a push back card revealed every other week or so (GM's choice).

Amicus plans to use the time to create magic items, probably starting with magic leather armor so if anyone happens to have some magic leather already he could *really* use that as a sample to create a recipe. Failing that, he will crank out potions of extra-healing by the gallon. If anyone has any requests, post your requests here and I'll create a schedule. Amicus will probably stop adventuring until the majority of the other PCs have reached 9th level as well.

News from Yoesville

Fellow Skull Collectors,
I have news to share. From my recovery bed I was visited by an emissary of the Clockwork Horrors. It is my understanding that these beings may have attacked the lawfuls in the domain of Yoesville in error, and are interested in making peace. In my opinion, a simple misunderstanding that we could perhaps put to rest. Moreover, these beings are offering us significant riches (1,000 gp gems) in return for simple items such as:

A wagon load of iron and/or copper (condition unimportant…i.e. scrap, workable items, etc) of at least 100 stone

Ten restrained willing/unwilling beings designate as slaves, race and physical condition irrelevant, as long as they are alive

Each barrel of military oil

Eight barrels of lamp oil

Each wagon and team of draft animals to pull it

Each four stones weight of silver

I am negotiating on giving them a one-mile allowance of land, and working out an understanding that they would not leave this one mile radius - including through the air or underground.

In exchange, we will be able to trade these simple items for a 1,000gp gem each. I posit that each of us loads up a wagon full of these materials and delivers them to the newcomers. I plan to travel there myself in order to confirm that we are paid as the offer goes and are not double-crossed. If all goes as planned, we should be able to stand down against the horrors.

For those who think it folly to leave such beings alive and perhaps help their cause, remember that we can scarcely afford to fight yet another battle. Having these beings to our West can only help fend off any incursion of the Wormcult who now roam the Elfwood freely. As a matter of fact, any spies might themselves get understandably worried at our mustering all these items so near the edge of their newly acquired territory!

Please share your thoughts! I am personally in favor of collecting profit as long as the horrors themselves live and let live. If their trade is merely a ruse, we crush them immediately. Do the Skull Collectors stand together on this matter?

Best,
Publius Fulminator Amicus, Prelate of Noviodunum

Lots of Randomness

I found this trove of random game tables. I thought I would share.

New Rules

I wanted to build some unique buildings recently, so I came across and adapted these construction rules. Clovis also hopes to do some improvements to the trails and roads, and I wanted to create a metric for that work. Give them a look, and if we all agree that they are valid we can use these in conjunction with the values you can find in the ACKS books.

I also hope to get Amicus creating magic items, starting with a recipe for Potions of Extra Healing. However, there are no rules for making an item that allows you to use several "charges" at once, and a Potion of Extra Healing is unique in that all three charges may be used at once. It would be awesome, for example, to fire several fireballs from a Wand of Fireballs simultaneously. For the time being, I'm just going to make it as a magic item with three 1st level spell "charges". However, perhaps we could come up with some rules for items that might use several "charges" at once.

One more rule tweak I've got. Amicus may use Divine Power wrested from worship in his domain in place of special components like monster parts. However, there is no gp -> xp conversion and a 1:1 ratio seems incorrect. For example, I believe a whole lot of goblin parts would be cheap compared to dragon scales, even with the same XP worth of parts. I'm going to propose a formula that the gp -> xp conversion rate like this:

gp value = (xp of monster * HD of monster) / 20

For example, that makes troll blood for healing potions worth 204gp (680XP * 6 /20) in Divine Power. I would venture to say that this formula would be a good metric for arcane spell casters who need special components and haven't built their own dungeon to harvest monster parts from yet.

Any concerns?