Adventure Work-Shop: The Horde of the Border Kingdom

[Willowhugger]

I'm developing an adventure and thinking about how to develop it. Basically, my idea is the King of Nemedia just died and the land is once more fairly unstable. That's when a horde of rampaging soldiers of my adventure's villain, King Bohran, pretty much start invading Nemedia's north to slaughter as they please.

King Bohran pretty much rules a city state in the Border Kingdom. Actually, since it's a blank slate, I can actually just make him the Border Kingdom's sole ruler.

My idea is that King Bohran is a Cimmerian/Aquilonian Half-breed and believes he's destined to conquer Nemedia because of what his Raven told him (he's schizophrenic and thinks its an avatar of the Morrigan). He's managed to persuade about 1,000 Cimmerians to follow in his mad quest, possibly the Cimmerians of this land are a trifle more religious or maybe they're just being paid well.

But I'm going to establish the Cimmerians more or less tear through the Nemedian forces and their Northern Army is pretty much annihilated. The Nemedians don't have enough soldiers or wealth to deal with the issue and instead hire the player characters to raise a host and kill as many of the Cimmerians as possible. The rest of Bohran's soldiers don't really matter to our employer.

That's the basic idea.

Some thoughts I had.

1. How exactly should I portray the Cimmerians, to really get home these are a bad-bad-bad bunch of people not to be trifled with.

2. Any ideas for how to handle the Border Kingdoms and their culture? I'm inclined to make it a hodge podge nation.

3. I think that there has to be some sub-adventures in this overarc to get the feeling of Conan down rather than just a series of military adventures.

 

[VincentDarlage]

1. How exactly should I portray the Cimmerians, to really get home these are a bad-bad-bad bunch of people not to be trifled with.

Use a quote from Howard: "Amalric, delving into the scenes of a turbulent life, recalled a desperate battle on the northern frontier, and wild figures rushing into the melee – tall, supple women, stark naked, their black hair streaming, their eyes blazing, swords dripping redly in their hands. He shook his head." (Draft b of Black Colossus).

If that is what Cimmerian women in battle are like - imagine what the men are like!

2. Any ideas for how to handle the Border Kingdoms and their culture? I'm inclined to make it a hodge podge nation.

It is a hodge-podge. Do you have Return to the Road of Kings (or the original Road of Kings)? or the Hyboria's F... series? They all have tips on the Border Kingdom.

 

[Willowhugger]

I bought the original Road of Kings yesterday but haven't yet gotten to reading it yet, so I'll probably just stick with Bohran as a City-State leader then if they've already been detailed.

But now I can look up information on it now.

 

[Doc Martin]

Welcome to the forum Willowhugger; some thoughts on your questions:

1) Have you read 'Bran mak Morn' and 'Tigers of the Sea' by Howard? Pseudo-historical rather than Hyborian age but they have lots of scary barbarians in them. There's a great scene in one story where the hero comes across a couple dozen armoured warriors apparently all slain by a much smaller group of unarmoured barbarians. Imagine a similar scene where the PCs come across 25 dead Gunderman soldiers in full mail and only 8 dead 'naked' Cimmerians - with no sign of any survivors getting away. Why would the Cimmerians attack when so outnumbered? How could they kill so many armoured opponents? How the hell are we going to fight them!?
Another aspect I like to emphasise in my games is the apparent unpredictablity of barbarians and the alien set of rules they operate under eg: they might accept anyone around their campfire and share food with them so as to be 'hospitable' but kill them out of hand for an apparent insult even as the result of a misunderstanding.

2) I think you can take a nearly free rein with the Border Kingdoms as Howard wrote next to nothing about them. In his original maps (reproduced in the Del Rey editions) the Border Kingdom matches the boundary between Cimmerian and Nemedia-Brythunia-Hyperborea (Mongoose changed this for some reason best known to themselves). This might suggest that the latter three kingdoms set up the Border Kingdom as a buffer state between themselves and the savage Cimmerians. Historically such states have a tendency to go their own ways - the rulers have to be given military independence to do their job of protecting the frontier and geographically they are distant from their 'parent state'. Therefore it makes perfect sense that whatever indigeneous peoples, settlers, mercenaries and ruling class there was in the Border Kingdom should have become a series of independant states. Your idea of the Cimmerians being allied with some of them is great - why should the rulers of the Border Kingdom fight dangerous, barbarian neighbours for the benefit of Hyborian rulers 100s of miles to the south?
Something that is improbable in my opinion is the Border Kingdom containing city states - why should cities have developed on the bleak, northern territories between the backwaters of Hyborian states and mountains full of aggressive barbarians? Cities usually require trade and productive farmland to support them - I can't see either being in sufficient supply in the Border Kingdom; you may, of course, feel otherwise.

3) Any sub plots could involve political shenanigans amongst the various states of the Border Kingdoms. The players might also be encouraged to attempt espionage and subterfuge - at least scouting out Bohran's court, maybe he's hiring mercenaries? Perhaps they could go as far as diplomacy, trying to persuade Cimmerian clans to attack Bohran from behind? Of course, Nemedia's enemies would be wanting Bohran to succeed in damaging the kingdom; there might be rivals to the players engaged in counter espionage of their own.

Just a few ideas, hope some are of use.

 

[Willowhugger]

1) Have you read 'Bran mak Morn' and 'Tigers of the Sea' by Howard? Pseudo-historical rather than Hyborian age but they have lots of scary barbarians in them. There's a great scene in one story where the hero comes across a couple dozen armoured warriors apparently all slain by a much smaller group of unarmoured barbarians. Imagine a similar scene where the PCs come across 25 dead Gunderman soldiers in full mail and only 8 dead 'naked' Cimmerians - with no sign of any survivors getting away. Why would the Cimmerians attack when so outnumbered? How could they kill so many armoured opponents? How the hell are we going to fight them!?

Thanks, I'll use that scene "as is" in my campaign.

Another aspect I like to emphasise in my games is the apparent unpredictablity of barbarians and the alien set of rules they operate under eg: they might accept anyone around their campfire and share food with them so as to be 'hospitable' but kill them out of hand for an apparent insult even as the result of a misunderstanding.

I definitely want to use this game to introduce the Cimmerians and their culture to our heroes. For me, I want there to be some peaceful contact with the PCs and maybe some love interest (as such can be called in the lust-driven and unsentimental Hyborean Age).

2) I think you can take a nearly free rein with the Border Kingdoms as Howard wrote next to nothing about them. In his original maps (reproduced in the Del Rey editions) the Border Kingdom matches the boundary between Cimmerian and Nemedia-Brythunia-Hyperborea (Mongoose changed this for some reason best known to themselves). This might suggest that the latter three kingdoms set up the Border Kingdom as a buffer state between themselves and the savage Cimmerians.

Thanks, I read Road of Kings and the Border Kingdom largely fits my view of the place anyway, it's a largely desolate and unpleasant place with a few cities in it that call themselves kingdoms. And yes, I like very much this is a "Mongrel" Kingdom to a large extent.

Something that is improbable in my opinion is the Border Kingdom containing city states - why should cities have developed on the bleak, northern territories between the backwaters of Hyborian states and mountains full of aggressive barbarians? Cities usually require trade and productive farmland to support them - I can't see either being in sufficient supply in the Border Kingdom; you may, of course, feel otherwise.

I largely meant merely to give King Bohran a capital. By city I more am inclined to think of the man possessing a walled settlement that has grown up reasonably important, probably built on some old Acheron ruins that have been resettled by Bohran's own obsessive attention to detail.

3) Any sub plots could involve political shenanigans amongst the various states of the Border Kingdoms. The players might also be encouraged to attempt espionage and subterfuge - at least scouting out Bohran's court, maybe he's hiring mercenaries? Perhaps they could go as far as diplomacy, trying to persuade Cimmerian clans to attack Bohran from behind? Of course, Nemedia's enemies would be wanting Bohran to succeed in damaging the kingdom; there might be rivals to the players engaged in counter espionage of their own.

Just a few ideas, hope some are of use.

Exactly what I'm thinking of there, very good.

 

[Willowhugger]

I have King Bohran's write-up here. My only problem is it lacks that supernatural swerve but I don't want to use another Wizard mastermind after the last two adventures had them.

King Bohran

An oracle of the Cimmerians secuded King Numendides' father during one of his party trips up along the border as Prince, largely attempting to hunt the men there for sport and finding the prospect of mating with a savage to be intriguing. The oracle bore King Bohran a son as a result, though he was slightly younger than the true heir. King Bohran was mostly shunned for his parentage amongst the tribes and would have been left out for the exposure for not the mysteriousness of his mother and her overprotectiveness.

King Bohran eventually showed signs of power though as he talked to birds, plants, and trees while possessing a strange charisma that many marked him as touched. King Bohran was eventually driven out of his tribe who decided to ere on the side of caution and treat him as a madman. In the end, Bohran wandered down to Nemedia where the barbarian raised man passed himself off as a mongrel of that Realm and swiftly found service in the King's mercenaries.

Bohran soon mastered the ways of civilization by becoming a slave trader and butcher in addition to utilizing his pure Cimmerian brutality to suceed as a warrior. Bohran eventually rose to become the Master of Slaves for the previous King of Nemedia. If anyone commented on the fact that he still talked to birds and ghosts when few were around then they were wise enough to hide it. King Bohran eventually came to believe he was destined for greater things and with the aid of one of the slave girls he sold to a high ranking noble, uncovered a conspiracy against the King. At least, that's what he claimed and the man confessed under torture.

Bohran the Mongrel was given a promotion to the gentry and made the Lord of the Border Kingdom (or more precisely, the outpost in said realm the Nemedians controlled). Bohran quickly replaced the few people there with his own people, captured women from the surrounding villages as wives for his mercenaries, and settled them to begin building his own kingdom. Bohran would return to his village at the head of a host and confront the chief with his dreams of a great Cimmerian Realm.

The Chief scoffed before Bohran killed him with a single blow to the skull and won the allegiance of his former tribe (others suggested that his hefty gifts of fine weapons, food in a particularly harsh winter, and the fact they interpreted his survival all these years as a sign from the Morrigan were more to do it). To be honest, the Borderlands he lead them too seemed like a paradise to grim and horrible Cimmeria. Bohran then employed the Cimmerians to intimidate and destroy across the Borderlands as he was mostly ignored by the new King of Nemedia in his absence. Indeed, no one noticed when Bohran started calling himself King in his own land than Governor.

King Bohran privately contacted his brother then and has started sharing his plans. A Raven came to his window that he's adopted and now fully believes speaks to him the wisdom of the Morrigan.

 

[Doc Martin]

Willowhugger, Bohran sounds like a great character and his ambitions certainly sound like a good catalyst for adventure. Just a thought - make sure the players are able to find out what is going on and what Bohran is like - I constantly find myself as a referee thinking up interesting plots and characters but sometimes neglect to work out ways to pass on this information to the players; it is a shame to do a lot of creative work that only you know about. I expect you know this already but I also have to check that I am not setting up sweeping events that the players have little or no influence over - I find it takes an effort to avoid just telling a story rather than set up the situation in which you and the players participate together in telling one (YMMV of course).
On the subject of the supernatural (or lack of it) I would recommend taking another point from 'Bran mak Morn'. In the story 'Worms of the Earth' the lead character makes use of supernatural allies to defeat a powerful enemy - these allies turn out to be so loathsome and vile that the 'hero' feels a degree of disgust about using them. It could be interesting to set up the players in a situation where they might be tempted to make use of assistance that they would later regret.

 

[Willowhugger]

I always have the idea how to acquaint the players with some of Bohran's more unpleasant qualities, one of them is a former slave that the Slavemaster was once in charge of.

But yes, good idea on that.

 

[Aholibamah]

A variation on a wizard: forgotten race. This is a strong theme in Howard; the ancient eras and forgotten races, even human races whose strain has vanished. I wouldn't make Bohran one of the spindly weird decadent ones though, but rather hint at the races of giant-men that existed through him.

I really like what you're building up here, and I may want to make use of it in some way but I'll give it further thought. Suffice it to say though that he might be attracting ne'er do wells, black sheep and others who might be of great benefit to him, especially from Nemedia which can be rather socially cruel, and might want to thumb their noses at that proud kingdom.