So finally I circle back to what I started back in September 2024 with a small area that was Orm’s centered on #41 Ruins of Azen Kairn and built out a series of Vassals that serve him. In this article I’m going to pull all of that together and see what I’m looking at for a threat staring down at the Borderlands. Using the ACKS style of organic design means that you don’t always end up where you thought you would.
I’m going to start with taking a look at all of Orm’s Vassals and what they’re paying in Tribute up to him. Make sure that my math was close to right when I originally guessed.
Nindukugga, favorite daughter of Orm kicks up 6,500gp/month. That was larger than I originally thought. Her Domain ended up being larger than I thought and much more of a percentage of the threat that Orm’s Realm represents.
Embarra, Fire Giantess pays 3,900gp/month in tribute. This entire domain was bolted in because of the mistake I made with #33 Dragon’s Tor and assuming that it was a full domain. This one ended up being quite fun to write up and ponder on.
Turtak, Ogre Warlord with his starter domain pays 400gp/month. That was an interesting one. A small mixed species starter domain. That’s going to be a fun one to go back and build out into a useable point of interest.
Azen Radokh, the reluctant Dwarven Vassals pay 3,285gp/month. Ah, those poor salt mining Dwarves. The face of Orm’s Realm to the rest of the Borderlands.
So that’s a total of 14,085gp/month. Well, not bad at all. I guessed in the 10K to 20K range and I hit pretty much the middle. The hope was that Orm’s Realm would take in about as much Tribute as Prefect Basilio in Cyfaraun. A check of the Capital on the Borderlands book shows that after paying his own Tribute up the line the Prefect is left with 11,025gp/month. But Orm isn’t paying anyone so there that.
Now since I originally wrote the Orm article I’ve changed my opinion on Personal Authority with Monstrous Rulers. I put Orm at 1/2 of his HD for PA and I’m changing that to reflect the changes I made to Nindukugga’s domain. It’ll be 3/4 of Orm’s HD for his PA so 15HD. The chart on page 348 of ACKS II Revised Rulebook tops out at 14 but its not hard to extrapolate what 15HD looks like. Best guess I think that Orm is going to come in at a TMI (Total Monthly Income) of about 22-25KGP.
Now before I can finish up the realm and see what I’ve got I should take a moment to finalize what I think Orm’s personal statline is since that can apply to how he runs his Realm. This ought to be ugly.
Orm, Red Dragon (Winged Drake): Str 17, Int 17, Wis 15, Cha 17; MV 90’/240’, AC 13, HD 20*******, hp 141, #AT 3 (2 claws 3d4+5 -14+, 1 bite 5d8+7 -16+) or 1 (breath), Save F20, ML +7, AL C, Size C, XP 15,400; SA +2, LA 6, ML +2; Special: Breath Weapon (recharging cone), Clutching Claws, Consume Souls, Counterspelling, Draconic Persuasion, Knowledge: Political Economy, Loremastery, Poisonous Blood, Speech, Spellcasting, Transform, Unflappable Casting, Wholeness of Being; Spells: 5 1st, 5 2nd, 5 3rd, 5 4th, 4 5th; Repertoire: 1st - Chameleon, Counterspell, Discern Gist, Discern Magic, Slumber; 2nd - Dark Whisper, Discern Invisible, Energy Protection, Illusory Duplicates, Physical Protection; 3rd - Deflect Ordinary Missiles, Dispel Magic, Force of Impetus, Invisibility, Spellward; 4th - Arcane Shift, Energy Invulnerability, Physical Invulnerability, Sphere of Invulnerability, Lesser, Telepathy; 5th - Blast Ward, Deflect Ordinary Weapons, Teleportation, Wall of Stone
That’s based on the standard 20HD Dragon, some increased stats, a Special Ability spent on proficiencies and a pair of class powers. Since this is Orm I don’t mind the odd hateful combo. He didn’t get to his position with diplomacy. I also avoided loading him up with ‘battlefield’ proficiencies. I don’t see him in the General role, he’s got people to do that for him. He’s the Supreme Leader for better or worse.
Now I’m not going to go into full horde details because as I mentioned in the first article that Dragon is sitting on a monster horde. Very likely the biggest stash in the Borderlands region. That will be a later article where I look at what Orm’s plans are for the Borderland region. This build is purely to see what might effect the domain building.
Oh in Terrain of the Borderlands III I noted that Orm has a Copper-Cobalt-Iron Deposit in his Personal Domain. He’s got Dwarven slaves to work it and that’s money that generates misery for the Dwarves and that’s a win for him. But running a mine like that draws attention with all the inputs and outputs. I’m going to say that Orm has it shut down and likely won’t fire it up until his final push into the Borderlands. It’s a good source of material but I doubt that the Dragon lacks for trade when he wishes it. He’s got the Dwarves in Azen Radokh for that.
Orm’s income after his expenses works out to 20,810gp/month … pretty decent. At 15HD that gives him a PA of +4 and with that I can fill out the rest of the sheet and see what I’m looking at … well that PA of +4 doesn’t last long when there’s not a lot of other bonuses to tap except the Additional Troops bonus but that’s not carried across his entire realm so that doesn’t apply. He would get the +1 for Realm Adminstration though. It would have been a Base Moral Score of +3 but I put the tax rate up cause … well … Dragon so its a BMS of +2 which isn’t too bad at all.
I don’t have enough detail on what #41 Azen Kairn looks like currently but I’m going to assume that it more than serves as a Stronghold. Hell, it was a Dwarven Capital so even in ruin it would be enough.
In his Personal Domain he’s maintaining a Garrison of 24,300gp per month of troops. I’ve been pondering what they might be. I’ve settled on the classic banana republic dictator’s ‘household’ troops. Orm has a collection, with the exception of Nindukugga, of strong willed monsters for rulers. It would get tiring if he had to fly out and breathe fire on everyone that questioned his orders. Plus he’s got a domain that is Civilized at its core and ringed with Borderland hexes. That requires some control and troops to enforce that control.
I’m assuming that Nindukugga got her love of Ogre Troops from her father. I’m also looking at this in that Orm is not a military genius, he actually has very little battlefield military skill so the troops that he wants are likely not the best troops for him to have. He’s smart but that sometimes just makes you think that you can’t be wrong. So that means something impressive looking but not militarily the best choice.
Let’s go with some big impressive looking troops. Ogres. Namely Heavy Infantry Ogres. These would be the troops to keep order in his domain and look impressive. A company of 60 Heavy Infantry Ogres would be 12,600gp so that’s a good start to the Orm Palace Guard. A second unit of Light Infantry Ogres for 8,100gp. Gives the Light Infantry somewhere to rise to and the Heavy Infantry someone else to look down on. As for the remaining 3,600gp … hmmm … Orm really likes to twist the knife and remind his Dwarven Vassals just who they work for so I’m going to say that he’s spending part of that Garrison money on that. A unit of 120 Dwarven Heavy Infantry A would cost 3,240gp and that would amuse Orm to no end, to make the Dwarves fight for his cause. Plus a traitor unit like that creates interesting divisions.
The next article in this series will be a summation of the military power that Orm can project and a look at his goals and what his reach is in the Borderlands region.
This has some great food for thought. Also, what did you use to make the maps?
Really good stuff here!