Degrenoc Iron-Fang, Vassal of Nindukugga

Hobgoblin Warlord

Continuing on from the last article I’ve got enough hexes on this map to fit 2 of Nindukugga’s vassals and the other 2 will be in the rear with the gear.

For a quick recap just so the numbers are fresh she’s going to have two Vassals on the map with 65 hexes between them.

Let’s make the Hobgoblin vassal ‘on map’ because that’s an interesting Vassal and one of the Ogres because she loves them so and I have three of them to work with. I’d like to put that Hobgoblin in the eastern section to make him closer to civilization, because threats to the Borderlands, and the Ogre to the west and north. Closer to civilization will make him more likely to be interacted with by the players. It means that this Hobgoblin Vassal is likely to be the ‘face’ of the threat to the southern stretch of Turos’s.

We know from the previous post on this subject that Nindukugga’s Vassals are going to come in at 7HD-8HD each. A standard Hobgoblin Chieftain comes in at 5HD so the idea of this one being an adventurer or raider that clawed his way to 7-8HD is a flavorful one.

I’m liking this Hobgoblin so much that I’m going to fill this entire eastern area with his domain. That’s 39 hexes in total. I’m going to stick with the standard and give the Hobgoblin a Personal Domain of 6 hexes and the other 33 will be spread out among his 4 Chieftains and their sub chieftains.

With the population at 20 families per square mile that we previously set this Hobgoblin ruler will have about 125, 128.2 to be exact, families per 6 mile hex in his Realm. His Personal Domain will have 750 families and he’ll need a Stronghold value of at least 192,000GP for his Personal Domain because of Outlands requirements.

I like this guy. He’s working for a Dragon who loves Ogres and he’s managed to cut his way into a position of power. So he’s no dummy. I’m going to give him a fort at the base of civilization, right down where the river heads into the ‘civilized’ lands. It’ll likely be a rebuild ruin of a Dwarven outpost that was originally used to secure the river entrance to the Redoubt’s territory. Somewhere he can sally forth against #42 Turos Telle (West-Castle) and raid the lands beyond. I’ll make part of his Stronghold the main fortress and part of it into a special project … that salt mine I detailed back in Borderlands Terrain III

I had originally thought that it might be developed by the Humans but as I’ve plotted out this region it’s firmly in this Hobgoblin’s territory. It goes to show that this style of regional design pays off in the details that develop from the procedures.

Salt Deposit - Maximum of 500 mining families, unlimited reserve

That salt deposit in his eastern most hex will make trade income for him and it also gives him another reason to be raiding the civilized lands. Salt miners had an even shorter life expectancy than regular miners which was already dangerous work. Why use your own people when you can raid the farmlands to the north for slaves? It would make sense that he wants to secure that little money maker.

The rest of the 33 hexes will get spread out among his 4 Chieftains and their underlings.

Each one of the Chieftains will have eight hexes of Orange-Outlands for their Personal Domain, there’s a further breakdown of four sub-chieftains for each Chieftain but that level of granularity would be reserved for a 1.5 mile hex map of the area. Not what we need here. Three Chieftains at eight hexes and one at nine hexes to be exact.

Eight hexes of Outlands is going to require a Stronghold of 256,000GP. The Chieftain will take 3 hexes for their Personal Domain and leave five hexes for the Sub-Chieftains. That will mean the Chieftain will need a Stronghold of 96,000GP and the remaining 160,000GP will be split between them to about 40,000GP each.

Nine hexes of Outlands is going to require a Stronghold of 288,000GP. The Chieftain will take 3 hexes for their Personal Domain and leave six hexes for the Sub-Chieftains. That will mean the Chieftain will need a Stronghold of 96,000GP and the remaining 192,000GP will be split between them to about 48,000GP each.

That’s a lot of Stronghold and while I see this Hobgoblin as smart enough to invest in defenses and structures that’s a lot of resources. I’m going to say that the Chieftains have put their Strongholds into existing ruined structures, perhaps from the Dwarves, and some natural caves. That would help by acting as defensive works that let them hold the regions without having walls and towers everywhere. Maybe one out of them would have a legitimate ‘fortress’ perhaps a former Frost Giant keep or something of the like. So I’m going to randomize where they are in each of their Personal Domains having needed to work with what was already there. A little mapping later and BOOM …

That shows each of the Chieftain’s Domain Realms and the Strongholds that are securing their Personal Domains. I’m also thinking that this Hobgoblin Ruler understands the value of logistics. It would be an asset to him and might be a good reason why he’s been able to survive against the Ogre Chieftains. So I’m going to plot him out some trails that they’ve laid down in the mountains from Stronghold to Stronghold. Crude, and not usable all year, but they’d help him move troops and supplies around his Realm. At the same time I’ll lay down the connections to Nindukugga Stronghold, #51 Redoubt.

Those routes aren’t the most efficient routes because I tried to follow the contours of the mountains and minimized the number of routes over the rivers which would either be the remains of Dwarven works or crude military style bridging.

I’ve got enough details worked out so I can put ideas to screen and work out the actual math, and stats, for this Hobgoblin’s Realm.

I smashed around trying to find a decent name for this Hobgoblin and his collection of tribes until I came across one of the 10,000 generators online and it gave me one I liked. Degrenoc Iron-Fang. Seemed like a good name for a Warlord so the collection of tribes that he’s rallied under him will be known as the Iron Fang tribe. The next step is work out his stat line and proficiencies. That’s going to help determine what kind of ruler he is. Advancing a Hobgoblin up in HD is pretty simple, they’re basically Fighters. I’ve decided he’s a former adventurer so he’ll have access to magical items as a 8th level Fighter which seems reasonable. His proficiencies I’ll change to more leadership and military oriented since that his focus now other than dungeon crawling. By reason of rising to the position he has I’m also going to give him some exceptional stats, an ordinary Hob wouldn’t be in the position that he is.

Degrenoc Iron-Fang, Hobgoblin Warlord: Str 17, Con 16, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 16; MV 20’/60’, AC 9, HD 8, hp 75, #AT 1 (Sword -3+, 1d6+9), Save F8, ML +4, AL C, XP 1,600; SA+3, LA+7, ML +5; Battlefield Prowess, Adventuring, Combat Reflexes, Command, Leadership, Manual at Arms, Military Strategy II, Fighting Style (Shield); Potion of Cure Moderate Injury, Potion of Growth, Gauntlets of Ogre Strength, Sword +2, Plate mail and Shield +1.

He’s a nasty Hobgoblin. As a battlefield commander he’s very skilled, equal to some of the Legates that he’s likely to face, and he’s no slouch in personal combat either which would help secure his position against challengers and those damned adventurers.

With all of the above information I can put together a domain sheet for the Iron Fang Domain.

As I mentioned above I spend his Stronghold into two separate forts. One to act as his main holding and the other to secure that salt mine of his. The mine is the one on the bottom.

As expected the majority of his income is from Chieftain Tribute, every kicks up to the boss, taxation on the Hobgoblin settlers with the salt mine being a nice little bump up. His expenses were pretty predicable as well. The Garrison that he needs to hold his Realm Domain and the Tribute that he has to kick up to Nindukugga. His Base Morale Score is sitting at +1 which is pretty good for the Outlands plus he has plenty of reserve gold in case he needs to bump that up to counteract negative events during a Domain Month. Degrenoc has got himself a prosperous little realm here. He’s pulling in a profit every month which can go to any number of projects. Plus he’s only getting that Salt Mine running with 100 gangs of slaves. That mine can support another 400 gangs without stress. That would be a big bump in profits, enough to get morale up easily. He’s got flexibility.

Next I’ll take a look at what kind of military power he can muster for Domains At War rules. There will be a future series of articles on the military situation in the Borderlands once I’m done detailing all the opposition forces. But let’s look at the math so we can compare him to the Turos’s in the area.

He’s got a Personal Domain Garrison of 3,100GP. Those are likely to be his elite troops, maybe even veterans. Between his other four Chieftains they have a Garrison total of 22,050GP so a total of 25,150GP for the entire Realm Domain of the Iron Fangs. Under the rules then he could field 15,625GP worth of military with Call to Arms order to his Chieftains.

Degronoc can easily field a full unit of 120 troops, a Company in ACKS, while each of his vassals can field two full units of troops. So a Call to Arms would get him five full Companies into battle. Roughly 600 troops. This is averaging the cost of Hobgoblin troops from the different units.

By comparison, we’ll use Turos Tem since that’s stated to be a rough model for most of the other Turos, the Realm Domain of Turos Tem has a Personal Garrison of 3,022GP and a Realm Garrison of 15,422GP. A Call to Arms order to his Tribunes would get him roughly 7,198GP worth of troops. Averaging that against the cost of Human troops is about 300 men.

Without getting into the quality of the troops a 2-1 advantage ain’t good for the forces of civilization.

Next article I’m going to detail the Ogre realm that will be on the map and I’ll use that to extrapolate the other two Ogre realms and then we can have a good look at Nindukugga’s Realm in total.