Lord of the Gallows - A Prison Colony Builder

The empire was falling apart, a thousand enemies from within and without chipping away at it, and you were damned to watch it all, unable to do a single thing. It had been two seasons since the day when you had been relieved from duty, one of which was spent on the road and the other at court while the emperor was 'deliberating' about the fate of his disgraced general. Of course, as someone with such a high rank in the Imperial Legions, you were a guest of honour. At least officially. In practice the time in the palace had been nothing but a gentle house arrest while the nobles and courtiers schemed and plotted.

Your father had warned you, all those years ago before his last, ill-fated campaign. Not in so many words and thus it was lost on the fresh recruit that still dreamed of honour in battle, yet he already spoke to you of the meddling of courtiers who cared little for the realm and greatly for their own benefit. Back then, those words were easy to ignore for someone no longer a boy and not truly yet a man. You were so eager to join the Legions and it was so easy to think that courtly politics would never have to be a concern in this. And in the long nights spent staring at the ceiling of lavish room turned prison, sleep a distant hope and alone with meandering thoughts, you began to wonder if that had been where things had begun to go wrong.

As a mere soldier, politics truly did not concern you and while raising through the lower ranks, all one needed to know was how to lead a squad, then a troop, then a cohort. The talk between the other officers had never been all that important. When a few of them were the trading of small favours and recommendations, you always stood apart from it, seeing it as inconsequential and rare. Perhaps there was even more that you just never witnessed. The idea of bribery among the ranks of the Legion seemed farfetched in those times. After all, a rank was gained by serving faithfully and with distinction. Each promotion earned was a reinforcement of these convictions and deepened your trust in the empire, while the willful blindness to what happened around you turned into a well-practiced habit.

When you became a general though, it became harder to ignore. Leading a Legion meant the occasional appearance at the imperial court, and with nobles, governors and traders ever present, it was impossible to not notice their dealings with each other. Yet even then, it seemed that you could keep it all at arm's length if you wanted. For a while, it even worked. Victory followed in your wake, one campaign after another, and the love of both the soldiers and the people came with it. That of some more readily accepted than that of others. Quite a few courtiers wanted to bask in that glory radiating off the great general and sought you out, offering friendship, favours and even the hands of their daughters. They were always pleasant and polite, even when you refused them all one by one, offer by offer. It would not have been proper to accept after all.

But as the years went on the time of easy victories had passed. Your father's death and defeat was an aberration for its time and the shame it brought immense. Now though, defeat was a common spectre looming over every deployment of the imperial Legions. On all borders, the enemies pushed, seeking to conquer the vast and rich lands of the empire or sometimes just to plunder what they could. Raiders roamed the countryside, not only of the border provinces, but sometimes even far deeper in the realm. At court, nobody dared to speak of it, but they all knew. They all whispered about it behind closed doors, where only friendly ears would hear their fears. The empire was slowly weakening and for the first time in centuries, it seemed possible that it could truly be defeated.

You were not so arrogant to believe that all your successes at come from skill alone. Other generals, more experienced, with greater Legions and lesser foes, had failed after all. The gods had subtly shown their favour for all these years, but inevitably, the luck they granted ran out some day. How many people had you rebuffed over the years? How many bribes declined, marriages rejected, and favours turned down? In the end, the schemers and plotters remembered for you and now that they could gain something from tearing you down, they gladly did so. The campaign that apparently would be the last you will have ever led had been…

[] [PAST] … in the northern colonies.
The foul art of necromancy had often caused troubles for the empire, but that usually meant petty banditry or the occasional outbreak of disease. But what had been gathering in the northern provinces the past years was something else. Entire villages wiped out by plague, rising again days after of their own accord and gathering in strange processions marching through the mountains. You have seen dreadful things there and a few times your orders must have seemed heartless, but you did what was necessary. No one in the capital understood. How could they understand? They had not born witness to the darkness gathering in the north and what it took to prevent it from spreading.

[] [PAST] … on the southern coasts.
Ever since the orcs had taken over the southern city states and their fleets, they have raided the empires coasts. First only hesitantly, but in the past years, they grew ever bolder, even beginning to sail into rivers or to raid further inland. When sent out by the emperor to avenge the defeat of a Legion, you quickly learned that the empires usual tactics would do little against the raiders, who favoured to strike from ambush with, magic, alchemy and sheer, brute strength. Defeating them took all your skill and far more lives than anyone would have liked, both of the Legions soldiers and of the people who could not be evacuate in time. In the end, you threw them back into the sea time and time again, but in the capital, all they saw was refugees, casualty reports and no glorious battles or great victories to show for it.

[] [PAST] … in the eastern marches.
After the failure of the last eastern campaign, two centuries had passed and no one had dared to try again, fearing a repeat of that historic defeat. Instead, the sparsely settled forests were left to the clans the fey of the woods, so that they would serve as a buffer against the nomads of the eastern steppes to blunt their advances before they even reached the great walls erected by emperor Theodad II. Keeping them manned and supplied became harder and hard though and with every year that you had been stationed there, the clans end elves seemed to become bolder in their raids. You had done your best and largely kept the peace, but with a border that large, it was inevitable for some to slip through and that was all it took.

Having the new general of the posting be the one to hand over your recall orders was a shock, as such things were just not done to anyone in good standing with the throne. Back then, it was impossible to comprehend how this could have happened, let alone why the second letter was an urgent summons to the emperor himself. Now though, now you knew all too well after all the time in isolation spent on pondering it. All that was left to do was to wait for the day when your fate would be decided.

---

As the great doors of black lacquered wood and finely worked gold were drawn open, a warm wind washed over you, carrying the smell of burning cedar and oak. The chainmail clinked under the breastplate as your marched forward over marble that had been worn smooth to a mirrors shine under the thread of countless men that came before you. At the door, the Majordomo clicked his heels together and called into the throne room. "We present to your Majesty, General Lothar Vanrich." When he was done, the heavy door shut again with a dull thud not unlike a coffin.

The path was familiar, even though it had been years since you walked it, yet it still felt changed. Had there been quite so many braziers the last time? The heat in the room was oppressive and a thin film of soot seemed to cling to everything, making the banners and tapestries look dirty and faded. Even the two men waiting near the throne, one bearing a marshals rod and the other the coronet of a duke, seemed quite uncomfortable, dark spots on their silken robes betraying treacherous drops of sweat dripping from their brows now and then. They tried to bear their discomfort stoically, but to you, their pinched faces looked only vaguely constipated. It likely did not help them that they wished to be as close to the throne as protocol allowed them to be.

The places of honour right be the emperor's sides were taken by two more braziers, wrought in gold and large enough to hold an entire bonfire each. The venerable ruler seemed not to mind though, his own face in the same serene mask you remember from the last audience that you had been granted. The face itself had changed though, looking older and thinner, almost gaunt. Arnald the Third, who had been called 'the Mighty' in his youth and earned the epitaph 'the Wise' as his reign lasted through the decades, looked almost feeble under his crown, no matter how proudly he still bore it.

Briefly you considered to merely bow as it would be customary for a general, but you were not an honoured guest on this day, and so you kneel before the emperor as his meanest servant would. The greaves of the borrowed armour cut into your calves as your knee hits the marble, though you show not a single sign of discomfort. "I come before you as ordered, your majesty. My blade and my life are yours to command." With those words you lower your head in supplication, staring with empty eyes on the white tiles and waiting for the coming verdict. Never before did you notice how much the gesture resembled a man waiting for the executioner's blade.

"There is no need to be quite so formal, General Vanrich," the voice of the emperor came immediately, and he almost sounded amused. "Rise," came the order and so you did, while your eyes darted between him and the two other men in confusion. And yes, indeed, the emperor was smiling. "Your service has always been beyond reproach and it is good to see you arrive in the capital so fast. The empire is in need of your skills for an urgent matter."

Before you could say a word, the man with the marshal's baton cut in, quite a bit faster than it was strictly polite. "You are certainly aware of the situation our great realm is in, general," he spoke in a clipped tone, his eyes wandering towards the throne a few times as if expecting rebuke. "The enemies of the empire are taxing the Legions and his majesty has ordered a great recruitment drive to raise at least three more Legions to secure the borders. However, with the losses taken and the raiders growing ever bolder, the supply of adamantine is dwindling, so we need to establish new mines."

When he paused, your attention briefly wandered to the duke again, looking for a family crest or anything else that gave his identity away. Was asking for his name a sign of weakness? You did not even know the name of the marshal, but since he outranked you that was not really all that important to know how to act around him, but the noble was a different matter. Maybe the man was here because he hoped to get a title for a second son out of this? It was as good a guess as any other. "Given my presence, I take it then that the area you have in mind is not under imperial control yet," you finally replied before the silence became too awkward.

"Not quite," the duke drawled, smoothly taking over the discussion while eyeing you like a vulture would a meal. "During an unrelated search in the imperial archives, we found old plans to establish a new adamantine mine, though they had to be abandoned at the time. You know about the Korprey islands, I presume?" You tried to answer him, even though it was admittedly little that you knew about the sparsely settled and wild islands in the far west, but he spoke right on. "There was a promising deposit in the mountains near the small port city of Vollug, found two years before the plague swept through the islands."

"Those are wild lands," you quietly said. The first impression was right after all. No matter how much they tried to dress it up, the Korprey islands were as far from power as you could be without being exiled, and it took not a Legion to protect a mine, regardless of how wild the lands around it were. It was a demotion and an exile, and you apparently had no choice but to play along with this. The emperor serenely watched the proceedings, silently approving of it all. Yes. It was better to accept the inevitable. "It will be hard work to tame them, and it will be difficult to find settlers willing to brave such harsh work and lands." The words felt like a surrender as they came out of your mouth.

With a smile devoid of all warmth, the duke drew a rolled-up parchment from his belt and held it out. "That will not be a problem," he said as you took it from him. "It will be a prison colony. Good peasants are in short supply, but the empire has always far too many thieves and cutthroats. It is the lack of hard labour that leads to such deeds and after a few months in the mines, they will be grateful for the chance the empire is giving them." It was hard to not move a single muscle at these words. Your back was already itching right by your kidneys, where the people he spoke about would show their appreciation for being clasped in iron and forced to work in a mine if they got the chance.

The parchment just put into script what had already been said. A prison colony near Vollug and it would be under your commands. The emperor had already signed it. "You will be provided with the materials necessary to establish a camp, and enough Legion Auxiliaries to serve as guards," the marshal explained while you still stared at the parchment. Fitting. You would get the people considered too inept or untrustworthy to become Legionnaires. "Beside that," he spoke on, "we have secured further help to you from…"

[] [AID] … the Four Temples.
While the Four Temples were the greatest and more or less official faith of the empire, they had always kept imperial favour through being inoffensive and accommodating to other creeds. However, you could not even guess at what kind of people would be willing, or more likely forced, to help a prison colony at the farthest end of the realm. Maybe they saw it as their duty to provide aid for the inmates. Maybe the temples wanted to get rid of them. It was hard to guess and with everything you had heard today, you were hesitant to be hopeful.

[] [AID] … the Engineers Guild.
Having engineers of great skill was certainly a boon to this endeavour, yet the thought sat ill with you. The guild had a reputation among the Legions that was well earned. Arrogant and fickle were probably the kindest descriptors you had ever heard spoken about their members. Worse yet, they saw themselves as far more valuable than any other man or woman around them, an attitude which many gladly indulged to gain their services. If any of their members came to harm, the guild would blame you for it. Or settle the score themselves.

[] [AID] … the Folka.
Of course, the trade league would not be far from this. There was certainly a quite handsome payment for them to ship adamantine to the mainland and plenty of chances to profit some more on the side. If there was one thing you could be sure about the members of the Folka, then it was that they would do what their greed told them to, and they could be good partners as long as it was sated. However, they were also quick to turn on anyone if the price was right, and the few traders of Vollug would certainly not like their presence.

In the end, all you could do was nod and accept what you could not change. Prisoners condemned to work. Guards recruited from the leftovers of the Legion. Allies who were about as likely to cause problems as they were to solve any. Could it be worse? Certainly. You might have them dig trough the mountains for a year or two and not find any adamantine there. That gloomy thought lingered far longer than it had any right to. "Certainly, this is not a typical assignment for a general, but we fully trust you to see this task done," came the calm voice of the emperor, and the burden felt a tiny bit lighter again. It brought back the old memory of why you had decided to serve this man as a small boy. "See this task completed, and when you step before us again, we will grant you the title that was once promised to your father."

From the corner of your eye, you saw as the duke pinched his face just a little bit tighter. "It should be well within the generals's capabilities. All that needs to be done is to instil some discipline into the dregs sent to him. Hardly a task worthy of such great rewards," he said with a sound of annoyance, though the emperor seemed to not even listen to his words. There was this nagging feeling that you should have known and recognized the duke, but if that was because of a previous encounter you had forgotten, or the gnawing guilt for having ignored the court for so long, you could not say. While you still thought, his face turned into a mocking sneer. "Then again, he would not be the first Vanrich to fail in such an ignoble fashion. So, I wish the best of luck to the future Lord of the Gallows."

And silently, you vowed to not forget his face again.

General Lothar Vanrich

Controlled Outposts

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Subordinates

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Diplomatic Ties

The Korprey islands were about as miserable a place as you had been led to believe from the scarce few reports on them that you had managed to find in the imperial archives before having to depart the capital. None the less, since you had spent a month on a ship in the middle of winter, the cold northern winds making the voyage hard and miserable even before one considered the unpleasant company, it was with great relief that you entered the harbour of Vollug. The burgomaster had made sure that the joy did not last, greeting you on the pier with a coldness that made the sleet seem welcoming in comparison.

Hagen Gudmann was about what you expected from the leader of petty merchants in a remote city. Squat and draped in fine fabrics, but yet a far cry from the gold and silk excesses of the capital. His face seemed not all that familiar with expressions that were not variants of a frown, but maybe he just did not appreciate your presence very much. That there would soon be a steady stream of convicts from all over the empire coming through his town probably saw to that. At least he was professional despite it being quite clear that he would have rather told your ship to sail back to the mainland, he had arranged everything for your arrival.

The city of Vollug used to be vastly more important than it was now, and one could still tell from how much space there was within the walls, leaving plenty of room for a few barns to be erected to house your people for the coming months. Once there even was a proper castle in the city, but it had been left to crumble after the plague had swept the islands and been torn down a century ago, the stone used to patch the walls and the merchants building their houses on the now empty foundations to lord over the common folk. There was still trade among the few small towns and villages stubbornly eking out a living in these wild lands, and Vollug was the axle on which it all turned.

Under any other circumstances, both burgomaster Gudmann and Vollug as a whole would likely have welcomed the attention from the capital. It meant more trade after all and bringing silver into their pockets could win over most people. Maybe they could be won over to this endeavour? He was hardly and archduke or steward of the empire, but having an ally here sounded prudent, given how you had ended up here. For now though, you had other things on your mind. The Legion Auxiliaries that had been assigned to you were, more on the layabout side of things instead of openly mutinous, which took a great burden from your mind. There were worse men to rely on.

The other group of your journey, master Becker of the Engineering Guild and the two dozen workers and apprentices that were his entourage, were more of a problem. It was not the haughty arrogance that you had expected, but instead the man was never seen far from a wineskin or a stein of beer, often becoming overly friendly and obnoxious when he had enough. You had dealt with worse, but many among the Auxiliaries already hated him after being stuck on a ship with him for weeks. A great sign for things to come when they would have to share a camp for the coming years. His assistants were quick to assure you that he did great work when sober, but you decided to reserve judgement until the day you actually saw him in that state.

And with every day that passed, unpleasant news trickled in. The peasants around the city had plenty to tell about thieving goblins, wolves and wargs hunting in the forests, and even trolls and wyverns being sighted near the mountains. Some of the things they described you hesitantly dismissed as tall tales, though the years in the east had painfully instilled the lesson that many tales were far truer than any man might have wished. Sending scouts to find a path onto the plateau mentioned in the old documents yielded equally bad tidings. The only way that the goat herders were aware of was a tiny path, barely wide enough to walk single file. The plan of this sham of an expedition called for building the encampment as soon as spring came to the islands, but now it seemed that you would struggle to even reach the area where the adamantine was supposed to be.

One year until the first prisoners would arrive. Two years until the emperor expected the first shipment of adamantine. Time had joined the ranks of your enemies.



What will you do in the spring of your first year?

[] Write-In Plan


Legion Auxiliaries (1 Action)
The Auxiliaries are not all that well trained, their equipment barely above the minimum standard and by and large they are a lazy bunch that you would not trust to hold a shield wall against some rioting peasants. But you would not let any of that deter you from getting the most out of their service.

-[] Scout the mountains. (Auxiliaries)
You need to know more about the mountains of this island, especially how much of the peasantry's stories of monsters and evil spirits are true. Maybe you can even find a better path to the plateau.
Benefit: Gain more knowledge about your surroundings. Potentially discovers additional paths into the mountains.

-[] Hunt monsters.
The people of Vollug are suspicious of your expedition and that is when they don't know why you are here. Those who know about the prison colony are outright hostile. Helping them with their goblin and wolf problems should help your reputation a great deal.
Benefit: Improves relations to the locals. Surroundings of Vollug become safer.

-[] Build a camp near the mountains. (Auxiliaries)
While the tiny path to the plateau makes it impossible to explore it properly, let alone build something there, you could instead set up a temporary camp in the forests. It would make it easier to build something in the mountains later and cut down on the friction with the people of Vollug once you are out of the city.
Benefit: Gain basic camp in the forests near the mountains.

-[] Training.
These soldiers have already gone through the basic training of the Legion and been found wanting, but you have made proper Legionnaires out far worse people than them.
Benefit: Auxiliary training improves.


Engineers (1 Action)
The group around master Becker might not be great in number, but every time your worked with the Engineers Guild, you have seen them achieve true wonders with little effort. If this bunch can live up to that reputation remains to be seen, though you doubt that Becker would have earned the rank of master if he was merely a drunkard.

-[] Build a camp near the mountains. (Engineers)
While the tiny path to the plateau makes it impossible to explore it properly, let alone build something there, you could instead set up a temporary camp in the forests. It would make it easier to build something in the mountains later and cut down on the friction with the people of Vollug once you are out of the city.
Benefit: Gain basic camp in the forests near the mountains.

-[] Improve the path to the mountain plateau.
Instead of scouting and hoping to find a better path, you could just let the engineers get to work on making the one you know about more useful. Widen it where possible, building scaffoldings and bridges where necessary, then it would be fine for your purposes.
Benefit: Improve path into the mountains.

-[] Make repairs in Vollug.
The people of Vollug are suspicious of your expedition and that is when they don't know why you are here. Those who know about the prison colony are outright hostile. However, if you order the engineers to make some repairs to the walls and roads of the city, the people and especially the merchants should become better inclined to your presence.
Benefit: Improves relations to the locals. Walls of Vollug repaired.

-[] Improve farmlands of Vollug.
While there is plenty of farmland around the city, it does not produce all that much more food than the city itself needs and you will need to import more from the mainland to keep your colony fed. Alternatively, you could order the engineers to work with the farmers to improve their fields. That would cut down on the food imports and the people would be grateful for the aid.
Benefit: Improves relations to the locals. Improves food production of Vollug.


General Lothar Vanrich (1 Action)
Organizing this whole expedition takes already much of your time, but there are always a few hours left to put some personal attention to something instead of letting your people do all the work.

-[] Scout the mountains. (Lothar)
Instead of letting the Auxiliaries do the scouting, you could lead an expedition yourself. It has been a while since you have been in the field, but you should still be able to defend yourself against a few wolves and goblins.
Benefit: Gain more knowledge about your surroundings. Potentially discovers additional paths into the mountains.

-[] Talk with the burgomaster.
His distaste of your presence is understandable and having burgomaster Gudmann as an ally, or at least indifferent to you, would be rather helpful in the future. Spend some time with him and see if you can win him over.
Benefit: Improves relations to the locals.

-[] Bean counting.
Your expeditions funding is about as good as everything else about it. That is, barely adequate for the absolute minimum. Put your attention towards keeping the books to keep the waste of funds at a minimum. Maybe you can even figure out a way to bolster the budget a bit.
Benefit: Bonus to random event rolls. Can unlock special actions.

-[] Scour the archives.
While hardly looking the part these days, Vollug once was the centre of the imperial administration since the first colonists arrived on the Korprey islands and the archives are still maintained. With this whole expedition resting on some centuries old prospecting reports, there might be more valuable information about this island's past somewhere in all the dusty parchments.
Benefit: ???