Dolmenwood Factions #09: House Nodlock

12 Aug, 2024

House Nodlock, once a proud and respected noble house, is now ruled by an incompetent coward under the control of another lord, facing war with its neighbor.

Goals

Like other minor noble houses, you can skip House Nodlock as a faction and use them as regular NPCs if you prefer to reduce the faction count. But if you’re intrigued, here’s what you can do with them.

Lord Nodlock's lack of ambition makes it challenging to expand this house into a full faction¹. The primary concerns for House Nodlock are the looming threat from House Murkin² and their groveling relationship with House Ramius³. However, there are more intriguing details if you look closely.

The domain is managed by sycophants and advisors who need to navigate around the whims of Lord Nodlock⁴. This dynamic underscores his carelessness and ineptitude, making him the epitome of a useless leader. He has even thrown advisors into his zombie-infested moat⁵.

To reflect his incompetence and the efforts of his advisors, I made slight adjustments to the rules for this faction, which I’ll explain later.

Another interesting detail is the lack of an heir⁶, which the advisors likely want to address or exploit—either by finding someone capable of making decisions or by elevating someone they can manipulate to the status of a lord. This makes it a goal ironically kept secret from its "leader."

• 🐵 Stay in Lord Ramius' favor: Grovelling and demeaning behavior is a small price to pay.
  • Perform services and heed calls.
  • Offer a special tribute.
  • Publicly back all of House Ramius' political efforts.

• 🙈 Protect or eliminate the looming threat of House Murkin: Preferably without direct conflict.
  • Sabotage House Murkin's increasing military efforts.
  • Increase defenses of Nodding Castle.
  • Find a way to neutralize Lord Murkin.

• 🙊 Find a suitable heir: Someone capable of restoring glory or useful to the advisors' interests.
  • Locate one of Lord Nodlock's illegitimate children who could fit the bill.
  • Broker marriage proposals.
  • Convince Lord Nodlock to go along with the plan.

Resources

House Nodlock is small, and its leader is ineffective, yet it possesses something few other noble houses have—a standing army, albeit poorly trained⁴. Lord Ramius sees an opportunity to exploit this without committing his own resources.

• A poorly trained standing army: Sometimes, sheer numbers are enough.
  • Patrol the area to reduce the chance of surprises.
  • Defend strategic and key positions.
  • Enforce Lord Nodlock's will in the region.

• Nodding Castle⁷: Decaying but defensible.
  • Host hedonistic gatherings.
  • Hide and wait out dangers within its walls.
  • Discourage attacks with its imposing image.

• Lord Ramius' Protection: Though the extent is unclear.
  • Intimidate minor threats by invoking this protection.
  • Rely on possible support in worst-case scenarios.
  • Brag about the alliance to boost morale.

Actions

House Nodlock operates with a slightly modified procedure. If a task or mission fails to progress, there’s a 1-in-6 chance that Lord Nodlock will fly into a rage and kill the responsible party (if present; otherwise, he might throw someone else into the moat). This chance increases by 1 with each failed attempt. If this happens, the agent is killed, the mission is abandoned, and a new agent and mission are selected. The tracker will reset upon successful progress on a mission.

To prevent complete disruption, assume each goal has multiple interested parties—it would take the deaths of several agents before a goal becomes void.

A key distinction: Lord Nodlock is a lackey who wouldn’t dare harm agents openly working for Lord Ramius. Instead, there's a 50% chance he kills another agent instead.

Decide beforehand how many advisors exist, or play it by ear. When adding a new one becomes unrealistic, it’s time to cancel the goal.

This system reflects Lord Nodlock's poor leadership and how his personality actively undermines the faction, seriously impeding their progress while staying true to the narrative.

• 📔 Increase defenses of Nodding Castle:
  • 🕵️ Gilda Mournwood
  • 📝 Set up multiple warning perimeters.
  • 📝 Widen the moat.
  • 📝 Capture more bog corpses for it.

• 📔 Seek potential usurpers for House Murkin:
  • 🕵️ Master Blannick Drangle
  • 📝 Investigate the bandits following Red Gwen.
  • 📝 Capture one and interrogate them.
  • 📝 Raid the bandit camp to capture Red Gwen alive.

• 📔 Investigate Lord Nodlock's illegitimate children:
  • 🕵️ Rorwin Lank
  • 📝 Search for those of suitable age.
  • 📝 Monitor them and narrow down to one acceptable candidate.
  • 📝 Start grooming them by sending them to Lord Ramius.

Further Thoughts

Direct action against House Murkin is driven by Lord Ramius, who avoids using his own resources unless absolutely necessary. Lord Nodlock would not act on his own otherwise. The plan is to capture Red Gwen and use her as a puppet to replace Lord Murkin⁸. However, the outcome should be left to chance—assuming they manage to capture her at all. Even if they do, Red Gwen may resist, requiring further persuasion. Once installed, she would likely serve as a figurehead while Lord Ramius' loyalists control the domain.

Another approach is to negotiate with Lady Borrid to see if she is interested in taking over⁹. This could quell the threat of war with House Murkin but wouldn’t grant Lord Ramius direct control, making it a less favorable yet viable option.

The older advisors, who remember when House Nodlock was respected, are driven to restore its former glory. They lead the secret plot to find an heir. Since this is unknown to the lord, he might still kill an advisor if they fail to make progress, unknowingly lashing out in anger. A preferred solution is a proper marriage, but suitable candidates are few—Lady Nannigrew Ramius¹⁰ might be an option, though House Ramius would need to be desperate. Others not of noble birth, like Red Gwen or Jacinth, daughter of Bagsley Corundum¹¹, could also be considered, but all would require significant persuasion, especially convincing Lord Nodlock himself.

Potential Alliances

House Nodlock is firmly under the thumb of House Ramius, meaning they have some sort of alliance, but with no leverage, Nodlock merely follows orders. Forming any other alliances is highly unlikely as long as Harald Nodlock remains in charge and hasn't secured a noble marriage—assuming a suitable match can even be found.

Beyond this, Lord Nodlock is generally disliked, with most finding his behavior repellent and unfit for leadership—even among those who also indulge in excess, like Baron Hogwarsh.

Example

Things aren’t looking good for House Nodlock in my campaign. They were already facing poor odds, and they’ve now failed three times to advance their defenses, which has also delayed progress on their other missions. Fortunately for them, Lord Nodlock has not yet decided to throw Gilda Mournwood into the moat, despite the increasing likelihood. If they fail to make progress again, there will be a 4-in-6 chance of the mission meeting an early conclusion. Hopefully, they can make it happen or shift focus to another mission.

Conclusion

House Nodlock required some creative adjustments to function as a faction, but I’m excited to explore the apathy and carelessness of Lord Nodlock and see how this plays out in my game.

Despite their challenges, it’s not impossible for them to turn things around. Imagine House Nodlock becoming a flourishing faction, breaking free from Ramius’ control—a cool and unexpected shift in the dynamics of the High Wold.

With all the Human Nobility now fleshed out, next time, we'll change pace and take a look at the Hag.

References

#dolmenwood #faction turns #legwork