Dolmenwood Factions #01: The Nag-Lord

29 Jun, 2024

Ever since my post about Faction Turns, I've been eager to showcase how I implemented this concept in my Dolmenwood game. In this post, we'll delve into the Nag-Lord's goals, resources, and actions, providing a comprehensive view of how to integrate this menacing faction into your campaign. More factions will be covered in future posts.

Goals

The Nag-Lord's goals are straightforward but multifaceted, driving conflict and tension throughout Dolmenwood. Expansion is the most obvious goal, directly clashing with most other factions. Additionally, the Nag-Lord aims to undermine the Church's authority, leading to a loss of faith among the people.

• 🐵 Become Ruler of All Dolmenwood: The Nag-Lord's primary goal is to dominate Dolmenwood. This military objective threatens most other factions, driving the expansion and aggression of the Crookhorns across the land.
  • Destroy Prigwort and defeat House Harrowmoor.
  • Corrupt Breggles in the High Wold.
  • March on Castle Brackenwold.

• 🙈 Collect the Bones of Holy People: This goal positions the Nag-Lord against the Church, emphasizing its chaotic and sacrilegious nature.
  • Corrupt and defile more holy sites.
  • Neutralize the Bishop in a public and humiliating way.
  • Cause a crisis of faith among the people in Dolmenwood.

• 🙊 Marriage With Gheillough: This is a potentially game-changing goal. An alliance with Gheillough represents a dire threat, only revealed through significant investigation or unfolding events.
  • Find and court Gheillough in its dreaming state.
  • Spawn new children of chaotic nature and immense power.
  • Prepare to conquer Fairy and expand beyond Dolmenwood.

Resources

Usually, I favor only three resources per faction. Although I didn't include the last item in my game, I've added it here to show you can mix it up if you want to. I also included some prompts for when the particular resource might be used.

• Corrupted Minions: Creatures and beings transformed by the Nag-Lord's dark magic, serving as soldiers, enforcers, and advisors. This includes Crookhorns, Harpies, Ogres, Bestial Centaurs, Harridans, and Corrupt Unicorns¹.
  • Enforce the will of the Nag-Lord.
  • Defend territories.
  • Spread fear and chaos.

• Blighted Environments: Areas corrupted by the Nag-Lord's magic, serving as defenses and sources of power, with the Sargstone² being the most prominent.
  • Hinders intruders.
  • Boost the Nag-Lord's magical rituals.
  • Spread the factions corruption and influence across Dolmenwood.

• Loyal Cultists: Devout followers who worship the Nag-Lord and carry out its bidding with fanatical zeal³.
  • Infiltrate communities.
  • Conduct espionage and spread chaos.
  • Perform rituals to empower the Nag-Lord's influence.

• Chaotic Artifacts: Magical items imbued with chaotic energy, gifted to loyal servants⁴.
  • Empower followers in battle.
  • Assist in dark rituals.
  • Serve as symbols of favor.

Actions

Here are some ideas to get you started. Remember, these plans will adapt based on your campaign narrative and the players' actions. Flexibility is key, so feel free to adjust or abandon tasks as needed. Typically, three active missions at a time work well, but adjust to your preference.

• 📔 Sire a new Atacorn⁵ and send it to Fairy.
  • 🕵️ Mommy Thornclaw
  • 📝 Raise and corrupt the Atacorn properly.
  • 📝 Find and prepare a suitable passage to Fairy.
  • 📝 Deploy it to spread woe and discord.

• 📔 Kidnap a prominent Church Official.
  • 🕵️ Rowena Blackbriar
  • 📝 Identify a suitable target. The higher their rank, the better.
  • 📝 Gather intelligence on the target and trail their movements.
  • 📝 Execute the kidnap.

• 📔 Disrupt the northern trade routes⁶.
  • 🕵️ Gripe Nailer
  • 📝 Ambush merchants on Fort Road.
  • 📝 Actively blockade the trade route.
  • 📝 Transform the blockade into a permanent outpost with access to Lake Longmere.

• 📔 Campaign against Prigwort⁷.
  • 🕵️ Captain Gib Snarkscorn (DCB p46)
  • 📝 Deploy Crookhorns in Hag's Addle to surround Prigwort.
  • 📝 Cause discord among the citizens of Prigwort.
  • 📝 Release a plague.

Further Thoughts

Additional ideas could involve mustering more dark forces, dealing with the Drune and capturing the Tenkystone⁸, fortifying the Valley of Wise Beast by constructing a fortress overlooking the valley, isolating and destroying Fort Vulgar, or spreading terror and increasing influence in other settlements.

Potential Alliances

The Nag-Lord has a few potential allies:

• The Hag: The most likely candidate. In exchange for helping her escape her bondage⁹, she could offer the Crookhorns safe passage and a stronghold in Hag's Addle. Additionally, she might provide access to Fairy, aligning with her own goals to corrupt her sister's realm¹⁰.
• House Malbleat: If Lord Malbleat seeks to study the Crookhorns to use them against Lord Ramius, the Nag-Lord could seize the opportunity to corrupt him, ultimately turning him into a Crookhorn ally.

Example

During my Dolmenwood campaign, the Nag-Lord had a slow start, failing to make progress in the first two turns. However, it managed to turn things around. The Nag-Lord is very focused on advancing towards Prigwort, so it decided to cause discord among its citizens by planning to kidnap Reverend Mother Smunk. The blockade of Fort Road followed. The Crookhorns plan to fortify there to gain access to Lake Longmere and send forces to Hag's Addle. The Hag managed to treat with the Nag-Lord via the Atacorn Ignormwm¹¹ and will likely soon become allies.

The blockade occurred at a perfect time when the players had some downtime in Fort Vulgar. They experienced the consequences firsthand and decided to attack the encampment but only managed to take out a few Crookhorns. As a consequence, this got the attention of Captain Snarkscorn, who decided to check it out himself. The players trailed him on his way to the blockade and ambushed his retinue, actually managing to kill the Captain while most players died heroically during the effort.

This disrupted the Nag-Lord's plans significantly, and I decided they would skip the next Faction Turn to appoint a replacement. I will likely change a mission as well since the Crookhorns knew the attack came from Fort Vulgar, which they originally planned to ignore. Now they will deal with the Fort first before advancing their plans on Prigwort.

Conclusion

The Nag-Lord may seem like a typical villain faction, but there is much more to it. The Nag-Lord itself is a truly interesting being whose whims and cruelty can rival even the most seasoned fairy noble, and its minions follow a broad, diverse spectrum. Although the actions presented here don't reflect it much, you should keep this diversity in mind when players deal with them or when actions have consequences. Imagine if Prigwort got captured by the Nag-Lord's forces and it turned the city into a giant, gelatinous, bouncy castle!

I hope this helps you flesh out the Nag-Lord faction a bit more in your game. If you have other implementations or interpretations of the goals, resources, and actions, please share! Next time, we'll talk about the Cold Prince!

References

#dolmenwood #faction turns #legwork