Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Takasi 03-23-05, 05:54 PM	I'm DMing a group of PCs who are traveling with a House Orien caravan to Darguun when a raiding party of Marguul bugbears attack them. Who would normally protect the caravan? House Deneith mercenaries? Or does House Orien hire its own protection?
Darrek 03-23-05, 07:48 PM	In my own campaign, the lightning rail had a few low level magewrights aboard, with access to eternal wands of lightning bolt and magic missile. Overall, with Orien's resources it's quite logical they'd have some old weapons from the Last War to use for protection. Logically, they'd put something similar (though maybe not quite such high firepower) on an overland caravan. Of course, they were defending the lightning rail from my players at the time, but that's the kind of people I game with.
Bluebrush 03-23-05, 08:37 PM	I think it's possible House Orien has it's own staff of caravan guards. Then again, House Denieth is another possibility.
Demon in Shades of Gray 03-23-05, 09:36 PM	I kind of see the houses working together in any endeavor that they don't directly compete in. Kind of a corporate network of favors and deals. Sure, Orien caravans would have Deneith mercs. They'd also have Kundarak wards on all their important stuff, a Sivis messenger with spells for... well, messaging, a Tharask map-guy/navigator... Of course, House Orien pays for the services of these professionals, exactly like any other customer. However, as a long-standing and INFLUENTIAL customer, I could see the houses giving discounts to each other in certain matters.
(Psi)SeveredHead 03-23-05, 11:09 PM	Perhaps House Orien, in order to save on costs, hires cheaper (and lower quality) mercenaries. But it depends on just how many bandit groups there are on the Lightning Rail and other routes. I could see Deneith on the Lightning Rail and lower-quality mercs on other routes. On a virtually unrelated note, how many members of each House do you think have dragonmarks? 10%? 50%?
Kid SixXx 03-24-05, 08:33 AM	I kind of see the houses working together in any endeavor that they don't directly compete in. Kind of a corporate network of favors and deals. Sure, Orien caravans would have Deneith mercs. They'd also have Kundarak wards on all their important stuff, a Sivis messenger with spells for... well, messaging, a Tharask map-guy/navigator... Of course, House Orien pays for the services of these professionals, exactly like any other customer. However, as a long-standing and INFLUENTIAL customer, I could see the houses giving discounts to each other in certain matters. I use this model also, as it fits in with the mega-corp cyberpunk flavor that the houses seem to be patterned after.
Bluebrush 03-24-05, 09:20 AM	Another alternative is that they simply don't need more than a couple of guards on most routes because they're so safe. And if a group of bandits does try to mess with them, they hire some House Tharashk bounty hunters to locate the bandit camp and then send over their own force of soldiers/hired mercenaries to deal with them in a most painful manner. So basically, Orien would rely on a reputation for sharp and painful responses to attacking it's property, and travel with their wagons clearly marked so the bandits know who they shouldn't attack, which would save money in the long run. Independent merchants of course are still subject to bandit attacks unless they hire mercenaries or adventurers who happen to be heading in the right direction. So this opens up some good low-level adventure ideas. 1: D&D cliche #24, merchant who happens to be travelling in the same direction as you needs some caravan guards. 2: Some foolhardy bandits attacked one of House Orien's caravans, and needs the adventurer's help to crush them. Though maybe they attacked the caravan in order to grab something particularly valuable. Possibly something dangerous.
lukelightning 03-24-05, 10:53 AM	I think that one of the things that keeps the Dragonmark houses from killing each other is that their specialization has allowed them to cooperate. Orien gets mercenary service from Denieth... house Deneith in turn gets its mercs transported around. House Vadalis supplies animals for the other houses, and gets their services in return. I'm sure money changes hands in a lot of cases as well, but it all balances out as a whole. The big competition is between the Mark of Shadow folks. Hey, I just thought of an idea for a play that might be staged in Sharn: "Julio and Romiette" telling the story of a Son of Phiarlan who falls in love with a Daughter of Thuranni. Love, tragedy, comedy, everyone dies at the end. All in iambic pentameter.