Town Guard/Military Company
Rank: Military Rank 0
to 4.
In Charge: Captain Lindqvist
(Knight).
In the Ranks: Archers,
barbarians, brutes, guards, holy warriors, killers, knights, scouts,
skirmishers, and squires.
On the Payroll: Innkeepers,
laborers, native guides, servants, and non-adventurers.
Influencing the AR: Leadership,
Savoir-Faire (Military).
The Alnwich garrison initially consisted exclusively of soldiers
from Usk, but over time, some locals have also seen the benefit of working for
the Crown’s army – the pay and the privilege are notable. Unfortunately for
them, the scorn heaped upon them by other locals for betraying their own is far
from insignificant. In fact, most locals consider soldiers of the garrison as
outsiders at best and as occupying invaders at worst.
The garrison itself is led by Captain Lindqvist, a knight landed
in Usk but serving far from his estate on the shores of the southern Arafon. He considers the post a punishment for
offending Lord Lofgren, and rarely misses a chance to take it out on the
locals. His philosophy is that a cowed populous is a peaceful populous. He
lusts for power, but has a small mind and myopic view of the world.
Of course, the men of the garrison are not their captain. The
typical guardsman is more interested in drinking, whoring, and not working too
hard than actually policing the town. This leaves plenty of room for the
Fellowship to operate, even if Captain Lindqvist sees stamping out those
outlaws as his ticket home. Of course, no soldier wants to fall victim to the
lash, so guardsmen need some coercing to turn a blind eye to broken laws.
In addition to enforcing the law, guardsmen are expected to
protect Alnwich from threats without. This largely pertains to spirit and
monster incursions from the Wilderlands, but the garrison does not patrol
beyond the town’s borders. For this reason, the guard often offer bounties on
various monsters and miscreants living in the baleful forests beyond the last
farms. Rarely do they venture past that point, and when they do, it is only en
masse. Ideally, local would-be heroes are sent on such suicide missions,
however.
Rank in the town guard varies from Recruits at
Rank 0 up to Captain at rank 4. Most are Soldiers with Rank 1, with veteran Sergeants
achieving Rank 2. There are currently three companies stationed at Alnwich,
each commanded by a Lieutenant of Rank 3 who answers directly to Captain
Lindqvist.
What the Alnwich Garrison Wants
Ostensibly, the garrison at Alnwich want to impose and maintain
order on the town. Their captain has few restrictions on how they accomplish
this, which has led to a rather unfavorable view of the soldiery by the locals.
Captain Lindqvist largely resents the locals and could not care less about
their favor, so long as he does whatever he must to get back to his home.
Truly, however, almost every soldier just wants to go home. And
they want to do it with as little threat to their own wellbeing as possible.
That usually means ignoring anything that looks like it would be dangerous to
intervene in, but also using brutal force when intervening. And hiring others
to perform their most dangerous tasks for them.
Those few locals who have joined the garrison are already home,
and consequently want one of two things – power or to truly protect Alnwich.
Sadly, the former is far more prevalent than the latter. This only increases
the brutal treatment doled out by guardsmen and their general resentment by the
locals.
What the Alnwich Garrison Can Provide
The Garrison can provide training for any traits or skills found
on the knight and scout templates. The professional items they can supply at
discount are weapons, excluding disguised weapons and those with only reach C,
any armor, and shields.
The Garrison can also respond to these types of ARs:
- Backup. When the garrison sends people to help, they’re trained fighters built on a mix of the full knight/holy warrior/scout templates and their closest Henchmen equivalents.
- Favor. The typical guardsman has little to offer aside from favors. These they may be willing to extend in advance for some return at a later time.
- Immunity. The Town Garrison chooses who they capture and prosecute, so they can always choose to look the other way when one of their own commits some transgression. +3 to ARs.
- Map. The Town Guard keeps good maps of civilized lands (+0 to ARs) and may have crude maps of the local Wilderlands (-2 to ARs).
- Mounts & Vehicles. This means horses and wagons more than anything else. The town guard does not have access to boats because the Fiskers refuse to sell them any.
- New Gear. The garrison is replete with low-quality weapons and armor and can come by reasonable quality fare with some effort. Most non-combat gear is beyond easy reach for them, however.
- Provisions. Soldiers need rations, and those rations can be extended to friends of the constabulary. No one said they’d taste good, however.
- Training. If the Town Guard can do anything, it is providing training in combat skills. These are limited to skills that deal directly with combat – not skills like Stealth or Running. ARs are at +3.