“HALT! Life of the City Guard.”
Rules:
Post your CS in the OOC and wait for approval.
Act nice
The common rules apply.
The City of Kings Knell is one of the greatest cities in the world. Over a million people call it their home. While it is predominantly a human city, it has entire neighborhoods full of dwarves, goblins and orcs and other non-human races. But big cities mean big crimes. And different groups of diverse individuals with cultural differences that sometimes spill over. Indeed, Kings Knell is a place of many dangers.
Enter the City Guard. The people keeping peace in the city. Or attempt to at any rate. Life is hard for the Guard. They aren't expected to make it to pension age, they are understaffed, unequipped and poorly payed. They walk the streets of the most dangerous city in the world with only their lantern and whatever they have managed to get for a weapon.
Worst of all, is the Guard House of 22nd Cleaver Street. Right on the outskirts of the Lost Slums. There are no guardhouses in the slums anymore. They all burned down. 22nd stands because technically, it is not in the slums and thus tolerated. It is here men and women of ill repute end up when signing with the guard without the proper bribes or threats being levied towards their superior. The guard detail of 22nd happens to be us, the players. A motley bunch of rejects and outcasts. Petty criminals, despised or outcast races, poor lads and lasses without future prospects and god knows what other rabble.
The city of Kings Knell rests upon a hill that may or may not be burial ground for ancient kings. Its royal palace may or may not be a bastion which foundation consists of the bones of vanquished enemies. Welcome to the City where Kings come to die.
Indeed, Kings Knell is as old as civilization itself, having been raised and built a new numerous time and somehow survived both Elven Empires, Dwarfish confederations and Orch Hordes. It has had Human kings, Undead Lords and the occasional Demonic Sovereign. They have all had something in common, they were all assassinated fairly soon after ascending the throne. Either by holy water, poisoned ale or a stake through the heart, it seems regents don’t last long in the city.
Currently ruled by the Steward of King John Baxter The First, the first human king in nearly 300 years. The aforementioned inhuman rulers have pretty much replaced one another and conquered the area from one another. All the rulers failing to understand the delicate balance of huge city full of skilled cutthroats and ruthless tradesmen.
It didn’t matter that you were a demon when someone can smuggle in holy water in massive quantities. Some, like the Dwarfish Miner King realized that he had taken over a city that greedily assimilated its conquerors and booked it. The orcs and goblins were persistent, but they soon found themselves at each other’s throats as the human nobles and merchant princes waited in exile until they could move back.
Guards Handbook:
Chapter 1: Brief Layout of Kings Knell
A massive city, built upon the bones of its invaders, conquerors and resulting minority groups, Kings Knell provides every guard with its number of challenges. From the winding streets of the High Quarters to the narrow, even more winding streets of the Lost Slums. With haunted necropolis underground passages to pristine marble gated communities. Kings Knell is like no other city on the planet. Mainly because most other cities have the common decency to make sense and not be so damn scary.
The residential areas are strewn about, with the posher areas like High Quarters all centered around Kings Hill where the palace can be found. A massive river runs trough the city, cutting in half with a river delta taking up a part of the southern city. Some famous areas of the city include ”The Guilds Street” where all the official guilds have their extravagant Guild houses. The Whiskey Lane, called such because it is filled with competing taverns. The Lost Slums refer to a massive, squalor filled set of places along the city walls. Here, all manners of ill gotten deeds happen and the rule of the law reaches the least. It harbors such lovely street names as ”Shank Alley” and ”Pummel Road”
Chapter 2
The people and power of Kings Knell
The people and power of Kings Knell
The City Guard:
The most important note for a Guard to read, is the fact that it wasn't a Monarch that formed the guard. It was one of the stewards who made the city guard a thing. This mainly because Kings Guard, Palace Guard and Royal Army were all liable to loot, abuse their station as royally appointed servants and otherwise be a general menace rather than actually enforcing law and order. Enter Charles the Trembler, steward to High Lord Bart Swordbane. Charles formed the city guard and gave them a set of rules that THEY were meant to follow on pain of death. They had restrictions the royal guards had not, but with privileges the did not have. Such as arresting Nobles. He split the Guard into sections and built guardhouses across the rapidly growing city. A specific guard was established to overlook the River and one to replace the garrisoned troops at the gate.
These were meant to be Men and women from within the city who to be loyal towards the city itself. Regardless of the ruler, the men and women of the Guard patrol the street and keep the order. This one constant remained every time the leaders changed, as the stewards insisted they were kept as unchanged as possible. As the city grew, and the makeup of the city populace changed nad turned into cornocopia of races, so had the Guard been forced to adapt. The Pardon Rule was brought in after a pair of Bugbears helped a Commander of the Guard deal with a Goblin Baby Smuggling ring. By eating said Goblins.
These days, Guards men are of much lower stock. The Pardon Rule has opened the floodgates for all sorts of scoundrels and there is a saying about the Guard.
"Crooked? They are so bent a horse shoe would blush."
Kings Guard/Royal Palace Garrison.
Loyal to the ruler, they currently serve King John albeit everyone knows their loyalty lies with Isabell. In face, a astute observer would not that the leader of the Garrison looks dreadfully close to "Battle Axe" Bowen, notorious brigand and pirate. Or that the Head of Royal Protection looks remarkbly like Humbert "Dragon Snarl" Jostersen, a man wanted for wiping a small city off the map ten years prior. But they aren't bent and crooked. That would require someone to tell them to their face that what they are doing is wrong.
Magicians, what are they good for?
Absolutely everything as it turns out. Magic is a prevalent reason to why the city isn't totally in the proverbial drain of history. The mages guild keeps magic and its practitioners under a strict and very ruthless rule. Magicians have to be licensed to practice within the walls and a licence takes years and costs massive amounts of money to obtain. This ensures the magicians are either people of wealth or practically indentured servants to the guild. One way to escape such a service, is becoming a guard.
Mages are looked upon with suspicion in the best of times. A guard Mage is looked upon much how you look upon a prepped and ready to blow grenade. That happened to land in a babys crib. In a newly built orphanage.
Crime and You; Aka, we are not paid well enough.
The guards first and foremost purpose is to protect the citizens and solve crimes. This is not easy as criminals are generally better equipped and more trained then the regular guard. Where the Guard has been in steady decline the criminals have organized in gangs and syndicates. They wage war on another and like in all these things, innocents get hurt. And so does guards. Especially in the slums you have to look over your shoulder and try not to peer to deep into the shadows. Lest you bare witness to something you cannot stop.
And that isn’t even dwelling into the cultist cabals, elven moonshine and drug smugglers, dwarfish construction rackets and the orcs highly illegal blood sport events. There is a reason the average life expectancy for a “diligent and good natured” guard is 5 years at the maximum.
Recruiting; Welcome to the Guard!
The Guard accepts all men and women of any race or creed: Orcs, dwarves, humans from across the sea and elves of all kinds. There is precedence for allowing snakemen, thieflings and other extremely exotic and scary creatures into the guard. In fact, sometimes it helps to have a spikey forehead or cloven hooves when traveling through dark streets. One may not that there are such storied careers as Balkut Toe crusher, a eight feet minotaur and Louthian Webrunner a Drow Exile who spent the later part of his career as a drider.
Races: (A small exerpt, you can make variants or chose a entirely different race. Just give it a similar kind of blurb so I know what exactly I am dealing with.)
Dwarves: The Dwarves came to the city mainly as part of the throng that Miner King and his confederacy sent down from the mountains. The current dwarves are generally offspring to those that stayed in the city after the invasion died down. The dwarves have a reputation of being short of sight, short of temper and well, just short. Although you do not say it to their face, but far out of throwing axe range.
Thieflings; The spawn of various small time demons nad humans. They are few and far between, but hold a surprisingly good reputation, Mainly because a thiefling misbehaving is turned into a bonfire oh so quickly. Thiefling is a bit of a catch all term for half demons, and can look all but human, to have cloven feet and mouth full of needle like teeth.
Elves: The Elves are tricky creatures. In that they are very clever and look at authority as a neat concept that only applies to other people. Dark elves make it a sport to smuggle as much of their mushrooms and “shroom juice” into the city as possible without notice. The wood elves wouldn’t touch a cobbled street if you so payed them. And the High Elves infiltrate high society and make decadent nobles look like little blushing school girls. Dark Elves live mainly in the vast catacombs underneath the city, with dark skin and pale, often dyed hair. Woodelves just do not live in the city at all, and High elves tend to live posh. Of the latter, many tend to have a human patron who is not quite sure what he is paying them for.
Orcs: The hordes came, raised, murdered, plundered and caused enormous amount of property destruction. They also failed to establish any sense of leadership after they actually conquered the and quickly devolved into squabbling tribes that were reduced further and further until they were simply another set of gangs. Orcs have an incredibly hard go of it in town, climbing up the social ladder when your base instinct is to beat people to death with their own arms is a difficult thing.
Goblins: Much like the Orcs, they were reduced from invaders to second class citizens. However, goblins are tinkerers and artistic. IF eccentric with their art and creations. Goblins have managed to drag themselves out of the muck as a result, and like to rub it the face of Orcs whenever they can.
Hobgoblins: Hobs, Hobbos, Hobbers. Destested child has many names. The Hobgoblins are not, as their name would otherwise suggest, relatives to goblins. They have big ears and a slight hunch just like 'gobbos' but they are far bigger in size and covered with fur. About the size of a average human, they are violent and clever buggers. They live in the Highlands and are locked in a ancient feud with the halflings
Halflings: Halfies are the other native race for the Highlands. Shorter then a dwarf and not even half as stocky, they rely on breeding and eating like rabbits to survive. The result of the Hobbo-Halfie peace meant a explosion in Halfling numbers.
Undead: They come in all shapes and sizes it seems. Undead is just a laymans term for varius "Should-be-dead" or "Risen for some goddamn reason" people. More or less all living in the Necropolis district, they are mostly zombies and various variations of vampires and similar.
Character Sheet
Name:
Race: (you don't have to pick any of the examples. I have not defined the world much outisde the citys closest vicinity for a reason! Just make sure you give me a little info about the race you pick if its something of your own making.)
Appearance:
Age:
Former Proffesion: (What were you before becoming a guard)
Skill:
Personality:
History:
