IKRPG! It's starting tomorrow!

So, the game starts tomorrow!  We'll be making characters tomorrow (so expect a post about them at about 1am tomorrow morning...).  Still before the campaign starts, I've had to make another...

KHARDOV HERALD!

Why yes, there are references and shots at the PP forums.  Because I'm mature like that.

Again, bonus points if anyone can translate the Khadoran!

IKRPG! Life in Khardov, Part 8 : The Winter Guard

And so here we are, the final chapter on the organisations of my Khardov campaign, and into the biggest single group in the whole damn city - the Khadoran military!  That is, of course, a bit misleading - the Khadoran military in Khardov aren't TECHNICALLY a single group, as the garrison is split up into smaller barracks throughout the city, and each individual barracks has essentially aligned itself to either the corrupt Kommander Konstantin, or the young, idealistic Kaptain Posdanovich.

While tensions on both sides are reaching boiling point, they have been currently kept in check by both the fact they are being kept busy undermining each other, and the knowledge that if they erupted into open war in the streets, the rest of the Khadoran army would come and crush both sides to restore order.  Either side could be talked into helping the party or, in a world that only exists with player characters, they could be convinced to team up against the a threat to Khador.

Kommander Matvey Konstantin

Kommander Konstantin is not a bad man, he's just old and tired; a soldier too young to retire, too ornery to adapt and too unremarkable to be promoted.  When agents for a group of Kayazy came to him and suggested that it may be worth his while to let the Olcheniy deal with a larger number of threats in the city, he couldn't see a downside, especially if it kept his men out of gang fights and alive a bit longer.  Sadly, that didn't seem to be the case - the Kayazy took over more of the city and allowed crime to happen so long as it benefited them.  By the time he realised how deep he was in, it was too late, and he directs his Winter Guard to keep the status quo intact while he drowns himself in fine Uiske and hooaga.

Actually a pirate.  Don't tell anyone.

Despite his attempts to slowly poison himself to death, he's still a fit and strong man, a true Khard.  He will not suffer fools who try to kill him to live, and will happily bring down his foes with his ornate handcannons and, if all else fails, his fists.  Above all, he fights like someone who, in his heart of hearts, knows he doesn't want to die.

Kaptain Olga Posdanovich
Kaptain Posdanovich is one of a new breed of young, idealistic officers who have graduated from the Dhruznia Academy and sent to Winter Guard units with a mind to make a difference.  When she arrived in Khardov, she found a garrison that stayed in it's barracks, seemingly under siege from criminals who ran the city.  She took her recruits and she started making her mark on the city, busting gangs and destroying illicit operations around her barracks.  After a while, she uncovered evidence of her superior's corruption, and started a crusade against the older guard, desperate to prove herself as an officer and to regain the trust of the people, which she still feels has been lost by the actions of the previous garrison.

Well, I used Bull earlier in this lot, so I kinda HAD to use Blythe, right?  I still haven't found a use for Holt.

Olga makes no claim to subtlety, cheerily carving through her enemies with her greatsword with a sense of conviction gained from the knowledge that everyone she kills is an enemy of the motherland - criminals weaken the Motherland, which is tantamount to treason in her eyes.  As a result, anything goes and, when she knows she's fighting for the Motherland, there's very little on Imorren which will stop her.

Anshyll Styrr

A refugee from the destruction of the Nyss, Anshyll has given up hope on her species utterly.  Not knowing nor caring about the recovery of Nyssor, she has taken up the life of a Bounty Hunter and, with her father's Claymore, has ended the lives of more lawbreakers, bandits and outlaws than almost any other hunter in Khardov.  To this end, she's taken up almost permanent residence in the central barracks to check for new bounties and rumours of pay days across the city.

In the interests of multiculturalism, this is the campaign's token Nyss.

If Olga is the unsubtle, screaming zealot with a zweihander, Anshyll is the graceful war dancer.  Spinning and slashing through her enemies, she is a firm believer in "dead" makes for easier bounties, and will happily murder anyone with a price on their heads.  While she tends to kill criminals for money, she's not above killing people who get in her way, and in any other society would be regarded as a vicious sociopath.

Prikaz Agent Dhakun Volvodar

Agent Vovodar is a believer.  He's a strict Morrowan, a patriotic Khadoran and a firm proponent of the concept that the ends will always justify the means.  After years of war with Cygnar, Cryx, the Protectorate, Llael, Ios (unofficially), he came home to discover a country that had been taken over by money-grabbers, bean counters and, worst of all, the corrupt.  Using his contacts in the Greylords, he found a team of six veteran Winter Guard, and brought them into the city undercover to clean up the worst scum of Khardov.

"I have a fuzzy hat!  AND A FEZ!  RAWWRGH!"  Yeah.  Badass.

Dhakun is an old man now, and will be happy dying knowing that he's doing all he can to bring down the cancer rotting away at the heart of Khardov.  Still, his strength never came from having a youthful body - it came from his total mastery of the powers of ice and wind.  If it ever comes up, he can freeze his enemies in place, bombard them with ice and obliterate them with howling gales.  And he can hit them with his axe, if he wants.  I wouldn't risk it though.

Aaand that concludes the groups of Khardov!  I may or may not post up my first impressions of the IKRPG on Wednesday when (Scyrah willing) I pick up the book, but until then...  Dasvidanya!

IKRPG! Life in Khardov, Part 7: The Ex Crew and the Retribution of Scyrah

Two smaller groups this time; The Ex-Crew and the Retribution of Scyrah Cell that's operating just outside of Khardov.  These two have been lumped together as, between them, they only really have three named members.  The Ex Crew is a group of undead with very little personality, and the Retribution are closer to an enemy group that's primarily cannon fodder (well, about ten members, but only 2 aren't just "mage hunter").

The Ex-Crew
Khardov has mines, which means it has an infestation of Shaft Wights - that's the way of Caen.  Unique among the Shaft Wight packs, however, Khardov's pack isn't dedicated to just killing more people and digging to a central location.

Jooooooooooooooooooooin usssssssssssss........

This is due to a single person, a man who, sadly for how remarkable he turned out to be, died about fifteen months ago.  This man was...

Marek Danislav, the last foreman
The foreman in a minor mine in one of the lesser Kayazy's holdings, Marek Danislav was a genuinely thoughtful and liked man to all who knew him, and was, in turn, protective of his charges.  When a Shaft Wight attack threatened his men, he stayed behind to hold the undead off while they fled, and eventually sacrificed himself by blowing the whole shaft with a keg of blasting powder to cut them off from the living.

He awoke a week later, but not in his body.  As a ghost in the mines, he's found himself with the ability to control nearby Shaft Wights, and the love his men had for him has transferred to them somehow.  He's taken this as a chance to keep them from attacking people.

Ghost miners to lead zombie miners.  Now I just need Vampire miners, mummy miners and under miners.

Woe betide those who attempt to attack Danislav.  If would-be assailants have the ability to get around his incorporeal nature, they still have to get past his hammer - a concussive maul that will slam his opponents into the nearest wall of the mine.  If he needs to, he also has minor control over his mine, and a few other spectral powers of telekinesis and general manipulative dickery.  But he's mainly all about the hammer.

The Retribution of Scyrah
About five years ago, cells of Mage Hunters were sent out across Khador to keep an eye on the Greylords. Many of these cells still don't know about Nyssor, or the legitimisation of the Retribution in Ios, and many wouldn't care if they did.  Having waited for almost twenty seasons for instructions, they are now becoming bored, and have started raiding Khardov for supplies and indiscriminately killing anyone that comes past their cave lair.

While it's hard, if you can get into contact with the cell, they will welcome locations of mages to kill, and, quite frankly, won't question where the information comes from.

Tybias, Shadow's Bane
Calm, serene, gentle, considerate.  These are all words that don't even slightly describe Tybias, the leader of the Retribution "forces" near Khardov.  A third generation mage hunter, Tybias' family has participated in most of the defining moments of the Retribution for over two hundred years, and this is something that has weighed heavy on his mind as he's been left for half a decade, seemingly ignored by the Retribution and the Fane of Scyrah.  He doesn't even know of recent developments and the rise of the Retribution as a legitimate power in Ios - at this point, it's doubtful he really cares.

In keeping with random outburst of positivity I sometimes inject into these captions - I fucking love this model.

In the inevitable fight that happens when Tybias shows up, he sticks to the shadows and fires off Phantom Seeker bolts at, in order, any human with magical powers, anything that seems to know where he is, then anyone else who may have been involved.  He's also fairly good with his sword, but tends to use it to parry enemy attacks and get to a firing position where most melee fighters won't be able to get to him.

Shyndri
An Iosan mage with a vague power of prescience, Shyndri works with Tybias to plan the Retribution's raids into the city.  While she tends towards vague, half-dreamed predictions of events yet to come, she can usually gain some insight into a plan, whether it will work and whether it will be advantageous to the cell's ends.  Shyndri dreams of a time when she can go back to Ios and live with elves who don't just acknowledge her only as a walking predictor.

Holt not included.

Shyndri's never actually been in combat, and has very little in the way of actual power when it comes to killing other people, with spells or with her fists.  What she DOES have, however, is a team of Mage Hunters who will die to keep her alive.  If a fighter somehow manages to corner her on her own, they'll probably be on the receiving end of some wildly flung spells and terminal sobbing.  Be afraid.

Right!  One organisation left, and it's only the Khadoran military!  Hey, how big can it be?

IKRPG! Life in Khardov, Part 6: The Chosen of Morrow.

I'm actually hugely excited by this lot - they're my favourite group I've come up with so far (it's why I did them near the end, to give myself something to look forward to!).  The Chosen of Morrow are a group of vigilantes who used to be members of the Order of Illumination before they overstepped their boundaries, killing not just Infernalists, Thamarites and criminals, but moving on to suspected Thamarites, "evil" Menites and anyone else who essentially looks at them funny.  To this end, even their faith has failed them and their priestly powers have gone as they have descended into a cycle of hatred and persecution.

Not ones to think badly of themselves, the Chosen believe that this is a test from Morrow, that they must take on the darkness without His help.  They are a group of psychopaths who have a cause, and it's still to be seen if the party will be attacked by them, or if they can direct them to attack their enemies.

Father Konrad Vorisk
A former Morrowan priest from a village just outside of Khardov, Father Vorisk felt compelled by a series of dreams of Ascendant Katrina to leave his church and move to Khardov to cleanse the streets of crime and Thamarites.  Despite his initial good intentions, he has gradually descended into an orgy of violence, murdering near enough anything short of priests and those decked out in Morrowan paraphernalia he comes across.

Also, Harlan Versh is a bad ass motherfucker.

Vorisk randomly wanders around (sorry, he's shown his path by Morrow...) and kills anything that gets in his way. Screaming passages from the Enkehidrion as he walks confidently towards his target, swinging his sword and blasting away with his pistol, he makes for a terrifying sight to anyone who isn't confirmed as being on his side - and many who are.

Ivan Kaztenki
Where Vorisk is a loud, bombastic zealot, Kaztenki is the calm, collected centre of the team.  A Morrowan Gunmage who believes firmly in Vorisk's rhetoric, Kaztenki makes for a terrifying presence - a simmering intensity that burns through his amicable veneer.

Somewhere between Judge Dredd and Dumbledore, there is Ivan Kaztenki...

In combat, Kaztenki becomes a whirlwind of bullets and magic, firing at anything he doesn't recognise as being on his side.  Unlike many fighters, he fires off bullets at as many targets as possible instead of focussing on one target until dead, allowing him to gun down whole groups without waiting to confirm his kills.  This method, however, does mean he gets less kills than the rest of the Chosen.

Alyssa Di Santi
Di Santi lost her faith a lot earlier than the rest of the Chosen.  Having fought for her homeland from 603 to 607AR and watching Khadorans subjugate her people, the Knight of the Prophet went from fighting Khadorans on the battlefield, to waylaying Khadorans as a guerilla, to eventually travelling to Khardov to at least direct her anger at Khadoran criminals.  Despite having given up on everything, she now follows Vorisk around, firmly in the belief that if she should die fighting for him, she will at least die serving Morrow.

Some days you're the paladin, and some days the best picture in ten attempts is still out of focus.

Alyssa has a lightning fast technique in combat that involves her darting in with her blade and slashing at vital organs and arteries.  She fights every fight as if it was her last - if only because she doesn't care if it is or not - which makes her all out assaults an unstoppable barrage of death.

Erik Arkaim
It's a sad state of affairs when it's a legitimate claim that the Wizard who's short a few marbles is the sanest of the group, but between the psychopathy, the suicidal tendencies and the general delusions, Arkaim is just slightly mental.  While he's not a fanatic like the other three Chosen, he's still with them because he's finding it entertaining, and the rest tolerate his insane cackling because they believe he's with them because he's a devout Morrowan.  Both win this time.

In no way does this guy scream "crazy wizard" to me.  I don't know where anyone could get that from...

In combat, Arkaim acts with all the subtlety of a Khadoran freight train, all but dancing about the battlefield, calling down fire and ice and hurling his opponents into whatever's about at the time.  He's a walking collateral damage risk, but let's face it, if the civilians were going to die, they were going to die anyway...

Almost to the end of this rogue's gallery, but next comes the Ex-Crew, who will prove that the biggest criminal offence in Khardov is having sex with a miner...

IKRPG! Life in Khardov, Part 5 : The Rusalka Kids

As well as the major antagonists in the city, I'm also adding in some neutral "companies" that the party can interact with, either fighting each other or allying to provide mutual assistance.  I've also made the decision of having the groups being between three and six characters, so they'll essentially be a party of NPCs to counter the player's party.

Firstly, we have The Rusalka Kids, a group of river pirates who have become hilariously wealthy smuggling in illegal goods for the Kayazy and other groups (both criminal and legitimate) into the city.  Currently, the only thing they won't take on their boats are humans and dangerous monsters, and even then, it's a logistics issue rather than a moral one.  The players have two real methods of interaction with the Kids - either they can use them to get items in to the city under the noses of the guards (both Winter Guard and Olcheniy) and their rivals, or they can attempt to take them out, cutting off supplies to their enemies at the cost of their own gear.

Madelyn Fernassi
The Tordoran leader of the Rusalka Kids, Madelyn Fernassi is a cool, calm professional who is renowned for her ability to stick to a job as long as she's being paid for it.  As long as she's been in charge of the Kids, their prices have been higher than most of the smugglers on the rivers around Khardov, but they have also been the most reliable, and are the smugglers of choice for near-enough everyone who can afford them.  She doesn't talk about her past, and anyone with any sense has learnt not to bother asking.

I love this model.  Doesn't make a lick of sense in a Khador campaign,  but it's a great model.

In combat, Fernassi is actually not as good as she tries to make herself appear to be.  While she's a reasonable shot with her blowgun and at least passable in melee with her knife, she relies on the rest of her crew to actually fight while she directs them and makes the plans.

Grant MacRoth
The second in command of the Kids, Grant MacRoth is a Thurian with a chip on his shoulder.  Having served in the Five Fingers Steelhead chapter for a decade before getting bored and going solo, MacRoth is a psychopath with military training and no Charter holding him in check.  He eventually fell in with Fernassi before she set up her smuggling business, and is one of the few people who knows about her life before Khardov - whatever she was, it was good enough to not only keep this sadist in check, but taking orders.

I actually think this model would make a GREAT Fighter character in pretty much any RPG.  No jokes here, Croe's a really cool model with a greatsword.

MacRoth has the most direct experience killing people of all the Kids.  This is evident in combat where he can happily slaughter whole ranks of enemies with a single swing of his greatsword, or take out targets at range with impunity with his handcannon.  On the other hand, he spends no time at all worrying about his defences, and may not actually know what dodging does.  So there's that?

Igor Vaustroyov
If Igor Vaustroyov had turned his mind to legal pursuits, he would have been a great success in whatever he'd wanted to do.  Sadly, he suffers from crippling lack of confidence and doesn't believe that anyone would take a seven foot tall bear of a man, who happens to also be a genius, seriously.  To this end, he has taken up alchemy, but only to attempt to make people believe he's got arcane powers.

He's a seven foot tall dude with multiple firebombs.  People believe whatever he tells them to believe.

I HAVE FIRE AND FIREPOWER!  RAAAWWRGH!

Yeah.  He's a huge bloke with a gun and multiple alchemical concoctions.  People who try to take him down are going to get burned in some way, shape or form - do you need me to elaborate?

Jory Di Losta
An Umbrean from the Llaelese side of the border, Di Losta is an adventurer, duellist and general charmer of women throughout the Iron Kingdoms (except Cryx, Cygnar and Ord).  While he tends towards acting on his own, his lusting after Danika Gorislav drug him into joining the Kids, and a rough but ready friendship that has formed with Igor has kept him there.  And the cash.  He spends most of his time in pubs with Igor, trying to improve his confidence.

I totally picture this dude talking in a smooth Latin accent.  'Ola señorita, I am 'ere to  buckle your swash!

Jory spends his time in a fight darting in and out of melee, striking his victims with a few swift stabs before leaving them bleeding on the floor.  He's the fastest member of the Kids and, when the group fights, he takes up a skirmisher role, harassing enemies from the flanks.  Of course, he also enjoys a bit of glory hounding if it looks like they're winning, so look for him in a place where he can make a scene before firing off his loudest pistol.

Danika Gorislav
A Skirov sailor turned pirate, Danika is by far and away the only person in the Kids who can actually sail with any degree of competence.  While she has taught the others a little of what she knows, she is the one the  rest of the group turn to if they need detailed advice on how to keep their boat above the river's surface.

And ANOTHER Pirate chick in a bikini top!  What is this, the Carribean!?

If she ever gets into a fight, she fires wildly with her mismatched pistols at anyone who doesn't look to near any of her group mates at the time, trying not to hit them.  She's a reasonable shot, but she's been hired for her technical knowledge, not her combat abilities.

Gurav
An Ogrun who grew up in Khardov, Gurav has gone from manual labour job to manual labour job before he lost an eye in an accident in one of the foundries on the dock front.  While he can still find work heavy lifting, he tended not to get much work as stress inexplicably causes his wound to bleed profusely.  He signed up with the Kids fairly quickly afterwards, and their reasonably light workload means his wound stays closed.

Huh.  Without any size comparisons, Ogrun look about as big as humans!

While he tries to avoid combat, when he feels the need to fight, he simply bull-rushes the biggest enemy as his left eye starts to pour blood disturbingly.  He body-checks people into walls and then swings with his war cleaver to finish them off - there isn't much that won't kill.

And that's the pirates!  Next up, the Chosen of Morrow!

IKRPG! Life in Khardov, Part 4 : House Ygevny

Last of the three main antagonist Kayazy houses in Khardov, House Ygevny is the smallest but, in many ways, the most dangerous of the trio.  If Drago Katzoff is after the citizens of Khador's minds, and Stefani Ryumin is after their souls, then Kerwyn Ygevny is after their bodies, which is much, much easier to get.  In it's legitimate side, Ygevny produces some of Khador's finest mechanika, and can command vast prices for even the most basic of gear.  For the Khadoran who can't afford the luxury prices of their mechanika, Ygevny also produce a large amount of the day-to-day alchemy that even the poorest citizen of Khardov uses, from curatives to vermin poisons to various etching acids.

House Ygevny primarily focuses it's less than legal side on kidnapping, organ and human trafficking, and necromancy.  They rely on smaller, more elite groups of enforcers, boasting a large percentage of mages, alchemists and mechaniks and, when that fails, Ygevny has a horde of thralls and failed experiments he can unleash on anyone who opposes him.  Rather than criminal activity for profit, House Ygevny sends most of it's results to Doctor Arkadius for grisly research into human "improvement".

Kerwyn Ygevny
Kerwyn Ygevny is an old, cantankerous bastard who comes from an old money family, of which he is the last of his line.  While this doesn't bother him, he is mildly more concerned with the grim realisation that his money won't keep him alive forever on it's own, and after contracting Rip Lung (the disease of choice for old bastards who need to die painfully), it's dawned on him that, if he's going to live another eighty years, he'll have to be more proactive in finding both a cure AND a way of discovering how to prolong his life.

He's part of my Malifaux Crew.  Different bases, naturally.

To this end, Ygevny has moved his entire empire into alchemy and mechanika to research extending his life - everything from alchemical cures to give him a few more years to technology such that they used on Karchev to keep him going well into his 150's.  He's already had to get his leg into a brace, and wears a mechanikal breathing apparatus to keep his withered lungs moving.  He is, in short, a wreck.

But this just means he's more dangerous than ever.  While he doesn't have the gift, Ygevny has learnt several necromantic rituals that don't require any natural ability, from jets of acid that melt flesh from bone, to the ability to raise crude thralls, to withering waves of crippling pain and nausea.  He also has several mechanikal and alchemical surprises, including his cane (a rather boring ice blast) and several types of bombs.

Jynnasa
A former mercenary and friend of Kerwyn, Jynnasa is an Iosan rebel who left her homeland to see the kingdoms of Western Imorren.  Far from it being a wasteland of inferior races and nations looking to destroy the Iosans, she found a continent full of people who could challenge her, physically, mentally and spiritually.  Now that the Retribution has come to power in Ios, she fears her now-human sympathising ways would get her in trouble, if not killed, and she has chosen to ride out the rest of her life with Kerwyn Ygevny - a man who is both as intelligent as her, and (don't remind Ygevny) about her age.

Uhh...  Yeah.  She's an elf!  Honest!

There's a simple rule with Jynnasa - never fight her one-on-one.  As a very, very powerful gunmage and a crack shot, she will leave two enemies dead in less than a second, or one person really dead.  She is the master of the magelock pistol, and is a very, very nasty combatant.

Borosh Gostaff
Head among Ygevny's alchemists, Gostaff is about as legitimate as a genius in the field of alchemy to be and, as long as his "eccentricities" are catered to, he is capable of mixing his employer the world in his lab.  Occasionally, he'll wander off for a few days and only return after a spate of disappearances in the city start raising questions.  Rumours that he concocts his greatest elixirs with human body parts are, of course, totally unsubstantiated.

The name has changed from Gorman.  Not much else has.

Gostaff is a master of stealth, seemingly capable of shifting between shadows as he pelts his targets with either acids or choke bombs, dependant on if he wants corpses or experiments.  He hunts alone, but he's physically frail, and will drop if he's hit.

Gron
A "present" from Doctor Arkadius, Gron is an alchemically-improved Farrow with improved strength and toughness over his already strong and naturally resilient species.    While he generally does whatever he feels like, he is primarily invested in keeping Doctor Arkadius supplied with human subjects to experiment on, and in turn supplies Ygevny with a constant stream of magical and alchemical supplies which may help extend his life.

In this photo; Rorsh casts Blur!

Gron is almost as strong as an Ogrun and as tough as a Trollkin, as well as a fair shot with his rifle.  He also carries several grenades and sticks of dynamite for if he needs to fight several enemies at once, but he will tend towards just wading in with his fists.

That's it for the Kayazy Houses!  Next up, I'll be starting on the NPC "parties", starting with the Rusalka Kids, Ordic River Pirates!

IKRPG! Life in Khardov, Part 3 : House Ryumin

Last post, I covered the industrialist Drago Katzoff, but now it's time to move on to another of the great Kayazy Lords of Khardov; Lady Stefani Ryumin, the queen of coal and owner of over half the mining network in the city.  She is well loved by her workers, and is renowned for paying vastly above the standard wage for her miners, as well as providing excellent healing and financial support for injured employees.

Of course, she can afford this because she has the majority of the street gangs of Khardov in her back pocket.  She pays the workers, and the gangs take a large sum of it back and pay Ryumin to distract the Olcheniy, who she also unofficially controls, towards their rivals.  Despite all this, Ryumin remains behind the scenes and (relatively) quite a minor Kayazy - a fact which can only be by choice.

On the (even more) illegal front, Ryumin is also both a Thamarite Priestess and an Infernalist, and has a booming trade in souls from people all across Western Khador.  People come to her to make contact with Infernals, and the Infernals grant her power to keep the souls coming.  This dark trade claims dozens, if not hundreds, of Khadoran souls a year and does drastic damage to the Khadoran war effort.

Stefani Ryumin

Stefani Ryumin was born into a fairly rich family who have lived in Khardov for several generations, and is used to having money around her entire life.  Despite this, she had a natural affinity with the "low" members of society, preferring the company of non-humans and commoners and, when she inherited a small mining operation, she used the knowledge she gained to encourage more and more workers to join her business, slowly edging out her competitors as more and more of their employees moved over to join her.

With apologies to the sculptor for the shitty paint job...

Now, Lady Ryumin controls the majority of the mines in the surrounding area and large foundries where the ore is smelted.  They are hubs of activity all throughout the night, and it's rare to find an area of her territory that doesn't have some people about or, if you're that way inclined, noise to cover illicit activities.  She has also set up underground temples throughout Khardov where Thamarites can worship in peace.  These also have the upside for Ryumin of giving her both safe refuges AND a ready supply of reinforcements across the city.

In a fight, Ryumin is touchingly pathetic, having no combat or spellcasting abilities to speak of.  Of course, would-be vigilantes don't fight Ryumin herself, they fight the two spectral Umbral Enforcers who follow her around to keep the Infernal's investment alive.  While she flees, these two monsters attack assailants under cover of invisibility with whips that can fly through flesh and bone to attack the soul directly - anyone who is killed by them quickly discover their souls have been kept from Urcaen and at serious risk of being taken by the Infernal Reavers.

Rorvag Rockbiter
A childhood friend of Stefani Ryumin, Rorvag was hired as soon as she took over her first mine as a foreman, and has been working for her ever since.  Now, he is responsible for the day to day workings of her business, as well as leading the protection of the mines from rogue Shaft Wights and saboteurs from other Kayazy with mine workings in the city.

Oh yeah, and he's a Trollkin.

While he's a dab-hand with his greatsword and customised cannon, Rorvag's biggest asset is his leadership - he is respected and admired by those he leads, who know he is the first in to any situation and the last out, trusting on his natural resilience to see him through.  He is, however, easy to avoid - unless someone threatens Stefani directly, he sticks to defending his mines, and certainly won't come to the aid of any of the other lieutenants of House Ryumin.

Braznaggalakam
Having grown up on the streets of Khardov, Braz knows his way around the city like no other, as well as the methods of every major criminal player in the area.  He came into contact with Ryumin after she came to power and had started trying to make her mark as a Thamarite priestess among the criminal gangs.  He decided to make money by setting her up with gangs, and she decided she'd pay him to be her contact with all of them.  After five years, their relationship has settled into a routine - he collects the gang's protection money to give to Ryumin, and keeps her up to date with new players in the area.

He also looks like Yoda as made by Dark Crystal-era Jim Henson.  Which is badass.

Braz doesn't fight, he assassinates, he steals and he uses the gangs jockeying for his favour to fight for him.  His knack for stealth and love of torture and cruelty means that anyone who comes in to fight him head on will be led into a maze of traps and dead ends that would make Jigsaw jealous, none of which will kill his prey quickly.  Of course, his only loyalty is to money, so it's possible to buy your way out of the deathtraps once you get in, but he doesn't publicise that...

Jaime O'Harenhal
A Thurian mercenary, Jaime has fought in the Scharde invasions, multiple border skirmishes (on every border), the invasion of Llael (on both sides), as an enforcer in Five Fingers and on several missions into the Thornwood and the Sharde Isles which he refuses to talk about.  Now, he's covertly in the employ of Ryumin as the leader of the Olcheniy, the Kayazy-funded city guard.  While he generally does his job well, he's also turned the city guard into what amounts to enforcers for Ryumin, driving out or crushing all street crime that isn't directly in her pocket.

It's Rutger Shaw-lite!  Woo!

Jaime is an excellent combatant with at least two decades of military engagements that he's willing to admit to.  On top of that, he's a practised commander at the unit level, and has the resources of the Kayazy and the Olcheniy at his immediate disposal.  While he is single-handedly a dangerous foe, when he brings his allies, he's almost unstoppable...

And that's the second of the Kayazy Houses my players will be fighting!  Next up, House Ygevny, the alchemists...