DragonMagazine396.pdf

Guilds & Groups

The

Legion

By Robert J. Schwalb

Illustrations by Chris Seaman and Wayne England

“The soldiers may change, but the

Last Legion lives on. What does this

mean? Well, friend, it means that

the Legion is bigger than us soldiers.

It has a history and a place in the

world—it’s even got character. In my

time, I’ve seen all sorts of characters

come and go. Some people have been

good and brave; others, not so much.

“So you want to join. That’s swell.

Just so we don’t waste anyone’s time,

what are you going to do for us?”

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Last

The Last Legion

Look anywhere in the Nentir Valley, and you’re

bound to see Nerath. The signs are everywhere.

Roads winding through the hilly countryside once

served as arteries of that great nation. The keeps, cas-

tles, and towns are diminished but still ref lect glints

of the greatness they once had, when they were the

bones of humanity’s last empire. Milestones line the

roads. Statues in overgrown gardens commemorate

the deeds and accomplishments of forgotten heroes.

In places, Nerath retains some of its old character, but

for the most part, the old nation is a carcass stretched

along history’s roadside, with carrion eaters out in full

force to pick its bones clean.

Nerath died with its last king in the fruitless

war against monstrous invaders, yet its memory

survives. It lingers in the tales spun by bards before

captivated crowds hungry to hear about the trials of

Ser Kent or the Lady in the White Tower. The stir-

ring poetry of “The Last Ride of Elidyr” still brings

a tear when people ref lect on what was lost and the

grim times in which they live. These are tales, to be

sure, but these stories feed the listeners’ hearts and

minds. They give hope to the hopeless, instill pas-

sion in the destitute, and provide a vision for better

days ahead.

The last kingdom of humans lives on in other ways

beyond the songs and stories: It lives in the deeds of

those inspired by them. The old knightly orders col-

lapsed along with their chapter houses, but more and

more heroes tumble out from the darkness, armed

with ancient relics long thought to be lost and f lushed

with recent victory over terrible monsters. These

heroes keep alive King Elidyr’s vision for a brighter

world. The greatest among them might even earn a

place among the surviving few who keep the signal

fires burning for the day when the king returns and

justice prevails once more.

One such group is the Last Legion, and its exploits

are the fuel of legends.

pay off their crimes. The Third Legion was deemed

expendable, so it always got the most dangerous

missions. It hunted trolls in the Cairngorm Peaks,

rooted out goblins from the Deepening Pits, and

fought skirmishes against the Court of Serathal, a

minor elven kingdom now little more than a foot-

note in the land’s history. The Third was always

stationed at the frontier, far from the fashionable

capital and prosperous cities.

Meanwhile, Nerath’s other legions were in dis-

array. The worst generals lived like kings on gold

embezzled from their soldiers’ pay, while their troops

pawned their weapons and armor to buy food and

lodging. As the horde grew bolder, those commanders

who recognized the danger f led the cities and bar-

ricaded themselves inside their castles, taking along

the best soldiers of their legions as an elite troop of

guards and leaving the rest to fend for themselves.

The king was alone and terrified. The legions needed

time to reorganize themselves from within, promote

leaders of quality, and march to meet the invaders.

Only the Third Legion was in a position to block

the advancing enemy. The king sent orders to hold

off the invaders until the nation could mobilize a

proper defense. A lesser man than Captain Forsythe

would have seen only the inevitability of failure.

Forsythe accepted his suicidal orders and marched

his mob of murderers and thieves to Freydor’s Gap,

a mountain pass through which the orcs had to

advance. The Third arrived only hours ahead of the

horde. Soldiers hastily occupied a long-abandoned

chain of Turathi fortifications that commanded the

pass. The orcs and their allies hurled themselves

against the crumbling walls for three weeks. Attack-

ers died by the thousands, yet onward they came,

H istory

It all began with the orcs. Nerath’s fourth king was a

feckless heir with an eye and an appetite for hedonis-

tic distractions and none of the discipline or devotion

shown by his sire. Albrect the Unworthy, as he was

called, cowered on his throne as the orc hordes

tramped out from the mountains to pillage. The raid-

ers plundered the nation of its treasure and enslaved

its people. Each victory emboldened the orcs to push

farther across the border, and each dark cloud smear-

ing the horizon tightened panic’s grip on the young

empire’s heart.

Nerath was not prepared for the hordes. After its

initial expansion, the nation turned its attention away

from military ambition. The highest military ranks

were bought and sold for prestige or were handed

out as favors by a king who had little regard for what

happened beyond his palace doors. Grasping fools,

sycophants, and hangers-on became ranking officers,

and all were strangers to merit. The one exception

among this unfortunate lot—the man who spared the

empire from a sudden and early end—was Captain

Michael Forsythe, known as Cunning to those under

his leadership.

Forsythe was not a man accustomed to handing

out f lattery. He played politics as deftly as a dolphin

strums a lute. His abrasive manner landed him in

command of the disgraced Third Legion. Its soldiers

were criminals, thieves, and murderers for the most

part, thrown into military service until they could

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The Last Legion

heedless of the corpses that tumbled down the siege

ladders to form reeking mounds that clogged the

pass.

After three weeks of almost constant fighting,

only a few hundred remained of the Third Legion’s

original three thousand, but these survivors still

stood atop their blood-soaked walls while the orcs

roared and rattled their weapons while remaining on

the hills below the pass. By the time the reorganized

legions arrived to relieve the Third, they had little

to do but mop up stragglers and pursue the defeated

horde back across the border.

The Third Legion’s reward for saving the empire

was no more than a pardon for those few soldiers

who survived. It remained a penal division, so that its

replacements were more criminals, mercenaries, and

adventuring scum with no place in the more formal

legions that were once again led by pampered nobles

and opportunists. But among the professional soldiers

of Nerath, the Third had won a reputation as the

toughest, hardest-fighting force in the army. Through

the generations that followed, the Third’s fighting

spirit never faltered and its reputation among the

legions never declined.

Had the Third been present for the Last Battle

against the White Ruin, perhaps the outcome would

have been different. Elidyr or one of his sons might

have survived; maybe Nerath would still exist today.

But the Third Legion was absent. It had been sent

away by Elidyr’s eldest son, Roland, who used his

inf luence to move the legion to the remotest outposts.

He did so because he coveted a woman who was

betrothed to the commander of the Third Legion,

a veteran named Paulus. Roland hoped that with

leagues between them, she would forget Paulus and

AdApting the Legion

The Last Legion’s story assumes game play

occurs in the Nentir Vale. The concepts and

events discussed are broad enough that you can

adapt them to whatever setting you like. What

follows are a few suggestions for the major Dun-

geons & Dragons ® game worlds.

In the Forgotten Realms ® setting, the Spell-

plague transformed the landscape, erasing entire

nations when Abeir returned. The Last Legion

might have been born in Mulhorand, Unther,

Chondath, or Halruaa, and now it fights in the

memory of its forgotten people.

In the Eberron ® setting, the Last Legion was

one of Cyre’s most distinguished units in the

Last War and survived by being absent when the

magical catastrophe ruined its homeland.

In the Dark Sun ® setting, the Last Legion once

hailed from doomed Yaramuke, where it was a

proud legion among the city-state’s best. Hamanu

shattered the city-state while the Last Legion was

skirmishing against forces of Raam. With its city

in ruins, the Last Legion now drifts across the

wastes, selling its swords to the highest bidder.

killing every monster that the Legion could overtake,

but every soldier knew that they were too late to make

a difference and too few in number to hold the nation

together. Nerath was dead.

Since his soldiers were now the sole survivors of

the entire Nerathan army, Paulus thought it made

no sense to address them as the Third Legion, so he

rechristened them the Last Legion. He led them for

many more years, which were devoted to safeguard-

ing whatever could be salvaged from the once-great

kingdom to scouring the land of the worst horrors

still lurking there.

t He L ast L egion

o rganization

None of the soldiers who fought in the Third have

lived to the present day, and not a single soldier who

claims membership in the Last Legion knew any of

them. What they have are the old stories and histo-

ries as well as the legends and mystique tied to the

Last Legion’s name. There might be different faces in

the organization, but their objectives are the same as

when the group was founded.

goal: The Last Legion works to protect what

remains of Nerath and, perhaps one day, to reunite

the land under its banner once more.

Stated goal: Most know the Last Legion as a

mercenary band formed to hunt and exterminate

monsters.

Size: The Legion’s numbers change as members

perish or retire and new recruits join. At most, the

Last Legion has a couple of hundred members in the

main force with agents scattered across most towns in

the Nentir Vale and elsewhere.

welcome Roland’s advances. While Roland courted

the young woman, the demonic army spilled into

Nerath. The Third was too far away to lend aid, and

humankind’s empire collapsed.

By the time the Third Legion learned what was

happening and marched back to the center of the

Empire, it was fighting alone. The citizens were

slaughtered, the capital was in ruins, and most of the

gnolls were already withdrawing into the wilderness.

Paulus pursued them to the borders and beyond,

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The Last Legion

alignment: Good.

Philosophy: “We keep Nerath’s memory alive

by preserving the past against the enemies of today.

Through our deeds and actions, we inspire others to

reach farther and become more than society expects

them to be. We will fight until the king returns and

relieves us of duty.”

History: Since the Last Legion formed, it has

undergone many missions, fought for many masters,

and drifted from place to place. It has been absent

from the Nentir Vale for the last few years while

fighting in the ruins of Nydor, a large city to the west

that fell to the gnolls years ago. After suffering a ter-

rible defeat, the Legion drifted back into the Vale to

find recruits to join the ranks.

Leadership: The battle-scarred half-elf Captain

Rule, whose real name is Elsa Kristoff, took com-

mand three years ago when her predecessor, Ryken

Masterson, fell to a poisoned drow quarrel during an

ambush in the ruined city. Rule rallied the force and

organized a series of counterattacks. After weeks of

ambush and reprisal in the twisting, rubble-strewn

streets, casualties mounted to the point where the

legion had to withdraw. Rule vowed to return and

cleanse the ruins once the legion is rebuilt to full

strength.

Headquarters: The Last League is the organiza-

tion’s headquarters, and its base is wherever it makes

camp. The captain and her officers occupy a tight

cluster of tents at the camp’s center .

Membership requirements: Recruiters prowl

towns and villages, looking for mercenaries and

adventurers first, militia second. They welcome

mages, priests, soldiers, and thieves. Anyone who has

a talent that can aid the Legion is accepted.

Structure: The Legion abides by a strict military

hierarchy with the captain at the top, followed by

brigadiers, lieutenants, sergeants, corporals, and

privates. Organization is by fours: the captain com-

mands four brigadiers, a brigadier commands four

lieutenants, and so on down the chain of command.

The exception is at the bottom, where a corporal

commands ten privates. At full strength, this struc-

ture gives the legion 2,900 soldiers, plus the captain.

Various specialists round it out to 3,000. The only

time the legion is at full strength, however, is at the

end of an extended period of recruiting and training

in a quiet region. A few months of hard fighting will

thin its ranks tremendously.

Only those who display courage and leader-

ship can climb the ranks. Officers can recommend

candidates for promotion, but such advancements

occur solely at the captain’s discretion and only when

command positions are open. Field promotions are

frequent when the legion is on campaign and casual-

ties are heavy.

activities: Evil humanoids, strange monsters,

dragons, aberrant mutants, and other threats to

civilization all have something to fear from the Last

Legion. Its size and organization suit it to fighting as

an army against massed enemies such as maraud-

ing goblin tribes and orc hordes. It also can operate

in smaller units to patrol ruined cities for undead

or stalk bands of bullywugs and lizardfolk through

swamps.

Not every mission, however, operates on a large

scale. A vampire lurking in a fortified stronghold

could hold out against an army indefinitely. A red

dragon could wreak havoc on soldiers formed into

ranks and files. To deal with unusual foes when

traditional fighting methods won’t work, the Last

Legion employs smaller teams. These units consist

of five or six trained professionals, each with a wide

range of abilities to ensure that the group works

smoothly together. These teams undertake a variety

of missions including assassination, espionage, and

Fe b r ua r y 2011 | Dragon 396

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