Where There Be Dragons
Traveling by yourself is hard. Traveling with a wagon or caravan of wagons is even harder. And when the route runs through the most dangerous, monster infested areas in the realm? Well, that’s downright impossible. That is why we offer reliable, discrete, and professional protection for all of your travel needs. We hire only the most experienced in mercenary protection to get you and your cargo safely where it needs to go, regardless of where the trail leads. Because your business is important, as is your life. Where There Be Dragons – spare no expense. Neither will we.
Corsin was the youngest son of a very wealthy and successful dwarven merchant family. He was poised to take over a small section of the business when everything his family had worked to build wiped away in a few short minutes. His family’s caravan was attacked as it went through a particularly dangerous area. His father had taken all of his brothers on the road to negotiate a better price on the caravan they were bringing to a human settlement. The budget mercenaries that had been purchased to guard the caravan had broken and ran at the first sign of danger, leaving the dwarves to die a most violent death, their goods forfeit to the young dragon that had attacked it, added to its hoard. And just like that, Corsin was left with the entire family business to run, and no further wish to do so. He wanted vengeance, not just against the dragon, but against the men that had taken his family’s gold and ran, leaving their employer to die. But he was no adventurer or fighter. If he went after any of them, he would simply join his family in the afterlife. No, he would get his revenge my making sure something like this never happened again as long as he had a say in it. And so he sold the rest of the family business, and after settling accounts and making sure the rest of his family was going to be taken care of, sunk the rest into a new business – one that would defend a merchant caravan or religious pilgrims or whoever hired travel protection. No matter the danger. No matter the odds. No matter the cost. They would make sure the client reached their destination safely. Using the name of the creature that put him in this position as inspiration, he began to lay the groundwork for Where There Be Dragons.
Corsin knew he was going to have to find people who believed in his mission as much, if not more, than he did and he knew he would have to and he knew that he would have to pay them well if he was going to demand that they risk everything for a contract, which meant he would be required to charge a premium of those who hired his company’s services. He also understood that the appeal of the kind of money he was offering would attract a lot of second- and third-rate mercenaries who cared more about the coin than the actual job. And so he spared no expense to find his first employees. It was slow going at first, and he almost bankrupted himself with the first contracts, but as more and more highly qualified individuals with reputations for getting the job done at any cost signed on, it started to look like this was more than simply a fantasy for the dwarf. It wasn’t long after that his team got to test their mettle with a contract that they were by all accounts unprepared for – a merchant caravan that wound through the exact same trail that Corsin’s family was lost on years ago. Sure enough, the dragon that had plagued his nightmares for years came to demand tribute, or take it by force. They fought the beast for many miles, fighting a running retreat. They suffered quite a few losses, and Corsin himself was crippled from an attack by the dragon’s slashing claws, but they managed to extricate themselves from the dragon’s territory with the merchant convoy intact. The merchant was so thankful and so impressed with the dwarves work that he began to sing their praises wherever he went, and Corsin found more and more contracts coming his way along with more and more eager young recruits looking to test their mettle against the dangers of the wilds with the newly minted legends of Corsin’s Mercenaries.
Over the years, the organization has grown, and now operates several chapterhouses in various parts of the land, but their core mission has never changed as the organization grew. Corsin himself still lives at the original chapterhouse and nominally oversees it. He has grown more and more sullen in the recent years, unexpectedly lashing out at his lieutenants from time to time for things out of their control. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that he tends to keep himself deep in his cups these days to avoid the pain of his wound he suffered. Most who know him are pretty sure he’s just trying to outlast the dragon that started this entire thing, and if it can’t be him that takes it down, you can damn sure bet it’s going to be one of his teams…
Using Where There Be Dragons
This organization can be easily dropped into any fantasy campaign world in any number of capacities. They would work just fine as NPCs for the characters to interact with from time to time. But they would shine best as patrons for the PCs. In fact, an entire campaign could easily revolve around the characters continually proving their worth as they join the organization and rise through the ranks. Varied clients and jobs mean that they don’t just get stuck doing the same job over and over again. And who knows? Maybe they’ll be the ones to finally get Corsin’s final revenge…
They could also work as rivals or even villains – instead of being altruistic, they could have a stranglehold on the routes through the dangerous parts and extort merchants and other travelers by charging outrageous fees for their protection. But even so, what would removing them from power do to the safety of the region? They may just succeed in getting rid of the lesser of two (or more) evils.
Ben Erickson
