Let's Read Threats to the Nentir Vale: Iron Circle
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This is another Vale-specific faction, one with strong ties to a published adventure.
The Lore
The Iron Circle is a large band of evil mercenaries whose main base operation lies south of the Nentir Vale in the city of Sarthel. They’re led by a man named Lord Vhennyk and are faithful worshipers of Asmodeus. As an organization their ultimate goal is to conquer the world in the name of Hell. Given what we’ve read about devils and Hell in past projects, that likely makes them the militarized faction in the Vale most deserving of the label “fascist”.
Vhennyk wishes to conquer the Vale as part of his overall world domination goal, and has begun sending his forces to the barony of Harkenwold, near the Vale’s southern border, likely because he believes it to be especially vulnerable.
Vhennyk himself remains far away in Sarthel. He’s delegating this invasion to Nazin Redthorn, one of his captains. Redthorn is recently arrived at the Vale and has been tasked with stepping up operations and upgrading the espionage campaign the Circle has on Harkenwold into an overt invasion. Val Esed is the spymaster in charge of the current efforts, and she’s been feeding information on the Vale’s inhabitants and defenses to the Circle for a while now.
The Iron Circle is the major antagonist in the Reavers of Harkenwold two-part adventure that comes with the Dungeon Master’s Kit boxed set. The Kit was the main GMing aid for the Essentials line, and was sold at the same time as Threats. This book really wants you to get that box, so it avoids spoilers for Reavers and recommends you to leave the named leaders out of any home-grown adventures until you can buy and read it (cha-ching!).
The Iron Circle is shown here as it was shortly before the start of Reavers, so they’re still mostly focused on spying and reconnaissance, moving discreetly in small groups and avoiding openly showing their symbols. Soldiers openly wearing their colors are known mostly as slightly creepy foreign mercenaries. Their spying does not restrict itself to Harkenwold, but also touches upon the elves of Harken forest (whether they belong to Harken’s Heart or not) and on the Daggerburg Goblins.
The Circle’s spellcasters all use infernal magic, and have a particular affinity for summoning Tar Devils. These creatures are so named because they constantly secrete tar from their skins, and they love acting as guards and extra muscle for Circle detachments. They usually wear little clothing and use exotic weapons.
The Numbers
We get stats here for all the types of unit that make up the Iron Circle’s roster, but as mentioned before the book avoids statting up important named NPCs that have roles in Reavers.
The majority of the Circle’s mortal agents are human, but sympathetic people from other races are also accepted as members. You can use any other stat blocks from the MMs (humans, elves, dwarves, other species) as members of the circle. Circle members have no common traits, so you don’t need to do much reskinning for them.
Tar Devils are Medium Immortal Humanoids with Fire Resistance 10 and Acid Vulnerability 5. Maybe acid interacts badly with the tar?
Iron Circle Brigand
The most basic and numerous soldier of the Circle uses this stat block. As the name implies, they’re definitely not above engaging in a little banditry. These are Level 1 Soldiers with 28 HP. They’re well-equipped with scale armor, shield, mace, crossbow and a fancy black cloak with the Circle’s emblem (a circle made of chains) embroidered on it.
The mace and crossbow provide the soldier with basic melee and ranged attacks. They can also use the mace to Drive Back an enemy, dealing the same damage as a basic attack, pushing the target 1 square, and shifting 1 square to follow. Their Relentless Assault trait acts as an aura (1) that deals 3 damage to any enemy inside that makes an attack that doesn’t target the brigand.
Brigands probably like to gang up on defenders and melee strikers, since most of those PCs’ attacks are single-target and will trigger Relentless Assault on all the other brigands not targeted.
Iron Circle Dark Adept
This infernalist spellcaster is a Level 3 Controller with the Leader keyword and 46 HP. They fight in melee with a Dark Dagger that deals fire damage and slides 3 squares on a hit. At range they can use an area attack named Dark Tendrils that deals fire damage, slows, and makes targets grant combat advantage for a turn. It’s not selective, so it can cause friendly fire incidents.
The adept’s leaderly power is Dark Imperative, a minor action that recharges when they’re first bloodied. It targets an ally and lets them slide that ally 3 squares. The ally gains 10 temporary HP, and while those last their attacks all deal an extra 3 necrotic damage. Great to place skirmishers behind PC lines.
Tar Devil Harrier
These tar devils are Level 3 Artillery with 36 HP. They fight with a Kukri up close but prefer to hang back and throw tar balls that deal fire damage, slow and deal 2 ongoing damage (save ends both). If surrounded they can produce a Fuming Cloud (encounter) that deals fire damage and creates a zone that lasts the rest of the encounter. The zone provides concealment and deals 2 fire damage to any creature ending their turn inside.
Tar Devil Brawler
This one likes to fight with using its secreted tar as a weapon. It’s a Level 3 Brute with 53 HP. Its Tar Splatter acts like an aura (1) that prevents enemies who start their turns inside from shifting that turn. It attacks with slams that deal fire damage, and with Tar Strikes (recharge 5+) that deals heavy fire damage, immobilizes, and inflicts ongoing 5 fire damage (save ends both).
Tar Devil Guard
This Level 4 Soldier has 53 HP and wields a khopesh in combat. The hot reek of its tar acts as an aura (1) that deals 2 fire damage to any enemy that starts their turn inside, and also prevents them from shifting that turn. It can also toss a tar net out to Range 5, targeting Reflex. A hit deals fire damage, restrains (save ends), and lets the devil pull the target up to 4 squares to a square adjacent to it.
Iron Circle Spy
Spies are among the most well-trained mortal agents of the Circle current in the area. They wear no identifying marks, and pose as normal travelers or inhabitants of Harkenwold’s many small communities. Spies are Level 4 Lurkers with 44 HP. When pressed into a fight, they use short swords in melee and blasts of infernal fire at range. Both are basic attacks.
Spies can cloak themselves in a Veil of Shadows, creating a zone that lasts for a turn and blocks line of sight for everyone except for the spy. They can also imbue their swords with flame for an Infernal Strike. This is twice as strong as a basic strike and deals fire damage, half on a miss. Using one of these two powers recharges the other, so there’s your lurker loop.
If an enemy uses a power that inflicts forced movement on the spy while it’s inside the Veil of Shadows, the spy can use Diabolical Dodge to make a free basic attack against that enemy and shift up to 2 squares to another square inside the zone, all as an interrupt.
Iron Circle Commander
This might apply to Nazin Redthorn, or it might be one of the officers under his command. I haven’t read Reavers yet! Anyway, commanders are Level 5 Elite Soldiers with the Leader tag and 126 HP. They wield flails with great skill.
Aside from basic attacks, they can use a Devil’s Tactics at-will maneuver that does the same damage, makes the target grant combat advantage for a turn on a hit, and lets an enemy within 5 squares make a free basic attack against the target as an effect. If an enemy leaves a square adjacent to the commander, it can use Tripping Flail as an opportunity action to attack their Reflex and knock them prone on a hit.
Once per encounter the commander can unleash a selective blast of Infernal Flames, which deal fire damage and daze on a hit (save ends). Allies in the blast gain 5 temporary HP.
Final Impression
Unlike Dythan’s Legion or the Gray Company, which can take a while to become active, the Iron Circle is poised to be an immediate threat to starting characters and to the Vale, which is exactly what happens in Reavers of Harkenwold.
If left unopposed, they might end up pressganging the Daggerburg Goblins (as someone in the RPG.net thread mentioned shortly before I wrote this), and might even link up with the Shadow Court over in Fallcrest to grab information about the city before moving against it in force. The Shadow Court entry gave me the impression the Circle wouldn’t have a use for the tiefling gang, but it turns out they would neatly slot into each other’s plans.
It was pointed out to me that the Shadow Court could be seen as embodying several unfortunate antisemitic tropes. One way to avoid that would be to not make them a spy ring working for the Iron Circle from the start, to have a more diverse membership than just tieflings, and to completely remove all the text about their recruiting practices.
Of the groups we saw so far, the druids of Harkens Heart would have cause to oppose the Circle’s advances into their woods, but would have little ability or desire to fight them outside. The Daggerburg goblins would of course resist being pressed into service to them, and might either have a good shot at succeeding, or might need PC help depending on your campaign goals.
The Gravelstokes might work for the Circle if the money is right, but if you keep the level disparity they’ll most likely adopt a wait and see approach before deigning to offer their services. PCs who can scrape together their ruinous fees might turn things around and hire the assassin family to strike the Iron Circle’s leadership instead!
The Hunter Spiders would ignore all of these surfacer conflicts unless they give them more opportunities to grab slaves to aid in their search.