Red Gauntlet Regiment

The Red Gauntlet Regiment is choosy about its new recruits, but it looks for evidence of bravery and valor over impeccable skill at arms. Once you wear the red gauntlet, your commanders assume that you’ll quickly become a casualty of war if you aren’t prepared. Veterans don’t give new recruits the time of day, since those recruits have yet to prove they can survive the rigors of combat. The veterans share a deep bond with each other—they’ve seen it all and survived it all together.

Joining the Red Gauntlet Regiment is a straightforward process, assuming the regiment is hiring. Historically, hiring has been done toward the middle or end of a military campaign, when the regiment’s ranks have been depleted by casualties. Since it was engaged with Cyran forces on the Day of Mourning, the Red Gauntlet lost a great many of its members that day, and it actively recruits now even as it searches for meaningful work.

The Red Gauntlet Regiment believes in what its commanders call “task-based organization.” Squads within the regiment tend to be fl exible, with commanders assembling and reassembling teams based on the needs of a particular mission. Thus, it’s not uncommon for a Red Gauntlet squad to resemble a group of adventurers, having spellcasters and specialists mixed in with traditional soldiers.

Recruits are almost never mixed with veterans, however. New members of the Red Gauntlet Regiment fi nd themselves placed in recruit squads and given less important (but still dangerous) missions until they have proven themselves—or have died trying. Only gradually are new members introduced to the Red Gauntlet leadership and its elite units.

Initial training for the Red Gauntlet Regiment tends to be brief and informal. New members receive an introduction to their commanders, they learn the unit’s heraldry and signal protocols, and then they’re thrown into the fray. Between military campaigns, the Red Gauntlet spends a lot of time drilling (after the mandatory few weeks of rest and recreation at the end of an engagement). The grizzled veterans of the regiment have a vast store of knowledge on all matters military, and they gladly share what they know with their fellow soldiers.

The Red Gauntlet Regiment has small barracks in large cities and metropolises, but these are rarely used by the rank-and-file troops, who are usually out in the field. The barracks are used more as business offices and recruiting centers, with only a small guard detail. Members of the regiment on a mission or on detached duty can find austere but secure accommodations at the barracks.

Professionalism and honor are of paramount importance to you. You’re in it for the money, to be sure, but you take pride in your work. You are proud that over the centuries, the Red Gauntlet Regiment has never reneged on a contract or left its patrons in the lurch.

Surrounded by like-minded professional soldiers, you have a hard time dealing with people whose loyalties are more fl exible, or with fanatics who fight for an abstract cause. You’re most comfortable around your comrades— fellow professionals all. They’re probably the only family you have, and you dread the day when you’re too old to wield a weapon and stand shoulder to shoulder with them. Combat: Red Gauntlet military doctrine emphasizes maneuverability and fl exibility. Commanders try to avoid showing the same tactic to an enemy twice, and might first pepper the enemy lines with archers, then harass the supply lines with cavalry, then use illusions to provide distractions before an infantry assault.

Such varied tactics work only because the regiment is well trained and good at reorganizing itself at a moment’s notice. The regiment’s mercenaries are cross-trained in several aspects of warfare—able to wield a halberd, string a bow, launch a catapult, ride a horse, or sneak behind enemy lines. And that’s just the wizards.

When they can, the Red Gauntlet Regiment’s officers employ what they call the three keys strategy: preemption, disruption, and dislocation. The regiment first endeavors to preempt a battle by seizing the objective before the enemy is able to mount a response. If necessary, it then moves to disruption, eliminating the enemy’s ability to wage war by attacking supplies, destroying morale, and subverting its command structure. Finally, the regiment uses subterfuge, magic, and complicated timed maneuvers to dislocate the enemy. By the time the opposing army has been led off against some nonexistent threat, the Red Gauntlet Regiment has massed around the battle’s critical point. Advancement: By and large, the Red Gauntlet Regiment is a meritocracy, so advancement can occur rapidly if you prove yourself effective on the battlefield. Recruits chafe for a while as the veterans get the most lucrative assignments. Once you have proven yourself, though, you’ll be getting those assignments—and the extra money they’ll earn you.

The Red Gauntlet Regiment officer corps is expected to lead from the front, so battlefield casualties mean that there is almost always room in the command structure for new officers. However, while officers draw a slightly higher base pay than the rank and file, they don’t necessarily get more reward money, so the regiment’s grizzled veterans sometimes turn down commissions.

During the Last War, esprit de corps was high in the Red Gauntlet Regiment, so most veterans stayed on until they died or retired. Since the end of the war, however, the regiment has suffered serious attrition. The remaining members are some of the oldest soldiers from bygone days. Younger members whose lives were less invested in the war had an easier time dropping out of the regiment and back into civilian life.

Missions: As a member of the Red Gauntlet Regiment, you can expect to continue fighting the Last War wherever it persists. The Graywall Mountains between Breland and Droaam are one of Khorvaire’s continuing hotspots of military activity, and the Red Gauntlets are there in significant numbers helping Breland defend its borders. Smaller numbers of Red Gauntlet units patrol the Seawall Mountains at the western edge of Darguun, protecting both Breland and Zilargo from goblinoid incursion. In addition, Karrnath has hired a few companies to help contain Valenar attacks in and across the Talenta Plains.

Wherever you are engaged, you’ll likely be called on to execute one of the three keys of regiment strategy. You might make a midnight ride to seize a castle before the enemy can get out of its barracks, thus preempting a battle. If you’re ordered to destroy a dam and thereby fl ood the enemy trenches, you’re executing a disruption strategy. Alternatively, the Red Gauntlet might dress you up like generals and have you ride across the battlefield, drawing pursuit from elite enemy units that then won’t be able to join the battle at the real objective.

The Red Gauntlet Regiment also sends its members on missions away from the battlefield. You might accompany an officer to assist in negotiations for a future mercenary contract, or find a fallen comrade’s family and deliver a survivor benefit.

All that said, things are relatively quiet after the fury of the Last War, and as long as you check in with your commanders periodically, you can expect plenty of time to engage in your own adventures while remaining a member of the Red Gauntlet. Such freelancing is encouraged, but the regiment frowns on independent adventuring during a military campaign. When the war’s on, you’re expected to be all about the regiment’s business.

The Red Gauntlet Regiment represents the quintessential band of honorable mercenaries. Though they keep their eyes on the gold rewards, they remain skilled artisans who take great pride in their work. Their fl exible military doctrine offers players a wide variety of experiences on the battlefield, and if the PCs are in the Red Gauntlet Regiment, they’ll rarely perform the same function in combat twice. Organization: On paper, the Red Gauntlet Regiment looks like part of a national army—or at least it did until the end of the Last War left only a single battalion among its ranks. The regiment’s commander is a colonel, assisted by a staff of advisors and four majors that once led the regiment’s battalions. As a practical matter, each company within the regiment reorganizes itself to meet the needs of the day’s battle. Companies are simply numbered (1st company of the 3rd battalion, for example), and squads are usually referred to by the name of the sergeant who commands them. Those squads are moved from one company to another with great rapidity, often because a particular commander is closer to the action or has special expertise in the squad’s duties.

The colonel’s staff handles the business aspects of running the regiment. During a battle, the colonel and a small retinue use one of the battalion’s headquarters as a central command center, or they lead from the saddle, moving from unit to unit and giving orders directly. Veterans grumble that the regiment’s motto is “There’s always one more thing to do.” On the eve of battle, every member of the regiment keeps busy digging trenches, strengthening fortifications, and scouting out nearby terrain. Few lulls occur during the battle, because the regiment’s commanders constantly reposition their troops to confound their enemies. A Red Gauntlet major might say with a straight face: “Your squad can rest while it marches to the top of that hill over there. Then prepare some field expedient fortifications and await further orders.”

The current head of the Red Gauntlet Regiment is Karlerren ir’Vore, but almost everyone refers to him simply as “the colonel.” The second son of a Karrnathi noble family, he served in Karrnath’s national army until his men deserted him in the face of a regiment of Cyran warforged soldiers. Surrounded by more than a hundred enemies, ir’Vore held them off with a clever bluff until the Red Gauntlets arrived and rescued him. He joined the regiment on the spot and worked his way up the ranks over the next two decades.

The colonel is in his sixties and contemplating retirement to the family manor. When he does, the Red Gauntlet Regiment will have to promote a new colonel. The regiment doesn’t have a codified succession policy, so ir’Vore’s retirement will likely lead to a power struggle between three candidates: Major Hilliard (a cavalry specialist), Major Glaurr (a half-elf ranger), and Captain Sureya (a sorcerer on the colonel’s staff who handles the regiment’s business affairs).

Folk tales of the Red Gauntlets abound, and they all deliver the same message: The regiment is full of clever professionals who are loyal to their contract, no matter how dire the situation becomes. NPCs who are knowledgeable about military matters thus have an initial attitude of friendly to those who wear the red gauntlet (except those who have recently battled the regiment). Recent foes of the Red Gauntlet don’t regard them as kindly, even if they offer grudging respect for the regiment’s skill at arms. Most of the grudges of the Last War are forgotten now, but some Cyran nationals hold the Red Gauntlet somehow responsible for the Day of Mourning. Droaam and Darguun similarly have no love for the regiment, thanks to its current involvement in fighting their forces. NPCs associated with any of those groups have a starting attitude of unfriendly to members of the Red Gauntlet Regiment.

For their part, Red Gauntlet Regiment members have an initial attitude of indifferent toward nearly everyone they’re not actually at war with. To hold a grudge after war’s end would besmirch their professionalism, and today’s enemy might be tomorrow’s employer.

The regiment has a complicated relationship with House Deneith, viewed as the clearinghouse for mercenary services in Khorvaire. On many occasions, House Deneith has actually hired the Red Gauntlets, acting as a broker and intermediary between the employer and the regiment. Mostly, though, the regiment’s reputation allows it to secure work on its own merits and leave Deneith out of the transaction—which makes the heads of the dragonmarked house unhappy. Publicly, House Deneith has been respectful of the regiment and praised its work. Privately, members of the regiment should not be surprised to encounter unfriendly reactions from those in positions of power in the house.