Steel Nation
City: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Population: 68,000/350,000
Controls: Southwestern Pennsylvania
Government: Despotism
Problem: Monsters
Heroic Opportunity: Bounty
City Aspect: Militaristic
Before the Serpentfall, John Irons was a steelworker for US Steel. It was a hard life, but it made him strong — and when the Serpent fell and the world burned Irons used that strength to crown himself King of Iron. It is a very real title: the King holds his court on the top floor of the Frick Building, and his rule extends over larger and larger parts of southwestern Pennsylvania. And he plans to extend that rule to the farms and mines of Ohio.
Pittsburgh’s armies are still small, but they are well-equipped and trained. The Royal Guard in particular is constantly skirmishing and patrolling the wilderness, fighting monsters and bandits where they encounter them; their sigil (a black sword on a gold field) gathers respect as far afield as Akron. Pittsburgh armies still rely on guns and trucks, but they increasingly use steel weapons and chain. A sword is never out of ammunition, after all; and a good mail shirt can hold off the claws of a bear or a wendigo.
The King of Iron is not an evil man, nor a capricious one. He disdains cruelty as beneath his dignity, and sees no value in sick or starving subjects. His subjects, in fact, value his fair and just rule. But the King is a hard, hard man. It is his will to create an army and a kingdom that will allow either him, or perhaps his children, to conquer widely; and he will not tolerate any obstacle to his will. He is a good friend, an excellent war-leader, and a dangerous enemy.
He also has work for a strong-armed fighter. The sewers of Pittsburgh have horrors inside them that seem to be equally warped by Serpent’s venom and man’s industries. If not regularly hacked back, the monsters eventually grow bold enough to creep up into the sunlight and attack the King’s subjects. The King of Iron pays well for those brave enough to go into the sewers, and skilled enough to come back with a monster’s head. He also takes note of who does well, down there in the dark; a fact that has not eluded the more ambitious in his court. Many things can happen down there, and often do.