Crownsguard

The Crownsguard is the primary law enforcement arm of the Dwendalian Empire. As a hired and trained, paramilitary gendarmarie, they are sent throughout each major city in order to keep the peace, while also acting as a national secret police that observes and eliminates any opponents to King Bertrand Dwendal's reign. Tensions frequently brew among the common folk due to the chafing watch of the Crownsguard.

The Crownsguard in the Marrow Valley are trained in Bladegarden. The standard uniform and equipment of the Crownsguard consists of vermilion or maroon robes, bronze scale mail breast and arm plates, a shield, greaves, a helmet, a crossbow, and a basic longsword.

Lawmasters
Lawmasters are magistrates that act as the local leadership for each Dwendalian town and city. Acting as both mayor and judge, they speak with the authority of King Bertrand Dwendal and each one is instated directly from Rexxentrum. It is customary to bow to the lawmaster.

Richter
The position of Richter serves a function similar to that of an associate judge to the lawmaster. Whereas the lawmaster dictates only high profile judgments, a richter would see most lower cases first, and gauge whether they were important enough to be decided by the lawmaster. The most senior richter in a town or city is known as the "high richter", and commands more prestige than the other richters in the area.

Watchmasters
Watchmasters act as the captains of local Crownsguard forces. Each watchmaster answers directly to their local lawmaster.

Trostenwald

 * Lawmaster Norda: A tough dwarven woman in her middle years. She headed the investigation concerning the Carnival of Curiosities zombie incident, and presided over the subsequent trial.
 * Watchmaster Jossyd: A man in his early forties. He has short brown hair with patches of grey, and was described as having "sort of jaundiced skin."
 * Stockade Jailer Theeds: A man with a heavy bushy beard, wearing a dark leather mantle and a simple cloth tunic. He was described as having burly arms, a heavy torso, and very scrawny legs, and having a widow's peak. He examined the injury Beauregard sustained from the zombie creature and managed to discern that it was mostly bludgeoning damage.
 * Other named guards
 * Damon
 * Flynn
 * Lucas
 * Jonas
 * Sivelmen

Alfield

 * Watchmaster Bryce Feelid: A half-elf with shoulder-length blond hair. They were in their fourth year as watchmaster of Alfield when they suffered injuries during the gnoll attack on the village. They were depicted using a morning star in battle. They recruited the Mighty Nein to dispatch the gnolls, promising compensation at a rate of 30 gold pieces per gnoll ear, 25 gold pieces per survivor recovered, and 10 gold pieces for each body recovered for families to bury; upon the Mighty Nein's return to Alfield, they compensated the party in full.
 * Other named guards
 * Reggie. This young man in his mid-20s had long hair that had been heavily braided on the sides of his head and then pinned in the back to form a short, tufty ponytail. The party stopped him as they happened to cross his path in the street, and they asked him whether they could have a horse provided by the Crownsguard so that they could complete the mission that Bryce had given them.

Zadash

 * Lawmaster Orentha Stonegrasp 
 * High-Richter Dayana Prucine 
 * Herald of the Hall Voloshin
 * Other named guards
 * Reeve. Escorted Jester to the Pillow Trove in the Tri-Spire.
 * Cloen. The only survivor from a party of Crownsguard that went down to investigate the disturbance in the sewers. He was later called upon to identify the creature to prove completion of the Roving Beast Task.
 * David. One of two guards stationed by the sewer entrance near Ruen Road and Dewmist. When the Mighty Nein attempted to sneak into the sewer without drawing attention, Fjord cast Crown of Madness on him, forcing him to fight the guard he was stationed with. He was eventually pinned to the ground and dragged off by several other guards just as the spell was broken, much to his confusion.
 * Sipes. One of the two Crownsguard that were running the Trebuchet game during the Harvest Close Festival.
 * Captain Jeremiah Simon. A more decorated crownsguards which was present at the Victory Pit tournament.

Berleben
There were a handful of Crownsguard stationed in Berleben who looked to be "somewhat lackluster." Their armor wasn't shiny and well-kept when compared to the soldiers positioned in other cities. They were likely not particularly appreciative of their situation, and had tried their best to adapt to life in the Labenda Swamp.
 * Alexander. One of the two Crownsguards that saw the Mighty Nein enter the Puddles.

Hupperdook
The Crownsguard stationed in Hupperdook consisted of a mix of gnomes, dwarves and humans. Due to the majority of townsfolk keeping busy with their work during the day time the crownsguard presence was fairly limited sleeping during the day. Though this presence was greatly expanded to coincide with the nightly festivities and rambunctious crowds that would emerge from the partying. The human crownsguard presence within the city kept a stern posture during the festivities, while their gnome counterparts were more inclined to join their fellow townsfolk.

Due to the increase demand and production of (war machines?), work would often be continued during the night and around these a heavy guard presence was quite considerable.

On their backs, as opposed to spears or shields, there were long metal firearms affixed with a wooden buttress at the end.

Nicodranas
As a valuable coastal trade center outside of its borders, the Empire had crownsguard stationed in Nicodranas, as a means to protecting political and trade interests within the Menagerie Coast. Although the local Zolezzo enforced the law within the cities under the Clovis Concord, the stationed crownsguard could enforce the Empire's laws if they felt that such action served its interests, without straining relations. Such enforcement could include the detention of worshipers of forbidden deities.

The Traveling Tent of Curiosities Incident
Two Crownsguard, Flynn and Sivelmen, were standing guard during the performance of the Carnival of Curiosities. When two of the audience members were suddenly transformed into monstrous creatures during the performance, mass hysteria ensued, and they unsuccessfully attempted to make their way through the panicking crowds fleeing the tent. After the commotion had died down and the creatures had been slain, Flynn sent Sivelmen out of the tent to get backup while he tried to figure out what had just transpired.

Left on his own in the tent with the party and the two monstrous corpses, Flynn was visibly sweating and scared, almost to the point of physically shaking. It appeared that he had not been prepared for such a situation and was trying to use what training he was given to defuse the traumatic scene.

Soon after, ten Crownsguard entered the tent, including an unnamed man who appeared to be the town's watchmaster.

Taking control of the situation, the watchmaster questioned those present, including Gustav Fletching, whom he looked down upon with a general sense of disinterest and disrespect. Speaking on the behalf of the Starosta, he thanked the party, then proceeded to leave behind five guards to detain the circus performers. He warned all other involved parties against leaving town, on the threat of the full might of the Cerberus Assembly tracking them down.

Yasha led Flynn off towards one of the performer's tents behind the carnival, claiming she was trying to find Toya; instead, she tricked him into entering the tent on his own and made a break for it, running off into the night. Realizing her deceit moments too late, Flynn rushed back toward the main tent and informed the watchmaster of the ruse. The watchmaster then sent three of the other guards to accompany Flynn out of the tent in search of her. Five of the remaining guards chained and shackled Gustav, Bosun "The Breaker," and Mollymauk Tealeaf, who were all taken to the stockade. The remaining party was again told to stay in the city until told otherwise.

The rest of the guards were instructed to begin questioning, and to generally keep an eye on the performers, who they decided to gather together in the common area behind the show tent. While they were in the process of doing so, they noticed Beauregard sneaking about suspiciously. Recognizing her as part of the group inside the show tent, three of them proceeded to shackle and manacle her, and she was taken to the stockade as well.

The Mighty Nein continued to investigate the events that had transpired. During this time, they attempted to get their party members released from the stockade, to some degree of success; however, they were sentenced to "house arrest" at the Nestled Nook Inn. Eventually, they made their way back to the carnival, where Jester was caught sneaking around by a guard named Damon. Despite alerting him, she diffused the situation by casting Charm Person on him and continued to sneak around without issue. Later, when Caleb was looking through Frumpkin's eyes, he saw Kylre emerge from his tent and turn both Damon and another guard into husks. The Mighty Nein engaged in combat with the creatures, then dumped their bodies on the Ustaloch's muddy banks.

After the Mighty Nein eventually found and defeated Kylre on Crookedstone Island and brought his head to shore, Caleb convinced the lawmaster to come to the Loch Ward docks and examine the culprit "he" had slain - he claimed that he had acted alone so as not to implicate the party members who were supposed to be confined to the inn. Although the lawmaster said that he was essentially turning himself in for the murder of one of her suspects, she still came to see the severed head.

During this time, Jester, Beauregard, and Nott attempted to make their way back to the Nestled Nook to resume their "house arrest." However, they were caught, and after a series of failed lies, the group was taken in chains to the stockade as well. As they arrived, they were just in time to intercept Caleb, and went with him towards the docks to see the head that Fjord was keeping an eye on nearby.

After the head was examined, there was discussion and some uncertainty as to the true nature of what kind of creature Kylre had actually been. Lawmaster Norda called for the aid of Archivist Xenoth, who arrived quickly, and with the help of Caleb's Fiends of Folklore book, the head was ultimately determined to be that of a nergaliid, a type of fiend.

The Attack on Alfield
The Mighty Nein later encountered an injured Watchmaster Bryce Feelid in the middle of a gnoll attack on the town of Alfield. The town had suffered much loss of life already and was being severely damaged by fire. Bryce told the party that they had originally been with a group of four Crownsguard that were currently exchanging volleys with the gnolls, and who were tending to their own injuries as well.

Seeing the party approach, able-bodied with weapons at the ready, Bryce directed them to join the fight and promised to pay thirty gold pieces per gnoll ear. After the battle, they paid the Mighty Nein 360 gold pieces.

Trivia

 * Matthew Mercer has stated on Twitter that he envisioned the Crownsguard as resembling the army of the late Byzantine Empire (1200s to 1453). Crownsguard_Concept_c.png