Factions of Thagwar (Part II)

The Poison Trio (#3/31, #276/365)

These are a counterpoint to the First Overlord that have arisen over recent centuries after seeing the example of the Venom Demon rulers of the twin oasis cities of Qag and Kor, and have attempted to recreate it within Thagwar. Naturally, the trio are all also Venom Demons, as follows:

• Bothrops the Belicose (brave, muscular): Bothrops is the unacknowledged leader of the trio. She commands the armed forces, often in person, against any threat to Thagwar and the interests of her faction. Bothrops has a fascination for military literature from Titan, and is currently attempting to track down histories of the Trolltooth Wars in her spare time.
  
• Bitis Beast-Mech (pedantic, crippled): Bitis is the creative presence, the researcher and tinkerer. She was nearly dismembered in an Iron Demon incursion around a century ago, and has used a combination of technomantic rust-proof alloy and marrangha-based biomech to rebuild her shattered body. Bitis is currently feeling pressured because her attempts to imitate the fungi-based tech of the Overlord are proving difficult.
• Bungarus Bungaroides (mild-mannered, gaunt): Although Bungarus appears the least-threatening of the trio, she is actually the most dangerous, commanding a web of spies and assassins spreading outwards from Thagwar to foster alliances and disputes between Qag, Kor and even Gabonika of the Northern Silt Dunes. She is constantly looking for imaginative ways to infiltrate the First Overlord's quarters of the city, and place spies within the T.U.P. bureaucratic hierarchy, as well as uncover moles within her own urban espionage networks.
  

The Poison Trio control around thirty percent of Thagwar's districts, mostly on the outer edges of the sprawl, and thus provide a natural partial chokepoint at times to physical land-based movement in and out of the city; other methods of travel remain open and viable.

They also command the rest of the armed forces, including all of the remaining elite and regular soldiers and half of the remaining militia forces. These troops are ostensibly used to deal with external threats to Thagwar, including invasions from other city-states or minor demonic satrapies, aggressive swarming behaviour from sundry hordes (demon, undead, endemic or otherwise), awoken gargantuan Creatures from the Godtime, avenging Gods of Good or Neutrality and their holy retinues, and occasional crusading adventurers and their followers and hirelings.

The Poison Trio are in a state of perpetual frustration as they seek to be independent operators but require gear from the Overlord's T.U.P. offices to exist in any viable sense. For example, they attempted to create their own identity passes to be used in their areas of the city, but, lacking the Overlord's expertise, the Trio's versions are poor, low budget imitations and easily hackable. The same problem has befallen their efforts at minting new currencies which have become instantly forged in such numbers as to render the coinage almost worthless. They suspect their own districts are riddled with Overlord spies as a result and there is usually some sort of purge or inquisition in effect to root out traitors to the Trio's just cause.

(The one secret they are currently succeeding in hiding however, is the presence of the kidnapped Maker God Bisu within the city; they know something has happened, but not the specifics or who did it, however, if it shakes things up and gives them extra leverage then the Poison Trio are all on board!)