16. Someone asked
me these thought-provoking questions: “What
is the Keep in the “Keep on the Borderlands” module protecting? Why spend so much time, effort, and money to
build a keep at that isolated location, so far away from major settlements and
large farms, instead of somewhere else?”
What can a Dungeon Master do to give this keep an
overall narrative purpose, other than being a safe fortress to rest and
resupply the party? A Game Master should
look beyond the pages of this module and see how it fits into the wider world.
First, the fortress could be protecting the profitable fur
trade in this area, the same way that the Fort William fur trade post protected
the fur trade in central Canada. DMs
should put fur trappers and fur merchants as PCs and/or NPCs inside and outside
the Keep. This link can give DMs ideas
on how to build their frontier settlement.
https://fwhp.ca/
Second, the fortress could be protecting a plan to
harvest trees around the Keep, build a large sawmill, and then send cut lumber,
in large rafts down the river to Lawful cities and towns. There also might be veins of metals or layers
of coal under the ground around the Keep.
Third, imagine that the fortress could be protecting the
river valley, to prevent the river from being used by a flotilla of Chaos cargo
and passenger boats from invading the Lawful cities and towns along the river.
Fourth, the fortress could be protecting the trade carts
and stagecoach passengers on the road and boat traffic on the river. Base this adventure on Fort Boise that was a
major rest and resupply trading post for Oregon Trail Travelers.
Fifth, the mesa (an isolated, flat-topped elevation,
ridge or hill) that the fortress is built upon could be protecting a
secret. This secret could be an
underground temple of Law that was abandoned by a surface Chaos invasion tens
of thousands of years ago. Or, the
secret could be a rumored dragon’s hoard of treasures located somewhere within
the mesa. Base this adventure on the
ongoing treasure hunts on Oak Island.
Sixth, the fortress could be a forward operating base to
encourage Lawful settlements in once lawful territory that hundreds of years
ago were overrun by Chaos. Imagine that
this remote keep could be just one of a dozen such remote fortresses in a
Lawful master plan to push Chaos back, while expanding the lands of law on a
wide national border. Think of how the ancient Roman Empire
expanded from a modest settlement to one of the largest empires of the ancient
world. A lawful royal family planning to
drive Chaos back for dozens or hundreds of miles will give the player
characters many opportunities for collaborative storytelling.
