Heroes of the Borderlands, Part 16

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.