A to Z of My D&D Campaign: C is for the Castellan Keep

The Keep on the Borderlands. 

Castellan Keep. 

It is a lonely, alluring, exciting, and terrifying place.

The kind of place that calls to Adventurers, Mercenaries, and Blackguards.

You can make a name for yourself at the Keep and your actions will dictate whether you achieve fame or infamy.

The Keep is a tiny shard of Law trying, valiantly, to keep the Chaos that surrounds it at bay. 

There are strange caves, tracks of blasted earth, mysterious hermits, and even a dungeon or two within a short ride.

It is a place to make a new start or an early end.

The War may be over, but the battle is joined. 

Just remember to return to the Keep before nightfall.

A to Z of My D&D Campaign: B is for the Broken Lands

The Broken Lands, as published for the DnD Rules Cyclopedia, was home to the Orcs of Thar and was North East of the Republic of Darokin.

For the purposes of my Campaign, it is now wedged North of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos between Rockhome and the Emirates of Ylaruam. Thar was not an evil nation filled with evil Orcs and Goblinoids. It was a thriving experiment of how the Orcish people could form a nation and build treaties with their surrounding neighbors. Except Alfheim, the Elves to their West always distrusted them and came to despise any nation that dealt with Thar.

Thar was the name of the visionary and brilliant Orc who united his people all across the face of the continent of Brun and built a nation that stood as an equal to its fellow nations. Three-Hundred years later, Thar was a bastion of commerce, discipline, and expression. Not only did Thar welcome other Races inside its borders but by following their Founder's teachings Orcs were welcomed elsewhere, as well.

It was Thar that was attacked on the 11th night of Thaumont by Archon Dryden'Octrar and her Blood-Red Legion. While, Alfheim claimed that Crown-Prince Ugar Tharreign had abducted Nephilim Sora'Tra for nefarious purposes. Archon Dryden acted on behalf of the Nephilim's mother, Hekate Olora'Nokt, a powerful Wytch and former lover.

Thar's allies in the Grand Duchy and the Emirates sprung to their defense and soon Darokin and the Five Shires joined with Alfheim while Earthome sold weapons to both sides.

The War lasted five years and only ended because Darokin and the Five Shires chose to changed allegiances after the Tarrasque was summoned in Tharza, the Orc nation's capital. The battle against the Tarrasque lasted forty-seven days and scarred the land with constantly shifting grounds due to ever-present earth tremors, volcanoes spewing forth lava or noxious gases, geysers, scalding mud pits, and dust storms. The air is heavy with the fumes blown from sulphuric puddles and fissures venting often toxic gases from deep underground. The climate is equally as fierce with the surface being blasted by the sun throughout summer or frozen by fierce winds during winter. On top of this savage landscape, monsters roam the land and are hypothesized to be the creation of some of the terrible magic that was used during the War.

However, Thar's inhabitants refuse to give up on their home and have founded New Tharza on the ruins of Anram, which was sacked by Typhon Ergar'Dunn, also known as the Grim Elf of Feador.

The Broken Lands are a daily reminder of what the people of Brun are capable of both good and bad.

A to Z of My D&D Campaign: A is for All Along the Watchtower

I'm running late with the Blogfest but I think this would be both a good exercise and a distraction.

This year I'm doing the A to Z of the DnD Campaign I start running tomorrow night on Roll20. This Campaign is being played by some dear old friends who I rarely get to see. They are wonderful friends, the type of friends that you might not see in a few years but you pick back up as soon as you are around each other. True friends. Well be running DnD 5E and we are starting at 1st level.

A is for All Along the Watchtower.

Its the name of the Campaign on Roll20. 

I've chosen to set the game in Mystara and at least the first several levels will be in and around the Keep on the Borderlands, also known as Castellan Keep, which is on the North-Eastern edge of the Grand Duchy of Karameikos.

In my version of Mystara Karameikos has recently finished a terrible war with Alfheim and Darokin to its East which drew in Rockhome, the Five Shires, Thar, and the Emirates of Ylaruam.  Alfheim, in a last and desperate bid to shatter the enemy nations that surrounded it summoned the Tarrasque and watched its enemies and their entire world tremble. It took forty-seven days to defeat the monstrosity and in the end, the Broken Lands* were all that remained of the homeland of the Orcs of Thar.

Its been two years since the end of the War. The Occupation of Alfheim gets more and more complicated each day as the Church of Zinzerena wages a guerilla war against the Confederacy while also rounding up the Archons of Lolth.

Many who fought in the War simply want to forget and Castellan Keep is a good place to do so. There are ample opportunities in the Altan Tepes Mountain range and the Borderlands between the Grand Duchy, the Emirates, and the Broken Lands.

The Keep and even the Borderlands is a fresh start away from the War and its horrors. There are cairns and hidden tombs to plunder, pilgrims to protect from monsters, and land to settle.

*For the record, the Broken Lands are actually North East of Darokin, but for my purposes, they are what remains of Thar after the Tarrasque was finally stopped and take up a portion of Rockhome and the Emirates. That's the beauty of DnD and RPGs in general, I can stand on the shoulder of Giants and still make their works my own.