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Macsen himself was lost to the Realm's Northern wars just 25 years after the founding of the Keep. Known officially by the name of the current castellan (such as Kendall's Keep, or Frandor's Keep), the Keep is usually labeled as 'Castellan Keep' on maps of the area, and is known to the populace as simply 'The Keep'.įor many years the Keep was successful, clearing out the area nearby, and allowing farmers and other settlers to build outside the walls and create communities. Never one to sit still, Macsen ruled the Keep indirectly, leaving it in the care of a succession of leaders, chosen by him, and later by their predecessors, the castellans. A hero of the Realm, Macsen created the Keep as a personal base, as well as an outpost to provide defense and respite for travelers along the old trade way, being the last outpost of the eastern Realm. Since I'm hoping to start running this online in August, the folks I normally would have looking this stuff over are in my group of potential recruits (so stay out!).įounded by Lord Macsen approximately 150 years ago, the Keep is situated on a highly defensible mesa in the foothills along the old Eastern Trail. Though I don't mind diverging from the default, I don't want to do it inadvertently, so please point out if I do that in my general ramblings here. Since I'm planning this more or less in a vacuum, I don't know where my ideas may step on the toes of the 'admittedly simple' world view for the new edition. Which means this is mostly fluff, as I haven't had the opportunity to play with the rules yet. I found a group that was working on a similar project, but as soon as the books came out, they lost steam and stopped posting, so I thought I'd kick around a few ideas here while I'm still awaiting my corebooks. I posted earlier about Baphomet and Minotaurs, and the discussion there gave me a good idea of how I am going to adjust the setting to give it some backstory for the players to uncover. But in the meantime, I've been thinking a lot about the Keep and changes I want to make, both to set the stage for a starting campaign, and to hook into some of the things I've been hearing about the minimal fluff in 4E.

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