Into the Shadowed Borderland (Patreon)

So many adventures take place on the borderlands wherein civilisation collides with the barbaric wilderlands. Such places are ripe for adventurers seeking fame, glory and gold. Therein lurks the insidious agents of evil—and they must be rooted out.

This week, Jeff Gomez gives us 20 Things #59: Shadowed Borderland chock full of resources to turn your borderlands into shadowed, menaced places. It's all preparation for a project near and dear to my heart:

The Shadowed Keep

As I write this, the 5e edition of Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands is on track for a late March release, to celebrate our 11th birthday. The only slight fly in the ointment may be that the print edition might not be immediately available—Covid is still messing with the proofing process, and I await one more piece of material to complete the project. Everything else is done. 

The adventure has all-new maps (by mapping supremo Tommi Salama), new art from Matt Morrow and new material by me! 

Here's the adventure's new blurb:

Hidden deep in the borderland forest, bandits lurk in the ruined castle of a long-dead border lord. Their incessant raids draw a band of neophyte heroes to the derelict keep. There they discover fouler, more odious dangers lurk below the ruins. 

Dare you brave the terrors of the Shadowed Keep to crush that which lurks within or will darkness shroud the surrounding lands?

Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands is an adventure for 1st-level characters compatible with the 5th edition of the world’s most popular roleplaying game. Designed for the Duchy of Ashlar campaign setting the adventure can be easily inserted into a GM's home campaign.

I can't wait to see what you make of it!

Other versions of the adventure will likely follow, as time allows. The new edition has proven jolly time-consuming and expensive to create—more so than I anticipated when I started the project as I just *had* to have new maps, art and so on. One thing I wanted to include, but ran out of time, was another entire level of natural caves and caverns below the keep's cellars. 

I would also love to create an OSR edition of this adventure—let me know if you'd like such a thing by sounding off in the comments below.

Where's My Stuff?

As always, by the time you get you should have a message from me containing the special secret download codes for this week's book. Just drop it into your browser and you should be good to go. If you have any problems, drop me a line and I'll sort it out for you. 

Thank You!

I hope you can use this free-to-you 20 Things book in your campaign, and I hope it adds to your gaming fun. Pair it with an old classic like Keep on the Borderlands or even the Village of Hommlet for some old-school goodness!

Thank you for supporting us on Patreon. Patreon is Raging Swan Press's throbbing heart, and I'm tremendously grateful you are here. I'd like to also welcome our new members—Frankie Wakefield, Michael Harmon, Olga Winter and Elias Asvik—who have joined in the last few weeks. Welcome all!

Good luck with your games. Remember, Everything is Better with Tentacles