A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands

Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands by Creighton Broadhurst is a role playing game supplement published by Raging Swan Press for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is an adventure for 1st level characters and the location was retroactively added to the Gloamhold setting of the Duchy of Ashlar.

The supplement is available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG for $9.99, as a softcover print on demand book for $13.99 or as both PDF and softcover for $18.97. It is also available in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed although it was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. It can also be bought in printed form from sites such as Amazon. The PDF has 97 pages, with two being the front and rear covers, two are ads, two the front matter, one the Contents, one Stat Blocks by CR, one on Using this Adventure, one on Reading Stat Blocks and one the Open Game License. Each section also has a full-page title. The PDF comes in two versions, one designed for print and high-end devices, the other for low end and mobile. There is a second, 16-page PDF, that contains all the stats used in the adventure.

The first section is Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands, which gives an overview of various elements.

The Background gives some history of the keep, how it was founded by an adventurer, Valentin Ironwolf, forty years ago. The place was built into a fortress and Ironwolf attacked the neighbouring humanoid tribes from the fortress. However, Ironwolf ran out of money and was unable to finish the fortress or exterminate the tribes, and was unable to keep the servants and retainers employed. With the fortress’s’ defenders reduced, an alliance of orcs and goblins overran it, then turned to fighting amongst themselves.

Running Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands explains that this is a sandbox adventure to a degree. There are hooks for getting characters to the keep, lore that can be discovered and a table of rumours, some of which are wholly or partially false.

Surrounding Territory has a random encounter table and terrain features for the woodland, together with stats for encounters.

The Keep gives an overview of the different parts of the keep, including underground. There is an overview map of the outside that is a player-friendly handout.

Timeline has a list of events that can happen over 18 days. There are sidebars on adjusting this timeline to suit a campaign, the suggestion of possibly introducing a rival adventuring party and some PC-triggered events.

Further Adventures include the PCs claiming the keep for their own – a mammoth task – exploring the underground areas and searching for the lost dwarven hold of Hadramkath.

The keep is explored next and the various sections have such as tower features, random encounters and dressing. All encounters have options for scaling them up and down as well.

Watchtower of the Bandit Queen is the next section and the area the characters will probably explore first. The keep’s tower has been taken over by a group of bandits. The bandits are, however, struggling; the nearby area is mostly avoided because of humanoid depredations, leaving little for the bandits to prey on, and they lack the strength to deal decisively with the nearby goblins.

Donjon of Ruin is the main aboveground section of the keep, but it isn’t currently occupied by any single force, just monsters. It is travelled frequently by the goblins, though.

Realm of the Blood Moon is the underground area below the donjon which is the main lair of the goblins, although they do have a number of lairs in the surrounding woodland. One of the members of the tribe would like to depose the fiendish ogre leading them, and may ask for help; there are also NPC prisoners who may prove helpful. As mentioned, the keep was retroactively added to the Gloamhold setting; this does cause a bit of a discrepancy in this section. There are emissaries of the Bleached Skull Gnolls in this area and that tribe is based in The Lonely Coast setting, not Gloamhold. This can be altered by simply changing the name.

The Undercrypt is the final location in the keep and contains the dead and a temple. Corruption has turned the dead into the undead, and there are two suggestions for the origin of this corruption and dealing with it.

Following this are nine pregenerated characters, three pages are player handout maps and nine pages are illustrations to be shown to players, reproductions of images from within the text.

Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands in Review

The PDF is well-bookmarked; unfortunately, many of these point to the wrong pages, making them rather less useful. The Contents is to a similar level of depth. Having the stat blocks in a second PDF is useful, as is separating out that handouts and illustrations. Navigation is okay, but it could have been better. The text maintains a two-column black and white format and some minor errors were noticed. There are a number of black and white illustrations that appear to be a combination of stock and custom. Most are decent but one is in such a different style to the rest that it really doesn’t fit. Presentation is decent.

With there being several different parties in the keep, in particular the bandits and the goblins, taking the place all at once is unlikely to be possible; there are some potentially dangerous encounters for low-level characters who bight off more than they can chew. Characters could perhaps try and ally with one side against another, and the timeline of events will give the keep much more of a living feel than otherwise. Characters can roam as they wish, but there are other events happening in the background – or, if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time, right in front of them. Each area has the appropriate details given so that the GM can describe anything needed. The keep can easily be dropped into the borders of any land in most campaign settings, or it can be used with the Gloamhold setting where there is a lot of other content available. Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands is a nice, well detailed starting adventure and it can be found by clicking here.