Keep on the Shadowfell - Player Background

Keep on the Shadowfell is the first published adventure for Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition. This preview adventure provides quick start rules and pregenerated characters. This adventure will serve as a preview to the Greyshad campaign.

Player Background

It has been 217 years since the Purge and the fall of the Oshland Empire. In the dark years since that time communication between lands, travel and trade has broken down. Warriors and wise men have managed to establish small pockets of civilization in the ruins of lost empires. One such point of light is the great city-state of Roth.

Once the eastern jewel of the Oshland Empire, Roth fell on hard times after the Purge. The people of Roth have suffered the ravages of war as armies sacked the city three times in less than a century. For a time the great city fell nearly to ruin and its walls hid the hollow husk that it had become.

About fifty years ago Mark Winland, a mighty warlord with a faithful band of followers, proclaimed himself King of Roth and the Eastern Marches. He ruthlessly destroyed would-be usurpers, real and imagined, and launched a campaign to bring peace and order to the land. He spent the last thirty years of his life fighting battles with goblin tribes, pirates on the Elba River, and politicians who would seek to tear him down. On his death his son, Mark Winland II, ascended to the throne.

King Mark Winland II proved himself a man of strength and honor and a great conciliator. He made peace with the river bands on the Elba, established trade with Port Eben, and managed to turn back the last of the goblin hordes near Roth with a pledge of non-agression should they remain outside the border of his kingdom. Since the first seven years of his reign Roth has been at peace and managed to rebuild. While not nearly the city of splendor it was in the glory days of empire, Roth stands as a beacon in a sea of chaos and danger. All of the lands within a day's ride of the city know peace and prosperity.

This time of plenty has awakened in the king a desire to fulfill his father's vision of a new empire with Roth as its capital. Several months ago he sent an emissary to the town of Ford far to the north. The envoy, Douven Staul, had orders to establish contact with the governing body of Ford and to learn all he could about the situation in and around Ford. King Mark has it in his mind to establish dominion over the lands north and east of Roth. Ford once held an important crossroad in the Eastern Marches. Tales speak of an abandoned keep of the old Oshland Empire nearby. If the king can establish a military presence in the keep it will make the task of ruling the Eastern Marches far easier.

Douven's schedule called for his return to Roth and a report to the king two months ago. Unsure of the fate of his representative, King Mark has called on a band of adventurers to travel to Ford and return with news of Douven. They have secondary orders to learn what they can about the old fort, including its location, disposition and current occupants, if any.