Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Border Wardens: 10 Complications for the Castellan

The Castellan?
Here's a set of 10 possible complications for the Castellan, all culled from the RPG.net thread titled "100 Random Complications for Module B2: THE KEEP ON THE BORDERLANDS".

  1. [ Item 1 ] The Castellan is a psychotic martinet who subjects the inhabitants of the Keep to brutal and humiliating abuses of military “discipline”. The Bailiff is plotting a revolt.
  2. [ Item 2 ] The Castellan is dead, killed in a boar-hunting mishap a few weeks ago. The current “Castellan” is a 0-level soldier wearing his armor and posing as him. If the forces of Chaos discover this, they will immediately attack the Keep en masse. If the PC's discover this, the authorities of the Keep will stop at nothing to silence them.
  3. [ Item 4 ] The Castellan has a beautiful and feisty young daughter who is desperate to escape the Keep and get back to civilization. She will attempt to coerce, trick, befriend, seduce or otherwise manipulate the PC(s) if she thinks it might achieve her goal. Daddy is very protective and possessive.
  4. [ Item 5 ] The Castellan is a once-great war hero, banished to the Keep as punishment for supporting the wrong side in a palace intrigue. He plots and schemes for a way to return to court, and is always on the lookout for useful idiots to uses as pawns toward this end.
  5. [ Item 9] The Castellan is dying, and has no children. If any of the PCs is a lawful fighter who shows bravery and initiative, the Castellan will take a shine to him or her and begin to groom the warrior to be his replacement. This will drive some of his advisers and staff murderous with jealousy.
  6. [ Item 22 ] The Castellan has very severe dyslexia and is completely illiterate. He depends entirely on the Scribe (Keep area 26) for all his written communications (making the Scribe effectively the second most powerful person in the Keep). Some insiders suspect this, but no one actually knows.
  7. [ Item 24 ] Castellan's Standing Order #1: The gates to the Keep are never to be opened after the sun sets. Never. NO EXCEPTIONS.
  8. [ Item 46 ] The previous Castellan (who died in an extremely suspicious fall from the Keep's walls) was utterly insane, and the men of the Keep are working day and night to undo his many bizarre alterations and strange policies: The bright pink walls are being painted over, children are no longer kept locked in dog cages in the Central Towers as insurance against their parent's disobedience, dwarves are no longer forcibly shaved, and a tarp now covers the massive guillotine, shoved into an unused corner of the Inner Bailey.
  9. [ Item 74 ] Destroy all monsters! The Castellan has banned all negotiation and peaceful contact with the inhabitants of the Caves of Chaos, on pain of death. Any ransom payments, truces with monsters, etc. must be kept very quiet, as the Captain of the Watch will investigate rumors of such as crimes and do his best to see that the “Chaos fraternizers” hang.
  10. [ Item 98 ]One of the Castellan's maids is actually the daughter of the King's younger brother, being held hostage at this remote keep under order of the king as insurance against his power-hungry brother's ambitions. Her presence at The Keep is a tightly-held and politically sensitive secret: When few strangers are at The Keep she is allowed to wander the Inner Baily more-or-less freely, but if there are a lot of prying eyes around the Castellan has her stashed in an out-of-the-way guestroom in the Keep Fortress, often bound and gagged (She is livid about this humiliation, but the Castellan thinks the dungeon is just too cold and wet for one of her breeding). If PCs were to discover her existence, rescue her, and return her to her father, their rewards would be great indeed... but at the possible cost of plunging the entire Kingdom into a brutal civil war. If the PC's find out about her, and the Keep's authorities know that they know, "Accidents" will be arraigned.


All 100 complications were submitted by:



And I don't remember who submitted what anymore. You can follow the link to find out more! But be warned, not all entries are *ahem* politically correct.

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