Beware the Keep of the Blackened Mire, the old rhyme begins. Every child in the Kingdom of Beldemar knows the story. It is an ancient place, one which stood watch over the endless expanse that is the Wildwood, one which kept the beasts of that misty forest at bay. It was a marvel of man, a grand castle with magnificent turrets, a place where the governors of the past era dwelt. Few fortresses were as impregnable, and none held back the wild like this mighty keep.
None remember the true name of this once proud citadel any longer. It has long since sunk into the earth, the land around it becoming a thick and pitiless swamp. As many things built in the days of Old Aldonia, it fell when the Empire did. The Aldonians brought their destruction upon themselves, having tampered too long with magics that should have been forbidden. The Caernlings, those who called the land which is now Beldemar home, overthrew their masters and took Imperial holdings for their own... but for some reason they kept a wide berth from the Keep of the Black Mire.
Blackmire Keep remained dormant for years, though strange happenings surrounded it. Settlements established near it never lasted young; too many strange happenings dissuaded long-term settlement. It became known as a cursed place, a peaty patch of land where the grass grew tall and black, where the sun never quite shone, where the marsh ate the castle itself.
Recently, however, that dormancy has ended. People have been vanishing from their homes. Travelers claim to have seen shadowy figures and strange creatures in the surrounding lands. Dark storms have settled in the sky over the keep, and the vines grow thicker and more twisted. Something dwells within those pagan halls. Evil stirs.
Unfortunately for Beldemar, all their best knights and their armies are busy elsewhere. Abagon to the west has been thrown into a bitter civil war, and Beldemar itself has begun a naval campaign against the Holy Empire of Lithenia. The villages south of Benetia, the capital of the realm, have been left utterly defenseless from the machinations of the haunted keep.
But hopelessness leads to desperation, and desperation is good for you. You are a mercenary. You go where others will not, kill things so that others don't have to risk their own sorry hides. You and the other sellswords in Benetia are in a good position to earn a pretty purse of gold. Head to the crumbling castle; chase off ghosts for the sake of some superstitious serfs; get a sack of coins from the Lord Mayor and retire to live like a king in Carise. It should be easy, shouldn't it?
The Depths of Blackmire Keep
Welcome to Blackmire Keep, an overgrown ruin in the middle of a fetid swamp and part of my homebrew Men-at-Arms setting! This setting is one I originally intended to use for a tabletop RPG, but as time has gone by I've found myself wanting to apply it to a forum setting more and more. Freeform RP with only minor rules to guide the game may make for a better story, I reckon.
There are a few themes I want to touch on that will be part of this should people be interested:
1) This story is grounded in realism. Yes, there are fantastic elements. Yes, there are monsters and foul beasts. However, a single person with a sword cannot be expected to hold off an army, nor can a good enough acrobat make a 100 foot drop to the ground without breaking their legs. This is a setting where what you can do is bound by the limitations of real world physics, even if your enemies can bend those laws with magic.
2) Magic is bad. Magic is real, but it's also a corrupting influence. Those who practice it are burned as witches or worse, because inevitably those that wield it become twisted. It brought low the Aldonian Empire, and it will cause another catastrophe if left unchecked. No player characters get to cast magic. Well, unless they're really, really stupid.
3) You are mere men and women facing unspeakable things. In case it wasn't clear, the world of the Aldaric Sea Region isn't fair. Do not be surprised if you go up against the beasts of high fantasy settings equipped only with mundane equipment. Do not be surprised if something terrible happens to your character. Everyone that enters Blackmire Keep is at risk of death, dismemberment, or anything else the GM chooses to inflict upon them.
4) Death is permanent. No take backsies.
5) You are not heroes. You are mercenaries. You are sellswords from a variety of backgrounds, people with very real limitations. You will create your character in an RPG-esque fashion, but thereafter will not have to worry about RPG elements. Instead, keep in mind the limitations of the character you've made, and play them in their role as best as you can.
6) Faith is a matter of faith. The God of this setting is only as real to its people as the God of the real world. It is entirely seemly to make a character that doesn't believe in a higher power, and just as seemly to make one that does. There is no certainty of God's existence as there is in most fantasy settings.
7) You can only be a human. The people of Men-at-Arms come from a variety of backgrounds, but they're all human. Elves and dwarves do exist, but they're monsters, beasts of the fey; and though there may be orcs and other such beasties, none of them are friendly. If something isn't human, it's usually safe to assume it wants you dead. (A caveat - I may allow people to play characters with mysterious heritages or some sort of taint, whether from magic or in their blood. We'll cover that via PM when the time comes.)
8) This is a feudal setting. The divide between nobility and the common folk is very real. Consider that when you RP.
9) Everyone has flaws. I mean it. Every character will have a very real flaw once we've finished making characters. Bear that in mind - nobody in Men-at-Arms is perfect.
If you choose to participate in this roleplay, you should expect a combination of sorrow, of horror elements, of the gritty price of violence. You should expect to delve into an ancient place and uncover the secrets of why it fell, to face creatures which are beyond your ken. You will face hard choices, and some of you - perhaps all of you - will die.
However, should you survive the horrors of the Keep of the Blackened Mire, you shall be marked in the history of this world as heroes. Those who escape this perilous place and live will become legends in Beldemar and the entire Aldaric Sea Region.
If you're interested, please post below. I'll show the actual character generation rules only if folks are interested.
