The keep started out its life as a fortress protecting the kingdom of Caldor's northern border. As the kingdom expanded, it was relegated a minor role as a way station between the southern provinces and those of the north. When the northern barons rebelled, the keep was a vital staging area for the south's troops. It was expanded and a permanent garrison was stationed there to protect the road to the south. As is the case with most wars, in time peace was established and the keep went back to being a quiet out of the way location. It was not long until the troops stationed there were called back home. A castellan was assigned, and a few retired men at arms were the only occupants of the old fortress. For many years it remained thus; a few old soldiers and a caretaker castellan, but then disaster struck the land.
In the north an army of evil poured out of the mountains and swept all that attempted to stand against them. The northern barons rallied their troops, and in the Battle of Siron, the two armies smashed each other apart. With little left in the north, refugees fled south, using the old keep as a way station once again. For several years the keep saw battle as the remains of the evil army attempted to follow the refuges south. Finally the south sent a force that crushed the remaining monsters, but little was left north of the keep. It was decided to keep a permanent garrison at the keep, surrendering the northern lands to chaos and barbarism.
It was not long after this disaster that further hardship fell upon Caldor. A mysterious illness, some say a result of the northern wars, ravages the south. Called the 'Shaking Death', it claimed almost one third of the kingdoms population. Neighboring lands ban refugees from Caldor, but it did not protect them. Soon the entire continent was struggling under the death toll. In a matter of a decade millions had died. Many were left where they fell, for fear and lack of labor combined to keep the corpses from proper burial. The little keep on the borderlands, once a backwater post for retired soldiers, was now an oasis in a sea of death and misery.
In the 20 years since the fall of Caldor the major cities have slowly begun to regain control. Each is under the rulership of one of the Barons of old. Some are trying to work together to help their people, while others are only interested in helping themselves. It is also rumored that another type of plague is sweeping the deserted and empty lands of the south. Some are calling it the 'Awakening', while others know it as the 'Necrophage'. Whatever the name, the thousand of dead bodies that were never buried or burned had started to rise. It is said they carry the 'Shaking Death' with them, but now instead of dying; the infected join the ranks of the undead. Many small towns have been ravaged by these dead. In the north, the monstrous tribes that caused so much trouble a few centuries ago have begun to show their strength. Raiding parties have been seen from the old keep’s walls. With too few soldiers, and many innocents to protect, the castellan cannot stop them from slipping south to add to the kingdoms misery.
As it stands now, the old kingdom of Caldor is all but gone. The several independent fiefs that are left are too busy with their own problems to pay any attention to a far, out of the way fort. The people of The Keep are one their own....unless help can find them before it is too late.
