How old is Fort Rannick?

[Adjoint]

In the Chapter Background of Hook Mountain Massacre it is said

Quote:

(...) the lord-mayor of Magnimar established Fort Rannick to provide Turtleback Ferry with protection from the ogres, securing promises of regular taxes and trade. (...)

However, the description of area B16 says:

Quote:

The keep is old, its masonry battered by the elements for hundreds of years. The walls are worn and chipped in many places and significantly weakened. Ceiling height in the main keep averages 12 feet—high enough that most of the Kreegs within don’t need to stoop.

I don't know if it's a mistake, but I like the idea of fort Rannick being built around an older keep. Probably not as old as Thassilon though, so it brings a question: who might have built it and why? What comes to my mind are giants and Shoanti, but ogres wouldn't be able to built something like that, stone giants wouldn't want to (I believe they frown at an idea of working natural stone) and Shoanti were builiding from wood (accoring to theGuide to Korvosa). Who's left?

[Hythlodeus]

Adjoint wrote:

In the Chapter BAckground of Hook Mountain Massacre it is said

Quote:

(...) the lord-mayor of Magnimar established Fort Rannick to provide Turtleback Ferry with protection from the ogres, securing promises of regular taxes and trade. (...)

However, the description of area B16 says:

Quote:

The keep is old, its masonry battered by the elements for hundreds of years. The walls are worn and chipped in many places and significantly weakened. Ceiling height in the main keep averages 12 feet—high enough that most of the Kreegs within don’t need to stoop.

I don't know if it's a mistake, but I like the idea of fort Rannick being built around an older keep. Probably not as old as Thassilon though, so it brings a question: who might have built it and why? What comes to my mind are giants and Shoanti, but ogres wouldn't be able to built something like that, stone giants wouldn't want to (I believe they frown at an idea of working natural stone) and Shoanti were builiding from wood (accoring to theGuide to Korvosa). Who's left?

Varisians and early Chelaxian explorers

[Tinalles]

4405 AR - Chelaxians enter Varisia through the Bloodsworn Vale, kicking off a war with the Shoanti

4427 AR - Fort Rannick construction begins

4429 AR - Fort Rannick completed

4429-4500 AR - Fort Rannick in service as an outpost of the Chelaxian military. Mission: assist in pacifying the region.

4501-4606 AR - Fort Rannick manned at lower levels to guard against banditry in the area.

4606 AR - Aroden dies. Cheliax thrown into chaos.

Late 4606 AR - remote units of the Chelaxian military urgently recalled to deal with burgeoning civil war. Fort Rannick abandoned, along with many other similar outposts across the outlying holdings of Cheliax.

4607-4661 AR - Fort Rannick abandoned. Shocker lizards become permanently established in tunnels beneath it. Fort is inhabited by a series of squatters -- some humanoid, some monstrous. Fort Rannick suffers significant damage from disuse and lack of maintenance.

4662 AR -- Magnimar agrees to provide security to Turtleback Ferry in exchange for taxes and trade concessions. Magnimar dispatches Black Arrows to Fort Rannick with a mission of guarding against Korvosan incursions and keeping down banditry.

4663 AR - Present -- funding slowly declines as Magnimarian attention shifts to other matters. The Black Arrows faithfully discharge their mission. They do their best to keep Fort Rannick in good repair, but there was so much deferred maintenance from the period of disuse that the best they can do is tread water.

Present -- Fort Rannick taken by ogres. Black Arrows almost completely wiped out. Enter the PCs.

That's not canon, but I spent some time with the wiki to figure out what was going on in the area. I think it's a plausible backstory for the Fort.

[Adjoint]

Doesn't look bad, but in 4427 Korvosa itself was just a wooden fort. Korvosan were constantly harrased by Shoanti, and as far as I understand, there were no Chelish settlements in Varisia besside the shoreline.

Guide to Korvosa sets 4511 AR as the date when "exploration of areas beyond coast begin in earnest", and also gives the dates of founding for several towns (Harse 4536, Baslwief 4563, Melfesh 4569, Biston 4574). But for example Ilsurian was founded much later, in 4631 (according to Towns of the Inner Sea). It is possible that Fort Rannick was built in this early exploration period, but there was little to guard over there.

Also a minor and incosenquential in the big picture note: the shock lizards were introduced by one of the Black Arrows:

Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition, p. 159 wrote:

Introduced secretly to the caves years ago by a Black Arrow who had a soft spot for the cute little things, the lizards took to the environs with an unexpected tenacity. Since that ranger’s death, the lizards have established a fairly stable ecosystem here, feeding happily on the grubs, cockroaches, and centipedes that scuttle around the caves.