Every West Marches campaign needs its own Keep on the Borderlands: a place where sessions begin and end, where plans are made, and where rumours circulate. Above all, it needs to be a safe location with useful, player-facing options. It is not an adventure site in itself; adventures always happen elsewhere.
In this post, I’m sketching out Greyhold, the town that will be the home base for my next project. As with everything in this series, consider this a working draft rather than a finished product.
The town
Greyhold was founded roughly a century ago as a crown outpost of a distant kingdom. It is the only permanent outlander settlement on this stretch of coast, and the last reliable harbour before the wilderness closes in.
It sits on the southern coast of a vast continent, tucked into a defensible natural harbour beneath looming grey cliffs. A stone beacon tower crowns the headland above the harbour, and ships arrive from across the sea carrying supplies, news, and a steady flow of fortune-seekers.
With a population of around 3,000, the settlement is large enough to matter but small enough to feel isolated. It is not a city: there are no universities, no great guild halls, no ancient monuments. What it does have are strong walls, a modest keep, a working harbour, and enough infrastructure to support repeat expeditions into the wilderness—and the nearby megadungeon.
Crown authority is present but distant. The governor, Elsbeth Rowe, is nominally in charge, but day-to-day affairs are handled locally. Messages from the capital arrive slowly, if at all, and immediate concerns outweigh distant politics.
The surrounding lands
The wilderness and the megadungeon are included mainly here for context and will be explored in more detail later.
Beyond Greyhold’s walls, the ground quickly becomes uneven. Wooded hills give way to moors, bogs, and rocky crags, and further north and west those hills rise into low mountains.
The climate is on the cool end of temperate, edging toward subarctic. Winters are long and dark; summers are brief and wet. Travel is difficult for much of the year, and attempts to push permanent settlement beyond the immediate environs have essentially failed. That’s not to say the land has never been settled. Scattered ruins along old roads—collapsed watchtowers, abandoned forts, half-buried foundations—point to an older kingdom that once held this region, and lost it.
Beyond the town’s immediate environs, civilization thins out quickly. The hills are marked by cave mouths, ancient barrows, collapsed shafts, gullies cut by fast streams, and high ground overlooking the deeper wilds. In the woods, signs of dangerous wildlife mingle with goblin camps, paths trodden by outlaws, forgotten shrines, cult sites, and ruins tangled among roots and undergrowth.
The megadungeon
About ten to twelve miles inland from Greyhold, in the first belt of wooded foothills, lies what I’m currently referring to as the megadungeon (a working label, for now). It predates the town by centuries, perhaps millennia, and is vast, ancient, and dangerous.
There are multiple entrances scattered throughout the hills: cave mouths, collapsed mines, sinkholes, maybe barrow-like structures, with no obvious centre or single point of access. Greyhold exists where it does largely because of this place.
Expeditions leave regularly. Some return with treasure, artefacts, or strange lore; many do not. The dungeon has never been properly mapped in any meaningful sense.
Why the town endures
Greyhold survives because it is fortified, useful, and supplied by sea. Its cliffs, keep, and harbour defences make a direct assault unlikely, and within the walls it is a safe place to rest, recover, resupply, and plan. The town exists to support what happens beyond its walls.
Services
The town provides what expeditions need, and little more. It’s comfortable enough to recover in, but hardly indulgent.
Feel free to rename locations, swap NPCs, or adjust services to suit your table. I recommend using the rules for Town Services and Hiring Retainers in Carcass Crawler #2, Expanded Equipment in Carcass Crawler #3, and Strange Brews in Carcass Crawler #4.
- The Last Rest is a large inn, run by Mara Fassel, a second-generation settler: attentive, practical, unsentimental. There are also several alehouses for short-term lodging and information.
- Wick’s Supplies offers rations, rope, oil, tools, and basic equipment. Run by Ellace Wick, a sharp-eyed, dry-humoured provisioner who gives good advice and won’t be rushed.
- Heward Feldt runs the town smithy. He’s taciturn, broad-shouldered, and methodical, more focused on maintenance and repair, not mass production.
- Bella Marr, an alchemist, deals in potions, poisons, reagents, and other alchemical supplies. She is watchful, precise, and wary of repeat customers.
- The Crown Exchange will exchange coin as well as gems, jewellery, and other non-magical artefacts. Transactions are overseen by Carys Hale, the treasurer.
- The Lady’s Chapel, a small temple offering basic healing and other spiritual services. Sister Brynna, the priest, is tired, dutiful, and quietly compassionate.
- Greyfield Stables has a limited selection of horses and pack animals. The stablemaster, Alden Pike, is quiet, patient, and better with animals than people.
- Dain Calder, the shipwright, oversees repairs, construction, and passage by sea. He is gruff, reliable, and has little time for excuses.
Hirelings—porters, guards, guides, and retainers—are typically found through inns, taverns, or personal connections.
That’s Greyhold for now: a safe harbour at the edge of a great unmapped wilderness. In future posts, I’ll be fleshing out the surrounding area in more detail, including factions, a rumour table, and a closer look at the megadungeon itself.
What feels missing here? What stands out as a strength, or a weakness? And what would you like to see next? As always, let me know in the comments below.
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