Possible Factions w/ Domains in Western Karameikos
by WizlockI recently revisited the BE rules and found Mystara more measured than what I remember as a kid. I think The Book of Wonderous Inventions and Orcs of Thar were a bit much for me even in grade school. Anyways, I was quite happily surprised to see that the stuff like Karameikos were rather interesting.
I want to lay out a sandbox-y setup in western Karameikos. The thought is to have a "I don't care where you go. Stop trying to figure out what I what you to do and just do whatever" setup. To achieve that goal, I'd pick out each hub area, pick a module to act as a village + fortification, a surrounding wilderness with small adventure sites or encounters, 1-2 "caves of carnage" extended dungeon sites, and a mega-dungeon somewhere nearby. One such hub would be "sufficient" for a campaign, but the freedom to travel between the hubs, and the differing attitudes and types of rewards at each hub would lend to the perception that there isn't a 'correct' place to be. Also, since adventure hubs typically have fortifications on them, having multiple hubs means the players know that if a goblin horde lays siege to the town... you'll totally burn that town to the ground without batting an eye if that is what the dice and their decisions says happens.
First hub area would be adding Saltmarsh to the very northern tip of Black Eagle Barony. The barony would be made a little less cartoonish evil. As I said, there were some elements that even as a 10 year old child I thought were a bit much, and Black Eagle Barony was one of them. Instead of cartoon evil, Baron Von Hendriks is more like your Renegade Shepard: ruthless but on a task. Von Hendriks has the objective of getting the western river system settled and there are a lot of challenges. Blight Swamp needs draining so he can found a city on the mouth of the river system to control it. Humanoid tribes are constantly raiding. Traladarans are actively subverting him, and to a neutral third party it would not at all be clear that Von Hendriks "started it" nor is it all that clear that he has the luxury of holding a grudge if they were to "get with the plan", even if it is fair to say his methods are harsh. Bargle is still a cartoon villain, but Von Hendriks is also of the view that he appears to lack the luxury to be picky about details like that. Salt Marsh would the central work camp for projects to drain the swamp. I'm thinking of using the village map of saltmarsh, the surrounding area of The Secret of Bone Hill, and having Barrowdeep being nearby in the swamp. Generally speaking, rewards would be paid on time and in full, with magic items being more of the 'hack and slash' variety. The Barony can't afford bad relations with mercenaries, nor does it seem clear that Von Hendriks would dicker about paying his bills even if he had the luxury of being able to do so. The Traladarans are resisting him and organized by Luln, in part because of his actions but also in part because they want to be in charge regardless of any approach he could have taken. The Five Shires are also actively trying to keep their eastern border de-stabilized by smuggling food and supplies to Luln and also attempting to smuggle grain in to dump it on the economy of the Black Eagle Barony to prevent agricultural development.
Second hub area would be Riverfork. Riverfork is a garrison set by Stephen Karameikos, but the commander is a bit too involved in setting himself up to be Kingmaker in the conflict between Von Hendricks and Luln. This would use Keep on the Borderland, plus likely Horror on the Hill, and then maybe Dwarrowdeep. Per the book Riverfork is there to keep the trade route with Five Shires open, but this is silly since they would use ships instead of a land route given how much more economical shipping is. In reality Riverfork is there to keep the river system split to prevent consolidation of the humanoid tribes. There is much profiting from looking the other way while Five Shires and Luln smuggle grain, and further profiting from looking the other way while Iron Ring and Black Eagle ships travel up river to raid weak goblinoid tribes and trade with strong goblinoid tribes that have raided their neighbors. Further more looking the other way happens when Luln and Black Eagle forces encounter each other. As long as the fortress can hold against any goblin chief looking to consolidate the river system, there are few accusations of command incompetence or corruption that will stick.
The third hub area would be an as yet undetermined settlement in the Riverfork woods on the river that is a project by Luln. As much as cartoon evil is eye-rolling, "poor me" good in pure white is also a bit much. Luln isn't built on a river and is frankly never going to grow without development. Luln needs to deforest the Riverfork woods to clear farmland and clear it to the river for trade, and it needs to do this before Von Hendriks can drain blight swamp and settle a city on the mouth of the river and control the river if Luln has any chance of rivaling Black Eagle Barony and wresting western Karameikos way from Specularum. It remains an open question as to the extent to which the Traladarans are educated enough in geopolitics to have enough people who understand this to make it a priority. Koriszegy keep is likely to be the megadungeon, not sure what megadungeon module to use for it though. Luln as it is right now can't grow enough food to feed itself, and relies on Five Shires smuggling grain and the Traladarans in eastern Karameikos funding their resistance to the Black Eagle Barony. It remains and open question if the powerful Traladaran families in the east actually care about Luln or simply care about the political results of the ongoing reports of unrest and harsh measures in western Krameikos. Ostensibly the folks of Luln and its surrounding villages are the underdog, but don't expect to get paid what you were promised on time, in full, or at all. Expect that non-traladarans are going to get the cannon fodder and suicide missions because the Traladarans have decided they have suffered enough already. To be fair, there is a lot of raiding by goblinoids. There is also a lot of raiding by Black Eagle. There was also a lot of allowing Black Eagle to fight goblinoids and then not paying Black Eagle anything for their losses on principle of them being foreign occupiers that happened before Black Eagle started raiding.
Fourth hub would be Radleb keep, and it is just trying to keep western Karameikos from spiraling out of control, or is it trying to keep it from spiraling out of control before the most recent commander completes his watch and returns to Specularum to be replaced by the next commander who shall seek to accomplish the exact same before he too returns. It is an open question if those two goals are truly the same thing. For a city petitioning to become a barony, Luln does need an awful lot of help keeping the roads clear of bandits, especially those who strike at the Thyatian merchants. As much as reports of Von Hendriks are clearly filled with hyperbole, this Bargle fellow seems to be a bit much... yet lodging a formal complaint with the baron might result in permission to attempt to bring him in for trial... and on second thought best to leave this to the next commander to evaluate.
Maybe have one of the goblin tribes as a fifth faction in the hills. Black Eagle and Iron Ring taking goblins was war captives lead to further economic opportunities for some goblin tribes since they were already infighting as their natural state and the Black Eagle and Iron Ring were "speaking their language" so to speak, and fighting for and with humans has led them to re-think their stance on humans. A band of humans showing up looking to murder-hobo their way through the hills from a central location isn't really a bad thing so long as YOU are that central location where they minimize their murder hobo-ing and maximize it on the neighbors you tell them you don't like and have treasure. Likely not a safe place to show weakness.