Gleaming Keep#

Summary#

The Gleaming Keep crowns the hill above Everdale. According to local lore, King Aldrich and his powerful mages transmuted the keep’s stonework into metal so it would endure, causing it to gleam in the light. Source: 2026.05.05.

Related Lore#

• The keep houses or protects the Empty Throne, which has remained unfilled since King Aldrich.
• The Oathkeepers guard the keep and preserve it for the hoped-for return of King Aldrich — the Stone King.

Blackwood Sponsorship: Duke Tristan Blackwood sponsored the party’s travel through the Gleaming Keep’s teleportation circle on 2026.09.22, paying roughly 5,000 gp and providing spell draught to power the circle. Source: 2026.09.22.

• The King's Tourney takes place in the valley below the keep.

Inside the Keep#

The party first entered on 2026.09.22. Oathkeepers guard its open metal doors and check visitors against a list. The walls were once pristine stonework, perhaps by master masons, dwarves or elves, and King Aldrich’s archmages transmuted them into near-impenetrable steel. The halls hold ornate pews, banners and candelabra, but they are vast and empty, kept only by “bannerless knights” protecting the place from the noble houses. A chamber with a high porthole holds a teleportation circle tended by six Oathkeeper knights and a robed acolyte. It runs on spell draught and connects to other surviving circles from King Aldrich’s era, including one in Havenport. See Oathkeepers. Source: 2026.09.22.