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Crossroad Keep is an old fortress within Neverwinter's sphere of influence, located along the High Road south of Neverwinter. It was best known as the Kalach-Cha's base during Neverwinter's campaign against the King of Shadows, and later, the headquarters of Lady Sa'Sani's merchant company.
Geography
As its name implies, Crossroad Keep is located on a crossroad, namely on the intersection of the High Road between Neverwinter and Leilon, and the road between Highcliff and Phandalin. As such, it is an important strategic location for its part of the Sword Coast, and after the keep's reconstruction in 1374 DR, it became a stopgap point for merchant caravans along the High Road.
As of 1374 DR, Crossroad Keep's fortifications consisted of an outer wall separating its courtyard from the surrounding fields, and the keep itself, built on a hill behind the courtyard. The courtyard contained civilian houses and supplemental buildings such as the inn, smithy, merchant shop, church, and after Sa'Sani's arrival, her merchant headquarters and Daerred's Adventurers' Guild. The interior of the keep featured the Captain's bedroom, a library, a war room, and a stair down to the basement, which in turn was connected to an escape tunnel leading outside the keep's defenses.
History
Crossroad Keep was once garrisoned by Neverwinter forces, but was abandoned after the first war with the King of Shadows and fell into disrepair. Its ruins were later used by the renegade Luskan archmage Black Garius, who intended to conduct an ancient Illefarn ritual that would grant him the power of the King of Shadows. However, the ritual was disrupted by the Kalach-Cha and the wizards of the Many-Starred Cloaks, who reclaimed the keep for Neverwinter.
Lord Nasher Alagondar then made the Kalach-Cha the Captain of Crossroad Keep, and after the adventurer's knighting, its Knight-Captain. With the help of the Kalach-Cha's second in command, Lieutenant Kana, the keep was swiftly staffed with a garrison of Greycloaks gathered from a mixture of Neverwinter forces and local volunteers and recruits, and withstood the attack of an army of undead under the King of Shadows' command, led by Black Garius, who had been transformed into a Shadow Reaver by the incomplete ritual.
When the Kalach-Cha was lost after defeating the King of Shadows in the Vale of Merdelain, Khelgar Ironfist, at Lord Nasher's request, became the steward of Crossroad Keep in the absence of its Knight-Captain. While the keep was no longer the ruin it was under Garius, it was only the arrival of Sa'Sani's merchant company that allowed it to truly flourish. Thanks to the efforts of the adventurers sent by Sa'Sani to establish trading posts for her company in neighboring towns and cities, Crossroad Keep soon lived up to its name, becoming a crossroad of merchant traffic between places in the Sword Coast North as distant as Neverwinter, Highcliff, Phandalin, Leilon, Thundertree, and West Harbor.