An adventure for tactical cinematic heroic fantasy RPG Draw Steel! A group of 3rd-level heroes traverse the chaotic wilderness of Vasloria, earning up to 17 victories over the course of 4-6 sessions.
Chaos reigns over Vasloria. Good King Omund is long dead; betrayed by Mandrake – Lord-Commander of the Incorruptible Dragon Knights on behalf of the conquering warlord Ajax the Overlord, whom some call Invincible. When the traitor dukes were finally defeated and executed, Vasloria’s armies marched East to join their ally the Pharaoh on the bloodstained sands of Khemhara, and finally defeat Ajax once and for all.
That was five years ago. Today, bandit deserters, Dwarven slavers, and monsters stalk the roads, preying on isolated villages and the traders who supply them. The barons and regents who remained in Vasloria can do little more than deter aggression and rally the militia for truly dire emergencies. For all other tasks, they post bounties, hoping to attract ratcatchers, swords-for-hire, adventurers: you.
You find yourself amidst a caravan arriving in the city-state of Blackbottom, a merchant republic that has declared neutrality in the conflict with the Invincible Overlord. Each day, more refugees arrive on the Eventide Road seeking new lives here, or across the Bale Sea in Capital. They cry out for heroes to tame the land, defend the meek, and vanquish the wicked. Who will answer?
Thisis an adventure for 3rd level Draw Steel heroes. Inspired by the critically-acclaimed adventure Red Hand of Doom and infused with detail from MCDM's Orden setting, heroes are charged with crossing Western Vasloria's devastated countryside to seek out the Acolyte Maritete, Priestess of the Boatman so she may answer for her necromantic apostacy. Will Omund's Ferry survive? Answers lie within the KEEP ON THE ROAD TO WAR.
Layout sample, design not final. Layout by Emily Betts.
Designed to suit the pillars of Draw Steel gameplay!
Do Battle with the Firetooth Hobgoblins, the 1st War Dog Expeditionary Corps, and more in exciting environments like the ruins of Castle Omund and at the walls of Blackbottom!
Negotiate with the Death Knight Cereus for passage across the undead Protectorate of Zyll and broker peace in an age of chaos.
Travel dangerous roads and render aid to the embattled village of Omund’s Ferry in exciting and consequential Montage Tests!
An Invincible Threat looms beyond the Cariff Mountains, prepared to bring its terrible strength to bear on Vasloria's defenseless burghs.
Anchored in published content for the Draw Steel RPG, the Dusk and Chain of Acheron campaigns, and other publicly available material, Keep On the Road to War portrays a version of Vasloria compatible with existing lore.
Other influences include Richard Baker's and James Jacobs's Red Hand of Doom, Stoic's The Banner Saga, Obsidian Entertainment's Tyranny and Fallout: New Vegas, Brandon Mull's The Beyonders, and Glen Cook's The Black Company.
Keep on the Road to War is the perfect continuation for heroes who have just completed MCDM’s The Delian Tomb. This product functions as a standalone adventure to advance heroes from level 3 to level 4. For groups who wish to continue the story, a sequel is in the works, extending the action into the mountaintop redoubt of the Hawklords and the foetid, demon-infested swamps of Poldirk.
Designer & Writer Leo Hojnowski (he/him) is a born-and-raised Baltimoron with a lifelong love of TTRPGs. While obtaining his Politics MPhil from University of Cambridge, he fell in love with the city and decided to remain in England. After a decade of releasing homebrew for a wide variety of RPGs including D&D 5e, Dungeon Crawl Classics, GURPS, Pactdice, and Thousand Year Old Vampire, he’s eager to share his biggest project yet. Find him on Discord @PatrollinTheMojave or Bluesky @leohojo
Cover & Interior Artist Matilda White (they/them) has always been ‘the art kid’, painting and drawing their favourite characters and scenes from movies, TV shows, audiobooks, etc. Their paintings have featured strong political themes as well as their passion for LGBTQIA+ rights and feminism. These were mixed into their own form of protest work inspired by the painters of the Baroque and Pre-Raphaelite eras and with a love of symbolism throughout their pieces.
Editor & Layout Emily Betts (they/she) comes from somewhere in the fens of England and was given a stack of fantasy novels at an impressionable age. They've been playing TTRPGs since their teens, and noodling homebrew around pretty much all of that time: previous projects include game art, zines and an illuminated manuscript or two. Elsewhere, you can currently find them editing TTBA, a Cambridge-based speculative fiction zine. Avowed believer in pretty books.
Graphic Designer Adam Hunt (he/they) will do anything to procrastinate marking test papers. Despite nominally being a secondary school teacher based in Wolverhampton, he wears many hats and balances as many hobbies between creative writing, amateur theatre, running and playing TTRPGs and now graphic design. Adam lives in the shadow of a great number of impressive game masters, but that's fine: he's got sneak attack.
Concept Artists Gemma Rowe (she/they) spends too much time on HeroForge making 3D models of fictional characters, which fortunately proved useful during the production of this module. When she's not working as a school librarian, she is spending her free time playing TTRPGs, taking part in a collaborative writing group, and slowly working her way through her mountain of unread books. They can be found on Twitter @gemthegrem or on their blog at gemthegrem.com.
Phoebe Webb (she/her) is a writer and artist currently based in Buckinghamshire, splitting her time between drawing weird woodcut-inspired illustrations, overhauling her novel again and working a normal human job. Testers Adam Hunt, Damien Razdan, Eleanor Marshall, John Devlin, Gemma Rowe, and Theodore Jesson
We are confident we can hit our targeted release of June 2026. A full draft of the manuscript is already complete and the rest of the team is full steam ahead to bring the project to completion in a timely manner. There is an element of risk as this is our first crowdfunder and unexpected challenges may arise, but you can count on our commitment and transparency throughout the project's development.
