The town of Powder Keg (nobody knows how it got named) is a remote splotch of civilization in a lone and dreary wilderness of broken country and badlands. Endless mesas of riven red-rock roll on for mile after mile. Then there’s a big, open plain with good water and some timber, and that’s where Powder Keg squats. When the old settlers first planted, it was like a gold mine of agriculture. The soil was thin but good and the yields bountiful. A farmer could get rich sending his crop off to any one of several larger cities that are all about three days away. But over the generations, the soil got used up, the timber got cleared, and the town got bigger. Now it’s a chore to keep a farm in business. Good fertilizer can be brought in from distant places, but the cost of transport is too high to be reasonable. Seems that Powder Keg has seen better days. Any kid that can, high-tails it out for the big city. Still, being right in the middle of everything, Powder Keg sees some travelers. But it’s just a stopping point on the way to somewhere else. The surrounding country is difficult, hot, and dry. There are just a couple established routes that go through it. Anybody deranged enough to wander off into the badlands might well end up lost forever. Plenty of ‘em have, over the years.
- Intro from the adventure