PC "Stronghold" adventure ideas?

[dreaded_beast]

Does anyone run a game where PCs have strongholds?

What kind of adventures do you create that either involve the strongholds or allow the PCs to leave the strongholds without having to worry about it's safety?

 

[Xath]

I'm interested to see how this thread turns out. Our party is discussing whether or not to build a stronghold in game and how to equip/protect it.

 

[Len]

Keeping the stronghold safe: As I mentioned previously, this was part of the reason my party passed up Brightstone Keep. But if the stronghold is located in a settled area that's not very dangerous, the party can leave hirelings, mercenaries or followers to occupy the keep while they're out adventuring. You can then assume that the keep is safe. Most of the time...

Eventually, of course, something will threaten the PCs' stronghold and they'll have to rush home to defend it. There are adventures about defending a keep, probably lots of 'em, but I don't know the names of any offhand.

Alternatively, if the keep comes with land and a noble title, the PCs are responsible for defending the land and the local populace, and anything that threatens them can be an adventure tied to the stronghold.

In our campaign, the PCs just recently acquired "strongholds". (Actually, mine is a two-storey stucco house.) I'm responsible for a village and a lighthouse, and, wouldn't you know it, right after I moved in pirates attacked and occupied the lighthouse. I gather that the other players' estates will generate problems as time goes on.

 

[Seravin]

In my game the adventures around their strongholds are mostly sidequests or the starting point for other adventures - it's a great place for npc's to leave messages for the party and then go off, get into trouble and wait for the characters to rescue/avenge them.
The player most interested in the stronghold wants a position of safety and prestige and it's not fun for him when things get attacked constantly or when the workers were constantly delayed in trying to fix things up.
I found that out when bandits attacked the paladin's newly purchased inn (they were about 5th lvl then) looking for the all the treasure the group had not been shy about spending.

That spurred the player of the paladin to bargain for abandoned keep near their adventuring area. They had encountered the abandoned keep when hunting for bandits and my players thought it was ideal.

To protect it, the paladin took leadership to outfit the castle staff and guards. His cohort became his wife and she took over the day to day running of the keep.
Two other players also took up leadership and built a church and mage-library nearby, combining all three of their forces. The day to day protection is pretty much assured.
All three characters have also hired additional help as they saw fit.
Now the keep of Broken Spire is home to some 200 plus people.

I've left it mostly alone so the players feel they can be safe from the day to day cares - mostly.

The most recent adventure that happened around the keep was when the players made themselves too big a nuiscence to the bad guys. An Erynies was summoned to distract the characters by harrassing the village that grew up around their keep and the surrounding County. The Eryines would charm an npc, convince the npc to attack the traitorous and evil party members and teleport away to visit another npc to start the process all over again.

The players eventually hallowed the grounds and summoned a planetar to keep short term watch on their lands while they dealt with the devil's summoners.

A week later the characters find out that the erynies had taken up residence in the local Count's keep and was dating the Count's son - this prompted a quick, violent response from the characters.

 

[The Amazing Dingo]

Oooo Seravin, I like that idea. At least the Erinyes was moving up the social ladder...and would have certianly caused all kinds of politcal fallout had that continued.

I think the important aspect of a stronghold is to make sure all of the PCs have something to get their hands into. Sure, the paladin or fighter generally gets to run the things over-all, but we still have a mage, priest, and thief to worry about (yeah, simplifying things a little here).

Obviously, the priest will want to build a shrine or church there. Perhaps he finds some old catacombs when he starts to dig out the basement or a small plague starts running through the area...people always look to those priests then, don't they?

The thief might wish to start her own guild or perhaps go into the legit (or semi-legit) trading business. What other merchants or thieves will be really happy about that?

The mage...well, he's bookish and generally only interested in his magical research. Of course, he'll have to set up a lab and library, which means gaining supplies. He might have to make use of the rogue for some of these things while other things might require some summonings and other means of information gathering/diplomacy.

Those brief blurbs aside, you also have to make the PCs enjoy there they are. The cook is not the cook, but Beatrice, a halfling cook who's son has recently joined an adventuring party and she constantly worries about him, perhaps even going so far as to ask the wizard to scry him for her or issue a Sending.The stablemaster is Yorrin, a man good with the horses and hisjob, but has a tendency to gamble and drink a little too much. Half the time, he's late to his duties and might even be skimming a little of the money to pay his debts. These little things can always lead into all kinds of fun adventures but they at least add a flavor of realism and might even make the PCs start wanting to pull their hair out (something I think a lot of nobles wanted to do back in the day).