Chapter 11 - Strongholds 

11.1 Manors vs. Keeps | 11.2 Building a Stronghold | 11.3 Structures | 11.4 Taxes | 11.5 Dangers

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Note! Only Premier members may found strongholds of any type.

11.1 Manors vs. Keeps

Once you have a realm character who has achieved the 3rd level of Ascension (Hero/Heroine), you have the ability to found a Manor. It takes the 6th level of Ascension (Champion) to found a Keep. There is really only one big difference between a manor and a keep: a manor is founded from within a city, and a keep is founded in the wilderness. You may only found one of each.

Other differences are subtle. Keeps for example, may hold up to 6 additional internal structures (see below), while manors may only hold 2. Keeps have much larger storage yards, while manors are somewhat limited. Keeps cost more to build and maintain, while manors are relatively safe from hostile encounters (though neither are immune from attack or burglary).

11.2 Building a Stronghold

Building a stronghold is really a two-step process: (1) Founding the stronghold; and (2) Constructing the stronghold. The first is rather easy (assuming the process leading up to the prerequisites is considered "easy"), but the latter is where the difficulty is.

Founding a stronghold requires that you have at least one realm character at the appropriate ascension level. For manors, this is level 3, while keeps require level 6. Once you have a realm character to that point, you will have an action available called FOUND_STRONGHOLD. Simply move that realm character to the location you wish to found the stronghold (in the wilderness or in the city depending on whether you are founding a keep or manor, respectively).

Once you execute the FOUND_STRONGHOLD action, there will be a location created for your stronghold. This action costs no money and requires no material. Founding the stronghold requires one day of work, so the action ends the current day. There will be a location with an identifier based on your dominion identifier. For example, if your dominion identifier is D9870, then your keep will be Z9870 and your manor will be Z9877. Keeps require one day to enter and exit (as all wilderness locations are), but manors can be entered and exited as a 0-time action.

At this time, the stronghold is nothing more then a plot of land in a designated location.

The next step, construction of the stronghold, takes a bit more to perform. You will need required materials, gold and a good deal of time to construct the keep. Before the stronghold is officially "completed", it must have some fortification surrounding it. Fortifications must be built in the order shown below (Simple Wooden being the first and Advanced Wooden being the last for manors). Consult the following chart for requirements on each fortification level.

The numbers under the Wood and Masonry columns indicate how many units of that material must be available in the local Storage Yard. So, realm characters must bring those trade goods to the build site and deposit them in the storage yards. You may need to make several trips to build the given fortification.

The Gold column represents how much money must be available to pay the work force. This amount is actually adjusted down depending upon the skills of the realm characters in your dominion. The end result is a divisor which reduces or increases the gold requirement. This is how it works...

(1) For every realm character in your dominion (regardless of whether they are assisting directly in the fortification's construction) add 2 to the divisor. For each realm character who has the Craft, Engineering skill, add an additional 1 for each knowledge level.

(2) For every henchman that is currently in the service of your dominion (including mounts and summoned creatures), add 1 to the divisor. Again, if they have the Craft, Engineering skill, add an additional 1 per knowledge level.

(3) Add any additional modifiers for magical or psionic items.

(4) Modifiers for terrain must also be considered. For manors, double the total divisor. For forests or tundra regions, multiply the divisor by 0.75. For hills and badlands, cut the divisor in half. Finally, for mountains, swamps, marshes and glaciers, multiply the divisor by 0.25.

(5) After the above calculations, take the square root of the divisor and divide the gold amount by it. This is the final gold amount you need.

Example: If your dominion has 3 realm characters, two of which have the Craft, Engineering skill (total knowledge level of 1 and 3), then the divisor starts at (3_rcs x 2 + 4_eng= ) 10. If there are a combined 6 henchmen between all realm characters (none of the henchmen have the Craft, Engineering skill), then the divisor raises up to (10 + 6 = ) 16. Perhaps the dominion has two items of note which each give a +1 modifier to the divisor. Then the total divisor is now 18, which means our modified divisor is now (18^1/2 = ) 4.243.

If the example stronghold is being built in a city, then the final divisor is doubled (to 8.486), but if it is a keep built in the mountains, then is it multiplied by 0.25 to equal 1.061. For a Simple Wooden fortification (gold cost of 10,000g), a manor would cost only (10,000 / 8.486 = ) 1,178.4g while a mountaintop keep would cost (10,000 / 1.061 = ) 18,850.2g.

The Time column indicates how many weeks worth of work must be done to finally complete the fortification. Note that this is per realm character, so if you have three realm characters all performing the FORTIFICATION action (which takes 1 week of time to complete) at the same time, then three weeks worth of work will be done. This way, if you have 9 weeks worth of work to finish, you can do it with three realm characters in only 3 weeks. Note that if you have realm characters grouped with you, they also perform the FORTIFICATION action automatically.

The material and gold is used as soon as the first FORTIFICATION action is issued (assuming you have enough of each at that time), but the fortification is not complete until the last FORTIFICATION action completes.

The Craft column dictates that one of your realm characters must have at least the indicated level of knowledge in Craft, Engineering to proceed with this level of fortification. That realm character need not found the fortification nor even directly work on it. Your dominion simply must have someone with the appropriate knowledge.

11.3 Structures

All strongholds may have structures within. However, due to limited space, not all structures may be included. Not that by adding structures, the kingdom begins to tax your estate. Any stronghold without structures does not get taxed.

Structures require 2 weeks (16 days) to construct (minus 1 day for each level of Merchant knowledge minus an extra 1 if you have the Engineering skill) and no time to RAZE.The CONSTRUCT action assumes the full workload will be completed, so only one instance of the action is necessary. Benefits are immediately lost once the structure is razed (though markets maintain inventory until the end of the month).

Tavern: Generates income for the dominion. Generally, a Tavern will pay for itself in income, as profits usually are greater then the taxes assessed. Taverns generally do better in Manors then Keeps (since the larger population centers make for more customers), making it somewhat different then other structures. Income generated from the Tavern increases with the fortification. In addition, notable citizens may frequent taverns, allowing for more quests. Chances and number of citizens stopping by increases with the fortification level as well.

Inn: Much like Taverns, Inns generate income for the dominion. Inns do better in Keeps, as travelers will need safe havens while journeying to other population centers. Income generated from the Inn also increases with the fortification. Notable citizens may stay for the night at the Inn, again allowing for more quests. Chances and number of citizens stopping by increases with the fortification level as well. Having an Inn and Tavern combination is better then each of them individually.

Market: Generates income for the dominion. Markets will open trade with this location specifically, allowing for your stronghold to have trade goods for sale. Markets function better when access to the stronghold is more open then restricted, and the fortification level makes a big difference in the quantity of goods made available.

Workshop: Immediately decreases construction of craft items by 25% (not including ships). In addition, the fortification level increases the chances of making items of quality (meaning you may be able to "accidentally" make a Long Sword +1 when attempting to make a simple Long Sword). The level of fortification also places an upper limit on the number of pluses which an item can be enchanted. These limits are as follows: Simple Wooden (+2); Advanced Wooden (+3); Simple Stonework (+4); Advanced Stonework (+5).

Library: Decreases research times for all items by 25%. Allows for all research quests to be satisfied from within the stronghold. In other words, if you need to seek a library to research something to satisfy a quest, you may research it from within the stronghold (unless the quest requires a specific location). In addition, manuscripts constantly come into the library as time goes by (and your steward is in charge of "stocking" the library). The manuscripts which your library acquires will transfer to your dominion vault when items of interest are gained. Chances of gaining these manuscripts increase with the fortification level.

Garden: Allows for the cultivation of some special components. This requires no action by the realm characters, the garden simply grows items every month (or at least it has a chance of growing items every month). The chances and number of items gained is influenced by the fortification level of the stronghold. Items which require special circumstances must be met to acquire them. For example, if a component only grows in the mountains, then your garden will never grow it unless your stronghold is in the mountains.

Watchtower: Decreases theft chances by a significant percentage. This percentage increases with each fortification level of the stronghold. The chances of reduced theft are as follows: Simple Wooden (-40%); Advanced Wooden (-60%); Simple Stonework (-75%); Advanced Stonework (-85%); Concentric Castle (-90%). Defensive bonuses are applied when the stronghold is attacked as well. This obviously increases with each fortification level as well as follows: Simple Wooden (+20%); Advanced Wooden (+40%); Simple Stonework (+60%); Advanced Stonework (+80%); Concentric Castle (+100%).

Harbor: Decreases construction of all ships by 25%. Also, this structure allows for specialty ships to be built as well, and repair times are decreased by 50%. In addition, having a harbor increases the profits from both your Tavern and your Inn.

11.4 Taxes

Stronghold construction is a one-time expense, but there is an on-going cost for the structures within the stronghold. This is an unfortunate side-effect of maintaining a stronghold - you must appease the local lords.

For manors, the cost of having structures is simply 25g per structure, plus 5 gold for every fortification level beyond Simple Wooden. So, a manor with two structures and an Advanced Stonework fortification will cost 80g (40g per structure) per month. For Keeps, the cost is 50g per structure, plus 10g for every fortification level beyond Simple Wooden. So for a keep with all six structures and a Concentric Castle fortification, the maintenance cost would be 540g (90g per structure) per month.

Having some income-generating structures would help to absorb this cost, though even in the worst case-scenario, a manor's taxes are little to worry about.

11.5 Dangers

Coming soon.