Thoughts on an Elven Stronghold
by James WalkerGiven an Elf Wizard-Lord has powerful magics, they will be used for construction. What is the ideal, to get the beauty elves want?
Near a river, use Rock to Mud on limestone, carving 'glittering caves', with the river washing out the caves for you. Lit with Continual Light, shutters to allow darkness when desired. Make sure Continual Light cast direct onto walls, to prevent theft.
There will be no shortage of useful creatures, due to Polymorph Other:
Kennels for blink dogs and stables for unicorns won't need external access, as the creatures can simply teleport out of the stronghold. Given 'pure maiden' is a default setting, the stables need to be away from areas frequented by children to avoid elfmaids nicking unicorns.
Hives for killer bees need to be accessible by the elves, so that Sleep spells can be used to allow harvesting the Royal Jelly, but the bees must not be able to enter the Stronghold. The ability to teleport simplifies this, no direct connection is needed.
Colonies of Driver Ants can mine any known gold deposits, again harvested using Sleep, again no direct connection required or desired.
Ants and Bees should guard any direction that does not have an actual exit.
Mercenaries, pegasi etc do need external access, so barracks need to be near the main exit(s). However there should be an outer courtyard that is not occupied, that can be flooded if invaders get through the main gates. Invisible objects, frex caltrops, allows for nasty surprises.
A central location, only accessible by rising tunnels so that it cannot flood, will be a library; access to extra spells will be a major perk for recruits, as well as increasing their value to the lord.
The ruler is also high enough level to create magic items: a Ring Of Djinni Summoning will pay itself off swiftly. A regular supply of soft goods and food reduces expenses, while illusions that last until touched add to the beauty (particularly for decorating ceilings) and defences (frex putting an illusory door in front of a chained medusa).
Outside the stronghold, the woods, orchards and roads can all be moved around at will by treants. Flowerbeds are needed for the Killer Bees; blackberry bushes along the river will make exceptional troops for the treants. Except when a road is needed for troop/trade movement, a hedge maze will surround the stronghold – and can be redesigned at will.
The only reliable way for outsiders to get here is via the river: a valuable trade route. Docks should be recessed, so that they can be easily hidden by trees: the docks should only be accessible when a trade vessel is expected, and Hallucinatory Terrain used to hide the docks and create fake docks elsewhere (preferably over rocks/rapids). A sneak attack should completely miss the stronghold.
What have I missed?
obvious thing I've missed is creative curses. Frex Cursing your own people to do minimum damage to each other will reduce the pain of a Confusion spell.
Other thoughts on a summoned Djinn: once regular 'soft goods' – bows, saddles, shields, leather armor etc – have been created, arrows without arrowheads would be worth having. Then in a crisis, the Create Metallic Objects power can be used to tip a 1000 of them with silver.
Also, given both elves and Djinni are supposed to be good, paying the Djinn with spells such as Continual Light would be the decent thing to do. Alternately, a more dubious Elf Lord could have the Djinn coat skeletons with leather or wood to create 'leather golems', that are less likely to disturb underlings and that a cleric won't think to turn..