Castle Design (CSH)

__TOC__
Chapter 5 of the Castle Guide lists a number of modules that can be combined to custom-design a castle. Not all of these modules are appropriate features of a space stronghold, however. Ditches, moats, and palisades are not useful in space, because enemies are not limited to attacking across a flat surface. Troops can be landed near the castle walls, with little terrain to cross. Because drawbridges are used only in connection with ditches and moats, they are uncommon in space except as landscaping features.
There are additional modules that are more common in a space stronghold. The data for these items are listed in the following table.
 Table 19 Space Stronghold Modules
Module Type 	Tech	Time	Gold
Dock 	1 	15 	60
Dock, Retractable 	2 	30 	100
Roof, Stone 	6 	20 	650
Roof, Stone Dome 	7 	40 	1,500
Roof, Stone Dome, Riddled	7 	50 	2,000
Roof, Stone & Riddled 	6 	30 	1,000
Roof, Stone & Surbateries	8 	25 	800
Roof, Stone & Oubliette 	7 	25 	800
Roof, Wood 	1 	1 	5
Roof, Wood Dome 	2 	3 	30
Roof, Wood Dome, Riddled 	2 	4 	40
Roof, Wood & Riddled 	2 	2 	10
Roof, Wood & Surbateries 	2 	3 	20
Roof, Wood & Oubliette 	2 	2 	10
Sloped Stone Roof Bracing	6 	5 	30
Sloped Wood Roof Bracing 	1 	2 	10
Rubble Field 	1 	1 	40
Tech level is as specified in the Castle Guide. Time is in man/weeks, and Gold is the base cost in gold pieces.
A dock is a 20' by 50' rectangular wooden platform that extends from the end of the stronghold, parallel with the gravity plane and several feet above it. The dock is a convenient mooring point for spacefaring vessels and includes mooring pilings and cleats (mounting posts and hooks where ropes can be tied) and a gangway (a movable walkway that can be run from the dock to the gunwale of a spelljamming vessel).
Docks come in two basic forms: standard and retractable. A retractable dock looks like a standard dock but may be quickly removed in time of battle— and quickly set up again afterward.
A roof is a barrier placed over the open top of a castle. Spaceborne attackers can easily assault a traditional castle from above, as any ship that can travel to the base can fly above it. A roof provides protection from that assault.
As a rule, a single roof module covers a 10' by 10' area. Wooden roofs are 3" thick; stone roofs are 2' thick. The roof is presumed to extend over the entire open area of the castle. Towers, barbicans, buildings, and gatekeeps are presumed to already have roofs of their own.
It is common to divide the interior of the castle into sections, each with its own roof, so that a breach in the roof does not give an attacker access to the entire castle. Each roof must be supported by walls that run completely around its edge.
While roofs protect the interior of the castle, they also provide an ideal landing site for assault troops: a large, flat expanse within the walls of the castle. Variant roof styles have evolved to resist these attacks.
Riddling is the practice of mounting long (3'), sharp spines in an irregular, closely set pattern over the surface of the roof. It is possible to walk between the riddling spines with difficulty, but a landing on such a roof is perilous, as descending troops must avoid being impaled on the spines.
Another defense engineers collapse points into the structure of the roof. Specific sections of roof are designed to collapse when weight is placed on them. These sections are usually made of thin wood painted to resemble the surrounding surface. Collapse points are of two types: surbateries, a pattern of small, narrow holes lined with spines, so that a creature stepping on the hole is lamed; and oubliettes, larger pits that cause creatures to plummet into the interior of the castle. (Castle designers should note that oubliettes also provide an attacker access to the interior of the castle.)
As an alternative to these constructions, the sloped roof provides some protection. This construction is the same as a normal roof, but it rises steeply to a point at the center. The slope makes maneuvering across the roof more like climbing than walking. (Treat a sloped roof as a dry sloping wall for climbing check purposes; see the Player's Handbook, Chapter 14.) Additional bracing must be provided to support the higher sections, but such a roof removes many of the advantages of a skyborne attack.
The cost of a sloped roof is determined by its area (purchased as standard roof modules) and its height (purchased as sloped roof bracing). Each bracing module adds 5' to the height of the roof at the center. The height of the roof must be at least half that of the width of its longest side for it to be considered sloping. Some particularly crafty castle designers combine sloped roofs with riddling (aimed toward the peak of the roof), so that a climber who slips is impaled on the spikes. Sloped roofs are particularly popular with characters from Oriental cultures.
The most expensive and flamboyant solution is the dome, a rounded, steeply sloped roof that provides almost no purchase for an attacker. Such domes are polished to a glowing sheen and are sloped so steeply that only skilled climbers can keep their balance. (Treat a dome as a slippery sloped wall for climbing check purposes.) Like a sloped roof, the cost of a dome is based on the dome's expanse and height, and the dome must be at least half as high as it is wide.
A rubble field is not part of a stronghold structure, but it is an integral part of a space stronghold's defense. Basically, a rubble field is a zone of space that is filled with rocks and other debris. This zone is outside the air envelope of the stronghold, so that the rocks drift above and around the stronghold, preventing rapid approach and sneak attack by spelljamming vessels.
Spelljamming vessels approaching a stronghold surrounded by a rubble field are forced to slow to normal (500 yards per SR) speed by the presence of the rubble. Moreover, those ships must slow even further to avoid taking damage from collisions with the rubble. Ships moving through a rubble field are treated as a ship moving through debris as described in the Concordance of Arcane Space, Chapter 4.
A single rubble field module scatters stones in an area 10' by 10'. Generally, rubble fields are placed to float above the citadel, except for a narrow approachway used by legitimate incoming vessels.
==Special Features==
The following section discusses certain specific problems and options for designers of space-based strongholds, considerations that are not shared by their groundling cousins. While these features do not in themselves cost anything, they should be taken into account in any reasonable design.
Logistics. Any space-based stronghold occupied by humans or demihumans needs an air envelope, a water supply, and a food supply.
As a rule of thumb, a stronghold's atmosphere will last one year without being refreshed if the stronghold is fully populated. This length of time can be doubled by halving the number of people in the stronghold; no further extension of the air freshness is possible unless the stronghold is abandoned.
There are several methods for refreshing air envelopes discussed in Chapter 6 of this book. Of these, the use of green plants as a continuous air refresher is the most practical for a stationary stronghold. Towing the stronghold into an atmosphere is prohibitively expensive, and few characters will want to employ the number of hurwaeti or mages necessary to refresh the air envelope.
A minimum 20% of the surface of any stronghold should be covered with green plants to refresh the atmosphere. As mentioned in Chapter 6, these can also be used as a food source.
Gnlike air, it is possible (but expensive) to import food and water to a stronghold. Reliance on imported provisions makes the stronghold extremely vulnerable to sieges, however, as there is no internally renewing resource that the inhabitants can depend on. Spells such as purify food and drink, create water, create food and drink, and even heroes' feast can be used in an emergency, but few spell-casters can create or purify enough food and water to feed all the inhabitants of a stronghold. Purify food and drink is available as a focus spell, if the stronghold has a religious base, but few nonpriests have such power (and so many devoted worshippers) available to them.
As mentioned above, green plants grown to preserve the air may also provide food. Various vegetables, fruit trees, and grains are used. Fruit trees are especially prized as a secondary source of water.
Magical items such as a decanter of endless water are highly prized in space strongholds. Even lesser items such as a Murlynd's spoon are valued, as they can provide some sustenance in the face of siege or loss of supplies.
Anchorage. Most strongholds will want to allow spacefaring visitors to land, even if docking is limited to the lord's own troops. A stronghold designer should ensure that sufficient room has been left—in the form of an anchorage, landing zone, or docks— to allow for normal levels of traffic to and from the stronghold.
Building on both sides. Unlike building on a planet, there is no natural protection for a stronghold attacked from below. Most strongholds have constructs on both sides of the gravity plane, as both sides are useful.
Travel from one side of the stronghold to the other requires special care, as travelers must negotiate the gravity plane. Several constructs are used:
* Rotating ladders: These constructs are ladders laid on pivoting platforms. The character begins by climbing "down" the ladder to the gravity plane. When he reaches the plane, he pulls a ratchet on the pivoting ladder, which rotates one half-turn in response to the character's weight. The rotation is then stopped by the ratchet, and the character has been carried across the gravity plane. He may now climb back "up" the ladder on the other side.
* Transition boxes: These wooden boxes are roughly coffin-shaped and lie near the gravity plane. A character wishing to cross the gravity plane gets into the box and is hauled across the plane by someone on the other side.
==Monthly Events==
As specified in Chapter 5 of the Castle Guide, building a castle involves more than simply spending money and hiring laborers. Innumerable minor problems arise along the way, and major problems could always crop up.
Each month, the DM should roll 1d100 and check the following table for unplanned events that may affect the construction of the stronghold. The DM is encouraged to include new and interesting events from the ongoing campaign.
 Table 20: Monthly Events
1d100	Event
01-75	No unusual event
76-80	Monster attack
81-85	Pirates
86-87	Infestation
88-89	Labor dispute
90-91	Raid
92-93	Shipwreck
94-95	Space missile
96-97	Drifting
98-99	Bad omens
00 	Natural disaster
No Unusual Event. Nothing unusual occurs this month. Construction proceeds as normal with no additional penalties.
Monster Attack. A creature of wildspace wanders into the construction area. Its attack may be sudden and violent, or it may subtly prey on the construction crew for a time before it is noticed. The crew loses 2-20 laborers to the creature. These laborers must be provided funerals (at 100 gp each). The player characters must then track down and slay the beast or it returns each month thereafter. The DM is encouraged to make dealing with the creature an adventure.
For each month that the creature is not slain or driven off, 2-20 laborers are lost. Particularly subtle creatures, especially those with concealment abilities, could plague a construction site for months.
Creatures that might plague construction of a space stronghold include albari, allura, argos, asteroid spiders, astrosphinxes, blazozoids, bloodsacs, colossi, dreamslayers, grell, mercurial slime, moon dragons, q'nidar, spaceworms, spiritjams, spirit warriors, stargazers, stellar undead, witchlight marauders, and yitsan.
Pirates. Pirates are raiding the supply ships that bring construction materials to the site. These pirates may be humans, demihumans, beholders, neogi, scro, pirates of Gith, or some other race. Their interference has slowed work to half speed (that is, one week of work is done every two weeks). The characters must deal with the pirates, either buying them off or eliminating them, before work can proceed at a normal pace. As with the previous entry, the DM is encouraged to resolve this problem through an adventure.
Infestation. The construction site is infested with a space parasite. (Good choices are elmarin, feesu, flow barnacles, gullions, infinity vine, krajen spores, mortiss, scawers, or shadowsponge.) The infestation is slowing work by one quarter (so three weeks work is done for every four weeks that pass). In some cases (krajen spores, for example), allowing the parasite to go unchecked could lead to a monster attack (see above).
Labor Dispute. The laborers are unhappy with working conditions. Perhaps they feel they are not being paid well enough, or they may believe that player-character management is interfering in their trades. In any case, their pay must be increased or they will quit. If the laborers quit, all work stops for 3-18 (3d6) weeks while new workers are recruited.
In order to avoid a shutdown, each laborer must receive an additional 5 gp per week for the rest of the construction period. For instance, a 1,500-man labor pool with 12 weeks to go on a project requires an additional 90,000 gp in compensation.
This money may be paid in weekly installments, if the stronghold builder has cash-flow problems. However, bookkeeping is much simplified if the entire amount is paid immediately.
Raid. One of the predators of space makes a direct raid on the construction site. This may be a rival attempting to halt progress, a neogi slave-raid, beholders trying to drive humans from the sphere, or merely very bold pirates out for what they can get.
If the raiders are human, demihuman, or humanoid, their number will be equal to the number of laborers. If the raiders are nonhuman, the DM must adjust their numbers to provide a fair fight.
We recommend using the BATTLESYSTEM™ miniatures rules to resolve a raid. Alternatively, the ship-to-ship combat rules in the Concordance of Arcane Space can be adapted, if the battle occurs primarily in space. At least a portion of the major battle should be role-played, so the PCs can enjoy the raid as an adventure rather than a tactical exercise.
Raiders commonly soften up the stationary castle site with large weapons, then land to finish the assault. The exact tactics used will depend on circumstances, but the raiders will certainly have the advantage of maneuverability unless the player characters have spelljamming vessels of their own.
If a quick resolution is desired, the DM can simply rule that 33%-90% (30 + 3d20) of the laborers are killed in the battle before the raiders are driven off. Each laborer killed is entitled to a funeral and pension for his family in honor of his valiant defense of the stronghold. (This is handled by paying the remaining wages due the laborer until the end of the project as a lump sum.) New laborers must be hired to replace those slain, at a cost of 10 gp per week. This amount can also be paid as a lump sum, to avoid further bookkeeping.
Shipwreck. A shipwreck occurs near the site. Roll 1d6. On a roll of 1-4, the wrecked ship was carrying materials for the stronghold's construction. The characters will be sure something is wrong when the ship is 1–4 weeks overdue, and can then begin searching for the ship. Construction is delayed by half the number of weeks the ship is overdue, plus the number of weeks spent searching for and rescuing the ship. Laborer salaries must be paid during this time, however.
On a roll of 5-6, the shipwreck is not directly related to the stronghold's construction. However, the characters will be asked by the local authorities to participate in the search and rescue. Participating removes the characters from the site until the ship is found and rescued, so that their special abilities cannot be applied to construction, but has no other direct effect on the construction of the stronghold. If the PC decline to participate in the search, however, the local authorities become angry. From then on, the distance the characters must travel to get supplies is increased by one increment (Near to Distant, Distant to Very Distant) to simulate the difficulty of getting supplies from an angered populace. Modify the Production Modifier appropriately for the remainder of the construction.
Each searching spelljamming captain has a 25% chance per week to find the missing ship.
The DM must determine the cause of the shipwreck. Possible causes include the death or injury of the spelljamming helmsman, entering a sargasso, collision with an asteroid, infinity vine or spaceworm infestation, mutiny, or attack by monsters or pirates. In any case, the DM should make determining the cause of the shipwreck and saving the ship a roleplaying adventure.
Space Missile. The construction site is struck by a space missile: a powered, fast-moving object flying uncontrolled through space. These are generally errant spelljamming furnaces or artifurnaces that have torn loose from a ship while still operating. They shoot through space at high speed, freed from having to haul the tonnage of a ship, and travel in a straight line (see Lost Ships, under "Flotsam of Space").
Because of their small size and high speed, such space missiles give little warning they are in the vicinity. The best that can be hoped for is 1–6 minutes' warning before the crash. Even if a space missile is sighted, it is impossible to determine whether it will hit the fortress or merely pass dangerously close (50% chance for either to occur). No one has yet found a way to stop such a missile, but in theory it should be possible to deflect one, given enough warning (the DM should evaluate all such attempts individually). Regardless of any other actions, the PCs should take precautions to save lives within the few minutes remaining before impact.
Collision damage to the physical structure will set construction back 2–12 weeks. To keep things simple, just add the 2–12 weeks to the number of weeks of work remaining.
In addition, 6-36 (6d6) laborers will perish in the disaster. Casualties are reduced by one die for each minute of warning that the site receives, so that with four minutes' warning, only 2-12 (2d6) laborers are lost. Funerals, pensions, and replacing deceased workers are handled as detailed for the casualties of a raid.
Even a near miss isn't cause for celebration, however. The event scares the wits out of the laborers, making them nervous and jumpy and delaying construction by one week.
The DM is encouraged to allow the characters to further reduce casualties through role-playing action. Heroic efforts to save workers, particularly if valuable magical items are expended, may improve overall worker morale (at the DM's discretion).
Drifting. The stronghold is drifting. While the movement began slowly enough to be beneath notice, it has gradually moved the stronghold into a dangerous region. This region could be a sargasso, a dust cloud, the outer heat zone of a fire world, or even near the mouth of a portal through the crystal sphere. (If the stronghold was intentionally built in a sargasso or dust cloud, this result may cause it to drift out of those conditions.)
The characters may choose to live with the change, recomputing the Production Modifier for the remainder of the construction, paying the additional costs, and extending the schedule by the added number of weeks. The new conditions, in addition to costing more time and money, may make the stronghold less habitable.
The alternative is to tow the stronghold out of the zone. As can easily be seen by examining the capacity of the spelljamming engines listed in Chapter 3 of the Concordance of Arcane Space, no single engine can move something the size of a stronghold.
As a rule of thumb, the actual towing capacity of a spelljamming helm is the maximum tonnage it can move times its SR, minus the actual tonnage of the ship in which the helm is installed. (This is an amplification of the towing rule in Chapter 4 of the Concordance of Arcane Space.) There are also rumors of spelljamming druids using kindori or other large space animals to help move a stronghold. Such creatures have a pushing capacity (they push, rather than tow) of their own body weight. The characters must locate enough spelljamming vessels and creatures to encompass the tonnage of the stronghold in order to move it to a more desirable location.
The tonnage encompassed by each castle construction module is shown in the following table:
 Table 21: Castle Tonnage
Module Type 	Tonnage
Barbican, Small 	47
Barbican, Medium 	65
Barbican, Large 	74
Building, Small Stone 	3
Building, Medium Stone 	6
Building, Large Stone 	12
Building, Great Stone 	24
Building, Grand Stone 	57
Building, Small Wooden 	1
Building, Medium Wooden	3
Building, Large Wooden 	10
Building, Great Wooden 	20
Building, Grand Wooden 	53
Gatekeep, Lesser 	49
Gatekeep, Greater 	132
Gatekeep, Grand 	236
Tower, Small Round 	22
Tower, Medium Round 	31
Tower, Large Round 	56
Tower, Small Square 	28
Tower, Medium Square 	40
Tower, Large Square 	71
Wall, Stone (all) 	.5
Building features not listed occupy an insignificant amount of tonnage and can be ignored.
The tonnage of the stronghold is the sum of the tonnages of all the modules plus the tonnage of the underlying base. Stronghold platforms and their tonnage are listed in the following table:
 Table 22: Platform Tonnage
Platform Type 	Tonnage
Asteroid Cluster	250
Dwarven Citadel 	300
Planetoid 	500-1000
Space Leviathan 	400
Stoneship 	300
Platforms larger than those listed above may not be towed.
The characters must pay 10 gp to the towing vessels for each ton of the stronghold, and must wait 2–8 weeks until all of the spelljamming vessels needed can gather at the site. (The gold-piece cost and the duration of the wait should be multiplied by the Production Modifier for the local social structure.) The laborers must spend the time until the ships arrive preparing anchor points for the ships to attach their lines to.
When the appropriate capacity of ships has arrived, towing can begin. Changing the direction of an object as large as a stronghold takes one week; during this time, no work can be done on the stronghold.
Once the towing is complete, it will take another week to detach and dismantle the anchorage equipment, after which construction can continue.
The actual duration of this problem may extend over several months. The DM should roll for events during this period, so that the characters can experience dealing with other problems under adverse conditions. (Imagine, for example, dealing with a shipwreck or monster attack in a sargasso, where magic and magical items do not function.)
Bad Omens. The laborers (and perhaps the PCs) believe that certain omens show that it would be bad to continue work at this time. Such omens may come from true magic (an augury spell, for example) or from the warnings of an Aperusa fortuneteller. For whatever reason, the PCs are advised to stop work for 1–6 weeks.
If work continues, the PCs must roll on the events table each week rather than each month for the duration of the bad omens, and any roll of 10 or less is rerolled. Additional bad omens (another roll of this event) increase the duration of the portents by 1–6 weeks and increase the reroll percentage by an additional 10% (so that after two occurrences of "bad omens," the character must reroll on rolls of 1-20). Negative effects (rolls over 75) are never rerolled.
Natural Disaster. Absolute disaster is imminent. The stronghold may have drifted so that it is falling into the atmosphere of a world, or a huge meteor is on a collision course to smash the stronghold to flinders. In any case, the stronghold will be completely ruined, and all work and funds invested will be lost.
Because this event spells total destruction for the castle, the DM is encouraged to provide the player characters with opportunities to avert disaster. This may involve great heroic effort or personal sacrifice, but it should be possible for the characters to mitigate the effects of the disaster, if not avert it totally.