The PCs are likely are going to try to get into a safehouse of the local thieves’ guild in the next two sessions. The setting is Ptolus, using the D&D 5E rules.
The safehouse in question is in a lower middle class region on the surface, but it has another entrance to the vast dungeon systems beneath the city. This, in itself, is not unusual - the bedrock on which the city stands is filled with tunnels and long-forgotten vaults. But while most house owners just try to brick those passages over, the thieves’ guild actually uses these passages for their business dealings.
And I need some ideas on both what might be inside the premises, and what kinds of systems they use to secure the safehouse. The PCs will likely be coming from the “dungeon” side, and this is the kind of city where criminals expect inconvenient adventurers to pop up in all sorts of places.
I’ve already determined that the location includes:
- a vampire ally of the guild
- some cells for prisoners who get interrogated for information
- a bunch of drugs for resale
Any other ideas? The party consists of four 8th level characters, if this helps.
You’ll have to forgive me for my lack of familiarity of the Ptolus setting. I assume a lot of these questions can be answered in the fluff for that world, or explained by DM head canon. The following questions are what I would be asking myself about the space to help guide my design.
- What caused these tunnels to form? Erosion and dissolution, like irl caves, or something more fantastic, like the city formerly (or currently) being part of a Purple Worm’s hunting grounds?
- Are there other creatures who live in the tunnels which could prove dangerous? Are they sapient or sentient? Do they hold a grudge against surface dwellers for any reason?
- Does the city attempt to manage these access points in any way? What form does that management take? Is there like a SWAT team of tunnel rats who get deployed whenever something reaches the surface, or are they proactively patrolling the tunnels to prevent incursions? Is there a records office which maintains a list sealed and unsealed entrances? How accurate is that list / how well-funded is that department?
- Does the Thieves Guild rely on greasing palms to keep their operation secret, or do they rely on the inherent danger / inaccessibility of the tunnels to operate?
- Is there a magic user within the Guild who could be responsible for setting up traps, surveillance, or alarms through magical means?
- Have members of the Guild put any effort into expanding / altering the tunnels they use most frequently? Are there capable diggers who would know how to do that well? If not, is there the possibility of a cave-in? Or, perhaps, did they contract out with the Stonecutter’s Guild (for example) to ensure the work was done well? Is that an avenue for the players to get some extra information?
As far as general layout of the actual base, rather than the tunnels and subterranean access point, you mention it’s in a mid-low income neighborhood, but you don’t describe the building they occupy. Is it a house? A commerical venture of some kind? Does the guild attempt to keep up appearances by maintaining a cover of some kind? What sorts of apparatus would they need to keep that cover in place? If the building was originally a bakery, for example, do they continue to operate it as such? Are the employees of the front operation aware of the illicit activities they are covering up? Are they guild members, or are they civilians who are paid well enough not to ask questions?
I regret being all Socratic up in here, trying to answer your question with a series of questions, but I believe they will help you envision the requirements that a base like this would have, which will then guide what elements you need to include to achieve verisimilitude.
There were some naturally-occurring caves, but also the following:
- Some eldritch horrors sleeping in the deepest caverns beneath the city who act as a “lodestone” for evil creatures, compelling them to come here.
- An ancient cleric once attempted to build a massive vault here as a safe depository for evil artifacts. He became corrupted by them, and turned into the first Evil Overlord.
- Much later on, a second Evil Overlord appeared who wanted the secrets of the first Evil Overlord. He expanded the caves and turned them into his military headquarters for his conquering horde of monsters.
- There was also a major dwarf hold here at some point before they abandoned it.
- There is an entire drow city deep beneath the surface.
- Assorted other groups of monsters keep showing up and making themselves at home.
- Oh, and the current incarnation of the city has been built on top of this, which includes a massive sewer system that is gradually breaking down from lack of maintenance.
The whole dungeon system has developed over the course of more than 8,000 years. The general inclination of the citizens above is to wall off any entrances they find, and otherwise let adventurers deal with it. (This is another unique aspect about this city - it’s the only one on the continent which has a professional class of adventurers.)
As for the Thieves’ Guild, they tend to grease a lot of palms in the city watch, so they don’t have to worry much from law enforcement unless they do something too blatant. However, there is a new criminal organization which is giving them a lot of trouble, and there are a lot of adventurers around, so they do have reasons to take their security seriously.
The guild have mages in their employ who could help with magical security, but none of them is present in this safe house.
Guard “dogs”. Some kind of creature that fulfills the role of guard dogs, maybe trained to recognise a command word to stand down. If the players are able to scout or scry on the place beforehand they might be able to overhear one of the theives using the command. Depending on the setting you can make the creature something more interesting than just a straight combat, like something that tries to paralyze them for interrogation later, something that tries to go and alert the theives, etc.
Stolen goods that they thought were valuable, but aren’t actually.
Complete with exorbitant prices and backstory. Make it obvious that the seller is delusional and just steals random shit and tries to resell it with a made up backstory.
Make the other theives dislike the seller and if the PCs ask, they say the dude is probably off his rocker. “He ain’t good at theivin’, but he is the nephew of important person” or “he is a really good cook, so we keep him around”
Bonus points if you conceal an actually useful item within the midst of garbage
Is this a safehouse or a headquarters/guild hall/ hub area for thieves? To me, the former implies a spot for thieves to lay low while the fuzz is on them or to collect themselves and distribute loot after a nervewracking heist, or maybe to stock up on supplies and sleep before moving on to the next safehouse. A place to disappear to, in a sense.
Edit: Or perhaps a place where a thief or group of thieves live and keeps their shit.
The main headquarters are elsewhere, but the guild maintains lesser safehouses in most districts of the city.
But you are right, I haven’t put much thought into whether this is a hub for activities or a place to lay low. I’d say it’s primarily the former.
Hmm gotcha. If it’s a place for activity and you already have stuff in mind for the headquarters, you could theoretically copy and paste what the HQ has and just trim things off as you like. Otherwise, here’s my two cents. Feel free to include what you need and leave off what you don’t.
- Sleeping areas. Maybe a whole section dedicated to barracks, or maybe just a couple mattresses/cots/sleeping bags in a corner.
- Restrooms.
- Tables and chairs, or at least places to sit down and be comfortable.
- Games of chance. Maybe some are scams, maybe some are legit, most are just for some R&R.
- Depending on size, a stocked bar with a bartender. If it’s too small, maybe some guy specifically selling booze and nothing else.
- Fences buying and selling illicit goods, whether stolen or just outright illegal. You mentioned drugs earlier but (again depending on size) a black market here would encompass all that and more.
- Along the same vein, maybe someone selling tools of the trade. Rope, lockpicks, small knives, crowbars, etc.
- A kitchen, or at least a place where food is made. Maybe just simple stews and gruel for people who are hungry, or maybe fucking Sanji and Gordon Ramsey are here serving up 10 star meals for no reason.
- If there’s prisoners in cells, then there’s guards tending to the prisoners. A guard post, or some such.
- Maintainers. Essentially, people who watch over the place and take care of it. Maybe they clean and dust everything, cook food, manage the bar, guard the entry points, referee the market, do conflict resolution, etc. Or maybe they’re just there to keep track of who comes in and who goes out. Or maybe there aren’t any and people are expected to pick up after themselves.
- Crates and barrels. More generally, space for storage, or if not a separate space, containers scattered around.
- Along the same vein, maybe a dedicated locker room, as in a place where people can safely store things without fear of it getting stolen. Maybe they trust it to the maintainers who handle the keys, or maybe they hold the keys themselves, or maybe there isn’t a safe place to store stuff because everyone’s a thief, or maybe everywhere is safe because the guild’s rules are that there’s no thievery allowed in safe houses, and anyone caught doing so is punished.
- Less of a “thing” and more of an idea. No keys whatsoever. They’re thieves, they just pick the locks closed and pick them open when needed. If there’s no keys, then there’s no threat of the prisoners stealing one, and if the prisoners are good enough to pick the lock to their cage, then shit they’re good enough to join the guild.
- A bard. People like music. Doesn’t have to be a professional either, maybe someone plucking a few strings on a guitar to lend some ambiance.
- Corrupt officials doing business.
- Guild officials. Might fall into the category of maintainers, might not. Someone with authority who’s here to answer questions and watch the place.
- People offering services. Bodyguards selling protection, thieves looking to join a heist for a cut, professional lockpicks offering to crack open really hard locks, perhaps a mage or mages selling magical services like spell casts, enchantments, potions, etc. Maybe sex workers, assassins, ruffians who will harass or beat someone up for cash or get beat up to make a scene. Guides who know the undercity like the back of their hand, or underground performers on a bad turn. City officials or guardsmen open to bribes. Maybe these people aren’t advertising and are just existing in the area, but can be spoken to and hired.
@juergen_hubert It makes me wonder why there are so many tunnels to begin with. Of course, in a fantasy world they could just be a side effect of unusually large worms, or something.
But first thing that comes to mind is catacombs - if not the primary purpose, a secondary usage. So walls lined with bones is maybe something?
The city of Ptolus has a long and convoluted backstory, and is known across much of the continent as “that weird city with all the dungeons and adventurers”. Suffice to say, there are reasons why the region attracts all kinds of supernatural creatures, and there were many, many different groups of people and creatures who expanded these dungeons.
If you like the whole concept of “dungeon delving mixed with city adventures”, I can highly recommend Ptolus. Few do it better, or more exhaustively.
Consider what this place is to the thieves and how they use it.
Do they live here? If so there should be sleeping and dining areas. Do they frequently gather, perhaps to set out for work together, or do they tend to be dispersed, coming and going as jobs demand?
For the former, they most likely a barracks or common room and a dining hall. But if the latter, then something more like a series of tunnels and halls that occasionally have little apartments and safe zones. This is, to use your screenshot, basically the difference between the main guild area and the Ratways.
You say they expect adventurers? Do they set up a few rooms of traps and post a guard to catch them, or do they cleverly hide their entrances and then let monsters roam free outside safe areas as a deterrent, or do they welcome the (money and resources of) the adventurers and so the entrance is guarded but accessible, maybe almost like a lounge or casino?
There’s typically a tradeoff between utility and security in any physical space. If it’s easy to use the tunnels to get around the city quietly, then it’s also easy to lose your enemies, to get lost, and to be suddenly infiltrated. On the other hand, if movement is difficult or dangerous or restricted, then the hideout is more secure from random incursion and discovery.
For some laughs you could probably mix in some bad ideas with good ideas; for example the guild uses mimics knowing adventurers are greedy for more gold and go to the trouble of making it look like they were supposed to be hidden, like for example behind hidden walls (that they know adventurers like to poke around in); however they also try to keep some important doors closed by just sticking a chair under the handle (good ideas + bad ideas).
You could have that they set up a boulder trap, except their architectural design was off and the boulder after a short period inevitably just veers off of a nearby chasm rather than down a suspended path as they’d originally intended.
You could have them make piles of ‘gold’ that have explosive rune cast on them, and if they should meet the adventurers in battle they can literally call out the rune and the coins explode, except they used pyrite (fool’s gold) because they were cheap, and perceptive adventurers will notice the ‘gold’ is worthless (and may even get them in trouble if they try to spend it).
tools of the trade (say hooks and silent shoes and the like), local pharmacy equivalent (with potions again geared to stealth) and maybe esoteric stolen (demon summoning books) goods they can’t sell?
if it’s safehouse-safehouse probably appearance altering stuff, food and medicine
@juergen_hubert a training area to learn and teach thievery skills
