Nuts Deep

Nuts Deep

Nuts Deep — formerly the Gray Watch — is a fortified outpost about a mile northeast of Elturel, up on a rise overlooking the main road from the east. It was granted to Deez Nuts in Session 52 by Marshal Ulder Ravengard on behalf of High Overseer Thavius Kreeg. It is the company's first stronghold and their crafting bastion — and as of Session 53, a fort that has won its first battle.

It was named by Keyleth, who worked through "Fort Nottingham" and "Nuts Keep" before arriving at Nuts Deep, detonating the table and earning super inspiration on the spot. The DM renamed it on the map: "Welcome to Nuts Deep." Baelgrum, on first sight of the place: "Oh, f*** yeah." The Dawnbringers' Banneret, on hearing the name: "Well, that is well named… words of Deez Nuts, Nuts Deep will strike fear into the hearts of our enemies."

The Hellriders' fort

The fort was the home of the Hellriders of Elturel. In 1354 DR, with devils "up to no good" in the region, the Hellriders opened a portal and rode into Hell to drive them back. Session 53 sharpened the history: the gate to Hell was opened near this very fort — this is where the Hellriders left the city, opened the gate, and rode through. It closed behind them; only a handful returned by various means. No infernal energy lingers today, but the party now garrisons the doorstep of a former hellmouth. Elturel's paladin corps still bears the Hellriders' name and keeps the pact to destroy any devil's influence on the city.

The fort has stood largely unused since, because Elturel has not needed it: the Companion, the great floating orb of light above the city, pushes back darkness, undead and evil, and makes a direct assault on Elturel effectively impossible. Nuts Deep sits at roughly the edge of the Companion's reach — about the limit of where undead can survive near the city .

What has changed is the Cult of the Dragon. The threat is no longer a siege but infiltration and interdiction — hidden cultists, treasure caravans, movement on the eastern road — and this fort is the choke point. Ravengard's pitch, delivered to a party freshly returned from an infernal bargain, was pointed: "So if you've been to Hell and back, you're going to fit right in." Baelgrum, after the S53 history lesson: "So we have a mysterious glowing ball and a demonic incursion all in the same area. That's interesting."

Layout and defenses

A star fort. It is utterly run-down inside — bare, empty rooms, mice, spiderwebs — but structurally intact: the walls are sound and need no repair ("the bones of the building — bones are still strong"), and the front gates are big, sturdy, and surprisingly well oiled.

As established across S52–S53:

• The walls — the height of a tall two-story building (~25 ft; ~30 ft to the crenellation tops) and hollow: an internal hallway runs their full circuit, with doors at intervals (by the well, near each building) and hatches opening onto every star-point. Defenders can duck in at any door and pop up anywhere on the circuit.
• The gatehouse murder room — the wall passage runs up and over the inner gate, so attackers who breach the outer doors are trapped between two gates under a kill-floor. Both gates take a heavy lock bar.
• Fighting from the crenellations (rules codified in S53): three-quarters cover (+5 AC and Dex saves) against attackers below, half cover (+2) against fliers, and the high ground gives advantage on attacks. "There's a reason they build these things."
• The catapult (siege tower, bottom left) — in working order, range 240 feet, with a stock of strange mucus-wrapped burst-stones that split in the air into a rain of projectiles over a wide area (30 damage, Dex save — proven by Carl in S53). The tower also still holds the old signalling equipment for talking to Elturel if magic fails. The wall passage reaches it, though the climb to the top is longer.
• Administrative building (top left) — offices and war-council rooms; roof below wall height.
• Barracks / training building (top right) — tall first floor with doors big enough to bring horses inside; second storey peeks just over the walls.
• Stables (thatched, left) and a well inside the yard.
• Mage tower (north) — two levels above the walls; a mage was always posted here and arcane energies linger. S53 discovery: it holds a working teleportation circle.

The Battle of Nuts Deep

On the party's first day in residence, a Dawnbringer-escorted caravan carrying secret anti-Tiamat supplies fled to the fort with a Cult of the Dragon force behind it — some fifteen-plus zombies and skeletons, a wight, a dragonborn cultist, a necromancer, and two blue dragon wyrmlings. The party fought from the walls, Carl fired the catapult, and every attacker was destroyed with no losses beyond three downed squires (all recovered — see Squires of Deez Nuts). The fort worked exactly as designed. Full account: Session 53.

The grateful Banneret promised to report the deed to her superiors and to Thavius Kreeg himself: Elturel's craftsmen, supplies, and equipment are coming to stand the fort up — "Anything that you need that is within our ability to give, just let us know and it will be yours."

Terms of the grant

Deez Nuts hold ownership or lordship of the fort. They are explicitly not expected to garrison it — clean up the barracks and Elturel will send soldiers to man it. Ravengard: "I don't expect y'all to be manning the towers and running the catapults. What we need is leadership and the ability to think strategically… You're much more useful as sort of the mobile strike force that you have shown yourselves to be."

Staff can be hired from the population between Baldur's Gate and Elturel, recruited through a character's faction (yielding people aligned with that faction's ethos), or — post-S53 — supplied by Elturel itself in thanks for the caravan's rescue. An (as yet unnamed) administrator of Thavius Kreeg runs the fort's civil side and directed the gates during the battle.

The bastion (crafting)

Confirmed by the DM: once restored, Nuts Deep is a bastion for the campaign's crafting system. Each PC may claim a facility; facilities are level-gated and grant a discount on both the cost and the time of crafting (and remove the need to find a crafter — you know one is here). Each character's squire is their starting helper; specialists are hired to run each facility. The DM pointed to the official faction-bastion facilities in the new rules (Forgotten Realms adventure guide) for the non-crafting slots.

Facilities and staff named at the table :

• Forge / smithy — hire a smith
• Alchemy lab / potion master — potions and poisons
• Arcane study / artificer — magic items
• Research facility / Harper outpost — research and lore-finding
• War room — planning
• Administrators and soldiers — to run the fort and man the walls
• Teleportation room — see below
• Armory, barracks

House rule — no Bastion turns. The 5e bastion economy is not used: anything a facility says you "can do on a bastion turn" is ignored, and all making and crafting runs through the campaign's crafting system. (See House Rules.)

The squires are, by default, parked at Nuts Deep rather than travelling with the party.

The teleportation circle

The mage tower holds a genuine, still-charged teleportation circle . Lore established at the table: a Teleportation Circle must be cast in the same place every day for a year to become permanent — so new circles can't just be set up, but this one survives from the fort's garrison days. Shade can memorize it, making Nuts Deep a standing one-way teleport home: adventure out, teleport back. (No return trip to the adventure site unless a circle exists there.)

Open work

• A week of downtime (begun at the end of S53): work with Elturel's craftsmen, choose and stand up each PC's facility, hire staff
• Clean the barracks so Elturel garrisons it
• Have Shade memorize the teleportation circle
• Settle the flag ("We have to brainstorm the flag situation")
• Name the administrator (DM placeholder flagged at the table)
• Keyleth proposed recruiting labor from the burned-out homesteads north of Neverwinter — a village of people with nothing left and nowhere to be

Appearances

• Session 52 - Nuts Deep and the Turnip Wagon Ambush (2026-07-12) — granted, toured, and named
• Session 53 - The Battle of Nuts Deep (2026-08-09) — defended; the Battle of Nuts Deep; teleportation circle found; Elturel's support secured