Nuts Deep

Nuts Deep

Nuts Deep is a fortified outpost about a mile northeast of Elturel, 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.

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 immediately: "Welcome to Nuts Deep." Baelgrum's first act as co-lord: "We have to brainstorm the flag situation for that."

The Hellriders' fort

The fort was the home of the Hellriders of Elturel. Roughly 500 years ago, with devils "up to no good" in the region, the Hellriders opened a portal and rode into Hell to drive them back. The gate was closed soon after, but its residue left energies that made the fort hard to inhabit for long stretches — long since dispersed. It 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.

What has changed is the Cult of the Dragon. The threat is no longer a siege but infiltration — 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."

(Note: the DM described the fort as unused for "a couple hundred years" while dating the Hell portal to ~500 years ago — a minor inconsistency, recorded here rather than silently reconciled.)

Location & condition

Nuts Deep sits on a rise directly on the main road from the east, within sight of Elturel's walls (and of the Companion). The walls are sound and the surrounding ground has been kept clear, but the buildings are empty and long-neglected — "there's mice, tons of spider webs, it obviously has not been used for a couple hundred years… But the bones of the building — bones are still strong."

Existing structures:

• Barracks, with space for a substantial garrison and stores enough to outlast a siege of months
• Stables
• Forge / armory
• An administrative / war-council building
• A mage tower, with residual arcane energies still present
• A siege tower with a legacy signal-flag apparatus for communicating with Elturel — usable "even if magic is blocked for some reason"

Terms of the grant

Deez Nuts hold ownership or lordship of the fort. They are explicitly not expected to garrison it — Elturel will assign soldiers once the barracks are restored. 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, or recruited through a character's faction, which yields people aligned with that faction's ethos. The party is advised to speak with Thavius Kreeg's representative about specific expectations.

The bastion (crafting)

Confirmed by the DM at Baelgrum's direct question: 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. Options raised at the table:

• Forge — hire a smith from the city
• Alchemy lab — potions
• Arcane study — magic items
• Research facility — a scholar with connections to the libraries of the Sword Coast, who researches and sends findings back
• Teleportation room — becomes a destination for Shade's Teleport
• Barracks

House rule — no Bastion turns. The 5e bastion economy is not used: "We're not really going to do Bastion turns, and we've got the crafting system, so any of those facilities that say you can do this or that, don't worry about that. It's going to be the crafting thing that's on the wiki." (See House Rules.)

Squires are, by default, parked at Nuts Deep rather than travelling with the party — "we're not just going to have a party of 12 or 13 characters. That'll be ridiculous."

Open work

• Restore the buildings; stand up the forge, and the facilities each PC chooses
• Hire staff and a garrison; Elturel will man it once the barracks are fit
• Settle the flag
• 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 and named (the party had not yet reached it when the session ended)