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.

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." And immediately after: "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.)

The walk-through

At the end of Session 52 an administrator of Thavius Kreeg escorted the party out to the fort. It is utterly run-down — bare, empty rooms, mice, spiderwebs, nothing left behind by its last occupants — but structurally intact. The walls are sound and need no repair. As the DM put it: "the bones of the building — bones are still strong."

The layout as described:

• Barracks (right-hand building) — housing for a garrison, with stores enough to outlast a siege of months
• Stables — built for cavalry
• Armory / forge — for repairing weapons and armor
• Administrative building (top) — purpose-built for war-strategy meetings
• Mage tower (top) — a mage was always assigned to this fort, and arcane energies still linger in the tower
• Siege tower (bottom left) — raised against siege engines; still holds the old signalling equipment for communicating with Elturel (visible from the walls) even if magic is somehow blocked

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, or recruited through a character's faction, which yields people aligned with that faction's ethos.

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. Each character's squire is their one starting helper; as facilities are built, specialists are hired to run them.

Facilities named at the table:

• Forge / smithy — hire a smith from the city
• Alchemy lab — potions
• Arcane study / magic-item workshop
• Research facility — a scholar with connections to the libraries of the Sword Coast, who chases lore and sends findings back
• Armory
• Teleportation room — would make Nuts Deep a Teleport destination for Shade, alongside Neverwinter, Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate
• 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.)

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 each PC's chosen facility
• Hire staff and specialists; clean the barracks so Elturel garrisons it
• 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, toured, and named