Strongholds & Followers and Freeport

Last summer, I reviewed Matt Colville's Stronghold & Followers sourcebook for D&D 5E. This time, I'll be looking at how to use this new material in a Freeport campaign.

First of all, Freeport is a very highly detailed city that already contains many competing organizations with established strongholds. Any attempt to create a new stronghold in the Serpent's Teeth, much less within Freeport's own city walls, will be sure to experience resistance from the current powers that be. Players and DMs should not let that discourage them from using the stronghold rules--intrigue and political scheming are hallmarks of the City of Adventure, after all! And some bold adventurer is behind the founding of most of the city's iconic organizations, from the Syndicate to the Wizard's Guild to the office of Sea Lord itself. The PCs are just the latest in a long history of ambitious new arrivals, who lack the advantages jealously guarded by the members of the status quo.

In a Freeport campaign, the stronghold rules can also be useful for detailing NPC organizations, from competing guilds to military schools to pirate fleets. Even if the PCs never establish a formal base of operations, NPCs with sufficient political clout will reap the benefits of maintaining their own strongholds: followers to pit against the PCs, easier access to low-level magic items, and improved class features. (On the other hand, when faced with such resourceful enemies, the PCs may eventually seek how to gain those rewards for themselves!)

Most of the rules in S&F can be used as-is in most campaigns, but a few options deserve specific call-outs for Freeport.

The Keep: The barbarian camp option is not appropriate within the Serpent's Teeth, except when they are invading one of the settlements here (as in the northern barbarian invasion during Black Sails Over Freeport). However, this stronghold type is the norm in the more savage parts of the Continent, such as Druzhdin and the Bone Lands.

In contrast, the pirate ship variant is perfectly suited to Freeport. The Mass Combat rules can be adapted for use for sea battles between enemy ships.

The Tower: The Wizard's Guild is the epitome of this type of stronghold, while Gitch's rickety tower in Bloodsalt represents the most humble possible version.

The Temple: Freeport is littered with this type of stronghold, but not every shrine in the Temple District qualifies. (The Fool's Market as a whole might--or it might count as an establishment?--but the individual spaces within it would not.) Naturally, any new temple established within Freeport will face intense scrutiny from other faiths, who may simply be jealous of competition or who might be on the watch for legitimate threats to crusade against.

The druid's grove alternate would be appropriate to establish outside the city, in the jungles of A'Val or elsewhere in the Serpent's Teeth.

The Establishment: This type of stronghold might be the easiest to establish within the city, because Freeport is a city that thrives on commerce and trade. The covert side of the organization will need to be wary of established criminal gangs, who have well-defined territories within the city's districts.

Followers: The stat blocks for retainers are highly abbreviated, since they have a reduced role in combat. However, they can be useful starting points for creating NPC allies and enemies for Freeport adventures, apart from the stronghold rules. Likewise, the sample artisan profiles can be used as-is or as inspiration for new background characters.

The Siege of Castle Rend: This adventure is clearly not appropriate for the Serpent's Teeth. However, it could be used more or less as written in many places on the Continent. The adventure also presents many new stat blocks for orcs, which could add some variety to the inhabitants of Bloodsalt.

New Monsters: This chapter is a rich resource for any 5E game. See below for further discussion.

New Items: The codices are thematically appropriate for Freeport, given the setting's strong Lovecraftian element. However, they require attunement within a stronghold, so should be ignored if the stronghold rules are not being used.

New Monsters

This chapter can be used with any 5E campaign, whether or not the GM includes the stronghold and concordance rules. These creatures are grouped into various extraplanar factions based on the beings' origins and agenda.

Demons and devils are well represented in the Monster Manual, so only a few new fiends are needed to round out the servitors chart in the temple rules.

The remaining factions include:

• The Celestial Court: Angelic beings who (in Freeport's default D&D cosmology, at least) hail from the outer planes of good. These beings are the natural allies of pure-hearted crusaders against demons, devils, and other evils.
• The Court of All Flesh: Chaotic aberrations. "Primordius" is roughly cognate to Limbo, but the Changing Ones are not affiliated with the slaadi or other denizens of that plane. (Slaadi have never been Open Game Content, so Colville had to invent new servitors for this niche.) In a Freeport campaign, this court might have ties to realms corrupted by the Unspeakable One, but are not inherently evil themselves.
• The Court of Arcadia: Chaotic fey (and one dragon), appropriate to the fairy realms (and some elven woods). These are likely to be popular among clerics from Rolland on the Continent, but apart from the oleander dragon, the Court of Arcadia are unlikely to have anything in common with the more reptilian fey native to the Serpent's Teeth.
• The Court of Elements: Neutral elementals, ruled by the Lady of Brass. In a Freeport campaign, may be the noble efreeti ruler of the City of Brass, or the sovereign over all of the ruling class of genies from all four elemental planes.
• Gemstone Dragons: These neutral dragons are the one group of new monsters that were not designed for use as extraplanar servitors. Instead, they form a third category of dragons between the more extreme alignments of the metallic and chromatic species. Gemstone dragons have psionic abilities rather than the usual magical powers of dragons. A limited, self-contained psionics system is presented to support these creatures. This section also includes a gemstone variant for dragonborn (who comprise the only method presented in this book for accessing those psionic powers as a PC). In a Freeport campaign, gemstone dragons might have connections to, or secret forgotten knowledge of, the ancient civilization of Valossa, or its serpent god Yig.
• The Inexorables: Lawful constructs that embody the plane of pure law (called "Axiom" here, which could be considered the same as Mechanus in the default D&D cosmology). They presumably operate independently from the modrons.

For my past columns about using D&D Fifth Edition sourcebooks with Freeport: The City of Adventure, see the Freeport 5E Index.