Generic, Text: Stronghold: The Establishment

An establishment is a legitimate business which hides some of the party's covert operations. An establishment serves two purposes: to make money and gather information. An establishment can be a shop, a tavern, an inn, or any other manner of seemingly mundane local business. 

Revenue

Each season, your establishment generates 1,000gp per establishment level.

Rumors

During an adventure or in the lead-up to one, you can spend some money and collect some rumors about the quest you're about to go on. The cost is 100gp per establishment level. 
On a successful Gather Intel check (see below), you learn the name of one kind of creature you'll likely encounter and roughly how many of the creature there are likely to be. During the adventure, these creatures will be vulnerable to damage from your attacks for a number of attacks equal to your establishment level. 
In addition, you have a chance of gathering additional information, including:

• The location of a secret door or hidden entrance or exit


• The location and nature of a trap


• A hidden secret or personal motivations of an NPC or organization you'll interact with


• The location and description of one magical item

Gathering Intel

Those who run your establishment for you are trained (and paid) to keep their eyes and ears alert for bits of information that could prove useful. At lower levels, this intel includes bits of gossip overheard by your staff. At higher levels, your staff may have a handful of informants who they rely on for information. At the highest levels, your establishment's informants may have infiltrated other organizations in the surrounding area!
 

Making a Gather Intel Check

A Gather Intel check is resolved in the same manner as other checks, with the following modifier rules: Add your proficiency bonus to the roll, plus +1 per 100gp you are willing to spend. A minimum of 100gp (and the associated +1) is required to make the check. You may make a number of gather intel checks per season equal to your establishment level, but can never make multiple gather intel checks focused on the same adventure, organization, or individual during the same season. The DC for the check is set by the DM, who takes into account the target's size, complexity, and secrecy.
 

Favors

Once per season, you can spend 1,000gp to call in a favor from a nearby allied establishment of another type that you do not own as follows:

• Nearby Keep: You gain 500 points per level of your ally's keep to spend on units for one battle. These units cost you no gold, have no upkeep costs, and disband immediately after the battle. The units may only come from ancestries that you and the keep's owner have access to. 


• Nearby Tower: Choose a modified spell researched by an NPC ally or other party member. You can cast that modified spell a number of times equal to your establishment level before you forget it. Once you forget it, you'll need to pay for another favor to use it again. Modified spells are spells that you may already be familiar with, but the magical experts working at the tower have advanced it somehow via experimentation and research.


• Nearby Temple: You can petition the temple's deity and use their concordance once. If you summon a servitor, it remains for a number of rounds equal to your establishment level.