Is there a point for bugbear/hobgoblin/goblin raiding group to operate from a remote ruin? Advantages I can think of are pre-set escape routes (with traps), chance to engage in combat under own conditions(and in darkness, protected from sun), chance to set up traps/murderholes. Would surroundings of such a place be patroled?
>>46649773
It's a mythology thing, you always had thieving fairy shits operating out of ruined castles and crumbling towers.
>>46649773
Unless the raiding party is large enough to defeat every organized effort to get rid of them, having a fixed base is kinda retarded. Why would whatever authorities there are not just wipe them out?
>>46650086
OP here. My thoughst exactly.
>>46650086
Why they don't just build a wall?
>>46649773
They have to camp somewhere. Ruins provide shelter, camouflage, and cover.
The main hall and dungeons are watertight, the upstairs gives them a good field of view and the surrounding wall is mostly intact. Even in ruins it's better than what they usually build and nobody goes there anymore.
>>46650457
>>46649773
Brigands, bandits, enemy raiding parties and whatnot that are essentially in enemy territory must rely on not actually getting caught by anyone who can push their shit in.
If you stay in one place, especially in some ruin where people might spot a campfire or smoke from a long distance, or where echoes will travel and so on you're bound to get caught.
"Oh gee all those travellers getting jumped within a few miles of that old crumbling fort, I wonder where they are."
Stick to forests, keep moving, otherwise you'll end up rotting in a cage at the roadside or decorating the gatehouse to the nearest town, soon.
>>46651767
People totally go there, to hide stuff, to sneak off with their lover, to organize secret meetings, whatever. There is no way that everyone, including kids, just leaves the nearby ruins alone.
>>46652208
Let them see the fires.
Let them hear our singing.
We're robbers. We're not afraid of anything!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8R7Qy0qGtE
>>46650329
trump please leave
>>46649773
It depends a lot on surrounding territory.
One of the big sources of the "bandit fortress" myth is from when an empire collapses. Persia, for instance, was famous for having broad highways that were positively encrusted with fortresses, meaning that any bandit activity on their precious precious trade usually got stomped flat from two directions at once.
So what happens when an empire begins to shrivel up, when it can't afford to keep every fortress manned, or when the borders have shrunk and left some sections of road outside of it.
Honestly, some bandit gangs could've been groups of soldiers that previously manned the fortress but then stopped receiving their pay during a time of upheaval.
At this point, merchant caravans need to consider the gamble "So that mountain pass, which is the lowest and broadest one for hundreds of miles, hasn't been under the sway of the empire for a decade. Half the caravans that go in come out with empty wagons and half dead. I just need to weigh those odds versus the guaranteed 50% profit loss by going around or going by sea, or the 70% profit loss of no longer serving this route."
>>46649773
Daniel / SirP? Is that you?
>>46652208
That's the issue though. Most bandit gangs obviously didn't operate in the middle of areas completely controlled by a country. They operate in the hinterlands, or during times right after a war when the army's at half power anyways from casualties or being stretched out to control new territory. Not on, for instance, the 20 mile stretch of highway between the capital and the biggest center of industry.
The bandit forts most people imagine should be the kind that weren't actually close to civilization anyways. That, or they're close to a village, which is actually where the bandits live as farmers, banditry being a side job to get some extra income into their starving town.
A long time ago, the ruin was once the fortress of a mighty lord. The lord, his court and most of the townsfolk decided to pack up their things and leave because of the encroaching armies of Szalvdek the Skeleton King. Only a small contingent of humans decided to stay to try and defend their home.
Because of the intervention of heroes whose name is lost to time, Szalvdek was defeated before his armies arrived at the fort. But a wandering band of goblinoids attacked the fort, as they are wont to do, and the defenders were no match for their vastly superior numbers.
To this day, the goblinoids keep the capture of the fort as a legend of their kind. In their twisted worldview, living in a conquered human fortress proves the superiority of their kind.
