Headquarters

Rank 4

A central place for planning the expansion of the town, its expeditions into the wilds and mapping the West Isles. Containing a war room, maps of the island, a barracks and garrison, it's the best place for organizing a trip out of the town.

Rank	Gold Cost	Benefit
1st	500 gp	1 squad who can defend the town and other locations
2nd	1,000 gp	2 armed squads who can set up resource gathering
3rd	3,000 gp	3 squads, capable of building roads
4th	5,000 gp	4 elite squads who can create self-sufficient outposts

When you build or upgrade the headquarters, the building itself is renovated and improved. Cartographers and explorers are hired and outfitted, maps are gone over and combined, and tools are bought in that make exploration easier. Groups of people willing to brave the wild are brought in, equipped and armored, and made ready for expeditions out of the walls. Finally, when you upgrade the headquarters, you may work with the DM to decide who the newly equipped squad is.
Current squads are:

The Beacon Watch

The Mror Miners

Soarwood Loggers

<TBD>

Exploration

An exploration mission is a short trip out to a relatively safe location, surveying the land, filling in the map and checking for landmarks. But either on your own or with a small team, caution is key. Travelling too far from home, going anywhere particularly dangerous, or totally unknown territory? That's what an adventure with other PCs is for.
As a downtime action, choose an unexplored hex on the map, no more than a week's travel away, and adjacent to at least two explored areas. Roll a Wisdom (Survival), Intelligence (Nature) or Intelligence (Cartographer's Tools) check. For each rank of the Headquarters, you may add spend 50gp to +1 to this check, as you improve the quality of supplies, maps and travel gear.

Exploration
Roll	Result
4 or less	You return empty-handed, the terrain being too difficult, finding too much danger to proceed, or just getting lost
5 - 9	You map the area's terrain, but with some small disaster leaving you with limited information beyond that.
10 - 15	You come back with a rough map of the terrain, revealing the region on the map and a rough description
16 - 24	You also find at least one landmark with strategic, diplomatic, monetary or research value
25 - 29	You find something especially valuable, like an art object, rare material or resource deposit
30 or more	You stumble onto something important! Get a party together and come back, this could be what someone's been searching for

Expedition

You lead a squad - a small group of NPCs tough enough to brave the wilds - out on a longer trip, choosing an area for them to fortify until they are recalled. Choose an explored region, no more than a week's travel away - once you lead them there, the squad will stay, keeping it safe and under control depending on how well equipped the Headquarters are:

Rank	Benefit
1st	The squad can defend the town, or set up camp and scouts - any danger here, you can avoid it when you pass through
2nd	The squad makes a place safe enough for workers. If any resources or discoveries here are useful for the town, they can now be gathered over time
3rd	The squad works on roads and bridges and safety, letting you travel at maximum speed and with mounts in this and all adjacent regions
4th	A fortified outpost is set up as a proper fortified forward base, letting you take full rests, level up, and begin adventures from there instead

There can be one squad per rank of the headquarters supplied and active at any given time - these squads will also be recalled and help defend the town if it is threatened.
Additionally, either when the headquarters is upgraded or the new squad is led out for the first time, if interested you may work with the DM to decide who you're bringing, where they came from, who leads them, and how they're equipped.

Type

Ministry / City hall

Parent Location

Beacon