Allistor opened up his Stronghold interface and authorized the others to see it.   Luther was already slightly familiar with it, having built his Stronghold.  They discussed the options and chose a modest beginning.   After making the selections, and reviewing the cost, he approved the transaction.

The same golden glow that had engulfed the cavern below wrapped around the four humans standing in the middle of the former sheriff’s station.  When it faded, they were surrounded by stone walls twenty feet high.   A rampart ran the entire length of the interior, about five feet below the top of the wall.  Switchback stone stairs ran upward from the now smooth ground every hundred feet or so.   There was a single gate with two massive metal doors that rose twenty feet from the ground, each one hung with two six-foot long hinges.   The perimeter of the wall ran two hundred yards in each direction, meaning it encompassed just under ten acres of land.

Inside the wall, not only had all the debris disappeared, but a few new buildings had risen.  Just inside the gate stood a barracks, two stories tall with the main floor sunk four feet below ground level.  A ramp led down to the front door.   The roof was level with the parapet and would make a great place to mount a Howitzer.  The inside consisted of storage space, a kitchen, bathrooms at either end with three stalls each and showers, and a dozen rooms each with two bunks.

Next to the barracks was a motor pool with a six-bay garage and doors large enough to pull the RVs inside.  Its rounded roof made it look like an airplane hangar.  A side structure that was basically just an extended roof with stone pillars provided space to park a dozen or so trucks underneath.

Each of the four corners sported a watchtower that extended ten feet higher than the wall.  The towers were covered with windows facing each of the cardinal points.  Inside each was a stairwell leading down and a door facing the ramparts on two sides.  A brazier was mounted below the floor level, designed to allow heat to rise without reducing the night vision of the guards.

The largest and most expensive of the structures was toward the back of the compound near the gates leading down to the cavern.  Over the top of where their small garden had been located now sat a greenhouse.  The one-acre building was built from some kind of metal with clear panels that were more durable than glass.

The group walked inside the building, its entrance a double set of swinging doors.  The interior was organized into raised plots filled with soil.  Metal framework rose from the corners of each plot, allowing future additions of second and even third levels of growing platforms.  The ceiling stretched twenty feet high, sloped slightly to allow snowmelt to drain easily.  Sprinkler pipes crisscrossed overhead in a grid, with grow lights extending down from the rafters every thirty feet or so.