“So that’s twenty-nine thousand points spent.  As somebody who, as Chloe put it, keeps letting things bite me… I would also suggest a proper infirmary.  That’s four thousand.  We need a kitchen, obviously.  And cold storage for all that meat and whatever other food we can find.  Together those are also four thousand. We can make the kitchen bigger later if we need to.”

He looked around the table.  Nobody was speaking up or making faces at him.  “Please guys, if you have opinions, speak up.  Especially if you disagree.”

When he got nothing but amused grins in response, he kept going.  “Okay, since several of us have picked up skills, and I expect will pick up more – I got a new one called Improvisation today, by the way – I suggest a crafting hall.  If it’s anything like I expect, there will be workbenches and such inside for us to use to improve our skills.  And trust me, we’re going to want to improve them.  Make weapons, better armor, healing salves, and such.   The cost is a little high - ten thousand points - but I think it would pay off.”

Sam spoke up.  “I agree, but can we set that one as an option?  I want to make sure this place is secure first and foremost.  I mean, in theory, we could just sit at this table and craft if we had to, at least to start with.  Right?”

“Good point, sir!” Allistor was thrilled to have input.  “We’ll save that as an option if we have the points.  And since you brought it up, let’s look at available defenses.”

They all took a minute to look over the options.   Allistor favored Reinforced Gates, which said it provided strong, lockable gates with a set amount of defense points, which could be increased at will by upgrading with system points.   There was also an option called Proximity Alert that he suspected were sensors that would warn them if beasties approached.

After it seemed everyone had made their choices, he reviewed the boxes that were checked.  Everyone had selected Reinforced Gates.  Proximity Alert was third most popular after one called Escape Hatch that he had skipped over when he was reading.  He quickly found and read the description.  It provided a ‘back door’ with a secret exit in case the Stronghold was overrun.    After that, fourth place went to Traps, which allowed the installation of traps inside and outside the gate.

“Okay, has everybody finished choosing?”  He looked around the table and got a chorus of yeses.  “Right.  Then in order of popularity, the first three cost ten thousand, ten thousand, and twelve thousand.  Traps is five thousand.   There are some other votes, but only singles and doubles.  So if we go with all of those, that’s thirty-seven thousand, plus the thirty-seven thousand we already assigned, for a total of seventy-four of the hundred thousand we have available.  Not bad.” He grinned at the group.