Draft:Mansions
Mansions are the largest and most heavily defended private residences in Rampart. Their safes and possible notable occupants make them valuable burglary targets, but guard dogs, automatons, alarms and portcullises separate them from ordinary houses.
Generation and inhabitants
A mansion may be assigned to a random residential entrance when the city is created. Most residential front doors start locked. After gaining entry, you arrive in a western corridor; leaving returns to the same city building.
The layout has 18 concealed safes, secret passages, three random trap sites, sixteen floor sirens, five guard dogs and four minor automatons. Two portcullises begin lowered, and additional gate tiles can drop when nearby triggers are crossed. Release tiles raise the gates, but do not disarm the triggers.
One resident position has a 50% chance to produce a character drawn from ordinary game history. A second has a 50% chance to produce one of fourteen notable office-holders: the six high priests, Shadowlord, Legion Commandant, Archmage, Prime Sorceror, Arena Champion, Duke, Lord of Chaos or Lord of Law. Their identities follow the shared game history. The Justiciar is not in this mansion selection.
These residents are generated hostile, asleep at night and awake during the day, even when another meeting with the same office-holder would be peaceful. Carried objects also depend on the encounter. The mansion Archmage carries Kolwynia, but a mansion Prime Sorceror does not receive the demesne's Star Gem. Encountering a name here is not equivalent to visiting that person's usual headquarters.
Defenses and treasure
The safe-opening rules are the same as in other residences, but successful contents use the mansion's higher treasure difficulty. Picking favors Dexterity and thieves' rank; forcing favors combat damage. Neither approach removes the separate floor traps around the building.
Floor sirens normally summon law enforcement directly. Safe alarms have their own city-return sequence. The distinction matters for a paladin facing expulsion and after the destruction of the Order.
The walls are much harder to tunnel through than house or hovel walls. Shadowform bypasses walls, bars and ordinary trap interactions, but also prevents opening safes while it lasts. It can get you into position without supplying a complete looting plan by itself.
Strategy
Prepare for a guarded expedition rather than treating a mansion as eighteen free safe attempts. A garage-door opener can raise gates once, but stepping onto another trigger can drop them again. Nighttime can help with generated residents; it does not switch off the dogs, automatons, sirens or traps.
The possible guild leaders make mansions relevant to more than cash. Consult the individual's article before fighting or stealing: carried quest objects, hostility and succession consequences differ by person. Plan a way out of the interior before taking an action that wakes a strong resident or starts an alarm.