[RPG] How to build a Secret Base without killing the builders

dnd-3.5ee6

Question

How can I build a secret base without having to just kill all the builders afterwards to keep the secret?

Explanation

Another player and I want to build a secret base for an assassins guild we are forming in our E6 game, but neither of us are good at masonry or anything like that. I am not sure if something like an unseen servant could help us because if I am not mistaken, they do not make the check themselves, we have to make the check for them. If we use NPC labor they would know the secrets of our base and would probably need to die… which could get messy because they may expect an attack if we make them build too many secret passages and stuff.

Our Chars

Both are basically Stealthy Combat Characters: a Rogue and a Shadow Caster. Both are level 6 with around 3 post-6 feats or so. My Rogue is working on getting Shaper Psion class features but will not be able to get more than what a level 6 Psion could.

Restrictions

We are playing D&D 3.5e using the E6 variant, which basically caps out the characters at level 6 though they can still gain feats.

Best Answer

Hide in plain sight! Since you are both playing assassins, I would guess that your characters have the required moral flexibility to lie like politicians.

Simply find a few Holy Symbols for a religion that would appropriately want to have a monastery. Design and build this "monastery" based on your specifications but ALWAYS refer to it as the "New Holy Monastery of {deity}". Since it's not a juicy piece of gossip "OOOOH, there's assassins up on that hill!", but instead is boring "Yeah... a bunch of fuddy-duddies live up there worshipping the sound of one hand clapping", it will be so utterly unremarkable that most people won't care your assassin's guild is on the hill overlooking the capital city. This is also a great chance to learn a bit of the appropriate craft/profession skill(s) to then modify this "holy monastery" into the actually intended purpose.

This route is probably the easiest, but you may have issues with pilgrims of that deity wanting to stop in, so another option would be to pick a deity that no one's ever heard of before (would Assassinia be too obvious?), thereby reducing the wandering pilgrims.

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