The Hidden Fortress

[MrZJunior]

I am working on an adventure that features a village hidden in an ancient fortress. It is disguised from the air; the fortress is built to blend in with the landscape. It is in a steep sidded valley, the only walls block off the mouth of the valley, they are partly built to follow the topography of the site and plants have grown over them, helping to blend the defences into the surrounding jungle. The inside of the compound has lots of very tall trees growing in it and all the village structures are built under them. All man made structures have vines trained over them and other things like that to help hide them.

What other things can be done to disguise the village? I am especially looking for ways to hide the smoke from their cooking fires.

[Koo Rehtorb]

The fortress is built near a natural steam vent which is always letting off steam into the air. Smoke from camp fires can just blend into the gas that's already constantly being released.

[Inevitability]

The fortress is in an area with geothermic activity (geysers, hot springs...). People cook their food using these rather than with fires.

An underground lava vein heating stones can fulfill the same function, and is even less conspicuous. Besides, it gives you an excuse to add lava to the dungeon, which as we all know makes everything better.

[TheIronGolem]

Perhaps they don't cook at all, in the usual sense, but rather use chemical/alchemical processes to prepare food. There's real-world precedent with ceviche, which is seafood marinated in citrus juices then mixed with vegetables.

[Verbannon]

One of the D&D books had a similar situation. Though in that case the village had been hidden by a starpact warlock that had used an inexaustible supply of illusions and wards to hide the village. And the fortress being D&D was hidden beneath the village, forgotten by even the villagers.

[MrZJunior]

One of the D&D books had a similar situation. Though in that case the village had been hidden by a starpact warlock that had used an inexaustible supply of illusions and wards to hide the village. And the fortress being D&D was hidden beneath the village, forgotten by even the villagers.

Dang, I forgot about magic.

The fortress was part of the main base of a powerful and wealthy pirate, so there were probably magical defences at one time, but they would have been removed when the pirates fled a long time ago. Furthermore, mundane defences aren't subject to dispel magic or detect magic, so they are probably better to use if you can with the magic being held in reserve.

Thank you to the people suggesting various volcanic disguises for the cooking smoke. Unfortunately, I have already designed the dungeon under the island without any lava and I don't want to have to redesign it. I think if the island is an extinct volcano then passing ships will just assume that any smoke is produced by a still active volcano.