Actually, Citadel of the Loremasters did not give you a fort in Dom2 either, just the lab. You're probably mxing it up with The Crystal Citadel, which DOES give you a fort and one with a completely ridiculous defense value. As in "You wanted us to assault WHAT citadel?! Are you out of your mind?!" ridiculous.
That Bogus story is hilarious. One more reason why Dominions is not for the faint-hearted, it'd not be nice if random events sent players into cardiac arrest...
