[Fire Mountain Games] Balentyne Maps


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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16

In Way of the Wicked, book 1 (knot of thorns), I have several questions about the map of Fortress of Balentyne (page 60):

Levels?
I assume there must be some kind of slope or elevation change, because the map for level-1 has the (main) fortress clearly at the basement level (since level-2 has the main gate [22] and the courtyard [27-30]).
BUT on the level-1 gatehouse side of the river [areas 19-21] are clearly at ground level.

Horses?
The elevation problem (above) presents some problem for the horses:
Sending out patrols on the West side of the river seems normal; go directly out of the stables [30], through the courtyard and out the gate [22]. Fine.
The problem comes when you want to ride a patrol out to the East side of the river. There is no direct route from the stables [22] to the bridge [18] and the east gate [19a]. A horse and rider would have to go out of the fortress [via 22], cut back around to the servant's entrance [18a], through the basement hallway [8] and then out through the bridge...

Drawbridge [18a]
Which way does this bridge swing up? Since it is controlled from the gatehouse [25] I assume it would swing up and become 'flush' with the gatehouse.
But if an invading army were to approach from that side, it would make more sense to swing up towards the bridge [18]...perhaps to some scaffolding and pully system above?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16

Bump...
Anyone from Fire Mountain Games?


While I'm not from the Mountain, and this is certainly too late to do any good, I'll still respond, since there's always the chance it'll help the next guy with this problem. All this is IMO, and YMMV.

Yes the gatehouse is at the level of land on the other side of the gorge and river, which is different than the level on this side. Since the gorge is formed by tectonics along a fault, rather than erosion, this makes a lot of sense.

Horses- Yep the horses come out the main gate and ride over the bridge to the North of the wall. While this seems bizarre, remember the bridge stood before the Watch Wall castles were constructed, so the Castle was built to conform to the existing bridge, rather than changing the bridge to meet the castle (which would have been very nearly as hard as simply building a new bridge, defeating the purpose of cost savings I assume the site was chosen for). There's certainly a path between the two gates since it would be needed for just this purpose.

The Drawbridge does indeed swing up to the Gatehouse side, providing the 'door' of the South Gate. But the mechanism to control it can only be accessed from the second level of the gatehouse, which requires one to break into the castle to do. Hacking through the wood isn't going to show much but a 20' gap with a long drop. And cutting the chains with them withdrawn into the walls at the ceiling of the second level, or thereabouts, would be difficult at best.

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