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But not just any old fortress. This one has to house several thousand beings consisting of a couple thousand Strix (the last remaining of their kind), Minotaurs, Centaurs, Tengu, mongrelmen, and a whole order of "standard" race hellknights. They are all bound into one "order" by necessity and by diplomacy. There is very little discrimination.
Also: they have been forced by the Undead apocalypse to set up in the middle of the peasant district of a walled metropolis (2-3 mil people).
How would you design an urban fortress with about 2, maybe 3, blocks to work with. Keep in mind you also have non-combatants to house and protect. Summoning and teleportarion and portals and all extra-dimentional related stuff doesn't work (long story).
How would you set it up? Would you level the block and start from scratch using the order spellcasters to literally cast a fort into being? (wall of stone, etc. ) Or would you keep the existing buildings and let the Minotaurs go wild with their labrynth building skills? Both?
I challenge you! Go!
I'd probably say, "forget the street, we're going underground." Because honestly, that seems about the only feasible option left to you (due to extradimensional spaces not being available, as you mentioned). Building straight up would likely create a situation where it would tip and/or fall very easily (don't know for certain, haven't taken any engineering classes yet to work it out on my own). So I guess maybe a combination of building both up and down would be best, since going down has its own problems (mainly, needing to dig that far down). Have the strong NPCs (minotaurs, centaurs, probably some of the hell knights) help with the construction, and hire a couple NPC engineers (experts specializing in Knowledge (engineering)) to help figure out how to make it not collapse on itself or the surrounding area. If you have a time crunch, hire some NPC casters with wall of stone and stone shape to help carve things out and make walls, but that also becomes very expensive very quickly.
As for the final question, knock down what's already there; it's not likely very helpful to you.
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Towering walls top a sprawling hillside in the corner of the city. The area was once the grounds of a prison for the poor and insane. That is, until the Corpserisen Plague came.
The asylum burned while the living and the dead capered madly within. Though none know who or what began the blaze the charred stone of the outer walls still stands as testament to the conflagration. That, and the taint of madness which takes root in many who come to dwell here.
After the cleansing fires the first to roost among the ruins were the strix. Though not well known as a race for ties to the earth one among the fleeing survivors was a powerful druid and so the twisted and charred landscape was coaxed back to some semblance of life. The outer perimeter of the hillside now is rugged forest, well sculpted into a labyrinth of thickets, glens and outer courts.
Here the centaurs came to dwell. These forest tenders worked with the strix who, with no love for the humans of the city shunned all contact with those outside the walls. But over time more and diverse refugees came to settle the estate which began to take on a name; Firescorn.
Hundreds of yards from the main gate, atop the hill, laid the ruins of the main buildings of the prison. Though surrounded on all side by labyrinthine woodlands and rocky, moss-covered reaches the hilltop itself was forbidden and forgotten. It was well known to be a place of hauntings and horrors from which none returned.
As time passed however the simple forest was not enough to contain those who fled here. Tengu, following in the shadows of their winged bretheren and having been cast out of all other areas of the city; mongrelmen, fleeing the oppression of both their cruel creators and those who feared them; and the touched yet simple minotaurs, drawn by the lure of the ancient madness to be tamed atop Firescorn.
It was the tengu, naturally, who wished to build a home from the ruins of the asylum. Braving the horrors and haunts of what had gone before them however was more than they anticipated and might was required to truly reclaim the shattered corpse of fallen stone. And so, despite the objections of the strix a deal was made among an order of Hellknights; in return for a portion of the land they would descend upon Firescorn to cleanse it of wickedness.
The forays into the ruins are the stuff of legends. Heroes were born and martyrs destroyed in the horrible skirmish now known to the bards as the Cleansing of Firescorn. In the end it was a Hellknight; Lady Vayev Illvjene of the Order of the Pyre who breached the lower halls and brought a second flame to the dungeons of Firescorn. It's said that her devastation was so complete that she evaporated the very seep from the stone.
And so the work began. It was concieved of Hellknight engineers and mongrelmen wizards. Lumber was begrudgingly harvested from the surrounding hillsides, though always under the watchful vigilance of the woodland dwellers; these materials were supplemented by the repurposed ruins where the stone could be salvaged, as well as the conjurations of the multi-raced hordes.
Many of the inhuman workmen descened into the now-cleansed lower halls. Here they settled and over time built for themselves an underfortress of labyrinths and chambers. An underground lake was discovered and harnessed for the needs of all those at Firescorn.
Atop the hill the stone soared, borne aloft by spells and sturdy backs. The minotaurs and humans provided the labor where magic would not suffice and the runic coils of the horned folk can still be seen on many of the keystones and decorations of the place.
Now Firescorn towers over the woodland and in fact over much of the peasant district here. Its blackened towers magically reproduced from the scorched stone of the original foundations give it an ominous presence, adding to the gothic nature of the soaring Hellknight facilities here. But it is the main court, just inside the upper bailey that truly drives home the feel of the place.
Because of the surrounding trees, walls and towers, the court rarely sees daylight. As such it is perpetually lit by 6 grand stone braziers. The flames which burn here are magically conjured but no mere heatless lights; they are very real and very searing reminders of all the flames which have made this place what it is.
At the center of court, towering over the place and ever cast in shadow, is the looming statue of Lady Illvjene. She is clad in her ceremonial bladed armor, her great horned helm at her feet. Her eyes are cast down upon her honor-sword Judgement which stands, point down, from her abdomen where her hands cross upon the pommel.
Upon the pedestal is an inscription in the ancient tongue of Old Cheliax. It reads; May the flames of Reason preside here and let its enemies burn in Judgement.
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Very nice. I appreciate the advice.
I see mark hoover got into it. I mean, my word, sir, that tale was glorious!
Please, if more people wish to post, go for it. Dont be intimidated by Mr. Hoover's Wall of Textful Glory. :)
I was kinda expecting to have a mostly vertical (both above and below ground) base. That area was all that could be coaxed from the city officials in a time of crisis. I'm definitely adopting the idea that it was an old asylum or something that noone else wanted to touch.
Thanks for the kudos. It was mainly a really fluffy way to say that, with such diverse residents and labor force I felt like the area should reflect that diversity.
Centaurs can be however you want them, but in my games I've run them as Harry Potter-esque forest dwellers. Therefore I don't see them living in a vertical tower.
On the other hand Tengus and Hellknights could very easily turn the whole area into a medieval version of Mega City One and make it one big Mega-Block towering into the heavens with the base of the building being the entire 3 block radius.
I say don't limit yourself to one STYLE of living. Who says the Minotaurs live below ground? Ever seen the movie Labyrinth? What if you had stone walls and hedge mazes interspersed across the 3 block radius; some of these conjoining and rising upward or downward above or below ground? The main labyrinth is patroled and monitored by strange creatures who live in roofed sections or soar overhead from perches, or crawl up from below.
I agree; 3 medieval blocks isn't a lot. But 3 blocks in Rome could've encompassed enormous housing tenaments so maybe that's what we're dealing with. Then again the unwanted asylum fits only because...OF COURSE that's where the city fathers are going to stick these unwanted refugees.
With creative use of spells like Major Creation, Wall of Stone and Stoneshape you can have a tower. But with Plant Growth, Woodshape and Passwall you can GROW yourself a forest mini-city.
Now I also agree with everyone that for space you'll have to have SOME below ground dwellwers, but I say that's for the mongrelmen. And even there, why have it be typical?
In my fluff tale I talked about a Hellknight unleashing a super-intense flame underground. What if you take it a step further; the reason the asylum was so terrible was it was built over top of a tiny fissure in the crust and theres lava/gas/lava tubes below? But then the Mongrelmen wizards come along, and find ways to use and exploit this with central heating and cooling, venting the gasses and distilling them for some other purpose.
Better yet, go truly bizarre: a MASSIVE undergound lake at the bottom of a chasm, the walls of which are riddled with powerful magnetic ore. By use of lightning bolts the wizards have changed the polarity and now in the center of the chasm are these floating islands of stone hovering in the air; each is topped with interconnected towers and bridges forming an underground citadel.
I challenge posters to literally dream up ANYTHING that'll fit into, say, 3 city blocks in their nearest modern metropolis; any land mass, underground feature or unique/interesting resource and run with it making a diverse home for this outcast band! WE are Music Makers and the Dreamers of Dreams.
But not just any old fortress. This one has to house several thousand beings consisting of a couple thousand Strix (the last remaining of their kind), Minotaurs, Centaurs, Tengu, mongrelmen, and a whole order of "standard" race hellknights. They are all bound into one "order" by necessity and by diplomacy. There is very little discrimination.
Also: they have been forced by the Undead apocalypse to set up in the middle of the peasant district of a walled metropolis (2-3 mil people).How would you design an urban fortress with about 2, maybe 3, blocks to work with. Keep in mind you also have non-combatants to house and protect. Summoning and teleportarion and portals and all extra-dimentional related stuff doesn't work (long story).
How would you set it up? Would you level the block and start from scratch using the order spellcasters to literally cast a fort into being? (wall of stone, etc. ) Or would you keep the existing buildings and let the Minotaurs go wild with their labrynth building skills? Both?
I challenge you! Go!
Myself, I would integrate the existing buildings in the city into the complex, extending a cordon out as far as practicable and then demolish buildings further out to use their material to block up all access ways. Then you need to dig down and build up as stated. You are not so much building a fortress was walling in a town.
You might want to Google up some images of the late Kowloon Walled City for inspiration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kowloon_Walled_City
Probably (hopefully) the last word in what happens when 33,000 people pack themselves into a 6.5 acre square with no building codes.
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Well done pobbes! Another wonderful tale of an awesome place.
I've been thinking and the advice section was probably a mistake. I'll glean advice from this to be sure as this situation is happening in my game, but I really just wanted too see what youall could come up with. The two stories above are perfect examples of what I was aiming for. You have four or so groups that are not meant to live together forced into a confined space. What do they make of it?
More, more I say! I would bet the right half of my left kidney that there are more people with active imaginations out there!