The Iron Keep Part 6- Starting on the Outer Keep
A dishonest apology
Life on my end has been rather busy the last few weeks, which hopefully explains to some degree why I have not posted an update of my keying last week. The simple answers is I hadn't done any. Hell, even this week I've had to kind of sneak it in in time I had honestly reserved for doing prep for a session I'm running later tonight. On the one hand I'm glad for the foresight I that I did have to not attempt to stick to 7 rooms per week, but work ahead. On the other hand I'm rather annoyed with myself in my inability to find 1 or 2 hours of energy over the span of a week to do this stuff in. It's not hard, and it's unfair to my audience of (at most) 5 readers that I haven't.
The Iron keep
Though named the iron keep, only the walls inner fortress are actually clad in metal. The outers walls are sturdy things made of cyclopean masonry, roughly 15 foot tall in most places, albeith higher in some than in others, dending on the lay of the land, decay, or other features.
1 Lion Gate
Once the main entrance to the keep, 10 foot wide, with a cobbled road leading through it. Though heavily weathered, a frieze above the gate still shows two lions rampant on either side of a shield, though what that once shown has been worn away by time and the elements.
In its heydays it must've been intimidating walking through the artificial gorge created by the walls, with soldiers looking down from above the parapets. However, the towers on either side of the gate have all but crumbled, and it's eerily silent, apart from a stream of water that makes its way past the western wall and then down the hill.
2 The Inner Keep
Approaching the keep from the Lion's gate requires going up a broad set of stairs laid into the hill parallel to the castle walls. The walls of the inner keep are roughly thirty feet tall, and covered in what seems like inch-thick metal plates.
The front of the keep seems to be mostly intact, though the southern tower seems to have taken some severe damage. In days past it was said to gleam in the sun, forming a beacon for people to follow, but no more. The ground leading up to the keep is orange with the same rust that covers the keep's metal walls. There's the soft sound of bees flying in and out of the southern part of the gatehouse.
As we go around the keep clockwise not much changes until we get to the back, where it seems to have sustained some rather major damage. A 50 foot wide breach has been made in the inner keep, leading all the way into the inner courtyard. It looks like the rocks, metal and other materials have melted into the soil and resolidified; if you scrape away the red mud you can still see the pattern of the mortaring that was behind the wall, broad iron sheets and even sections of wood.
On the southern wall there is further damage. The front southern tower has been knocked down partially to roughly 20 foot above the ground. There's debrish and sharp pieces of iron plat strewn about.
9 Old water tower
To the west of the inner keep there are ruins of a circular building, straight in the part of where the Aquaduct would've led. The inside of this tower seems to have been clad in copper in olden days; there are still pieces of verdigrised metal left along the taller sections of the walls. The floor is made of sturdy basalt blocks.
Below rubble in this building is a 3 by 3 foot metal grate, with below it a valve of roughly the same size turned open. The metal grate is heavy, but movable with 25 points of total strength. The the pipes below it lead to TO BE DETERMINED (down 2 levels).
4 Sunken temple of Saint Clement
The western part of the outer keep has formed a small artificial lake, due to the broken aquaduct dumping its water directly into the courtyard. Only on structure still partially visible in the murky red water. Corinthian pillars supporting a white marble frieze. The rest of the roof has collapsed. The frieze shows sick people gathering in front of Saint Clement the healer standing in a river, who appears to be baptising people, who are then cured.
In front of the temple, sticking out about 5 foot above the waterline, is the butt of a gilded spear, glittering in the sunlight. It's a +1 Spear/+3 versus Reptiles. Its name is in Elfish, as is its make, but it translates to Scalebane. It's stuck in the head of a Giant Crocodile (X29), creating a wound that doesn't heal that has done 3 HD damage. The crocodile does not move when it doesn't need to, being well camouflaged in the opaque waters of the lake. It's content to wait for sounds of potential prey entering its waters and attacking from ambush.
Inside the temple, in 20 foot of the murky water, is an open pronaos flanked by marble walls on either side, and 4 pillars in front. The door into the actual naos of the temple is entirely submerged. Inside is a 10 foot tall gilded statue of Saint Clement salving a leper. At the foot of the statue are two jars of Restorative Ointment (OSE), still in good condition.
12 The Waterfall
Time has caused part of the wall to sink or crumble slightly in this spot. A sheet of water clatters down the masonry and down the steep cliff on which it has been built.
8 The broken Aquaduct
Running at a height of about 10 foot over the wall while it looks impressive, it strikes to you this thing must've been a massive hazard to the security of the keep. Something seems to have damaged it; about 5 foot after it clears the walls it seems to have collapsed, and the water coming in is now creating an artificial lake. The remnants of a support pillar can be seen a small distance north of where the aquaduct now ends, in between it and the ruins of a circular tower.
6 the Breach
A broad section of the wall seems to have melted away somehow. A smooth ramp created by whatever evil magic did this goes from down the hill all the way to the inner keep. The ramp shows the same pattern of cyclopean masonry as the walls once did.
Some thoughts
A small entry today. Seven "rooms". One monster. Little to no treasure. However, I did roll an interesting alternative entrance down in the Old Water Tower. Not sure yet where it'll lead down into though. My plan as of yet it still to finish up the above ground part this month. Unless I go crazy and decide to add some more points of interest I have 5 more to do, plus one additional entry for wandering monsters in this area, as well as the inner keep.
I would apologize for placing the Croc here, but I won't. I rolled it, and I found it too funny to not place. I nerfed it slightly already, and well, it's a giant crocodile. It's not fast, unless you camp out on the lakeside it won't come out and hunt for you. If you search it out you deserve all you get.
One thing I would love to go back and do is smack myself for already numbering stuff on this map, because I'm now jumping around in a way that I'd rather not. However, unless I actually finish this and every try to polish it, this is what we're stuck with now.
For now though we're halfway done finishing the outer keep. Next week I will finish that up and hopefully talk about the plans I have after that, though that may become another post all on its own. Until then, count your torches and keep mapping