Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'prenmôr'.
Found 3 results
-
The Tales of Lady Gwenllian Castle Construction at Prenmôr The winter in Prenmôr had been cold but largely uneventful. No more work on the castle was possible with the cold weather, which prevented any new mortar from setting, and the partially built walls were covered with straw and daub to insulate them until spring. Aside from winter brewing, which kept Lady Gwenllian and some of her household busy, there was little to do besides repairs and sharpening tools. The same had not been true for Ambassador Gisela. Gisela had learned from her father Staffen that the revenge for her brother's death was at hand, and she had traveled back to Varlyrio to take part. The usual fraught and overly complex machinations Varlyrio was known for had transpired, but this time her father wound up on the losing side. Staffen had been betrayed by cowards, as she told it, and Poppa had been kidnapped in Kaliphlin from her secret location, with her bodyguard Tsiri, the Kaliphlin Champion, having been murdered in the process. Gisela, ruthless as ever, had bribed, threatened, and eviscerated her way through the secrecy surrounding the kidnapping, and, again as she told it, rescued her sister from a fortified residence in Kaliphlin where she was held captive by mercenaries paid by the De Carlo family who (at the time) sat in the Rego's chair in Varlyrio. Presently, Lady Gwenllian walked through the brisk spring air, observing progress on the castle construction with Gisela and her younger sister Poppa struggling to keep up with their long strides. Mohatu, ever watchful, trailed not far behind. "So you did not have to fight the De Carlos?" Lady Gwenllian asked. "No, m'lady, only the mercenaries, who were no match for our hired muscle. The De Carlos had left Poppa with them, since they themselves were too incapacitated from the qui amat capras disease." "Isn't that the uniquely caprine venereal affliction arising from direct contact?" Lady Gwenllian asked. "Yes," Gisela nodded. "It is fatal and victims deteriorate quickly once symptoms appear, but it can lay dormant for years. Fortunately, it cannot be passed from person to person. Unfortunately, or so it would appear, there was a family proclivity for a, er.... herd mentality, since few of the De Carlos were spared," Gisela quipped. "I guess that's one way to ... goat," Lady Gwenllian commented, smirking at her own jest and rather proud of herself for being able to make a pun in the Historican language that was still at times a little new to her. "I am glad that you are back. The winter allowed some fine brewing, and we are now have a large stock to sell. Are you ready to find some trading partners?" she asked. Gisela smiled her crooked, mischievous smile. Seeing the expression on Gisela's face, Poppa skipped a step, understanding the trouble it meant. However, she knew that Gisela's scheming would not be directed at her, so she picked her skirt hem up off the ground a bit more and ran forward another few steps to catch up. "Yes, I believe there are some nearby dwarven communities that are always thirsty," Gisela said. Lady Gwenllian nodded her approval. "We will need plenty of gold to finish the structure." She turned to face the construction and nodded toward the workers. Gisela and Poppa watched the work with her. "Why are the walls so thick, m'lady?" Poppa asked. Lady Gwenllian smiled. "The walls are thick to stop rocks and other devices fired from siege equipment, and to hold all the weight of the stone above." She pointed to the round tower and wall section being constructed in front of them. "The lower part of the wall flares out, and is called a batter. It not only strengthens the construction because the base is wider than the top, but it also deflects missiles dropped from the defenders on the wall above out into the attackers below." Poppa's eyes widened. "The inner and outer part of the wall is solid stone that is held together with mortar, but the inside is filled with gravel, lime, and other small rocks. This provides solidity and also pours out onto attackers if the wall is ever breached, say, with a battering ram." Lady Gwenllian pointed to the scaffolding. "The walls are built with natural placement for scaffolding. The workers call them 'putlog' holes, and logs are stuck into these recesses in the stone wall. These form a ramp upward, and are braced to the ground with other logs. To these are added a ramp and then further supports. Every so often, there is another set of holes. In this way, ramped scaffolding all around the structure allows workers to slide heavy mortar, stones, or gravel up the ramp without having to lift and carry it up stairs." "Putlog holes at the top of the wall are even and allow for hoardings to be installed on the walk in times of war. These project out over the wall and allow cover for defenders to drop missiles and other weaponry onto attackers." Poppa watched the workers for a while, fascinated with all the simple, yet rather ingenious engineering and design principles that went into this structure. Gisela tugged at Poppa's sleeve. "Let us return to Lady Gwenllian's house. You shall remain under constant guard until we are assured the threat from Varlyrio is passed, and that may not be for some time." Lady Gwenllian nodded, and turned to Poppa, bending over and putting her massive hand on Poppa's small shoulder. "I give you my word I will protect you while you remain in my care," she said to Poppa, who smiled up at the enormous warrior. Lady Gwenllian couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw a slight smile of approval on Muhato's leonine face out of the corner of her eye. ---------- Well, it has been a while! After my (hopefully final) move, it took quite a while to get the house fixed up and my Lego collection organized, but I am back in business now and hope to be putting out some more builds soon! It took me some time to learn how to insert images now that BBCode is gone, and I'm still unsure how to do spoilers or if that is even possible, so hopefully this post isn't too cluttered. Glad to have Lady G moving along again, and hope that we can get some new fires lit here in the guilds. As always, C&C welcome!
-
The Tales of Lady Gwenllian 0. Introduction 1. The arrival of Lady Gwenllian aboard the Cedar Serpent 2. Scouting a Site 3. Early Spring in Prenmôr 4a.(Prelude) Restoring the Shrine 4. The Fishery and Shrine at Prenmôr From her high rock outcropping, Lady Gwenllian had a good view of the coast and had watched throughout the spring as the villagers from Flewd had moved to their new home in Prenmôr. Now that it was early summer, Lady Gwenllian wanted to see how the villagers from Flewd were settling into their new life, and wanted to inspect the work that the elves and dwarves had completed on the shrine to Neptune. She and Lady Seren rode their horses the half mile or so to the rocky escarpment that defined the edge of the land, separating it from the beach. She found that the villagers had sailed their boats laden with their meager belongings down the coastline from Flewd, had assembled lean-tos for drying fish and set up a small net repair station on the beach. The dwarves and elves had done an excellent job on the statue to Neptune, which sat overlooking the sea and was already laden with offerings and gifts from the villagers. Lady Gwenllian smiled as she saw the villagers hard at work. Because most of the young men had been lost during the drow raids, the remaining elderly, women, children and the local village idiot all had jobs, from killing and gutting fish to shooing away the seagulls that inundated the fishery. The locals greeted Lady Gwenllian and Lady Seren warmly, happy to have a new home in a safer location. This is the original build that I had envisioned with the shrine that didn’t get completed in time. I think it was a little too ambitious. On the other hand, it’s nice to see the idea finally come to fruition.
-
7b. Palisade As the summer began and more people began to settle in Prenmôr, the peasantry became a little more anxious about their safety. Rumors abounded of lizard people taking human form, drow looking to invade again, the Mitgardian civil war reigniting, and to top it all off, there were rumors of the nearby Enchanted Forest harboring an evil elven sorceress who had been twisted by magic into a grotesque beast. A town wall was planned for around the community, but it would be a few years before all the stone could be quarried, cut, and finally built into a permanent stone structure. In the meantime, a temporary palisade was built, made of logs sunk into the earth with the skyward ends sharpened into points, held together with boards and tied near the top with rope. Unlike a wooden fortress, this temporary wall lacked wall walks and other features of a permanent structure. Simply meant as a deterrent to any potential attacks while the stone walls were being built, the palisade had a rudimentary wooden gate and was shored up with supports from the rear. While the foundation of the castle rested mostly on solid bedrock and overlooked steep embankments, the town wall was different. It was to be built surrounding the adjacent farmland with a foundation on the flat earth there. Thus, the laborers dug a ditch in front of the wall foundation where the palisade now rested, carrying out dirt and rock to be piled behind the palisade. This ditch would remain once the stone walls were in place, forming a dry moat around the town to add to the layered defenses.
