Babylon Wood Mod Journal

Tempest's Castle

2011-07-11T04:33:41Z

Wahey, it's a map! Kind of. :|

Tempest's castle sits on the top of a hill on clear ground, between the edge of the forest and the mountains that divide the forest and hill lands from the Earthquake Desert. The mountains themselves don't have any lower peaks; they shoot almost straight up behind the castle, into the clouds almost constantly present over them.

The castle grounds are large, taking up several smaller hills around the main one on which the castle sits. The outermost wall appears to be nothing but shrubbery, but try to enter that way and you'll find yourself held captive by plants as hard as iron until someone inside comes to tell them you're safe or a guard comes to take you to the cells. Between the shrub-walls and the outer stone wall lie Tempest's gardens. They seem to change position and content periodically, though they always conform to the cleared land between the walls. Most of the gardens are plants of varieties never seen outside of the Wood; some have plants that would be familiar to the newcomers. Only two of the gardens are unique, one being filled entirely with stone plants and sculptures, and the other being stone-tiled and full of mechanical animals and plants. The mechanical garden is guarded by its own black vine walls and inaccessible without Tempest's company or permission.

The outer courtyards are often filled with visiting natives sharing trade or gossip with the castle's long-time residents, and the ground is packed dirt and otherwise bare. The inner courtyard has clusters of comfortable furniture and braziers to keep the chill away at night, and is paved in colored marble. Even if it's raining outside the walls, it never rains in the inner courtyard.

Inside the castle proper, there are two basic types of architecture; the entrance and the older areas are all of marble and plain stonework, ornamented like some grand medieval palace. The higher or lower you go - and there seems to be far more floors than should fit inside the building - the less stonework you'll find and the more metalwork appears. There's no clear divide; one seems to grow into the other, almost as though the building was less built onto than cultivated. The highest floors are all bronze and iron, decorated with inlays of stone and silk tapestries, and most of the clockwork creatures who live inside the building can be found in those spaces. Tempest's guardians, various metal felines, patrol the entire building, but can only appear or travel through metal walls.

Residential Quarters: Also part of the old castle, and done in a sort of Byzantine style; lots of mosaic work, depicting strange machines, or the flora and fauna of the woods, or the mountains and desert beyond. The desert mosaics are populated by creatures that appear to be hybrids of insects and arachnids, overshadowed by a crumbling city of sand.

There are multiple floors to the guest quarters, and suites of various sizes on each floor. Suites are between two and five bedrooms, and each suite has a center common area with a door to the hall. Each suite is done in a theme of some kind, organic or mechanical. Whether it's one or the other depends on the wing the rooms are located in; the decorations in the hall will correspond with the themes of the rooms.

There are three halls of suites on each floor, and each hall connects to a larger a sitting room with comfortable chairs and an open fireplace. At the other end of each hall is a Roman-style restroom and bath, that is to say, toilets set over a running water source and an area with hot and cold baths large enough for a handful of guests to bathe at once. There are also steam rooms and a drying area, comprised of a raised and heated stone platform on which bathers can lay until dry.

The common rooms all have a smaller room leading off of them, with tables set up for meals; the food is refreshed morning, noon and night, and arrives from the kitchens via dumbwaiter. If your character has particular culinary needs, chances are the cooks know without having to be told. Other doors in the common areas lead to the rest of the castle.

The rest of the Castle:

Here's where things get a bit tricky. All of these areas are accessible to guests, but poke too hard - try to magic any of these areas or use tech to study them - and you'll likely get the attention of a guardian, a local, or Tempest herself.

The Library: Part of the old castle. Imagine the Beauty and the Beast library and you'll be pretty close to the size and style of the place; rolling ladders attached to every set of stacks, rows of books from floor to ceiling in some places in more languages and styles than exist in any one world. Readers are free to borrow any book they wish, as long as they let the librarian know - a persian cat who sleeps on a desk by the door. (If you wish your character to find a book that gives significant information about the Wood, please contact the mods.)

The Cells/Prison: It doesn't look like a prison. There is only one entrance, with a door that usually stands open, guarded by two bronze suits of armor. Iside is a large room with a ceiling, floor, and walls that seem to be gold or gold-plated. Into the walls and ceiling are embedded gemstones of every kind imaginable, fist-sized or larger, and impossible to pry free. Attempting it is a very bad idea. If a person were to look closely at these stones, they would see something inside each one - a person, a fairy, a monster, frozen like bugs in amber.

Indoor pool/garden: Pretty much what it says on the tin. Entrances all over the walls, leading in to smooth-paved walkways lined with plants, flowers, and fruit trees from which guests are free to eat. Spaced throughout the garden are fountains of wine with basins full of figs; there are cups placed around the rims of each fountain. Nearer the center are the pools, some clear down to the sandy bottoms and some full of multicolored fish, each connected by little streams. There are tall rocks at the edges to jump from and the waterways seem to be home to throngs of overlarge, otter-like creatures who might steal your wine cup if you don't keep an eye on it. Overhead, over the entire garden, is a skylight through which guests can see the weather of the Wood.

Clocktower: At the top of a long, winding bronze stairway, lit by torches of multicolored flame, there is a circular, roofed tower platform. There are no walls. Braziers of hot stones keep it warm, but there's nothing to stop the wind blasting over the rails at its edges. On one side, the mountains, on the other, the forest; the tower turns slowly like a giant gear, one full turn ever hour.

Tempest's lab: You won't find it unless you have permission to enter, in which case you will find it wherever you look for it. The rooms vary wildly, from metalworks to carpentry shops to set-ups that look more suited to a Frankenstein film. One thing's for certain; every room has clockwork watchers, and Tempest always knows when someone is inside.

The stable: In the gardens on the northern side; clockwork animals of every shape and size wait there, with saddles and sitting-places already built in. Guests are free to ride them throughout the gardens, or borrow them to ride through the woods to the barracks. The animals will not go anywhere but the barracks and will toss their riders immediately if forced to change direction; they will wait in the woods for those visiting the barracks to return to the castle.

Those are the major areas; there are a plethora of balconies, sitting rooms, and permanent quarters, as well as the kitchens; at the moment no one can get down there. There are also vegetable gardens, indoor hen-houses, and even fairy cattle housed inside under false suns and in small fields of golden grass. The roof, if you can find it, is strange, edible plants from end to end, though fair warning: those are Tempest's plants and can have some... interesting effects.

Questions/permissions requests involving the castle can be left here or PM'd to the mod account.

The Giving Tree

2010-11-03T08:09:24Z

The Giving Tree

Please copy and past this information into your comment, so the mods can evaluate your character's 'good deed' for the monthly Giving. The Giving happens at random, usually when we have enough rewards to make the post worth the time it takes to make.

'Good deeds' can be anything from saving a fellow character without expectation of reward, to freeing a local from a trap, to pulling the proverbial thorn from the lion's paw. Your character does not ICly need to request anything; the tree reacts to good deeds on a purely karmic basis, and when the Giving occurs, the characters being rewarded will be drawn to their respective items without knowing why.

Babylon Wood Mod Journal

Tempest's Castle

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