MarkOliva

02/17/2013

1378

With the 96th Map of the Week we take a look at Southwood Fortress, the ruling seat of the Slovanian Royal County.

1. Southwood Gate.

2. Royal Gate.

3. Storm Gate.

4. Draug Gate.

5. Residential area. Unnumbered buildings are private housing.

6. Granary and Root Cellar. This facility is under the direct control of the count.

7. Ivo's shop and Náda's clinic. Ivo, a 42-year-old human male merchant, sells general merchandise and food. All of the products in his shop are brought in by military caravans. His employees are his wife, Agáta, a 40-year-old human female commoner, and Ivana, a 28-year-old human female commoner. Both work as salespersons. Ivo also employs Ivana's husband, Jarmil, a 29-year-old human male commoner, as a laborer. Both couples are childless. Ivo and Agata live on the building's third story. Jarmil and Ivana live in a separate house. Náda, a 55-year-old human female healer, has her clinic on the second story. She employs two other healers, Samuel, a 41-year-old human male who heals, and Luboš, a 31-year-old male who works as an herbalist.

8. Brětislav's Smithy. Master smith Brětislav, a 36-year-old human male artisan, managed to escape with his family from his home town of Green Meadows the North Kingdom. Members of a Northern Circle party took the family under its wing briefly and delivered it to the guard at Southwood Fortress. When he first arrived in the fortress, Brětislav worked for the former master smith, Abrahám, who died heirless. Count Prokop offered Brětislav the deed to the ownerless smithy and the old smith's private house if the refugee family would agree to remain. Brětislav, his wife Blanka, a 33-year-old human female artisan, and their 10-year-old daughter Darja, a human female commoner, live in the inherited house. Blanka offers her services as a master seamstress there. She is training Darja to become a seamstress too. Brětislav employs a journeyman smith, Sylva, a 22-year-old human female artisan, and an apprentice, Jonáš, a 14-year-old human male commoner. Brětislav was trained as a blacksmith in Green Meadows. Under Abrahám, he learned to work with weapons and armor. He also is teaching all three types of smithing to Sylva and Jonáš.

9. Wainwright Eirný. This shop is run by the probable widow and master wainwright Eirný, a 44-year-old human female who escaped from her native Narg's Mill in the Dreadlands. She and her husband both were wanted criminals there, sought on a charge of treason against the dark draug Duke þráinn. Her husband, Steindór, was captured and vanished in the depths of þráinn's mountain dungeon, the Depths of Darkness and Hopelessness. Eirný assumes that Steindór is long dead. When she reached Southwood Fortress, she found that the old wainwright's workshop was abandoned and in partial ruin. She negotiated with the count for the title and then restored it. She now employs a journeyman wainwright, Aleš, a 23-year-old human male artisan, and an apprentice, Igor, a 15-year-old human male commoner. Their main products and services are carts, wheelbarrows, large logging wagons and repairs.

10. Garrsion headquarters and officers' quarters. Colonel Klement, the 48-year-old human male warrior who commands the military in Southwood Fortress, has his headquarters here. He, his higher-ranking officers and their wives and families have their quarters on the second and third stories. In addition to soldiers, Klement also has the local war wizards – white necromancers, wizards and a seer – under his command. The military in the fortress is responsible for both regional security and local watch duties.

11. Barracks. The lower-ranking officers and the soldiers live here. The soldiers' and officers' mess also is in this building.

12. Military stable. The horses of Colonel Klement and his higher ranking officers are kept here. Dominik (see Location No. 18, below) has the overall responsibility for the steeds' health. Soldiers do the normal stableboy chores.

13. War Wizards' tower. Bohdana, a 56-year-old human female white necromancer, is the commander of the war wizards. The unit includes Kamil, a 33-year-old human male seer; Dalibor, a 40-year-old human male summoner and four junior level human wizards who rotate between the three fortresses in the county. The tower is 50 feet/15 m high. All of the war wizards dwell in it. They and their families dwell in the tower.

14. Klaudie's tower. This tower belongs to Klaudie, the 58-year-old human female seer who is in personal service to Prokop. The tower is 70 feet/21 m high. Klaudie is single and childless.

15. Watchtower. This tower also is 70 feet/21 m high. It is used by soldiers who maintain a visual watch over the fortress and the surrounding forest area.

16. County Castle. Count Prokop, his family and his leading staff live in the castle, and the county government has its offices here. The 59-year-old Prokop's family includes his wife, Dobromila, a 55-year-old human female warrior; his son, Květoslav, a 34-year-old human male warrior, and his daughter, Hana, a 30-year-old human female merchant. His resident staff is headed by First Minister Ema, a 55-year-old human female merchant. Also resident is the family's personal physician, the 49-year-old human female healer, Marina, and her husband, the castle master, the 51-year-old human male artisan Ahasver. Ema is single. Ahasver and Marina are childless. Four chambermaids who live in the village also serve the castle. All are human females. They are Žofie, age 50; Marie, age 44; Ema, age 40, and Drahomíra, age 36.

17. Count's stable.

18. Pride of Slovania Inn. The only inn in Southwood Fortress is a somewhat run down, five-story structure, but it manages to stay above water financially. The public room draws a good crowd of officers, soldiers and locals nightly, but most come only come to drink. The kitchen and the overnight business are mostly dependent upon travelers. There are less of them than innkeeper Sabina, a 42-year-old human female merchant, would like. The kitchen also is a bit hampered by the selection of food available to it. Most of what's eaten in Southwood Fortress is brought in by caravan and, therefore, is something less than fresh or wide in variety. The biggest business is done when a hunter or ranger brings in a deer or boar from the Southwood. Fresh meat, a rarity in Southwood Fortress, always brings hungry customers. One of the reasons that the inn survives is that it's mostly a family operation. Sabina's husband, Blažej a 44-year-old human male artisan, is the cook and also the house butcher when deer or boar are brought inn – on the average three times a month. Her sister, Milada, a 40-year-old artisan, is the alewife. She brews the inn's heady ale. Milada's husband, Dominik, is a 42.year-old human ranger. However, Dominik's specialty is not in the forests or wilderness but rather in animal care and lower herbalistics. His main job is the care of the horses in the stables of the garrison and the count. His job is to see that they stay healthy. Fortunately for the inn, this amounts to a half-time job most of the time. He spends the rest of his time negotiating with rangers and hunters who work in the Southwood to buy their bag for the inn and in seeking the herbs that Blažej needs for the kitchen. The 21-year-old son of Blažej and Sabina, a human male merchant named Karel, runs the public room and pumps the ale. The only non-family employees are the waitresses Naděžda, 31 years old, and Vendula, 28 years old, both human female commoners, and the house laborer Rostislav, a 59-year-old human male commoner. Naděžda and Vendula have rooms on the fifth story. They do after-hours private business there. Rostislav lives in a private house. Blažej, Sabina and Karel live on the third story. Dominik and Milada live on the fourth story. The guest rooms are on the second story. There are eight single rooms at 4 bronze pieces nightly. The public room is on the ground floor. On most days, there are only two varying items on the menu. They cost four bronze pieces each. However, when there is fresh boar or venison, it runs between five and nine bronze pieces per dish. The house ale costs four copper pieces per pint/half-liter tankard.

19. Inn stable. The stable is available for guests. Rostislav maintains the building. Three young villagers do the business as stableboys and –girls. They all are human commoners. The three are Ilja, 12-.year-old male; Barbora, 13-year-old female, and Olga, 12-year-old female. They have been trained by Dominik and are quite competent. Whenever there are guests in the inn with mounts, the three will work in eight-hour shifts. Their fee is 1 bronze piece per shift. If mounted guests for the public room arrive, the short term fee for their stay is four copper pieces.

20. Inn alehouse. This is where Milada brews the inn's ale. She brews in sufficient quantities to also supply the garrison's mess. When she brews, Rostislav is her helper. Her barley malt, hops and yeast are brought in by military caravans.

You can get the map in two versions:

1. The Fractal Mapper (TM) 8 version in FMP format, fully editable, from our Jörðgarð web page (28.5 MB).

2. As a JPG flat map of 1360 Pixels x 1020 Pixels (680 KB), available with the hyperlink below.

Both versions are released for personal and commercial use under the Open Game License Version 1.0a, which you can read on the Jörðgarð website at:

www.vintyri.org/joerdhgardh/joerdhgardh.htm

Next week: Slovania - Southwood Fortress - Pride of Slovania Inn

Mark Oliva
The Vintyri (TM) Project
www.vintyri.org
info@vintyri.org