Post by admin on Jan 24, 2021 19:42:25 GMT -5
The Castle
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Outside
In the midst of northern Scotland Highlands, a small village dwells, surrounded by fields, farmlands and hillside pastures. The remnants of an old Roman cobbled road seems to lead nowhere from it, going along a loch encased by forested mountains. As the road leaves the reassuring company of the loch and starts climbing up a steep hill, by a lovely stream, it simply changes into a meandering path before disappearing every now and then among boulders and gnarled roots, as though unwilling to reach its final destination.
As it reaches the bare, rocky hilltop, the path becomes a small dirt road leading to the crude stone walls of an ominous keep guarding the landscape below. Its drawbridge is usually lowered over a moat. It leads through the main gate and guard tower into a courtyard. The constructions within the walls consist for the most part in utilitary buildings such as a well, sheds, stables, a dairy, a few workshops, a forge and armory.
The fortress seems to have grown right out of the hilltop’s rocky ground. It is like a parasite on the ruins of an ancient Roman villa over which it has been built and whose basic components have been cleverly reused. The existence of a Roman dwelling so far north of the Antonime Wall is unusual; it is the presumed work of late Roman immigrants - possibly outcasts - who denied the collapse of their Empire and decided to settle there permanently. On the keep's outside, nothing remains of the wide expanse of arched, open areas that displayed so eloquently of the defunct Pax Romana. It has been integrated to totally blind defensive walls, a structure whose only opening is a an arched door protected by a portcullis - a clear sign of what the mighty empire had left, a herd of feudal lords had taken over.
The defensive needs of the new keep led to the elevation of its hall - along with its windows and entrance - to the second storey.
Ground floor
Consequently, the ground floor is confined. This part of the castle is the one that has retained the most of its venerable legacy, beginning with a soft grey tiled floor adorned with red and black geometric patterns. To the left and right are arched opened doors; the one to the right is leading to a storage area and the one to the left is the servants' dormitory which is a bare room equipped with pallets, furs, and a small, central fire pit. Ahead is a steep stone stairwell that leads up to the great hall. The stairwell is built against what looks like a secondary wall unusually made of brick, which happens to actually be a square, monumental chimney that has been built in the middle of the dungeon tower.
At the beginning of our story, what is described below is in disrepair.
To the left and right of the stairwell are two other open arched doors.
The one to the left, located almost at the bottom of the stairwell, leads to a hearth and indoor kitchen, an unusual thing for this time in history.
The arched door to the right leads to the austere castle's unexpected luxury. Down a few steps, which lead slightly below the level of the ground, is a hearth built on the chimney’s opposite side to that of the kitchen. It is there that a small pool is located.
This alone would suffice to make Barbaric Castle known, but its most wonderful feature is invisible to the eye. Below the tiled floor is a small short-pillared space which can be accessed to by a trap next to the hearth. Amazingly, as coals fall through a specially designed grid and slide down onto a sloping base underneath, they can be raked right under the pool, between the “fake” tiled floor and the real stone one, into a space. This ingenious system inherited from the Romans will soon be restored according to Master Louis' instructions; for now the residents simply bathe in a tub or in the stream.
At the opposite end of the room, from the entrance and to the left, a small set of stairs lead up to the kitchen through a curtained arched door. Finally there is a set of three little private cubicles at the end of the bath area, opposite to the garderobe. One is an apothecary, and the other two are equipped with clean straw mattresses and furs.
The apothecary's walls are lined with shelves full of medical supplies, jars, boxes, and other containers. Some bunches of dried herbs are hanging from the rafters. Like the rest of the castle's daily living spaces, everything is kept meticulously clean.
Undergound
The steps leading from the kitchen to the bathing room lead further down below the pool and aqueducts sub-level, gradually changing from bricks to stone masonry to become, ultimately, ancient stairs carved straight into the natural rock. It doesn’t take long to find out that the Romans had not been the hill’s original occupants. As the visitor is making their way downward, a mysterious maze of caves can only be announced as much as torchlight will allow. One of them, which the stream crosses, is decorated with prehistoric drawings; it is devoted to the storage of kegs and food. It is surprisingly cold, even in the summer. Servants are regularly sent there to carry supplies for the kitchen above. The maze doesn't end here. There are other, apparently innocent caves around the maze, and no exits save one, far away downhill, into the thick forest, well hidden and hard to reach as it is behind a waterfall. It is the castle's only secret passage, and Laird Drust has set up a series of booby traps along its path to avoid any intrusion.
Further below the ground, far away from the brook’s reassuring bubbly presence, more caves are captive of a creepy silence and darkness so absolute that even the light of torches seem to struggle against it. The passageway leading to them is barred
Great hall (second floor)
On this level, the only entrance and four arched, narrow windows, one in each wall, are its source of daylight and fresh air. This floor is a large, pleasant, central living area heated with a central circular fire pit. At the left side of the hearth, from the entrance and near the wall, a long table and benches are permanently set. Two out of the four walls are lined with bench-coffers that are used as beds for the household servants on duty and low-ranked guests. The hall is presided at its fourth wall by an arrogant throne-like seat and dais on top of three brick steps, facing the hearth and stairwell that leads the visitor up from the entrance hall and toward higher landings. There are many thick furs and cushions on the floor for the guests to lounge in by the fire.
Third floor
In the walls of the spiraling stairwell, between floors, are some arched niches with arrowslits whose purpose is to allow a person to make way to another... or to attack them.
This wooden floor's four rooms are reserved for noble guests of high rank. They each have one narrow window that cannot allow a person to climb through because of a forged grille, but their double panes are of beautiful tinted glass diamod shapes that can be opened on the inside. They all are luxuriously furnished with a large curtained canopy bed with a down mattress, a brasier, a small table and two chairs, two candles, as well as a private guarderobe which soon won't empty itself any longer into the moat but through a gutter of a late Roman sewage system that is yet to be restored by Master Louis.
Fourth floor
This level is divided into two rooms: one is the Laird's office and own living room; the other is his bedroom and garderobe. Of course, it surpasses the guest rooms in terms of luxury and space. Its four windows (two in each room) are larger and its tinted glass panels can be opened on the outside, in absence of a grille. The wooden floors and stone walls are concealed with beautiful drapes and carpets; a few locked coffers are placed at each side of the bed as well as at its foot. The door leading to this apartment is equipped with a lock was well, but that one is to keep people out unless the Laird himself commands otherwise.
Fifth floor
To come
A ladder propped against the wall leads to a trap door on the ceiling.
Rooftop (sixth floor)
Crenellations surround the flat roof which is used for defensive purposes. In peacetime, it is often used as a temporary annex to accommodate clotheslines of freshly dyed fabrics or to sun-dry food supplies.
Outside
In the midst of northern Scotland Highlands, a small village dwells, surrounded by fields, farmlands and hillside pastures. The remnants of an old Roman cobbled road seems to lead nowhere from it, going along a loch encased by forested mountains. As the road leaves the reassuring company of the loch and starts climbing up a steep hill, by a lovely stream, it simply changes into a meandering path before disappearing every now and then among boulders and gnarled roots, as though unwilling to reach its final destination.
As it reaches the bare, rocky hilltop, the path becomes a small dirt road leading to the crude stone walls of an ominous keep guarding the landscape below. Its drawbridge is usually lowered over a moat. It leads through the main gate and guard tower into a courtyard. The constructions within the walls consist for the most part in utilitary buildings such as a well, sheds, stables, a dairy, a few workshops, a forge and armory.
The fortress seems to have grown right out of the hilltop’s rocky ground. It is like a parasite on the ruins of an ancient Roman villa over which it has been built and whose basic components have been cleverly reused. The existence of a Roman dwelling so far north of the Antonime Wall is unusual; it is the presumed work of late Roman immigrants - possibly outcasts - who denied the collapse of their Empire and decided to settle there permanently. On the keep's outside, nothing remains of the wide expanse of arched, open areas that displayed so eloquently of the defunct Pax Romana. It has been integrated to totally blind defensive walls, a structure whose only opening is a an arched door protected by a portcullis - a clear sign of what the mighty empire had left, a herd of feudal lords had taken over.
The defensive needs of the new keep led to the elevation of its hall - along with its windows and entrance - to the second storey.
Ground floor
Consequently, the ground floor is confined. This part of the castle is the one that has retained the most of its venerable legacy, beginning with a soft grey tiled floor adorned with red and black geometric patterns. To the left and right are arched opened doors; the one to the right is leading to a storage area and the one to the left is the servants' dormitory which is a bare room equipped with pallets, furs, and a small, central fire pit. Ahead is a steep stone stairwell that leads up to the great hall. The stairwell is built against what looks like a secondary wall unusually made of brick, which happens to actually be a square, monumental chimney that has been built in the middle of the dungeon tower.
At the beginning of our story, what is described below is in disrepair.
To the left and right of the stairwell are two other open arched doors.
The one to the left, located almost at the bottom of the stairwell, leads to a hearth and indoor kitchen, an unusual thing for this time in history.
The arched door to the right leads to the austere castle's unexpected luxury. Down a few steps, which lead slightly below the level of the ground, is a hearth built on the chimney’s opposite side to that of the kitchen. It is there that a small pool is located.
This alone would suffice to make Barbaric Castle known, but its most wonderful feature is invisible to the eye. Below the tiled floor is a small short-pillared space which can be accessed to by a trap next to the hearth. Amazingly, as coals fall through a specially designed grid and slide down onto a sloping base underneath, they can be raked right under the pool, between the “fake” tiled floor and the real stone one, into a space. This ingenious system inherited from the Romans will soon be restored according to Master Louis' instructions; for now the residents simply bathe in a tub or in the stream.
At the opposite end of the room, from the entrance and to the left, a small set of stairs lead up to the kitchen through a curtained arched door. Finally there is a set of three little private cubicles at the end of the bath area, opposite to the garderobe. One is an apothecary, and the other two are equipped with clean straw mattresses and furs.
The apothecary's walls are lined with shelves full of medical supplies, jars, boxes, and other containers. Some bunches of dried herbs are hanging from the rafters. Like the rest of the castle's daily living spaces, everything is kept meticulously clean.
Undergound
The steps leading from the kitchen to the bathing room lead further down below the pool and aqueducts sub-level, gradually changing from bricks to stone masonry to become, ultimately, ancient stairs carved straight into the natural rock. It doesn’t take long to find out that the Romans had not been the hill’s original occupants. As the visitor is making their way downward, a mysterious maze of caves can only be announced as much as torchlight will allow. One of them, which the stream crosses, is decorated with prehistoric drawings; it is devoted to the storage of kegs and food. It is surprisingly cold, even in the summer. Servants are regularly sent there to carry supplies for the kitchen above. The maze doesn't end here. There are other, apparently innocent caves around the maze, and no exits save one, far away downhill, into the thick forest, well hidden and hard to reach as it is behind a waterfall. It is the castle's only secret passage, and Laird Drust has set up a series of booby traps along its path to avoid any intrusion.
Further below the ground, far away from the brook’s reassuring bubbly presence, more caves are captive of a creepy silence and darkness so absolute that even the light of torches seem to struggle against it. The passageway leading to them is barred
Great hall (second floor)
On this level, the only entrance and four arched, narrow windows, one in each wall, are its source of daylight and fresh air. This floor is a large, pleasant, central living area heated with a central circular fire pit. At the left side of the hearth, from the entrance and near the wall, a long table and benches are permanently set. Two out of the four walls are lined with bench-coffers that are used as beds for the household servants on duty and low-ranked guests. The hall is presided at its fourth wall by an arrogant throne-like seat and dais on top of three brick steps, facing the hearth and stairwell that leads the visitor up from the entrance hall and toward higher landings. There are many thick furs and cushions on the floor for the guests to lounge in by the fire.
Third floor
In the walls of the spiraling stairwell, between floors, are some arched niches with arrowslits whose purpose is to allow a person to make way to another... or to attack them.
This wooden floor's four rooms are reserved for noble guests of high rank. They each have one narrow window that cannot allow a person to climb through because of a forged grille, but their double panes are of beautiful tinted glass diamod shapes that can be opened on the inside. They all are luxuriously furnished with a large curtained canopy bed with a down mattress, a brasier, a small table and two chairs, two candles, as well as a private guarderobe which soon won't empty itself any longer into the moat but through a gutter of a late Roman sewage system that is yet to be restored by Master Louis.
Fourth floor
This level is divided into two rooms: one is the Laird's office and own living room; the other is his bedroom and garderobe. Of course, it surpasses the guest rooms in terms of luxury and space. Its four windows (two in each room) are larger and its tinted glass panels can be opened on the outside, in absence of a grille. The wooden floors and stone walls are concealed with beautiful drapes and carpets; a few locked coffers are placed at each side of the bed as well as at its foot. The door leading to this apartment is equipped with a lock was well, but that one is to keep people out unless the Laird himself commands otherwise.
Fifth floor
To come
A ladder propped against the wall leads to a trap door on the ceiling.
Rooftop (sixth floor)
Crenellations surround the flat roof which is used for defensive purposes. In peacetime, it is often used as a temporary annex to accommodate clotheslines of freshly dyed fabrics or to sun-dry food supplies.
