Cayzle's Wemic Site

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Intro to Wemics

Wemic Culture

Cayzle's Wemic PCs

Welcome

Views From Above

---Many Islands

---Bridge Island

---Keep and Environs

---Keep Up Close

---Floor Plan

Details

---Central Hearthold

---East Wing

---West Wing

---Back Yard

Keep Staff

Key

--- water/sink/basin

--- wood door

--- steel door

--- windows

--- fireplace/flame

--- furniture

As one walks up the earthen ramp that leads to the Keep, the most obvious feature is a set of iron doors. These double doors, made of iron, are twenty feet wide and about fifteen feet tall. From the outside, the double doors are emblazoned with the crossed-swords symbol of Domi.

Walking north through the doorway into the Keep, one enters an arched corridor -- lit by torches in ornate wall sconces spaced ten feet apart on each wall--about fifty feet long, thirty feet wide, and twenty feet high.

From the inside, the doors are equipped with brackets that would allow someone to bar the door from within the hallway. The doors are opened by pulling on a pair of iron rings set into them, and below the right-hand ring is a curious-looking metal protrusion reminiscent of a key ... the kind that one uses to wind up a music box.

Two stone secret doors grant access to the Entry Hall near the double iron doors, one on the east and one on the west. They are "secret" in construction, but the folk who live in the Keep know about them and use them when it is convenient. From the corridor they seem to be normal doors; from the Entry Hall they are invisible, but open if one presses a palm on the wall under a wall-torch nearby.

Strangers to the Keep are announced with a vast gong-like sound that echoes throughout the entire structure. One gong is for visitors; continuous gonging is for danger.

Secret doors from the Entry Hall lead to corridors on both the east and the west sides. On the east, this corridor leads to the workshop, and on the west, to the kitchen; from both, doors on the north side of the corridor lead to barracks and washrooms. Each barracks houses up to ten guards. Two small rooms north of the barracks house two sergeants. A large washroom serves each barracks room.

This is a beautifully-carved dome-shaped chamber whose curving walls are divided into four sections, three of which have fifteen-foot-wide doorways. The sections with the doorways each have a single figure carved in it -- a Minotaur, a Centaur and a Wemic. The fourth panel features a carving of all three races bearing arms and looking like a united force versus whatever they may be facing. Directly in front of this section is a pedestal with a large glass case on it. It is made of golden metal, about five feet high, with a dome-like glass case atop it. The glass case is encircled around its base by a Continual Flame spell; the flame highlights the beating Heart of Domi that floats within the dome.

On the north wall is the area which has the lifelike bas-relief of all three races, united in the face of some unseen enemy, called the Plural Mural. There is NO door here. On the east wall is the area which has the Centaur bas-relief surrounding a pair of steel-bound heavy wooden double doors; beyond is the Eastern Hallway. On the south the bas-relief features a Wemic; beyond is the Entry Hall. On the west the bas-relief features a Minotaur; beyond is the Western Hall. A winding set of stone spiral stairs in the southeast leads up to the Observatory.

The chamber is dome-shaped with a flat, level floor and a flat, level ceiling. The bas-relief of the carved figures actually adorn the segmented walls themselves -- the doors do not have that kind of carving on them and are made of solid wood, bound by shiny steel. All three sets of doors are actually double doors, and none of them have locks, though they all may be barred from the inside of the room if one got something to bar the doors with.

Generally speaking, the three doors into the Heart Chamber are kept open, and one or two guards are on duty at all times here. There is a lot of traffic through the Chamber as folk pass from the East Wing to the West Wing -- in this way, the Heart is not locked away, but looks over the daily life of the Keep, reminding everyone why they are there. People are generally quiet and respectful in the Heart Chamber, and many also come to meditate and pray.

The Labyrinth (not shown on maps)

The following information has not yet been revealed to the Chosen, although naturally Kular knows it.

The Keep also has a secret Labyrinth and shortcut to other parts of Bridge Island -- specifically, to the three bridges that connect Bridge Island to Centaur Island, Wemic Island, and Minotaur Island.

The entrance to the Labyrinth is activated by poking the eyes of one of the bas-relief figures of the tableau located on the northern area behind the case that now houses the beating Heart of Domi. Once poked, the pedestal and case slide over to one side, revealing a six-foot-round hole, which is the entrance to a slide or chute. Jumping into the hole will allow the character who does so to slide down, down, down a passageway that kind of twists and turns (it's a fun ride, actually!) and ends up in a room that is about fifty feet square and has a door in each wall. Like the bas-relief walls above, one door has a minotaur, another has a centaur, another has a wemic and the fourth has all three.

This Labyrinth is magic; the Chosen ones can come down to this room and open a door, traverse the Labyrinth in five rounds and emerge from underground to right where each of the different land bridges to Wemic Island, Centaur Island and Minotaur Island happen to be. Going through the door that has all three Taur Races depicted on it will teleport the Chosen ones back to any part of the Keep that they choose. (The magic of the Labyrinth works for those Taurs who work at the Keep, too, as they are recognized allies of the Chosen ones.)

The Labyrinth will be an endless maze for anyone who is neither a Chosen one nor an ally.

The Observatory

A spiral staircase leads from the Heart Chamber up to the roof of the dome. Halfway up the curving stairs there is a landing and a reinforced wood door (not shown on the map).

At the top of the stairs is a circular area called the Observatory, and it affords a grand view for miles around. From here, you can see that the Keep is at the very center of the Bridge Island. To the south appears the unmistakable coast of the Minotaur Isle, and to the north, the shoreline of Centaur Isle. If you strain very, very hard, you can just barely make out the faint outline of Wemic Isle upon the west-southwesterly horizon. The vista from the observatory is breathtaking -- and even more so as you take in the bridges that connect the islands.

From the Observatory proper one can walk safely on the Keep roof to a short walkway just above the main door; a low wall provides cover to defenders standing here. A small covered hole here lets one call down into the Entry Hall. A roof guard usually stays on watch above and alerts the staff below if strangers approach the Keep.

Western Hallway and Eastern Hallway

Both of these halls are 20 feet wide and well-lit. In each, ten doors open into Large Quarters, five to the north and five to the south.

Walking from the Heart Chamber through the east or west hall, one passes under a large archway into another domed chamber. In the west, one enters the Commons, and, in the east, one enters the Parade Ground.

Large Quarters

Each of these residential rooms is a spacious 20-foot-square space with a private attached privy. Each also has a door of heavy, metal-bound wood and a fireplace. Each room is worthy of becoming the quarters of a Chosen, though they have nothing but the most basic of furniture in them initially. Some of the more lived in rooms have homey touches like rugs and wall hangings.

Off the Western Hallway the Large Quarters are home to the nine Chosen and Kular. Off the Eastern Hallway the Large Quarters are home to married staff and guests.