The keep is made of local stone, with glass windows, arrow slits, and vaulted ceilings. It features a strange pattern of stairways in the towers. The previous owners indicated that they fabricated it with a ritual their “patron” designed.

The keep sits atop a hill along the river, and they build a stone bridge across the river at its nearest point (10’ clearance). The keep has no moat, barbican, or other visible defense mechanisms.

Notable Features

• Stone bridge: 10’ clearance, 10’ wide
• Keep is 120’ from river, entrance facing it
• Oervind can fabricate wooden outbuildings with thatched roofs from gathered materials
• River is fresh, with good fishing to support a dozen people during summer months, less than half that in winter
• Trees line river, thinning to grassland within 10 miles, then rocky desert starting 30 miles south

The building is a magical replica of another building elsewhere. As such, it bears scars of past renovations despite its very recent construction. The central courtyard has a largely-intact geometric tile pattern on a gravel base. Several coffins had been interred in the gravel, but the previous inhabitants dug up the coffins prior to departure.

Taking over the keep, the [[Company Charter: The Windless Ring | Windless Ring]] subdivided the upper rooms to make private chambers for company members, and started constructing outbuildings for their followers. The outbuildings are built from local sand and gravel manipulated via a fabricate spell. Though they support several dozen people, the settlement is not self-sustaining. It requires regular supplies to function, as the local environment can only support about a dozen people in the summer months.

The foyer of the keep features a potent sigil in the floor, which connects the keep to its sister buildings around the Wilderlands via the creator’s enslaved angel (described in Adventure Log session 74). This sigil pierces the teleport screen that covers most of the steppes, so despite the long-term risk it presents, the party has decided not to remove it. To minimize the chance of teleport errors, they have stuffed the room with tapestries and barrels to alter the feel of the space.

Updated Layout

The company updated the building slightly, to better suit their needs: subdividing the upper rooms, adding a kitchen to the ground floor, and reviewing the roof to make for more defensible towers (particularly against flying foes). They extended the stairwells in all the towers, and remodeled the upper floor.

They replaced all the sun-proof glass in the keep with conventional glass, mostly magically-fabricated from local materials. Per the current style in Tula, all the glazed windows can be opened from within.

Ground Floor

The foyer contains a circle to call the bound angel who responds to the phrase in Draconic: “I call thee forth, Orovoël, Guardian of the Bridge!” It will transport the caller and guests to any other copy of the keep, but will not engage in any other activity beyond phrases such as, “It shall be done,” “Command me,” or the cryptic catch-all denial, “I am not compelled to comply.” As much as Gux would like to release the angel from its bindings, the party has decided that it is unwise to upset the very powerful wizard who created the castle. That will have to wait for another day.

They added a well and rain barrels to the courtyard, and a modest brick kitchen to the back of the building.

The binding room, useful for summoning and calling outsiders, is occasionally used for its original purpose, but now mostly serves as a storage room for the party (as it is only accessible from upstairs).

Upper Floor

The company thinned the courtyard walls, and added wooden walls to make a hallway running the perimeter of the building. They also subdivided most of the remaining rooms, to produce private quarters for each active company member.

All doors in the upper level are secured. Private rooms are secured with mundane locks and arcane locks with unique command gestures. The tower doors are also sealed with arcane locks, preventing entry from the towers unless the correct sign is traced on the door. The hallway also has doors, but these are normally kept unlocked – and are often left open for ventilation.

The library is slowly filling up, mostly with party notes and research materials courtesy of Feery’s Leap. The lab has been updated for both alchemy and magical item creation.

Rooftop

Oervind fabricated stone additions to each of the towers, making them serviceable for defense and less accessible to approach from the air. Plain stone hatches provide access to the stairways. They are open from the stairwell, but the arcane locks require a passphrase to enter from above.

Alternate images

The keep is based on a real-world building, which was featured in the movie Tale of Tales. A few screen shots from that movie are below, for reference purposes.