Jörðgarð Map of Week #124 - Mercenary Camp

MarkOliva

With the 124th Map of the Week we take a look at the mercenary camp in the Auðarhome enclaves. Humans who approach the camp north of Mineville and the mining area well may be astounded at what they see. Few humans have ventured into mountainous areas to see the works of the giants.
Count Arnošt's mercenary band is based in the remains of a fortress that the Auðar stone giants built as a defense againt the Æsir Empire, which had spread out rapidly beneth the giants'mountains across the Fjörm. The Æsir did, in fact, make no incursions into or threats against the Midworld Mountains land of the Auðar. Nonetheless, the giants used the fortress to keep an eye upon the Æsir. Some years after the fall of the Æsir Empire, the Auðar abandoned the Southern Eye Fortress, as they called it. It fell into a state of disrepair then, but the giants restored much of it and used it again as an observation point when Aleksandra and her Slovanian followers from Windland claimed the abandoned southern lands of the Æsir. They maintained the watch there until some 20 years before Count Arnošt sent his followers across the Fjörm to explore the nearby parts of the mountains. By that time, the giants had abandoned most of their holdings in the Midworld Mountains. Arnošt's followers found most of the fortress intact and in relatively good condition. Some repairs needed to be made of course, but they were less extensive than modifications that were necessary for humans to make good use of it. On first sight, the fortress and its buildings appear to be not only huge but also overdimensional. The main gate complex and the smallest structure in the fortress are 100 feet/30 m wide. The horse stables are 200 feet/60m wide, and the main barracks is 275 feet/82.5 m wide. The buildings all have ceilings on each story that are 20 feet/6 m high. Doorways all are at least 15 feet/450 cm high. It becomes quickly clear that these structures were built by stone giants, with an avereage height of 10 to 12 feet/3 to 3.6 m, rather than for humans, with an average height between 5 and 6 feet/150 to 180 cm. All of the buildings have walls of cut mountain rock 1 yard/meter think. They are roofed with large tiles of limestone, a type of roofing unknown in human settlements of the northwestern jörð. For the most part, the gigantic dimensions of the fortress' structures produce only unnecessary spaciousness for the humans who occupy it today, but some structural elements, particularly the stairways, were problemmatical. All of the stairways were made of steps a foot/30 cm high. Humans can climb and descend such stairways, but the height of the steps leads to accidents. These things led Count Arnošt to send master stonemason Roland and his crew from Mineville into the fortress to remodel. Most of the 200 mercenaries in the fortress – all in service to Count Arnošt and Baron Luboš – are former soldiers who were on the losing side of battles between noble houses in Vétrnývlast. Their commander is the 44-year-old human male warrior Ilja. However, equally important in rank is his mistress and war wizardess, the 42-year-old human female Adéla.

1. The Gate. The only known entrance to the fortress.

2. Command House. Ilja and Adéla live in this building. Ilja also has his command center here, and Adéla her wizard's workshop.

3. Stable. the mercenaries' horses as well as horses and wagons of the teamsters from Distant Trails Trading Co. are kept here.
 
4. Barracks, Canteen and Store. Only a part of this huge building is used. The mercenaries live here and transient teamsters from Distant Trails Trading find accomodations in the open sleeping bay. The mercenaries take their meals in the canteen, which is open at all hours and also serves as something of a tavern. It also is used by the visiting teamsters who bring supplies and goods for the store to the fortress. The store is a small shop where the mercenaries can buy personal goods.

You can get this map in two versions:

1. The Fractal Mapper (TM) 8 version in FMP format, fully editable (33 MB) from the Jörðgarð website.

2. As a JPG flat map of 1360 Pixels x 1020 Pixels (750 KB), available from the NBOS website at:

http://www.nbos.com/nox/download.php?id=521

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:

http://www.vintyri.org/joerdhgardh/joerdhgardh.htm

Next Week: Orc Encampment