[WIP] Wizard's Tower - Interior
Royal Scribe
303 images Mapmaker
Because I always have at least three mapping projects going on at once, I decided to work on the interior of my Wizard's Tower while I work through experimenting with three different approaches for cliff shadows for the Hei Shan Si monastery.
I decided to start with the third floor, because that's where the main entrance is. Here, visitors can ring a bell at an outer gate to be admitted into an entry foyer, which has a wardrobe for storing cloaks and such, as well as access to a water closet (complete with a wash basin with water pumped up through an interior well). From there, guests can wait in a waiting room (complete with fireplace) until the wizard is ready to receive them in a more comfortable
Arrow slits allow the wizard or other defenders to guard the tower. The arrow slit that is immediately counterclockwise to the entrance is about waist-high to people on the stairs. The next two counterclockwise would be above anyone on the stairs; the others clockwise would be below the stairs as they continue to ascend. Plenty of magical torches keep the interior bright. In D&D terms, they have been enchanted with a Continual Flame spell that produces a smokeless, heatless flame forever, or until dismissed. (Sure, you have to spend 50 gp in spell components for each, but you'll never have to replace them.) In addition to the exterior stairs, an interior spiral staircase provides interior access to both levels two and four.
This uses Creepy Crypts as the base, with extensive use of Beaumaris Castle assets (plus vegetation from Japanese Temple and furnishings from DD3. And a few tidbits from Forest Trail.
Comments
Gonna have to steal this for my game....sorries!
Cal
No apologies necessary! I would be honored, and I would love to hear how it goes. I plan to find a home in the Atlas eventually, but I will post the FCWs here in the meantime with my blessing to use. Here are the FCWs for the outside, and for the third floor. I will post the other floors when they're ready.
Been working on the other floors, but I still have several more floors to do. (And this is the Wizard's Tower that I am calling the "small" tower, in contrast to the other one I started that is more like a Council of Wizards' fortress. This "small" tower will still be at least eight stories above ground (though some of them are smaller and one is really just a bell tower), and at least three underground (though one is just the sewers)).
From the main entrance on the third floor, you can go up or down through the spiral staircase in northern wall. Let's go down to the second floor.
Second Floor
This is primarily the main dining area for the wizard and his or her guests. In addition for seating for 15, the dining hall has two fireplaces, with the smaller one used to heat up kettles of tea and other food. This room also has a sink connected to the water system, a separate pipe that runs through the room (for more water in the floors above), several cabinets for dinnerware sets and table linens, and a statue of a female wizard -- a former owner, perhaps the tower's creator. Outside the room, a long table in the hall is used by the kitchen staff and footmen to assemble the food before bringing it in for guests. Unlike the third floor, where the arrow slits were off of a corridor and the rooms had no external windows, on the second floor the arrow slits also allow for daylight to enter the rooms.
Beside that room in the southwest corner of the tower is a cozy, wedge-shaped room with a balcony overlooking the great stairs a floor below. From here, the wizard's family can lean over a railing to greet guests on the landing. This floor also has a restroom, and a small, gated "back door" with a sign directing visitors to continue up another flight to the main entrance.
First Floor
The first floor is at the same level as the main landing with the extra wide stairs, but for added security, there is no doorway there, nor windows or even arrow slits. This floor has a spacious kitchen with a stove and a marble countertop, along with a dining nook for the tower's staff. There are also two rooms equipped with crystals that magically emit cold energy. The one on the south side is called the Cold Room and the one north of it is called the Ice Room, as it is cold enough to freeze water. (Basically, they're magical versions of a walk-in refrigerator and freezer.) The final room on this floor, other than the WC, is a furnace room with a massive furnace for heating water and a great tub of hot water for doing laundry. The room is hot enough that even on rainy days, wet laundry will dry on clotheslines strung up in this room.
(True story: my family did not have electricity for eight years of my childhood and one of my daily chores was to build a fire in an outdoor fireplace like this one to heat water than ran through it in pipes. We also had not one but two outhouses -- fancy!)
Haven't started on the basement yet, so for now, let's go back upstairs.
Fourth Floor
Reversing direction, we can climb up to the fourth floor, the lowest level to have proper windows instead of arrow slits. This floor has the main lounge for entertaining overnight guests, where folks can socialize, play cards and other games, or enjoy a performance from a traveling bard or a minstrel from the nearby village. This room even has a wet bar! I should put in some chairs and couches, though.
This floor also has a chapel (looks like I forgot to put in pews). It also has a WC with a window to the outside, a room for bathing, and two oddly-shaped guest bedrooms.
Working on the fifth floor now, which will include use of one of the two balconies you can see poking out on the south side.
Here are the FCW files if anyone wants to customize them for their own gameplay, using the same licensing terms as the Atlas (where this will someday find a home).
Sadly I don't have some of the resources used. So it's a plethora of red X's.
They are pretty awesome. I love towers.
Really nice work.
Thank you!
I admit that I drew from a lot of different sources. The base is CA186 Creepy Crypts (2022), which I used in preparation for when I get to the basement/dungeon section. The main fills for the walls and floors of the tower itself come from CA149 Beaumaris Castle (2019), and the windows are from that, too. Most of the furniture comes from Dungeon Designer 3, but some are drawn from CA14 Symbol Catalogs (2008), and some of the fireplaces are from Shessar's free supplement. Some of the outside vegetation comes from CA141 Japanese Temple and CA143 Asian Town (both 2018).
Normally when designing something for the Atlas, I try to limit it to just a few styles to minimize the chance that others might be missing chunks of it. This time, I gave myself free rein to create my wizard's "dream home."
Self correction! I didn't get furniture from CA14, they came from CA49 (listed under Annuals as CA50). That was some of the fireplaces and bookcases.
That is super admirable that you keep track of all the stuff, so people can see how close they are to having all the products.
I can't even remember which map style I start my maps with, let alone if I grab stuff from any of the symbol sets.
I wrote a tool for that: http://cc.monsen.cc/tools/cc3monsentools.html
Thank you, Remy! I installed that awhile ago but forgot all of the commands. Here's a screencap of the products used:
All those unknowns means your image database file is out of date. I just updated the one on the site, if you download the zip file again and put the xml file from it into your CC3+ data directory, overwriting the one there, it should identify the rest of those files too....
I replaced the old xml file with the new one, and this is what the IR command now shows (no list of products used at the beginning):
Ah, yea, you need a newer build of the dll file too.
I've uploaded an updated zip with a new dll file too. Remember to close all instances of CC3+ before replacing it.
Amazing! That did the trick. And yeah...I sure did draw from a lot more sources than I usually do. (And in some cases, more than one style from annuals in the same year.)
Not sure where I got that missing Cobble Final.png fill, but I can track it down and replace it from another cobble from an annual already in use here.
Thank you!
If you need to know exactly what is from which add-on, you can use the IRD command (D stands for Detail).
And that cobble fill is some weird reference that turns up in some templates.
What....what....what.????
That is amazing. You are one smart cookie!
Added the missing pews and lounge furniture to the Fourth Floor:
And now, up another flight.
Fifth Floor
This floor is entirely for guests. Why would a wizard need plenty of guest rooms? Maybe he or she is the party's patron, and they come back periodically to receive instructions for their next adventure. Maybe adventurers periodically visit to have the wizard identify the magic items and artifacts they've found, or to help explain mysterious prophesies or other adventuring clues they've discovered. (Great opportunity for lore dumping!) Maybe the wizard's old adventuring party all decided to retire together in the tower.
There's a hallway closet between the internal stairs and external door. Another WC and bathing chamber. A small guest bedroom on the eastern side. And then two spacious guest suites on the southern side.
The southwest suite has a spacious living room with a double window, along with a separate bedroom with a "king sized" bed. But the other guest suite is for the real VIPs. Not only does it have a fireplace and working sink in the living room, it also has a private balcony with views of the river and the rear of the cherry tree garden.
These suites come are handy when adventurers visiting the wizard don't want to be separated. (Never a good idea to split the party!) The suites are large enough to accommodate the typical-sized party, assuming a few are willing to sleep on the couches or pallets on the floor. And for very large parties, the stone door separating the two suites can be unlocked to create a double-sized suite.
Onwards to the wizard's bedroom and workshop...