I am diving into the interiors now, starting with the first floor (or ground floor).

At this level, the perimeter wall is mostly solid stonework. The defensive passageway with arrow slits will be one story higher. But the gatehouses do have chambers on this level with mechanisms for raising the two portcullises (I was tempted to write portculli) and open the iron gate. Internal spiral staircases allow guards to reach a chamber with access the parapet over the gate, where they can address visitors when the gates are closed.

Mostly I've been working so far on the first floor of the balneae, the bathhouse. This is what it looks like covered:

And here's the (not yet labeled) interior of the first floor:

The balneae, or bathhouse, is connected to the main villa by a colonnade, an unwalled covered walkway lined with pillars.

As you enter, there are stairs going up and down to your left, and the chimney for the hypocaust in the basement on your right. Then you see two lavatories, and then the frigidarium, the very cold pool. Next to the frigidarium is the apodyterium, the changing room where bathers could clean up before entering the communal pools. Across the courtyard is the caldarium, the hot room, where both the water and the tile floor are heated by the hypocaust furnaces in the basement. The main pool in the center, partially open to the sky, is the tepidarium, the warm room, where water is heated to a comfortable temperature but not as hot as a bath like the caldarium. On the northern wall are two saunas, the laconicum (dry sauna) on the northwest side, and the sudatorium (steam sauna) on the northeast.

Downstairs will have the hypocaust as well as the pipes for bringing water to the various pools. Upstairs will have more communal exercise areas, a library, and a balcony overlooking the tepidarium.

Here it is again with exterior features labeled quite pretentiously in Latin. Some of the terms came from sites describing architectural features of Ancient Rome. Others were crudely translated with Google Translate, so I welcome feedback from anyone who knows any bit of Latin. The description write-up will translate these terms and explain them, but basically:

1. Muri Magni (Great Walls)
2. Portae Turres (Gate Towers)
3. Turres Anguli (Corner Towers)
4. Stabula (Stables)
5. Custodes Domus (Guards’ House)
6. Sevorum Domus (Servants’ House)
7. Portico (Outside Covered Porch)
8. Villa Citri
9. Colonnade (Covered Column Walkway)
10. Balneae (Bathhouse)
11. Pomaria (Orchards)
12. Vinetum (Vineyards)

I think that front and back parts of the northern courtyard are supposed to be a whole story above the east and west sides, but in looking closer at my sheets, I didn't draw them that way. (I used too many images for inspiration that had different floor plans, and I think I muddled them up.)

I moved those two roofs to higher sheets. Does that capture it a little better?

In my map of Tyr Alomere Township, you'll see a Roman-style villa on the left side of the map. Although I had planned to work on a major city next, I couldn't resist diving into mapping the villa. I was going to hold off on posting anything until I had finished at least one floor of the interior, but I just couldn't wait.

I knew when I placed the villa in the town that when it came time to mapping the villa, I would do so with the Marine Dungeons annual. The structure fills in that annual seem so Roman to me.

So here's the outside, and then we'll zoom in a bit.

At first glance, it looks very similar to what you see on the town map. Since Marine Dungeon's vegetation symbols are primarily stuff you'd see in the water, like kelp and coral (it is a marine dungeon, after all), I continued to use the trees from Forest Trail and Japanese Temple, and other terrain fills from Darklands City. But there are some important changes.

First, the town had bluffs that used Creepy Crypts (because the wizard's tower that I built the town around used Creepy Crypts to make it easier to do the basement areas). When I brought in the villa to my Marine Dungeons map, I wanted replace as many fills as I could with Marine Dungeons ones. So the cliff walls use Marine Dungeon's pebbles fill, and the rocky covering was replaced with a Marine Dungeons rock. Works really well with the special effects that Sue developed for Creepy Crypts!

The building structures continue to use the tile fill from Darklands City, and continue to use the RGB Matrix to redden them in a way that seems more Roman to me. But the water was redone using Marine Dungeon's water techniques, though I had to make some tweaks. And the marble around the fountain and pools also comes from Marine Dungeons, though I tweaked the effects to make them more of a grayish-white.

(The building on the left side is the baths -- many of the fancier Roman estates had their own baths.)

Also, you might have noticed shadows from columns around the courtyard. If I take the roof off, you'll see that I replaced the CC3 columns with the beautiful ones from Marine Dungeons.

And now for the defensive walls surrounding the villa. They had been designed in the town using the beautiful fills from the Beaumaris Castle annual, also used with the wizard's tower, but I replaced them here with the beautiful wall symbols from Marine Dungeons. I love how nicely the window symbols work as crenellations when plopped directly on the walls. I also used the arches from Sinister Sewers to show entrances to the top of the walls from the towers.

I know the paved road going to the gate is a bit off-center, but I decided to keep it consistent with the parent map.

Interiors coming soon!

Tyr Alomere Tower - Floor 5

Toggle: TEXT LABELS layer to hide/reveal the numeric labels.

Toggle: OUTSIDE MASK sheet to hide/reveal the semi-transparent parchment filter over the outside.

Description

This floor is entirely devoted to guest accommodations. The best suite includes a spacious sitting room with a fireplace and a rare upper-story sink with running water, and best of all, a balcony overlooking the river and gardens. The second best doesn’t have a balcony, but does have an extra large window in the sitting and a double window with garden views in the bedroom. Both of these suites are large enough to accommodate an entire adventuring party if they don’t want to split up and some are willing to sleep on couches or the floor. There is also a third, much smaller room without a lounge, as well as a WC and bathing chamber.

1. Balcony Suite

2. Garden View Suite

3. Guest Bedroom

4. WC

5. Bathing Chamber