This is a revamp of an old, half built project, based on a simple cardboard tube. The construction was *very* simple and not very useful at all. I and my boys saw some merit in having a donjon in our Frostgrave homebrew world and decided to forge a new life for this old thing.
As the Frostgrave game calls for lots of labyrinthine paths and levels, we needed the inner floors of the holdfast to be exposed. Therefore, we've created a story where this abandoned holdfast in the Westros village of Gallowgrey (where our games take place), hand once been a out-of-Kingslanding storage place of a batch of the extremely volatile alchemical warfare substance called "wildfire" or "pyromancer's piss", see the
http://gameofthrones.wikia.com/wiki/Wildfire for details. More fluff at some later point.
The core of the holdfast model is a 15 cm diameter cardboard tube. As we wanted it to be partly blown apart by an explosion, the paltry thinness of the tube would not do as the mighty walls of a holdfast. After roughly cutting up the upper part of the tube to expose its interior I have reinforced the outside with two layers of 5mm XPS floor insulation.
The tower will have 5 levels. From the bottom up we find:
- an oubliette for storing wildfire, hidden in the rock upon which the tower stands.
- an entry and loading level where the vicious stuff is handled, now completely blown out
- mess and sleeping quarters of the garrison
- the commanders apartment
- outlook and fighting platform
The rock below the holdfast doesn't look very impressive so it's girth and cragginess will be improved eventually. There will be a secret entrance to the oubliette, covered up in some ingenious way with mechanical devices for opening it (involving pulling at torch holders, I am sure).
The cross vault of the ceiling in floor 4.
Each floor is built as a individual compartment and can be lowered into the tube. Each compartment carry the details of the ceiling below, its floor and the walls, as they they have been thickened the same way as the outside walls but three layers of XPSsheet. The masonry details has been impressed into the surface with ballpoint pen and rough pebbles (as per the well known method).
The third floor has a wood floor, as busted up timber tend to look dramatic. How much debris one decides to cram into a piece like this is not only a matter of realism and taste but also gaming practicality.
All wood detail will be stained with the same kind of black brown woodstain and then hilited with lighter browns and greys.
The holdfast in all its might. Floors 2, 4 and 5 in place. In the background a curve of inner wall is visible.
Lumber is being cut for the gallery of the top fighting platform.
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April 26, 2024, 09:27:51 AM
March 19, 2010, 07:34:15 PM