twintowersrpg.com

[John Snow]

Don't know if it's online here, and we have anumber of isai who might not have seen this, so here it is. Note the distances by the way - an hour on horseback from the Valley floor to one of the Towers:



The Valley



We have only ONE approach.

We're on the edge of the Darkwood, which is also impassable if you remember

the legends in the Two Rivers.



The only main points are the

1) limited access into the Towers proper (there's a valley leading up to a causeway)

2) the location of the lake in the north

3) the elaborate catacomb system beneath the Towers, and that

4) we're on a high plateau that overlooks everything.



1. Lake in the North:

To the north is a lake several miles wide and on the far side of the lake is an entrance to a valley. The valley itself is widest at the entrances farthest from the towers and it width decrease the closer you get to the towers. Its far end is only about twenty to thirty paces wide.



2. Mountains to the South.

the southern mountains have no passes leading up to them and are virtually unclimbable.



3. Mountains to the East:

the western mountains have a pass into the Mountains of Mist and a path that leads up to the Towers themselves. The road from the east and the path from the west connect to ramps that have been carved into the side of the plateau and lead up to the Tower walls and its gates.



4. Hilly Forest to the West

to the east the land slopes downward through the foot hills of the Mountains of Mist and is mostly hilly forest.

A road runs from the towers, through the area, and eventually connects to the Caemlyn road.



5. The towers themselves are located on a plateau.

The road from the east and the path from the west connect to ramps that have been carved into the side of the plateau and lead up to the Tower walls and its gates. The eastern ramp has a causeway in the middle of it that connects the two sides of a gap in the rock wall together. The tower walls themselves are twenty feet high





Anyway, here's the layout of the Valley, in standard ramble format:



The valley is a bowl-shaped depression in the Mountains of Mist, south of that lake. The mountains open up into the valley on the south end, and close back up at the north end, where there is a deep gorge separating the valley from the rest of the world.



The base of each Tower is approximately 1000 feet above the valley floor. The valley floor is flat, with a gentle slope downwards to the north. There is a lake near the middle of the valley floor, with a river that flows north and out the gorge. The Academy is on the west bank of the river, near where the river exits the lake.



Each Tower rests on a carved plateau on the three highest peaks of the valley. The Light Tower is on the Southeastern edge of the rim, the Dark Tower is on the Northeastern edge, and the Twilight Tower is on the Western edge. (if the Valley was a clock, the Twilight Tower is at 9, the Dark Tower is at 1, and the Light Tower is at 5. The gorge is at 12)



Structures in the Academy:

Athenium (study area--ask Firseal about it)

Isai Barracks

Senechel (military school)

The Flame & Fang Inn

Main Kitchens

Main Stables

The Great Library

Training Grounds

Trade Center

Dragon Monastary (?)



Points of Interest near the Academy:

Ogier Grove (west bank of the River, north of the Academy)

Bridge over the River



There are three roads leading away from the Academy: one to each Tower. The North Road goes to the Dark Tower, the South Road goes to the Light Tower, and the West Road goes to the Twilight Tower. The road to the gorge splits off of the North Road halfway to the Dark Tower. It takes a man on horseback an hour to get from Tower to Academy. There is also a footpath that circles the valley, so you can go from Tower to Tower without going through the Academy.



Most of the Southern part of the valley is cultivated farmland, with a few farmers living in isolated houses. Most of the Northern part of the Valley is grassy wilderness, with a small population of deer and wolves, and the occasional puma. There isn't much in the way of foothills, but you don't need to be a rock climber to get to the Towers.



The mountains surrounding the Towers are much like the Sierra Nevadas, if you've ever been there. (Actually, the entire Valley I'm loosely basing on Yosemite valley.) They are sparsely wooded with evergreens and other high country vegetation. Not entirely impassable, but not the easiest trek in the world. The easiest way to get into the valley by far is the Gorge road.



Each Tower is pretty-much self-sufficient, with its own stables, kitchens, stores, armories, etc., though each Tower coordinates with each other and the Academy for much of their supplies.





The Academy has, firstly, a fairly huge (horizontally, but only five stories vertically) building called the Athenium. There are some gardens around it, and a court or two. It is a little fuzzy. There are a number of Dormitories around the Athenium (four to six.) These are based on the basic college dorm, and are of a like size to these our-world structures. About a mile away is a building which is about the size of the average college main building (goodly mansion, basically) called the Senechal, which is the military school section of the Towers. There is a good local historic reason for this distance. (The founders of the Academy were too high minded to want to associate with killers, even professional ones. They tried to ignore it.)

[msmoonshadow]

Excellent!



Once I get into the files at home, i will script this into the website somewhere. Thanks for finding and sticky-ing it