The Tower

The Tower is an ancient Keep that sits on a bluff overlooking Ayre and the bay. Now it is used to detain and punish prisoners of the Crown, but it is also a defensible place to which the people of Ayre can escape in an attack by sea. A Captain’s house has been added next to the old Keep, and a drawbridge added between the Captain’s house and the Keep.

The Tower is a highly defensible building, with walls that are very difficult to scale.

There is only one gate into the compound where the Keep is located, and it opens into the training yard.

The main entrance to the Keep enters into the barbican, which takes the guests to the Keep through a defensible turn before they enter the main cell block.

A narrow moat surrounds the Keep.

The drawbridge from the Captain’s house to the Keep crosses the moat.

Instead of entering the Keep at the ground floor through the barbican, let’s follow the Bailiff through his quarters in the Captain’s house. First, we ascend the exterior staircase to the entrance to the Captain’s house. The first room, which is to the right after climbing the stairs from the training yard, is the bailiff’s chamber.

Down a spiral staircase, one reaches the dining and kitchen area.

Back up the staircase, opposite the bailiff’s chamber, is the war room. This is the room that leads to the drawbridge and the main Keep.

The lever for the drawbridge is inside the main Keep, so that during a seige, it can be lifted from inside.

Walking across this interior drawbridge, one can look down into the cell block, or climb a ladder to the barracks above.

This is the floor of the cell block, where Anais beseeched the Bailiff to care for her husband while he was imprisoned.

Here is one of the cells.

And another view of the area just outside the cells. The stairs in the floor lead to the lowest level, the underground dungeon, where there is a cistern so that during a seige, water can be supplied to the Keep.

Climbing from the drawbridge level (above the cells), one reaches the barracks.

The main room of the barracks level of the Keep. Were a lord living in the Keep, this would be the family’s solar, while the cell block level would be used for dining and receiving. But the Tower is a drafty, cold, miserable place to live. It was built long before chimneys were invented.

Garderobe on the barracks level of the Keep, in the section that overhangs the lower levels. This allows the contents of the latrine to drop to the moat.

Another room on the barracks level, with extra straw to add to bedding or spread on the floor.

Three floors above ground floor, one climbs through one of the jutting towers from the barracks into the alchemy store room.

One can walk the whole outer loop of this level, from each corner tower room, along parapets, to the next. This floor is designed for defense of the Keep from above. The tower floors are stone, at their lowest level, where the garderobe was in the barracks. At this level, there are wooden platforms added in the tower to create flooring.

A view of the village of Ayre from one of the parapets at the fourth level.

The alchemy room.

Five levels above the ground, one reaches the roof, with a breathtaking view of the bay, the castle island, and the village of Ayre.

It is dusk, and we will now descend back into the alchemy level via the ladder from the roof.

Same view again from the alchemy level, of Ayre.

After climbing back down to the barracks level, and down again, to the interior drawbridge level, we can see the Captain’s house and yard from the exterior drawbridge.

The entrance to the barbican, at dusk.

A view towards the Vale and the Ayre river valley, from the fourth level.

Summer night sky from the roof.

The Keep in the moonlight.

Floor Plans:

I hope you enjoyed seeing the inside of the Tower. It has minimal decorations; as the story requires, I will probably decorate it more and more. Thanks for looking!