New Avalon Eternal House Floor Plan

The Eternal House at New Avalon

Floor plan, room descriptions, and general notes

Ground Floor

Entry Room - Entry is into a small room where visitors can shed wet clothes, hang coats, etc. Two small storerooms flank this entry - each looks into the entry through two arrow slits. The doors into and out of the entry room can be locked and barred.

Commons - This is the main room and communal center. It is filled with chairs and tables. This is where most people seeking charity visit. It serves as dining room and dormitory.

Residences and Workrooms - South of the Commons are the kitchen (with hearth), wash room (for baths, laundry, and cleaning), school (a small free school for selected children), and residences for 6 maids, 3 cooks, 6 guards, 2 grounds keepers, 2 handymen, a healer, a teacher, the agent, a cleric, and the house holder (the person in charge of day-to-day household issues, including money. There is a spare bedroom for messengers, followers, an artist-in-residence, or other worker's guests.

Conservatory - This is a modest library with many plants. It is a place of reflection and thought. There is a small place for an artist to create, or for musicians or dramatists to give performances.

Meeting Room - Tables and chairs here make a handy place for lessons, planning, or discussion.

Infirmary - A workroom, with cots, for the healer on staff.

Chapel - A small shrine and altar make this a suitable place for services. There are also a number of fine chairs. Three alcoves (set off by tapestries) at the back serve for private thought. An attached sacristy and vestry hold altar cloths, holy water, vestments, and all the standard tools of the trade. A secret locked trap door in the ceiling leads upstairs to my quarters. It can only be reached by levitation or other magic (or a free-standing ladder!).

Upper Floor

Stairs and Access - An external wooden stair leads to a locked external room. Within is the upper floor entry room. The inner door (marked on the floor plan with a rectangle) is also locked. Unlocking it does not alone open the door. Rather, it unlocks one lock and rings a small bell in the guard room, which is connected to this room with a small spyhole. Then the guard okays the person and unbars and then winches the door open. The guard will only allow in someone who he recognizes AND who speaks a password. There are eight special light fixtures in this room - consisting of continual lights with shades so that light shines only down, they leave the ceiling in shadows. These shadows conceal a very heavy metal cable and rope mesh net that cover the entire area. If need be, the guard can release it, trapping anyone in the room (causing 1d4 damage or so?). The net is so heavy that a bend bars roll is needed to escape from under it.

Storeroom and Guard Room - The storeroom on this level is used for more precious things, since the upper floor is more secure. The guard room is inside the storeroom.

Upper Residences - On this floor is my residence (labeled "me") and residences for each Eternal Player (labeled "E1" through "E4"). These may be customized in several ways after construction. There also two rooms for Eternal guests. Except for the guest rooms, all rooms on this floor are locked.

Eternal Commons - This large room is a chief gathering place for player characters. There are a couple fine tables with chairs, sofas, comfy chairs, carpets, shelves, books, art, and so on. Store rooms here, with secret areas, are for Eternal use only.

Cellar

Stairs and Access - External stone stairs lead down to a locked door. Within is the entry room.

Gnome Room - This is the residence for the Mad Gnome (What's his name?). It is set up in whatever way makes the gnome feel happiest, or at least less disturbed.

Care givers Room - There are three full-time care givers who's job is to look after the gnome. They are not allowed, however, to restrict his movement or actions.

Store Rooms - These are used for goods that need cooler temperatures or are accessed seldom.

General Notes

Windows - There are no windows per se in the House. However, every ten feet is an arrow slit. They are narrow - even a halfling couldn't fit through. These slits allow daylight and fresh air in. On the ground floor the arrow slits can be closed with wooden shutters and latched. On the upper floor they have iron shutters and can be double barred. In the Eternal Commons room the arrow slits are spaced every five feet apart on all sides.

Clock - In the ground floor commons is a clock I want to commission specially. It doesn't need a face or hands. I want it to chime six times a day, on average, every four hours. But I will tell the clock maker, "I don't want an accurate clock. But I don't want this clock to be fast or slow, because then as time passes it gets more and more wrong. Instead, I want the chime to strike at random every four hours, give or take up to an hour. And if the chime can sound different every time, that would be great, too!"

Guards - There are seven guards, six and a master. The six guards (hopefully 0-level followers) rotate their duties in shifts of four hours each (more or less). That makes six shifts a day, spent like this: 1) General guard patrol duty, 2) Standing watch and acting as a bouncer in the Commons, 3) Guard entry duty in the second floor guard room (often spent reading or sleeping), 4) Training to be first level (sometimes with the master, sometimes alone), and 5 & 6) Off duty. The master is a second or third level fighter and teacher I have to hire. His job is to train the others. He gives two private four-hour lessons a day, six days a week. That means each guard gets two lessons a week. Each guard also spends five four-hour sessions a week practicing.

Lights - I want to commission a large number of light fixtures. These will be set into the walls at about 20 to 40 feet intervals. Each consists of pieces of darkened, prismatic, and colored glass. The colors are mostly blues, greens, and yellows. Each piece can be rotated into place. A continual light will be cast inside the fixture. Then at sunset one person will walk around and rotate a darker piece of glass into place. At dawn a lighter piece will be rotated into place. This means the character of the light will vary all the time throughout the House.

Furnishings - I want to go for an eclectic style of furnishings, a striking collection of pieces with different styles and looks. All should be of good quality at the worst. Some will be very fine. I and the architect will go bargain shopping. We might get some deals by commissioning in bulk. I also want to buy and commission art, preferable with an elven air. I'll commission the first elf or half-elf artist I find to paint a mural in the common room. I want everything to be beautiful and built to last (like elves do). I'll need books and art for the conservatory especially.

Jobs and stuff - Most jobs are obvious. Maids clean, handymen fix stuff, cooks make food. By the way, the food given away is nourishing but tastiness varies randomly. The healer and cleric work together. This Eternal House serves as a walk-in clinic and small hospital. The teacher runs the day school for employees' children, children of worshipers and followers, and a few other scholarship kids who show great potential. My agent has an interesting job. He or she represents my interests here - negotiating trade, relaying news, keeping track of rumors, talking with authorities, and doing any odd jobs I need done. In addition to helping the healer, the cleric ministers to local worshipers and conducts services daily. She or he is not a missionary and does not seek out converts, but is happy to talk to interested people. I figure since worshipers can enroll their kids in the school and since there is exposure by contact and perhaps gratitude from those who are helped, a few potential worshipers may approach the cleric. The householder runs everything related to the day-to-day workings of the place. Schedules, job assignments, finances, and oversight are all part of this job.

Outside the House - The groundskeepers are gardeners mostly - elves or half-elves when available. They maintain the plants in the conservatory. And they work on the grounds outside. I want to have greenery, trees, ivy, and all manner of beautiful plants all around. Also outside are outhouses (covered in ivy and surrounded by flowers) and a training yard for the guards.

Site Map | 10 March 98