Thread: July Challenge: Hebbie's Ale House

yet another, though this one is an NPC, as far as the FHCO go.
Introducing Odduck the Grand (pronounced Odd Duck).

Odduck the Grand, Snapgallows resident Wizard who can often be found seated near the middle of Hebbie's topboard, betwixt Nils the Sunderer and the clay jars of sweets. If Odduck is in residence, his current pet, a Pintailed Duck named "Nort", will be seen resting atop the shelving behind the topboard, yelped limestone shelving which holds Hebbie's flavored Tatershine bottles.
Odduck was once a powerful caster, but his mind went south and he knew it was time to remove his hat, and retire, when he last tried conjure a simple flame to lite his piping tamped full of "Rusty Mallard" leaf, and promptly incinerated his then current duck companion, Wonk, the Mallard.
Odduck, who is rather stooped and bald to boot, will now only cast in the direst of emergencies....though he can still teach, he can't do.

SeerBlue

Well I added some more tokens, the new ones on the right are for the troublemakers, sons of the Seven Families, I will write it up tomorrow night, storms a coming in now, a rowdy hurrah to the first person who can tell me what the thing sitting on the tile flooring, which is identical for each of the sons of the Seven Families is, and why....though you would have to know a little Snapgallows history to figure it out, me thinks

SeerBlue

Your tokens look full of character. Great work Seerblue!

thank you, Ravells, it has been fun making them. Honestly when I saw the excellant tokens over at Kane's, I thought, wow "I'll never come close to that", and I haven't, so I decided to make tokens that the FHCO's would easily identify to the characters from the story and keep them illustrative.
For the Son's of the Seven Familes tokens above, it goes from the sword standing up; Bohden Keog, Dribbler Loach, Roundabout Hafe, and Gall Wilth.

Bohden Keog is the middle son of the Keog Family, which makes its coin hiring out guards and carters to Caravans traveling through Snapgallows from the surrounding area. The Keog Cohort, as the guard portion of this endeavor is known, also serves as the local guard in Snapgallows, though they tend to only protect the Seven Families and their high walled compound which lies within Snapgallows proper, from the Seveners. Most legitimate Caravans organized by the Guild won't use Keog men, as they are better known for thieving from the goods in their care than for any real skill with a blade or cart.
Bohden himself is a work of his rather round Mother's love, ugly as the Fen is dangerous. In her misguided attempts to circumvent Alfert Kier's curse she has spent as much hard coin as charlatans and hedge wijjers of little talent have been willing to take for cures and potions. This has left Bohden Keog scarred, pimpled, blotched, splotched, hunched, and nearly bald. The most striking physical feature is his sparse hair, the strands of which have thickened incredibly to resemble long brown, oily worms.....which when cut become thicker and oilier.
Bohden's token is the upright sword, as he is nominally in command of the Keog Cohort, and is quite skilled in its use. Being the brunt of a lifetime of ridicule has made him petty, vengeful, conniving and highly intelligent, a bad combination when coupled with a knack for waving a blade about.

Dribbler Loach is the only son of the fading Loach Family, makers of incredible cheeses (for export only, as the locals know how they age and spice it). In his appearance, he blends well with the background, average height, average eyes, average face, average scent of morning after the bar piddle....the only thing that marks him as decidedly un-average is his propensity for dribbling, scads of saliva.
Dribbler's token is the sword lying upon the tiled floor, as that it where it can more often than naught be found once Dribbler unsheathes it. It should also be noted that Dribbler's blade is made entirely of wood, dull edged wood, as Dribbler has, in a series of unfortunate accidents with a steel blade, a cleaver, an axe, and a cheese grinder, managed to lower his count of fingers by four and a half, that is if Dribbler could count.
Dribbler is of no real threat in a battle, and is more likely to do more harm to his comrades than his adversary, yet he is a dedicated minion of Bohden Keog. Bohden keeps Dribbler around simply because, in his own words, "Dribble is perfectly honored to accept credit, where blame is due."

Roundabout Hafe is the offshoot of the Hafe Family, and the real power behind the family business, literally. The Hafe's are "Grinders", meaning they grind the local Limestone to recover the iron inclusions it bears. Snapgallows iron is exceedingly valuable, due to its purity. Hence the grinding wheel for his token.
Hafe became known as Roundabout, and his real name forgotten, due to the fact his Father, Fecle, possesses a satch which coins seldom leave.
When the gearing for one of the wind driven grinding houses failed, Old Fecle ordered an oxen chained up to pull it "roundabout", when the oxen died of exhaustion, a horse was used; when the horse suffered a fit and collapsed, a mule was used; when the mule escaped for parts unknown, but surely less stressful, Old Fecle cast his eye about looking for a suitable beast to replace it with, and that eye settled on his son, suitably large to try turning the wheel, and suitably annoying to die if he failed. "Chain him up and call him roundabout" he said, as his son was a might dim. Fecle's foreman did as he was told and the boy set to work, pulling as hard as he could....
Years later "Roundabout" is the result, a hulking man of vast strength, who is surprisingly agile and quick. Though he is more than a little dim, and tends to walk in circles, Roundabout is very dangerous in a weaponless fight, and fearless against a skilled opponent with a weapon, I did say he was a might dim.

Gall Wilth's Family is renowned, in West Fentor, for their "curiously sweet" quarrier goat meat, of which they export a good bit, ensuring the satches are always clinking, if not full. So his token is a Quarrier Goat.
The secret claim to fame of the Wilth Family, known only within the Seven Families, is their recipe of a powerful sedative distilled from the Gallbladder of the Quarrier Goat. A sedative which has been used for decades to delay the end of the Seven Families. Not that it has any curative effect, its use is much more mundane than that. It is simply used to lull unwilling prisoners into joining the folds of the Seven Families either in marriage or as chattels.
This is because no one, and I mean no one, will willing join (hop the threshold, or to marry) with a member of the Seven Families, as the Curse of Alfert Kier is known far and wide, few folk want their descendants to stink of piddle and spend all of eternity as a corpse, baaing and grazing in the fields at night.....baaaa.
So Gall's token is a Quarrier goat and is tinted reddish, denoting the fact that the Wilth Family regularly, and with few qualms, spills the blood of innocents in their zeal to continue the Family Lines.
Gall himself is an adept poisoner, be it with a tip of a blade, or a drop in a mug of tatershine.
Blond haired and hazel eyed, he is one of the few Seven Family sons who is not physically scarred or deformed, and his reek of piddle is mild, so he is the favored "matchmaker" of the Seven Families.

Well that is a bit of the story behind the antagonists, as the FHCO know them.
Oh yeah, and that other object on each of the Son's tokens, it is a chamber pot, a fancy one at that, Piddle, you know, and the fancy tile reflects their self assumed status at the top of Snapgallows society.
SeerBlue

here is the refined floor plan for Hebbie's Ale House's ground floor.
With this the FHCO's can use sketchup and its ruby scripts to make walls and stairs right on top of the floor plan, simply draw a line ontop of the image and a few clicks, bam, a wall. Stairs are about as easy as well.

You may notice there are no windows on the ground floor, as in The Snapgallows Tells, Hebbies was one of the first structures built, way back when Snapgallows was Haughley, and quite a nicer place to inhabit, despite the roving Scalies. Because of the Scalies, and other Fennish nasties, it was built to be easily defended, no windows on the ground level,an intricate stone grating at ceiling level is the only thing that lets meager light and fresh air in, and finally, a few narrow windows on the second floor. The bar is lit with aromatic oil lamps when needed. All the floors and walls on the first floor are limestone, as is the ceiling, which is why there are large beams and posts,to carry the weight,,and due to the scarcity of wood in West Fentor, the second floor walls are made from a wood similar to bamboo, light and tough.
Truly a safe place when refuge is required, but an exceedingly tough place to fight your way out of, if needed.

During the summer food is prepared in the Summer Kitchen, which sits in the tower at the ground floor level, the food is then served in the Ale Garden and Eatery, which is outside and partially covered. In the bitter winter months food is prepared in the Winter Kitchen, directly below the summer kitchen in the tower, and delivered through the trapdoor beneath the east stairs in the Ale House common room, its then consumed any old place.

The Salon rooms are simple but clean and well appointed for Snapgallows, each has a pulley which will ring its own "noted" bell behind the topboard, summoning a server.
The private meeting/leaf rooms are meagerly furnished, most who use them are not there for comfort. The thick walls and stout doors being what the custom who frequents them are after.
to be cotinued
SeerBlue

I think I have found a way to import tiles from packs offered at a members site, the name escapes me at the moment, into Sketchup and convert them to skm files....once I see if it works, and refind the excellant site I will post (and ask permission to do it).


### Latest WIP ###

here is an update, one of the bonuses of modelling in 3d/sketchup is that the FHCO's identified the glaring errors in my floor plan,,,,only folk under four feet could actually use the stairs with thoomping the rafters. So some things got moved around near the stairs, a compass rose got added as a structure out front,,,,I think it doubles as a sweetwater fountain as well. I think the entrance area got enlarged also, as we didn't have a hall way.
The scale is in work,,,also we figured out how to figure out feet to pixel scale, and will render the final at a good res.
SeerBlue and the FHCO's

### Latest WIP ###

Just pulled this out of my email from the FHCO, it is the beginning of the second floor, the red border is the eaves of the 1st floor roof, I think, and the roof for the tower (Raith loves the roof tool) and the compass rose/fountain is out front....Now they want it to serve as a sun clock thingy,,,name escapes me, which actually won't be that difficult as I know exactly where Snapgallows lies in its world geographically and I can put that info in to sketchup and get correct shadows,,,,though we may have to change the shape of the compass rose they made.
While they are doing this I will finish up Lope's StaffBlade, Raith's Staffblade, and Ol' Horsehair's DogWhomp, which I guess is a long mace like thing that a horseman uses to whomp dogs.
SeerBlue and the FHCO's

### Latest WIP ###

Hey Seer, Wow lots to catch up on. Gotta shoot right now tho but... do you and your powerhouse of carpet orcs have a good (species) name for a big tree - big tall and straight trunk, rare, but found all over Ansium. Most have been chopped down but that there are a few to be found in Thrub region. You have been coming up with some great names of stuff. My next map will be based on that tree - or rather 4 of them. I could try to name it but it wont be half as good as what you come up with

I'll get with them tomorrow on that, Raith will probably come up with something good as he has been learning to draw iso trees, on his own, even....I strongly suspect he reads the tutorials when I am not around.
It will probably be something similar in name to Baobab/baobob???, as that is what he is most interested in at the moment, he gives them all names, my favorite is Waddlebob, named as such as it moves around to get water and it was the same day we conjured up Odduck the Grand and his pet ducks ((lots of things got duck related names that day, from pipe leaf (Rusty Mallard) to some of Hebbie's flavored Tatershine ( Red Pochard), thank Heret's Shadow for Wikipedia)),
You don't see Baowhatsits around here so they have the "very cool" factor. He has given me several drawings to keep of them, and I shall.
I sent you an email concerning tg and the xml files, still have to finish it, when the kids are around Snapgallows' rules the world, you know....
ohh I have been meaning to ask, does Thrubmorton have any type of military/militia force,,,,,Ol' Horsehair needs one to have formerly been a member of, and I was a tol' by Ol' Horsehair himself, "you can't just MAKE up a unit, its gotta be there, or oid be lyin!"

SeerBlue