November/December 2015 Challenge: Helvenblade House
xpian's challenge:
HELVENBLADE HOUSE -- A manorial estate and seat of the Countess
1) Construction on the first Helvenblade House was begun many centuries ago when it was a frontier holding for a reckless knight. Since then, the structure has expanded and strengthened as the status of its lord or lady has risen. For a time, it was the seat of a small barony. Now it is the residence of a countess who claims noble dominion over the lands for many leagues in every direction.
2) The House lies atop a hill, yet is not so fortified that one could ever call it a castle. It sprawls over the hilltop, its wings enclosing a central space where horses and carriages can rest for a time. It is a largely self-sustaining endeavor, without the need for a proper town to surround it.
3) The grounds of the estate may have many points of interest. Perhaps there are architectural follies. Maybe a hedge maze. Certainly gardens, some purely functional and others perhaps decorative. Is there a fountain? A field used for jousting contests? Shacks and sheds for various workers, like woodworkers, blacksmiths, thatchers, and leatherworkers? The weaving is probably done inside the manor house itself, along with the cooking…
4) The estate is some 15 miles from the small town of Westbridge, which is at the center of a farming community to the south east.
5) The dark and forbidding Kryptgarden forest comes quite close to the estate, stretching away west and southwest from the House. Lumber is taken from the forest by men of the estate, and the countess’s warriors make armed forays into the woods to beat back trolls and other dangers.
6) To the north are foothills, and northwest lie the eastern reaches of the Sword Mountains, tall and craggy, with snow-capped peaks lasting sometimes into the summer.
7) East of Helvenblade House are rolling grasslands that stretch 10 miles to the Long Road, the great inland caravan path that stretches from Waterdeep in the south to Mirabar in the far north in this region of Toril, in the Forgotten Realms.
Perhaps you will map the House on its hill. Perhaps you’ll take a broader view and map the estate grounds, showing less detail on the manor itself. Perhaps you’ll map out the surrounding lands, showing how the region of the estate fits into the landscape of the Dessarin Valley.
You can see Mike Schley’s depiction of the Dessarin Valley, with Helvenblade House marked with an “x”, in this map on his site: http://mikeschley.zenfolio.com/p5818...B7B4#h1c53b7b4 (I'm perfectly fine with you using it as a jumping-off point, but also perfectly fine with you not using it and just going by your own ideas.)
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This one has been difficult, to say the least. A lot more than I really wanted but ... anyway. I'm having trouble piecing it all together but I've done a bunch of research and sketches and most of it doesn't really work. I am still trying things to make it work but my art pen has stopped working again at the moment. So, just to put something more than nothing up before I restart my computer and mess with pen drivers, here's some aged paper for free use, and a few of the sketches that I'm working from trying to put together a cohesive map (obviously not all of them are part of the final plan, but people keep asking me to put up sketches and I can't yet show a finished product so there they are).
(Preview 50% - Full Size on Google Drive)
### Latest WIP ###
