Wednesday, April 26, 2006

The Moon Doors of Silverymoon


As humans measure such things, Silverymoon is a surprisingly old city. In its oldest parts (those Northbank streets just west of the Market, and closest to the river), some of the more humble buildings have stood more or less unchanged for almost six centuries -- whereas grander structures are either newer or much added to or rebuilt from their original forms.Most of "old Silverymoon" contained stout log buildings, chinked with mud and banked earth, that had grassed-over roofs. Later, permanent structures of stone replaced the log buildings, and they shared some common features: no windows or only shuttered tall-and-narrow "arrowslit" windows on the windward sides (north and northwest), plus elevated (against snowdrifts in winter) entry doors on south walls as much as possible. One entered up outside stairs that climbed those south walls from the east, into a "snow shield" shoulder-wall on the west that jutted out from the building like a buttress to give some protection against the steps icing, or bitter winds blowing in when the door was being used. Walls were thick, sometimes with an inner and an outer wall with the space between filled with rubble, and roofs were of slate-shingle or tile, steeply pitched to shed snow. Vertical ribs or fins jutting up from the plane of the roof often adorned them (as they do today) so that snow and ice were broken into narrow "chutes" when they fell, rather than huge roof-width masses that can stun or slay beings caught beneath.More modern buildings in Silverymoon often have smooth, undulating roofs that form drain channels and try to sculpt the passing winds, but among the three-story and smaller surviving buildings of old Silverymoon (usually rectangular structures that house shops at street level, with goods cellars below, and one or two floors of living apartments above) are many that share an architectural feature once very popular in the city of Silverymoon: "moon doors."Who bestowed their local name on these miniature doors is anyone's guess, but it's obviously derived from the moon which features so prominently in the city's name and legends. Moon doors have nothing directly to do with moonlight, but they could see quite a lot of use by night; they are hatches or "cat doors" set inside larger, regular (human-sized) doors -- in other words, "a door within a door."Moon doors are obviously a risk to the security of occupants and foods within a house, particularly if they lack the latches or locks common to larger doors -- and in older, more lawless times, this risk might well have been larger than it is today. Yet almost all noncivic or nonreligious buildings in the Gem of the North once boasted moon doors -- and these often possessed ornate rather than discreet features.Moon doors were used for what are still called "drops" in Silverymoon today (deliveries of packages, written messages [including payments, bills, and civic notices], and even fresh milk) as well as pet traffic. Inevitably, as time passed, such "pets" included unwelcome intruding creatures trained and sent by spies and thieves.With the prevalence of both magic and large, beautiful glass windows in the Gem of the North today, forcible entries of small creatures are both possible and more likely than in the smaller, more wary Silverymoon of old. However, the moon door has fallen out of fashion with modern builders, who are more apt to hide a completely separate hatch or mini-door behind entrance-flanking sculpted beasts or pillars, or between columns that protrude from (but aren't separate from) a wall, rather than cutting a small door right through the material of a larger door.Often, illusion spells or clever relief carvings hide moon doors that do exist in recently built structures of Silverymoon, and the doors also likely permit entrance not right into the interior, but into a stone-lined storage cavity that has a second (stoutly locked and bolted or barred) interior door, plus a glass- or mica-covered spyhole, connecting to the inside of the building. Thus, things that come through the door can be examined before admitting them wholly. Also, at the very least, someone can't use a moon door to fire an arrow or crossbow bolt right into the body of someone just inside the door (the old "knock and fire" attack).

By Ed Greenwood

Friday, April 21, 2006

The Cavernous Lake Set Sneak Peek

A first look at the up coming (August, I think) cavernous lake set from DF. I am stoked about the cavernous rivers but this looks incredible. Guess I will have to get a couple of these sets as well. www.dwarvenforge.com/catalogpages/cavernous-water-dragon.gif

The Good Party Begins 4/30

Due to numerous requests we will start the new party earlier than I had planned. The new party begins on Sunday 4/30. As previously stated the party’s base of operations will be Silverymoon which lies north east of Waterdeep near the Spine of the World Mountains. Please design your character history to accommodate this fact. The following is a list of the players and their character choices that I remember.

Billy- Monk
Chris- Cleric
Jon- Fighter or Paladin
Sean- Rogue or Ranger
Dewey- Rogue or Sorcerer
James- ?
John- ?

Ideally Sean and James would pick either Ranger or Rogue and Dewey would be a Sorcerer or Wizard. This would give us no doubled up classes and a really good mix. John if you decide to play why not try a Druid? Dewey as the lone Arcane caster you would really need to spend some time reading the Arcane spells as you would have the ability to solve a lot of problems with your spells. These are just suggestions. I want everyone to play a character that makes them happy.

Please have your characters generated with etools. If you do not have etools then get with me prior to the 30th. Those of you who do not want to use etools are free to copy the etools generated character onto any other medium but I want the initial character generation to be in etools. When you print your character there is an option called dm.xls that I want you to print and bring with you. The character generation method is as follows. Click the “Stats” button on the top left. This brings up a new menu. Choose “Non Standard Point buy" from the “Method” drop down menu. Choose “Tougher” from the “Campaign” drop down menu. Spend your points wherever you like. You will start with Maximum hit points at first level. etools will automatically generate your gold and purchase equipment. Feel free to sell off any or all of the computer purchases and buy whatever you need from the mundane equipment lists though you cannot spend more than the computer generated amount of starting gold. If anyone needs help with etools just give me a call.

Game Sunday 4/23

We are playing this Sunday 4/23 @ 5:30pm. I hope to see everyone here. If your bringing a friend please generate their character prior to game time.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Apocalypse and Oblivion Wants You!

If you are interested in a third edition Dungeons and Dragons game drop me an Email. We are a group of adult gamers that play every Sunday evening from 5:30pm until around midnight. I have been DM'ing Dungeons and Dragons since the early eighties. We use miniatures and I have a large collection of www.dwarvenforge.com terrain so all dungeon settings are 3D. Interested parties should be able to attend most game days. I am not looking for any particular experience level of gamer and would be happy to teach you how to play. Join us!

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Easter Game

We are playing Easter Sunday 4/16 @5:30 if we can get enough players. We need at least 4 players. Please post a comment if you can come.

We need another player or two. If you know someone who is interested feel free to bring them. Generate their character prior to game time.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Game on April 9th, Sunday.

Game on April 9th, Sunday at 5:30. We are closer to getting started at 5:30 with three actual players showing up on time. Perhaps one day…

At several players request I am asking nicely that anyone tempted to argue with myself or another player to refrain. I received three complaints about a player or players being disruptive. I agreed with them and as I consider all of the players my friends I would like for there to be harmony. Please be considerate of the feelings of others. It is not fun listening to pointless arguments and bickering while you could be playing.

At the request of others I ask that you reconsider your method for distributing treasure. People have lives and some people are not able to attend every day. Everyone should get a fair share of the treasure for which they adventured. If we could start playing at 5:30 we could actually stop at 11:00 and distribute prior to everyone’s departure. Alternately we could phone players unable to attend the following game.  Or you guys can come up with another solution. The bottom line is that the current method is unfair.

True Dungeon 2006 Trailer

This looks like a lot of fun. http://youtube.com/watch?v=_BPc4He2Jx8 This is what you will be missing, among other things…