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sabra_la_mods) wrote2011-01-15 04:39 am
sabra_la_mods) wrote2011-01-15 04:39 am
Unit Dorms
In General
Every dorm starts out with the same furniture the unit had in the East Block, as well as anything else the unit has made in the interim. In cases where the original items have been damaged or destroyed, new replacements will have been substituted by the time the unit moves in.
In the case of shared dorms, the quantities are doubled, but the form remains the same (e.g. two separate tables that can be placed end to end, instead of one large one)
Bedrooms each have:
۞ A bed with basic bedding
۞ A small dresser that doubles as a nightstand
Kitchens have:
۞ A cooking hearth, complete with a hanging cauldron
۞ A basic cooking set
۞ A wooden counter for food preparation
۞ Six bowls, plates, mugs and sets of utensils
۞ Six single-edged serrated knives
۞ A hand pump over a draining basin that dispenses fresh water
۞ Baskets for food gathering
۞ Several lengths of rope
۞ A few unglazed clay pots of various sizes
Somewhere in the dorm, there is:
۞ A table with six stools
۞ A wooden bench with a back, capable of seating three
۞ A primitive first-aid kit with illustrated instructions
۞ Two chamber pots
Wherever it was requested or logical, indentations have been placed in the walls; whether they be deep enough to serve as shelves on their own, or whether they're smaller supports awaiting wooden planks or rings. It is up to the unit itself to add other storage spaces (e.g. free-standing shelves, chests) and furniture (e.g. chairs, wash tubs and bath tubs, further places to sit) as their skills and/or resources allow.
All dorms are lit with torches and cheerfully decorated in the unit's colours and motifs. There are no windows, and vents are too small to see through, but there may be up to two exits from the dorm to the outside. Each can be securely barred from within. Doors within the dorm have no locks or bars unless Blanks add something of their own volition.
Inscribed on the wall next to the main door is the following message:
"Thou art a Blank slate, unburdened from thy past.
Thou shalt fight in the Judges' games, to reclaim thy past.
Thou shalt honor the rule of the Judges above all else here and know no other patrons.
Who was once thy friends and allies mattereth not to a Blank. Thy unit is thy family here. None other can thou trust.
Thou hast entered this place willingly."
The unit's name is carved on the door itself.
Hydra and Vulpecula: The Skull
High on a ridge overlooking the Rocky Cove is a . . . well, if the angle is right, and the torches bright enough it kind of . . . roughly looks like a stone skull. A giant stone skull.
One that appears to be wearing a hat.
Hydra and Vulpecula's dorm is, if nothing else, distinctive.
The low attic is reachable from an entrance in the top of the hat, though there's no way further down once inside it. A second entrance on the roof leads down to the second floor, which in total holds a common room and eleven of the dorm's twelve bedrooms. While the common room is easily accessible, all other doors on that floor and, in fact, throughout the whole of the dorm blend into the stonework of the walls, and are difficult to find unless one already knows they're there.
Both hidden stairs and a trapdoor in one of the bedrooms lead down to the main floor, which is divided into a blended common area/large kitchen with room enough for a smokehouse, should one be brought, a small bathroom, the last of the dorm's bedrooms and a large, open space with places for soil, and a piano-sized stone circle. There is, oddly enough, also an open compost bin here, one side already half full with decomposing plants.
At some point, one may notice that the smoke from kitchen fires vents out the skull's 'nose', and during the day, torches light the skull's eyes.
Cygnus: The Lotus
Nestled on the higher ground to the southwest of the Rocky Cove is a structure that almost seems delicate at first (and faraway) glance. Like the folded petals of a lotus rising from the water, Cygnus dorm sits half out of the rock, eternally stopped in the moment just before it opens to full bloom.
Wide double doors open to the inside, where a spiral winds its way though the dorm's centre. The main floor is almost entirely open and spacious; a wide common room curves into a kitchen, and that half circles around the tranquil space waiting for a garden at the dorm's centre. Following the curve back out, one finds, not stairs, but a gently curving ramp that circles the edge of the dorm's interior, rising up to the second floor. It's easily wide enough for a careful equine to make her way to the top, and tucked into the wall below its higher points is space for a small pantry, and a room that could serve as a washroom or simply storage.
On the second floor, the space is divided into eight segments, mirroring the eight petal shapes on the dorm exterior. The one at the top of the ramp is a simple hall, leading in to the centre, where three sections on each side are devoted to the dorm's bedrooms. The final section is simply another storage room, though interestingly enough, there seems to be a trapdoor set in the ceiling, with steep, climbable stairs below it — this opens to a brief hall, with the door to the lowest of Pyxis's rooms at its end. A second door in the ceiling leads up to the sheltered centre of Cygnus's roof; a small, quiet patio with views both up to the cliffs behind, and down over the river.
Pyxis: The Treehouse
In the cliffs above Cygnus's dorm, to the southwest of the Rocky Cove, a dorm seems to be almost completely inaccessibly built into the deep crevices in the rocks itself. Well . . . maybe almost inaccessibly. No, wait, if you were to follow that branch up, and turn there, and maybe again . . . there is a foot path leading up, however convoluted or narrow. 'Course, if you have the balls to jump a few gaps, you'll get up a lot faster.
The other alternative would just be to go up through Cygnus, but who takes the easy way?
Either way, once one braves the trip, the dorm up close is just as impressive as it is from below. It has less a sense of architecture than it does of whimsy. Instead of being built all to one level, or even two, each room is a little offset from the rest, following the natural curve of the rock. Looking at it from far away, it almost looks like what would happen if a breeze was blown across the wall, and a dorm built into the impression the wind left behind.
Both the tunnel from Cygnus and the trapdoor up lead to an open common room, the kitchen and attached herb garden overlooking it from half a step up. From there, halls, further trap doors, and short, steep stairways open up into the dorm's six bedrooms. A good hit to an otherwise solid looking stretch of wall will open a secret door to what almost looks like a training room, the ceilings high and spacious.
A single trapdoor leads up onto the roof of the dorm. It doesn't seem to go anywhere else; just up and out, to where the height affords a good view of the river and, depending on the light, the cavern beyond.
Lepus: The Tower
Lepus will find their dorm in the most northern northwest of the Rocky Cove, past a pair of crumbled dorms. It's an imposing structure, a tower at least eight stories high . . . the light from the torches doesn't seem to reach all the way up it, leaving the ledges and eves, and the shapes crouched upon them (stone . . . surely stone, aren't they?) shrouded in darkness.
Inside, the first few floors are dedicated to living spaces; a common room with a table and seating for six, a rather spartan room with a hearth and a water pump that could just as easily be used for surgery as it could a kitchen. Bedrooms fill the top floors, each above the next.
Throughout, the architecture is stylishly Gothic, and you would fully expect to see spiders taking advantage of the stone archways, their webs spanning the tops of pillars and dark corners . . . however, even here, look as you might, there are none to be found.
While there is a spiralling staircase that circles the tower, conveniently tucked behind doors that often look no different than the wall to either side of them, far more interesting is the straight shaft that goes from the top to the bottom. There's no mechanism here, nor platform, but perhaps with some work . . .
Going down the basement level, one finds a room with hollows waiting for fresh soil, a short tunnel, and a brief set of stairs leading up to the real (meaning Monoceros's) kitchen.
Monoceros: The Cottage
Behind Lepus's tower (and almost completely hidden from view unless one manages to get around it) is an . . . actually incredibly normal and fairly charming cottage, tucked safely into the cul-de-sac in the northwest of the Rocky Cove. Beds around the back await soil for a small, neat garden, and some industrious ant has even left a pair of miniature (and much cuter) versions of Lepus's "gargoyles" guarding each side of the front step; one sitting up on its hind legs sniffing the air, the other nosing the ground.
The interior is just as quaint as the exterior. The walls are a warm white, and bared timber supports add to the rustic and homey feel. The kitchen looks like it could comfortably prepare meals for twelve, with room enough to seat just as many, if not the furniture. Another open room on the main floor shares a wall with the kitchen hearth; the fireplace inside it sharing the same chimney.
Stairs lead both down to an underground garden (and from there, into Lepus's tower), and up to a second floor as cheery as the first, with eight bedrooms. A bit of an odd surprise, perhaps, but in addition to the normal furniture, each comes equipped with its own floor-length mirror.
Cepheus: The Book Warehouse
Simple, elegant, and more than a little box-like. The straight lines of Cepheus’ dorm are offset by the rounded masonry surrounding its doors and curling the edges of its roof. Very simple patterns have been carved into the doorframes; otherwise, the work is rather plain and functional.
The entrance room is slightly lower than the rest of the dorm, with a very gentle slope leading up to the kitchen area. A cozy little room that could easily serve as a bathroom has been built into the far side of the kitchen area just as the model dictated, although there are no specific furnishings for it just yet.
A workroom takes up most of the right side of the dorm, with a door into the entryway and a secret trapdoor that leads directly up to Claude’s bedroom. The far half of Cepheus’ dorms is dominated by the large common room. A trap door leads down into the secret tunnel on one side while the other gives way to a set of stairs. Bookshelves line the great room from floor to ceiling, including a set under the stairs — perhaps placed as an apology, since there is no door and no library on that side.
Upstairs, six rooms a smaller room that could serve as a bathroom flank a T-shaped hallway, one of which has a depression for soil built into it. Syaoran’s and Yayoi’s each have a small pile of violet birds (cut out from Librarian’s paper), which can be attached to the walls with a little glue. Otherwise, there's not yet any extra furniture. The roof is quite simple as well -- a large depression for soil and a trough for water, but neither have been filled just yet.
Lacerta: The Hobbit Hole
The new Lacerta dorm is a cozy little place built right into a hill next to Cepheus. Terraces line the outside of the dorm as well as the surrounding bluffs, and while the rock is not fertile all on its own, with the proper transplants the entire outside of the dorm could be green in a few weeks. The entire dorm is very rounded in design, from its doors to the large main room, around which all the rest of the dorm is centered.
The rounded front door opens down into a mudroom, which is a little lower than both the outside and the rest of the dorm. Most of the mudroom opens directly into the main room of the dorm, but there are doors on either side that lead to the kitchen on the left side and the workroom on the right. The kitchen is much larger than the old one, with an oversized water basin. A small pantry separates it from the nearest bedroom, with a small door linking the two.
On the opposite side of the circular dorm is a ventilated workroom. A hole and a ladder built into the side of the wall leads directly to the roof terraces. The ring continues with a set of five more similarly-sized bedrooms, each opening into the main room of the dorm. Near the back of the ring is a pair of small, unfurnished rooms that could serve as a washroom and bathroom.
A small trapdoor leads into a final underground room. While the room itself has not been furnished, there is a raised column where a couch or a bed might go. A second trapdoor leads down into the secret tunnel that connects Lacerta to Cepheus.
Canis: The Dojo
Rugged and yet welcoming at the same time, Canis’ new dorm is a simple affair, especially from an outside view. The walls are plain stone, not even finely cut masonry -- but very solid, the sort of place that can take sustain an earthquake without falling in on itself. A dog statue guards the front entrance as several more peer from various places on the roof. The exact number is not readily apparent, although a careful count reveals one dog for each member (and former member) of Canis, each sculpted with a more deft earth-shaping touch than the average ant.
The main door of the dorm opens into a wide hallway, leading directly to the kitchen area in the back, complete with a pantry under the stairs for more space. Across the way, the surgery room has been built; it’s unfurnished, but there is a raised stone slab that could work in place of a bed, if necessary All it really needs is a curtain.
Perhaps the most dominant feature of the first floor is the dojo, which takes up nearly half of the entire floorplan. Its floor is basic stone, just like the rest, but a small depression with gravel and sand rests in the corner, and can be scattered along the floor for greater traction. One of the many dog statues guards a place where weapons can be set along the wall.
While the bedrooms on the second floor are smaller than they were in the previous dorm, the lesser size is compensated by the inclusion of a balcony (with another guarding dog statue) along the front edge of the building and a large common area in the middle. A small empty bathroom is present on this floor, as well as a ladder that goes directly to the roof garden.
Perhaps most interestingly, the entire dorm looks to be designed to adapt to whatever manner of creature may attempt to walk through it; doors have smaller hinged flaps at the bottom, and wide, easily gripped latches. Even the stairs leading out to the second floor are broad and easily wide enough for foot, hoof or paw.
Ursa: The Paw
Looking from a distance, one might think the hill south of the Rocky Cove had been marked by the foot of some great beast lumbering across the cavern. Closer, and one can see the mark sits a few feet above the rock, rather than within it; a stylized bear's paw worked of rough stone, patches across the surface worn and looking as though they've seen better days.
Inside, the dorm is both cozy and private, a warren of halls and short steps leading up and down to different rooms. The main door is found hidden on the side of the paw, and opens down onto the middle level. Following the halls down, one finds the kitchen first, and the common room after, while taking any of the three small hallways up, one will find first one bedroom, then another higher up that fills out the space within one of the paw's middle three 'toes'.
Wandering across the width of the dorm to where the smallest toe is, one will find a sloped room that looks like it could hold a terraced garden, if one filled the waiting grooves with soil. Here too is a sturdy door that leads to a small, plain tunnel, and to a trap door hidden in a corner of Canis's common room. The other toe, right near the main door, holds the most curious room of all — faded scorch marks cover the walls from floor to ceiling, and piles of dust-covered ash drift across the floor. Under these, and worked right into the stone itself, are hints that the floor was once carved in some intricate geometric pattern; but whatever the whole of the image once was, it's been lost to the passage of time.
Orion: The Pyramid
A perfectly precise step pyramid juts from the northernmost precipice of the Rocky Cove. The building is two floors total, but the entire outer layer has been shaped like a set of stairs.A set of double-wide doors open into the base of the half-pyramid and thus the first floor of the dorm.
The common room forms the hub of the first floor, with a lone bedroom off to one side and a workroom on the other. Said workroom has an angled roof from the pyramid design, but perhaps that isn’t such a bad thing -- the side here is ventilated, making the space easy to work in, and things can be hung from the air slits as necessary.
A small storage area can be found behind the workroom. The kitchen is new and improved as well, with a hand-pump operated sink. On the wall next to the stairs is an indent perfectly shaped to hold a certain precious stretch of wall from the previous dorm.
Bedrooms line the wall of the second floor, with a door amidst them out to the balcony the rooms share — wide enough to provide those on it with a lovely view of the surrounding area, but constructed in a way that there’s still a path up the steps to the garden roof.
Finally, the garden has been constructed according to plan — minus the live cistern, although there is an easily-fillable stone trough that will serve just as well, were it covered.
Cetus: The Shell
On the shore of the small lake just north of the Rocky Cove sits a dorm almost reminiscent of a spread fan, or a great scallop shell. The narrowest part sits well onto dry land, but the bulk looks to have been built right into and over the water itself, the waves gently lapping at its sides. Details of the masonry are worn, but the arched entrance and traces of pillars suggest it was once elegant and welcoming.
Inside, two rooms flank the hallway leading in. One has space for a garden, should there be any who who wish to fill the dusty depressions with fresh soil, and the other . . . is strange, actually. The stone here is cracked and crumbling in places, and clearly older than the rest of the dorm. Curiously, traces of tile along the walls suggest they once held a grand mosaic, but only the barest hints of an image — the curl of a plant, something that might be water, a pattern of scales — still remain.
Following the hallway, one reaches the common room; a long hall that opens up to either side and stretches the width of the dorm. Along the far wall sits the bedrooms, three on each side, and the kitchen in the centre. Narrow stairs along one of the kitchen's walls lead up to a trapdoor and a small, flat area on the roof that overlooks the lake, with a ladder right down to the water carved into the wall of the dorm itself. And, after some exploration, one might also find the trapdoor at the common room's far end, where a short tunnel leads to a similarly hidden trap door in Orion's common room.
Delphinus and Pavo: The Gear
In the centre of the Rugged Cove, so central that it's almost on an island, something that . . . appears to be half of a large stone gear or possibly a turtle juts out from the cliffside. Small ridges could act as foot and handholds up the outside of the gear's 'teeth', but the lines of the building are otherwise clean and smooth.
Inside is a different story entirely. Two double doors lead into a grand foyer, the sloping roof held up by graceful pillared arches. Within one gear tooth is an impression for holding soil; the other two are split into rooms. Possibly unique is that one opens only to the outside, and not to the foyer itself; its wall is formed of glass, so one can see the small firepit and ventilation holes within. The other rooms hold small spaces that could be used as washrooms or storage areas, and a double stairway leads to a small balcony on the upper floor, where two rooms, plain except for the inclusion of a water pump and a vent into the chimney in one fill out the remainder of the space.
The other half of the gear is divided, the personality of the spaces as individual as its occupants. On one side, six bedrooms and a small pantry open into a broad combined kitchen and common area, the pillars and design elements of the foyer perhaps even stronger in this smaller space. On the other, the common area and kitchen are separate, the design of both those and the six bedrooms jutting off of it far more stately and subdued, though the odd element of whimsy seems to have crept in regardless. To the side of the kitchen, in a place perfectly poised to sneak away fallen scraps, a squidrat wheel sits waiting.
Careful examination of the wall between the bedrooms to either side of the divide will reveal a secret door allowing passage from one to the next.
Lynx and Corvus: The Fortress
Near the far west wall of the Rocky Cove sits a small fortress. Rising two stories, it’s austere and utilitarian, lines clean-cut and devoid of any particular architectural style or embellishments.
Inside, the walls are of smooth, finely masoned grey stone, panelled in places with wood holding the faintest sheen of rich plum. The architecture holds a simple, understated elegance that speaks of quality and care. The main floor holds both an oversized kitchen and large common room, a hearth present in each, and the hand pump in the kitchen has been set high enough to allow different basins to be moved underneath, if such were to be constructed. Also present is a smaller room that looks like it could be a pantry, with a hidden door in the back leading to an additional plain room, and a larger room split into another plain room and one that looks like it could be a private wash room, judging from the second hand pump.
The second floor is dominated by twelve bedrooms, three of which are larger than the rest, a door leading outside, and a small, unfurnished room in the center containing both the chimney and a trapdoor with steps up to the highest level of the roof. Outside, the terrace encircling the second floor is lined with indentations awaiting fresh soil. The highest point of the roof is bare saved for a higher, protective wall, and what looks to be a stone flagpole, the grooves inset into it ready to be set with rope.
Every dorm starts out with the same furniture the unit had in the East Block, as well as anything else the unit has made in the interim. In cases where the original items have been damaged or destroyed, new replacements will have been substituted by the time the unit moves in.
In the case of shared dorms, the quantities are doubled, but the form remains the same (e.g. two separate tables that can be placed end to end, instead of one large one)
Bedrooms each have:
۞ A bed with basic bedding
۞ A small dresser that doubles as a nightstand
Kitchens have:
۞ A cooking hearth, complete with a hanging cauldron
۞ A basic cooking set
۞ A wooden counter for food preparation
۞ Six bowls, plates, mugs and sets of utensils
۞ Six single-edged serrated knives
۞ A hand pump over a draining basin that dispenses fresh water
۞ Baskets for food gathering
۞ Several lengths of rope
۞ A few unglazed clay pots of various sizes
Somewhere in the dorm, there is:
۞ A table with six stools
۞ A wooden bench with a back, capable of seating three
۞ A primitive first-aid kit with illustrated instructions
۞ Two chamber pots
Wherever it was requested or logical, indentations have been placed in the walls; whether they be deep enough to serve as shelves on their own, or whether they're smaller supports awaiting wooden planks or rings. It is up to the unit itself to add other storage spaces (e.g. free-standing shelves, chests) and furniture (e.g. chairs, wash tubs and bath tubs, further places to sit) as their skills and/or resources allow.
All dorms are lit with torches and cheerfully decorated in the unit's colours and motifs. There are no windows, and vents are too small to see through, but there may be up to two exits from the dorm to the outside. Each can be securely barred from within. Doors within the dorm have no locks or bars unless Blanks add something of their own volition.
Inscribed on the wall next to the main door is the following message:
"Thou art a Blank slate, unburdened from thy past.
Thou shalt fight in the Judges' games, to reclaim thy past.
Thou shalt honor the rule of the Judges above all else here and know no other patrons.
Who was once thy friends and allies mattereth not to a Blank. Thy unit is thy family here. None other can thou trust.
Thou hast entered this place willingly."
The unit's name is carved on the door itself.
Hydra and Vulpecula: The Skull
High on a ridge overlooking the Rocky Cove is a . . . well, if the angle is right, and the torches bright enough it kind of . . . roughly looks like a stone skull. A giant stone skull.
One that appears to be wearing a hat.
Hydra and Vulpecula's dorm is, if nothing else, distinctive.
The low attic is reachable from an entrance in the top of the hat, though there's no way further down once inside it. A second entrance on the roof leads down to the second floor, which in total holds a common room and eleven of the dorm's twelve bedrooms. While the common room is easily accessible, all other doors on that floor and, in fact, throughout the whole of the dorm blend into the stonework of the walls, and are difficult to find unless one already knows they're there.
Both hidden stairs and a trapdoor in one of the bedrooms lead down to the main floor, which is divided into a blended common area/large kitchen with room enough for a smokehouse, should one be brought, a small bathroom, the last of the dorm's bedrooms and a large, open space with places for soil, and a piano-sized stone circle. There is, oddly enough, also an open compost bin here, one side already half full with decomposing plants.
At some point, one may notice that the smoke from kitchen fires vents out the skull's 'nose', and during the day, torches light the skull's eyes.
Cygnus: The Lotus
Nestled on the higher ground to the southwest of the Rocky Cove is a structure that almost seems delicate at first (and faraway) glance. Like the folded petals of a lotus rising from the water, Cygnus dorm sits half out of the rock, eternally stopped in the moment just before it opens to full bloom.
Wide double doors open to the inside, where a spiral winds its way though the dorm's centre. The main floor is almost entirely open and spacious; a wide common room curves into a kitchen, and that half circles around the tranquil space waiting for a garden at the dorm's centre. Following the curve back out, one finds, not stairs, but a gently curving ramp that circles the edge of the dorm's interior, rising up to the second floor. It's easily wide enough for a careful equine to make her way to the top, and tucked into the wall below its higher points is space for a small pantry, and a room that could serve as a washroom or simply storage.
On the second floor, the space is divided into eight segments, mirroring the eight petal shapes on the dorm exterior. The one at the top of the ramp is a simple hall, leading in to the centre, where three sections on each side are devoted to the dorm's bedrooms. The final section is simply another storage room, though interestingly enough, there seems to be a trapdoor set in the ceiling, with steep, climbable stairs below it — this opens to a brief hall, with the door to the lowest of Pyxis's rooms at its end. A second door in the ceiling leads up to the sheltered centre of Cygnus's roof; a small, quiet patio with views both up to the cliffs behind, and down over the river.
Pyxis: The Treehouse
In the cliffs above Cygnus's dorm, to the southwest of the Rocky Cove, a dorm seems to be almost completely inaccessibly built into the deep crevices in the rocks itself. Well . . . maybe almost inaccessibly. No, wait, if you were to follow that branch up, and turn there, and maybe again . . . there is a foot path leading up, however convoluted or narrow. 'Course, if you have the balls to jump a few gaps, you'll get up a lot faster.
The other alternative would just be to go up through Cygnus, but who takes the easy way?
Either way, once one braves the trip, the dorm up close is just as impressive as it is from below. It has less a sense of architecture than it does of whimsy. Instead of being built all to one level, or even two, each room is a little offset from the rest, following the natural curve of the rock. Looking at it from far away, it almost looks like what would happen if a breeze was blown across the wall, and a dorm built into the impression the wind left behind.
Both the tunnel from Cygnus and the trapdoor up lead to an open common room, the kitchen and attached herb garden overlooking it from half a step up. From there, halls, further trap doors, and short, steep stairways open up into the dorm's six bedrooms. A good hit to an otherwise solid looking stretch of wall will open a secret door to what almost looks like a training room, the ceilings high and spacious.
A single trapdoor leads up onto the roof of the dorm. It doesn't seem to go anywhere else; just up and out, to where the height affords a good view of the river and, depending on the light, the cavern beyond.
Lepus: The Tower
Lepus will find their dorm in the most northern northwest of the Rocky Cove, past a pair of crumbled dorms. It's an imposing structure, a tower at least eight stories high . . . the light from the torches doesn't seem to reach all the way up it, leaving the ledges and eves, and the shapes crouched upon them (stone . . . surely stone, aren't they?) shrouded in darkness.
Inside, the first few floors are dedicated to living spaces; a common room with a table and seating for six, a rather spartan room with a hearth and a water pump that could just as easily be used for surgery as it could a kitchen. Bedrooms fill the top floors, each above the next.
Throughout, the architecture is stylishly Gothic, and you would fully expect to see spiders taking advantage of the stone archways, their webs spanning the tops of pillars and dark corners . . . however, even here, look as you might, there are none to be found.
While there is a spiralling staircase that circles the tower, conveniently tucked behind doors that often look no different than the wall to either side of them, far more interesting is the straight shaft that goes from the top to the bottom. There's no mechanism here, nor platform, but perhaps with some work . . .
Going down the basement level, one finds a room with hollows waiting for fresh soil, a short tunnel, and a brief set of stairs leading up to the real (meaning Monoceros's) kitchen.
Monoceros: The Cottage
Behind Lepus's tower (and almost completely hidden from view unless one manages to get around it) is an . . . actually incredibly normal and fairly charming cottage, tucked safely into the cul-de-sac in the northwest of the Rocky Cove. Beds around the back await soil for a small, neat garden, and some industrious ant has even left a pair of miniature (and much cuter) versions of Lepus's "gargoyles" guarding each side of the front step; one sitting up on its hind legs sniffing the air, the other nosing the ground.
The interior is just as quaint as the exterior. The walls are a warm white, and bared timber supports add to the rustic and homey feel. The kitchen looks like it could comfortably prepare meals for twelve, with room enough to seat just as many, if not the furniture. Another open room on the main floor shares a wall with the kitchen hearth; the fireplace inside it sharing the same chimney.
Stairs lead both down to an underground garden (and from there, into Lepus's tower), and up to a second floor as cheery as the first, with eight bedrooms. A bit of an odd surprise, perhaps, but in addition to the normal furniture, each comes equipped with its own floor-length mirror.
Cepheus: The Book Warehouse
Simple, elegant, and more than a little box-like. The straight lines of Cepheus’ dorm are offset by the rounded masonry surrounding its doors and curling the edges of its roof. Very simple patterns have been carved into the doorframes; otherwise, the work is rather plain and functional.
The entrance room is slightly lower than the rest of the dorm, with a very gentle slope leading up to the kitchen area. A cozy little room that could easily serve as a bathroom has been built into the far side of the kitchen area just as the model dictated, although there are no specific furnishings for it just yet.
A workroom takes up most of the right side of the dorm, with a door into the entryway and a secret trapdoor that leads directly up to Claude’s bedroom. The far half of Cepheus’ dorms is dominated by the large common room. A trap door leads down into the secret tunnel on one side while the other gives way to a set of stairs. Bookshelves line the great room from floor to ceiling, including a set under the stairs — perhaps placed as an apology, since there is no door and no library on that side.
Upstairs, six rooms a smaller room that could serve as a bathroom flank a T-shaped hallway, one of which has a depression for soil built into it. Syaoran’s and Yayoi’s each have a small pile of violet birds (cut out from Librarian’s paper), which can be attached to the walls with a little glue. Otherwise, there's not yet any extra furniture. The roof is quite simple as well -- a large depression for soil and a trough for water, but neither have been filled just yet.
Lacerta: The Hobbit Hole
The new Lacerta dorm is a cozy little place built right into a hill next to Cepheus. Terraces line the outside of the dorm as well as the surrounding bluffs, and while the rock is not fertile all on its own, with the proper transplants the entire outside of the dorm could be green in a few weeks. The entire dorm is very rounded in design, from its doors to the large main room, around which all the rest of the dorm is centered.
The rounded front door opens down into a mudroom, which is a little lower than both the outside and the rest of the dorm. Most of the mudroom opens directly into the main room of the dorm, but there are doors on either side that lead to the kitchen on the left side and the workroom on the right. The kitchen is much larger than the old one, with an oversized water basin. A small pantry separates it from the nearest bedroom, with a small door linking the two.
On the opposite side of the circular dorm is a ventilated workroom. A hole and a ladder built into the side of the wall leads directly to the roof terraces. The ring continues with a set of five more similarly-sized bedrooms, each opening into the main room of the dorm. Near the back of the ring is a pair of small, unfurnished rooms that could serve as a washroom and bathroom.
A small trapdoor leads into a final underground room. While the room itself has not been furnished, there is a raised column where a couch or a bed might go. A second trapdoor leads down into the secret tunnel that connects Lacerta to Cepheus.
Canis: The Dojo
Rugged and yet welcoming at the same time, Canis’ new dorm is a simple affair, especially from an outside view. The walls are plain stone, not even finely cut masonry -- but very solid, the sort of place that can take sustain an earthquake without falling in on itself. A dog statue guards the front entrance as several more peer from various places on the roof. The exact number is not readily apparent, although a careful count reveals one dog for each member (and former member) of Canis, each sculpted with a more deft earth-shaping touch than the average ant.
The main door of the dorm opens into a wide hallway, leading directly to the kitchen area in the back, complete with a pantry under the stairs for more space. Across the way, the surgery room has been built; it’s unfurnished, but there is a raised stone slab that could work in place of a bed, if necessary All it really needs is a curtain.
Perhaps the most dominant feature of the first floor is the dojo, which takes up nearly half of the entire floorplan. Its floor is basic stone, just like the rest, but a small depression with gravel and sand rests in the corner, and can be scattered along the floor for greater traction. One of the many dog statues guards a place where weapons can be set along the wall.
While the bedrooms on the second floor are smaller than they were in the previous dorm, the lesser size is compensated by the inclusion of a balcony (with another guarding dog statue) along the front edge of the building and a large common area in the middle. A small empty bathroom is present on this floor, as well as a ladder that goes directly to the roof garden.
Perhaps most interestingly, the entire dorm looks to be designed to adapt to whatever manner of creature may attempt to walk through it; doors have smaller hinged flaps at the bottom, and wide, easily gripped latches. Even the stairs leading out to the second floor are broad and easily wide enough for foot, hoof or paw.
Ursa: The Paw
Looking from a distance, one might think the hill south of the Rocky Cove had been marked by the foot of some great beast lumbering across the cavern. Closer, and one can see the mark sits a few feet above the rock, rather than within it; a stylized bear's paw worked of rough stone, patches across the surface worn and looking as though they've seen better days.
Inside, the dorm is both cozy and private, a warren of halls and short steps leading up and down to different rooms. The main door is found hidden on the side of the paw, and opens down onto the middle level. Following the halls down, one finds the kitchen first, and the common room after, while taking any of the three small hallways up, one will find first one bedroom, then another higher up that fills out the space within one of the paw's middle three 'toes'.
Wandering across the width of the dorm to where the smallest toe is, one will find a sloped room that looks like it could hold a terraced garden, if one filled the waiting grooves with soil. Here too is a sturdy door that leads to a small, plain tunnel, and to a trap door hidden in a corner of Canis's common room. The other toe, right near the main door, holds the most curious room of all — faded scorch marks cover the walls from floor to ceiling, and piles of dust-covered ash drift across the floor. Under these, and worked right into the stone itself, are hints that the floor was once carved in some intricate geometric pattern; but whatever the whole of the image once was, it's been lost to the passage of time.
Orion: The Pyramid
A perfectly precise step pyramid juts from the northernmost precipice of the Rocky Cove. The building is two floors total, but the entire outer layer has been shaped like a set of stairs.A set of double-wide doors open into the base of the half-pyramid and thus the first floor of the dorm.
The common room forms the hub of the first floor, with a lone bedroom off to one side and a workroom on the other. Said workroom has an angled roof from the pyramid design, but perhaps that isn’t such a bad thing -- the side here is ventilated, making the space easy to work in, and things can be hung from the air slits as necessary.
A small storage area can be found behind the workroom. The kitchen is new and improved as well, with a hand-pump operated sink. On the wall next to the stairs is an indent perfectly shaped to hold a certain precious stretch of wall from the previous dorm.
Bedrooms line the wall of the second floor, with a door amidst them out to the balcony the rooms share — wide enough to provide those on it with a lovely view of the surrounding area, but constructed in a way that there’s still a path up the steps to the garden roof.
Finally, the garden has been constructed according to plan — minus the live cistern, although there is an easily-fillable stone trough that will serve just as well, were it covered.
Cetus: The Shell
On the shore of the small lake just north of the Rocky Cove sits a dorm almost reminiscent of a spread fan, or a great scallop shell. The narrowest part sits well onto dry land, but the bulk looks to have been built right into and over the water itself, the waves gently lapping at its sides. Details of the masonry are worn, but the arched entrance and traces of pillars suggest it was once elegant and welcoming.
Inside, two rooms flank the hallway leading in. One has space for a garden, should there be any who who wish to fill the dusty depressions with fresh soil, and the other . . . is strange, actually. The stone here is cracked and crumbling in places, and clearly older than the rest of the dorm. Curiously, traces of tile along the walls suggest they once held a grand mosaic, but only the barest hints of an image — the curl of a plant, something that might be water, a pattern of scales — still remain.
Following the hallway, one reaches the common room; a long hall that opens up to either side and stretches the width of the dorm. Along the far wall sits the bedrooms, three on each side, and the kitchen in the centre. Narrow stairs along one of the kitchen's walls lead up to a trapdoor and a small, flat area on the roof that overlooks the lake, with a ladder right down to the water carved into the wall of the dorm itself. And, after some exploration, one might also find the trapdoor at the common room's far end, where a short tunnel leads to a similarly hidden trap door in Orion's common room.
Delphinus and Pavo: The Gear
In the centre of the Rugged Cove, so central that it's almost on an island, something that . . . appears to be half of a large stone gear or possibly a turtle juts out from the cliffside. Small ridges could act as foot and handholds up the outside of the gear's 'teeth', but the lines of the building are otherwise clean and smooth.
Inside is a different story entirely. Two double doors lead into a grand foyer, the sloping roof held up by graceful pillared arches. Within one gear tooth is an impression for holding soil; the other two are split into rooms. Possibly unique is that one opens only to the outside, and not to the foyer itself; its wall is formed of glass, so one can see the small firepit and ventilation holes within. The other rooms hold small spaces that could be used as washrooms or storage areas, and a double stairway leads to a small balcony on the upper floor, where two rooms, plain except for the inclusion of a water pump and a vent into the chimney in one fill out the remainder of the space.
The other half of the gear is divided, the personality of the spaces as individual as its occupants. On one side, six bedrooms and a small pantry open into a broad combined kitchen and common area, the pillars and design elements of the foyer perhaps even stronger in this smaller space. On the other, the common area and kitchen are separate, the design of both those and the six bedrooms jutting off of it far more stately and subdued, though the odd element of whimsy seems to have crept in regardless. To the side of the kitchen, in a place perfectly poised to sneak away fallen scraps, a squidrat wheel sits waiting.
Careful examination of the wall between the bedrooms to either side of the divide will reveal a secret door allowing passage from one to the next.
Lynx and Corvus: The Fortress
Near the far west wall of the Rocky Cove sits a small fortress. Rising two stories, it’s austere and utilitarian, lines clean-cut and devoid of any particular architectural style or embellishments.
Inside, the walls are of smooth, finely masoned grey stone, panelled in places with wood holding the faintest sheen of rich plum. The architecture holds a simple, understated elegance that speaks of quality and care. The main floor holds both an oversized kitchen and large common room, a hearth present in each, and the hand pump in the kitchen has been set high enough to allow different basins to be moved underneath, if such were to be constructed. Also present is a smaller room that looks like it could be a pantry, with a hidden door in the back leading to an additional plain room, and a larger room split into another plain room and one that looks like it could be a private wash room, judging from the second hand pump.
The second floor is dominated by twelve bedrooms, three of which are larger than the rest, a door leading outside, and a small, unfurnished room in the center containing both the chimney and a trapdoor with steps up to the highest level of the roof. Outside, the terrace encircling the second floor is lined with indentations awaiting fresh soil. The highest point of the roof is bare saved for a higher, protective wall, and what looks to be a stone flagpole, the grooves inset into it ready to be set with rope.