My next example of defenses and fortifications are the Auldet Keep. Auldet is a village/town, depending on when in history you look, that is of my own design. I've posted about Auldet before and a comprehensive history and overview is coming. This post will be a bout the Auldet Keep, and its design and placement.

Auldet keep is a great example of the "new" Oeridian way of organising defense. Instead of spreading out, the Oeridian mantra was to concentrate, invest a lot and build sturdy. The purpose of the keep is to secure the road west from Delard towards Critwall when it passes over a plateau. It is built with clear views in every direction on a steep edge, giving it easy access from the road, and a side safe from assault. Enemies can be seen approaching long before they become a threat.

Aerial threats in the form of dragons are guarded against not by using chains, the keep instead relies on strong construction and small openings with sturdy shutters. For most of its history dragon attacks where seen as a thing of the past and only a secondary consideration.

The keep is visible from Delard a few miles away, so the tradition of being able to communicate and rely on your neighbours are still there but not to the extent the Flan did so. A clear day you can see both Delard and Southkeep from the top of Auldet keep, which might be handy incase of an attack.

The entrance is not located at ground level, you have to ascend a set of stairs  about 15 feet up and pass a drawbridge that can be raised and secured against the wall from the inside. In order to access the door you have to make a sharp left turn , which is to make it much more difficult to use a ram to smash in the door. The first room has an arrow slit in the wall opposite the door, murder holes in the ceiling, and hatches for missiles and spells  in the door leading into the keep.  All in all there are three sturdy doors that have to be dealt with before an attacker have breached the defenses of the keep.

There are no openings at ground level, the first, very narrow, arrow slits appear on the entry level 15 feet up from the ground. No openings on the entry side that can e used by attackers assaulting the door.

The living quarters and defensive needs are mixed up all throughout the design of the keep. This thing was designed to both look and really be well fortified. On the fourth floor the Iuzian clerics who have held the keep for about 15 years have added a new defensive feature kind of unique to the Iuzians. Along the walls there are piles of bones stacked floor to ceiling. This is not to show of their cruelty, this are the bones of the townsfolk and others who they have killed, it is also a weapon to be used against an attacker. The bones can be animated, or bone chain spell can be used, and then the bones can be thrown out the narrow windows forcing an attacker to have to deal with a whole bunch of undead.

The roof is unremarkable with crenelations, a roof that covers the center and the stairs, but no machicolations. Probably two reasons for not using machicolations, cost and keep the top walls as sturdy as possible.

This was a short look at my take of a simple Aerdy keep. Auldet will be present, in full, soon.