The Black Company.

First Location - The Abode of Ravens

Alright, for Memories sake, I'll list what I've thought about so far.

At first, I'd just like a pathway going down to it. The map set that you're using for the area has the ability to use those. A cave going into the cliff will be our first stronghold - The Abode of Ravens. Though I'd suggest something different, at first, as to not give away it's meaning.
The interior of the cave, at first, won't be terribly large. It will expand .. a lot. over time. So long as your approval is given.

On entry, a short tunnel leading to a crack in the wall will be good. The crack in the wall should be a transition leading to a .. moderately sized cavern. The inside of the cavern, at first, will be fairly undecorated. Broken crates, maybe something like that. Debris from the castle above.

Along one of the walls or something like that should be either another hole, leading to a sort of pathway. The normal width of a cave interior tunnel. At the end of that could be a giant pile of rubble. An entrance to the castle above would go there, in a week or two. That would give us time to develop. As days go by, and we accumulate the company more there, we can clean the place up. At first, we'll use it as our headquarters.




FUTURE - The Abode of Ravens :

As time goes by, the Company will have eventually have dug out the enterance to the basement of the castle. It reveals the basement of the castle. It would be similar to the area types used in the first, second, and third levels in the stairs in Moria. It won't be too big. It'll lead off to areas similar to the side rooms in Moria. The ones that no orcs really spawn in, but there's the occasional corpse. We'll have a Dwarf by then hopefully, and will set up a Treasury, and barracks, etc. Barracks consist of three rooms. Soldier Quarters, Sergeant Quarters (will come when the company reaches 12 non-officers.) and a Tavern-like area. Will consist of several long tables, and a cooking area. Kegs will be available.

The Castle : There will be a Lab in one of the towers of the castle. Any experimentation done will be done there. The Library will also be there. Sirion, the First Lieutenant, will have his quarters in the tower for direction to all magic-seeking company members. Any expenses for his quarters will be payed for by him, at his request. The rest of the castle will not be used. We don't want to attract attention.

Captains Quarters, and Officers Quarters : The Officers Quarters will consist of single beds. all having the silly divider things for privacy. There will be no fornication of any kind permitted for any members while inside of the Abode. Pregnancy will be tolerated, though any pregnant female soldier of any rank will be given private quarters, and will take no part in combat. (Though Pregnancy, I think, is probably not going to happen, ever.) Their quarters will consist of a wooden table, one single bed, a foot locker, one backed basic wooden chair, and a rug. Furniture will be spartan. The Captains Quarter will consist of one single bed. A strongbox, and a small personal library. A desk, and one of the irish armed chairs from the Pony. A Combat Dummy will consist of the only constant almost humanoid company present in the room, other than the Captain. A locked, and magically secured footlocker in the Captains room will contain membership logs, copies of supply status's, contract copies, political standing notes, personal notes. If possible, later in time, officer and captain personal storage containers could become persistent. When you work out a system for that.

Strategy Room : The strategy room, positioned next to the officers quarters, will consist of a large stone table. For RP's sake, it's part of the floor. If possible, it will be covered in Maps. A bookshelf will be in the room giving logs involving contract copies, supply status's, and political standing notes. There will be no stools present. A small wooden table could be present with bread and water for longer planning sessions.

Treasury/Forge Master/Armory : This room will be introduced last. It'll consist of a sealed mechanical door. If we have a smith master, his quarters will be inside that area. He'll be to the left of the room, and the treasury will be in a room to the right, behind a locked door. Two keys exist for it. One given to the Captain, the other to the First Lieutenant. The room will be organized. It will have one chest. That chest will not be opened, ever, because there will be no key. The Armory will be in the main room. The door entering the section will lead right to it. It will contain several weapon racks, and armor racks. None of these will be able to be opened or anything. They're for show.

Whatever became of the entrance room? : It's still there. It will be fortified. I.E. A door. We'll assume at that point that we've had whatever magic users we have experimenting with the materials in the site. If possible, we should have some kind of wall there. The person will show his/her Company badge, and be allowed entrance. Until then, we'll just have to have the door leading to the basement. Company members will be given keys. Or maybe we could have the Company Badges open them. It's possible that we could get a gate like the one in Moria. A pass code needed. Should we decide on that, a Company Badge will still be needed to get into the Abode. Door to the Basement will require it, or a key to open.


Company Badges! : The Black Company Badge will have to be given by a DM. At first, it'll just be something that takes up one slot. I don't know if there's a one slot item that uses the appearance of a skull. If not, a bird thing will do. At first, it won't really do anything. Not Transferable, not Sellable, etc. A tool to give one to players would handy, but that might come in time. Or not.
Travel Use for the Badges - Horses - Over time, Fehrin will do experiments on the badges. If possible, these can give company members access to a select few safe-houses. These will allow the user to select another safe-house to go to, or any of the Free Alliance stables via horse travel. These will only be in neutral areas. Bree, Tharbad, Laketown.
Travel Use for the Badges - Sea - Eventually, we'll begin to establish ourselves more. At the point that we do, we'll begin making friends. Those friends will plant themselves among the crew of the many ship captains that work for the Free Alliance. On talking with one of these, you'll be given a dialog to show your badge to the crew member (so long as you have a badge). They'll give you the opportunity to travel to any of our water-linked strongholds.

The Abode of Ravens - Saurons' Secret - After a couple (irl) weeks in the Abode, several Company members discover a small beach. This beach is part of the river that leads to the near by city, and leads to the sea, making it a perfect place to land skiffs, small row boats, and the like. They spotted the area on recon, and noticed an overturned rowboat on the beach. They went and inspected it, and found it rotted out, and filled with holes. Spending time on their breaks, they build another boat, more sea worthy, and capable of transporting people to the near by city. The row boat will take them as far as the docks there, before they send it back. After the Captain and Fehrin discover this, they have it inspelled to return with the tide, after its occupant departs. Should a someone wish to return to the area, there's a fishing boat that seems to lack a user, and would be perfect to make it back to the beach. Being property of the local ship captain, she gives the Company use of the boat after several thousand marks happened to find their way onto her bed, a small fire breathing skull, inside a silver circle attatched to the bag. (A makeshift, un-enchanted version of the one Company members use).

Mercantile Relations : Several yokels in the area of the Abode saw an opportunity, and were willing to set up shop in the Abode. They designated one of their apprentices (An apprentice pawn shop owner, an apprentice healer, and an Imp [a gift from Altiar] that sells several curious magical goods. These will allow Company members to sell, buy potions kits and food, and look through a few magical odds and ends for equipment. (Not top end 'LOLOMGLOOKEPICLOOTSLOOLOLOLOL' but medium 10-24 level'd random bits.) At a later point in time, our smith will be able to enlist an apprentice, who might could sell a few items only acquirable by Company Members.


Laketown : After a generous donation, the owner of the tavern in Laketown decided to add a back room. Consisting of a fireplace, a small table, and a four chairs. It will be the official meeting place of those looking to hire the Black Company. Though we have eyes, and ears everywhere, we can't be 100% sure all the time. Messengers will make attempts to find Company Members with a message for the Captain and the First Lieutenant, informing them that work has come available, and that someone has interest. Cost, task, and all other involvement will be discussed in that room. A trap door that'll take us to the Barn in Laketown would be handy, should someone get frisky with a dagger, and decide to invite friends to a beating party for the higher ups of the Company.



While I realize that not all of this will be doable, hopefully we can get some of it done over time.
You know I'm serious about this thing, Tree.
It's been six years.

My life for the Company.

Thanks,


-Deep.

P.S. - If you have any questions/comments/concerns, etc, you already know this'll be where to put 'em. For memories sake. I won't be mentioning any locations of ANY strongholds. Metagaming may be dissapproved, and possibly illegal, but that won't keep some folks from happening to 'wonder onto' the strongholds, and trying to get access to our stores, merchants, members, or anything like that.

Noted

Would love to get the Badges in quickish. A clickie I could use to give them to members would be great.

Concern - Will I be sleeping on the floor until I get my rooms? >>

We'll probably have cots and private little corners of the inner cave set out to ourselves. Something like the little cot thing, and a crate, with a candle and a book. It'll progress to rugs, and then tables, and normal beds, maybe.

I've adjusted the outside area, please look and see what you think. I have not made any new inside areas as of yet. I also have the signets ready.

I think it looks absolutely wonderful.
I had Aule send us over a couple of signets. One for me, one for Sirion(Fehrin). Those also look great. A tool that'd enable me to give them to members would be nice - That way I wouldn't have to go bothering you, Rash, or Aule every time we recruit someone.

I look forward to seeing what the inside'll look like, when it's all said and done. Based on what you've done so far, it ought to be good.


Thanks again.

A rough draft of the temporary insides in is in place. The signets should work as the key. They should also have a unique property. Unfortunately, I can't make them undroppable AND give them to you to pass out. Undroppable means only a dm can give or take them.

I meant like.. A tool. Like the one your DMs get to check players locs, levels, etc. But one that'll create the signet on a PC. If that doesn't work, we can just have the DMs do it.

The rope bridge thingie to get over there is too close to the water - currently, we can't get to it. It's like the flag to Edoras was on the world map, except we can't ghost through.

Maybe instead of a rope bridge thing, you could just add a tile of walkable land, like a sandbar th connect it, might be easier and more useful.

That would also be less obvious from a distance. At the moment, the ropes glow like a beacon like any other 'usable' item. Their presence will attract curious people. Without the ropes, the area has a better chance of staying covert; assuming that's what you want it to be of course.

I'll have to change the landscape in order to add that little spot of connecting land. *laughs* Yes I know that sounds silly, but believe me I tried adding the land first. It was the easier option.

Ah well, you won't hear me complaining, XD maybe while you're there you could connect those 3 little bits of free-floating castle wall? =P

I think I like this outside area better

I think the castle tiles look fine - Though the rope bridge thing is a mite bit of an interesting tool. A transition would be handy. Give the user the option to walk across, then walk back. But be sure that when you do it, you set it on the sand away from the water. Apparently the devs got worried about people getting stuck, so invisible walls will be common near water in that map type. A transition would be simple, not able to be seen from a distance, or even up close, without dragging your mouse over it. The door they'll see, and may inspect, but you can't get into that without having a badge, can you?
We may want to add a script to automatically close the door after whomever opened it goes in. Or give it some sort of timer, in case we have guests. Say, someone who's gained access, but hasn't gotten their badge from a DM yet.

I just checked it out - We can get to it, and it looks great. It's wonderfully disguised. Now we'll just have to work on getting the interior done, adding Black Company NPCs (Guards, and such. Five or Six wouldn't be able to establish a successful mercenary company. They wouldn't interact much, but they'd be similar to armed commoners. People to stand around in the rooms, guards in the entry halls, etc.)

At some point in the future, it might even be possible to give PC's the ability to hire Black Company guards, and henchmen. We'd scale them based on the region. PC's could also have the option of hiring PC's as well, to coordinate attacks, preform attacks, ect. Things that the person wouldn't personally be able to undertake.