The second level of the abbey is done and there’s some interesting stuff here. The room near the bottom-left with the four pillars is an ossuary. The big thing in the middle is called a “treadwheel” and it’s meant for hauling stuff up a ramp into the abbey. It’s turned by people walking inside it like big, hairless hamsters. Yeah, I know. Fun.
The big chamber near the center that looks like a hand giving the middle finger is the “Crypt of the Great Pillars.” The two small rooms with no doors above and below it are cisterns. This place actually has four. Religion is thirsty work.
The room the middle finger is pointing to is an ecclesiastical court. Then above that, past the gardens, is the Hall of Guests (“Salle des Hôtes”), a big chamber meant for hosting nobility and other distinguished guests. The other big chamber on the left is the scriptorium, where the monks worked to copy books.
I was thinking about drawing these last two rooms furnished, but I decided against it. My reasoning for it was that this map is for D&D purposes and, as a DM, if I’m having some kind of big encounter or battle, that’s probably where it’s going down. And because of that, I felt like I should leave the rooms flexible. No one wants to be tripping over a bunch of desks while they’re trying to stop the High Priest of Whatever from summoning the lord of darkness.
I’ll be back with the third and final floor of the abbey. Unfortunately, the winding-underground-tunnels portion of the adventure is over, but there’s still some interesting stuff left to explore.