The Stonestead is a broch. They’re a real thing and there are a bunch of them in Scotland. I drew this particular broch for the island of Tir Thelandira, whose wood elf inhabitants have a distinctly Celtic-flavored culture.
The Stonestead is the elves’ first foray into large-scale stone construction. Built to defend a gap between the northern and southern parts of their forest, it’s meant to ensure that, should the Dhasran colonists or their mercenaries decide to march on the elven lands, they have to either fight their way through the fort or venture into the woods, where they’ll be easy prey for elven archers and ambushers. Neither option is great– but, of course, that’s the idea.
I’ve received quite a few proposals for new locations for Tir Thelandira. If you’re a patron who’s got an idea you’d like me to add to the ballot, you’ve still got time to shoot me a message. Just to recap, the proposals are for either the location marked “1” on this map OR the swamp to the east of Oakenhold. I’ll be posting the first vote in a few days.
Next up is an East Asian-style village built into a cliffside. This picture should give you an idea of the sort of thing I’ll be drawing. Personally, I think that’s nuts. I mean, how is that a real place? What happened there? I don’t know, but I’m glad it did. Because that’s awesome.
My friend and I have a stone dragon character, I could see him living here pretty comfortably.
I think the lack of windows would appeal to a dragon. Only one entrance to have to worry about people trying to sneak in through.
Not wrong. Though this one’s more like a friendly grandpa
No chimney, thatch roof, open fireplace.
If I understand correctly, this is both historical and the source of many many roof fires.
Invaders, if they have anyone skilled in seigecraft, will probably open any assault with fire arrows to the roof as a distraction.
Fire arrows are kind of ahistorical
So here’s what I know about thatched roofs. I lived in Japan for a few years and there’s a mountain village called Gokayama where the houses still mostly have thatched roofs. It’s a tourist attraction today and, if you go there, you’ll see that they have sprinklers that periodically spray the roofs so they don’t catch fire.
I currently live in Ireland and there are a few places here where you’ll see a lot of thatched roofs as well, like Kilmore Quay. But in Ireland, they don’t use sprinklers to keep the roofs wet. Why? Because Irish weather does a really good job of that.
And, since today’s Irish weather is tomorrow’s Scottish weather, I’d say their roofs tend to be pretty damp more often than not too.
Of course, maybe the smoke dries out the thatch? I don’t know. Scottish people did build quite a few of these things, so I guess they were working out for the most part, right?
Huh? Flaming arrows as anti-personnel are ahistorical, but they *were* used in siege warfare, especially if there were especially flammable parts of the besieged area (like thatch).
A siege engine with flaming ammo would be better, or course, if the attackers have access.
In any case, “ahistorical” shouldn’t matter too much in a DnD game.
I want to be clear that I don’t think thatch is a worldbuilding mistake here. These folk have never built a stone fort before. Being politically united forest folk, they probably have a big taboo about uncontrolled fire and don’t have experience with fire in warfare. (Bonus points if there’s a bear-god of forest fire prevention.) They may even just assume all good rooves are thatch, having little need for anything else. So when they made a big stone tower as a fortification (like they heard from travelers that the mainlanders use) they just put a roof on it.
But. DnD-era (iron age thru early rennaissance) siege warfare exploits fire. (And DnD magic makes long range fire even easier.)
So most fortifications made by folks with experience are as non-flammable as possible. Thatch is not near as flammable as a haystack, but it burns. The invaders will know this. Fire arrows, flaming pitch from catapults, fire spells, are all on the table.
So if the players are on the elf side of things they get to deal with a simultaneous wall assault and roof fire, and if they’re team invader they’re assigned to burn a roof that looks like a weak point to their commander – but the elves have experience protecting with fire retardant spells etc.