The Guide to Castle Wyndrose
Since Antry himself isn't too sure how the castle works, I've decided to give you the grand tour! Now follow me and please remember to keep your arms and legs in for the entire duration of trip. Fair warning do not wander off, I DO NOT want to have to go looking for someone cause they took a wrong turn and got lost. Oh and let me introduce myself, if you haven't guessed yet, I'm Daniel and I will be your guide for this trip. Alright everyone, follow me please.
Well before we start this little tour I would like to give you a brief explanation on how Castle Wyndrose works. First, to get inside the castle you need to be a member of the Wyndrose family or some who is given special permission by Antryg to enter the castle. In this case, we have a one time use and Cassie can toss us out if she doesn't like what we are doing. Next to move from room to room in the castle you need to know where you want to go. This is very important so please remember it. You must think of the room you want to go to, not so much as picture it as think of its name. In other words if you want to go to the kitchen, think of the kitchen and the castle will do the rest. You'll never have to walk far to get to some place in Castle Wyndrose. Also if you want to have a food, drink, chair, etc you can think of it as well and Cassie will do the rest, you'll always find what you want nearby. Of course, as long as what you want is within reason. Now with that out of the way, lets head to the Main Gate.
Okay everyone please hand your tickets to that young lady over there and we'll get started. What do you mean none of you have tickets? Oh well, no problem, consider it a free tour on me. Well as you can see before you, we are at the main gate to Castle Wyndrose. Now this gate has a fairly interesting story behind it, you see at one point not long ago, there was no gate here. Antry and anyone who lived or visited used magic to get in and out of his castle. Well one day he somehow lost his memory and forgot how he could enter in his castle. Well some kind stranger came and tore a gap in the main wall so he could enter inside, and Cassie being annoyed with such a rude way of making a entrance, made a gateway for all to enter. Well, maybe it wasn't that interesting but I do know that since then Cassie still reminds Antry how much she disliked the stranger tearing through her walls. Now lets move on past the gate so that Cassie can let us inside.
Well this is the first stop for any guest to Castle Wyndrose. Anyone who comes here, stops here first and makes their way through one of the many doors to where ever they want to go. Occasionally Antry summons some directly to the room that he is in but mainly everyone comes here. Think of it as the cross road of where you want to go. Now the only trick with any of this is that if you don't know where you want to go, you prolly will never get there. One other thing to keep in mind, if you are thinking about nothing, that is exactly what the door will open into, nothing, so becareful because limbo is a boring place to be. Now lets move on to the library.
Welcome to Antry's second favorite place in the Castle. Within these walls countless books are stored. Anywhere Antry travelled he got books to bring home, so pratically anything you may want will be here. Even if its from another world. Now while Antry could prolly list off every book on every shelf us sane people would prolly have a hard time so Antry had a large index/catalog system designed to help aid in finding the book you want. Of course, its all based on magic, but that is just how Antryg is. The collection here while vast is only half of what exist in a keep back in Dawn. Spend some time, wander around, you'll notice that no matter how far you walk, you never come to a wall. Although in the further reaches the shelves are empty there is no end to this room or any other room. The only exception is the main room. Well when you are all finished we'll move on to parlor for a drink.
Alright everyone, pull up chair, grab a seat on the couch, plop yourself on a barstool or find a large pillow. This is the main gathering room for get togethers. As you can see family crests, paintings, a fire places and some tables are the main features of this room. Antryg liked to make sure that things were colorful and fun in this room. The bar and the large amounts of seats and the newly aquired sitting pillows and the special magick in the room allow for up to two-hundred people to sit in this space in what feels like a realtively friendly distance. No one is on the outside, no one is sitting on the edge or a corner, everyone just seems there when you turn to look or talk to them. Well everyone grab what ever you want to drink and lets head to Antry's most private place in this castle. Not many have seen it, or even know it really exists, so lets go to his study and see what it is like.
Take a long look around, I doubt many people will see this place again with Antryg around. This is his inner sanctum, his personal retreat from the world. His writing desk and large back chair, with a few book shelves and his own little workshop in the corner are all that is contained in here. Antry has kept this place locked shut for years, Cassie even has hard time finding it. Despite the grandness of the rest of the castle, this room is fairly plain with almost no adornments, just a few pictures of loved ones and close friends, a few memory cubes, and some of his precious books. He keeps little here, just what he finds very precious to him. As you can see the one cube on his desk is a memory of the children that used to live here. His niece and nephew, Erinna and Demarius, and his son and daughter, Calis and Trinity. Welcome to Antryg's private thoughts, in a sense. Now lets quickly move on.
Now this is a room that Antryg himself personally has a strong dislike for. In this room is where all the plans, tactics, and stratergies are drawn up to fight wars. Antryg holds no love for war, he only keeps this room out of necessity. Soon it will be in use once more when he has to fight for Dawn once again. If you take a good look around you see that this room's walls are adorned with maps and only maps. These maps are mainly of Dawn and of certain areas of Rhydin. Their is only two tables in here the large round center table and the only slightly smaller rectangular one off to the side. The center table is used to discuss stratergies with others while the one, off to the left, is normally just used by Antry when he is personally planning some tactic. Otherwise there are just a few shelves holding scrolls and maps and a few books. Now lets move on shall we.
Like most castles, this one was built with the thought of defending it in mind. Inside this rather large room is where Antryg stores all the weapons and armor to defend his home. He used to keep a private detachment here to defend it while he was away, but decided that they would be of better use defending Dawn instead. Weapons, armors and shields of all types can be found with in here. Antryg spared no expense to outfit his guards. Everything in here is finely crafted, and while not personalized it is still very confortable. While not much in here is magical he keeps a few magic items on hand to make his men more efficent. Take a look at the swords and armor in the room, notice those rings attached to them and a smaller ring next to it. Those are Rings of Readiness, so his men can instantly get into any armor and be ready to defend the castle at any time. Those talbards are Talbards of Comfort for the guards who prefered to wear chain mail, they help relieve the weight of the armor. Well now that we've walked for a bit why don't we go to the kitchen and grab a snack.
All right everyone, grab what ever you want to eat and I'll tell you what there is to tell about this kitchen. Well, actually there isn't much to tell. It's designed to be a functional kitchen, very easy for anyone to cook, after all everything was designed so that it is easily within arm's reach. There are some stools for sitting around this table, plunty of sharp knives, pots, pans, and anything else you may need to cook. There is also this small dinner table for when Antry just didn't feel like eating in that huge dinning room alone. Now if you got what you want to eat, lets move on the the dinning room.
Everyone grab a seat, there is enough space for everyone. This is the formal dinning area that Antryg would use to entertain guests and such. It was never used very often, and has lost some of it's former splendor from disuse. Take a good look around and you'll see that this is the more decorated room in the castle. Several landscape paintings of Dawn adorn the walls along with paintings of the various royal figures. Not to mention his family creasts on the shields also adorn the walls with the respective swords crossed behind them. There is the fire place off to the side to heat the room and keep certain foods, mainly soups, warm. After everyone is finished, we'll head to the Tower.
Everyone single file now, this stairway is very narrow, designed that way on purpose. Watch your step and make sure you don't bump against the torches. Now your probably what wondering what is so special that I'm making you climb four stories worth of steps to see. Well at the top of this stairway lies a door; this door is a gateway to Dawn, it's permenate in nature, as of yet, Antryg can't find a way to destroy it. Since he cannot get rid of it, he created this tower to house it. Both the door to the chamber where the gate is and the door at the bottom of the stairs is magically enchanted. The doors can only be open and closed by members of the Wyndrose family line, or me. Otherwise if you are stuck here somehow, you are pretty much stuck till Antryg or another Wyndrose gets you out. Anyways to tell the story, Antryg has always been worried that Exodus might try to come here through that gateway, so he built this tower to house the door and surrounded it with magical wards of all kinds. I guess you could say that Antry is a tad paranoid about Exodus coming here. Now as we finally enter the chamber you'll notice that there is a small weapons rack with pikes and some short swords, a chair and that very large black door set in that rune etched archway with a extreme feeling of dread emanating from it. Antry used to have guards watch this door twenty-four hours a day, six guards on four hour shifts. He stopped worrying after Exodus was supposedly imprisioned by Ashtuya's spirit. Now he still worries, but he no longer has men to guard this door. Now on to that door; as you can see, there are faint runes carved into the door. No one really knows what the runes are, mean, or what exactly they do. Antryg just assumes that they are what makes the gateway work. Although he does have some doubt, since the archway also has runes. Now we best move along the erieness of this place gets to me too. Off to the lowest point in the castle, the basement!
Now I can hear that same question running through all of your heads. "What is so special about a basement?" Well let me tell you. The basement is acutally larger then the castle proper itself. You'll be amazed the amount of junk that Antry has collected down here. I've always joked with Antryg that one of these days he is going to find the remains of a Tarask that got buried under that stuff. I'm not kidding, look around, the basement is at least five miles long and two miles wide. That is not what is amazing though, it is the fact that he is running out of room! Now if you wander though, you'll find various weapons and armor lying around, from ancient to things beyond this time. Over there you'll find some books, of all things, he leaves books down here. You'll also find various clothing, none of which he ever wears or prolly ever will. Just about anything you can imagine can be found in this place, frighteningly enough. Now lets move on to someplace a bit more relaxing an fun. Shall we move on to the game room?
Lets see, anyone up for a game of pool? For those of you who want to, there is a beautiful chess set over there on that table. Checkers is in the corner. For those of you who like puzzles, you'll find the boxes in that cabinet over there. You'll find just about anytime of game. For those of you who want to relax, there are some very comfy couches and hamocks around, not to mention some nice plush chairs to rest in. As you can see the paintings emphasize the mood of this room, colorful and playful. The room has been wood paneled and the window gives a lovely view of the forest. It is a very relaxing room and if you look up you'll notice the ceiling has been flecked with glitter so that it lightly sparkles in the light. As you can see, there are no signs or symbols of fighting inside here. Antryg just wanted to relax and have fun here. Well that is all for the tour this time. I do hope you enjoyed it. We'll add more rooms as they strike me as interesting. I shall lead you back out when you are ready.