Blackstone Bastion
This small black fortress sits off the rocky south western shore of Aleron. A narrow walkway leads down from the cliffs and then back up to the rocky peninsula where the bastion sits. The main tower / keep of the bastion is 5 stories tall, with most of the towers only having two stories with crenellated battlements atop them that haven’t had actual wooden hoardings atop them since the brief succession attempt by Baron Sel’Qune which lead to his remaining forces and house staff to hole up in the keep for three years until finally one of his manservants assassinated him for the chance to finally leave the damp fortifications.
Approaching across the small walkway leads to the peak of the first promontory where a drawbridge can be lowered from the outer courtyard of the bastion itself to cross over. The inner courtyard is home to a small stable, the keep, and four defensive towers.
For the past century, the bastion has been the Bullbelly keep and is home to General Bullbelly and his family staff of gnomes. Passage to the Bastion must be under invite of the general, as traps and wards, as well as a contingency of gnomes protect the path and fortress while he is serving the Marchioness.
Architecture
The ancient castle’s dark stones seem to merge with the ridge it’s built upon. A steep switchback path leads up to it, ending at a narrow bridge flanked by two brooding barbicans. Across the mist-filled chasm looms a gatehouse and a massive keep tower—which rises high above the curtain wall that encloses the ridgetop. Flanking and corner towers along this enclosure claw at the night sky filled with countless large bats.
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