2. Battle Gate and Gate House GC2

The Battle Gate's massive timbers clearly once ruled the heights of a lofty forest, for the sturdy beams exceed the height of a man in their girth. Banded together by belts of the blackest iron, hammered in place with spikes the size of a human arm, the weathered wooden surface stands as a mute challenge to any attacker.

And around the Battle Gate, a worthy frame for its fundamental might: The gate house, with its white granite walls now stained with soot and grime, but still bright enough to glare on a sunny day. Together, the gate and its small fortress bar entrance to the Citadel, allowing only those with good reason to pass, and even then only at regularly prescribed times.

The gate is only the first of a series of barriers standing in the way of would-be invaders. All the others are normally standing open, however, to be closed only in the event of actual attack.

The Gates: Each of the double gates towers 40 feet into the air. Each door is 20 feet wide, for a full portal width of 40 feet. The doors are two feet thick and made of hardened roanwood heavily belted with iron. They open outward and, when closed, rest solidly against a heavy stone door frame. A massive timber is supported just above the gate, inside the gate house. In time of crisis it can be lowered by the winch and pulley mechanism that supports it to bar the huge gates.

The Gateway: Even if entry is some how gamed through these gates, an invader is faced almost immediately by their twins located a mere 40 feet into the gate house. These secondary gates are every bit as solid as the first, though normally they stand open.

After these gates is a massive portcullis, made of iron bars as thick as a man's wrist. It is generally raised to allow passage through the gate house, but can be dropped within one minute of the sound ing of an alarm.

Finally comes the third pair of wooden gates, identical to the first two save that they open into the Citadel's courtyard. Thus, even an attacker who surmounts the walls may still find the gate house to be a fortress of resistance.

The gates are always guarded by a standard patrol of the watch, posted directly outside. They have contact through a speaking tube to an elite patrol, posted just inside the gate.

The elite patrol has control over the opening of the gates. They are not opened except at the regularly scheduled times, or for a messenger bearing an emergency pass on the authority of the Lord Mayor, Constable, or Captain General. Those pleading emergency may be able to persuade the watch to make an exception, but this requires a substantial bribe for every watchman currently on duty at the gate.

The Gate House: The gate house is 60 feet high, surrounded by a parapet like that which lines the Citadel wall. Its surface is solid stone and its walls are five feet thick. The only entrances are the two doors leading into the gateway on the ground level, a pair of doors leading onto the top of the wall, and a single trap door leading to the roof from the third floor.

The great rooms to either side of the passage through the gate house can be entered only through doors leading into the gateway itself. These doors, while not as heavy as the gates, nonetheless require the strength of a large man to move them. Iron bars can secure them from the inside.

The pair of steep stainvays climbing to the second level of the gate house from these two rooms are designed for defense from above. The entire length of each stair lies below an open gallery, subject to the missiles, oil, and other nastiness dropped by the garrison.

The second floor of the gate house is divided into three sections, one over the gateway and one over each of the side rooms. The north and south rooms on the second floor are bare except for the stairways leading to the ground level, a door in each exiting onto the top of the Citadel wall, and a door in each leading into the central room of the second floor.

Within that chamber are stored huge kegs of oil, great iron pots, and mounds of charcoal. The floor in the center of the room is slitted with murder holes, allowing the boiling oil to be poured upon intruders below. Also within this central room is a stairway, like the others exposed along its length to fire from above, leading to a third-floor central chamber.

The third floor of the gate house is a single room. It is filled with 120 wooden bunks, long swords and spears, shields, many arrows. and enough food and water to support a company of defenders for three months. In the center of this room a narrow ladder leads to a heavy trapdoor-the only means of entry onto the roof.

GC2: Battle Gate. The Battle Gate is set in a white-granite, 60-foot-high gate house with walls 5 feet thick. The gate’s outer doors are monstrous, each rising 40 feet high, spanning 20 feet, and measuring 2 feet thick, made from an unknown wood banded with iron. The gates have never been replaced and have stood here for centuries. It is highly likely that they are enchanted in some way. Only 40 feet past these outer gates is another identical set of gate doors, usually kept open. Beyond this interior set is a massive portcullis of tron bars, each 4 inches across, which can be lowered in a minute’s time. A third set of double gate doors lies beyond, only 10 feet beyond the second pair, opening outward into the courtyard of the Grand Citadel. Each set of doors can be barred by a huge timber on chains, kept hidden above the doors themselves. As expected, the gate house is supplied with many defenses, from murder holes and huge pots of oil (to be heated and poured on intruders) to spell traps. They are little used these days.

DM's Notes: Zagig Yragerne put a few extra enchantments on these gates in his late madness. A 1% chance exists that a character approaching the gate will trigger a magic mouth on the gate programmed to react to that character. What the magic mouth says and what happens next is up to the DM.