The Garden Palace (Patreon)

There are borderlands where fortified structures are the norm for those with riches and influence. Where civilization isn't strong, and the law can't be trusted to keep you safe. In these places instead of manor houses and mansions, those who have the means instead build fortifications and bunkers.

The Garden Palace is such a structure - a squat chunk of black stone with a pair of windowed domes on the roof. The domes let in enough light to maintain a small garden within the structure - providing a place for the songbirds that the owner collects as well as a small pond to relax in while listening to them.

The Garden Palace is currently occupied by the smuggler and trader Morgolant the Blue - a half-elf well known for his laziness and decadence (a masquerade he maintains to keep his opponents and trading partners in the dark as much as possible, although those close to him usually suspect it is the case because of both his business acuity and his strict control of the smuggling routes in his purview). He conducts most of his business in the chambers beyond the gardens (with more trusted or interesting business sometimes taking place in the garden itself), thus offering him the chance to always show off his prizes to those he deals with.

Both statues, however, long predate Morgolant's occupation of the structure and are very old and worn representations of lean and powerful elves of extra-planar origin (based on their elongated heads and six-fingered hands). Other architectural flourishes such as the bas-reliefs on the columns in the main hall also indicate that this structure (or at least parts of it) is much older than the current resident and probably dates back to the era of the elven empire.

Thanks to your awesome support, you can download the map of the Garden Palace at 300dpi for your own use (personal or commercial) from the blog post at http://wp.me/psUVp-2nA