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Post by Noa on Sept 12, 2020 12:58:20 GMT -6
On the edge of the city, near the outer limits of what was considered habitable land, are a series of wide, rambling properties. Most of these are overgrown, given over to neglect due to their inconvenient location; or else the efforts of beating back the encroaching wilds from acres upon acres of land had become too much for the halfhearted owners and tenants. Many lots lay unoccupied, the boundaries between them marked haphazardly with crooked fences and crumbling walls, if at all.
In the midst of so much decay, the stone and wrought iron gates of one estate appear positively pristine in comparison, though subtler signs of weathering are there if one knows where to look. Still, the steel plate embedded into the marble is legible, and the name of the property is volunteered in finely-carved cursive: Gracehaven.
On the opposite side, a different plate beside the gate spells out a more ominous portent: Beware of dragons.
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Post by Noa on Sept 12, 2020 13:06:00 GMT -6
The Estate
It had been a very fine house once, some ten or fifteen years ago. There are those who might say it is a fine house still. But a dark air hangs over it now, the gardens neglected and overgrown, the house itself worn and weathered with disrepair.
Inside, the chambers are echoing, empty. Dust lays a thin film over the old grandeur, and moth-eaten curtains frame high dramatic windows frosted with cobwebs.
Beyond the foyer, beyond the ballroom, beyond dining halls and sitting rooms and studies, is a heavy door leading into the tower situated at the very back of the house.
Here, Noa makes his home.
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Post by Noa on Sept 12, 2020 13:06:17 GMT -6
The Basement
An impossibly long staircase spirals down from the tower's base, into the depths below. The steps are lined on either side by a gallery of faintly glowing magic pods. Within them, things can be glimpsed - beasts and monsters, fast asleep.
At the end of it is a long hallway full of doors. The air is chill, the space is silent, the walls austere. Behind the nearest door is a magical laboratory of sorts, hidden behind lock and key.
As for what lies beyond the other doors, past even more forbidding locks and wards... Only the master of the estate is privy to such secrets, and some remain unknown even to him. Perhaps they are best left that way.
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Post by Noa on Sept 12, 2020 13:06:44 GMT -6
The Woods
Only a fool would try to maintain more than the amount of space they need in a place like this, and the master of Gracehaven is no fool. Not long past the manicured gardens, the grounds rapidly deteriorate back into the lawless near-wilderness that characterize the surrounding area. The wall is the only thing maintained in all this, and even then only to the extent that it remains serviceable; if sections of it are taken over by ivy and the like, so be it, so long as the stonework beneath is still sound.
But a place need not be managed to be beautiful, nor even to be useful. In the wide acres of ungoverned land are shaded woods and flowering meadows; lively streams that feed into the lake; and if one is determined, there are little hiking trails winding through the whole of it so that even a human might explore if they wished. Alive with birdsong in the spring, lush in the summer, vivid in autumn and solemn in winter, the surrounding wilderness insulates the residence from the disturbance of the outer world.
And because it is untended, there is no obligation to clean up the occasional bout of destruction. If nothing else, the grounds make a good training site for large, unruly beasts, and here and there one might find some tree or trench marked with the scars of such practice.
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Post by Noa on Sept 12, 2020 13:06:55 GMT -6
The Lake
Description forthcoming
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