My first sketch map is little to write home about, but it helped at least me to connect some of the geographical data and military info.
My file at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/whitewall/files/Locations/ whitewall-plateau-sketch.jpg
has several place names in a rather ugly pink. These are configurations which had a narrative or strategic reason to be there. I tried to come up with names etc, but all of these (except use of Stu's Grudny's Ginnel) are one-off ideas I might as well not include in future maps.
Are there any fundamental problems with my arrangement of the places? I used the Auroch Hills map and Mitch's picture as my sources, put a roundish hill similar to the Corinthian on the edge of the plateau, and placed other hilltops or valleys more or less at random.
Nick asked for bridges, turrets etc. for a vicious air combat. IMO the fantasy equivalent of diving into the Death Star would be to take the crow flight into Isengart from LOTR part 1 and add aerial combat. Unfortunately, the only fitting underground structures we have right now are the Hidden Stables, possibly some cisterns, and the grain storage pits.
Jeff didn't want to see any active mining nearby, so we'd have to restrict this to natural features.
Ok, some geology bit again (possibly with untranslated German technical terms): Karst landscapes often form dolines: great caves by acid wash-out of the chalk below, and quite often the largest of these cave in and form deep holes in the ground with steep, somewhat overhanging edges, broken debris of the former cave ceilings at the bottom, and tunnels and lesser caves leading off from the holes.
These are natural formations rather than mining activity, and usually there is litte worth to be mined in such areas. The tunnels and caves make excellent hide-outs for beasts, trollkin, chaos critters, rebels, deserters, smugglers, you name it we got it.
The trouble is to get a cave (or more exactly, caved in) complex with sufficient width and height to make an assault by courier moonboats and wyvern riders against flying chariots, individual heroes, sky bulls etc.
I don't think this can be anywhere on or near the plateau, but if we want such a scene, we could place it e.g. on the northeastern flank of the hillback (dreadful working term, that), with an importand obscure place for sacrifice at its heart. Or so the Lunar assaulters are made to believe - ngyah ngyah ngyah!
Bridges or natural ledges don't make much of a difference, do they?
Back to the original topic:
Whitewall Plateau Key
All names and descriptions are mere proposals.
I chickened out and gave only a hint where the castle from Mitch's sketch could be found. Details of the Tor most likely will change with the city map.
I tried to provide places for Lunar fieldworks on hilltops overlooking the area. Scale is yet wide open, and the distance to the Lunar camp might be too short.
Falling Wind Drop: a steep cliff face on the flank of the Hillback, where Helamakt's Falling Wind threw half the cliffside on the watery army. The Falling Wind Bog has grown over most of the debris, but occasional shards of the former hillside still stick out.
Grudny's Grinnel (or another name) is a narrow pathway down from the plateau to the Falling Wind Bog, between the hillock rising above the slope north of the Ammonite Face and the Hillback itself.
Ammonite Face marks the cliff washed free by the advancing waters. It is riddled with fossile spiral shells, which are considered lucky by the Heortlings. It overlooks Broken Wave Valley with the Markdale Trail keeping to the west of its soggy bottom.
Frothy Brook drains a high stretch of bog on the southeastern flank of the Hillback. It runs into Last Drop Pool on the Plateau, where the water enters the underground. Some of it reappears at Helamakt's Drizzle on the southern flank, from where it flows under Tarkalor's Bridge to join the Roadside Brook.
Caughtarrow Ridge is where Helamakt rammed his shield into the ground after it grew too heavy with the missiles and barbs of the attackers. Chalky spines still protude eastwards from the darker rock of the ridge.
Ramsdrift Climb is a steep but manageable access to the Plateau from the east. Huge rocks tumbled down from the hillback force whoever uses this trail to make long detours. Still the shepherds use this flank to drive their herds up or down.
Sestarto's Leap is the hill right opposite the city. It is said that the Artist was so enthusiastic about the Tor that he lept from here right to the site of the citadel. Once he had raised the walls, Sestarto bound the hillock's goddess to Kadone and caused everything passing through the air from here to grow heavier, so that noone would be able to leap into the fortress. When the Lunars found out, they mounted heavy catapults here and relied on the extra weight their missiles gained by this effect.
Enfrew's Cairn is a burial mound where the Kitori fallen from a late and desperate attack on the fort were buried. The cairn was erected as a peace offering to the Kitori who don't burn their dead.
Peatcut Valley is the main source of peat for the hearthfires of the city. The massive peat bog climbs the hillsides here, but several stairs have been cut into it by generations of peat cutters.
(The neutral copse) - I haven't placed this, yet. Suggestions are welcome.
Site of the Lunar Main Camp: A gentle slope overlooking the Roadside Brook offered a good site for the field ziggurat Jorkandros had erected for the siege. The camp sort of grew around it.
Access to the plateau prior to Tarkalor's Bridge: Any ideas, suggestions?
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