The Guild Hall

[Krell]

This initial post will be a brief description of an idea that was hashed out in the OOC earlier today. This part of the thread will be OOC, but the intention will be that once it is open and ready, hopefully each of us will post an In Character response. This will become clearer as I explain this post more.

First off, this is a WONDERFUL example of how a simple comment in guildchat or OOC channel can evolve into a full fledged RP opportunity. Many of us were chatting about the Guild Hall and what it might look like. This conversation evolved into everyone giving their thoughts and what they pictured, and developed from there to an idea where we post a "generic" snapshot of what the Hall looks like, and then allowing each individual member to then post information on the area they call their own.

Much of our RP that happens in Guild Chat takes place in the Hall, and we felt it very appropriate to give this place an identity. Those people that were chatting about this were (if I can remember everyone, sorry if I drop a name but I think someone has a chat log that they can verify with) Shantow, Coranda, Skrap, Krinar, Dreadsinger, Pyanfar, and Raknaroth.

The conversation was very fun and at times animated, but it boiled down to a few points. First of all, we thought the Guild Hall would be located somewhere in the hills between the Barrens and Mulgore. This would allow for a semi defensable position if needed, and plenty of nooks and crannies to defend/lookout from. In fact, I beleive that Dreadsinger went out scoping the area while we were chatting and found a sufficient setting for it. I believe he will be posting screenshots.

As far as what it might look like, all I feel we should post initially is a somewhat vanilla idea of what it would look like. Initially, the founding members of the Tribe would have constructed this building as a gathering place, and as the Tribe grew we would have constructed many additions to it. The central room would be quite large, including several tables, benches and chairs, as well a fully-functional kitchen and firepit. There would also most likely be areas where certain Tribe members have carved out to call their own. There would also be a hallway that led out of the room which connected to several private quarters/rooms that Tribe members have acquired and call home. There would be multiple work areas, and probably a stable somewhere for all of Anca's pets. (hehe) Most likely, our magic users have now copied the portals in Shattrath and Dalaran and we are able to travel to and from the Guild Hall easily.

This is obviously a work in progress, but I think a very important one. Each of us has the opportunity to take part in this and make it their own. The only thing I would ask that you all keep in mind is to keep your area realistic. Also, only post input on your area, so that we can let each member describe their own.

What I would love to see is the next 2 posts to be from Coranda and Dreadsinger who have the jobs of posting the more completed summary of the Guild Hall as we saw it, and the location of it. After those posts are completed we encourage everyone to post their "spaces" and what they would look like.

Kudos to everyone involved! This was a wonderful thought process!

[Guest]

You can just pretend there's a floor plan and some nifty stuff here. It'll happen soon, I promise!

Edit: I've attached the first draft of the IST guildhall layout, minus all the personal details from the thread. Those will be added in later detailed plans, once people have gotten clear on what they want!

Sorry for the quality, but that's the best I could get out of Word on short notice. (Yes, I use MS word as a vector designer. I figure if it could make that picture of Tor, it's good enough for drafts of floor plans.)

[Noodlemortis]

I just hope some big dragon doesn't come by and rip a gaping chasm right through the middle of your cozy little guild hall... not that that would ever happen.

[Melikar]

I just hope some big dragon doesn't come by and rip a gaping chasm right through the middle of your cozy little guild hall... not that that would ever happen.

Course not, are you crazy?

As for the idea, I enjoy it. I always thought our guild hall to be a building located in Orgrimmar, but the idea of having one out in the open isn't too bad either. I always imagined for there to be a big fire place surrounded by many tables and benches, a few big book cases along the walls, and some nicer chairs (well, as nice as you can get among Horde standards) sitting around. And of course, the totem standing tall in another corner of the room, various medals, and marks of victorious battle surrounding it.

I'm sure there would have to be more, but my brain isn't working right. :p

[Zlinka]

What a great idea! I look forward to the general descriptions and will start thinking about what my own area looks like.

*Happily sits back to think and dream*

-Z

[Guest]

Here we go. I found this place looking for a moot one night, and it seemed appropriate.



Handily enough, those two small mounds atop the plateau do a nice job of standing in for a Guild Hall.

The shot is from a way off, but it seems perfect. If anyone wants the whole album, drop me a PM and I'll link you to it happily.

[Guest]

Attached: The conversation that started it all

It's long, so I'm pulling out some of the highlights.

• • [Skrap]: I've kinda played ic like Skrap has a mini-workshop set up for herself in the rafters, kinda a tree-fort style thing.
  • [Toranda]: *laughs* have a really clear image of the way it's laid out, but of course, that's just me.
  [Toranda]: A big open hall with tables and chairs of all sorts, with Wakamito's forge just outside on the leftt of the front door. Tor usually sets herself up in the middle on the right, with tables arranged around haphazardly.
  [Shantow]: with a large firepit, and a cooking station
  [Toranda]: Lurie's area is in the back left corner, with his spiders and books and whatnot, above the rocking chair and near a small fire. There are doors in a semi-circle in the back, one of which leads to Dispaya's laboratory, and many of which lead to sleeping quarters, labs, and personal rooms. If you go out the back door on the left, there's the combat courtyard, and the entrance to the labyrinth. There are windows all along the left side, and a hallway going down the right to more personal rooms and the big kitchen.
  • [Shantow]: and an elegant, elaborate meeting room tucked down a hallway, where the officers meet and discuss tribal activities. Like, who to boot next!
  • [Raknaroth]: need giant doors for Umu
  • [Shantow]: most likely....the initial room was constructed by the founding members, and as the tribe grew in numbers, we constructed additions[/list:u]

[Guest]

Attached: The conversation that started it all

It's long, so I'm pulling out some of the highlights.

• • [Skrap]: I've kinda played ic like Skrap has a mini-workshop set up for herself in the rafters, kinda a tree-fort style thing.[/list:u]

Heh, well, for the personal areas, that's the quick sum up for me. ^_^ I've played it as Skrap's set up an area in the rafters of the main hall, off to the side, making a mini-second floor for herself with a Skrap-sized workbench, sleeping roll, and engineering parts and half-finished projects messing it up like a teenager's room. It's not a big area, maybe six feet square at most.

[Melikar]

I actually like the floor plan that Cora laid out. I'll have to see what Melikar, Kardwel, Sentei and Sanidi have for their own spaces.

[Dentik]

Maurnan, could you show me where that is exactly one of these days? If it's accessible it could be a regular moot location for us.

[Guest]

Absolutely. I have it's location marked on the map. Grab me sometime and I'll show you.

[Dispaya]

Dispaya's New Sanctum

Dispaya's former crypt was sacked at the battle for Undercity and was never repaired. This never bothered her as she never really considered returning to Undercity anyway. It seems many of the City Elders have grown to distrust her due to her now family ties with Sen'jin village. She is now equally suspicious of them after the turn of events at the Wrathgate. Living in Undercity, to her, was like living in the lion's den.

After the Horde retook Undercity, Dispaya spent considerable time away and kept a small apartment in Dalaran up until the events of "Matter of Time," The Zeppelin Crash, and her time away in Outland. Upon returning she showed up at the guild hall one day with a large group of Goblin workers and engineers who set about creating her new Sanctum. They were led by her dear friend Skrap.

To visit her quarters one need only take the small elevator located behind the bookcase in the main hall. It will take you down almost 300 feet where it stops at a small alcove. From there you step through a large double door, and continue down the hall to a heavy Iron panel that rises as you approach. Beyond that is a sliding metal gate that opens to reveal a single lone doorway at the end of the hall. The door seems innocent enough, but be careful because if you touch that door, the metal gate slams shut and the entire hall erupts in a huge fireball that incinerates anyone in the hallway. This handy trap created by Skrap is known as an "Anti-Scourge Incinerator Recepticle."

You will be much better served to open the secret door on the left wall and ring the bell. Behind that doorway you will find Dispaya's New Sanctum.

The doorway out of this chamber leads to a small parlor with several comfy furnishings. Dispaya's Specral scrying crystal sits comfortably on a small red pillow next to a skull candle holder. Tapestries line the walls.

On the facing wall is a large fireplace lit by magical flames. Above it rests a simple longsword which is the mageblade once given to her by her adopted Father Sreng'jin Skullclaimer. This wall is also decorated with many pictures of Dispaya and her friends. Some are drawn, some painted and some taken by goblin camera. The pictures from left to right are as follows:

1- Oryx, Zlinka, Zora and Luna wearing Holiday hats
2- Drak, Dispaya and Oxzen in younger days
3- Lucinther making a cheesy grin
4- Kardwell and Dispaya at the Northrend ball
5- Sreng and Dispaya standing together in Outland
6- Portrait of Dispaya drawn by Coranda
Center - Anca
6- Evie and Shillatae
7 - Umu and Skrap
8 - Kosath (taken from behind)
9 - Zema
10 - Krell and Dawn
11 - Uglawha and Snowflake
12 - Bunignasher holding his gun and making a 'peace" sign.
*On the facing wall is an old portrait of Ironsong Officers painted by Pinto. Dispaya herself is not in this picture.

From here a single doorway leads into the Workshop. This is a large well lit 50' room with several work areas. One table has some old and discarded alchemy experiments. Another area holds a desk with a large quill pen, a journal and many half written songs and stories. The main area holds an enchanters shop with several large containers of every type of shard, crystal, essence, dust and mote. Some of the jars jiggle nervously on the shelf. Just next to this is a small work area with a loom and several racks of unusual looking garments. A large library alcove compliments the room and is lined with all manner of spellbooks as well as history tomes.

A large black cat named Sasha lays sleepily on the rug there tangled in yarn with a small white rat named Whiskers curled up next to her. The two appear to be good friends. A clockwork rocket bot wanders by muttering something to a small mechanical squirrel that bounces along behind it.

On the far side of the room Dispaya's personal assistant Cadavera (no longer called a servant due to changing standards in Undercity) is busily fussing with a small fish like Oracle creature and attempting to clean up a rather large watery mess.

The lab room is lined with several grand tapestries. One is a large Ironsong Standard. Behind another a small secret door leads to a room Dispaya keeps for Anca. Her small sister may come and go as she pleases but knows that she always has a place to call home. Inside the quarters is a comfy runecloth bed, a weapons rack which Anca never uses, a small assortment of toys and several changes of clothes. A secret door in this room leads upstairs and exits in one of the Guild hall pantrys.

Dispaya's personal chamber is beyond the tapestry on the far wall where a secret sliding panel leads to her crypt. The crypt is draped in purple tapestry and lit by 4 candelabras, one in each corner. A large ornate silver and black coffin rests at the rooms center. A single framed picture here, is of her long dead human father. Several trunks hold all of her most personal possessions and a small cabinet holds her supply of blood serum, which she takes daily to control her undead cannibalistic hungers. No one is more accutely aware of the fine line that exists between sane and monster as she, and NO ONE may ever enter the inner sanctum but her.

Dispaya's sanctum is a safe place for tribe to come for help or assistance. Stop by if you need an enchantment or just need to talk. The door is always open for the tribe she holds so dear.

-=((D))=-

[Melikar]

Great description, D! I love it.

[Anca]

Although they wouldn't show up on floor plans, there are numerous winding tunnels around the area too. They aren't really secret passages, though many entrances are behind or under movable things. They were carved out mostly by Rinu and some by Anca, and are narrow enough that only someone their size would be able to crawl through without getting stuck. Some of Anca's animals live in the tunnels, too. They help keep the area clean of unwanted vermin, and would also act as a natural alarm system should anything try to enter the Hall's tunnels. The most used one leads into the guild vault, which Anca uses because she has trouble reaching all the latches on the vault's door.

Wakamito has also appointed himself the custodian of the forges, taking great pride in keeping the fires going, the tools in good repair, and the forges clean.

[Guest]

I'm so excited! I can totally do a multi-floor thing, if people give me details. And, obviously, the first floor can be modified if anyone so chooses. This is just a draft based on the conversation we had, the pictures in my head, and some basic assumptions about the geography (as pictured in the screenshots) and IST's purpose/needs.

I personally picture the foyer being a sort of mezannine area, with the possibility of all sorts of towers and rooms above and near it.

More descriptions! Morrrre!