Königstein, the King's Stone

I've been to many castles, but during these Christmas holidays, I visited one that really stands out. It would fit right amongst the exaggerated fortresses of many fantasy worlds.

Königstein, the King's Stone.

 

To give you an idea of how imposing the fortress is, the river beneath the fortress lies at about 100 metres above the sea level. From the river banks rises a hill that reaches to around 300 metres above the sea level, which alone gives us some 200 vertical metres (650 ft) of steep, forested slopes, then there are 42 metres (130 ft) of sheer rock and bulwarks, and only then do the multi-storey buildings start. Standing down below, "towering" doesn't even begin to describe it.

The fortress just keeps going on being excessive. It stands atop cliffs of solid rock, but because the builders were anticipating a siege, they needed a secure source of water. Thus they dug a 152 meter (500 ft) deep well through the rock to the acquifer below. The wine cellar used to hold a single barrel with a capacity of nearly 250 000 litres (66 000 gallons) of wine, though it had to be eventually removed due to disrepair. Also half of the fortress is a literal forest, because they could. Well, and because it can provide a massive amount of firewood and building material during a siege.

The only one to ever scale its walls was a chimney sweep who cheated, because he was cheered on rather than shot down.

Notice the many trees atop the bulwark? That's still the fortress proper.

Now imagine standing beneath the cliffs.

 

You can read as much as you like about Königstein on Wikipedia, but here is my re-imagined fantasy version.

 

1. Paved main road which ends beneath the cliffs and bulwarks.
2. Soldiers' market. Soldiers have needs too and the small village of shops and businesses along the road provides.
3. Knitted tower. Holds the controls for dropping the hanging road. Named after a well-liked soldier who kept bringing his knitting to guard duty.
4. Hanging road. Snaking along the side of the cliff towards the entrance, it is suspended on support beams that can be remotely demolished as a last resort to prevent assault on the gates.
5. Twin gates. The small yard between the gates is facing several shooting galleries and can be flooded with alchemical gases or liquid flames.
6. Lookout tower. Holds several looking glasses enchanted to pierce invisibility and illusions.
7. Old castle. Standing atop the highest peak of the cliffs, it might not boast the modern defensive architecture of the new palace and the bulwarks, but the garrisoned wizards have been layering protective enchantments into its walls for centuries. Currently it houses the treasury and archives.
8. Prison tower.
9. New palace. Houses the commander, his secretariat and servants, multiple officers, alchemists and wizards, plus when the occasion arises either members of the royal family, or enemy nobles held for ransom.
   The main entryway goes from the twin gates through a heavily sloped tunnel through solid rock beneath the palace. It includes murderholes, detection enchantments of all kinds, seven prismatic portculli and pipes connected to the cistern, which can suddenly turn the whole tunnel into very deadly rapids.
10. Church of Light and hospital. One cleric and several acolytes have a permanent residence here, ensuring religious well-being of soldiers as well as serving as healers.
11. Offices, workshops and an alchemical lab. The open area beyond them has been split into numerous little gardens that let the soldiers enhance their diet with fresh vegetables.
12. Barracks.
13. Monster pens. Hippogriffs are used for air support and xorns are used to secure the underground of the fortress from burrowing incursions.
14. Warehouses and granaries. The fortress should survive more than a year of siege at full effectiveness.
15. War machine platforms. Ballistas and catapults can be aimed at both the ground and the sky. In addition to standard rocks and bolts, alchemical ammunition such as liquid flames and anti-aerial flak is available.
16. King's Hooter. A small tavern near a vantage point at the end of the plateau lets the officers unwind. Festivities are often held in the open area by the tavern, too.
17. Dryad's oak. A massive, ancient tree housing a friendly nature spirit. She tends the fortress grove (green area) and blesses the soldiers' gardens for bountiful harvest if asked nicely.
18. Well house and cistern. The water is regularly blessed by the priest to prevent poisonings, plagues and infiltration by creatures of darkness.
19. Observatory. Several commissioned wizards are working here, both maintaining all wards in the fortress and manning the scrying room.
    

The fortress is warded against teleportation, dimensional travel (which includes pocket dimensions, such as bags of holding) and external scrying. The scrying room is the centre of a surveillance network that has the whole fortress covered with remote vision spells, tripwire alarm wards and other divinations. The bulwarks themselves are warded against siege rituals such as disintegration barrages, earthquakes or phasing.

d4 Hooks

1. One of the alchemists serving in the fortress was a war criminal back home, granted asylum by the king in exchange for her services. Kidnap her and bring her back home for justice. Quest-giver will not pay for a dead alchemist.
   
2. The archives in the old castle hold information that you need for whatever plot reasons. It is also top secret, so good luck getting it the legal way.
3. There are rumours of a vault somewhere within the King's Stone, a storage for dangerous artifacts and superweapons that the king wants to keep in reserve - biomantic plagues, mind-controlling alchemies, mass summoning contracts. If any weapon is capable of stopping the big bad, it will be locked in here.
   
4. There are other rumours, who claim that the vault is actually a maximum security prison for an ancient evil, the crown prince of a neighbouring nation and the good twin brother of the king.