Bonetown House

Overview

"Portside House" is actually relatively new, but since its initial construction was done with unfinished timber, the exterior has already weathered quite a bit. Brother Engev and his colleague, Lansel, are rather proud of the fact that they’d been able to persuade the carpenter who slapped the building up to “splurge” on building in a triple-panel “fancy-ish” window in the middle of the front facade of the house, making the headquarters of the Bonetown heroes unique amongst the shacks, huts and cottages that make up this part of town.

The building occupies a lot that has mostly dirt and mud, although (if you squint hard) you can make out the occasional smattering of grass and/or clump of toadstools struggling to get a foothold here and there. The side of the house that faces the street actually has three doors: the door on the left leads into Lansel’s scrivener office/quarters; the door on the right leads into Brother Engev’s potion dispensary/quarters and the door in the middle is the entry into the house that the Bonetown party shares.

The enterprising clerics used their influence to keep the costs of building the house down by asking their various contacts (many of whom felt indebted to them) to aid in construction and decoration. Brother Engev persuaded a carpenter and a plasterer to provide their services at a bit of a discount, and just about everyone else both men knew donated various bits of furniture seen in the pictures. (All such donations come with the caveat which the donors have “pinky promised” are all items that were old, discarded and/or “willingly donated by others who wish to stay anonymous”...so they should be considered to be mostly not contraband...)

Floor Plan

Garden and Grounds

Zeoll and Brother Engev tend gardens on the small grounds around the house. Zeoll sleeps here when he does not sleep on the ship,

Ground Floor

1. Eat-in Kitchen (rear exit of building is in the north wall of this room; the building’s outhouse is in the northwest corner of the property, while the waterpump (hand-operated) is just to the east of the kitchen exit.) The kitchen is Brother Engev’s pride and joy...he got quite a few volunteers to supply the wood for the work tables, the food storage chest and the hand-thrown pottery dinnerware. The wooden door in both pictures leads outside to where there is a waterpump and a privy.

2. Storage Room

3. This is the den, which is likely to be used as a kind of office/meeting room for the heroes. The wooden door is lockable and leads to a storage area for the group. Note the presence of a brazier (in the lower right corner of the picture)--used for both light and warmth; none of the rooms in the house have a fireplace except for the kitchen.

4. Dining Room

5. Living Room

6. Lansel’s room: the scrivener hangs out his woodcut sign with the Quill & Inkpot etched into it to show those in need of his services that he is there and able to receive customers. The room itself is a lot more spacious and private than his previous quarters. He uses a sturdy folding bamboo privacy screen to keep his study area separate from his bed & locker area.

7. Entry/Foyer

8. Engev’s room: Engev lives a spartan sort of existence. When he is available to the public to sell his potions, he hangs out his own woodcut sign of the Mortar & Pestle. He separates his bed area from the more public “potion shop” area with a simple but effective homespun curtain.

Upper Level

Rooms here are reserved for the PCs of the Bonetown Crew.

Attic

The attic is completely unfinished; it measures 15 feet or so wide by about 35 to 40 feet long. It has no plaster on its walls, the “ceiling” is actually the visible underside of the straw used to thatch the roof and it is accessed by three-foot-wide stairs (glorified ladder, really) at its south end. However, it IS weather-tight, so it can be converted to more living space if the need arises.

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