Skip to content

Civic Facilities

Public buildings, infrastructure, and utility installations. For staff and attendants see Traders.

Details

Locations

Amphitheatre. Open air public theatre for plays, speeches, festivals, and funerals of prominent citizens. Tiered stone or timber seating in a semicircle around an open stage, with a back wall for acoustic reflection. Most common in settlements with scholarly or cultural presence. Loot: box at the entrance (2d10 gp).

Aqueduct. Stone channel bringing fresh water in from a distant spring or river. An aqueduct has:

  • Source: headwork at a mountain spring, walled reservoir, or river intake. A grate keeps debris out.
  • Arched spans: stone arches carrying the channel over low ground. Ten to sixty feet tall.
  • Graded sections: where the channel runs along the ground on cut stone footings.
  • Inspection walkway: on top of the channel, for the crew who clear silt and repair leaks.
  • Terminal fountains: where the aqueduct discharges into the settlement. Multiple in each district.

Arena. Public spectacle venue for combat, chariot races, animal fights, etc. An arena has:

  • Sand floor: the show ground. Oval or round; drainage beneath.
  • Tiered seating: stone benches for thousands. Terraced up the sides.
  • Beast pens: cells beneath the floor for animals. Iron collars and chains on the walls.
  • Prisoner cells: below the floor, where convicted men wait for combats.
  • Changing rooms: for combatants. Weapons rack, bench, water.
  • Storerooms: props, gear, spare weapons.
  • Reserved boxes: for the lord and his court at one end. Canopied, cushioned, and guarded.
  • Loot: entrance fee cashbox (2d100 gp); a caged beast.

Baths. Public bath house. A social space: business deals are struck, political news traded, gossip exchanged. A small fee at the door; the wealthy have private appointments and private rooms. Baths have:

  • Warm pools and hot pools: heated by a wood fired furnace beneath the floor.
  • Cold pools: often at a lower level.
  • Changing rooms: lockers or attended cubbies for clothes.
  • Private appointment rooms: for wealthy patrons.
  • Furnace room: below the hot pool. Slaves or hired hands feed the fire and keep the water hot.
  • Loot: bath master's cashbox (2d20 gp); guests' belongings in the changing rooms (a signet ring, a purse).

Fountain. Public water fed by an aqueduct. Ornamental stone basin with carved spouts that flow continuously; the overflow drains to a street channel or the sewer below. A low animal trough at the base and sometimes a laundry basin. In wealthy settlements the fountain is a landmark. Where an aqueduct does not reach, the district uses a Well instead.

Library. A collection of books maintained by a wealthy patron: a lord, a temple, a guild. Access by the patron's invitation, a letter of reference, or a membership fee. A Librarian (Professional with proficiencies in History and calligrapher's supplies) staffs it. A library has:

  • Reading hall: benches and reading desks.
  • Stacks: shelves and locked chests of manuscripts.
  • Rare book vault: small back room where the Librarian keeps the most valuable volumes. Strong lock.
  • Scriptorium: a scribe's desk (or several at a Grand Library) where the Librarian and copyists work.
  • Librarian's office: the Librarian's room.
  • Loot: books and manuscripts (100 gp); rare texts (50 gp each) in the vault.

Lighthouse. Coastal warning tower with a keeper's cottage and signal fire. A lighthouse has:

  • Tower: 40- to 100-foot stone tower with a spiral stair inside. Heavy door at the base. The lamp room is reached only by the internal stair. DC 20 Strength (Athletics) to climb the exterior.
  • Lamp room: at the top of the tower. The signal fire burns here; cut glass or lenses focus the light out to sea. Visible for 24 miles at night in clear weather.
  • Keeper's cottage: the keeper's residence at the base of the tower.
  • Fuel store: oil, split wood, or coal for the lamp. Enough for a season stockpiled.
  • Wharf: small plank landing for the supply boat that visits every few weeks.
  • Staff: where the Lighthouse is not part of a larger settlement, a Keeper (a Steward variant; see Rulers: Steward) lives at the cottage with 1-2 Assistants (Commoners: family or hired hands).
  • Loot: oil stores (30 gp).

Prison. Walled penal compound holding convicts. A prison has:

  • Main gate: heavy banded gate with a portcullis, gatehouse, and guardroom.
  • Curtain wall and watchtowers: stone wall around the compound; has a wall walk on the inside and towers at intervals.
  • Warden's keep: the Warden's office and residence at the gate. Records room, small treasury, prisoners' confiscated effects in a locked chest, solitary confinement cells in the basement.
  • Cell blocks: long stone buildings where prisoners are held. Barred windows, banded doors, rows of cells; a corridor down the middle patrolled by Guards.
  • Guard barracks: where off duty Guards sleep. Rows of bunks, footlockers, a common room.
  • Guardroom: the station just inside the gate. Rack of keys, weapons, hearth.
  • Yard: walled ground for prisoners. A single door in and out.
  • Mess hall: long room where guards eat.
  • Kitchen and stores: A larder, hearth, and locked stores.
  • Chapel: Altar, benches, a candle rack, a devotional flame.
  • Well: See the Well entry below.
  • Defenses: Guards patrol the walls and blocks; Sergeants inspect at shift change; the Warden's Keep is behind a strong lock; the Yard's single door is barred; cell block corridors have multiple checkpoints.
  • Loot: the Warden's treasury (2d20 gp) behind a strong lock; sentence records; the armory; prisoners' confiscated effects (small heirlooms, coins, weapons).

Shipyard. Where ships are built and repaired. Sits on or next to a Harbor or Grand Harbor. A Professional shipwright with journeymen and apprentices work here. A shipyard has:

  • Slipway or dry dock: the main working space with a slipway for launching new hulls.
  • Stocks: wooden framework holding a hull upright during construction.
  • Timber and rigging stores: stacks of wood, coils of rope, canvas bolts, barrels of tar and pitch.
  • Master shipwright's shed: office and drafting room with plans on the walls.
  • Journeymen and apprentices' work area: benches and tables, tool racks, and forges for ironwork.
  • Loot: timber, tar, rope, canvas, tools; the master shipwright's plans (valuable to a rival).

Sea Gate. A chain stretched across the harbor mouth, raised or lowered from a tower on each side. Can be sealed against enemies. Manned day and night. A sea gate has:

  • Sea towers: two towers at the harbor mouth, one on each side. Each holds the chain mechanism, a signal fire, and watchmen's quarters at the base. DC 22 Strength (Athletics) to climb the exterior.
  • Chain: Stretched at water level. Two men require 1 minute on a winch to raise or lower.
  • Watchmen's post: at the base of each tower. A Watch Squad is on rotation.

Sewers. Subterranean stone channels carrying waste out to a river or downstream cistern. Dark, wet, and with strong current after rain. Used by smugglers and thieves to move unseen. Many towns lack them, and dump waste to open ditches or cesspits at the edge of each district. Sewers have:

  • Main outfall: where the sewer discharges into a river, sea, or downstream cistern outside the walls. Grate at the outer end.
  • Trunk channels: running under the settlement's main streets. Eight feet high with a walkway along one side.
  • Feeder channels: smaller lines into the trunks. Four feet high.
  • Manholes: These often have a standard lock or a strong one for key access points.
  • Sumps: low points that collect standing water. Home to vermin and sometimes worse: giant rats, oozes, or an otyugh.
  • Loot: odds and ends, mostly trash. Smugglers may stash loot.

Well. Stone shaft dug to groundwater, with a bucket and windlass above. Public trough at the base for animal watering. A fortress well is deeply set for siege survival and capped with an iron grate. May instead be a cistern, a spring, a stream, or an aqueduct tap.