Civic Facilities¶

Public civic buildings, infrastructure, and utility installations: amphitheatres, arenas, baths, libraries, aqueducts, sewers, wells, prisons, lighthouses. For staff and attendants see Traders (Professional, Commoner) unless otherwise noted.

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.
At-grade 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 and public wells: 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; sand raked between events; 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, chariot fittings.
Reserved boxes: for the lord and his court at one end. Canopied, cushioned, guarded.
Loot: entrance-fee cashbox (5d100 gp on a fight day); iron collars and chains in the beast pens; combatants' unclaimed possessions in the changing rooms (10-50 gp collective); a caged beast worth taking alive.

Baths. Public bath house. A social space as much as a hygienic one: business deals are struck, political news traded, gossip exchanged. A small fee at the door; the wealthy have private appointments and private rooms. Not universal; more common in warmer climates and in settlements of Roman heritage. Baths have:

Hot pool (caldarium): heated by a hypocaust or wood-fired furnace beneath the floor.
Cold pool (frigidarium): for the post-hot plunge.
Warm pool (tepidarium): the transition room between hot and cold.
Changing rooms: lockers or attended cubbies for clothes.
Oil-and-scraper station: where attendants oil bathers and scrape them with strigils.
Private appointment rooms: for wealthy patrons.
Furnace room: below the caldarium. Slaves or hired hands feed the fire and keep the water hot.
Loot: bath master's cashbox (3d10 gp); attendants' tip jar (2d10 gp); guests' belongings in the changing rooms (a signet ring, a purse).

Library. A collection of books maintained by a wealthy patron: a lord, a temple, a guild, or a rich civic-minded merchant. Access by the patron's invitation, a letter of reference from a Master or Priest, or a membership fee. A Librarian (Professional with proficiencies in History and calligrapher's supplies) staffs it. Not universal; only wealthy settlements have one, and many leave scholarship to the Academy or the Temple. A library has:

Reading hall: benches and reading desks. Members work at their manuscripts here under the Librarian's watch.
Stacks: shelves and locked chests of manuscripts, sorted by subject or by donor.
Rare book vault: small back room where the Librarian keeps the most valuable volumes. Strong lock; the Librarian holds the key.
Scriptorium: a scribe's desk (or several at a grand library) where the Librarian and any hired copyists work.
Librarian's office: the Librarian's room. Membership records, correspondence with other libraries.
Loot: books and manuscripts (2d100 gp for a solid collection); the Librarian's records; rare texts (100-500 gp) in the vault; the Librarian's cashbox (2d10 gp) for fees.

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, locked at night; the lamp room is reached only by the internal stair. A DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check to climb the exterior stone.
Lamp room: at the top of the tower. The signal fire burns here through the night; cut glass or lenses focus the light out to sea. Visible for 20+ miles at night in clear weather.
Keeper's cottage: at the base of the tower. Small, thatched, one room for the Keeper's family, a hearth.
Fuel store: oil, split wood, or coal for the lamp. Enough for a season stockpiled.
Wharf (standalone lighthouse): small plank landing for the supply boat that visits every few weeks with oil, food, and news.
Standalone-installation staff: where the Lighthouse is not part of a larger settlement, a Keeper (a Rulers Steward variant; see Rulers: Steward) lives at the cottage with 1-2 Assistants (Commoners: family or hired hands). Appointed by the port authority or a distant lord.
Loot: oil stores (30 gp value); the lamp's cut glass or lenses (100 gp); the Keeper's logbook; the Keeper's cottage cashbox (2d10 gp); the supply boat and tackle if present (75 gp).

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

Main gate: heavy iron-banded gate with a portcullis, gatehouse, and guardroom. The Sergeant of the watch checks anyone entering or leaving.
Curtain wall and watchtowers: stone wall around the compound; wall-walk on the inside; towers at intervals with signal fires.
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, iron-banded doors, rows of cells; a corridor down the middle patrolled by Guards. Prisoners locked in from dusk to dawn.
Guard barracks: where off-duty Guards sleep. Rows of bunks, footlockers, a common room; the Sergeants have private rooms.
Guardroom: the on-duty station just inside the gate or between cell blocks. Rack of keys, small table, weapons within reach, hearth. Two Guards on watch at all times.
Yard: walled dirt or gravel exercise ground where Prisoners take air once daily under armed guard. Guards on the walls; a single door in and out.
Mess hall: long room where guards eat. Prisoners eat in their blocks, brought food on carts; the Chaplain sometimes joins them.
Kitchen and stores: where prisoner rations are prepared. A larder, hearth, and locked stores. The cook has a separate room.
Chapel: small devotional space for prisoners and staff. Altar, benches, a candle rack, a devotional flame. The Chaplain often ministers to the condemned.
Well: the compound's water source. 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 (2d100 gp) behind a strong lock; sentence records worth blackmail material; the armory stock (weapons and shields as issued); prisoners' confiscated effects (small heirlooms, coin, weapons: 5d10 gp per block); the kitchen's stores (nominal).

Shipyard. Where ships are built and repaired. Sits on or next to a Harbor or Grand Harbor. A Professional shipwright runs it; journeymen and apprentices do the work. A shipyard has:

Slipway or dry dock: the main working space. Slipway for launching new hulls or drying-out repairs; a dry dock at larger yards holds a ship out of water for the hull to be worked.
Stocks: wooden framework holding a hull upright during construction.
Mast pond: freshwater pond where fresh-cut masts season under water.
Timber and rigging stores: stacks of oak, pine, and cedar; coils of hemp and manila rope; canvas bolts; barrels of tar and pitch.
Master shipwright's shed: office and drafting room; plans and templates on the walls.
Journeymen and apprentices' work area: benches for smaller work, tool racks, forges for the ironwork.
Loot: timber, tar, rope, canvas, tools (5d100 gp collective value); a ship on the stocks (partially built, worth 2d100 gp of materials); the master shipwright's plans (blackmail material to a rival yard).

Sea Gate. A chain or boom stretched across the harbor mouth, raised or lowered from a tower on each side. Sealed against enemy fleets in wartime; open for shipping in peace. 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 18 Strength (Athletics) to climb the exterior.
Chain or boom: the barrier itself. Stretched at water level or below when sealed. Two men and a full round on the winch to raise or lower.
Watchmen's post: at the base of each tower. A Watch Squad on rotation, day and night.
Loot: signal horns (10 gp each), watchmen's supplies, tower keys.

Sewers. Subterranean stone channels carrying waste out to a river or downstream cistern. Dark, wet, unlit; strong current after rain. Used by smugglers and thieves to move unseen. Optional in towns; many towns dump waste to open ditches or cesspits at the edge of each district. Standard in cities and their quarters. 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. Six to eight feet high; a walkway along one side above the flow.
Feeder channels: smaller lines from each district into the trunks. Three to four feet high; crawling only.
Manholes: entries in most districts. Standard lock at civilian ones; strong lock at Watch-controlled access.
Larger access: at the Gates and at the Harbor if present.
Sumps: low points that collect standing water. Home to rats and sometimes worse: giant rats, oozes, an otyugh in an older or corrupt system.
Loot: none of note. Smugglers stash caches at known bends.

Well. Stone-lined shaft dug to groundwater, with a bucket and windlass above. Public trough at the base for animal watering. A fortress well is deep-set for siege survival and capped with an iron grille that lifts on a chain. May instead be a cistern (rainwater collection in dry regions), a spring (natural water source), a stream (open water at the perimeter), or an aqueduct tap (where an aqueduct terminates). Fouling the well is a classic infiltrator's mission; the reason a well guard is kept in wartime.