Guardian Spire Outpost

Drawing of Guardian Spire Outpost by tumblr user @thewatchau

Location of Guardian Spire in Duilintinn by tumblr user @thewatchau

Guardian Spire Outpost is a Watch Outpost located high in the Southern Mountains of House Jameson, Duilintinn, near the source of the Guardian River.

## Name Origin

Guardian Spire is named for the awe-inspiring height of its main tower and its proximity to the Guardian River.

Like other Watch Outposts, it is often referred to by the second word of its name, i.e. "The Spire."

## History

Very little is known of the history behind the Guardian Spire’s construction. According to local tradition, at some point between the Dragon War and the Waldren Occupation, some Stone Walkers just appeared, built the tower, and left. Its location high in the Southern Mountains meant that the tower was left untouched by most of the lowland power struggles in the Waldren Occupation and Interim Years. From time to time, a group of bandits would hide in the tower, or a migrant community would try to take up residence within, but the lack of nearby resources made it impractical for long-term settlement.

The group of adventurers led by the future King Sean became aware of the tower during the quest to found the kingdom, but hesitated to immediately repurpose it. After Duilintinn’s founding, research began almost immediately into the nature of dwarven architecture and their cultural conception of property. With the help of Grancinco, it was confirmed that the dwarves consider the purpose of a creation to be more important than its ownership, and, in fact, appreciate knowing their work is fulfilling its purpose.

Concerns ameliorated, preparations to use the tower as a government hub in the Southern Mountains began almost immediately. Since this was still prior to House Jameson’s founding, embassies of that nature in the more remote parts of Duilintinn were necessary to Cordoire govern the provinces it was still responsible for. For several decades, this was the primary purpose of the Guardian Spire.

Later, when preparations began for the formation of The Watch, King Sean was also planning to create a fifth Noble House to take responsibility for the lands of the Southern Mountains. Conveniently, the creation of another regional capital (Noefrach) allowed the Guardian Spire to be decommissioned as a government hub and instead converted into an outpost for The Watch, which it remains to this day.

## Layout

High in the Southern Mountains, a tall watchtower of carefully hewn stone seemingly seeks to compete with the peaks above. The spire is an incredible product of dwarven masonry techniques combined with modern architecture and invention, unlike any other architecture in Duilintinn. Each massive, identical brick is half a story tall, featuring precise, brutalist dwarven craftsmanship that supports the spire's incredible heights. A Watcher at the very top with a spyglass can view nearly half of Duilintinn with ease.

Within the tower walls are rooms for storage, meetings, research, and living quarters, and the wider building at its base holds yet more amenities. Only a few buildings for fields and training grounds are scattered outside the spire’s echoing heights. Like all outposts and garrisons, it contains workshops, kitchens, living quarters, bathhouses, a communal place of worship, training grounds, meeting rooms, stables, a rookery, a library, and storage buildings. In particular, the rookery- located at the top of the tower- is *huge* to make up for the difficulty in delivering messages on horseback in the mountains.

Note that the image at the top of this article is slightly inaccurate. In reality, the mountainous landscape where the spire is located has far more rocky terrain than depicted here; I’m just not that good at drawing mountains. In addition, I think I screwed up the scale again; if you refer to the map of Duilintinn, you’ll see that the fork in the road is much further away from the outpost than shown here.

## Unique Functions

In addition to performing the standard tasks of every Watch Outpost, Guardian Spire:

* Keeps a watchful eye on the southern half of the kingdom from its high altitude perch
* Offers a different perspective on the strategies and big picture of various operations of The Watch
* Maintains border patrols along the Southern Mountains
* Acts as the primary contact between the government officials of House Jameson and The Watch.

## Travel Difficulties

Due to the inaccessibility of The Spire in its spot high in the Southern Mountains, this outpost communicates with the rest of The Watch almost exclusively via raven.

It's not impossible to travel to the outpost on foot or horseback, but it's certainly not easy either. The last half-day of the trip is on downright mountainous terrain; a messenger could be horribly delayed if something goes wrong on that leg of the journey. In this case, ravens are a far more consistent method of communication. As a result, the top of the spire is home to a massive rookery for all of these ravens.