Blackhorn Stronghold

*"Blackhorn can be held with twenty men."*

- Harden Blackwood

**Blackhorn Stronghold**, also called **Blackhorn Hold**, is a wood and stone castle located in Greywolf Wood in the North.

It is the seat of House Blackwood, a vassal of House Honorhall. It is also known as one of the strongest fortified keeps in the Wolfswood. It has never been breached.

## Structure

Blackhorn Stronghold is constructed with black basalt and timber. The main keep and outbuildings are surrounded by a massive curtain wall of stone. This wall is the most distinctive feature of the castle and its strongest defense. Above the gatehouse, there is a great bronze horn set into the stone. On either side of the gates stand 20 ft tall evergreen trees carved within the basalt. The trees have detailed trunks and boughs and seem almost lifelike, they are so skillfully chiseled.

The banners of Blackwood are hung from the walls of the inner ward and from the keep. Black flags fly above the gatehouse and from several of the towers on both the outer and inner walls.

The inner ward, called the yard, holds all of the outbuildings necessary to provide resources for the castle inhabitants. There is a bakery, brewery, stables, kennel, animal paddocks, forge, brewery, storage buildings, fletchery, woodcutter, and barracks. There is also a small temple to the old gods of the forest within a wooden tower.

### Village

Beyond the outer walls, a small village has grown around the clearing before the forest. There are fewer than 100 residents. Most of them work producing resources for the castle or cutting timber at the Lumberfell Logging Camp. The settlement is nameless and is known only as the Blackwood village.

## Defenses

The greatest defense is the outer wall, built of black basalt and further fortified with timber battlements. The wall stands 60 feet high, the tallest wall of any fortress in the Wolfswood. It is 40 feet thick at its narrowest point and nearly 50 feet thick at its widest. Arrow slits are set at different heights within the wall. Murder holes line the timber battlements. The towers of the outer ward are built higher with parapets of evergreen wood which may be covered in hides to prevent burning. Sentinels are posted permanently along the walls and within the towers, ensuring outermost ward of the hold is constantly defended.

A massive dry moat surrounds Blackhorn Stronghold before the outer curtain wall. It is naturally filled with stones and rubble from various repairs made around the castle. It may also be lined with sharpened stakes to deter invaders. Although not as strong a defense as a water-filled moat, this ditch still works to slow down advancing soldiers and exposes them to attack from the hold's outer wall.

The gatehouse is protected by two great stone towers studded with arrow slits. The main gate has three layers. First, an iron door 6 feet thick that may be raised and lowered by chain from the gatehouse. This door also serves as the drawbridge which spans the space between the gates and the ground beyond the ditch. Second, an iron portcullis that may be also be raised upward to different heights. Last, a set of massive double doors built of reinforced wood and studded with iron. These doors open outward onto the outer ward. Murder-holes built into the floor of the gatehouse's lowest story allow guards to drop stones and pour boiling oil onto invading forces. Due to these defenses, the gatehouse of Blackhorn Hold is very strong and extremely easy to protect.

Wood and stone barracks are built at intervals along the outer ward, between the towers protecting the inner curtain. They house the Blackhorn Guard and further serve to defend the outer ward. Siege engines are kept near the barracks, principally catapults and trebuchets. They may be mobilized and moved when necessary.

The inner wall of the castle is 40 ft tall and 30 ft thick. It is set with towers fortified by wooden ramparts. The towers are studded with arrow slits and may easily be guarded by sentinels along the wall.