The Gardens

The Gardens
(Credit to Chris for most of the work)

Physical Description / Layout
In terms of layout, the gardens are fairly small. To the North is the main entrance to the Castle proper, including the tower and the lower halls. These are framed by a set of incredibly large doors that will serve as the exit from the gardens into the tower. To the South is the main castle gate. A central road runs from the gate to the main doors.

Two roads split off from the main road, creating a ‘+’ intersection where the side-roads end in plazas that have a statue in the middle. The plazas are surrounded by benches, trees, statues, bushes and all the other stuff you’d expect to see in a royal garden.

To the north-east corner of the gardens is a secret exit from the castle gate’s rear entrance, concealed behind what is a small shack. To the center-west of the Gardens is another secret exit, which will be detailed below.

Mood, Lighting, Look & Feel
One important bit of the Gardens is that it’s almost all destroyed. The Abyss has had its effects on the area, creating a somewhat ruined, burning and washed out area. Benches are broken, weapons lie everywhere while the statues that would be the centerpieces of these gardens are in ruins. The sky is truly warped here – being a dull yellow/orange-ish color that makes it appears like it’s all on fire. Bodies are littered around the area as well; mostly skeletal corpses. While the city outside has continued on its cycle, the castle’s interior has decayed to hell and back.

Important Locations
Secret Exit:

As mentioned above, this is the secret exit from the gate’s rear entrance.

The Abandoned Relicway: The Relicway is located to the western part of the Gardens, behind a shanty little outhouse similar to the rear entrance. The player will only be able to open the shack when he gets a special key related to the 4th quest. The area beyond will be a sub-area attached to the castle and be fairly expansive; more akin to a series of hidden rooms and corridors.

The area was essentially spared the destruction by the abyss on the outside and was occupied briefly by some survivors from the dig site that tried to make it out. They have left behind notes and clues on the nature of the creature underneath the abyss and of the madness that is slowly destroying and changing them. Their final notes will state that a small group decided to try and make it all the way to the dig site and back into the abyss and that they will use a ‘sealed’ magic room within the Tower’s base as a checkpoint of sorts.

Tower Entrance

The Tower Entrance is essentially a giant set of doors nestled in a set of pillars and is supposed to look quite intimidating. Unlike the Garden around it though, it is still fairly intact and in good condition, complete with red carpet and such.

Major Events
The Abyss has its greatest hold over here – and it does not look kindly upon intrusion. If the player lingers in the area for too long (say around 5-6 minutes), the many skeletons around him will start to rise one by one and constantly fight him until he either moves on into the tower or any of the secret rooms or back to town, at which point they will reset and return back to the ground.

There are some small notes – once the player is beyond the tower entrance and on his way to the Abyss, he cannot return to the Gardens or the city, for that matter.