The Crypt

 The crypt was never officially called that in the beginning, it had a few lavish rooms with extraordinary furniture. It was where Azzur slept and lounged before he was married. It was not turned into a crypt with actual tombs until the vampire mistresses arrived in the palace. Now, it lays in dust and ruin. It's long abandoned now and the only ones who would go down there were the vampires. 

The crypt if one is coming down through the trap door will see a rectangular room with two stone tombs up against the wall. A doorway with drapes over it lead into an open floor with more tombs. The floor is riddled with treasures now, and the brass elephant that was once up in the glass staircase remains down here in pieces. The crypt is still frequented by phantom vampires. The doors off the open plan area leads into Azzur's former lounge, bedroom, bathroom, and temple. The kitchen of the dungeon was the original kitchen before. The question as to why he stayed down here is unknown, but he is in fact obsessed with the dead, so being under the sewers in such a dreary location suited him. It was quiet and away from people.

The hag now visits this level and brings bags of black pearls with her, she dumps them all on the floor and laughs. The crypt is crawling with expensive relics but no one knows it's there and no one has yet tried to get to it. It is said that the true Eye of the Basilisk is hidden in the crypt somewhere but the dangers of vampires, the hag, and heaven knows what else lurking below the dungeons could create deadly problems for any skilled rogue.

It is a former place of pure luxury now a dumping ground of all kinds of wondrous treasure. It has no lighting, so it's a creepy level. There could now perhaps be living a wraith residing there, it's a rumor.

The crypt does get visited by a ghostly black jaguar with green eyes, it lies on the tombs, flicking its tail. This is one of the lord's many pets, it's sometimes at his feet in the living quarters when he's resting. It is unknown if the cat is dangerous or not.

The Grounds, turn to .

The Sewers

 To get to the sewers one must go to the area where staff like to party, there is a trap door (usually paddle locked) underneath all the junk. It has a few stairs that go down into the sewer system. The sewers are not guarded, and nobody goes down to it anymore. It is said a hag frequents the sewers now. The area does have a few emptied storage units, grotesque water, and slimy walls. The torches are no longer lit in the level. A gate to the rest of the sewers that go far underneath the city are blocked off by two heavy gates that are locked.

The level has a center, which is circular, and tunnels that surround it. To get to the now defunct and abandoned Crypt, one must go through the dungeons, into the sewers, and through another trap door down into the crypt. The palace's plumbing system empties at times into this sewer, it is no longer maintained so it's crawling with absolute filth and it's possible certain types of large deadly worms make it their home. Staff joke that a Bloodbeast lives down there to scare younger servants, and it's used as a form of fear tactic to make them work harder if they're getting lazy or lagging otherwise the orc cook will throw them down into the sewer without a torch.

When the palace was being rebuilt after the hanging of Illois, Lord Azzur used the crypts as his dwellings, if he wasn't also staying aboard his ship. In those days, the sewers had lots of light and were kept very cleaned. They continued to maintain the level up until the 4th floor was built and Azzur never went below again. The purpose of the offices in the dungeon were once lord Azzur's offices where he worked, but now with his own study, the offices are somewhat frequented by others for various business or for prisoners to be questioned or be mutilated.

Only one person successfully accessed the palace from the sewers, Drogo Widemouth, and he managed to sneak into Lord Azzur's bed chamber at night. He was caught obviously, was dismembered, his body parts set up in the city to warn others. This resulted in the extra gate being built and the trap door to always have a lock on it now. The hag who is in the sewers, most likely has the skeleton key to the gates and can come and go as she pleases.

The crypt, turn to .

The Dungeons

This decrepit place of torture and justice and just awful laboratory sacrifices is not a place many people of the palace like to visit, even his lordship never goes to the dungeons, not because it's barbaric but it just stinks and reeks of death and grime. There are workers there unfortunately and some (the orcs and goblins) don't mind it.

To begin, there is a main entrance to the dungeon, it is situated at the front and is a long dark corridor that stretches from north to south. So it runs parallel with the front edge of the palace but it is unseen and has no windows. When a prisoner is brought in blinded folded, he is unblind folded in the corridor. There are two main guard posts and two doors. The main door is where the prisoner will go through to enter the cell block location. The farthest door is for staff only and goes to the areas where Lord Azzur keeps his wine cellar and where the furnace room is.

The dungeon is divided into a few sections:

The laboratory, the cells, the offices, the servants quarters, the kitchen, the furnace room, wine cellar, discard room, then the corridor itself.

The laboratory is where sad unfortunate souls end up for the crazed royal doctor to experiment on. He used to frequent the third floor where the aquarium room now stands. His lab has medical tables, shelves full of formaldehyde, jars of body parts, vinegar, old mummified limbs, skulls, and other horrendous brick a brack of torture equipment.

Next to the lab is where the main cells are, they are situated you can say in the center of the dungeon, and lead up to the kitchen area at the back, These cells are large and can hold quite a few prisoners at a time. Next to the cells are where offices and interrogation rooms are, they have more cells adjoined but they are very tiny and possibly uncomfortable to be in.

On the other end of these areas is where the wine cellar is, it holds specialty wine, ales, and liquors that are mostly used for banquets. Beside the cellar is the furnace room, and near the back beside the furnace room is a large open space filled with tree roots and discarded jewels, crowns, shields, armory, coins, and other junk. This is also where the staff love to come and have a bit of a party with music, dancing, drinking, and singing.

The dungeons have a steam system to keep it broiling hot, anyone in the cells sweat and suffer damages from the steam clouds jutting out of chutes. The kitchen with one big table is also in view of the cells to add extra terror. The menu of the dungeon kitchen is not the same as the menu upstairs. The unspeakable horrors of what kind of food might be prepared down here is mostly for the stomachs of non humans.

It also has a back room with the canine unit, all of Azzur's hounds are kept down here, and they sleep in kennels, staff will also sleep in this area for warmth when it's cold out. The workers stationed to this level sweep nonstop all the soot and grime, and collect rats and mice for the cook. It's not the most hospitable area, it can be quite hostile. One will need to get used to screams, mad laughter, howling, and agonized cries. Let alone the basement is very heated and one could suffer heat exhaustion if they're not accustomed to the environment. The blade of cleaver slamming through a corpse, or someone who is still barely alive, and hitting against the table is common. Inhuman guards gamble and drink down there alot. The dungeon is home to chimney sweepers, soot sweepers, furnace workers, cooks, guards, the doctor who is completely crazy, and torturers. Some unrelated dungeon crews will use the offices for their work too.

It's a terrorizing level and being a prisoner or a worker there isn't quite the fun it's made out to be. When it comes to justice, well, down there for a prisoner it's the end of the line for any kind of peace or sympathy. They could be the doctor's next victim, a course on the menu, or just completely bullied into madness and death. A worker there gets no empathy, and being outside or upstairs for even a bit can drive them loopy because they ache for comfort and luxury and proper food.

Beds are not common down in the dungeons, you get straw. A few guards sleep at their posts, some up against a wall, some made beds out of the kennels tops.

The dungeon is inspected once a month by the palace manager, she makes sure the vermin and rodents aren't taking over, that areas are properly cleaned, and guards are doing their duty.

The Sewers, turn to .

Bell Tower

This is where the lookout stands watch, it has a tremendous view of Port Blacksand and the country side out west. It is also where Lord Azzur enters when he comes home. Servants do not use the tower staircase, they must make the grueling trek through the villa (only guards and Azzur use the bell tower steps). Servants will use the stairs up to level two only, and possibly Gunther or a head cook might go up to level 4.

This is the highest guard area, and anyone who might stumble upon here will be zapped to oblivion by a stone dragon's mouth if they aren't wearing a magical talisman. The color codes for level four are silver and royal blue. So a guard in all black cannot enter this floor, only stationed appointed guards may.

***

You have now ventured through all the floors, now it is time to retrace your steps and head down to the lower levels that are below ground.

To get to the dungeons, you must go either outside, or back to the Court hall and take the tower stairs by the battlements room. Those stairs go directly to the dungeons.

Years ago the bell tower stairs went to the dungeons but that has now been closed off, but it's still possible to reach the dungeons that way too, if you enter through the kitchen way but that door to the basement is locked and heavily fortified. Servants will still use it secretly to cut short their journey through the palace.

The Dungeons, turn to .

Floor 4, Sciences Room

 This room is the most heavily guarded and not by palace guards but creatures that exist in the room. It also can be seen from the ground as appearing as doors, but the doors are actually just a window. On either side of the window are Blood beasts of stone that can be reanimated to life. The room is coiled by a massive stone snake high above. In the center of the place is a table with slate scrolls on it, these scrolls have some kind of writing on it or symbols or sort. The best way to describe it would be an alphabetical set of runes in which words are formed in circles instead of linearly, with letters of a given word being linked clockwise in a ring form, starting from the top. It would be sentences formed with these series of rings. It's non translatable in Titan. The walls look like portals or doorways, and by the table is one main gate or portal. All are currently not activated and it is unknown if they ever have been or will be activated or what worlds they open up to.

Azzur definitely has something odd on the brain, he's curious about something he cannot get to. This rooms spells nothing but fear and wonder. It's a divination haven of something bizarre and wild and foreign. Possibly this could be extremely dangerous, but since it's secluded on the 4th levels, whatever will come of this Science room is still unforetold. It may tie in to the room across from it, both of them serving some strange purpose and experimentation. 

If you match up the Painted Ceiling, the science room, and observatory, possibly too the water citadel it could land clues into what his lordship is up to. One would have to spend weeks scouring the entire library, reading everything in sight. To start deciphering the ceiling, to just understand what any of this all means even is mind boggling.

***

By Titan's good grace, this room is locked to you, the gates are sealed shut, this is one room that would be deadly to enter. You visited the observatory and even sat in the chair but it's still daylight out and the telescope offers no insight. Lord Azzur has made it clear no one is to enter his science lab at any cost.

The Observatory, turn to .

The bell tower area, turn to .

Floor 4, Observatory

 This room's domed roof can be seen high on the palace from the docks. It's a curious sight and people often wonder what it is as no one ever survived to explain it. Baron Sukumvit is a very good friend and if he had seen it he'd never tell. In fact, he'd probably find it one of the most intriguing rooms. It's a cylinder-like room etched in stars, constellations, the moon, the sun, and the constellations and for good reason. In the center is a platform with a big chair and a large eye spying glass pointing up to the dome. A simple pull of chains and the ceiling opens revealing the night sky full of stars. All someone need do is sit in the chair and observe the outer realms of the planet. It's also curious as to why Azzur appears obsessed with interstellar matters.

The telescope is always pointed towards Saturn.

The markings on the walls appear mathematical, as if someone was trying to figure out Astro-physics and horoscopes. The room has nothing else special to it, it's made of grey stone, and the roof is all white wood. It is lit by various torches.

A wondrous yet interesting room with nothing much to it, one has to wonder why it's there?

Science Room, turn to .

The bell tower area, turn to .

Floor 4, Guest Bedroom

 This room is located outside and across from the southern part of the palace, it's the wall that the lounge window faces. Inside is a different story, it's sectioned into two parts one is the living area and the other is where a massive bed is. The living area also is the only room in the palace that has a tub set deep into the floor. It can be filled with hot water and soap suds to create bubbles. The floor is whitewashed and has an almost peachy hue to it. There are a few mandala drawings painted on the walls. The tall windows face out to the backyard. The ceiling has an array of broken glass and mirror which teases the light. There is a couch and a dining table with three chairs present as well. The bed is so wide it almost takes up its entire section, its bedding is off white and ivory with countless pillows. It's fit for royalty, and the only person that has ever slept in here is Baron Sukumvit.

No one else has utilized the room since.

Once exiting the royal guest bedroom one comes out onto another mini stone bridge. There are two doors on either side. The door on the right goes into the observatory while the iron wrought double gates go into the science room on the left. Going further down the bridge takes you off the bridge and onto the lookout which can see all the town, including the Catfish River below. Nearby is the highest bell tower and the stairs Azzur uses when he arrives or departs. An ensign of Azzur flies high above, and this is the most guarded areas, around the living room/kitchenette building is walkway for guards and more stone dragon heads.

The black disks seen in the interior are actually from Midnight Rogue to stop laser beams from jutting through. This is to stop any type of assassin attempts from above or below.

The Observatory, turn to .

The Science Room, turn to .

Floor 4, Private Quarters of his lordship

His living area consists of a few sections, the dining room, the study, the front room (living room), and adjoined kitchenette.

Dining room

After he is done being dressed he will walk over to his private dining room which is a very tiny room with just a circular table in it and a curio that holds his fancy dishes, cutlery, and cups. The table has one chair and a sheer pinkish curtain hanging down around it for added privacy. The table is usually already set for him, he doesn't have five courses, he only eats once. His meals do not consist of any meat. His faithful servant Gathrun usually serves the food after it's been inspected.

Study

Once he's done eating he will go to the adjoining room separated not by an door but a small archway into his study. This room is wracked with papers, globes, hour glasses, quills, ink pots, wax blocks, a mini desk and chair. The windows for the dining room and study are like the glass stained windows in the battlement room except these ones are all white in design. They let in a lot of light but you cannot see through them. The view from the four windows if you could would be the patio outside and a wall.

In his study, this is where he signs documents, writes letters, looks over contracts, and finances. He works closely with the goblin "Grovelsnitch" that works down in the tax office, just outside the palace but still on palace grounds. Azzur can also approve death penalties, but this is rare. He also receives paperwork on daily and weekly events, including invitations, and anything else that requires his attention.

Patio

When he's done eating and looking over documentation he can come outside and sit in his little private patio, it doesn't have a view unfortunately as it is situated between the dining room/study wall and the building where his daily living quarters are. Fresh bouquets are brought up to the patio every day, and there is also a small bbq he can use.

Living room

Going now into the living room it is one giant room set with a very large couch, a table that has a big crystal ball on it, a big fireplace, more of those stone dragon heads, lots of portraits of lords and ladies, including taxidermy animals like muskrats, rabbits, and birds of all kinds. His kitchenet is at the back and he has usually one trusted cook in there, she usually cooks and bakes, if he doesn't want food from the main the kitchen. The kitchenette is open at all hours. If he wants food at 4 am, he gets it. The room has lots of rugs and pelts, including pillows, blankets, and memorabilia. 

This is where he spends his time relaxing, scrying in the ball to see what others are up to, reading his scrolls and spells, and writing. He can nap in this room, eat, and lie by the fire in the hearth. Like any nobleman, he enjoys the sole comforts of his rich home, but his complete privacy is most critical as sometimes his face isn't covered here and he may be in only his housecoats. 

Kitchen

This little kitchen is all stone and has a tiny cooker and oven. It's stocked with fruits and vegetables and all kinds of sweets like tarts, cake, and bread. It's Azzur's private kitchen, and although he may rarely cook himself, there is usually one cooking servant that attends the kitchenette. All of his fresh foods are prepared and ready to go once he's in the dining room. Gathrun will come and grab the tray and bring it over.

The lighting is candles, lamps, and a few torches. He edged on the builders to hurry up the renovations and so the theme of the room is not so much like the other floors, it's basic wood, stone, and hay stuffed into the ceiling beams. He didn't care so much to make it spectacular because no one would ever see it.

***

Can you imagine a man full of anger relaxing in such a place? It's touching nonetheless and good to know he's not so different from everyone else. Would he cook for himself? It's quite possible and interesting to think what kinds of food he'd create for himself. He doesn't require company either, he's got the entertainment of the powerful crystal ball. But there are other things that can keep him preoccupied such as his Observatory and Science room.

You have to see these places, but will get to them eventually, they are located over on the far left, or Northern part of the palace. You can see another mini bridge from the patio, it's lit up with little twinkling lights.

The Guest bedroom, turn to .

Floor 4, Azzur's Bed Chamber

This is the immediate door on the right, when coming in from the glass staircase. The room is not massively huge but comfortable. It has a large emperor bed in the center, circular shaped not boxy, laden with pink curtains hanging and cascading down from the ceiling over the bed. There are strange black disks set in the floor, walls, and ceiling. The room is magnificent because it's not enclosed and lit by windows, it actually opens out onto a circling terrace guarded by six live gargoyles. He can see the countryside from his bedroom, in colder months a screen is pulled across the terrace and covered with bear fur rugs. He does not have much decoration to his bedroom, save for a portrait of himself unmasked (it just looks like a dark hair young lad, it could not be Azzur at all), a few blue Turkish lamps in a corner, and a couple of vases on the floor. His bedding is pink and purple with one white tiger fur blanket, his bedding is Bohemian and Indian in design.

A door leads into the bathroom. So, once he stirs in the morning (or night) he is to go take a bath and be dressed.

Bathing room

The bathroom is set between the bed chamber and the lounge. The small room has a tub with dragon clawed feet, shelves full of oils, perfumes, and ointment. One shelf opposite the tub is where all the cloths, towels, and toiletries go. There is a white curtain around the tub area. After he has a hot bath, servants must carry hot water up and dump it into the tub, he will go into the lounge next.

The Lounge

This room has many rugs, a fireplace, a couch, a large window, many decorations, and a mini wooden ship that lights up on the mantel. This is where he comes to rest after his bath and this is the room he will be wrapped up in the cotton fabrics, then dressed in his regular clothing for the day. He does not don armor in the lounge.

The view from the window is not spectacular, in fact, it faces the wall of the guest bedroom. He didn't want a window that where people outside could see him. He can close his white drapes anytime though.

The room is cozy, it's warm, quiet, and comfortable. There is sometimes a wooden lute laid out on the couch, a musician will come in and play it some days so he can hear it wherever he happens to be dwelling on this floor. This is not Azzur's main room to stay in, he has his living room and kitchen area he prefers to be in. These rooms are not fully lit with much light, as his eyes are more accustomed to the dark, he does have other preferences.

Once he's dressed, he will go next to his private dining room and study.

***

He certainly does like colorful textiles. Who knew a badass like him would consider sleeping with the color pink? You have discovered a secret. It is no doubt his favorite color... along with blue and black. 

He bathes every day too no doubt, so like every royal on the planet, they are obsessed with perfumed oils and fresh hot water. A luxury you don't have, you bathe at the inn, and it certainly isn't hot enough water. His perfumes and oils smell floral and a bit spicy, they are just vials stuffed with herbs.

His lounge is rather cluttered with lots of his belongings, it's like a creature comfort room. His belongings consist of trinkets he collected, statues, vases, lots of throw blankets, pillows, a ship that lights up, peacock feathers, dried flowers, a witch compass, maps of unknown places and times, and tea cups.  

It kind of feels like Lord Azzur doesn't really like sleeping and resting in lavish luxury, his rooms on the 4th floor are rather dull compared to what's downstairs. You begin to wonder now, what does he honestly desire in life? His status no doubt is extremely important otherwise he wouldn't dedicate a whole dressing room to his attires.

Private Quarters, turn to .

Floor 4, Royal Dressing Rooms

Leaving the staircase now and passing through the almost enclosed bridge, one comes to a door of oak with a lock. Opening the door, there is a short but very dark corridor. On the walls are a few candles and old worn tapestries of distant royals centuries ago. There is also a stone head of a dragon set into the wall. This dragon can activate and shoot out a laser beam that will dissolve anything it hits, guards or workers must wear a certain type of talisman around these stone guardians. The hall is all stone and has three doors, two on the left, one on the right, and one door at the very end. Also, off to the further left is yet another set of doors. One door on the far right.

Going into the first door on the left, one arrives in the room where all of his lordship's clothing and attire is kept. One wall on the right holds up to forty spinning spools of cloth used to wrap Azzur's body set in blue, black, and cotton white. To the left of the room is a brand new armor, darker blue and gold, he has not worn it yet. Against the walls opposite each other are wardrobes, one contains his everyday clothes, the other is only for when he dons his armor or leaves to visit his ship. His twelve fancy turbans are featured in here on shelves, including his shoes, boots, and cloaks.

The room is all stone, painted blue, with red framing. An archway leads off to the right which goes into the main dressing room. This would be the second door on the left that's in the hall outside. The room is adorned beautifully with elegant silken draping on all the walls to cover up any bare spots, the ceiling is hidden over by more drapes pinned into the ceiling to create a fancy tent-like atmosphere. There are no windows in this room, it is only lit by a few candles, so it's quite dim.

Leaving this area and heading through the archway one comes now to where his lordship is dressed in whatever is chosen from the other room. In the center is a flat square block covered by a purple drape. On the backend of the wall is where all his swords are displayed. The famous blue armor he wears is displayed in this room against the wall by the two swords and 2 different sized daggers. The floor is covered by satiny fabric, the walls covered with more colorful drapes. It appears to have a sort of Madam Star or metaphysical circus look to it, but extremely lavish. This room is where he will only be dressed in armor, he is never clothed into his regular clothes here.

This room is also dim in nature, and has 1 tall mirror with golden framing and lush molding. He is adorned by only his trusted servants. The door to this room leads back out into the hall.

***

So this is where his lordship keeps all his clothes and body wrappings? The vain man. The spools are on the wall and layered so it's easy to pull out a wrapping and cut it clean off. Seems sometimes he wears cotton or silk. The fabrics are expensive too with a fine thread count. You open the wardrobe of one and see he's got trousers, tights, long white shirts, cloth boots, and cloaks to keep warm, some set with fur.

Going now into the other room through the archway, you can imagine him being dressed in his armor here, not saying a word, as they put on his gauntlets, forearm bands, his chest guard, boots and the such. His face staring at the mirror callously. You touch the swords and admire their craftmanship, they are nothing like you've ever seen. You wonder who made them? One is a cutlass, obviously what he takes to sea with him, it looks silver, the other is his golden Kopesh. He also has two daggers, one for his belt one for his turban. And he has many fancy turbans already! His designers must be nuts. 

How does Lord Azzur sleep at night? If he sleeps at all? You're certain you'll find that out soon.

Bed Chamber, turn to .

Floor 4, The Glass Staircase

 The staircase resembles a fragile giant box, the outside is stone-framed, the inside is glass. Stairs go up against the walls to the 4th level. In the center once sat a tall tarnished brass elephant but was long replaced with a man-eating plant when Azzur decided the staircase was where he was going to showcase all his royal jewels. This magnificent staircase not only has jewelry, but it also has stamina potions, luck potions, skill potions in pristine condition too which glow in their vials. Stairs encircling the room (or plant) the walls are windows with gemstones behind on display. Lord Azzur's wife's necklaces are featured here on half human busts that are still alive and ever watching. There are bangles, necklaces, bracelets, rings, extremely large (breast covering) traditional necklaces, golden chainmail, anklets, pendants, earrings, talismans, gold bars, mint coins from various parts of Titan, every gemstone imaginable, pearls, diamonds, fancy painted porcelain tea sets, gold rimmed tea sets, tiaras,  gowns made of gold thread.

There is so much displayed, Azzur no longer wears any of it, he only did during his married younger years.

Amongst other things on special display is a pink pendant tiara, with extremely fat diamonds, it is 500 karats and white gold. There is a pearls of jade and emerald stone necklace with a big diamond pendant, emerald measured to be as big as a 5x9 picture frame. A black diamonds necklace, with 1 large black diamond pendant. A rare blue diamond in 94.8 karats worth 52 million gold pieces, the diamond is surrounded by little diamonds. One has 3 fat diamonds, 1 small, 1 medium, 1 large, 930 thousand diamonds set in 1,000 karats with two large rubies of 234.65 karats, and 1 yellow diamond. The last necklace on display is worth over two million gold pieces, it has 11,5551 diamonds, 24 stones of jade, 19 blue mini diamonds, 600 pink diamonds, 114 white jade, 1 small dragonfly, 1 large butterfly.

Azzur displays his precious turban dagger full of gemstones, and a golden letter opener and seal breaker.

All necklaces are fastened with satin, the pearl chest necklace has 900 white pearls. There is a rare golden and turquoise turban pendant of a scarab, and a gold scorpion talisman.

Set in ancient gold, reds and blues are various necklaces, neck collars, armbands, earrings, bracelets, wrists, gold for fingers, ankles, and whole ear of Egyptian times. Three large talismans of a spider, a beetle, and a smaller scorpion.

In tumbled raw stones not polished or cut are ivory, lapis lazuli, citrine, emerald, amethyst, sapphire, quartz, jade, ruby, coral, carnelian, tiger's eye, jasper, turquoise, thousands of stones to name...

In painted rock, decorated shells, conches, carved bone, metals of iron, bronze, brass, and copper. As well as gold paint for Azzur's tunics and armor. There is also platinum.

The live busts feature all his wife's old chest necklaces, and when anyone comes close to them their eyes flick open, if it's someone they don't know they'll shriek, waking the plant up. They are up on the second levels of the staircase.

The staircase doesn't only hold fancy jewels, it's also home to spices like cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, saffron, pepper, curry, and a non spice but very rare plant of poppy opium.

The glass ceiling is pointed upward like a triangle or pyramid, sparkling light escapes from it. A single door on the second level leads out to a small bridge that halts at another heavy door: Lord Azzur's dwellings....

***

You make sure not to wake the sleeping plant, you look in awe and probably disgust at the amount of wealth in this room. You did not know so many gems and gold could exist. You ponder where he even got it all from, you have heard he had once personal jewelers. Since he's a pirate he may have random treasure maps stashed somewhere. On the second floor you can smell the hint of spices, there must be barrels of them! And the stamina potions, if only you can grab a couple and save them for adventuring, why does he need them? Perhaps, you could take just one? No one will notice.

As you walk over to a strange sight, six half women are displaying these wicked over gawdy necklaces. They open their eyes and gasp gently. One starts to sob and begins to scream, the others scream too, and you hear a big plop! as the plant falls over and starts to stir, vines beginning to shift. You will not be made a meal of, and run to the nearest door which takes you outside onto a bridge of sort. Once in awhile this is where a black dragon perches and sleeps, but today, there is no dragon thankfully. You slam the stair's door as hard as you can and head to the other door.

4th floor, turn to .

Floor 3, The Villa

This area is not enclosed at all but it does have tiny housing units, gardens, peacocks, and stone walkways. It was built as a private dwelling for Lord Azzur's wife, she'd have everything provided for her in this villa of sort. Someone would come up from the kitchen and set up a stall or bazaar, making sure there was all kinds of breads, cakes, fruit to choose from and even textiles. She never needed to go downstairs for anything. Everything essential was brought to her. Now with her passing, the villa is still maintained by gardeners, but the Kukulak shrine, the bazaar, the main house, the bunks are all but abandoned. Azzur had spent a great deal in this villa while level 4 was being completed, it is even rumored he stayed down in the crypts below the sewer level when his palace was being constructed. The walls of this outer floor are protected by long sharp pikes of metal that are coated with a lethal slime that is not only poisonous but acidic. The villa has two levels to it, further back to the palace the villa has steps going up to to a second level. This higher floor is where guards stand around the most, they have a few posts here for shelter and there is the infamous glass staircase that goes up to the 4th floors. The villa overlooks the town.

The villa has many little gardens and lots of places to sit, the  buildings are white washed walls with terra cotta rooves, vaulted and compact in size. When the place was active it was like a little mini town built in the palace. It was a favorite of staff for years to pretend to go on vacation at a nice resort outside/upstairs with a room nearby with pool, sauna, and steam rooms.

Starting from the doors of the third floor, the cobblestone walkway circles around a miniature Kukulak temple, the temple has a small idol of the God of Winds in it. There's a stall where a pretend store would be set up, four huts with a single cot within, used at the time by servants and staff, and a 2-story house having living room space and a ladder like stairs to a bedding area. This was the official house of Azzur's wife so it was not spared in anything lush, it was exceedingly comfortable, and spilling over with wealthy furniture.

The second half that is adjoined by a stone staircase is further back to the palace and has a small guard tower, huts for them to rest and sleep in, and a square glass house of sort that has a man-eating plant in it. This is called the glass staircase and it goes up to the 4th levels. This upper villa spot overlooks the backyard. It is also joined to the guard post by the door that goes back into the dining room of the 2nd floor, one can just climb or descend a ladder to it. The tall tower nearby stretches high up to the tips of the palace and can only be accessed by the grounds below.

***

For you, being back outside is a pleasant thing. You walk amongst all the flower plots and poke your head into the temple, it smells of old incense and candles and looks like it requires a good upkeep. The main house has a couch in it, plush chairs, fireplace, dining area and a bed on the upstairs balcony landing. There's not much to see here and there are two peacocks that run about freely. Going to the higher level you can see the looming 4th floor with its bridges and peaking arches. You're curious what could be up there with the famous dictator? The glass staircase inside has a two-story high plant in it, set in the center. There are winding staircases against glass walls. Behind each glass is where Azzur keeps all his jewels, porcelain, chinaware, and gold. No one would dare to steal any of it, the plant is a giant Venus Fly hungry not for insects, but flesh and blood and it has many vines everywhere for quickly snatching a passerby.

Glass Staircase, turn to .

Floor 3, The Museum

Museum

There are wide and elegant white stairs guarded by two big stone angels, beyond is a tomb said to hold the crying remains of Lord Azzur's undead wife. Further back is the Carsepolis area having all kinds of ancient pottery and jugs. He had his museum made a certain way it not just displays old relics it also depicts them. Surrounding the exterior are half buildings of old Blacksand, and in center are three Egyptian sarcophagus, a coffin or a container to hold a coffin of a mummy. It's like walking in a neighborhood of how it might have been back then. Hardly no lighting either, it's gloomy and dark and creepy. One can walk along the homes and fake street which goes nowhere, walk where the Egyptian site is, look at pottery that is no longer available to find anywhere, so how he attained it is a mystery, or go look at the tomb. All of this before Port Blacksand was invented how it is today. The walls and floor are like Taj Mahal. No one likes coming into this area because of the rumored undead and out of respect that it's not just a museum but a gravesite. It's possible that one sarcophagus has a mummy in it, while the other two are reserved for the vampires. The tomb has no inscription on it, did he bury his wife here and forget her? Or is he keeping her identity a for longed secret? There appears to be a door that goes out to the outside patio too but it's locked. It's just a place that's abandoned after the sun goes down.

The Greenhouse and Ship room

These are located on the left side of floor 3, the greenhouse has all of Azzur's indoor tropical plants and exotic animals like lizards, birds, and snakes. It also has a big flowing fountain trapped in overgrowth. Here, to, is where Azzur's famed red parrot lives. He can mimic human talk and has a little orange gem for his missing right eye. It's humid and one can hear the trickling of water in here.

The ship room has a mini display of Azzur's pirate ship the Face of Chaos. It is a galley ship, a caravel, and set in red oak and red paint. Every detail is not spared, and painted on the walls is the wharf and taverns. The sounds of wind and a ship's bell tolls sometimes. The anchor stretches about the room and hoisted from the ceiling. The greenhouse appears to be trying to make it way into this room too, it's starting to get out of control. He loves his ship too much, just had to dedicate a whole room to it. The ship is not big enough to go aboard it, but it does come apart so one can see inside the ship's interior, and see how it was built. It's rather an eccentric piece.

Leaving these areas one passes a double door on the right which goes outside to the Villa and straight on towards a hallway.

The Royal Bedchambers

Also known as the Hallway of Portraits. There are four pictures on the walls between each bedroom. They have strange powers too if anyone gazes at them for too long. One can become possessed or mesmerized. It is unknown who painted these three noblemen and lady, obviously someone with a sick sense of humor. The males' skin is rotten, like they've are still alive after two centuries, rather zombie-like. The female wears a tall headdress of early medieval times, she too has decomposed flesh. One man will yell and curse the person looking at him, the other two cause paralyses, and she is often heard humming to herself and can grab the onlooker and tries to pull him or her into the painting. Across from them are narrow slit windows, and two statues, one of a sun goddess and one of a medusa. It's not the most happiest of halls or something one must endure just to get to their room but it's the reality. The two statues are in fact golems too and also perform during banquet shows, the medusa is the most feared form of entertainment but Azzur finds it amusing nonetheless. At the end of this hall hides a secret door to a towering staircase which goes down to the pendulum room and scullery. There's supposed to be more stairs going up to the fourth floor but they were ceased.

There are five royal bedchambers in this hall which all join to each other by a single door, possibly for visitors to visit each other instead of venture out into the hallway. The ones are named from the major Arcana: Hierophant, Temperance, Sslloyd, Hermit, and Communication. Each has a four poster bed, bearskins, wardrobe, tables, chairs, fireplace and mirrors. Each room is also haunted with something in it, ghosts evil spirits of the palace frequent these rooms a lot. Communication has a rare portrait of River Kok of Chiang Mai which images moves once in awhile.

***

You look at one of the paintings and grimace a bit, you can swear you smell something dead and rotten coming from it, like a decomposing hamster, it's awful. The male in the picture spits in your face causing you to reel backwards in disgust. You head back out to where the pillars are, wiping your face clean with your shirt. You head over to the Turkish Bath area its just a place where someone might want a massage, there are little fountains in the walls to wash one's hands with. You assume that the plumbing to this floor must be gargantuan in design. If only you could take a dip in the pool, or sit in the hot tub, it all looks refreshing. You can hear sound kind of faint drumming once in awhile from the museum but there's nothing or no one there to makes this tunes. Did Lord Azzur's wife really get buried alive? If you hung around the greenhouse any longer you might get malaria, but you did see a little parrot who told you it has a glass eye. Does the red parrot perch on his lordship's shoulders? He must be an animal lover as well as love flowers and plants. You didn't stay long in the dining room, the fairy dust made you sneeze and lightheaded. To look after that aquarium you think to yourself as you decide to head to the villa, must be a job in itself. What you have learned so far being in this palace is he likes to showcase his life in it, not just collect things, and the baby mammoth of how the hell they even got that thing indoors is also a spectacle. Things may have had to be brought inside when windows weren't installed, if not built within the room, like the table in the Battlements room. Also, there are NO steps to the fourth levels here, it's basically floor 1, 2, and 3. All of floor3 looks bigger than it's supposed to because it has mirrors for walls, and the pillars make it appear regal and infinite. Once in a few minutes, you can hear water gulping within the glass of the pillars, and they do let off a bit of heat. You can smell incense burning somewhere, but could not find the burner anywhere, it's possible it's coming from the dining room. The whole floor should be suffering from condensation, but surprisingly it does not. The museum is as bone dry as anything and the greenhouse is taken care of by gardeners and animal caretakers.

Time to go outside now,

Villa, turn to .

Floor 3, Hall of Pillars

Floor 3

Behind the porcelain lattice wall, by the sky windows is a winding staircase made entirely out of bones. It is unknown what kind of bones it's possible to be animal and human. They wind up to the right to a landing or balcony of sort where rests a taxidermy baby mammoth with curly horns. On the landing is a wide doorway guarded by two stallion heads. Lord Azzur has a collection of chess, dice, and tarot cards here. The theme is black and white like a harlequin, lots of glass mini tables and chairs, and glass shelves holding all sorts of dice (think D&D), some tarot cards are created from gold chips and come in various sizes. There are four black ebony steps that go up through the doorway to floor 3. Floor is checker patterned, walls white, railing made of whale bone. Elvish vines line the ceiling with little lights in areas only highlighting the apparatuses. The scent of strong incense comes out of the doorway.

Hall of Pillars

Going through the doorway one comes to a massive open floor plan marked with 30 pillars of blue cobalt, these pillars are filled with water and sometimes bubble. The area is sectioned into many parts with adjoined rooms and at the very far back is the museum, outside on the right is the Villa, and in this great room is where there is a pool, hot tub, and Turkish Bath. The pool is set in the floor on the right, it's rectangular and has an amber glow to it, the water almost ripples crystal clear, there are lights within. Nearby the pool is a curtained area where sits a clawfoot tub. The walls of this room are all mirrors, the floor granite, and the ceiling decked in carved designs in square panels. On the left is situated the hot tub which is filled with very hot water. On either side of the doorway are stone rooms, these are referred to as the sauna rooms or steam rooms. A wide staircase leads to the museum guarded by two large angels with swords. On the right is another doorway which leads into more rooms, one being the glittery dining room, aquarium room, and terrace that overlooks the Dome of Last Hope. The doorway to the right behind the Turkish Bath and hot tub leads to a greenhouse of sort, and the Ship of Chaos display room. Far beyond in the back next to the museum is located royal bed chambers area.

The dining room is guarded by a nesting blue mini ice dragon, the room has a table and only one throne chair, fireplace and glass shelves. What makes this room unique is that it's completely covered in all kinds of fairy dust. It looks abandoned with the foods on platters like cakes, chocolate, sweets and empty dishes and mugs. The room might be painted all black, but it is hard to tell with all the glitter. It may no longer be used at all. The dust is sparkly and tinged blue and seems to resemble wind blown snow, a door leads into the next room that has an aquarium set into the walls heated by two statues spewing fire from their palms. This is also known as the vampire's lounge because of the posh purple and red chaise lounges, Oriental cushions and Persian carpets and velvety red drapes. The fish tank is a salt water one having all kinds of school fish in it, coral reefs, an octopus, an eel, starfish, one jellyfish and crabs that appear to glow in metallic hues as they edge about. There are all kinds of stuffed weasels, peacocks feathers, and snake statues with ruby eyes and fortune telling table with crystal ball. The dusty French doors of the next room leads outside to the patio guarded by blind sword belly dancers. There are three of them standing in their own private alcove. This is to ensure no one scales this area hoping to get inside the palace alive. One may sit out here, look up at the stars, drink a bottle of blood and vodka, and admire the top of the dome and the fairy gardens across the way; It also has an absinthe station. The belly dancer golems were imported from a Sultan in the desert. The outside terrace would be lovely if it weren't jammed packed with jars of human remains, skeletal pieces, mummified body parts, formaldehyde jars, and human heads. There are small chests filled with silver coins covered in dust, and some coins replace the eyes of the heads. There area was renovated recently, it used to be all closed and used by the mad scientist who now resides in the dungeons in his laboratory. A brazen filled with ash and coals remains that was once used to brand victims. Here, the scientist would conduct bizarre and cruel experiments and here is where the vampires would line up for food from him. He also specialized is powerful drugged wines made of blood and wormwood. It's not a welcoming area. The dragon in the dining room is perched inside the wall, breathing cold ice down along the wall which melts closer to the floor.

To go to the museum, turn to .

Floor 2, Court Hall 2

After visiting the Court room, there are a few more things to explore in the court hall.

The Dome of Last Hope

The bulbous dome has meticulate patterns that tease the light from outside and looks particularly sparkly and glistening when the sun is out. It was created there to give prisoners a sense of lost hope, it is located directly above where the stairs (in the court hall) make a sharp right turn up to the second level. It bulbs outward from the ceiling to the outside like a half bubble. It does offer lots of brightness to the room below. It was installed long after the palace was built as a last notion of peculiar architecture.

The 2nd level landing

All that is up here is the lattice window stretching across the wall, one can look down upon the court room from here. At the rear of this level is a doorway to a tower that goes down to the kitchens, dungeon, and all the way up to the 4th floor. It's the stairs used by Azzur mostly.

The Battlement Room

There are four glass stained windows in here almost resembling the ones down in the lobby, but these ones however have no graphic art or images, it's just multi-tinted glass. Set in the center of the room is squished in this heavy table. There are two fireplaces in here one on each wall and the room is lit up either by the colorful windows or candles in holders on the walls and on surfaces. The windows cannot be seen through but the view from them would be the front yard. All the available wall space is covered in musket pistols (think Magehunter), all kinds of fancy bows and arrows, sacks of gunpowder, very special daggers and swords. All of these weapons are enchanted and when fired create a lot of explosive damages. Upon the table is a tabletop war game of sort and many scrolls and maps. The room is a bit of disorder actually. There seems to be miniatures located outside of Port Blacksand standing guard nearby the town, and blueprints of an extension to the city referred to as Azzurtropolis. Does he plan to make Port Blacksand bigger? He also is trying to incorporate an army along with his Elite guards. Whatever his plan is, he's hoping to be stronger and more advanced than Salamonis. There's also treasure maps in here revealing secret caves full of jewels and gold chests and lost cities of deserts. Anyone getting a hold of these maps would be rich beyond their dreams. There are two doors into this room from the court hall. A hidden tower with spiraling staircase is set in the corner outside this room, and is used by guards to bring prisoners up from the basement to await trial.

The servant's quarters hall

This is accessed by exiting the court hall via the back door, this plain stoned corridor stretches far along the backend of the palace and cuts off at the glass lounge. Servants use this hall. It has many window slits showing the back yard. This is where unwanted things are stored as well, so the hall is a bit messy and uncouth. It has three entrances, one to the secret tower stairs, one to the court hall, and one way far down that goes into the corridor between the Banquet and Glass Lounge rooms.

***

You have toured all of floor 2, you can now return to the foyer area and go up the bone staircase to the 3rd levels. You wonder mostly as to what Azzur is planning for Allansia and will he be successful? Could he be promoted from dictator to emperor of the western coast? After seeing the court room you are glad you don't work here, for the rules are uncanny, unfair, and deplorable here. Even the bloody drapes must be fashioned a certain way so their pleats show perfectly in a mathematical fold. It's just craziness. He must not visit the servant's cold dark corridor, for if he did he'd have a humid fit! It's still swept and dusted but it's cluttered with all kinds of things like old bear pelts, crates full of musketshot, cannonballs, sacks of hay, old pieces of wood from rooms, and broken or discontinued furniture. There are old dusty empty wine bottles too, which deem rather suspicious, as they should not be there. It's time to retrace your steps, you take a shortcut through the court room and go through one of the hidden doors to get back out onto the landing of the foyer steps.

Floor 3, turn to .

Floor 2, Court Room

 There are two entrances from the Court Hall into this room, one is a single door that private only to Azzur, and the double glass doors which is what everyone uses. It is most famous this room and has a reputation outside of the palace even, it's where Azzur sits upon a throne-like chair behind a wooden screen, and can be often heard shouting angrily at prisoners and he whispers into his assistants' ear, usually one of his priests, and the person receiving his command will announce what sentence the prisoner will take.

The room is divided by a sliding wooden screen, it has thin mesh which is slightly see through. By the two way mirror is a fountain of Justice holding scales spewing not clear waters but red. By the wall are three parliament chairs in green, this is where palace goblin judges might sit to watch proceedings unfold. The floor is carpeted, the walls wood paneled and green paisley, as well as the ceiling. Behind the screen is a big cushioned black and silver chair with a tall carved back. It resembles a throne. Over by the nearby wall of it is a serpent lady statue. There is a bar up across the sliding screen where usually a vulture is perched. Above the doors is a lattice window where nosy staff can watch from. The two hidden doors that lead back out to the corridor by the banquet hall are still not seen, one must push on it to open it. The judges are usually the ones who enter and exit of these doors. From the two way mirror anyone in the court can see a person pass by it outside.

On a scheduled date, this room is bustling with lots of people hollering and wagering bets even before the lord arrives to take his seat. He sits behind the screen in all his best black robes, the screen would only be opened if Azzur seriously wants to make his point known and to yell no doubt. A prisoner will be dragged in by guards crying, screeching, begging as the vulture flaps its big wings.

"Here! Here!" One person yells

"Sing! Sing!" Cries another.

"The prisoner approaches the bench, milord. His crime? Stealing berry wine from the cellar." says a guard in all black platemail.

"Into the dungeon!"

"Kill him!"

Lord Azzur is usually not so talkative from behind the screen, he does whisper over to his assistant however, and he will say "His lordship decrees that this man be beaten until he is almost dead."

The prisoner on his knees will make a plea that he never stole a damn thing.

"Lies," says the one judge.

A bald headed man in green robes holding a scroll speaks, "Death shall not fit the punishment, he must be taken to the laboratory and injected with this wine he stole until his parched tongue is swollen with the very berries he was famished of!"

"Beat him, scold him, burn him..."

The prisoner starts sobbing, "I did nothing of the sort. I am innocent."

"There is no proof of your innocence, you were reported by many palace workers. They believe you loathsome. Are you NOT the dungeon cleaner? You must clean out the cellar, do you not?"

"Yes."

"Then you will know where the expensive wine has gone to?"

"Sirs, I know nothing about missing bottles of wine." He cries, wrists shackled. "It is not my duty to keep count of what liquor is stored in the ale room, that is the job of the cooks!"

"Blaming others of your evil deeds, I see. For shame!"

Lord Azzur whispers something, and the cloaked assistant says "How many bottles have been taken?"

"Your lordship, greatness, this has been happening for months ever since he started work down there. He was once a barn worker, cleaned them out. He is known for his drunkenness."

There's silence now.

Lord Azzur sits there for a long time as the prisoner claims he did nothing wrong. Then there is a growl, a grumble, "Bring forth the cooks." He exclaims quietly but angrily.

"That wine, sire, is not cheap to make. It comes from the Vale, and made of ice slumberberries, and to have servants help themselves thinking there are no ill consequences of their actions, they cannot be allowed to place accusations upon others."

More silence...

Lord Azzur decides that the prisoner will be taken below stairs and locked up for a month, beaten, and starved for awhile, but not tortured. The cooks are very protected workers and to blame them for stealing is a major offense.

Loud voices thunder the room upon the verdict, and Lord Azzur rises from his chair and exits the room without another word. The prisoner is relieved he didn't get the death penalty. Of course, since he's sentenced to the dungeon keep he will never be seen again.

This is what happens in the Court Room, the serpent woman is in fact a golem and can reanimate to life and attack, she has six arms holding each a weapon and has snakes for hair like a Medusa. Her snake tail is coiled, and her back is pressed up against the wall. With the screen closed, the ones on the other side cannot know she is there. She is one of Azzur's private servants and quite deadly, if the court demands immediate death like say someone spied Azzur's face uncovered, they can watch the golem lady maim the prisoner right there in the courtroom.

Where to now?

Go back out to the court hall, turn to .

Floor 2, Court Hall 1

 The corridor is narrow as well, set between the banquet hall and the court room which can only be accessed from this hallway via two hidden doors set in the wall. No one knows the doors are there, they just assume it's a regular hall, there is a door at the back that does lead into another section of the palace. This corridor has dark green silk wallpaper, wood, and jade floors, three small skeletal chandeliers, and up front it goes back out to the foyer areas.

Rather than utilize the secret doors, let us go through the rear door. Once through you arrive at a bright area that is carpeted stretching back to the front of the palace. This area is referred to as the Court Hall. It has a staircase against the wall that goes up to a balcony, a table against the wall between two doors, the table is where the winged creature that sits on Lord Azzur's carriage rests, if anyone passes the table it spreads it bat like wings slowly. This area is very well lit, with a lot of white themes, and at the front along the palace is two more doors but they lead into the Battlements room. To the far left while turning the corner one can walk down this dark hallway that ends at a black iron lattice window with a view of the foyer below. There is a single chair here too, possibly where someone going into the courtroom to be charged would sit quietly watched by an orc guard as there is a guard post in this area. There is also a massive mirror or window set in black tint in this mini hall too, but one cannot see the courtroom beyond from the outside, for it is a two way mirror.

The court hall floor is situated above the head guard's barracks below. There are some windows lining the wall where the staircase is but they are very narrow and don't offer much a view. The heavy double glass doors to the courtroom is where the prisoner would go through, the other single door is only for Lord Azzur's private use. Above the curling staircase is a big dome window set in the ceiling, it is nicknamed the Dome of the Last Light and Hope because it was built to allow the sunlight to play in it, giving a sense of beauty of outside and the last light the prisoner will ever see before going down to the dungeons. It's a cruel intention but it works psychologically. The balcony above is just having a wooden lattice window peering down into the court room, and is busy with staff watching nosily proceedings happening that day. There are two hidden staircases, one staircase by the battlement room is used by guards bringing up prisoners from the basement. The other spiraling staircase in way far back behind the stairs and is used by servants mostly, it is the same staircase that goes down to the kitchen mess area and up to the 4th levels and used by Azzur.

When not in use by court dates, the area can get very busy with staff, Azzur is only seen here when he has to be at a meeting. His angry voice can be heard thundering as he hollers at some unfortunate soul.

***

If you were a staff member would you come here to watch someone get sentenced to be killed or tortured? It's the only bit of political entertainment the palace gets. You could sneak into the battlements room and spy on what his lordship is planning, unfortunately the room is usually locked. There is this ugly humanoid creature with bat wings seated upon a wall table. He slowly extends his wings as if warning the person passing by to not go into the Courtroom, if it's not preoccupied. The area is extremely well lit up and lots of white paint, floors, and curtains. It's as clean as the Great White Hall is. There must be a fountain or something beyond the double glass doors, you cannot see through these blocks of window of the doors, but you can definitely hear running water beyond. You follow the mini darkened hall back to a lattice window, it's a bit of a boxy place set with a single rickety chair. A place to sit and observe the foyer before you die. Obviously done on purpose to tease, as if you're about to die or be locked away in the dungeons forever who will you tell you saw the foyer?  No one. You cannot see through the two way mirror either, but it is rumored that a black cloaked ghost with a scythe can be seen floating in it some nights. You're curious about the court room, what's in there?

The Court room, turn to .

Floor 2, Theater, Fountain Room, Armory

Theater

Leaving the banquet area through the red doors it opens into a big bar room with a mini stage and red curtains. It could be filled with chairs if there was a live show on. There are two other exits from the room, one on the left and right. The left one goes into an armory, and the one the right goes into some sort of fountain room. Good showcase rooms for roaming guests to tour the palace floors while they stay. The kinds of plays of this theater may be mostly political, comical, opera and perhaps Greek and Roman. There is a dancing mime, a female who dances about like a ballerina. Above the room is an overpass with window, this is where Azzur coming from the gold booth would secretly watch the plays from. It is accessed from the hookah balcony. Room is wood, with polished obsidian floors, and lit by big candles and solo standing candelabra branches. This is also the location to the After Dark club when the activities in the banquet Hall have retired for the night. It is interesting to know what happens in the After Dark but it's possibly a whole lot of hard liquor, strong wormwood and absinthe, opium, hallucinating drugs or certain poisonous plants ingested for their ill effects, and a heck of a lot of chains, leather and nudity. It starts roughly 2 am sharp and ends at dawn. It's strongly a vampire's abode too, so cannot be completely safe.

Fountain Room

There are three active fountains in this room, so the palace has a continuous supply of water and excellent plumbing systems. Frost Giant swords line the walls, with fancy hilts, they twinkle and sparkle in a cold hue with the lighting of torches. Room is brown and cream, off-white, two small circular lamps above, and another exit which leads into the corridor between the Glass Lounge and Banquet room. One fountain is made entirely out of citrine and has water with peachy color to it. One fountain is made of green stone and bellows water strongly in a refreshing cold torrent. And the third fountain is made of rock from the ocean having fossils of shells in it, there is a metal statue of a naked man standing in the center of it, water cascades around his legs. It is unknown who the man is, but some whisper that it could be Azzur actually, the statue's manhood has not been chiseled.

Armory Room

Leaving now from the fountain room and passing through the theater one arrives at Azzur's personal museum of armor, weapons and helms. Collected from places like Hachiman, a red vampire metal suit from Mauristata, metallic dragon scale armor is displayed, silvery Elvish armor, metal shields, gladiatorial helmets, different types of fancy rapiers, gold scepters for terrible royals, jeweled swords on purple velvet cushions that cause aging death spells, elite Roman soldier armor cursed with nightmares, and a spiked platemail one from Neuberg. He may have tried these pieces on at one point, but some of them are cursed items and hex the wearer such as the suffer-insanity spiked one. One helmet of brass makes the bearer a serial murderer, one set of gauntlets (which cannot be removed after being put on else the person taking them off gets turned to gold) turns everything they touch into gold cursing the wearer to starvation, and a broadsword covered in emeralds turns anything the blade touches into an ornament, and one piece of armor from the Dead City turns whoever puts it on into an irreversible flesh-eating monster. Not very pretty pieces and best to be touched either. The room has fur carpets, glass, red and white themed.

Leave out the door now to go out into the corridor, turn to .

Return to the Banquet Hall, turn to .

Floor 2, Banquet Hall

 Banquet Hall

The narrow hall between the library and Banquet hall has polished green floors, floral red and black walls, dark ambient lighting from two ruby iron wrought chandeliers with crimson candles, there is a very large door to the banquet room, one door at the back and up front opens back out to the foyer areas.

The banquet hall is where guests are entertained, it has live music, foods, and a hookah balcony. The cannibas balcony is located above the hall and overlooks the room. The floor is decorated in intricate designs of mandalas. The room is usually divided into two parts, where the balcony is below it is where performers dance and sing, watched from a glittery golden lattice booth where Azzur sits behind. The booth has a table and chair and ladder up to the balcony. The hall is fireproof, it has live fire eater shows, and pyro tech dancers. Next to the area where entertainers work, is an empty area where tables might be put for guests and onlookers. Above it this massive three tiered chandelier full of a thousand mini lights that dance and mimic to the orchestra music being played. It resembles that of a Christmas tree, full of optics, lasers, and blinking flashing lights of all colors, held up by heavy chains. It is as wide as a fountain. There are red double doors off to the backend that lead into the theater. Up on the hookah terrace are pillows, cushions, seats and hookah shishas of orange, forest green, cobalt, they are a waterpipe with a single- or multi-stemmed instrument for heating or vaporizing and then smoking either tobacco, flavored tobacco, or weed. Azzur does use this area, he's not a stranger to it. When the room is being occupied it can set all kinds of different lighting sources from dim, rainbow, a single color and even the mandalas can light up upon contact. There are usually about four rectangular table set under the chandelier where food and beverages are served, and instead of chairs very long benches are used. There is a doorway under the balcony area that goes into another corridor similar to the other one, but this one leads to the courtroom opposite. If Baron Sukumvit is visiting, he sits in the gold boxy booth with Azzur.

***

The chandelier above you is slight pulsating in tones of white, as if it's asleep and breathing heavenly. There are no tables, everything is put away for the time being. Nothing activates as you walk in, it's dark and lonely, much different to what it might look like during parties. You heard there is an After Dark club but it's unclear as to what it is exactly you can only conclude it's adults only. Up on the terrace, you can smell the tobacco and marijuana lingering in a slight odor on the air, you can assume it's coming off all the cushions and pillows. The texture and design of the hookah balcony is bohemian and only meant for sitting and lying on the floor. There is also a sitar nearby. Seems like a nice place for meditating. You go back down the ladder to the booth, there is a single fancy chair and circular table facing the dance floor outside. Through the lattice the view isn't so altered but it's no doubt used as a shield from any performer possibly being an assassin. You can smell incense and perfume but don't know where it's coming from. There is a door that leads out into a corridor, and another door that goes out into the banquet room.

Theater, turn to .

Skip the above rooms and leave the Banquet Hall into a corridor, turn to .

Floor 2, the Painted Ceiling

 Directly above the library is this awesome illustration of imageries of people and cosmos. There was lots of blue, purple, black and yellow inks and paints used. In general references to what is exactly painted up there there is an oversized naked goddess in yellow ribbons, celestial worlds, strange planets, a solar system possibly our own, an elvish baby in blue suckling the tit of its saintly mother, almost floating forgotten ancient places, a red crazy haired goddess in a chariot pulled by fiery lions in outer space she races for a kingdom of crystal mountains,  blue clouds, crystal castles and odd landscapes not known to Titan, tarot cards featuring only the major arcana, portraits of village people and farmers with pointed ears, gods and demons that look Oriental or Arabian dancing with these people by pyres, strange animals being hunted, and a giant dragon-like Pegasus, and people with glowing blue fists as if having psy powers. The painting of outer space is fancy and done in 3D not 2d.

Above the music room is where the suckling infant starts, above the library is the yellow ribboned seductive goddess floating in space without a care she rather resembles Venus, and above the glass lounge is the celestial paintings. Along the walls of the library on the left is the white flying horse, tarot cards and villagers, and on the right is the red haired vixen in the chariot and the strange worlds she's chasing. The question is what do they all mean? Lord Azzur was very specific in the details. The ceiling took an entire year to paint and everything in it is nothing that exists on Titan. Someone might decipher it and say it looks like its from Femphry or far eastern coasts of Allansia. The Painted Ceiling depicts secretly Azzur's hidden heritage and lineage from his mother's side, to her ancestors home on another planet, their culture and belief system were taught to Azzur as a child by Zelakar. The man who raised him. To anyone in Titan, any scholar reading the ceiling without having zero knowledge of the Gith would deem impossible to understand. The questions raised is Lord Azzur a Gith or just remotely a fan of them? His mother claims she has hereditary background of it, but it is unknown if she's telling the truth because she died when he was born leaving only scrolls of slight information. As far as Lord Azzur knows, he's human 100%. Azzur owns a replica Githblade of gold and has many scrolls and books on the Gith world that either Zelakar told him about or that he made up himself. The images in the Painted Ceiling are of the gods and goddesses, peoples and creatures, places of the Gith World. The suckling infant may be Azzur himself as a celestial child in a far away land with his mother. There must still be more research done on Lord Azzur's background to determine what his true nationality is. The ceiling cannot answer these questions. According to Titan, this Gith propaganda is indeed foreign, and the cosmos painted above is where they exist. But in Titan's timeline of 200s AC there are no spaceships in the medieval lands so it's impossible to even know these places survive still or that there is even a way of getting to them. Its all nothing but a marveling prodigy. There is even a question as to why Lord Azzur dreamt of a Beholder, as this creature does not exist either in Titan. Perhaps more will be explained later.

Banquet Hall, turn to .

Glass Lounge, Library, Music Room, turn to .

Floor 2, Glass Lounge, Library, Music Room

 It is named the glass lounge because of the windows and glass drinks bar. The windows starting from the floor and all the up to the ceiling like a tremendous bay window are tinted blue, the view from them is the backyard below, one can see the little huts and stables and barn and fruit trees. The bar where hard liquor is served is also made of same tinted glass, there are glass shelves holding all sorts of wine and spirit bottles. The bar has stools to sit at and it is also where all the glass wine goblets are stored. This area is not a single room, in fact it shares the same space as the library which is located in center, and the music room which is situated at the front. So it is a massively huge room. We will account them by divisions on this page.

The glass lounge is where one may drink booze, it serves no other purpose than that.

The center of the room has the library, shelves on either wall, that are two storey high balconies. In between them is a circular lounging couch set in the floor, and within the circling couch is a giant firepit spewing blue flames. It is a good place to rest, read a scroll, and put your feet up to keep them toasty. Ladders that slide can be used to go up to the second landing to search more books or whatever is on the shelves, and in the cabinets. All of Azzur's books are here from necromancy, interstellar sciences, physics, tarot reading, palm reading, leaf reading, sorcery, spell books, ships, herbology, plants and flowers of Titan, animals, pet care, grooming books, sewing, castles, blueprints, maps, scrolls with ancient texts on them, bottles of potions,  religion, outer space, astrology, metaphysical, spiritual, mathematics, personal journals and diaries by Azzur, time travel, creatures and monsters of Titan, seas, mythology, cook books, carpentry, masonry work, stone cutting, jewelry making,  health books, anatomy, embalming, mummification, pharaohs, all types of kings and queens, deities, demonology,  world maps, pirates, clothing, fabrics, textiles and materials, divination, witches, angels, weaponry and armory, gods and goddesses, history books, books by scholar academies and many others. Everything is all wood and the floor is set in white. The ceiling however is painted in intricate strange and questionable art just like the Sistine Chapel. The room is not just made up of the three sections, there is an Elvin tree growing up out of the floor by the pendulum room doorway. When the palace was being built the tree had rumored to suddenly sprout without stopping after Illios Valentis was hanged and Azzur said to just build around it. Someone has decorated the tree with purplish and white twinkly lights. The circular lounge in the floor is in themes of paisley blues and whites with cushions and pillows strewn about it. The firepit is made of marble. Around all the exits of this great room are metal flowers, which grow in crazy veined and blossoming bursting spouts, and although very colorfully gorgeous, they are as razor sharp as a knife so it takes a special gardener with a special machete to trim them before they start getting out of control. They make good guardians and can quickly block doors. The library on the left side also has a big wooden wind-up clock that chimes, and on the right side opposite the clock is this aptly placed mirror? It is unknown as to what the mirror signifies or if it might have something to do with the clock? Perhaps more secret divination ideas.

The music room is closed off by a heavy velvet red drape with golden tassels, in the music room is set into the wall a brass and wood organ, there is a big gold harp, and a few wooden benches for sitting. Besides the organ piano is a hidden door that goes back out into the Great White Hall. Little naked flying Cupids adorn the room with ribbons.

Two large doorways of the library area lead out into a corridor, this corridor will take one back out to the second level foyer stairs and also across to the Banquet Hall. The doorways have a sheer curtain for privacy.

***

Most impressive you think, miracles of art can indeed be invented, for the room is busy and so full of eye candy you don't know where to start. Above you is a very wide arched ceiling painted in images of things you do not understand or can translate or decipher. It would take you months just to go through the library in total, but what does his lordship write about? What might go through the mind of a dictator? You're not in the mood for drink so you skip the glass lounge. The firepit gives off a steady warmth with its blue flame, to modern times, one may say it's natural gas, but the flames are blue for a reason. One summer during the building of the palace there were forest fires everywhere because everything was so scorched and dry. Lord Azzur put a fire ban on his palace, so those who installed the torches, lanterns, stoves, candles, fireplaces, indoor fire pit had to use sorcery to recreate the flames. The result was them turning blue. So if one lights a match outside, the flame is normal, but once it comes inside the palace it becomes blue. It still gives off heat but will NOT catch fire to anything. It was a safety precaution implemented. You read that somewhere, you just can't recall where, but that is one fact you know. You go up to the second level balcony of the library scaling one of the ladders and spy a diary by Lord Azzur, in it he writes about...birds. Apparently he likes birds and owns a red parrot and a vulture somewhere. He also likes tending honey bees at his forest dwelling chateau. He writes about how to preserve honey, care for bees, and how to look after bats. You half expected him to talk about destroying the entire world! but nope. He has another diary on his dreams and how to understand them, apparently he dreams about other planets, flying through outer space, and befriending a Beholder. One other diary is about Giths, and you are unfamiliar with that species, but he goes on talking about their world and you realize sharply that the ceiling above also depicts this fictional place and peoples. You wonder what he's going on about because it makes no sense. Either he's crazy and overly imaginative or he's really been to this other planet somehow. You slam the journal shut hard sending up a cloud of dust which causes you to sneeze. You can now examine the ceiling further or leave this room entirely.

The Painted Ceiling, turn to .

The Banquet Hall, turn to .

Floor 2, Pendulum Room

 It is the room that separates the dining room from the Glass Lounge. The room is circular with a large dripping pendulum of silver hanging above by a metal thread. Below it is a disc full of yes no maybe answer runes. There is a semi circle mosaic glass window up above that when the sun shines through it the beams hit the pendulum just right and the tip of the pendulum shines a light down upon the disc, so anyone using divination can get a quick answer either every dawn or dusk. There is an archway leading into the next large room. A secret doorway that goes up to the third levels and back down to the scullery in the kitchen is concealed behind a wall of stone that must be opened using a hidden lever. Small metal tables hold hour glasses filled with the sands of the Desert of Skulls, there are wood and metal world globes, and glass boxes with different types of sand in them on the floor, some of the sand appears to have spilled out of some of them and no one has swept it up yet. It is unknown what the sand is used for.

This room only serves the purpose of scrying and is located here because of the sun's positioning. It may be used by Lord Azzur or even his priests. The floor is all stone but networked in fancy designs and the walls are lined with stone beams making the room look like a twisting cylinder.

***

You leave the dining room finally and arrive in this peculiar room, above you is a hanging teardrop of silver and glass crystals and at your feet is some sort of circle of runes. You turn a large hourglass upside and watch the sands fall through into the chamber, it's an hour one, but there are various other sizes too that help tell the time. It's not quite the correct time of day to ask the pendulum a question and expect an immediate answer, you'd have to come back in a couple of hours. If you did want to ask the divination tool a question, what would it be? Through the arched doorway you spy an impressive room beyond and don't waste any more time in here.

The Glass Lounge, turn to .

If you wish to retrace your steps, you can always do so by going to the

Dining Room, turn to .

Floor 2, Dining Room

 Dining Room

It's a giant open floor plan and not as well lit as the Great White Hall is adjoins. Guarded by two oriental dragon windows, the room is divided into two sections. On the left side are three pillars decorated with large broadswords and shields. There are two twenty foot golem statues against the wall, and long flowy tapestries of Lord Azzur pinned to the walls beside them. These three pillars hold up a heavy wooden ceiling full of fancy beams. The theme is all stone, and stone that's in the least bit exciting. Torches line the walls giving the left side a dark ambient feeling of a dungeon.

On the right is where the extra long dining table sits. There is also a staircase against the wall behind it that veers up to a walkway, and a rather useless one and that, as it appears to serve no purpose. The dining table can seat up to twenty people, and has a throne like chair at the end of it obviously where Azzur might sit. The tabletop is all mirror, and above it reflects Turkish lamps of various colors. The most magnificent thing though of the entire room is the main wall on the right, it's made entirely out of iron lattice and lets in the air outside. On the railing of the useless walkway are heavy brazen incense burners along the balustrade most likely burning granular Dragon's Blood or myrrh. The exits to this room being the main archway one, is a door on the very far end of it leading into some dark hallway. There is another heavy wood door atop the stairs which leads out to a guard post. At the base of the steps is a third twenty foot statue of a soldier.

This room only serves dining for guests with an appointment with his lordship, Lord Azzur does not eat in this room. It's more like for meetings.

It has three twenty-foot soldier statues that can come to life with the pikestaffs and attack. Not much detail had been given to this place, except that Azzur wanted a castle feel to it and nothing spectacular.

***

On the dining room table is a large glass bowl of fruit. You grab a grape, and here, you also eat that lemon you stole from the officer lounge. You wonder why it looks so drab in here, so lonely and destitute. It's still beautiful, large and regal, it's just you've seen better dungeons in Vatos than this. You sit in Lord Azzur's throne chair and pretend to eat. If he caught you doing this, you'd be dead meat.

You now go up the stone stairs to see what's beyond that wooden door and see only a tiny place outside with a firepit. This is a guard post, you can see the tall tower outside from here too. You close the door after going back in and head down the stairs to another door nearby, beyond it is a short hall that leads into this very strange room.

The Pendulum Room, turn to .

Floor 2, The Great White Hall

 The Great White Hall

Spanning the entire length of the front the right side of the palace, this well lit hall has eight narrow slit windows and a bar over each to cover with a white curtain. There are many cannons resting here, a massive fake fireplace set in gold, taxidermy animal heads such as elk, tiger, deer and polar bear, and many coat of arms from various regions of Titan. The floors, walls, and softly vaulted ceiling are all white. The ceiling is adorned with carved leaves and vines and carrying the brunt weight of three golden and brass chandeliers each holding up to thirty candles. There are many fancy tapestries, flags, and a life-size portrait above the fireplace of Lord Azzur seated upon a black horse and not in his blue well-known armory but in all his regal black robes. The picture is in a dark forest, the steed has glowing red eyes and fiery hooves. The frame of this painting is set in gold trimmings and carefully painted by some unfortunate unknown artist. The fireplace is all marble and carved with red coral and has real large wood logs in it, obviously never fired up.

The view at the start of the hall is a bone staircase behind a porcelain lattice wall going up to the third floor, the area lit by sky windows and glass.

Going further down the great hall and away from the bone staircase, the hall ends at an Arabian door which opens to a mini balcony. The balcony does not seem to serve much of an important venue except the empty view of the grounds below and a big tall stone wall where the guards frequent. On the immediate left, is going into a dining room, it has a big arched doorway having that of two oriental dragons carved right through the wall and made to appear like windows.

The Great White Hall's lights can be seen from outside as the sun sets, the hall is mainly used by those using the dining room, music room (which has a secret door by the fireplace) and can be completely avoided by utilizing the second floor walkway of the foyer to just go up the bone staircase. The bone stairs are hidden from view by the lattice wall however and cannot be seen  from the foyer stairwell and the Great Hall also cannot be seen from the foyer areas.

***

To you, seeing this, the first thing that comes to mind are the animal heads along the wall... did Azzur hunt these creatures or were they gifts? For someone so apt not to eat meat, it must mean then he does go hunting just won't eat them. You do not know what any of the flags mean, being a tourist of Allansia you're not familiar like he is of other nations. So him displaying these means perhaps he is a fan of those places? Or were they conquered by him? The banners are of royal people who you also have no idea of. The hall is as white as a snowflake. Above hang these ominous chandeliers almost too large for the hall but stunning nonetheless. You assume the cannons, like in the Water Citadel, fit into the windows? The cannons have not a drop of dust, rust, or old oil on them. It's so pristine in here you feel like you should remove your shoes in here.

The painting back at the foyer area of Baron Sukumvit's palace was painstakingly brushed by some madman with a lot of unnatural patience. His house is not built upwards like Azzur's home but outwards with lots of land to cover and mountains in the background. It must be an amazing palace to be in, but no one has ever seen its interior. Why Azzur had decided to even have a portrait like that done up is a mystery but so are other things you've seen so far. It's obviously a homage as they are indeed friends. You can tell that much craftmanship was created here, you can slightly imagine workers and artists busy at work: chiseling, painting, hammering, and decorating as if their lives were in peril if they didn't get it right the first time. How many artists died in the making of the palace?

As for the staircase made of bones, you will come back this way later after you've seen all of the second floor. The sky windows are all squares set with shady glass for windows, there are twelve windows in total starting from the bottom and all the way up to the ceiling! but it surely brightens up everything, it makes the area chirpy, merry, and happy unlike the gloom of other rooms. The lattice wall is smooth and off white, you deduce that it's there for privacy so no one in the foyer areas can see someone using the third floor staircase. The stairs are behind it, you couldn't see that at the foyer steps, but now you know. Looking out one of the windows you can see the front yard and the wall that surrounds the fortress. Guards meagerly walk by along the top of the wall, bored out of their tree, unaware they are being observed by you. If you poke your face against the glass you can even see the exterior of the lobby below. It has a vaulted roof and sticks out like a sore thumb, the windows from up here just look like color stained glass, you cant really make out the details of them as you did when you were in there earlier today.

When you go back to the Fang painting and look up at the ceiling there is this disgusting creature with its back embedded into the ceiling. Who in their right mind would use such a beast, an ugly thing, in their house like this? To what serves such a purpose? It may be some sort of prisoner here, but you also do not want to know what it is meant for, something unpleasant no doubt, and if you stand around long enough gawking at it you just might find out. You quickly head down the Great White Hall towards that dining room you've seen earlier.

Dining Room, turn to .

Floor 2, Top Staircase Landing

Floor 2

Top Staircase Landing

At the top of the stairs of the foyer, it divides off to either the right or left corridors of the second floor. The top is all open, only being overlooked by railings of the floor, above is embedded a giant Swamp Monster with a jewel for a third eye, and it acts as a minimum light for the area. It does make some movements of its long tentacles and blinking two eyes. Resting against the wall of the top landing is a six foot tall kite shield of Azzur's crest, adorned by two royal blue drapes. The crest is of a dragon with extended wings, it's belly the shield having the image of a caravel sailing quietly under the darkness of a sun and moon, below the shield is a House of Azzur credo in a foreign runes, the dragon's two hind feet stick out. There is also incense smoke of frankincense seeping out of the dragon's beak. The crest is painted in blue and silver and its metal hammered. In each corner of the wall are two eight foot golem guards of crystal holding onto a pike, its base stuck into the floor. They are in fact Crystal Warriors imported from overseas and enchanted to stay put unless the palace is under attack, they can detach from their corner and walk. The strange light creature above if provoked can come to life will grab is victim and tear him to shreds in a violent bloodbath. The landing also has carpet runners of blue Persian design. Starting on the left is a dark hall going further backwards into the palace, its walls are in dark green silky wallpaper and wood, the floor is polished green jade, and it has a short spanning railing that ends at what appears to be some iron wrought lattice cage, without knowing what lies beyond it. It's possibly a window. To the right of the landing the theme is white with a long banister of wood stretching towards the front of the palace. This walkway of sort is decorated by a massively long rectangular painting spanning that entire wall. It depicts Baron Sukumvit's gigantic palace in Fang painted in random colors of purples, white, silver and pinks. Above this incredible painting are four candelabras holding each four candles. This area is a bit more lit with natural lighting from all the sky windows on the front of the palace, blocked off from any other view by a giant porcelain lattice wall, for privacy no less for someone coming from the Great White Hall to the stairs behind. The Great Hall is unseen but bends around the corner top the right of the house. There is a mini corridor from the walkway going towards the back of the palace.

Going up to the walkway on the right, one may peer over the railing to the foyer below, examine the painting, and walking further will take you to the Great White Hall on the right and a bone staircase behind the porcelain wall going up to the third levels.

The foyer and upper landing area is one open plan most likely designed to showcase the Swamp Beast above, which can detach also from the ceiling if enraged enough and acts as a guardian as well.

***

Going up the stairs from the main Foyer you find yourself at the top of a very busy landing with an incredible view. You do look at the crest and recognize it, it sometimes depicted on gold coins of Port Blacksand and upon flags therein taverns and such. You will not investigate any of the two corridors yet as they appear to be attached to main large unknown rooms you have not explored yet. It's the bright light of the area at the front of the palace that attracts you, so you'll start there. You realize that there is a big hall off to the right over there too, so there you'll go next. When you turn to give the foyer one last look below, you notice a white and blue glass-stained half crescent window above the lobby doors letting in speckled sunlight. You didn't notice that before! Quite superb discovery, it's pretty no doubt but depicts no imagery.

The Great White Hall, turn to .