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The Red-Tree Folly: “The Church”

I did a little more work on the strange little building I made.

1 square = 6″

It’s not a very big building at all, just tall, 9 feet on a side on the outside and 8’ on a side on the inside.

The front has this massive staircase leading up an entire floor to the “main floor”.

I picture the front door massive embossed metal with tree motifs.  The stained glass has weather – lightning, trees, rainbows, etc.

Inside, the first floor — that is, the main floor —  has two wide benches that look a lot like padded pews but could sleep someone comfortably; the back center wall is draped in blue velvet which covers a stair/ladder upwards.

The second floor, which has about 4’x6’ of usable space, has a chair and two bookshelves.

The third floor has just cushions, to allow for the 2’x3’ of usable space or so.

The dome at the top is done in silver; the building is in granite.  The arched carvings on the sides (and the back) echo the designs in the stained glass.   The tunnel leading out of the stairwell is hidden by an illusion and by another set of carvings.  Though I haven’t quite figured out how the stairs work in 3d yet.

Right, I was going to do writing, wasn’t I?

The whole building  – 36’ feet at the spire, 16’ from back wall to front of the grand stairs, not big at all -gives an outward impression of grandness and an  inward impression of coziness.

The “first floor” is dark, except oil lamps hung along the walls, but it is carpeted in thick, warm carpet, tapestried on the walls,  and both doors can be barred with heavy bars and locked from the inside, making it secret and secure.

I had a lot of fun designing this, okay? 😀

I didn’t write up a blurb on these: A temple, a cathedral, another temple sort, and a “modern” building.

 

Red Tree Follies Visitors’ Guide

Best Night’s Stay, Unattended

The title of “best Red Tree Folly to spend the night in” is highly debated, but the one this author prefers – among those with no caretaker or staff –  is usually called The Bridge.

Two towers rise up about three times the height of a man, with a bridge stretching between them at mid-height.  The bridge crosses a narrow stream, easily passable on foot.

In the top of one tower is a bedroom suite, tiny as all the Red Tree Follies, but with bed, lamp, wee stove, and table.  In the base of the other tower is a bathhouse, complete with another stove, this one to heat the water.

In mid-winter, the jog across the bridge is quite bracing; despite that, the Bridge has one of the best set of amenities of any of the follies.

Most Dangerous

Not all of the Follies are safe places to stay.

Top of the “dangerous” list are the Tower of Babel, which has fallen into ruin in the time since its construction.  One can still make one’s way into the original base-of-the-tower room; however, the roof is no longer completely intact, making it a poor shelter in inclement weather, and at last visit, a family of large foxes had taken up residence.

Secondly, the Gingerbread Cottage (not actually made of Gingerbread) has become a “recruiting” station for a family of bandits, who use the cottage to lure in unsuspecting victims.  Lucky victims are merely robbed in their sleep.  Others find themselves sold to the nearest slavers.

The author himself spent several uncomfortable days that way, until his editor extricated him, having prior claim on his soul and person.

Unique.

While every single one of the Red Tree Follies are unique, some stand out.

Of those, the Teacup Folly is this author’s favorite, although it is so elaborate that only its clear markings as one of the Red Tree buildings makes it a folly: a stack of four rooms atop a central “block”, all off-kilter by some amount, all painted in brilliant colors and joined by a bright pink fire escape-style ladder that circles the entire building.  The whole thing is topped off by what appears to be an upside-down tea saucer, surrounded by a seven-foot-tall hedge maze, and accompanied by a tiny matching cottage bathhouse.  All four rooms are their own guest-apartment, each brilliantly colored, and the whole thing is painted with a touch of whimsy.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Egg is – well, it’s an egg-shaped building, smooth, with no obvious entrance.  It is set into an egg cup which is shaped like and glazed similarly to a giant Deflt-pottery egg cup, complete with gold trim; the whole structure is approximately 12 foot at the widest, 6 at the narrowest, and 25 feet tall.

The entry is achieved through the base of the egg cup in a mostly hidden door.  Through there, one can go upward into a loftlike area taking up half a floor in the center of the egg – as in a real egg, the sun shines through the thin porcelain.  Or one can go downward into a delft-and-egg-themed guest space in the base of the cup.