Holdings of Lord Tomas (part2)

Upon the Holdings of Lord Tomas one will find two churches dedicated to the Celestial Orthodoxy.
Tomas is not a very religious man and generally only makes token gestures of faith. Despite that he is not very trusting of ancient Olrinian paganism or other Terrestrial faiths. Modern Tahlmyrian law permits no restriction of inoffensive religion but a great many folk still distrust terrestrial practitioners. A number of ancient and mostly disused Terrestrial shrines are present in the wastes near (and even within) the holdings of Lord Tomas. Use of such places would be discouraged by the Baron and his men not to mention the clerics at the church.

There is a church of the Celestial Orthodoxy in operation at the village of West DeAdrippa is subordinate to the Church in Ortossa. The church at West Adrippa is served by Parish Priest Father Olmanda and a number of Celestial brothers as the church serves as a learning annex to the monastery at Tormanto in addition to it's duties to the local parish.
The Church at West DeAdrippa maintains some significance outside the immediate family and holdings as it contains a mausoleum for a small number of entombed knights including the once famous 7th Baron Adrippa who served as a Paladin under the Grand Patriarch Vistandus II of the Celestial Orthodoxy. A great grandmother of Lord Tomas was very religious, becoming a cleric in her dotage and some considerable machinations on her part have served to maintain the importance of the church to this day; she is also responsible for the construction of the larger chapel in the manor castle itself.
Olmanda and the majority of the brothers have left to tend the spirits and bodies of the troops serving at the border with Jolumbria , leaving behind Brother Dollop as acting senior at the church with a pair of oblate brothers and a small number of novices. Some folks consider the friendship between Lord Tomas and Brother Dollop (of the local church) to be curious but they would be ignorant of Dollops military service in his youth and the times the baron and he campaigned together.
The parish church of West Adrippa is most obvious and fairly large for such a rural location. It's bell tower is the tallest point in the village and would be used as a lookout on times of need. The bells of the church ring at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon and sundown if the oblates can be motivated to keep track of the time.
There are a number of smaller support buildings very near or built alongside the church proper. These house the brothers, the novices, a pair of classrooms and a fair sized library for a village church (actually larger then that of the ranking Bishop). The Church was built over a number of years and each era can clearly be seen in the color, size and set of the stones of each section. There are at least five ways into the church and each is normally only open according to some obtuse schedule know to Father Olmanda, since his absence the doors generally remain open or closed until really needed.
Despite the chaos of architecture the Church itself is rather plainly decorated with but a single altar at the front. there are a small number of benched pews towards the front and rear of the main space but most of the parishioners must kneel and stand with no assistance. One decidedly curious feature of the altar is the presiding priest will stand facing the congregation instead of facing away form the congregation while delivering a sermon. There are a number of small stained glass windows in this church praising the lessons of the saints or warning the faithful of sin.
The knightly tombs may be entered from a portal on the inside of the church or through a small bulkhead that is usually locked form outside. The tombs are generally sealed except for certain holy days and may be used as the resting place for a knight for a year after his death but the remains are not kept there with those that are permanently entombed from years before. The tomb entrance to the private Tomb of the 7th baron is the most elaborate and well maintained.
The church is typically a fairly bus place for a parish church due to it's role as a learning annex of the faith but lately it's moderately quite outside of the thrice daily services. One would still only expect to see the place crowded on holy days .
There is a small infirmary at the church that usually tends to a variety of work related injuries or the occasional unfortunate illness. With most of the brothers absent only limited healing is possible within.
One building adjacent to the church maintained by the brothers serves as a small brewery. The beers brewed within are generally reserved for the clerics but are sometimes released on holy days if supplies are large enough to warrant such generosity.
A small entry hall off the west side of the church is used as a makeshift court every fortnight or so by the Baron or his Seneshal to settle minor disputes and keep check on working sof the estate. This is an old tradtion established many years before when the manorial keep was pretty small and the then reignign baron found it bothersome to have the place overcorwded by the residents of the village. It's now considered a friendly gesture by the baron to the commoners.

Pilgrims or very rarely those seeking sanctuary visit the church now and again and recieve lodging within the structure.

The Chapel at the manorial Castle is built in the mid ward facing to the east. It is a stone building standing some 30' high at roofs-peak with a small bell tower off center rising at most 15 feet above the roof of the chapel proper.
There are two entrances to the chapel the first is the rather obvious front doors; The double doors to the chapel are decorated in a painted carving of the procession of Saint Gallant on his life's quest, the paintwork is a little faded as of late and likely to be refreshed soon if the lady of the manor has her way.
The front doors open to reveal a larger foyer and cloak room illuminated by large windows with a massive transom letting illumination into the worship space beyond. The doors leading in from the foyer are decorated with carvings of two visions of paradise from the poem "The Seven Paradises of the Heavens Above", by DeGaunte. There are no pews for there are no pews for the worshippers but one will find a number of leaning bars tat allow one to kneel and rise with relative ease and comfort. The floor of the chapel space is a warm marble with cushioned kneeling bars at the front two rows. Perhaps a 100 could worship here at one time. There are a number of small altars within the chapel one each dedicated to all five of the third generation of saints and a main altar at the fore.
There is a garden beside the chapel with a path decorated with stepping stones bearing the slightly faded carvings of the quotes of Saint Bartholos on the Knightly Virtues. One may enter the Chapel through the bell tower if the two doors are unlocked by the bell keeper. The bell keeper, known as brother Mellot, maintains the bells ringing them on the hour during the day and tends to the chapel garden, being a halfling he is the only non-human to dwell on the grounds of the manorial castle. The room at he foot of the bell tower is a simple one with a small window lighting the chamber before one enter the chapel beyond. There are three short stories in the tower above this chamber each hosting a separate room: the living quarters of brother Mellot a warm sitting room with a tiny but well equipped kitchen and a small bed, above that a workshop and the bell pulls, one finds the three tower bells above that,(Note: despite the form of address Brother Mellot is not a cleric of the celestial faith but he has long been in service at the chapel bell tower)

The chapel is used for most needs of the Family of Lord Tomas , his wife may typically be found there for an hour or so each morning. The family only attends services at the village church on special occasions and specific holy days. The baron will send his scribe to the church library to fetch him a book now and again and may be seen fetching one himself on rare occasion. The village court mentioned above is held every fourteen days or so.

Holdings of Lord Tomas (Introduction and part 1)

The Holdings of Lord Tomas will be a series of entries I hope to post on and off for a fair time to follow. Lord Tomas (also to be frequently mentioned as Sir Tomas) is a noble NPC who was part of an AD&D campaign I dm'd in the late 80's to the mid 90's. His estates and the neighboring territories were the site of many a low to mid level adventure. The posts that follow should be considered a work in progress, a flexible notebook, as I may collect them at some point in the future as part of a larger game work. I hope to cover a wide range of topics that are relevant to the Holdings of Lord Tomas in an enjoyable, informative and gameable fashion. Hopefully the posts that follow will provide hints and details others can work into their own games.

The adventuring party in my campaign at the time first met Lord Tomas lame in bed due to a wound the local clergy could not treat after meeting a clergyman (Brother Dollop) and a page on the imperial highway where it bisected a local road seeking help against a menace that threatened the manor that the wounded Lord Tomas was unable to meet.

Here now is the body of the First of hopefully many entries:

Lord Tomas Adrippa is a Baron and Knight of the Tahlmyrian empire. His holdings in the Old Olrinian March are modest but not insignificant. Three fortifications are present: the manorial castle, a village stronghold and a watchtower all staffed by a small a garrison of troops.
Tomas Adrippa is the 15th Baron in his family line to own these holdings. He is 53 years of age. He has four adult sons, the eldest two have answered a call to duty and are campaigning at the southeast border where goblins, orcs and worse menace the people at the edges of Jolumbria. His third eldest son is serving as seneschal to a doddering uncle of Lord Tomas far to the south near the coast and the youngest of his adult sons is an officer in the Imperial Legions serving to maintain order in the High Vales. His third wife has borne him three children to date, a son now seven years of age soon to be offered as a page to another lord, a daughter of 5 and an infant boy.
He also has two married adult daughters and a few grandchildren.

His nearest neighbors are Andros Adrippa (a distant cousin and one of the reasons we will refer to the holdings as those of Lord Tomas instead of those of Lord Adrippa), The Duchy of Ortossa to the south and the sizable but poorly maintained holdings of the Leifco family to the north (who are more interested in their ancestral holdings far to the south then in the backwater region that the holdings of Lord Tomas are a part of).

The holdings of family of Lord Tomas were once politically significant to the Empire as it fought, defeated and assimilated the Olrinian successor states. Economically the region is of little serious economic value beyond farming and grazing. A fair number of ruins can be found within a couple days march of the holdings of Lord Tomas: ancient Olrinian edifices, ruins from the times of imperial expansion, remnants from the era when the old marches were a booming frontier region of the empire, fortresses and villages that have remained empty since the goblin wars and even recent leavings of those that have moved on to seek fortunes in the new frontiers.

The northern border of holdings of Lord Tomas are marked by a river which is overlooked by a old watch tower (once the family keep a very long time ago), the eastern border is a secondary imperial highway running more or less north to south, the western border is a ridge of hills rising from the forests and the southern border is a half league south of the old west road (now disused except for access within the holding). The neighboring Adrippa lands maintained and owned by his cousin run more or less east to southeast along a new road branching off of the imperial highway and with a total territory three times that of the holdings of Lord Tomas.

Lord Tomas is vassal to no man directly as the family holdings were granted by imperial writ but as an imperial knight is sworn to protect the empire, the emperor and the senate. He has traveled to the imperial seat in his youth to make an oath of imperial duty to then reigning emperor (actually Empress Aribeth III ) but has never been called to make the oath before the current emperor or the senate.
Two vassals of Lord Tomas have holdings that will not generally be accounted for in these writings one holds a small hill fort overlooking the river on the northwest edge of Lord Tomas' holdings and the other maintains a pleasant villa on a lake at the border of the Duchy of Ortossa due to the extent and location of his holdings he has been compelled to swear fealty to the Duke in addition to Lord Tomas.