This is your traditional water wheel mill. It is a large grey painted building. Next to a river, its massive wooden wheel turns via the current, driving its large stone grinding stones. In goes the various grains, out comes flour and meal.
The miller and his family that lives here, in a building adjacent to the mill, inherited it from the last of the original family, after the New Miller (and he is called the New Miller in these parts, even though he has been doing it for twenty three years now) had fallen on some hard times and his mill had been destroyed.
The Mill has some features that make it unique. It has a number of “priest holes”, places where a person can be hidden and not found during a search. There is also a tunnel under the great wheel. The narrow winding stairs lead down to a small tunnel that leads to the caves in the hills a mile or two away.
The Mill has forever been part of underground trails, smuggling out and protecting those whos religion or blood line has fallen out of favor in The Land. The New Miller was one of those. He was actually escaping on foot, not following the underground trail, when he lucked upon the Mill. The Old Miller, dying of wounds endured while helping others escape, entrusted him with the mill’s secrets and deed. The New Miller seems upright and beyond approach, yet deep in the night… he helps those who need to escape oppression.
New Submissions
2005-11-20 12:24 AM
Link: [1483#8025|text]
2005-12-26 08:26 AM
Link: [1483#10200|text]
2006-03-10 02:07 PM
A priest hole is the term given to hiding places for priests built into many of the Catholic great houses of England during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I. Her court passed an act prohibiting a member of the Church of Rome from celebrating the rites of his religion on pain of various punishments. It was even worse for Papist priests.
Now, it was not uncommon for the castles and mansions of England to have some precautions in the event of "troubles", such as a secret means of concealment or escape that could be used at a moment's notice. Many of these were pressed into service in the houses of the old Roman Catholic families. Hidden rooms became hidden chapels. Other smaller palces (called holes) became artfully contrived hiding-place, not only for the officiating priest to slip into in case of emergency, but also where the vestments, sacred vessels, and altar furniture could be put away at a moment's notice.
Thus the hunt for Priest Holes began in England. And that is where the name came from.
Priest Holes were also built in Colonial Homes in America. Originally used as "safe places" against Indian Raids or Bandits. More notably, they were used by slave sympathists (abolitionists) to hide Escaping Slaves on the Underground Railroad to the North.
Given that someone is normally oppressing someone, such places would exist in any world.
2006-02-27 06:21 PM
Link: [1483#12719|text]
Thank heavens for 'random submissions' popping up!
2006-02-27 11:16 PM
2006-12-22 10:28 PM
2006-12-23 10:04 AM
The basic plot utilizing this place:
To utilize this area you need a persecuted peoples, that are generally innocent, that were until recently, perfectly legal law abiding citizens. (Slaves can also be substituted).
This is a stop on an underground rail road for smuggling these people out of the region, to another country that accepts them.
These people are hunted by a) the crown's agents, b) the religion's paladins, or c) magical constructs created for the purpose.
Entangle players as you see fit.
2007-06-05 03:33 PM
Link: [1483#27778|text]
2007-06-05 04:03 PM
Link: [1483#27782|text]
2007-06-07 02:22 PM
This is the sort of thing I wish we did more of, plug and play components to enhance a world, rather than define some huge chunk, if not all of it.
2009-01-21 02:54 PM