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"As you walk in to the freehold, a row of windows facing out to the
garden is on your right, with several tables and chairs arranged for the
view. To your immediate left is an alcove with your generic "place to
stuff things we need now and then" closet, plus the infamous weapon's
locker. When I left there was a fully-stocked EMT kit in the closet,
for those pesky non-chimeric wounds... don't know if that's been
maintained.
Where the alcove ends, the bar begins, and runs half the length of the
common room on the left wall. Well-stocked is an understatement.
There's an antique cash register there for looks. At the end of the bar
there's a door in the left wall leading into the kitchen area. The wall
then moves out again, so the room expands off to the left to create a
wider area. The booths are back here, where there's some perpetual
shade. There are a number of tables and chairs on the floor which can
be moved for dancing purposes. The door to the bathroom/trods is in the
middle of the left wall back here, and the door to the library is on the
rear wall, each door standing in a break between two booths.
The front part of the common room has cathedral ceilings with chestnut
beams, but the area where the booths are extends partially under the
second-floor bedrooms, so the ceiling is lower. In the center of the
common area, and just before the point where the ceiling level drops, is
the hearth with the balefire. There is a slight platform in front of
the hearth, which makes it into sort of a dais. There are some comfy
chairs and a coffee table there, and a red-toned oriental rug. Much to
her chagrin, there is a three-foot tall granite statue of Brekke in the
corner near the balefire, carved and put there by Stonehands the Nunnehi
(I had forgotten all about that until now).
There is a couch under the last two windows on the right wall closest to the balefire. In the open area in the front part of the common room
there is a piano (baby-grand, I think). There's also a jukebox on the
back wall near the couch.
The stairs to the second level begin on the right side of the room, near the couch, and go up against the back wall to the landing which is right against the chimney. From the landing, a corridor extends straight back with doors to sleeping quarters. (Thus, the lower ceiling starts right behind the hearth, as I've said before.)
As to the garden, the cultivated area extends a little way before
turning into woodland. I know Almond set up a temple to Aphrodite (I think) in the garden." [Ed. Note: The current agreed upon answer to the "garden problem" is that the garden itself exists wholly in the Dreaming, as does much of the second floor]
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