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In Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, players can access a zone known as Kolat Towers. The map (on p. 151) is drawn strangely though.

Kolat Towers map, level 1 and 2

It seems like the 2nd floor is not aligned with the 1st floor. Not very usual, I think. I'm building the map in 3D for my Halloween session later this week, and I'm unsure if I should build something like this

Kolat Towers map with levels overlaid

(notice how the stairs position on K4, misaligned with the stairs position in K6). The other option would be to redraw the map so the walls and stairs align.

Is this map drawn correctly, and the walls are unaligned (therefore I just need to slightly reconfigure some stairs between K4 and K6), or did designers just brainfart half-way through floors, and it would be better to remake the map?

To clarify, it's perfectly possible that the castle has floors with different orientations and the stairs are just 5ft to the side, a small mistake. I'm just confirming that I'm not doing something wrong that will later screw me when I'm half-way through my model.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan I think so, yeah. However, on the opposite side of the wall, the floor of K7 has no support between K3 and K4 \$\endgroup\$
    – BlueMoon93
    Nov 3, 2019 at 14:29
  • \$\begingroup\$ @HeyICanChan Mostly that 1) buildings (or castles) don't usually have walls with different orientations in different floors, and that 2) the stairs are in different places with this configuration \$\endgroup\$
    – BlueMoon93
    Nov 3, 2019 at 15:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ Could you clarify about the stairs? They seem aligned to me. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Nov 3, 2019 at 17:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @SevenSidedDie I've remade the image. The stairs in K4 are a bit (not too much, but a bit) sideways \$\endgroup\$
    – BlueMoon93
    Nov 3, 2019 at 17:35
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    \$\begingroup\$ @jgn I'm not sure I'll make it justice, friend, but I'll certainly try \$\endgroup\$
    – BlueMoon93
    Nov 4, 2019 at 14:48

1 Answer 1

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It's a crooked building.

The City of Splendors box set depicts the towers, as illustro pointed out in a comment:

City of Splendors box set - Wizards' Kolat Towers and Guard Post, southwestern view

Following Ryan Thompson's idea, I searched for the Kolat Towers' lore. According to the Forgotten Realms wiki entry:

The building known as Kolat Towers started out as an old stone manor and a pair of sturdy cottages. Before 1368 DR, the wizard brothers, Alcedor and Duhlark Kolat, bought the buildings and, much to the chagrin of the local building guilds, stitched the building together using spells such as wall of stone and stone shape.

So having misaligned walls actually falls in-line with the way they were created, in sections, haphazardly. jgn posted a great 3D rendering of the layout.

Kolat Towers - jgn's 3D rendering

There is a small misalignment between some stairs, which can either be a small drawing mistake, or a spiral staircase with a tilted support, like this.

spiral staircase

Interesting concept, if made on purpose. This is the cardboard model map I ended up with.

Kolat Towers - cardboard model

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The City of Splendors box set from 2e included an a1 size photo poster of a model TSR made of part of Waterdeep that included Kolat Tower \$\endgroup\$
    – illustro
    Nov 4, 2019 at 15:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ A side view of the mode in the map was also featured on the back of the box \$\endgroup\$
    – illustro
    Nov 4, 2019 at 15:15
  • \$\begingroup\$ If you search eBay for "City of Splendors box set" and look at the pictures of the first 3-4 entries you can see a birds eye view on one of the pictures, and side views in a number of the others of Kolat Towers \$\endgroup\$
    – illustro
    Nov 4, 2019 at 15:16
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    \$\begingroup\$ This is of the same box set of Amazon, but picture 5 has the best side view of Kolat Towers from the poster map. amazon.com/Splendors-FORGOTTEN-REALMS-CAMPAIGN-EXPANSION/dp/… \$\endgroup\$
    – illustro
    Nov 4, 2019 at 16:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ Great work on the cardboard model, it looks a lot more plausible than the box art! \$\endgroup\$
    – user-024673
    Nov 6, 2019 at 11:31

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