Good sir! Secomber… I’ve been able to find information about the Justice system, and the two most popular inn & tavern in there. But other than that, you have any more details about its design & architecture (since no map appears to exist)? Secomber has been mapped by me (every building, in the style I did all of the maps for the 2e tome Forgotten Realms Adventures), and the map is "out there." It's also owned by TSR (now WotC), so I can't legally share it. No, it isn't fortified. Houses have gardens, so there's…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2018
2/…room between them, with only a few places (especially around the bridges) where shops with floors of living space above them crowd together wall-to-wall. Thanks in part to this space, the buildings of Secomber (which most Waterdhavians would term "cottages" in terms of…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2018
3/…architecture) sprawl "everywhere," on high ground and low (yes, there are older dwellings that get flooded every spring because they're TOO low). Secomber has gardens, trees, fences, and hedges like a country village, and is one of the few larger (and growing!) centers to…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2018
4/…retain them. It's also, increasingly, a place for the rising middle class of Waterdeep to buy second homes to go to for "a country retreat" of "breathing the fresh air" and letting children play. Secomber has always been dominated by its halfling citizens. It's also…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2018
5/…increasingly popular as a resupply depot/refresher paddock ground/warehousing stopover for costers and merchant caravan companies making overland treks to the Inner Sea [note to Pathfinder folks: MY "Inner Sea" came first ;}, but Sea of Fallen Stars if you prefer] and to/…
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2018
6/…from the Sword Coast North interior. Secomber is increasingly known for its local vegetables and bakeries (and the cuisine that uses them), and for its beer. Goldenfields may be the granary of the North, but Secomber is its bakeshop. ;}
Hope this is of help, Stephane!— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2018
Oh so it’s not fortified. Interesting! I had assumed that because I read in Elminster’s FR > Secomber’s Code of Justice > Godsfrowns > Attacking Secomber : “… or damage to city gates.” So I thought “the city must be fortified, otherwise… what’s the point of having gates?” 🙂 Heh. Secomber has "for show" gates like Marble Arch, or the Arc de Triomphe, or any number of tourist places that erect uprights with a crosspiece emblazoned, "Gateway To" [Whatever]. Long ago, Secomber WAS fortified, but it outgrew its walls, and the remnants were robbed of so..
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2018
2/…many stones to make cottages, that they utterly ceased to exist. Except for those gates. Which survived partly because a barracks/jail/Watch HQ building was part of them (now an inn, Garadryn's Gates).
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2018
Nice, now I get it! Hadn’t thought of the aesthetic aspect of such gates. 😉 And this garrison of the Lords’ Alliance in a “palisaded fort”, it was part of that wall as well? Long ago… you are referring to the days when Secomber was Hastarl, capital of Athalantar, I presume? ALMOST that long ago. Secomber was built on the ruins of Hastarl, so there was a break. ;} But yes, walls back then, when it was first built as Secomber.
— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) April 25, 2018