Down to the nitty-gritty, Tony, his friends, and a mixed bag of Cliques are about to take it to the Townies in the heart of their not-so-secret lair. But how did this place come to be ? Oh, the long-ago construction of the three levels has been explained....But why such an intricate layout for the third level ?
When I went looking for some round design for such a level, back when the kidnapping took place, about the only suitable image I found was the one you see above. It actually is the layout of a "China Round House"....I didn't stop to look up the information about them at the time, but did so way later. They are some fascinating structures. Think round, multi-story apartments, with a common courtyard in the middle. People have their residences in the outer circle, and the 'Porches' for each level wrap clear around inside. They were more perceived as fortresses than houses.
There are various structures that can be put into the 'Courtyard' areas of these places....That is why you see things inside. What I did was build the whole story of the underground Chem Plant levels around this image above (and the tunnel system under Blue Skies that followed later). I could find no compatible images for the other 2 levels, so those are left to the reader's imagination. I did however, bisect level 2 with the Animal Testing Lab, particularly for the tale of the attempted escape of Karen and Melody.
This particular 'China Round House' apparently incorporated 1-story concretic structures in their Courtyard. Keeping in mind that you could stand on the upper inner balconies and look down on these structures (and in fact I found one actual picture that shows just that). So, what I did was, make the outer balcony ring into the outer hallway for the story's purpose. What looks like a wide hallway at the right side is what gave me the Idea to incorporate the 'Steel Doors' at the end, for the secret movement of the banned Chemical Weapons out of the lower levels of the Chem Plant, and thus I had to create a series of tunnels that would lead to Spencer Warehouse. While I was at it, I made most of the tunnel system older, and had them go to the various other industries as well....Which would help explain just why there is not a lot of material being moved around on the surface in Blue Skies...It's moved underground.
The open areas to the right I thought should have to be something, So I placed a Lunchroom (Cafeteria) to the top of the big Hallway, and the Kitchen (including a cafeteria-style line) to the bottom of the big Hallway. And in the center, I placed the Recreation Room, for every place where personall have to work in a confined area (in this case the Scientists) and aren't allowed to leave should have one of those. It is the place where the Townies will make their last stand.
The Image is upside-down from the way it should be....South is at the top, and North is at the bottom. That was made necessary because of the placement of the Steel Doors to line up with the underground tunnels. Sorta couldn't help that. The wrap-around stairway that Tony and Nick go down is located at the top and feeds into the alcove and then the smaller straight hallway there....{Karen and Melody were initially held in the 8th room to the left of the stairs}. These stairs do not go clear up to the first level, they only go from the third level to the second level....An identical set of wraparound stairs, a few yards away on the second level, goes from the second level to the first level. This was made necessary so that Karen and Melody would only escape as far as the second level (and the Lab) in their attempt.
The smaller hallway at the bottom goes to the 'Escape Tunnel' that leads underground down into a gorge, where the river from the Towns flows out towards the Ocean, and the small dock that is there. This is where Jerry parked the 'escape boat' he stole earlier. These will play a role in the final rescue, so stay tuned.
All in all, a lot of Chapter 8 came from this one image. Imagine that.
