The Battle Gate is set in a white-granite, 60-foot-high gate house with walls 5 feet thick. The gate’s outer doors are monstrous, each rising 40 feet high, spanning 20 feet, and measuring 2 feet thick, made from an unknown wood banded with iron. The gates have never been replaced and have stood here for centuries. It is highly likely that they are enchanted in some way. Only 40 feet past these outer gates is another identical set of gate doors, usually kept open. Beyond this interior set is a massive portcullis of iron bars, each 4 inches across, which can be lowered in a minute’s time. A third set of double gate doors lies beyond, only 10 feet beyond the second pair, opening outward into the courtyard of the Grand Citadel.

Each set of doors can be barred by a huge timber on chains, kept hidden above the doors themselves. As expected, the gate house is supplied with many defenses, from murder holes and huge pots of oil (to be heated and poured on intruders) to spell traps. They are little used these days.

Roger Moore. Greyhawk, The Adventure Begins. 1996

Grand Citadel