No doors, becaue it is simpler to move in a game when the entrances are big and doorless, so i think it is a good idea to take advantage of that where we can.
What purpose do the barrels serve? are you really asking? ;P
* Nikodemus can't imagine a tavern without huge amounts of beverages.
It is exactly for that purpose!
Cellars, basements - also for the tavern.
I was going to write about them before but forgot. It would be interesting if each building in the city had its own cellar, later on when we can enter each building, these basements will create even more interesting labirynth of rooms/corridors than the corridors to the lake.
So we can start from places, which we can enter - taverns. A ground like this under the city, with natural caves and alike is good for digging.
As far as the bathhouses are concerned, I think that washing dirt off with water over an aquifer would contaminate the water supply over time. If this is not a concern, then they would simply wash in the caves under the city. It is a good idea, though.
Caves under the city have ice-cold water I doubt anyone enjoy taking a bath there :o
I don't think they are really concerned about contaminating their water supply ;)
Part of the water seeps down into the soil and part of it, in the back of the cave, where all the impurities have fallen to the lake bed, is used as a water supply for the city.
Though this can be explained in different ways, it can also explain why there are epidemies in LP quarter often enough, that the upper quarter is worried about epidemies coming from there ;)
Of course the wetsoil lake may be connected with the lake underground the city and by the time the impurities reach the city lake, they will be left somewhere in the soil. And that is why the wetsoil water is refered as city water supply.
I have no good idea what setting devs meant by the above quote.