Ah, the old country inn. Not a simple building. Not just a one room tavern with a place to sleep. No, this is the most impressive building in the village this inn. Stone walls, a second floor, a walled courtyard (More stone, very nice, rather expensive too) and the stables. Enough hay to feed then animals, and a nice dry place to store the firewood. Everybody has firewood, stoves use it. Keeps the inn warm at night, cooks your food, very hand stuff an extra supply, no innkeeper would be without enough for a few months. A bonfire hardly touches that... not when it's mostly hay. The pumpkin, from the root cellar, under the inn. So, perhaps the wall isn't that tall and impressive as the barkeep (rest his soul) would have liked it to be, but the baron has a few of his guards there... if anybody did escape, the first one to try would be killed by the guard easily enough, while the others threw torches into the thatch roof to burn everybody else alive. Threat enough to keep everybody nicely in place until reinforcements arrive.
The courtyard is cobblestone, with plenty of space in it. It's rather a sign of the displeasure of the barkeep with the traveling fortune teller that he was made to park the wagon outside of the grounds of the inn. And honestly it's now being used as part of the barricade of the gate. Perhaps it's because he does not like to look after the mules. We'll never know at this point.
(that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)
Yes, I could have made a rule about no copying things from one PM to another... but I am not a mod, I couldn't have checked, and I couldn't stop it. The honor system would just leave those who did it with an advantage over those who don't. Course, now everybody has my design template. Course, you've all had it from the start. This trick will only work for the first few games, after that you'll all be able to fake my style. Villagers, enjoy it while it lasts.