Hammerhold

Hammerhold is a prison and sanitarium in the Daen Empire.

A Friend for Dinner
The origins of Hammerhold.

As civilization evolves and turns rule into law, and a nation’s fledgling judicial system deals with the pains of crime and punishment, holding areas for offenders are necessary. Some of these places are used as centers of rehabilitation, to get criminal elements to reintegrate into a social structure without breaking it’s law. Prisons are a palpable deterrent to the people of a society, a structure made to threaten potential delinquents into conformity.

Hammerhold was born out of a necessity to house a serious threat to Formour and the world entire. Remian Vorn, a warlord and vicious cannibal, was captured and tried by a judge in Citadel less than a century ago. He seemed to have a god-like ability to lay siege to a city from nowhere. After his capture, his armies were dispersed and his lands seized, yet his presence was still felt throughout the land. He was either worshipped or feared. Those who feared him worried of reprisals from those loyal to him, and Formour feared turning him into a martyr. So they took Vorn’s castle, Zurfuhrhaus, a fortified base from which he launched many campaigns against innocent people, and built it into a prison. It was a massive keep, built into an ancient and unfamiliar ruin. Remian’s own throne room was converted into his dungeon.

As a civilization evolves, it sheds its skin along the way. A bloody battle occurred at the foot of the mountainous Zurfuhrhaus complex. Vorn’s armies sought to reclaim their old home, and free Remian from what they saw as elitism and political superiority posing as justice. Blood filled the gutters of the proud building, and smoke eclipsed the sun.

As Zurfuhrhaus’ halls were stormed by the dissident militia, guard Emon Preed fell into a chamber during his retreat deeper into the stronghold. He found a ceremonial tomb with a deep pool of silvery water in a reservoir carved into the bedrock. Fearing torture and death at the hands of the merciless Vorn, he threw himself into the pool and prayed for a quick end. Instead of sinking into liquid, he found himself kneeling on a desert road with a deep starry sky shimmering above. From the road were many paths, one of which Emon Preed took with a bound and a curse, clutching his shield, for he had learned Vorn’s secret.

As Remian Vorn dined on the salty meats of his former captors, the clash of metal echoed down his emancipated corridors. Emon Preed had with him a shadow and mist army culled from the center of Zurfuhrhaus from Vorn’s Axis Gate, a hub of planar gates that led to places all over Midian and beyond. When Emon entered the gate, he appeared in a strange land far beyond the reaches of space an time. And he pleaded with its people to help him.

As a civilization evolves, it’s people eventually become enlightened enough to debate the need for punishment in any form. To instead nurture the inherent goodness of all, and stem violence and turmoil from the spirit before it harms. Remian Vorn was quartered during a blood-red sunset. His remains were built into the foundations of what is now known as Hammerhold.

Hammerhold Today
Prisoner Triage

Admission

Lead in through gate (called the Gatelodge), papers checked

aura perception alarms

Every few months, a chain gang of 10 to 15 inmates is lead through the front gates into the admission area for processing. The Hammerhold gatelodge, an ominous four-story gate structure with three interlocking barred doors, is the last many guests see of the outside world.

An administrator or high-ranking guard hands over each prisoner’s documentation and details any special requirements of the detainees. New prisoners are kept in the open hall, flanked by guards. New arrivals admission often coincides with a hanging session. The sounds of the gallows echo through the admission hall.

Unless the new prisoner is a serial killer, corrupt politician or some other high-profile guest, then most arrivals are pre-sorted (administrators look through the prisoner’s profiles to assure that no overly dangerous persons are let into the general prison population), questioned briefly within the group, then read the rules. Admission process is swift, taking less than an hour.

On occasion, Warden Preed will inspect the new arrivals and recite the history of the prison, with an emphasis on the need for justice and order. He may speak directly to one or more of the prisoners, asking them to remain well-behaved. To a new arrival, the warden may seem grandfatherly, but if anyone steps out of line during his personal inspection, it is likely that that person would never be seen again.

Processing

Searched, showered and shaved

Interrogation

The reality of imprisonment should set in at this stage, as the chain gang is lead into the main building’s basement, separated into stone stalls, thoroughly search, stripped and hosed down, then their head is shaved. Prisoners are given a rag to dry off with and a uniform, blue-ish gray pants and shirt. Guards watch through the whole process. Exceptional prisoners, like serial killers, are moved to a sub-basement for the same treatment.

Anyone standing out from the rest, anyone who has committed a particularly heinous crime, cultists or religious fanatics, or just someone with a smug look of importance in their face, is moved to interrogation for further evaluation. Such a prisoner was probably thoroughly interrogated elsewhere, but one more session couldn’t hurt. The methods could be as simple as locking the individual into a separate room and depriving him of food and water, or turning the torturers loose on him. This discrimination is done almost every time new arrivals come through the gates. Warden Preed believes that within every batch of bad apples, an example must be made to the barrel.

Evaluation

light labor

hard labor

Mentally unstable: mild

Mentally unstable: severe

Maximum security

During processing, the administrators have been going through each arrival’s documentation to determine the best place for them. Some of the asylum staff are on hand to look for candidates for therapy instead of incarceration. The majority of the prisoners are taken into the main prison, given a cell, and instructions on the routine of prison life.

Women have a cell block to themselves, but due a riot in recent years, most women convicts are kept in satellite facilities outside of Hammerhold (until further notice, or a new system is devised). The female presence in the main prisons, though separated, fostered violent unrest within the male population. The warden has decided to remove temptation from the path.

Light labor prisoners in Hammerhold don’t have it easy. They share the same main prison cell blocks as the hard labor convicts, and plenty of animosity for not sharing the labor. Light labor includes raking the courtyard, trimming the wall’s vines, and mopping the floors. This status is reserved for those who committed simple theft, assault, and general unruliness. Also, the permanently injured, elderly and feeble are given less labor.

Hard labor prisoners are faced with tough and dangerous jobs, but also the opportunity to leave the prison walls for a few hours. They are forced into road building and repair, the construction of outer defense walls, ditches and moats, and the maintenance of Hammerhold’s giant walls. This includes moving fallen wall portions, some two meters wide, and moving new stone from a nearby quarry.

Hammerhold Layout
Administrative buildings

Guard housing

Stables

Defenses

Main wall

Towers

Exterior stations

Courtyard

Gallows and guillotine

Rec areas

Inner gate

Main prison

Cell blocks

Guard stations

Solitary confinement

Torture rooms

Asylum

Normal treatment

Asylum rooms

Special therapy

Greenhouse

Common room

Infirmary

Chapel

Chaplaincy offices

Maximum security building

Laundry, kitchen and utilities

Sub-levels

Special Therapy labs

The Pedestal

Old castle chambers

Sewage

Staff and Administrators
Warden Emon Preed

Doctor Claus Mendor

General Grolok Slade

Almia

Prisoner 143c

Special Therapy
Doctor Claus Mendor runs the asylum and Special Therapy labs in the subbasement of Hammerhold. His work ranges from cruel to bizarre, with treatments using methods not too dissimilar from the torture going on upstairs. Doctor Mendor evaluates possibly mentally disturbed patients with a system of psychological categories. This system is innocuously called The Mendor Method. It is a series of routines meant to get to the inner workings of a patient’s psyche in order to properly assign them to one of the seven Mendor Emotional Function Categories

The Mendor Method is designed for humans, but can be adapted for other races. Undead, demons and changing folk may be subjected to some of Mendor’s treatments, but may not succumb to the evaluation process which is vital to placing patients in the correct category.

Some treatments rely on a single authority figure to retain focus of the patient’s attention, but not in this method. Instead, doctors and assistants should be constantly rotated to prevent a patient from fixating on one individual enemy personage. Keep in mind that patients going through this therapy are under surveillance at all times, usually through a peephole or two-way mirror. Just outside the door of most evaluation and treatment rooms are guards ready to knock the heads of patients who step outside the boundaries of Mendor’s system. ====The Mendor Method==== Tier One, Framework of Trust. Give the patient a physical examination. The examiner should answer no questions and coldly perform his duty. Supervise the patient at all times for up to six hours. Do not provide him with food, water or clothing besides a simple robe. Examiners should also not talk among themselves. After the six hours, lock patient in a dark room with a desk and two chairs. Provide him with a small leather pouch. It seems empty, but instruct him not to open it under any circumstances. If while alone and under surveillance the patient should try to open, rip or tear the pouch, the patient is considered fit for normal jailing or torture. Release them from the asylum wing.

Tier Two, Naming. One doctor should enter the room after two additional hours and assign the patient a name. Names should be of simple nouns, plus a number; like Orange 17, or Moon 223. If the patient refuses the name, threaten to take his leather pouch away. If he still refuses, take it away and repeat Tier One as if it never happened. Each time, give them a new pouch after taking it away. For each additional Tier One repeated, make the room colder and colder (through outside ventilation). If patient notices a ruse, beat them for six hours and repeat Tier One.

Tier Three, Test of Will. In a new room, ask the following questions of the patient with three examiner present. This room is well lit, but barren. All examiners stand while the patient sits on a stone. If the patient answers anything but yes or no, continue asking the question until a yes or no is given. If they persist, repeat Tier One and Two. (When reaching Tier Two, give the patient a name similar to his last plus three to five digits. Example, Orange 21 or Moon 228.)

1) Is your name (state new name)?

2) Are you an intelligent person?

3) Do you have any fears?

4) Are you frightened now?

5) Do you know what time of day it is?

6) Is your name (state new name)?

7) Is yes the opposite of no?

Use this point system to pre-classify patient:

Number of times through Tier One: 1 point for each

Number of times through Tier Two: 3 points for each

Question 1) 1 point for Yes, 3 for No.

Question 2) 2 points for Yes, 1 for No.

Question 3) 1 point for Yes, 4 for No.

Question 4) 1 point for Yes, 3 for No.

Question 5) 2 points for Yes, 1 for No (move patient straight to Tier Five if they answer with a time).

Question 6) 0 points for Yes, 5 for No.

Question 7) 5 points for yes, 0 for No.

Points:

9-12 Admit patient into normal asylum treatment (Category G), repeat Mendor Method in six months.

28-32 Move to Tier Four, admit patient into Special Therapy if he survives.

33+ Move patient to Tier Five.

Tier Four, Treatment. Admit patient into treatment room based on these assessments. Whichever doctors determine is the most persistent quality over the next three hours, that is the category the patient should be placed in.

Is the patient complaining of hunger or thirst? Mendor Category G

Is the patient complaining of lack of comfort from heat, cold, stuffy air? Mendor Category F

Is the patient silent, depressed and/or confused? Mendor Category E

Is the patient delirious or rambling? Mendor Category D

Is the patient angry or making threats? Mendor Category C

Is the patient resistant or proud? Mendor Category B

Is the patient calm and collected? Mendor Category A

The following are the recommended treatments for each Mendor Category.

Mendor Category G

Normal asylum treatment.

Mendor Category F

Vivisection

Mendor Category E

Necromantic therapy

Mendor Category D

Borrowed faces: The victim is tortured psychologically by jailers wearing masks that look like the faces cut from the prisoner's loved ones. Spouses, friends, children, even pets are used. It goes without saying that the most effective mask is one that was actually taken from a person's face. Some spirited torturers will actually kill and wear the faces of the prisoner's pets, et al. It is easiest to cut the faces off of the prisoner's partners in crime who have been already executed, but some will go out and find those close to their victim to slay and wear.

Mendor Category C

Face cage

Mendor Category B

Lobotomy

Mendor Category A

Tier Five  Make the threat to the patient that you will force them open their pouch. If the patient refuses simply, without emotional protest, move patient to Tier Two to take or retake the test.

If the patient opens the pouch of his own will, move him to immediate torturing upstairs.

If the patient breaks down, cries, or goes delirious, tell them to open it immediately, doing it by force if necessary.

Inside, a shadowy fog spills out and blinds the patient. Take the patient to The Pedestal.