The Prison
Contents
Overview
Located right in the middle of the wealthiest part of Sigil, the Prison is a foreboding structure seven-stories high. Unlike its surroundings of pristine buildings and gilded arches, it is far from graceful. The Prison walls are a solid grey slate, perfectly regular and symmetrically made.
The building itself is built with an enormous courtyard at the centre, where prisoners of the less serious offences are permitted exercise and leisure time. The courtyard itself is nothing special mind - just a giant square of dirt with the odd hoop, sheepskin bladder sportsball, and a couple of withered shrubs.
Mercykillers are expected to work guard duty in the prison at least once a fortnight, no matter their division. They are given free reign of the prison, including the cellars. Those with clerical training will be encouraged to help attend to the spiritual needs of the inmates and see to patching up the poor sods who end up beaten or in fights. Those due for the gallows likewise get a ‘full tending to’ to ensure they are in top form for their final show.
Key Areas
The Searchlights
The Searchlights are the product of the League of Innovation, a new invention that involves channelling a continual flame through a specially designed crystal lattice. The result is a focused beam of light that is capable of blinding and even stunning if needed.
The Cellars
As bitter and lifeless as the cells above ground are, the Cellars are worse. Below the ground lie a maze-like series of tunnels, designed to be as confusing and torturous as possible for prisoner and guard alike. Down here are the mess halls, bathing rooms and work rooms - all of which the prisoners must visit daily. Dark has it that there are a further 8000 cells down here - filled with extra precautions like antimagic shackles and sensory deprivation for high risk inmates.
Visiting the Prison
"A grim and orderly structure, this prison is watched over by regularly placed guard towards all along the roof. Mounted ballistae and search lights made of continual flames scour the surroundings, keeping vigil at all times. You'll see armed Mercykillers in their red plate armour patrolling the roof and by the doors, their twin-headed dogs snarling and keeping an eye out for active enchantments or illusions."
Entering the Prison
"As grim as this was on the outside, the inside is worse. It starts with a dismal waiting area, sparsely furnished and minded by a dozen bored guards. Long corridors of slate grey are regularly partitioned off with thick iron bar doors. Further doors lead off the corridors at regular intervals, leading to tiny, unlit cells."
The Sentencing Rooms
Below even the Cellars are a series of perpetually blood-stained rooms called the Sentencing Rooms. It is down here that interrogations and most punishments short of execution are carried out. Metallic grating and dwarven ingenuity have them constructed such that sound carries all the way up through the Cellars and into the surface level cells. Poor sods having a wash or their daily meal have to put up with the tortured screams of those below them.
Inmates live in terror of being called to the Cellars. They never know if they're about to have their fingers chopped off or made to mend some overalls.
The Execution Square
Executions carried out by the Mercykillers always take one of the three following forms: Gallows, Blade or Wyrm.
Death by Gallows. The most common form of execution, Death by gallows, has hundreds of names: the Leafless Tree, the Last Dance, the Rope… By and large, hanging is reserved for deserters, embezzlers, murderers, and escapees. The prisoner is expected (in an unofficial capacity) to garnish the hangman to ensure the knot is set properly, lest their last struggle be drawn out as long as possible (to much the crowd’s delight).
Death by Blade. Generally dished out to nobles and high-ranking faction members, Death by Blade is reserved for some of the more serious crimes such as tax evasion, libelling the Lady, or seeking to close a portal. The law demands that justice be carried out swiftly: if the executioner fails to put the sod in the dead-books after three swings, they are pardoned and set free.
Death by Wyrm. An extremely rare and spectacular demise, the occasion of Death by Wyrm is often seen as an unofficial public holiday. It’s not uncommon for employers to give people the day off work for people to attend, leading to enormous turnouts for the event. The victim is staked to a post with their arms and legs splayed, with their choice of blindfold either on or off. Only traitors to the city are given this fate: those who commit treason, tamper or reveal with a secret gate, or murder a Factol are such reasons.