Rosewick Prison

Rosewick Prison is a large building in the city of Rosewick where prisoners and convicts are held. It is heavily guarded and said to be impossible to escape.

History

Rosewick Prison was built when the city was just a small town, large enough that crime was beginning to rear its head. In the beginning, it had three jail cells, one of which was used to hold several folk at once, and a main room where guards would fill out paperwork and take breaks. As the city grew, so too did its need for a larger and more robust prison. Several expansions occurred over the prison's lifetime, adding more single- and high-occupancy cells, offices for guards, stronger walls, and common rooms for the prisoners.

Originally built on the northern edge of Rosewick, near the heathlands, the entire building was actually moved after its second expansion. It now sits, in this second location, on the top of a bluff overlooking the main city. It is surrounded on three sides by the fast-flowing Misty River as it splits and tumbles over the high cliff that borders the fourth wall of the prison. This location was chosen for its difficulty to access, as a higher population might increase the frequency of violent or serious crimes that required greater prisoner security, and it would be nearly impossible for a prisoner to escape not only the building itself, but the river or cliffs surrounding the building.

In AV 1611, the prison's western wing caught fire for an unknown reason. The fire ripped its way through the wooden timbering inside the prison, damaging the structural integrity of the stone walls in that area. Although portions of the west wing are still collapsed, work is underway to repair this so the prison can return to full capacity. Several prisoners unfortunately died in the fire and subsequent collapse, but none were able to escape through the weakened area. The west wing is sealed off until the damage can be fully repaired.

Architecture

The prison is made mostly from rough stone bricks, giving it a rather squat and square silhouette. Most of the prisons are floored with smoothed stone bricks, and all of the doors are either reinforced by or made entirely out of iron. In the guards' areas, the floors are covered with polished wooden planks to keep the chill away.

To help support the weight of the stone from which the prison is built, many wooden support beams have been added to corridors and rooms. For the most part, this system works extremely well and the prison hasn't seen any spontaneous collapses in its long history. Unfortunately, one risk of using so much wood in the construction is that fire poses a hazard to the structure. The dry wooden beams used are perfect for fueling any fires, and the loss of several supports in too close of an area can result in collapse, as seen in the recent fire that occurred in the prison's west wing.

An Inescapable Fortress

Owing to the prison's strategic location and its sturdy construction, it is difficult for anyone to force their way out of - or into - the prison. To get on or off the island where the prison sits, one would either need to brave the icy, fast flowing Misty River, traverse the slick, rocky face of the cliff, or make their way across the single drawbridge, which is in full view of several guard towers and is only lowered to let authorized folk in and out. In addition, the prison is under heavy guard and protected by several layers of magical alarms and traps. Anyone who is not authorized to cross the prison's threshold triggers these spells, which alert guards to the area and slow down whoever tripped them. Rosewick Prison is well-known to be inescapable.

Only one individual has ever been known to vanish from the prison undetected: the notorious thief Brayan Marston. He had been sent to Rosewick Prison after a string of thefts on the wealthy of Rosewick, stealing vast sums of gold, jewelry, and, strangely, clocks. Set to be imprisoned for the rest of his life, Marston seemed to be a quite pleasant fellow despite his crimes - talking and joking with the guards and befriending his fellow prisoners. However, on the morning of the 19th of Third Winter, AV 1492, a guard sent to Marston's cell to give him his breakfast found the cell empty, with the door locked. The shocked guard called an alarm, and a thorough search was conducted of the entire prison and the surrounding island. The alarms had not been set off, so Marston must have still been on the island. A search of his cell revealed what appeared to be sulfur powder of the floor, a loose brick, and a bent spoon. However, the brick was too small, nothing else had been dug at with the spoon, and no one could figure out where the sulfur powder had come from. Marston had vanished.

Parent Location

Rosewick