6. Prison Blockhouse GC5

This building, like so much of the Citadel, is a huge, squarish block of stone. Its surface is broken by a single door, at ground level, and a ring of narrow arrow slits 40 feet off the ground around the periphery of the prison's top. Like those in the Great Blockhouse, these slits are too narrow to prevent an adult human's passage.

The prison blockhouse is divided into a ground level, three upper levels, and a below-ground level. All except the basement follow the same floor plan. The single door is locked and secured with an iron bar on both the inside and outside.

An elite patrol of the watch always stands guard at the door. The sergeant at-arms commanding the patrol always carries the keys to the main door. The only other copy of the key is kept by Sental Nurev himself.

The four prisoner-inhabited floors each have a large central area with crude tables and benches. This is the prisoner dining and assembly area. An iron stairway, clearly exposed to view from the room, connects each floor with those above and below. The upper floor connects to the roof through a trap door, locked with the same lock as the main door.

A latchkey (typical man-at-arms) stays on each floor when the pnsoners are in their cells. When they are released to march to work or to eat, each latchkey is aided by a large standard patrol of 20 additional men.

Each floor houses approximately 400 prisoners, all male. Slightly more than two-thirds are human, the others being a mix of dwarves, half-orcs and a smattering of other demihumans.

The cells are large, but crowded rooms, each housing ten men. Each cell is locked with a door of metal bars. That door is then secured by a hallway door and another security door, all of metal bars, before prisoners can pass into the central room. Each of the three doors requires a separate key, though all the cells on a floor work with the same key. Thus, each latchkey carries three keys.

It should be noted that the prison guards are among the most brutish and sadistic of the City Watchmen. Some of these men rotate through the prison guard position, but most have made a career out of it. They are as corrupt as any official in the city, and thus can usually be bribed. However, these guards feel no constraints of conscience, and will readily betray anyone who displeases them. They are not above beating and, for aggravated insults, murder.

GC5: Prison. This dull, massive stone building has no windows or decorations. This is Greyhawk’s prison, which contains four floors and one basement level. Only one door leads into the prison from ground level, with two doors leading up to the roof for guards to patrol. Each floor can house up to 400 prisoners. Usually, the prison holds 1,000—1,500 convicts, 98% of them male, 95% being human and the rest dwarves, half-orcs, or humanoid officers of various sorts. The current Warden of the Citadel is Etin Detecs [LE hm F13; hp 89; Int 18; many tings and potions], a brilliant former Greyhawk Militia officer who was promoted when the previous Warden was imprisoned for corruption in 585 Cy. (The former Warden died during a routine questioning session with Derecs.) No one has escaped prison during Derecs’ term in office.

The guards here are strong, aggressive, and corrupt; drinking, gambling, and assaulting ptisoners is rampant, though the guards can be bribed to give better treatment or favors, The chance of bribing a guard to allow an escape is very small, as the punishment for this is extreme (a personal meeting with Derecs). Mote likely, a bribed guard will give a prisoner a few moments of lead time, then cry an alarm and have the prisoner slain during the escape attempt, while the guard claims credit for discovering the escape.

DMs Notes: If a character somehow manages to be thrown into prison, life will be very rough, Only female prisoners have any hope of reasonable treatment, as Constable Fanshen (see GC6) will check on their condition on a daily basis. An escape attempt from the inside is possible, but the best chance, though a weak one, is for outsiders to break in to free a comrade.