Sevetor's Prison

The Īllic Marsh rests near the center of the Island of Īll. It appears to be an ancient flooded crater miles in diameter. The marsh is rarely more than knee-deep but the silty sludge makes all travel a challenge. The marsh is home to a strange blue briar with particularly sharp thorns that tears at leather as easily as cloth. There are also a number of creatures that are only found in the marsh, including a woolly alligator, a large species of frog that can swallow a Halfling whole, and a red-yellow wasp that creates eerie mud-paper stalagmites that rise up from the brackish waters to heights of ten or twenty feet (see Woolly Alligator, Īllic Frog, Īllic Wasp).

A great many stories end at Sevetor's Prison. Located at the center of the Īllic Marsh, the squat stone tower has served the The City of Grimthorn for many centuries. Criminals and the Unwanted are sent to the prison with the expectation that they will never again be seen by decent or influential folk. For the last couple decades, the institution has been overseen by Edrik Sevetor, High Warden of Grimthorn. Sevetor is also Guildmaster of the Order of Penitence. His guilders serve as jailers within the prison, though they are sometimes sent to Grimthorn and its satellites to perform executions, tortures, and to intimidate.

Over the last few decades, the surrounding marsh has inundated most of the prison's ground floor. It is unclear whether the wetlands have been rising, or the tower has been sinking. Some of the wing-block doors have been secured against the rising waters, but most of the ground floor and its access tunnel to the central tower, have been flooded. The access tunnel is only passable by swimming underwater, in the dark, for 20 feet. The inmates of Fēthid's Wing are the most pitiable of the prison's residents. Though the encroaching marsh has been held at bay, rot smelling waters still find their way into the cells and the inset ceramic pots are always spilling over.

The first story is comprised of four intact wing-blocks maintained by jailers Balgin, Kort, Narek, and Vīgul. The cells haven't changed in centuries. Each has a wood trestle bed and a ceramic funnel-bowl inset into the stone floor with a pipe leading down through the floor, opening in the ceiling below above the next ceramic funnel-bowl. Above, another pipe is visible leading down from the cell directly above. This crude plumbing system punishes those residing below, who must take care to avoid effluvia from above.

A key component to the floor-plan are the wing-block doors which are designed to open and lock into place at 90°. Jailers are trained to seal themselves off from escaped prisoners in such a way that they have access to ladders while trapping prisoners in their wing-block. Though reinforced, thick, and heavy, the paired wing-block doors open in tandem, sealing all traffic from the prisoners' cells. The door mechanisms on the ground floor were disabled to dislocate the doors, so that the swamp's intrusion could be stopped.

The second story of Sevetor's Prison is identical to the first, except that the inmates on this floor do not have to look nervously upward when they squat over their ceramic receptacle. Residents of the second story answer to four jailers: Egdrav, Gēllin, Kāvan, and Zald. These are elder Guilders who have earned their stripes, and so only have to contend with the less problematic inmates. Mixed with these are political prisoners who have been condemned to the prison until they can be made--useful.

The prison's third story contains sleeping and learning quarters for Sevetor's staff. These functions are divided among four attic areas which are completely unknown and cut-off from the prison population. Though access to this floor is available via the four corner ladders, there is no similar access to stories above the third. All access to Sevetor's Tower is limited to the submerged tunnel on the ground floor. If jailers are called to Sevetor but cannot make it through the tunnel, a ladder can be precariously perched on one of the food radiating rooftops.

The final story of Sevetor's Prison contains a small square-roofed tower room that serves as the warden's office and quarters. It is a spare chamber without adornment. His food and supplies are lifted to him by rope and basket. The battlements surrounding the tower look out over the gray and dreary swamp in all directions.

NPCs

Edrik Sevetor

The Guildmaster has served as prison warden for as long as most remember. He was there when the Varēin Twins confessed to the assassination of Lady Odālin, he oversaw the beheading of Tōsis the Red-Handed, he was called to Grimthorn to witness the coronation of King Lōth, he wove glass into the lash used on the back of Grēis Gandor, Slayer of Thāvis, and numerous other noteworthy tasks. He is one of the first members of the Order of Penitence to achieve something akin to celebrity among the newsreaders of Grimthorn and he is the unchallenged sovereign of his sinking domain.