Lost Souls & Midian

This here is my outline and pages culled from my troubled mind:

Prisoner Triage
Admission
Lead in through gate to courtyard, papers checked
aura perception alarms
Processing
Searched, showered and shaved
Evaluation
Minimum security: light labor
Minimum security: hard labor
Mentally unstable: mild
Mentally unstable: severe
Maximum security

Hammerhold Layout
Administrative buildings
Guard housing
Stables
Defenses
Main wall
Towers
Exterior stations
Courtyard
Gallows and guillotine
Rec areas
Inner gate
Main prison
Asylum
Chapel
Maximum security building
Laundry, kitchen and utilities

Sub-levels
Special Therapy labs

The Pedestal
Old castle chambers
Sewage

Leaders

Staff

Inmates

The guards

The rules

Life in Hammerhold
Unique language

Maximum security

Interrogation

Asylum treatments
Electro-shock therapy
Heat therapy
Necromantic therapy

Special Therapy (think Unit 731)

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: This is just wrong. 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

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.

Torture
High pressure chambers
Scold Bridle
Rack
Iron Maiden
Saw
Tablillas
Denailing
Alfet
Heretic’s Fork
Catapelta

Execution
Hanging
Guillotine

Notes, inspiration and research:

Asch conformity

Human vivisection

Unit_731

Prisoners had limbs amputated in order to study blood loss.

Those limbs that were removed were sometimes re-attached to the opposite sides of the body.

Flea bomb in ceramic shells

High pressure chambers

Scold bridle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scold%27s_bridle

Sawing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawing

Tablillas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablillas

Denailing

Alfet (caldron)

Warden has a pair of crocodile shears above his fireplace.

Heretics’s fork
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heretic%27s_fork

Catapelta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catapelta

Warden Emon Preed.

Arcane symbols found in numerous places.

Add gates

Prisoners developed own language.

Some entry doors have aura perception alarms.