WARNING: this thread may contain adult themes. If you are uncomfortable with coarse language, strong violence, sexual references and such, you may wish to avoid this one.This is a closed thread. Aurelianus is excepted.
Narrow eyes snapped up and down the guard's frame. Their owner - a bald, middle aged monk - shuffled a couple of letters around in his hands.
"Name?" He asked the orc who stood before him.
"Otto Bastum," replied the guard.
"Unit and subunit?"
"Fourth Infantry Division, Logistics Battalion Fourteen."
"How heavy is your duty to Corone?"
"As light as a feather."
"Well, that about sorts it," the monk finished. He glanced briefly at the Cororne Armed Force insignia embroidered onto Otto's scarlet tabard: a feather and a sword. "Sergeant Kaphyka is waiting for you in the east corridor. Follow me, please."
Otto gave the skinny fellow a nod and fell in step. That little security check had been considered necessary because of the simulation he was heading to now - a faithful copy of one of Radasanthia's major jails. Otto was to be temporarily assigned there as a junior warden until replacements came back from the latest action in the campaign against the Rangers. So, in preparation, he a couple of his fellow recruits were ordered to the Citadel to run through a training regime for the placement. Otto expected it to turn rather hectic since a standard induction could have easily been facilitated on site; they sent you to the Citadel for realistic combat experience and endurance training, where the swords were always sharp and mistakes cost you dearly. This run at the Citadel would almost certainly be to train the recruits under various states degraded security. It was probably too hard to do that at the actual jail without the inmates getting carried away.
The pair stopped in front of a tall wooden door and the monk produced a heavy keyring from his belt. Otto, who had strict orders to arrive on time, observed his guide fumbled fruitlessly through the myriad keys on the hoop, eventually sighing with relief when a click heralded the lock's surrender. The monk pushed the door open for Otto but didn't accompany the orc across the threshold.
"Have a pleasant day," said the man as he closed the door, and the lock snicked back in to place. Otto turned around and took in the his surroundings: another long corridor, practically indistinguishable from the other passages through the Citadel, and empty save for two uniformed figures located past several doors down the hall. One was Kaphyka: tall and lean under a mail shirt and leggings, he also wore thick leather bracers, gloves, and boots, but no helm, with a steel longsword on his left hip and a dagger on his right. The other was a fellow recuit armoured in a similar manner save for an iron bascinet, a leather buckler, and an iron short sword. Otto faced his sergeant and snapped a salute, which Kaphyka returned.
"Not surprised to see you're last. Inside, now! Rurin," he added, now directed at the other recruit. "Stand guard and make sure anyone trying to get inside has clearance before you let them."
"Sir!" she barked back.
Otto stepped through the portal.
The ground floor:
Room guide: Stair guide: I. External stables VIII. Inmate Processing i. stairs up to first floor of barracks: kitchen, laundry, dorm, wall access iii. stairs up to first floor of prison building: cell blocks I.I through I.IV, library, guard post II. Main Gate IX. Guard Post ii. stairs down to dungeons iv. stairs down to chapel cellar, crypts III. Barracks X. Cell Blocks G.I through G.IV, left to right IV. Armoury XI. Prison Laundry V. Smithy XII. Prison Kitchens VI. Training Yard XIII. Chapel VII. Internal Gate XIV. Garden
... and out on to the wooden floorboards of a long antechamber. There were three other soldiers already here; they looked like recruits, clad in rough leather buff coats, scarlet gambesons, and iron helms. Two had an iron broadsword each, the other one bore a mace, and all three had a surplus dagger at their belts. A straight run of plank stairs led upwards on his left and a brick wall to his right had a cork board hung up between a couple of barred windows. In the feeble light he could see a crude floor plan had been pinned to it, and upon inspection it turned out to be the prison's. From what he could tell, a solid line through a doorway marked the threshold between the inside of a building and it's exterior. Some of the proportions seemed circumspect, as though copied by an amateur from the original plans. The plan would still do as a rough guide, in any case. While Otto identified their current location as being within the barracks, Kaphyka entered the room and shut the door back to the Citadel behind him. The four recruits immediately formed up in a line to face their superior, standing to attention.
"I am sergeant Muirin Kaphyka," he said. The words were clipped and sharp. "I have been a senior warden at this prison for the last five years, and I will be running through a number of high-risk scenarios with you today. But first, we will make a tour of the facilities. Follow me, and move out!"
Kaphyka whipped them up to a jogging pace, directing them through the inner gates and in to processing. "This is processing!" he barely had time to yell before they had passed through. He did the same for the guard post ("This is the ground floor guard post! Note the ladder in the corner leading to the first floor!"), the laundry, kitchen and the four ground level cell blocks. At the end, Kaphyka stopped them in the corridor just between processing and block G.I and let the trainees catch a few lungfuls of air. Otto took the time to reflect on what he saw: each cell had consisted of stout iron bars running from floor to ceiling around the front and sides, and the only solid wall for each cell was the stone one that they backed on to. And in each small room, a grey-faced apparitions had stared blankly back at the recruits as they had jogged on by.
"Alright, now we begin! William," Kaphyka barked. William - one of the fellows with a sword - snapped to attention. "You're up. We'll start off nice and light - go through that door and patrol up and down block G.I. I'm closing the door so you get the feel for what it's like to do your rounds solo. Return here once you've completed one round of the corridor. The rest of you, get in to position outside of the other cell blocks, and follow suit! Go!"
With another salute, they all set off. William disappeared behind the heavy door to block G.I, and Otto took the next one down. He stepped through into the torch-harried gloom of G.II, and the door slammed shut behind him.
Submit Thread for Judgment