Prologue: Brokenreach Prison

         Since cities and society began, there has always been places to put the criminal elements, be them drunkards roughing up the local tavern or members of the thieves guild that get sloppy during a mugging. The former being the most common and only staying for the night and are released soon after they sober only to repeat the process the next night. The term most often used would be a jail and housed within the walls of the local city watch. Usually it is just a single large room with iron bars forming compartments to hold a number of people, though some are built with stone walls and iron doors forming cells in which a smaller number of people are contained within. There are your dungeons, little more than a man made network of small, damp caves underneath the local castle. Considerably better patrolled since soldiers as well as the city watch patrol the corridors. Though usually the guards rarely need to enter into the dungeons proper. They have their own cells, each with heavy iron doors ensuring that these villains will never see the light of day. Except perhaps on the day of their execution, should they live that long. Dungeons have one main entrance into their depths, which makes guarding them easier. Many towns have rumors that there are secret passages leading into the main castle so that political prisoners can be shuttled down inside so none would be the wiser. People love to talk and so the rumors stay. Be in jail or dungeon, the layouts of these places vary in relation to need and space available.
         Then there's Brokenreach Prison. Three days sail from shore stands a column of stone hundreds of feet above the surface of the ocean. Engraved into the stonework are glowing runes projecting a transparent wall preventing anything from coming within a half mile of the structure. The only way inside the prison is by a portal opened from the prison itself. It is said that the prison has three rooms aside from the corridors holding the prisoners: the Portal Room, the Entry Room, and the guard room. The Portal Room is isolated from the rest of the prison and controls the opening and closing of the portal in the Entry Room. From the Entry Room you pass through the lone door and into the guard room. With doors along the wall, the shape of this room varies from circular to hexagonal, depending on which version of the story you hear.
         Since its construction hundreds of years ago by a group of powerful wizards, Brokenreach has held the very scourge of society. This is all speculation since there are none alive today that can tell you what the inside of those walls look like. There have been no escapes from its walls. Once you enter, you are there to stay. Forever.
         I am scheduled to go there tomorrow.