Valysirian Royal Penitentiary

Location of the Valysirian Royal Penitentiary in Kern.

The Valysirian Royal Penitentiary is a a major prison in the world of Kern located in northern Valysir on the small, remote island between the country and the mountain range further north. It is widely considered to be the most-secured, most advanced prison in the world. Though it is predominantly used for Valysirian criminals, the penitentiary is also occasionally contracted out by other governments throughout the world to house their inmates.

History

The prison has been in operation for over 60 years, and has gone through one major revamp since its opening day.

Enormous, towering walls surround the main establishment, a pentagon-shaped building reinforced with adamantium and concrete walls. Every 200 feet along the outside walls, watchtowers are positioned to be able to overlap their fields of vision.

The use of magic is not outright-banned in the prison's walls, as magic is required to make most of its amenities and design function. For instance, in order to minimize the risk of convicts stowing away on boats carrying supplies, the prison instead opts to hire 17th-level and higher spellcasters that can use the Gate spell to push shipments through in designated areas.

Personnel

The prison employs some extremely-powerful spellcasters and muscle in order to secure its prisoners. Below are a few examples:

• An established department of wizards whose main job it is to cast the Scrying spell and search for escapees. Before an inmate is booked, a minor body part such as a lock of hair, a fingernail, or similar is collected from each inmate so that a wizard can find them in the event of a breach. Some of the wizards also double as retainers whose job it is to re-arrest escapees and return them to the ward.
• The prison hires druids whose job it is to train aquatic life in the surrounding Valysirian Sea to patrol the area in search of escaped convicts.
• Other powerful wizards are in employ to cast the True Seeing spell. There are many different uses for this, including during booking, patrolling, and surveillance.

Layout & Features

Some notable features of the prison's layout include:

• Atop the main building, outside, is a central watchtower equipped with long-range observance gear in order to have a full, 360-degree view of the surrounding area.

• Hidden glyphs in various places in the prison cast the Dispel Magic spell at random intervals and spell levels.
• The main, non-solitary holding areas are panopticons of stacked rows of cells in a circle facing a single watchtower in the center of the area.

Many cells are rumored to be lined with Agarthan Mortar, or antimagic concrete, a legendary substance described in antiquity as being completely immune to magical effects and many orders of magnitude more durable than ordinary concrete, but the official recipe for it has officially been lost to time, so it's pure speculation on what exactly the cells are made of.