The Grinder
The Grinder was instituted as a capital punishment for the worst murderers and criminals.
The Grinder was instituted as a capital punishment for the worst murderers and criminals.
The Kayeed empire is known for it's almost psychotic pursuit of justice and vengeance. This room was commissioned to deal with an rogue chieftain who had committed a long streak of atrocities against imperial citizens.
It is simply a room whose rough stone floor is continually moving - it is a huge stone roller driven by a paddlewheel. The stream powering the paddlewheel runs directly underneath the cell and keeps the cylinder 'clean'. The joint between the moving floor and walls is knife thin, to prevent things from 'jamming'. In any event, the massive roller that makes up the floor weighs many tons and supernatural force would be required to slow the roller.
Prisoners condemned to this room must walk. If they stop, they will be slowly, gradually be abraded by the moving floor. Death does not come quickly. Since the Grinder is self-cleaning, prisoners are generally never removed even after death. It is far simpler to leave them until their remains are totally ground to nothing, and a bit easier on the guards.
The other advantage of this means of execution, is that for worlds where magic is available to bring back the dead, death by the Grinder is very difficult to counteract. No intact corpse is available, and the sand-sized particles of flesh are washed downstream and scattered.
Plot Hooks
Rescue
The most obvious one is to rescue someone important who has been condemned to death in this chamber. It will of course be heavily guarded, and the PCs may learn that there is a mechanism to drastically speed up the floors rotation.....
Vengeance
Although Ragaar the bloody met an end suitable to his name, even being ground to dust did erase him. Now his tortured soul, furious beyond the comprehension of the sane, wanders the dungeons around the chamber, bringing hideous death to those he finds. The PC's are commissioned to stop his depredations, only to learn that maybe some tragic circles cannot be broken...
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? Responses (23)
Updated: Added plot hooks
Cool! Creepy! I am still a little fuzzy on how exactly the room works, but definitely something I'd throw into my next dungeon or castle encounter.
Attach it to Torture Scroll, if you would. It fits well there! We need some more original sloooow ways to kill people!
(a little less spacing between passages might look better)
Kind of hard to clearly describe without pictures :)
The premise is a moving floor powered by water - the floor is the top of a large, rough roller powered by water (it could be magic if desired, but I think it can be done with medieval technology.). The floor is not flat but curved (the larger the roller, the less obvious the curve)
Great idea. My complements on it being both simple and effective.
That must be one damn strong stream underneath, though.
I still don't really know how it works. By crushing the victim in the gap between the floor and walls.Useful as a torture device.
If I got it right, nobody is crushed - they just have to keep walking, or they will be rolled around, recieve scratches and be hit, over and over, the rough floor slowly killing them.
I could imagine a healthy person could walk it for a few days (likely getting drowsy a few times, falling, and waking up again), until being too weak to continue... then dieing a very messy, prolonged death.
Simple and cruel. Good work. For a torture instrument of course. :)
Kind of like being drug to death behind a vehicle, but without the vehicle, or even the going fast. This is a cold and merciless way to torture, or even interrogate someone.
Scrasamax has it dead ( Evil Grin here..) on.
And yes, this is cold and merciless. Darn those Kayeed B@stards... :)
Updated: Minor text changes
I wish I could put my ex in this.
HAHAHAHA...Yowser!
keep this going man you really know how to make a good sub. this is brilliant.
Vaguely Interesting. Not well described at all. Needs work
Any suggestions? The premise is simple - a small square room whose floor is the top of a huge rolling stone cylinder.
Easier to draw then describe :)
Maybe Guantamano Bay needs one of these *evil smile*
This bad-boy cries out to be used as a trap in someone's "5 Room Dungeon"! :)
Ok, this one is up soon for a remake!
Do the prisoners get food and water to drag the death out?
I'd say that was optional.
My question is - how fast does the floor move? I could see one where, in a ten-foot-cell, it only move about 5 or 6 feet per hour, which would make for an extremely drawn-out and painful death. Is the stone still damp from the river as it comes up? If so, a particularly determined victim might end up scraping his tongue raw licking moisture from the stone, if they just throw them in and ignore them for a month.
Well I learned a little about the Kayeed.
Stupid question time (because I have to know!)
Ok, so the floor is doing its slow turn/spin/roll, and the victim walks as long as he or she is able to. But...once they collapse, why are they dragged? Wouldn't they just lay in one place while spinning slowly? (Due to their weight and stuff). How do they actually get dragged?
They are not dragged. They just happen to be sitting on relentless sandpaper. They become a pencil writing a very long line.