The Place of Holding

The Place of Holding in Antioch is fairly basic. It utilizes three good sized pits left over from the days of mining star stones. These 'pits' have been finished with a cladding of stone upon the walls, floor, and even ceiling. There is a slow trickle down one of the walls in all the pits. The trickle then slides around a gutter along the walls as basic sanitation. There is a small grate drop in the floor leading a quite aromatic cess pool. The grate drop is only three inches wide. Even if you went down it, it only leads to the three other holding cells. The only light is the spill over from lights in the room above through the grate.

Prisoners are lowered down into the pits from a grated opening in the 'ceiling' of the pits. Food, flat bread mostly, is dropped down the grate once a day. Any challenge to the removal or insertion of prisoners, or interference with the gate, is an automatic death sentence via guard crossbow. The conditions are horrible, but the stays are short. Prisoners stay in these lovely accommodations for up to thirty six weeks.

Occasionally gangs will form up, hording the food or the water services. That simply adds to the 'charm' of The Place.