The Old Prison is the headquarters for the Anti-Magic Weapons and Tactics Police in
Wizard City Hexcrawl, which continuously deal with problems within the city that may perhaps affect the holdings of the property-owning class.
It's a brutal and thankless job, but someone needs to protect the interests of the bourgeoisie! If not the police, then who, WHO?? Who will think of the Dread Oligarchs?! Who will think of the Retro-Patenters?! Who will think of the Obliviate Landlords?! Who will think of the Spell Sharks and the Scourge Capitalists?! Who will think of the Soul Mortgagees and the Organ Harvesters and the Renters-Of-Tongues?!
On the up side, at least it comes with the perk of a License For Brutality, provided you aren't using it on someone with powerful connections. On the down side, you gotta deal with this shit:
WHAT SHIT DO THE ANTI-WIZARD POLICE NEED TO CLEAN UP TODAY?
d20
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It’s A(n)...
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And It’s...
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And Just to Make Matters Worse...
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But At Least We Have...
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1
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Mimetic Plague
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99% Contained
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Now It’s Raining Halberds. Literally.
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Ammo in Extreme Surplus
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2
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Budding Revolution
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Mostly Contained
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It’s Completely Resistant to Magic
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Esprit de Corps. Great.
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3
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Mass Panic
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Kinda Contained
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We’re Out of Coffee
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A Hostage
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4
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Riot
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Sorta Contained
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We’re Out of Pastry
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Economic Leverage
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5
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Attempt at Unionization
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Probably Not Contained
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We’re Out of Funding for the Department
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Hazard Pay
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6
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Minority Which Needs Some Lessons in ‘Civility’
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Definitely Not Contained
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An Administrator is Overseeing the Operation Personally
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A Highly Trained Killer-Stoat
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7
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Assassination Attempt on a Public Figure
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Dangerously Not Contained
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There’s Time Magic Involved
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A License for Unlimited Collateral Damage
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8
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Important Person With a Trivial Problem
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Oh, We’re Fucked.
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It has a Clone
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A Platoon of Trainees We Can Throw At The Problem
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9
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Connected Person’s Child’s Birthday Party
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MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE!
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It’s Evolving Faster Than We Can Adapt
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The Last Platoon of Trainees We Threw At A Problem, Fresh From That Problem
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10
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Unexpected Turn in the Stock Market
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Made Completely Out of Knives
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The Other Branches of Secret Police Are Getting Involved
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Everyone From The Last Problem, Risen As Zombies
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11
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Rogue Wizard
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Already Replicating Exponentially
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It’s Monday.
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State-sponsored Life Insurance Subsidies
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12
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Rogue Wizard with a Silly Hat
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Smarter Than We Are
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There’s a Dungeon Swan Nearby
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Our Department Mascot: Berry the Peryton
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13
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Rogue Wizard with a Silly Voice
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Spreading Like Wizard-Herpes
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It’s a Steeve
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One Minor Healing Potion Each
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14
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Rogue Wizard with a Sexy Sidekick
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FROM THE FUTURE!!!
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It’s Popular with The Masses
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Our Cyanide Capsules
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15
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Rogue Wizard Who Isn’t Actually a Rogue Wizard, But Someone Important Wants Them Dealt With
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Sorta... Kinda... Technically Indestructible.
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We Haven’t Replaced the Broken Wizard-Beaters Yet
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The Illusion of Popular Support
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16
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Monster Gone Rogue
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Carving a Horrible Path of Destruction from The Docks to the Student Ghetto
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Anything That Looks At It Dies Instantly
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Our Dubious Pensions
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17
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Monster With Some Incorrect Property Claims
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Continuously Exploding
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Dealing With It Is Going to Upset some Very Powerful People
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The Best Cannon Fodder Money Can Buy
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18
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Monster With a Silly Hat
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Got Support from Foreign Agents
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Apparently It’s Spawning a Religion
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The Cooperation of Organized Crime
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19
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Monster With Some Heretical Ideas on the Rights of the Working Class
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Making Some Pretty Fair Points, Actually...
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Everyone Involved in the Operation is Going to Be Killed At The End to ‘Tie Up Loose Ends’
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Clean Underwear
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20
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Hydra. Again.
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Made of Smaller Hydras
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It’s Giving Birth to More Bloody Hydras
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A Hydra! Wait, No… That’s a Bad Thing.
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The Old Prison itself is where the Old Judicial System used to keep The Old Prisoners, back when they still had jury trials and 'Common Law'. Now it's effectively an office building, training facility, and fortress for the AMWAT police, with only about twice as much hopelessness and half the inmates.
Wizards undergoing 'administrative punishment' are typically taken there to enact their sentences given arbitrarily on the spot by the various police forces. As such, there is a modest bureaucratic force there to undertake such measures, such as spell-fee collection or the dispellment of punitive Curses.
A front assault upon the institution is not advised. Neither is a multi-pronged assault. In fact, it's just better if you never assault the place. It's chocked full of full-time wizard killers - they're wise to every permutation of magical shit that one can be thrown at (see above table) and they rarely take prisoners, despite the fact that they work in a prison.
This is an amazing table; somehow it manages to convey a sense of both black humour and slight bewilderment on an continuing existence of the world. I envision a billboard "We went [x] hours without a loss of life" being overwritten constantly.
ReplyDeleteI feel like that dog from the "This is fine" meme would be their mascot.
DeleteFire doggo - it is on fire. It cannot feel pain. This is fine. Just another Tuesday in Wizard City...
DeleteWith a thousand-yard stare while drinking coffee?
DeleteYes
DeleteOf note: with a 1 in 20 chance in each category of a hydra-related problem, this puts the approximate chance of HYDRA on any particular day to be near 1 in 5.
ReplyDelete"Renters-of-tongues"? Is that a Laundry Files reference?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what that is, so probably not.
Delete