A tidbit from the upcoming book from Chris Perkins -- "The Panopticon of Revel’s End, where the Lords’ Alliance keeps its most dangerous criminals. More info on this maximum security prison can be found in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden."
The idea that a Maximum Security Prison for the Lord's Alliance, taken over by Mindflayers, and using it to infiltrate the Realms via tadpole infected slaves sounds like a delicious idea!I'm buying the book only for this location! (not really...)
Using it as a mix of Shutter Island meets Arkham Asylum and Umbrela Corp. Training Ground, where Mindflayer used the isolated facility to use as a giant refrigerator full of food. Now the imprisoned patients roam the corridor like mad zombies, some of them infected by Illithid tadpoles.
You are part of a whaling expedition in the north. You boat is shipwrecked in a nearby island. You find refuge in a abandoned mine that seemed to be recently converted as a safe place by group that seem to have disappeared suddenly. Exploring deeper, you realize that the group that recently occupied the mine was from Revel's End, the nearby asylum for mentality and arcane insane. What's stranger is that the group seem to have went deeper and deeper in the mine, and there's not trace of them coming back. The only chance of escaping the frozen hellscape is to find a potential embarkation to sail to Revel's End and ask the keepers for help. Surely the warden of the prison will be pleased to give you assistance, right?
At the end of the world, who can make the difference between the insane prisoner and the ones crazed by the eldritch parasites devouring their brain?
Inspiration:
Shutter Island
Resident Evil 0
The Suffering
Silent Hill
Penumbra
The Thing
Chtulhu Mythos
The idea that a Maximum Security Prison for the Lord's Alliance, taken over by Mindflayers, and using it to infiltrate the Realms via tadpole infected slaves sounds like a delicious idea!
Strikes me as having a 'Beyond the Wall' (or rather at the wall) Game of Thrones vibe...
Basalt column straightened/reinforced/sculpted by magic? Weird natural occurrence enhanced with masonry? One way or another, I like it.
I hope the ship has a reinforced hull however...
Everybody is talking doctor who and I'm like "ooh, someone's into Jeremy Bentham"