Bastion

The **Bastion** is a location in a city in the Aquitaine region of France. It serves as the main headquarters of the Inquisition.

## History

### The de Rune Legacy

After the largely-failed raid on the de Rune estate, Béatrice de Rune is taken away to the Bastion and is put under Inquisition custody there. She is routinely tortured there and kept in a cell as the order continues to hunt for her children Amicia and Hugo.

### Damaged Goods

When Arthur stays behind in the English camp to create a diversion so his sister Mélie and the de Rune children could escape Nicholas, he is captured and brought to the Bastion as well. However, being a simple raider, he did not warrant much attention yet was still treated poorly until rescued by Mélie. While in a cell, he sees Béatrice being taken to be tortured yet again and happens to overhear her name, which he recognizes. Once rescued, he relays this information to Amicia, and Hugo overhears it as well, making up his mind to go to the Bastion once he is able.

### Blood Ties

Having turned himself over to the Inquisition in hopes of seeing his mother, Hugo is promptly brought to the Bastion where some of his blood is taken and he is kept in a small room while the blood is prepared to be injected into Vitalis Bénévent. However, he escapes the room via an open cupboard and makes his way throughout the building trying to find Béatrice. Finding himself in the main chamber, he overhears Vitalis' meeting with the Archbishop and learns that Nicholas was on his way to talk to Béatrice and follows the captain into the basement, where he manages to get his mother out of her cell and attempted to escape with her. However, this fails and both are captured and kept at the Bastion.

### Coronation

On the eve of the Conjuration, the Inquisition has moved into the cathedral instead and may have abandoned the Bastion altogether given that the last of their forces were concentrated in and around the church. Béatrice was brought along with them.

## Layout

### Exterior

Little of the outside of the Bastion or its location relative to other landmarks in the town is ever seen, but, given the sprawl of its interior, it is likely a massive building on par with or perhaps even bigger than the University.

### Interior

The ground and upper floors consist of many tunnels, small rooms, and large chambers with sweeping arches.

#### Chapel

A large chapel with pews, Vitalis' throne-like chair, a large window and flanked by second-story walkways serves as the central location.

#### Eqipsanguis Refinery

Several of the ground-floor chambers are dedicated to the refinery, filled with steam-powered and man-powered machines, boiling vats, furnaces, containers, and piles of episanguis crystals waiting to be refined.

#### Basement

The basement is much more constricted than the upper floors and consists of at least one level. Much of it is passageways and cells, including a well-equipped torture chamber where those who resist the Inquisition are taken to have information extracted from them.

## Gallery

What initially appears to have been a supply closet, now used to hold Hugo captiveThe light of day does little to soften the Bastion's grim corridorsPiles of Episanguis litter this chamber, waiting to be harvested and sent to the refineryThe Episanguis RefineryOn the ground floor, an alchemist works to grind the Episanguis collected from the harvesting roomHigher up, liquified Episanguis is channeled through a series of vatsThe meeting hall where the Archbishop is initially kept waiting, adjacent to the chapelThe grandiose chapel where Vitalis receives his guestsAt the far end of the chapel, Vitalis sits on his throne under heavy guardWinter has settled itself upon the Bastion's gardenIn the outdoor area of the garden, some of the Bastion's architecture can be glimpsed high aboveAn Alchemist conducts an autopsy on a plague victimMore such victims await in the nearby morgueWithin the Bastion's basement levels, captives of the Inquisition are bled to feed Vitalis' ratsThe dungeons of the InquisitionIn the nearby torture chamber, Vitalis' butchers prepare to "interrogate" Béatrice de RuneEven after escaping, Hugo and Béatrice find the front gate securely closedA trap waits in the large, domed hall just ahead...