#113 The Oubliette of Masks

Age: 600 Years

Hidden or Lost?: Hidden

History: Not all things can be seen with the naked eye, and never has this been more true than in the case of The Oubliette of Masks, a diabolical prison that became a strange and deadly tomb.

Originally built by the deposed Archduke Osburke, a cruel regent obsessed with the power and anonymity of masks. All who served under his mad rule (now remembered as the Veiled Empire) were made to wear specially crafted masks suited to their station. Those in the courts donned eyeless masks that reflected their blind fairness. Fellow royals wore baroque half-masks allowing them to share their smiles with their adoring subjects. The physickers wore spotless facemasks of cool, blue sapphire, the color of healing. And on and on throughout Osburke’s kingdom.

It was the masks of the jailers that gave access to the Archduke's hidden prison. Roughly hewn from small plates of crude, implacable steel, the jailer’s masks contained a changeable set of lenses that were said to allow the wearer to see the guilt or innocence of the convicts. In order to perceive the entrance to the oubliette hidden in the floor of the Archduke's ancient keep, one would have to don a jailer's mask and switch to the proper lenses.

Once inside, the different lenses would reveal new doors and paths not just to the cells of the unspoken and accused, but to other secret chambers such as the Archive of Forgotten Faces where enchanted masks of various leaders and historic figures were held, or the Eyes-In-The-Dark, a chamber of pure shadow, haunted by the unblinking stares of invisible beasts.

However, when the Veiled Empire eventually fell, the Oubliette of Masks was forgotten and lost. That is until a historian studying the last remaining jailer’s masks stumbled onto the entrance by accident. The historian delved into the old prison and found that things had grown strange down the centuries. A being known only as The Masked Vizier now ruled a population of undead prisoners, all animated by the magic masks of the Veiled Empire.

Despite the dangers, the brash government of the historian’s time decided to use the rediscovered chambers as a new tax vault in a show of connection to Osburke’s once great empire. However once they filled the Oubliette with riches, they found that the masks would not allow them to be taken out.

1. Oubliette of Masks

2. Cells of the Unspoken

3. The Endless Columbarium

4. Archive of Forgotten Faces

5. Mask-Maker’s Shop

6. Chapel of the Disguised

7. Veils of Untruth

8. Eyes-In-The-Dark

9. The Spark of Justice

10. Room of Hidden Intent

11. Interrogation Combine

12. The Quiet Depths

13. Cells of the Unforgiven

14. Masked Vizier’s Court

15. The Archduke’s Mask Menagerie

16. The Mold of the All-Visage