Need some help visualizing 0-08 Slave Pits of Absalom

[nosig]

in act 2 the discription of Misery Row... I'm having trouble visualizing it. It's discribed as follows

Misery Row, the only street in Absalom on which slaves are legally bought or sold. Misery Row is a massive elevated platform running the length of the Coins’ eastern edge. The platform’s base forms a wall between the Coins and Merchant districts.
The slavers sunk cages inside the walls, accessible only from the top of the Row and filled with languishing slaves. These are the windows through which a prospective buyer sizes up future chattel. Between the cage pits and the slave trade, all of Absalom knows Misery Row as the
Slave Pits of Absalom.

Ok -
1) elevated I get.
2) Limited access I get - works fine for me.
3) keep the slaves in locking pits (access perhaps thru the buildings on the Row).

Now the part I'm hazy on...
4) "These are the windows through which a prospective buyer sizes up future chattel." - huh? were are the windows - outside the Row? or are the windows in the roofs of the cages?

any guidance on this would be great - or any other pointers on this mod, as I'll be running it soon.

THanks in advance!

[Sniggevert]

Basically the Row is the wall/walkway between the districts. On either side of the wall, facing into the Coins and Merchant districts are slave cages, where potential buyers can view the merchandise.

The only access to the cages is from the top of the cage, which is level (or slightly below) the top of Misery's Row (or the wall). There are intermittent stairs to the top of the wall/Row, and these are all guarded by district guards. I hope this made sense.

I believe there was more description, or a picture in the Guide to Absalom.

[nosig]

crud... I don't have access to the Guide to Absalom - is it available from Piazo as a PDF? maybe I'll buy it.

You think there is a picture?

Could the players get into the buildings above thru the cages? Remove the bars some way (hacksaw for example) and brake into the building above (really good disable device, or an ax)?

[Sniggevert]

Yeah, they sell the PDF, unfortunately, it was a book I bought and not part of a subscription, so I don't have it to check for the image to make sure. I vaguely can picture one in my head, but not 100% certain it was in the book, or my own mental image of what I thought it looked like (been a long time since I read it).

I don't think you'd really be able to break onto the top of the Row from the cage effectively. Even if you did, you'd just be along the top of the wall along the top of the wall that is basically wide enough for a walkway and offices, and have to cross a usually semi-busy area to get to the offices. On top of that, the regular patrols in front of the cages would try and dissuade any potential slave rescue I'd think.

[nosig]

the mod talks about the guards at the top of the stairs, and discribes the offices (though there appears to be no mention of how to get from the pens below to the office above, other than to say there is access). When I played this, our judge let us brake in from below - and I pictured the entire area below to be something like under a board walk. Only now I'm picturing it more like the area under the Coliseum in Rome. But that's not right either... maybe it's more like a city wall, but someone has dug basements rooms into it and put windows to the streets on each side?

[Sniggevert]

OK, I'm at home now, there's no picture, sorry. However, there's a bit more description. The wall itself isn't a normal wall. It's kind of a raised small neighborhood, and the wall itself is up to 500' thick in places, and every 500' along the wall are the wide guarded stairs that lead up to the top of the Row. The thickness allows the building of office buildings and slave markets away from the tops of the cages.

Now along the side of the wall facing the Coins, there are cages facing out that are set into the wall itself towards the top. These cages can only be opened from trap doors in the top of the cages. There are bars opening out towards the Coins district, so that buyers can view and interact with the merchandise.

I see it as a row of prison type cells with bars along the front, stone walls on the other 3 walls, and a locked grate in the ceiling.

Hope that kind of helps describe an image a little bit.

[Thod]

Nosig

A picture sometimes tells more as a thousand words.

I started a new thread as I picture the whole scenario.

[Thod]

Looking at Sniggeverts description I can now think about a few improvements of my build. Especially with Wicked Addition 3 that has now prison cells.

But my layouts are often done spontaneously during a game and there is only limited time to prepare and build.

[Dan Luckett]

I may not be running this anytime soon, but it's an interesting layout just to think about. It's actually making me want to look into this.

[nosig]

Thanks everyone! I didn't run it last night, but I'm sure I will be soon (have several players that can play this, and it's in my "ready binder" to run.

This has been very helpful...

[nosig]

this is great. Now if I can just figure out how to print the pictures to show them to my players....