Welcome to the Big House
Prison Courtyard An example of one of the cells The last cell-block in use Warden Johnson, Pre War
Location: Northern Texas. About two weeks of walking time from Bucket-town, one week from Brick.
Population: 22 Guards (9 Texas Rangers, 13 Ghoulifed Guards), 75 Prisoners (25 Descendants of Pre War Prisoners, 52 Post War Criminals)
Leader: Warden Johnson for the Guards, Big Black for the Post war criminals, Jonathan for the Pre war criminals.
The very last organized prison in the Southern U.S. This is where you go if the Texas Ranger’s don’t kill you first. To the east, if a massive radiated lake. To the North and West are the ever shifting sands of the Ash Wastes. To the south, is the mass expanse of the Southern Wastes. It’s located near a small source of fresh water, and game near the prison is rather abundant (if you enjoy wild dogs and deer). The sixty five prisoners and the fifteen guards call it home.
The Pen was originally the ‘Howard Long County Penitentiary’. Howard Long County Penitentiary (Often referred as H.L.C.P) held a variety of prisoners from across the pre-war county it was located in. The most common offenders were peopling related to the booming meth trade across the country, mixed with the few murders, rapists and arsonists serving time or waiting to be executed. The only real unique part about the prison was how female and male prisoners were housed together, due to the fact that the county couldn’t afford two separate facilities.
The day the bombs started falling, the prisoners inside began to riot. Some of the prisoners managed to get to a nearby cellblock control room and opened up more cells. Most of the guards patrolling the random cellblocks were quickly overwhelmed by the rush of prisoners making their way to the front gates. However, the prisoners were pushed back when they reached Cellblock A (which would later become the only functioning cellblock in The Pen) by a group of Protectrons and armed guards. The surviving prisoners were ushered back to their cells, while the dead bodies were tossed outside of the prison.
Warden Johnson hoped to keep the prison functioning as best as he could with the hope that either the reformed United States government or a local government could come in and use his prison to house the criminals that got loose from ‘less secure’ facilities. However, with a majority of prisoners now dead; Warden Johnson ordered all prisoners to be moved to Cell Block A.
After the move to Cell Block A, Warden Johnson and the other remaining guards closed off all sections of the prison in an effort to conserve resources. Aside from Cell Block A, the only other sections still in operation were the courtyard (slowly being converted to a garden) and the cafeteria (converted into a mixture of a barracks, armory and assorted other rooms for the surviving guards) along with the front entrance (which continued to serve as the only entrance into the prison).
After the first year passed by various prisoners began to fall ill. The prison doctor diagnosed it as radiation sickness. Slowly, most of the guards and eventually both the Warden and the doctor fell ill. Those that fell ill slowly became ghouls. Although the number of suicides from the daily roll count rose dramatically after the effects of ghoulifaction become apparent; the majority of the prisoners were unaffected to ghoulifaction.
As the decades and later centuries passed by, several generations of prisoners came and went inside of The Pen’s walls. The first few generations of prisoners still kept the same prison alliances as their forefathers once did, with shankings in the courtyard or attempting to steal extra food from rival prison gangs. However, by the time the Texas Rangers came in 2242, most of the prisoners had realized that inter-prison warfare was pointless and wouldn’t get them anywhere. Most of the prisoners had a simple, non verbal agreement to not attack each other unless they had a good reason to (such as stealing ones food during lunch in the courtyard or attacking ones bitch).
The Texas Rangers, during a chase on a raider gang, stumbled upon the prison by mistake. Thinking it might be the hideout for the gang they were chasing, the Texas Rangers strolled up the front gate; only to be surprised when a ghoulifed prison guard, still wearing the uniform (albeit with a bit of accessories and bits of riot armor) he wore the day the bombs dropped greeted them at the front gates. The Texas Rangers were ushered inside, where they met with the ghoulifed Warden Johnson.
After the two groups purposes were established, a deal was quickly struck. The Pen (as it was now called by everybody in the prison, including the guards) could be used as a Texas Ranger outpost and drop off point for prisoners, while the Texas Rangers would lend full support to Warden Johnson and his guard along with sending supplies such as food, water and other necessities to The Pen. With a runner sent back down to Central Texas to relay the news of the agreement to Texas Ranger command, the newly formed Texas Ranger/Prison Guard coalition set to work on restoring the main parts of The Pen still in use (Cell Block A, the Cafeteria and the Courtyard). The Texas Rangers also began to send scouts outside of the prison to identify criminals in the nearby areas.
Although some of the Prison Guards objected to their home being used as a fortress for the Texas Ranger’s raids on criminals, most of the guards were happy that they weren’t the only ones left in the world that didn’t shoot at them on sight. The Texas Rangers also began setting up watch posts on the old walls of the prison, having a team of three rangers on each wall to watch out for any intruders.
As of presently, the Texas Ranger/The Pen deal remains in effect. Nothing has really changed from the prison, aside from the influx of post-war criminals such as raiders, mercenaries or other assorted scum. The prisoners descended from the pre-war criminals, hearing about the crimes that these post-war criminals have committed, have begun to demand (in a largely unified front) release from the prison considering that most of them haven’t committed any crimes. A small minority of the ghoulfied guards agree with the pre-war criminals, with a large minority of guards (both ghoulfied and the Texas Rangers) neutral to the issue and another minority of guards are opposed to the issue (Including Warden Johnson and his ‘Old Guard’).
The prisoners themselves are a divided camp. The descendents of the pre-war criminals may present a unified front, but, they are also small compared to the growing population of post-war prisoners. However, the post war prisoners are mostly divided on either outside or inside of prison gang lines; leaving the entire group fractured.
The Texas Rangers have also began to issue an open bounty on criminals. If bounty hunters (read, Player Characters) can bring in live criminals to The Pen, then the Texas Rangers will exchange the criminal in for goods; depending on how severe the mans crimes are. If the brought in criminal is a known member of a raider gang or a cattle rustler, he’s worth more then a simple thief. The Texas Rangers have also distributed a list of bounties to neighboring towns in an attempt to help catch some of the Texas Ranger’s most wanted.