The Pit

The Pit was one of the otataral mining camps on Otataral Island. The inmates in the camp were all mages.

As its name implied, the Pit was a large open air hole in the ground. Approximately one hundred prisoners remained below living in caves and tunnels and digging their way down to the otataral ore. The prison staff of about twenty worked at the ground level facilities, which consisted of a clapboard barracks house, an officer's house, a lean-to blacksmith's shop, and a donkey corral. Travel between the guard station and the mine floor was conducted via a wooden platform that could be lowered on rope by the work of a donkey team. The prison population was relatively stable as fewer prisoners were sent. Many of the guards had left to help pacify the more unruly Skullcup camp and had never been replaced.^[1][2]

Prisoners were expected to maintain a strict quota of otataral ore. When these numbers were not met rations could be halved. Discipline was harsh, the misdeeds of one prisoner often resulting in a collective punishment for all.^[3][4]

The prison population was generally placid, at least in comparison to the Skullcup camp, although murders committed by inmates were not unknown.^[5][6] The prisoners had formed a council and selected an unofficial mayor as their voice with the guards and warden. The council also made sure that food was distributed evenly and the sick were cared for.^[7]

Inhabitants

• Devaleth, a Korelan sea-witch and new prisoner
• Galith, captain of the Malazan prison guards
• Grief, a new prisoner
• Ho (Hothalar), a Li Heng mage
• Iffin, murderer
• Jain, a Dal Honese warlock
• Sessin, Yathengar's bodyguard
• Su, a Wickan witch
• Sulp 'Ul, murdered prisoner
• Treat, a new prisoner
• Yathengar 'ul Amal, a Seven Cities priest (‘Faladan’)

In Return of the Crimson Guard

The prisoners were relatively content because they had unearthed a jade giant in the depths of the mine. The discovery had captured the minds of the "battalion of professional mages, scholars and theurgical researchers who had made the mystery their primary fixation for the last three decades."^[8]

Two new prisoners Grief and Treat revealed themselves to be Crimson Guardsmen come to liberate the camp for new recruits. They subdued the mine's guard staff and brought many of the mages to the surface. There they discovered that the mine had long since been played out and any ore they sent to the surface was merely discarded.^[9]

Notes and references