Empire House
Empire House is the administrative headquarters of the Watch in Altdorf. It deals with all aspects of law enforcement, including issuing bounties on criminals, Beastmen, Mutants, and Greenskins, as well as arresting criminals. Persistent rumours indicate that Imperial spies also operate from this building, and while no one officially confirms this rumour, it is true. There are other centres as well, but Empire House is an important one.
The main doors are open from dawn to dusk, and anyone may enter the front lobby. Here, the sweaty odour of crowds is overlaid strongly on that of the street, and fouler smells occasionally seem to drift up from the lower floors. The hall is large, with a high ceiling, and the room is divided in two by a long wooden counter. The counter is the boundary between the public and private parts of Empire House, and is staffed by over a dozen Watchmen while the doors are open.
Even at night there are six on duty. The walls of the public area are covered with announcements of bounties, wanted posters, and other such official documents. Half a dozen Watchmen mingle with the crowd at all times, keeping an eye out for trouble; there are likely to be more bounty hunters in this room than in any other area of comparable size in the Empire. People carrying severed heads are not uncommon here; the bounty hunters bring the heads in to confirm kills.
Those who have killed monsters generally bring smaller body parts as proof.
The Watchmen on the desk quickly become completely immune to surprise; a group of adventurers putting a dragon head on the table and asking for the bounty would provoke some response, but only because the staff wouldn’t know the appropriate bounty offhand. They are always ready for trouble to break out and aren’t worried about deaths that might occur when they deal with such events.
The private areas of the building are very different. There are few differences between offices; all have a small window, need to be lit by lanterns or candles, and are much the same size. Thus, people who are assigned here are assigned an office that they keep for their entire career, no matter how far up the hierarchy they move. Empire House has a standard policy of not interfering with what people do in their offices, as long as the work gets done and no laws are broken. As a result, every office is different, and those that have been occupied for some time strongly reflect the personality of the occupant.
Particularly prominent law enforcers attract rumours about their offices; someone renowned for his implacable hunts for heretics might be said to have the heads of those he catches preserved and mounted on the wall, or he might have an office filled with a collection of stuffed toy bears.
Getting into the private areas is difficult. In theory, a visitor must have particular business with someone in the building, and that person must escort a visitor at all times while they are within the private areas. This is enforced in practice the first few times that someone visits. However, people who are known to have worked with officials on numerous occasions, and to have done a good job, are allowed in by themselves, and they may even be allowed to take their own guests.
There is a second entrance at the back of the building, guarded by two Watchmen and primarily used as an emergency exit. However, officials who don’t want to push their way through the mob at the front entrance occasionally use it to come and go.
Heart of the Empire: Altdorf
The building itself is large and made of stone. There is little decoration beyond the Imperial arms over the main entrance, and most of the windows are small and suitable for use as gun ports. The walls are thick, and there are storerooms and a well inside the building. It could hold off a determined siege for quite some time and has held off urban rioters on numerous occasions.The main doors are open from dawn to dusk, and anyone may enter the front lobby. Here, the sweaty odour of crowds is overlaid strongly on that of the street, and fouler smells occasionally seem to drift up from the lower floors. The hall is large, with a high ceiling, and the room is divided in two by a long wooden counter. The counter is the boundary between the public and private parts of Empire House, and is staffed by over a dozen Watchmen while the doors are open.
Even at night there are six on duty. The walls of the public area are covered with announcements of bounties, wanted posters, and other such official documents. Half a dozen Watchmen mingle with the crowd at all times, keeping an eye out for trouble; there are likely to be more bounty hunters in this room than in any other area of comparable size in the Empire. People carrying severed heads are not uncommon here; the bounty hunters bring the heads in to confirm kills.
Those who have killed monsters generally bring smaller body parts as proof.
The Watchmen on the desk quickly become completely immune to surprise; a group of adventurers putting a dragon head on the table and asking for the bounty would provoke some response, but only because the staff wouldn’t know the appropriate bounty offhand. They are always ready for trouble to break out and aren’t worried about deaths that might occur when they deal with such events.
The private areas of the building are very different. There are few differences between offices; all have a small window, need to be lit by lanterns or candles, and are much the same size. Thus, people who are assigned here are assigned an office that they keep for their entire career, no matter how far up the hierarchy they move. Empire House has a standard policy of not interfering with what people do in their offices, as long as the work gets done and no laws are broken. As a result, every office is different, and those that have been occupied for some time strongly reflect the personality of the occupant.
Particularly prominent law enforcers attract rumours about their offices; someone renowned for his implacable hunts for heretics might be said to have the heads of those he catches preserved and mounted on the wall, or he might have an office filled with a collection of stuffed toy bears.
Getting into the private areas is difficult. In theory, a visitor must have particular business with someone in the building, and that person must escort a visitor at all times while they are within the private areas. This is enforced in practice the first few times that someone visits. However, people who are known to have worked with officials on numerous occasions, and to have done a good job, are allowed in by themselves, and they may even be allowed to take their own guests.
There is a second entrance at the back of the building, guarded by two Watchmen and primarily used as an emergency exit. However, officials who don’t want to push their way through the mob at the front entrance occasionally use it to come and go.
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Owning Organization
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