Silver Keys

Overview
Underneath the shadow of willful ignorance, the prison system of the United States is a bastion of terror, pain, and degradation. Few places offer such feasting grounds for Banes — especially with the quiet consent of the public. Guards and inmates alike work out their frustrations through torture or rape, and inmates regularly fight each other in brutal battles to reach the top of a meaningless pecking order. Wardens and guards alike turn a blind eye — or take part in the depravity, offering prizes to those who do their dirty work. Warden Gerald Simmons runs one of the worst prisons in the country. He started as a guard, choosing favorites among inmates to whom he would slip various goods in return for their cooperation. Gerald quickly picked out prisoners who would work with him, turning them against those who would rat him out. It started as sadistic entertainment, but Gerald started having dreams about the great power he would have if he took over the prison. Simmons made deliberate movements through the ranks of the guards. Prisoners under his command were better behaved in public, and people assumed that they respected him. In truth, the prisoners were terrified. Gerald made a deal with an infamous inmate known only as Gold Eye. Though he spent most of his time in solitary, any time one of Gerald’s prisoners acted up he’d find Gold Eye sharing his cell for a night. Few wanted to repeat the experience In 2011, Pentex bought out American Corrections, the small company that owned Gerald’s prison. Pentex combed through officials, overhauling management and replacing it with their own staff. Due to his excellent track record, Gerald was promoted to warden. He immediately started running the prison his way. He gave the worst prisoners the best accommodations as long as they helped him control the inmate population. Meanwhile, any inmate who tried to resist the system was thrown into solitary confinement or given as currency to the warden’s favorites. As the prison’s foul touch poisoned the Umbra, it became a hotspot for Banes. Gerald’s dreams brought him incantations and symbols of power that he inscribed on the papers of his inmates. Those he favored found themselves with strange abilities that they couldn’t quite understand, while those he hated spent their nights tormented by various horrors as their bodies warped into hideous freaks. Following symbols in his dreams, Warden Simmons started the Silver Keys. Determined to make his prison more powerful, Gerald recruited from both guards and inmates. His uncanny ability to read people led him to willing initiates, and the entire prison became a well-oiled machine of terror, feeding Banes with ritual sacrifices of body, soul, and sanity. One prison proved too small to hold the growing cult. As others within his order grew in power, Gerald set up transfers, sending guards and prisoners alike to other Pentex-owned prisons. The cult spread, luring in more guards, wardens, and prisoners with promises of power and profit. For Pentex, the prisons serve as seemingly bottomless sources of humans for experiments and free labor. The soul-sucking nature of the institutions is a perfect backdrop for the creation of various fomori. Inmates locked up for victimless crimes are especially precious to Pentex, as they conduct psychological experiments on the resilience of the human psyche, and use them as lab-rats for new street-drugs. A few members of the Board of Directors have become nervous about Gerald Simmons, though they do not yet know of the Silver Keys. A stocky, average-looking man, Gerald has dirty blond hair, brown eyes, and carries himself with a purpose. He is always well dressed, even when partaking in his depraved ceremonies. Gerald deals with Pentex only on a professional level, and refuses to divulge any of his secrets. Worse yet, the Silver Keys are completely loyal to him, and as much as Pentex has tried to coerce and seduce information from his protégés, not one has broken. The paranoid believe that Gerald wants his own seat on the Board; the thoughtful are working on ways to lure him into an alliance. Ironically, Gerald cares nothing for the corporation. He is content to stay within the walls of his prison, overseeing and profiting from the misery of others.