Yedikule Fortress is a fortified pile standing in Constantinople, raised as a stronghold of defence. It holds several rooms of consequence — the Sewers (Room 12), the Common Prison (Room 13), the Royal Cell (Room 14), the Barracks (Room 15), the High Security Cells (Room 17), and the Central Towers II and III (Rooms 10 and 11). The upper level of the towers stands sealed, save it be unsealed for a fee. The fortress is furnished with various snares, among them a grenade of sleeping-gas, a falling net, and reinforced entrances.
The sewer entrances are strengthened with chains and strewn with caltrops and ball bearings. This quarter offers a possible road of infiltration to an attacker, and was fortified as part of the defensive preparations of Yedikule Fortress. During the assault upon Yedikule, the attackers forbore the sewers and chose instead the main gate and the ground-level entrance; the sewer entrances went unused by Hamit and his crew in their approach to the fortress.
The fortress was made ready in preparation for an ambush against Hamit the Quartz of Damascus. A stratagem of decoy was set afoot, wherein the true Vizier, Mustafa Pasha, the Vizier-i Aezam, was lodged in a High-Security Cell (Room 17) whilst a decoy was conducted to the Royal Cell (Room 14). The Royal Cell serves as a guest-suite appointed for prisoners of high station, and was used as a decoy to mislead any infiltrator or mole. Two guards are posted at the door to the Royal Cell to strengthen its security. The High-Security Cell is a fortified place set apart for the confinement of prisoners, and houses at present five common criminals; it was reinforced as part of the broader measures taken to ready Yedikule Fortress for the assault. Further fighters were hired and disposed throughout the fortress, veteran men among them hidden in the guise of prisoners.
In the assault, Hamit and his crew came upon the fortress by night and joined battle, in which several of the hired guards were slain. The attackers fought their way through the ground floor and cleared Central Tower II and Central Tower III, this last holding a small barracks of some ten beds. That room served the defenders as a place of strategy, with hired guards posted there to strengthen the fortress. The Barracks serve besides as the sleeping-quarters and armoury of the guard, and boast a forge for maintenance and repair, furnishing the needful resources for the men stationed there. A Recruited Mage Prisoner loosed a powerful working before making his escape, leaving the defenders at a disadvantage. The assault ended in a chaotic battle, the attackers taking wounds and weighing their routes of escape as reinforcements came up. More lately, the plan of Yedikule Fortress has continued to bear upon its defence, with ongoing assessment of its snares and the ordering of its rooms.