The Family Abode

 

    Less Stately Wayne Manor and more the House of Usher, the historic home of the Green family was once the property of a French lord in Ardeche, before being bought wholesale by a past magnate with a taste for the Old World and shipped out, brick by brick, to the New Jersey estate where it stands today. A grim atmosphere and the dark stone used in its construction have earned it the nickname "Decerto", after the setting of Alone In The Dark.

While the building itself is forbidding enough, it is the maze of underground bunkers and caverns installed during WW2 and the 1950s that provoke the most fear from visitors. The bunkers are self-contained, self-powered, and nearly self-sufficient, and it is here that the Dragon conducts her extensive research on those who get in her way. Underground tunnels lead from a helipad in the grounds to the mansion's garages and beyond, allowing occupants to come and go unseen. The mansion's servants' quarters house the medical staff as well as the thugs used as guards, and are thus carpeted in surveillance equipment.

Which is not to imply that the rest of the house is lacking in microphones, cameras, and other observation methods. The interior's fine statuary and elegant architecture hide enough eavesdropping devices to keep a platoon of operators constantly busy, and Hazel herself oversees matters either from her private apartments deep within the mansion, or via the dozens of network links scattered throughout the house.

All is not gloom and doom at Decerto, although it is statistically higher than average. The inhabitants have amassed a considerable collection of fine artwork, which it is even open to the public on occasion - although discreet guards and barriers ensure no-one strays from the "sanitised" areas. When one tires of walking along endless picture galleries, the massive ballroom used to host the family's famous New Years' parties ranks as one of the finest in the state, with its wall-to-wall marble cladding and panoramic views of the grounds. The grounds themselves consist of several acres of well-kept parkland and landscape gardening, lovingly maintained by a team of single-minded groundsmen who bear a deeply worrying resemblance to certain missing crime bosses. Despite their lack of mental facilities, they still manage to weed around the myriad hidden cameras and bugs.

As a final note, although perhaps it is best considered an extra security feature, mention must be made of Amadeus Green's "garden maze". A classic hedge maze built in the 19th century during the Victorian fad for "surprise gardening", it contains dozens of "amusing" hydraulic traps, gimmicks, and ways to combine a warped sense of humour with jets of high-pressure water. Later incumbents kept everything maintained (and armed), out of "reverence" for the old man's favourite toys. In the modern day, it is sometimes used as a method of checking how intact a "patient"'s remaining mental facilities are.