Domination of Equestria - T+44 - days.
The Griffiott Hotel. It was a small place on one of the main roads between the Equestrian border and the Capitol of Griffonstone. It wasn’t fancy, or particularly special. Nothing really important happened here.
Today seemed to be an exception.
It all began when two equine creatures walked in through the front doors. This wasn’t too unusual, except everyone had heard of the new Overlord who had recently taken over Equestria, and everyone near the border knew their uniforms.
Why just two of them had come to their little hotel, the Griffons had no idea, but it was hardly likely to be an invasion. At least, they hoped not.
After these two had looked around the reception for a bit, He walked in.
The Overlord himself. None of the Griffons there had seen him before, but he was unmistakable as anyone else. He exuded power from every pore, and a chill followed in his footsteps. The two creatures who had entered before him bowed deeply as he headed towards the counter.
“Can I help you….Sir?”
“You will address him with more respect you-”
“Quiet now, quiet now, she’s just doing a job. It’s Ok miss…?”
“Gillia, sir...d-do you need a room?”
“See now? You’ve got her all nervous. Yes, please, I need one of your quietest rooms. How full are you at the moment?”
“We only have a couple of customers today...sir...is that..important?”
“Yes, it is just a little. which room is the furthest away from all the rest? In a corner or something?”
“R-r-r-room 204...on the next floor….”
“Is anyone else on that floor Miss Gillia?”
“No...no that floor is empty at the moment…”
“Excellent! Then I’ll book every room on that floor for the next day. Is that alright with you?”
“EVER-…Every room?”
“Yes please. I only need the key for 204 though, the rest can stay empty. Also can you make sure that the cleaning staff and other guests stay off that floor for me?”
“Um...yes….er….why?”
“Oh it’s nothing to worry about my dear. Thank you for the key. Ok boys, bring him in. We’re going to have our little ‘talk’ up in 204.
Oh. One last thing, do you have a minibar?”
Overlord Rule No:10 I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.
I don't get this one, sorry.
6491844
The rule prevents the interrogated prisoners from escaping and having easy access to important equipment or sensitive materials.
6493186 Plus it makes last second rescues so much more unlikely too.
6493186
6497620
But the logistics of it. Wouldn't the time and process of long distance transportation provide more of an opening for escaping?
Well I suppose it's still preferable to have them scape during transportation than close to home where they can cause significant harm if left to their own devices.
~Leonzilla
Edit: The ideal course of action is possibly along the lines of transporting them to a nearby safe facility designed for interrogation. It has the downside of predictably being the most likely place you are gonna take him after captured giving his allies the opportunity to set up a plan to free him before you get the chance; but it's still probably your safest bet to setup a protocol designed to prevent sabotage than to avoid doing so and determine the location for interrogation on the fly out of fear that your response could be predicted and countered.
6498315
Actually, if your base has some good defenses, a prisoner that escaped would have less chance of creating an army of griffins.
However, it'd likely be better to just do the interrogation at a location near where you captured them, or, if you need more people than is in the group that captured them, somewhere in between. That would both be out of your base and away from potential new enemies.
6498315
To address your concern about the chance of escape during transport, think of it this way. While being transported, the vehicle (which we will assume is a train due to the lack of cars) could be moving at any speed, and we all know leaving a vehicle moving at high speed is hazardous to your health. And if the prisoner's not a pegasus, they can't fly away either. There's also bound to be a higher concentration of guards in the small area, due to the Overlord themselves being present. Plus, even IF the prisoner escaped relatively unharmed, they'd be stuck who knows how far from civilization without any form of equipment or survival gear.
All in all, a transport could be deemed harder to escape from.
"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No, I expect you to die...far away from my secret lair as possible and only after I decide if you have anything useful to tell me. How does Switzerland sound?"
Yeah, if you think about it, that's actually a troublesome rule because you never know who'll be listening. Still better if you happen to be out there and are short on time.
and everyone near the boarder knew their uniforms
1. Border.
Why not simply use a dungeon in the castle itself? By all means don't go torturing prisoners in your inner sanctum, that's silly but leaving the country in order to interrogate a prisoner sounds like a rather wasteful exercise. You don't even need a dungeon, A basement will do.
Unless the Overlord is using it as an excuse to travel and see the neighbouring countries for a bit.
6508438
Its simple. If the prisoners do somehow manage to escape, they are far away from any critical buildings.
6499152 The upside is the shear randomness of the interrogation locale. You don't keep using the same hotel--you keep changing the locations--so the enemy won't have time to scout or set up any sort of surveillance or rescue.
I gotta say, as much as I don't like the idea of him winning so atrociously, I have to say I like how he approaches non-combat civilians.
7468496
He's willing to do whatever it takes to win. If it isn't necessary for winning, then he has no reason to be a bad guy about it.
6499152
The rule isn't to prevent eavesdropping (though that is preferred, it is not mandatory). It is to prevent rescue. After all, not only are you going to kill the victim once you're done (there's more where that one came from if you have more questions later), it just has to be in a place where the rebels won't know to look and so, even if a spy rats out your location, they will arrive far too late. Maybe even get in trouble with the local government, too.