westwhere | the mouse house

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the mouse house

Welcome to Serthica’s Mouse House — a mini plot roll for recent newcomers, lasting until 11 August. Characters who opted in are in a different physical location but can contact the group at sea through their communicators. You can use the log post below to top level and mingle, or you can make your own logs and posts.

THE MOUSE HOUSE

Characters awaken in the dessert, unburied from high sands, recovering in medical tents or drifting towards a caravan. After a day to mend, they are presented to the caravan leader — the Merchant, who provides them translation and communication devices.

He explains they are outsiders who have reached the world of Akhuras, where undead factions wage war with each other and the living. The undead summon otherworldly conscripts, to enslave or weaponise them in the conflict. The Merchant finds and transports such newcomers east, where beacons might return the visitors back to their home worlds. Other otherworldly guests are currently travelling the haunted Crossing Seas — the Merchant offers their names.

The group at sea will reach the beacon-bearing clockwork citadel of Serthica within days. Caravan newcomers are supplied 10,000 coins each, blade weapons and ship passage to the impoverished Mouse House — the underground outskirts of Serthica and home to beggars, smugglers, contrived thief networks and mercenaries. Here, they must complete a set of tasks to wrangle, muscle, thieve or bribe coveted Serthica passport papers for themselves and their incoming comrades. Good luck!

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CHEESE FOR THE WHINE

■ The Mouse House is the literal industrialised underworld that surrounds Serthica. Coarse and labyrinthine, it has the gargantuan width of a very large vessel (50m). Here and there, crumbled makeshift stone roads show defunct rail tracks underneath. One train still runs in the outmost pathway of the Mouse House, taking daily imported coal shipments from the port to Serthica.

■ Often filthy, dangerous and entirely cavernous, the Mouse House comprises several crammed community homes — ‘rat mounds’ — some small illicit trade and forgery shops, and hideouts for opiate suppliers, slavers and thieves. Sleep lightly and watch your backs.

■ A pathway leads out to the ports. There are no windows, and the stuffy air is unhelped by limited ventilation. A strong scent of sedative incense blooms in the air to keep the criminal population tame(r).

■ Characters are taken in by Ma’am Mariol, the benevolent matronly leader of a ring of orphans who provide courier and espionage services for the various overlords of the Mouse House. Enjoy her hospitality: dried bread, questionable soup and a resting place in her breezy enclosures.

■ Ma’am Mariol looks after 12 valiant urchins. You can enlist their services but expect they’ll want pay.

■ Twice a day, at 6:00 and 18:00, the Mouse House suffers a dull shudder for a few minutes, as if suffering the echoes of a distant, rippling earthquake. Ma’am Mariol shares this is because the two city halves of Serthica are starting to swap places: Eidris comes up in the morning, while Minaras is overground at night. They only meet for one hour during the swap.

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✘ PRIME OPPORTUNITY

Win passage into Serthica by completing quests from the list below. Multiple people can tackle the same assignment. Report in by 23:59 GMT on 10 August for your gains.

PLOY & PLUNDER

Highly superstitious gang leader Artemius Bale is holding a festivity to celebrate conquering the territory of former rival Edward Three-Hands . The crème de la crème of the Mouse House’s underworl attends in a bustling, tight space. Despite his recent victory, Artemius remains heavily paranoid and keeps his cronies on guard.

■ Steal decent garments and function invitations from attendees to join the party.

■ Ease the pockets of the many criminal merrymakers, while they’re enjoying their fine wine. The more coin you can collect for later bribes, the better.

■ Pass for one of the many séance holders and ‘necromancers’ Artemius Bale has commissioned to entertain his guests. Coax attendees that the dead want them to patron incoming travellers — You may need to pair up and simulate a few ‘haunting’ tricks to persuade them of your great necromantic talent.

■ Why not pull a fast one on old fox Artemius? You could even persuade him he has been cursed by Edward Three-Hands and will fall deathly ill or unable to enjoy his gains if he does not make amends for his wrongdoings… to your benefit.

ALL ABOARD

A time-honoured fixture of Serthica, the single coal train typically enters the Mouse House each day at 11:00 without threat or trouble. Loaded to brim, it brings in fuel and smuggled goods.

Come early morning, Ma’am Mariol’s orphan scouts mention the latest 6:00 shake has toppled large pieces of stone and metallic debris over a segment of the railway. As the train approaches, Serthica officials send word that anyone who ~~breaks their backs~~ helps clear out the tracks by 13:00 will earn considerable good will with the citadel’s distraught customs office.

■ Grab a shovel. Use it wisely.

■ Careful with the various oversized rats that haunt the filthier depths of the Mouse House — they typically avoid groups of humans, but will jump you if you’re alone.

THE SCRIBE

Serthica’s most skilled forger, Rayssa is returning to the Mouse House after months of imprisonment in the citadel. She brings along decades of experience crafting passport papers — and a wealth of debt collectors who want the coin she owed before her disappearance.

It is widely known she will visit One-Eye Calliope’s tavern as her first point of call, to enjoy a first drink in freedom. Her pursuers will be waiting for her, armed, prickly and ready.

■ Win Rayssa’s good will and services by rescuing her from the inevitable bar brawl.

■ Head into her heavily watched quarters in the Mouse House to collect her tools of trade — inks, parchments, pens and stencils.

■ Hold her watch or her hair while a heavily inebriated Rayssa writes up your forged passport papers.

LADY LUCK LOVES YOU

If you’re no fan of honest looting, leave your fate to chance: the Mouse House’s various taverns and gathering places host nightly gambling games, from cards to bone dice, arm wrestling and a local favourite, mouse races.

Pair up to rig the games in your favour, and win coin, passport forgeries, clandestine passage or a crime lord’s patronage. You never know what favour the right name can earn you later!

QUESTIONS

NPC CONTACT

GAINS

GRAB A FRIEND

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[ Now the girl's bold nature has turned into her, and Vanessa raises an eyebrow in consideration of it. It comes from a place of concern, and that bothers her more. Of course, they'll pretend to care for her. How best to convince her to let her guard down?

While coming to terms with the fact that eating may not trap her forever, there's too much uncertainty. Vanessa has gone longer than this without eating, though she will admit that in those days of willful starvation, she saw much less physical activity. She's dizzier now than she was then. ]

Do you? Trust anything here?

It feels like a mortal world to me so yeah. I wouldn't say I trusted everything, but it's not a hallucination or anything.

I'd know if this was an afterlife.

( There's no doubt to her about that at all. This all feels so entirely different from what she knows, from the static world she was in.

She stops at a stall, looking at the fresh food here. It's definitely better than what was at their last location. Some lightly charred fresh corn. Some bread and meat slammed together with a bit of onion. )

[ What she sees, she doesn't like, and not for any ill will towards the man-who-is-not-a-man. She doesn't like it because it's too much of what she fears for herself. That loneliness may crush her until her body is broken and the Evil can spill out, and then there will be nothing left of what she once loved. Vanessa glares not at him, but at herself.

She's been foolish. She's been overconfident in her assessment of this world. And perhaps he can see that, too, that even her iron will has cracks in it, all the way down to the foundation. Vanessa isn't certain what he sees; she only knows what she sees. Admittedly, fear of being seen eventually forces her to turn away (though not her back, not completely). ]

You ought to stop making promises that you can't keep.

[ It's whispered with an anguished strain. Vanessa doesn't judge him for it, but she still fears it. Even if she's wrong about his purpose here, she isn't wrong about the danger he represents. His hope can kill.

Vanessa needs air, except, there's really not much of that down here. Still, she's moving from the table, not even bothering to go looking for Fei. She just wants out, to shake and weep and pray where nobody can see her. That isn't going to happen, not here, so she'll have to do it all in the space of her mind. ]

Forgive me, but I am tired. Have a good evening, Doctor.

[ Vanessa stops sooner than Red, though that doesn't keep the enticing scents from tickling at her nose. From behind, she can see that she underestimated some of what was offered. If she had the energy, she might feel pity that the orphans get so little, but that concern won't fix anything. Buying them all something from here would only set back her company's progress, and it won't help the orphans in the long term. Only policy will change that, and here they are just foreigners with no power. ...If she's to treat all of this is real...anyway. The smells certainly seem real.

Her hands stay clasped. No, no. ]

...Is there no one else here from the Underworld, then?

[ That, especially is of keen interest to Vanessa. She feels certain she'll know if Red's lying, though she'll also understand she may keep the secrets of others. ]

I'm... not sure actually. She didn't give a reason why here. Maybe it's-

[ He looks around, noting the railroad and the works and the smog and the soot- ]

Maybe it's safer here? Than in other places?

[ That's a pretty bleak thought, honestly. Maybe the kids just like it here or they're more familiar with this area. He's not sure and... doesn't really like that. ]

[ Finn's not above a little bribery. Or just clearing the way temporarily, if the occasion calls for it. ]

I didn't think about the other side. [ Surprise. ] I'm sure they can be bought, at the very least, considering what goes through this place.

[ Gods? Mortals? Oh, that's a lot to try wrapping his head around. ]

Definitely weird. [ Like, all of it. ]

Do you think maybe this is your Underworld? People keep talking about how the dead walk around on this planet...

[ The Doctor's acting like they've already known each other for years, feels like. Finn should probably find that annoying, but he just really really likes it. Easy friendships. They're wonderful.

So, of course, he's smiling. ] I'll help however I can.

But... I talked to someone out on the ships, the people we're supposed to be bringing in. He thinks we're in a completely different universe, said that there are people from alternate versions of his home or from different points in time.

You think... we could manage that?

( Red stops to look at her at the question like she's seeing the internal conflict without fully understanding it. Her hands are clasped down, and Red's not getting any of the food yet. She has some money, but compassion and generosity's some of those new human ideas that she hasn't really fully wrapped her head around yet. Including giving to others or even thinking of that as a possibility.

She frowns at the question. )

Not in our current group, or in the Mouse House as far as I can tell.

...there someone you want to see from there? It's near fuckin' impossible for the dead to get out. ( But she does have the soul of a very powerful goddess inside of her so maybe it's not someone whose died. )

No.

There's way too many living people. ( There are many sections of the Underworld, and she personally knows Purgatory High well and what came before her well enough, but not the rest. Still they all have a lot of dead people in it - no living really. She plays with some of the coins. ) And no Hades at all. ( He'd be pissed at her. ) Uh, that's the god of the Underworld.

We're somewhere totally new.

...I feel like we're talking on completely different levels here.

[ Because just a lockpick that works, without expert input, is in itself pretty impressive and interesting, by his home's standards. ]

- er, the Doctor? I always had the impression there were a lot of them.

[ Right, introductions are something you meet in kind. Can't be rude even when he's having worldviews shattered, right? ]

Sylvain Jose Gautier. It's a pleasure.

A means? Yes. A quiet one? Not at all.

[ He can absolutely brute force a door, but brute force is what they've been trying to avoid here. ]

I don't think there are many places you can't buy your way into, if you're determined enough. [ And rich enough. His tone is...somewhere between vaguely dismissive and vaugely disappointed. Sylvain's a believer in doing the ~right thing~, but he's also been around the block a few times, so he's fully aware of how overly optimistic that view is. ]

I think a little research is in order, first, but it's a definite possibility!

[ It's near impossible to hide the shadow that passes over her vision at the mere thought of wanting to see them. Everything inside coils tight, and with narrowed eyes she mutters with a scarcely-repressed venom: ]

He does not know death, though he will pray for it should he show his face here.

[ Maybe she does want to see him after all, but not for biscuits and tea. Red says it's nearly impossible for them to 'get out'. That phrase suggests she was certainly not let out. Catching herself, her tone momentarily lightens. ]

No doubt there is someone you would rather avoid seeing, too.

[ It is bleak, but she can understand being safer in one's own territory. As nice a thought as it is to bring everyone up above with them, they would likely suffer even more cruelty at the hands of the rich.

She keeps these thoughts quiet around the children. ]

She must worry, but I've no doubt that you little robins know the safest routes to just about anywhere down here, don't you? There must be something you are eager to show strangers.

[ Several dirty heads quickly nod, and the one at her skirts is already yanking her nearly sideways. There's no fear slowing her steps as she eagerly follows towards a corridor. There's a little wink in her eye when she catches Finn's gaze as the children re-direct them.

With any luck, they'll eventually be led past some market stalls. Vanessa is even more ready than before to sacrifice a few measly coins to find them something tasty to eat, or perhaps a trinket to play with. Even the London underground can't boast such unique trade items as what's offered down here.

So long as they keep away from the opiate vendors. Vanessa is familiar with the smell, and it's easy for her to steer clear. ]

...that's one helluva good sounding threat.

( Making someone pray for death because of what they'd be put through if they simply show up. She must really hate whoever it is. She smirks then at that before she nods. )

Yeah. But he can't die so I can't use the same threat.

( She can't threaten Hades at all. It's all she could do to simply escape. )

[ Having her flare for the dramatic acknowledged in a positive light puts her at a strange ease. If this girl needs help in threatening her pursuer, Vanessa can always help with that. ]

That is why it is a promise they both ought to fear. They will wish for for a peace that will never come.

[ Empty threats are pointless, of course. The power inside this girl is louder than Ethan's, but is it enough? That all depends on who she's running from. The clues are there, of course, and Vanessa would have to be blind not to make a guess at her former jailer. ]

Perhaps our enemy is the same.

If it was, you wouldn't be threatening him with the fact he'll be wishing to die. He is death.

( And he cannot be killed, and it's not simply a matter of impossibility of the fact, but all realms of the world itself would fall apart if the Underworld didn't have its leader, the one to usher in the souls of the deceased and make sure they go where they're meant to. He's an asshole, but an important one. She wanted to get away because he made her too human this time. It gave her the ability to want. )

Hades.

So who's yours?

[ She should have expected it, but also, how could she? Hades... From the Greek myths? Is Amunet not a myth? Amun-ra? Her throat suddenly feels more dry than ever, and it's difficult to swallow. Part of her regrets asking. She's dizzy. ]

Hades... The god?

[ What of her enemy, then? Oh, she hates to give him that much clout, but he would have called himself all and or nothing. Amun-ra, Hades, Lucifer. Would it make any difference? It was the confused and scattered tales of Man that mistook a fallen angel for a god. ]

Depending on where the tale has lived longest...our pursuers both represent judgment for the dead. To me, he is Lucifer. Satan.

[ Vanessa isn't one to believe in coincidence. This must mean something. She doesn't know what yet. ]

Yeah. King of the Underworld, god of the dead. All of that.

( Red doesn't know much about mortal religions up top. It's nothing her brain needed much knowledge of. Most mortals are aware of the gods even if the gods aren't as involved as they used to be Once Upon A Time. So some mortals come up with their own religions to believe in in the meantime.

The name's familiar to her though - just a story though that doesn't mean it's the case for her- for Vanessa, but she's wondering how it ties into what she read from Vanessa's aura. There was that feeling of a powerful goddess, of something very dangerous, something tied to death somehow- the darkness of smoke and bitterness of venom. )

And this Lucifer. He's your enemy?

In the universe? Surely. Many doctors indeed, but only one Doctor. You understand. [ He says this so nonchalantly, as if he expects Sylvain to simply...understand.

Then, he holds out his screwdriver that's just a screwdriver. ]

Here, have a go at it. Loosen a few bolts, pick a lock.

[ That's just how he tends to operate, of course. Collect all the friends possible, largely by assuming they're already friends. And generally, they are. Unless he's given some reason to think otherwise.

Not in this case, though. Not by a longshot. Finn's a good lad, he can tell already. ]

It's not a question of can we, but rather, when will we. Not tomorrow, probably, but soon enough. There's a lot to be done here, admittedly, but we've got a project on our hands that's just our own. I'll have to think through the parts I need. It'll be different here than how I've got it working before, but we will most certainly manage, Finn.

[ He'll have to adapt a little differently. ]

As to where we are - it's all one big universe, one very, very vast universe, but what a lot of people don't grasp are all the possibilities out there, the little pockets tucked away, splintered off from linear time. We're seeing it here, I think. An alternate reality of some sort, perhaps.

I see. [His jaw tightens slightly.] That is not known of within the terms of willing possession among my family, but I would not want others to assume such a thing. Mental illness should never be used for entertainment. I agree we should avoid any implications entirely.

[The very thought makes him tense and unhappy.]

We can use much simpler effects, or ones that are hard to prove. Blurred vision, headaches, chest pains and the like.

[Yuki has been worried that would be the case. It would mean he may have to do something he was not necessarily comfortable with. He lets out a soft sigh.]

If you do not mind keeping watch for a moment?

[He then turns and knelt down, bending over as much as he could to see into the lock of the door. It seems standard enough at least, nothing unique. He could even see through the lock into the room. All it needs is a key. He pulls a long metal pen from his pocket--his cellphone may have been useless but the stylus still had some value--and pushes it into the lock. He closes his eyes and focuses. Nothing happens for a moment, but then a bright light flares inside the lock. Not unlike the flash of a camera.

He opens his eyes and can feel the energy thrumming into his fingers. He turns the stylus and can hear as the pins inside the lock catch and shift, the door unlocking. He breathes, thankful it worked but also tired from the effort of using wordless magic after so long.]

Let us hurry, someone may have seen the flash of light from the windows.

[ Willing possession... It sounds indeed like a twisted joke to Vanessa. She doesn't understand, and her memories are too painful for her to inquire about it further. Best, then, to focus on one terrible situation at a time.

Nodding along to his further suggestions, Vanessa is a little more comfortable in acting like she has a headache. It won't be much of an act by the time it comes to perform, in fact.

It's clear that she isn't the only one unhappy about all this deception. Though she often shrouds herself in mystery, that is different than lying to someone's face. Still, some good should come of this, and Vanessa is one to appreciate that some things are a means to an end. ]

...You hate this, don't you? Do you fear spiritual repercussions?

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the mouse house

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