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westwhere2022-08-01 07:33 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2022-08-01 07:33 pm
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.
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!
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.
✘ 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
- ■ 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!
NPC CONTACT
GAINS
GRAB A FRIEND
no subject
( Still she lifts her eyebrows with a nod of approval at all the gold he won. That's enough to buy the passage of a few of the oldbies they're trying to help. Probably. She hasn't looked into the cost of everything yet. )
Yeah, that's me. Hello, fellow newbie. You're Finn?
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Yep. It's good to meet you, Red. Um- [ Just gonna shove some of that gold her way. ] You're welcome to take some if you need it. Either way, I probably shouldn't try to walk out of here with all of it on me.
[ Because some of these guys might be thinking he's cheating at this game, too. To be fair, he probably is. Finn's certainly been trying to use the Force to help him. Considering his stack of gold, that's probably worked? Unclear. ]
no subject
( Red sits in the chair next to him with her knee pressed up against her chest as she starts to gather some of the coins to place in her pack. She sets her flask on top of the table and then looks over at him, reading the very comforting vibe his aura gives off. He's probably got the most comforting aura of any of those in the newbie group. Even the anger, it's familiar in a sense - it was anger that pushed her to escaping, to trying to get out of the position she was in. )
Can I ask you something?
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But then he's quickly distracted. ]
Hm? Yeah, sure.
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Not the arm wrestling, I'm sure you've got some experience there, but the universe hopping or world falling? Or whatever you'd call... ending up in this place.
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No. Has this happened to you?
[ He didn't realize that could be possible. Are there more places like this? Places that take people from distant galaxies, bringing them together for a common cause? Well, he figures if there's one, why not more? ]
no subject
Just wondering how you're holding up with... the, uh, forced change of scenery and everything.
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It's... a lot. I'm used to traveling to different planets or moons a lot, but nothing outside of my own galaxy. Thought I was dreaming for the first couple of days.
[ Hoped, rather. ]
What do you mean by realms?
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( It's said genuinely - space travel was not a thing at all where she was from beyond some fiction, and it's not like she absorbed any of it. ) Like different parts of the same world, y'know, like the Underworld, Earth, Mount Olympus.
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[ Which raises even more questions, not only where they are, but where did they all come from? ]
You... don't mean just underground and above ground and... things like that, do you? I've never heard of those places.
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( Like really. She takes a drink from her flask and then nods in confirmation. )
Yeah. Mount Olympus is where all the gods live, Earth's where the mortals are at, the Underworld's like the afterlife so a lot of dead there. This world doesn't seem to have gods like the one I'm from or space travel like the one you're from, which is weird, right? Everything we knew just... not a Thing here.
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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...
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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.
no subject
... I'm starting to think that maybe I am dreaming, after all.
no subject
It's a lot. I don't think this place has any gods if that helps? Just y'know, the undead.