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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
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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. ]
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( 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?
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Her teeth grit, and she brushes past Red to clap a few coins down for the man, motioning to the corn and his lazy combination of meat and bread. Just enough for the girl. ]
He would deny that we are such, but yes; he is the enemy of any who value the sanctity of their soul.
[ It goes so much deeper than that; it's so much more intimate, but Lucifer does not deserve to be called 'beloved' while he leaves her stranded in this mistake of a world. ]
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( Well, Red doesn't even know if she has a soul of her own really. Maybe now? Did it become fully formed when she popped out of the Underworld to be living instead of not-dead-or-alive? Hard to say. )
Like he corrupts souls?
( That's nothing Hades ever did really. Just made his judgement, sometimes entirely harsh judgement - an eternity doing one terrible task endlessly. She steps up toward the food, grateful for it, taking it in her hands. It smells better than the stuff they left behind at least. )
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How would someone without any Christian influence understand? Even those who don't 'believe' still understand the concept. This is a challenge, and she wishes she understood more of Greek mythology so as to make a better comparison. ]
I think that he only seeks souls which are already marked for such corruption. Broken things. The lost. He promises to nurture them and accept them when nobody else will. His love is deadly nightshade. It has a sweet scent, but...
[ She trails off, feeling that the implication is clear enough. ]
Hades does not behave in this manner?
[ ooc; I know this is super late, so if you want to move on, I understand! Sorry for the delay. ]
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He is horrible don't get me wrong. There's plenty of fucked up things he's done, but... that's not really his deal. I don't think he's interested in most souls at all. He just reigns over them in the Underworld and makes sure everything is running smoothly.
And punishes those that deserve punishment, decides where souls go when they get down there. Things like that.
( And there's the whole mess with Persephone as well, but thankfully, she's free now from where he had her chained up. )
Sounds like they're both really powerful. ( Then again Vanessa seems really powerful too so. )
no subject
In which case, let us hope neither of them find their way here.
[ Like she doesn't already think Satan is lurking, but she can pretend...or try to. ]