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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
I kinda got the impression this whole place is mostly full of people struggling to get by.
If anybody's gonna have money and stuff, it's gotta be the crime bosses, right? The smugglers and mercenaries and shit. That's gotta add a few more notches in our favor to the morality scale, right? Stealing from the mercenaries to give to the poor.
no subject
Smart. We will find their houses.
[ Though, now she can't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the people there. What must it be like, to grow up the child of a criminal? It's an alien concept to Fei, and she does what she can not to dwell. She doesn't like doing things like this, but she understands the necessity, best not to make a big deal out of it if she can help it. ]
Closer to where the party is, perhaps?
no subject
Yeah. The party's all about one crime boss murdering another - seems extra shitty to hold a party about murder. Like what do you even bring to a party like that? Congratulation on-not-dying-instead cards, happy murder presents?
( Pfft. A pause. They're a ways off from there still so: )
Can I ask you something?
no subject
Jade, or gold, or swords?
[ Looking towards Red, Fei examines her face for a moment before answering. ]
What?
no subject
Has anything like this ever happened to you before?
The falling into an entirely other universe thing... You seem to be rolling with the punches pretty well. ( Which might be due to the very same training that makes her a badass fighter, but this is all kind of a lot. )
no subject
Fei isn't expecting it, and it shows. The gait of her walk slows as she mulls over an answer before finally shaking her head at Red. ]
No. I have faced many dangers, and traveled very far, but– [ She gives their surroundings a disdainful look before her eyes set back on Red. ]
Coming to another world? No. But why should I not roll with the punches?
[ Fei has never heard this expression before, but she gets the idea, maybe. ]
Xie Yun is here, and alive, and there is nothing I have seen so far that is dangerous.
[ At least, not to her. ]
no subject
( Red saw the network post after all even if she didn't comment to it. She thought the chances that any of them could find who they are looking for here was slim, but she still searched the list the Merchant gave them for her only two friends. They're not here - probably still in the city they managed to all fall into after swimming through the River Styx.
She smirks though at the confidence that the Warrior Princess speaks with as if simply nothing here is dangerous at all. )
You speak with a lot of confidence, and I can appreciate that. But hey, we haven't seen the Undead armies yet, right? Or is that one of the many dangers you've faced before?
( And so she isn't concerned. )
no subject
[ Eventually, and very privately, Fei will be relieved about her husband's presence in this world, but she's not there yet - he's not here yet. ]
You have not given me a reason not to trust you. I hope it remains this way.
[ By her metric, it's a very nice thing to say, though the brusque way she delivers the remark may dampen the effect some. She might not understand all the expressions Red uses (one day she'll ask why bananas are split and therefore leave in her world), and she knows the woman is reckless, but Red, thus far, has been genuine and plain-spoken despite using cleaved bananas as a measure of speed. Fei is glad for her company. ]
No. Not the undead. Have you? Can you imagine such a thing?
[ The thought of fighting against foes that had already been felled sounds like an endless task. She would rise to it when she had to, but Fei hopes to understand what she's facing a little more before that happens. ]
no subject
...your requirements for trusting people are really easy to meet. Not that I'm gonna complain.
( She stares in amazement honestly. Trust doesn't come easily for Red. The Underworld isn't a place where trust should be handed out readily. Still what Fei says sticks with her, and sets something like a stone sinking into the pit of her stomach: I hope it remains that way, because Red knows what she is- a monster of the Underworld, fire, darkness, teeth, claws, and chains. There's the deep connection with death and darkness. Parts of her are human too now (maybe), but the rest-
Truth is Red is very glad for her company too and doesn't want to fuck things up. )
Not anything like what they're saying. ( Red is only recently alive, but she wasn't undead either, and most everything in the Underworld was very much dead or a monster and/or created by Hades. ) The dead and living were pretty clear cut back where I was from. I've heard of zombies being in like books and tv shows. Usually you have to cut off the head to put 'em down. Don't know if it's the same here.
no subject
[ As she ticks off her criteria, Fei realizes Red's correct and has to chuckle at herself, shaking her head with a sigh. She's no stranger to being accused of not thinking things through as much as she probably should, but Fei trusts her gut, and she doesn't think Red will give her a reason to regret her decision to place even a small amount of faith in her. ]
But, you need to learn a sword, for when I am not around to help.
[ Her expression is all business, but there's the slightest twinge of amusement in her eyes, minute enough to be easily missed, that suggests she's teasing just a little. ]
Xie Yun has told me about them. He says they can be killed.
[ Though she makes a face at the notion of constantly having to behead things. It's brutal work. ]
Ah. Look.
[ While this stretch of maze is no cleaner or better smelling than the rest, there is a certain element of tidiness here - enough to suggest it was being looked after. It's enough to make Fei stop and look around them, gazing up at the fronts of the dwellings that flank them on either side. ]
no subject
Oh, yeah, I definitely do. Or some type of fighting beyond spitting at people in the face...
( It's not very effective. Cerberus would be, but well- That's a way to gain a lot of attention and people after her at once, because that's a monster. Her gaze moves to where Fei points out the change in things. She notices it too.
It's not a huge difference, but it is a difference. )
Seems like we reached the rich part of the outskirts, which... isn't saying much.
( The houses are a bit nicer though. Red walks up nearer to one, careful though. This place is probably used to thieves and crooks. Her voice drops to a whisper. ) Clothes, right? And maybe some better food.
no subject
[ Red might not have much experience yet, but she's willowy enough to be well-suited to fight without a sword, and she's certainly shown herself to be fearless enough. As long as she's cut out for waking up as early as Fei's been waking up - these surroundings have her cagey, it's hard to fall asleep and sleep well here. ]
Food? Good idea. They must eat better than most in these houses.
[ Trying not to slow down too much and make the way she was studying the houses obvious, Fei looks at the low walls on either side of the house and hoped they surrounded open spaces in the back. ]
How are you for climbing? Do you need me to give you a boost?
no subject
( Red is getting used to actually needing sleep so... sometimes she sleeps weird hours or more or less than most other people seem to. Usually more.
Still she follows close to Fei, following her gaze to the walls. )
...I should be good. ( Time to channel that ancient inner strength. ) Wanna go over there? See what we can find?