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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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"You're wrong, Henry," the Doctor quickly takes over. His voice is gentle, but very assured, almost calming. "Her story isn't over. Not the way you think. When we lose the ones we love, this moment right here, this is what we always want, isn't it? To speak with them, always, to say those last things we never got to say. You have that chance now to say it and you should. Don't lose it again."
And then, because he does genuinely care that they leave this man with some hope, he adds, "Her story won't be over after this, Henry. Not if you live your life the way she wants you to. She'll only be really gone if you carry on like you have been. The ones we love only ever really go away when we stop carrying them with us. And you did stop; for a long while, you stopped because it hurt too much. I understand that. But you have a chance now, a very good chance, to do something right."
He can say all this quite easily because it's how he lives. All the people he's traveled with, all the friends he's made all these years, his family, and he's never looked back; he couldn't, because it would have hurt too much, but he's always, always carried them all with him. They sleep inside his mind, safely tucked away. Everyone he's ever loved and lost.
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This explains the grief she never understood, the reason so many spirits came to the Underworld hoping they could go back and not leave their family too early, too soon. They knew what it was like to rip their connections from family and friends.
Suddenly, it feels very wrong that the man thinks she's his sister, and she's not. But there's not really any going back now. She's regained herself at this point, and she can join in.
"I want to see you be the good person I know you can be," Red says - voice shaky but carrying more strength than before. Henry's hand has clasped over her own - the tight fist on top of the table. His touch is calloused from scars, from a life of hard living. "There are refugees coming to the city. They need your help, your support. Anything you can offer. They're like us, Henry. Like we were."
Henry looks between the both of them before he nods, emotional but full of hope too. No one's ever talked to him about grief before. Grief counsellors don't exist here on these streets where everyone's scrambling to survive, but it's clear he is deeply affected by the Doctor's words and what he believes to be his sister's presence. "You're right - you're both right. Belle, I won't let you down."
"I know. Go tell our story." Red's eyes close, and her head falls down again - her hair a curtain covering her face. It gives her another moment to catch her breath.
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He can see the toll it's taken on his partner, though, and his thoughts switch to her, to making sure she's okay. He didn't know exactly how this would go and he miscalculated, he thinks, with how this has affected her. He reaches out to rest a light hand on her shoulder in genuine support.
"Be well, Henry. You're going to be alright," the Doctor leaves him with parting words, now focusing on the young girl beside him.
"Are you alright?" He asks her, only after the man has left.
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But she nods in answer, and it's true enough for the moment anyway.
It's not like there's time to go into detail about how she was created to be the guard dog of Underworld, a monster - how she has never really been alive before, and everything about this world is new and overwhelming despite the fact she's also ancient as fuck.
"Yeah."
She stands then, meeting his gaze.
"But we should discuss - later. That was one helluva trick you've got there, Ace."