westwhere | serthica: war & peace

serthica: war & peace

Clockwork Serthica’s arrival event stretches til around 3 September. You’re welcome to hit up this log or make your own entries. Characters not assigned to a region can still access it, as long as they’re discreet.

Please share cool plot clues via network — and have fun!

WAR & PEACE

SUMMARY: The Merchant assigns the group to determine if the dead lurk within Serthica’s adversarial halves. Eidris and Minaras hold a summit to normalise trade within Serthica’s elusive Neutral Zone — while a resistance movements attempts to capture Minaras lead figure Arabella. In Eidris, locals must calm a maddened dragon and her cohort and retrieve her hatching eggs. Minaras hosts its eerie civic indoctrination that seeks to extirpate physical and moral decay.

FAIR FORTUNE | SWITZERLAND | EIDRIS: THERE BE DRAGONS | MINARAS: EYES ON YOU

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FAIR FORTUNE

The party at sea is smuggled into Serthica with help from false passport papers secured by their Mouse House companions. The two groups meet at Serthica’s port customs, in time for the Merchant’s private transmission:

”Good afternoon. I salute and thank the efforts of our recent additions. You performed exceptionally.

You will hear Serthica is sundered by war, sickness and irreconcilable differences. In truth, she is likely divided by the interests of those who weaponise fear and manipulate opportunity.

In Eidris, they claim Minaraians are not human. In Minaras, they speak the same of Eidris. Disgust, dismay and paranoia have created a… system of profound physical avoidance. If this is mere fearmongering, it is distasteful, but inconsequential. However… if one of the citadel’s halves has succumbed to the dead, who now know to feign they yet live… this marks a dire escalation. You must study this.

Your transportation beacon sleeps in the holy grounds of Vassarizhia. It will light within months, when the Heart’s clock quiets for its annual winding. You may visit the grounds during the upcoming trade summit.

While in Serthica, your only objectives are to survive until the beacon’s eye opens, and to discover the dead present. I pray but question you will prevail.”

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SWITZERLAND

After a lengthy inspection of their passport papers, the party is steered towards the Sanctuary of Serthica’s Neutral Zone — a vast institute near Serthica’s great clock tower. Here, representatives of Eidris and Minaras assemble at midday for peaceful negotiations to improve distant trade relations.

■ The Merchant recommends mingling to broaden your investigation into Serthica’s dead. Even Minaras leading figurehead Arabella will attend.

■ For peace-keeping, entrants to the Sanctuary must surrender their weapons or allow them to be sealed, if they want to carry them in. Weapons are released on departure. Physical enhancements that characters cannot remove (ex: vampire fangs) are excepted.

■ Those who are unwilling to give up or seal their weapons can head on to Eidris and Minaras.

■ Summit attendants receive badges reflecting their Serthica identities, or can divert the greeting droid and liberate the insignia of a delayed delegation. Higher-ranking badges earns you more lenient treatment and higher security clearance.

■ Eidris attendants receive golden armbands or scarves, those of Minaras dark blue.

■ In bustling halls, officials negotiate grain exchanges, new train railways, the currency exchange rate and the saddening conditions of Mouse House exiles. Alas, if only someone (not them) could help.

■ Those drafted into the talks are toasted with a green, mint-like potion — an unadvertised truth serum intended to keep negotiations honest. The potion’s effects last two to four hours, compelling truth but not speech. But do talk: candour wins answers.

■ Artisans display their finest novelty items in the main reception hall. Aggressively enthusiastic traders seek testers and investors for their wares — potent opiates, goggles that show you the world in 10 years’ time, even detailed plans for luxury teahouses offering droid companionship. Extricate yourself with as much coin and dignity as possible.

SLEEP, CHILD, SLEEP

■ The great clock of the Neutral Zone strikes 18:00, triggering a light three-minute earthquake and the rise of nocturnal Minaras.

■ The Sanctuary loses all electric power. As servants rush for candles, you might notice some native summit delegates behave peculiarly: their eyes look glassy, faces trapped in an expression of comical, exaggerated dismay. Many are frozen in tense positions. Others move in sluggish, uncoordinated and jerky spasms. One might catch your wrist and attempt to speak in staggered, guttural croaks.

■ Lights return once the earthquake finishes. Locals resume regularly and do not seem to have noticed any erratic behaviour.

SLEEP, CHILD, SLEEP
CONTENT WARNING: TERROR ATTACK

■ Starting her speech, Arabella of Minaras calls a tribute for those lost to the great Culling sickness that struck Serthica mere years before. The vigil is interrupted by a fusillade of rifle shots fired from outside, through the Sanctuary’s wall-long windows.

■ The bullets exclusively target Minaras delegates and do not contain gunpowder, but a thickened, pale liquid. Once shot, those wounded experience a hysterical, incontrollable terror and the certainty that their greatest fear is hunting them. Many of the shot delegates develop an instant flight response and seek to claw their way out of the Sanctuary, with no care for whom they trample in their path. This terror lasts 30-60 minutes. Please content warn if you graphically describe your character’s greatest fear.

■ As rifle gunshots die down, a voice from outside introduces the Remembrance coalition, pledging safety if the summit surrenders Arabella.

■ The Sanctuary activates emergency measures: protective magical wards start to slowly reinforce, while attendants risk their lives to return characters’ weapons.

■ You could team up and help Arabella’s few remaining guards to escort her to safety in Minaras. Drop a line if you take this route.

■ Outside, you find the Sanctuary’s grounds have been drenched in a thick fog that barely allows you to see steps ahead. Your senses dull, and you are gradually prone to sleep — while masked men close in with rifles and vicious droid hunting hounds.

■ Help Sanctuary guards take out the assailants — and submit your character for a RNG draw to interrogate a lone captive.

■ Characters who later investigate the Sanctuary can find some of its windows have been very carefully pricked, fissured or even minutely holed, easing the way for attack.

Crawl back to your home base in Eidris or Minaras — you need the beauty sleep.

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EIDRIS | THERE BE DRAGONS

Eidris’s relaxed atmosphere might balm your rattled nerves after the Sanctuary’s disasters. Startled citizens gather to offer you help settling in, while dragons seek you out to curl up and nuzzle.

Eidris is governed by natural order and harmony, achieved through firm etiquette, consideration and reminders to slow down. You can hole up in a room in one of the many abandoned and repurposed villas, or group up to take a whole house. Local technology is a blend of mechanical gears and magic that substitutes fuels. Sorcerers are frequent, boastful and admired.

Dig deeper, and you’ll find the people of Eidris are unwilling to linger on negative experiences and gradually lose memory of them. If queried, many natives have normalised intermittent amnesia, with some using their link to their dragons to stay anchored in the present.

■ Acclimate to your roles in Eidris and enjoy the sweet welcome of neighbourly gifted meals and knitwear and a personal, signed letter of support from king Thivar.

■ Eidris prepares for the rare hatching of dragon eggs, lain by the beautiful fire-breathing Aiva — one of the fewer martial dragons used by Eidris’ military. Two weeks into your stay (around 25 August, forward date at will), word spreads that Aiva’s mate has been deeply injured by a Minaras scouting ship during the 6:00-7:00 overlap period when the two citadel halves are both overground.

■ A panicked, distrustful Aiva collects her silver-shelled eggs from the formal nest quarters, hiding them on the rooftops or in the balconies of tall, dangerous buildings. Several other martial dragons assist Aiva by guarding these hideaways until the young dragons can hatch.

■ Eidris calls back most transport dragons to avoid altercation with their fire-breathing, paranoid brethren. This might strand some riders on the nearest decrepit rooftop, while testy dragons fly by. They don’t initiate attack, but are more prone to warning tail sweeps or light charring, if you come close.

■ Dragon lord Cain d’Ubiq urges riders that can reconnect with their dragons to help retrieve the 1m, 50-kg eggs and deliver them back to the dragon grounds nest before they hatch by sundown — terrorising the baby dragons that wake alone and ripping into local architecture. Other riders are needed to spread a trail of deep incense smoke in the air that can soothe dragons from their outburst. Lend a hand!

■ Characters who enlisted for dragon riding on arrival could be middling riders by this point.

■ Aiva’s children hatch moments before the clock ticks 18:00 and Minaras also surges overground. Characters linked to a dragon feel the birth: first as an overwhelming exuberance, then as an all-consuming and irrational dread that briefly reduces them to inexplicable tears.

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MINARAS | EYES ON YOU

A sharp departure from Eidris’ laissez-faire is watchful Minaras, where citizens obsess with schedules, orderliness and time — as if every second is both borrowed and wasted.

Newcomers can choose between one-person 2.5x2.5m ‘sleep units’ in packed industrial homes, or pool funds to rent small refurbished alcoves that once served as hospital or science halls. Space is a luxury, silence a myth: helper droids constantly fuss after their masters, steam engines cough outside, and the gentle thrum on the streets betrays the current-shifting omnipresence of large Watch ships.

Civic sound systems periodically bleat reminders for citizens to STAY HALE, STAY WHOLE, alongside tips for basic droid care, the latest in scientific discoveries, paid ads and reminders not to park your robotic carriage near hydrants.

■ Quickly learn the ropes of your assumed identity, as Minaraians have a duty to report peculiar behaviours.

■ Watch ships prevent lawbreaking while Minaras is overground. Crime rates spike rapidly when Minaras falls underground.

■ More than violence, Minaraians appear to fear their pocket watch times being wrong, filth and sickness. The smallest cough earns a stern glance and a wide berth.

■ As part of Minaras’ periodic social indoctrination, you are robotically escorted alongside your peers and other unrelated Minaraians to a civic integration centre. Here, you take turns before a mechanical droid sphinx labelled ASCLEPIOS that asks, ”What rots you? and compels an honest answer (this can be emotional, mental or physical sickness, minor or severe).

■ A painless tattoo appears on the back of your hand, listing your Decay (ex: ‘malnourishment,’ ‘a choleric temper’). Others in the indoctrination centre must help you mend through acts of care (ex: cooking you a meal, helping you meditate). The tattoo fades after 72 hours, or once sufficient acts of care have ‘cured’ you.

■ After one week (around 20 August, but feel free to forward date), a transmission from Arabella informs watch, aerial, military and health units that Minaras is changing the daily schedule of its scout ships. The last scouts will now be deployed at 4:15am and return to base by 5:00am.

QUESTIONS

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I'm on the Carousel. It's one of the ships.

[ ...Not what he expected. They just got here and she's already infiltrated one of the ships. Or was she arrested again? ]

How'd you manage that?

It's my job.

[ Oh. So she got a normal job, and not an embarrassingly demeaning one. He wouldn't know what that's like.

It's might be a little bit of a stretch, but he can probably make it up there. ]

Alright then. Which one is it?

( have a picture out the window of what she sees? or something???? video is magic )

Does that help?

[ Kind of? He sighs and steps outside, looking up and trying to place what she's showing him with city around him. It's no big deal, if he screws this up and teleports on the wrong ship, he can just keep hopping around and hope he doesn't run out of juice and get stranded up there with the enemy.

Hold on. She floats over something that looks like a tower he can recognize and he thinks he's got it. ]

You're alone on deck?

I'm alone. You'll be doing me a favour.

( it's not like her ship, solely watch and alone gets a little tedious )

[ That makes him frown, even if he shouldn't be offended that she's inviting him because she's lonely. Not like Five wasn't the one to suggest it, or that he isn't dying for something to distract him from how horrible this entire experience has been so far.

He doesn't respond as he watches the ship float for a while and does some calculations to judge the best way up there. As easy as he makes it look, going against gravity always adds an extra layer of difficulty.

A couple of jumps up a tower and about a minute later and he blinks on deck in a flash of light. He takes a second to peer over the side to marvel at how high he was able to get, then straightens his clothes and nods to Una. ]

What deal did you get? Do they have you reporting on what you see or are you just here to make sure it doesn't crash?

( she's not lonely, five, but it's a two-pronged thing: you both get to talk math and she gets to do something other than just watching the ships and keeping an eye out. lonely definitely isn't it )

I'm the "Vigil Officer". Gotta keep an eye out on... everything. ( what she sees, making sure this didn't crash, who knows. it was everything and nothing. though whether una was actually reporting it all was a different thing ) What did you get?

[ An officer. For a city that seems to exist to spy on their every move, they're awfully quick to hand that duty over to a newcomer. Just how good is the Merchant at faking paperwork?

Really makes his assignment feel like a personal jab. ]

"Animal Rights Representative". Should be pretty easy, considering the only animals I've seen around here are robotic.

[ He shakes his head. They could have given that to someone working with dragons on the other side, at least that would make sense. ]

Sounds your speciality then.

( the robotic part rather than the animals. she didn't know if he'd ever worked on robots but with the time travel and the math that he'd given her it didn't seem like a bad bet )

I figure we've got some time before anyone realises I'm not paying attention.

Edited 2022-08-23 13:05 (UTC)

[ Five gives her an odd look, partly because most of the people who know him would have laughed in his face when he told them his assignment. He'd rather not say another word about 'animal rights' though, so he gets back to business.

The way this city is, he has doubts about their privacy. He gives the ship another once over, confirming nobody is visibly near, then smiles up at her. ]

Let's not waste it then. [ He didn't blink all the way up here for smalltalk. ] You've obviously been keeping busy with the math I left you, so I assume you figured out what it was.

Not completely.

( that's the rub, the one part she'd been stuck on but intentional time travel was something that una had never tried to calculate before and it wasn't exactly something that they taught at the academy. she could likely get there, maybe even find a different way around to it if she tried (maybe) but his calculations were different, were unknown.

the clothes she'd gotten in this place had made the notebook easier to hide, to pull out and he'll see when she opens it that as well as his initial calculations she's used some of the other pages for her own work, both checking his calculations, the odd amendment and some which she was just trying to puzzle it out and had gotten stuck.

yeah, she'd been working on it both on the pirate ship and up here )

Though it's my first time with time travel.

[ Five tilts his head and watches her take out the notebook he'd given her. Honestly, he doesn't know what he's expecting. If someone like him, who has been working on time travel his entire life and has extensive experience using the briefcases, couldn't figure out how to fix it, what good will it do to hand it off to someone else?

He steps forward to take it from her and says nothing as he opens it and flips through the pages. He's completely silent once he gets to a page with an amendment, scowling lightly as he squints at it. ]

Your first? [ He needs to take a closer look, and have something to write on, and it takes real effort not to blink away to go digging for a pen somewhere on the ship.

He debates for a moment, then nods to her. ] Lucky you have someone like me to give you a roadmap. The briefcase is more or less idiot-proof, if we can fix it, but there is an alternative that doesn't leave room for error.

What's the alternative?

( she's interested. hell, she's more than interested if it gets them back to their own times. she would happily sit and puzzle this out if it came to a solution. and realistically, she didn't know how useful the briefcase would be considering there was only one of them and many of other people. but if they could create something themselves that they could manipulate? worth it )

[ The light here is terrible. It's only because they're alone on deck that he's able to resist suggesting they go further inside.

He stops trying to read to give his attention to Una. Not many people know about what he's about to say, but to be fair, it's because he's certain most of them wouldn't understand. That's only been the case every single time it's come up. Possibly up until now. ]

I don't need a briefcase to time travel. I was born with the ability. Going to an exact time and place takes extraordinary careful calculations, and one misplaced decimal can be... unfortunate. Hence. [ He holds up the notebook. He's got dozens of them filled by now that he's yet to show her. Not all that have to do with time travel, but a fair majority. ]

My accuracy gets shaky with longer jumps, so I'd prefer to go with the more predictable route. But it's possible.

( she's quiet for a moment, thinking on what he says. he can travel from place to place in the blink of an eye, just like the transporters. and like the transporters he likely requires coordinates or something similar to get his location. temporal coordinates would require more of a calculation but perhaps not be out of the realm. especially if he's done it before )

You've calculated it before yourself?

( they'd had conversations already about time travel, about him not being in the right time. maybe one of those really had been him. and he sounds like he knows what he's talking about )

There could be a third alternative. A bridge between the briefcase and you, your calculations but a different piece of technology, if we don't get the briefcase working.

( and in some respects it might be simpler to engineer something themselves instead )</small We're both going to different times. We need options.

[ That alternative gets a couple of raised eyebrows. ]

You want to build something from scratch?

[ He scoffs. That's awfully ambitious of her. True, they're in a more technologically advanced area, and they have him, but this isn't like building a car engine out of scrap metal. This is about bending all of time and space to their will.

Maybe he's making it sound too easy. ]

I've calculated it before, so I can tell you all about what can go wrong. Time isn't something you want to experiment with.

[ He pauses and narrows his eyes as he gives it more thought before he completely dismisses the idea. ]

I might be able to deconstruct the briefcases, given enough time, but building a new one could take years. We need to be realistic here.

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serthica: war & peace

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