serthica: war & peace

[groundrules]

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

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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

Comments

[inferus]

Wrath notes with approval her expert use of a sleep spell which is just in time to prevent a dangerous situation from getting any more out of hand. They are too new to this city to have any understanding of the Remembrance group or of this particular political leader. However, their methods are clearly to induce fear, and they will not win this battle today. He already knows.

They would be better served gaining favor from an individual in power and learning more before making any decisions about who or who is not right in this city. More than that, they have seen in Taravast what can happen if they become too involved in the upheaval of a government on a vulnerable population - not that he regrets finding out the truth and exposing the leader as he did.

"We should continue to keep Arabella safe and aid in her escape."

Emilia has already become formidable in her own right even with most of her power still leashed, and Wrath can do plenty of damage without a weapon in sight. His grip remains on her as he teleports them closer, and when he comes out of it, he lifts a hand to block one of the group's rogue mechanical hounds from biting into Arabella's guards and tosses it into its master's chest.

They both fly backward.

[valeas]

Emilia considers his words, though there isn't all that much time. Where she prefers to think of every angle before making a move, indecision is the enemy in times like these. She'll never forget the siege of Taravast — the destabilisation that occurred as a result of an impulsive and reckless decision, however justified the reason. Arabella is indeed a powerful ruler in her own right, deserving of accountability as any other if not more — and she may also possesses the vital information they seek as a member of the government.

She thinks of the crushed bodies she grimly rode past while luring the Huntress with her fire. Thinks of Karsa's face, the half of it that catches light so silver and odd. Decides that yes, Arabella will not die today.

Holding on to Wrath, well aware she'll be whisked away, Emilia prepares her next move. Half-emerges from the black-and-gold wisps of his shadows with a hand raised. She focuses on the rogue agent next to the one that flies backward alongside its... pet. The spell is vicious enough it burns her lips when whispering its verbal component, invisible claws swiping at his hands and wrists —

Until the sudden pain forces them to drop their weapon. She kicks it further away from them.

[inferus]

Another of the Remembrance group aims toward Arabella's guard and group as they make their way through the path Wrath and Emilia have cut through in the crowd. Wrath sees it and rushes forward, grabbing the man's arm from beside. Ordinarily, he would never use the powers he has to override the choice of another unless it is for training purposes, but this particular group has shown they do not care about making many mortals feel fear against their will, controlling them in that way.

This is the reason mortals should not be granted this power.

A whisper in his ear, command more than temptation: "You're much too tired to continue on. Lay down."

He wraps his power around the sin of sloth inside of him, calling it forward, until it the individual does as he says, lying his body down upon the ground as if overcome with exhaustion.

It gives the guards the space they need to get out. Run, Arabella, run.

[valeas]

They aren't the only ones moved to act, and it does make a difference.

A shield of sorts is what they become, moving in tandem with the guards escorting Arabella out of the Sanctuary upon finding a reliable route. Screams have subsided, but nowhere near enough, and attendants move toward them to return their weapons with shaking hands. If nothing else, Emilia is comforted by the weight of her dagger's hilt, fingers wrapping tight around it. She'll continue to use her sleep spell where she sees it needed, albeit judiciously: a body collapsed that can be body trampled.

Her heart thuds too loud in her ears still, her eyes moving quickly over the room once more to scan it, to identify members from their group within the frantic crowd. To determine if any of them are among the ones wounded.

Frightened.

There are those still determined to claw their way out of the Sanctuary, its doors blown wide open. From this distance, she can't see it so clearly, but she does notice: the thickness of a fog that clouds all else. "Wrath — "

[inferus]

Wrath senses the fog before he sees it.

The magic rolls within the smoky clouds obscuring vision. The magic of it signals it is dangerous in some way. He watches the people nearest to it start to become confused, start to fall over and sleep. He nods, reaching for her arm once more. The length of his palm slides along the whole of it, and in an instant, they are gone again.

The smoke and gold left in their wake as they are removed from the area where the danger remains.

It doesn't seem like the group intended on killing anyone. They wanted to strike fear, but the question is- why? It's no mystery which can be immediately solved.

They have to leave to their respective halves of the city, but Wrath finds himself reluctant to do so following what just occurred. His shoulders gather tension once more.

[valeas]

There isn't time for them to discuss what's only just transpired.

Soon enough, they'll both be called on by Lady Arabella, but for now, they're to go their separate ways.

Wrath will be given time to inspect the Sanctuary following the attack, detective that he is. Emilia is ushered toward Eidris, the half that has lowered so Minaras can rise. She reminds herself they're to pretend this is the first time they've worked together, motivated by circumstances beyond their control. She reminds herself this is not meant to mean much of anything.

But she does turn to look back at him as she lets herself be steered, into the awaiting arms of startled citizens and consoling dragons. Turns to look back at him as she's taken away, an ache in her chest as she realises something about that is familiar.

[inferus]

Wrath is not brought anywhere by anyone. No one touches him. He would not allow them to, but instincts guide the mortals around him better than he needs to.

He reins in his cold before it can escape him. The other city waits, and he is aware of all the reasons why he must play this game at present before they can return to Hell and play another game entirely. They are both aware they cannot act as if they know one another. They must treat each other as strangers so he doesn't look directly at her either, but he does pay attention to her as she is taken away and toward the other side.

It's like he can feel it though through the tattoo, through their connection- Wrath feels the moment she looks.

He does turn though to catch her gaze as she looks back at him. His chest aches with a horrible familiar feeling of loss and grief. For that brief moment, he sees it written in her eyes too, and he looks away as he carries the feeling in his chest and then follows the others to the city of darkness.

There's something familiar in that too - he gave up the sun so he could reign freely (better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven). As they head into the darkness that awaits him, he is aware acutely so of how much he will miss her light.