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

[somebadnews]

Five says nothing when he thanks him, like it isn't highly unusual to accept the help he's offered. Unlike his longer jumps, he's confident that he can recreate what he did in the barn and pull time back under a minute without causing any major issues. If anything, it should be easier to do when he's not bleeding to death.

He nods just slightly as Wrath preceptively guesses why he hasn't made plans beyond the only thing he's been working towards for decades. Klaus seemed to think that meant he was addicted to the apocalypse, but he didn't understand what it was like. None of them did. Survival is all he knows how to do. He doesn't want to dwell on what happens after, because he can't imagine what it's like to live in a world that isn't doomed.

"Your curse?" He observes Wrath, openly curious about what Hell is like, but not pushing him to reveal more than he wants. If it weren't for the tattoo, Five still wouldn't know anything about his curse, so he assumes it's not something he would have chosen to share otherwise. "Are you the one that has to maintain it?"

[inferus]

Wrath can feel Five's gaze on him, and he holds the glass in his hand, wrapping his fingers around it. He sees there is curiosity and not fear, which is strange for most mortals but Five has already shown he is not like most mortals at all. He looks over the glass at him at the question.

"Yes. It affects the entirety of the Underworld."

Each of his brothers suffers a loss over this curse. Never mind Wrath was not at fault for it. It was all Pride and his poor decisions which led to the rest. Wrath was simply cursed directly because the First Witch felt he ought to intervene before Pride and her daughter could marry.

They were both consenting individuals but she decided to damn all of the Underworld for it.

The second question gives him pause and then a slow release of breath. "Each of my brothers reigns in their own circle, but none of them are capable of doing what is necessary to maintain the balance required." And Wrath is king of them all.

[somebadnews]

Five has lived his version of Hell for most of his life, so his absence of fear is mostly due to a lack of imagination. He's been aware of an afterlife since he was a kid, what with having Klaus for a brother, but he only has a loose concept beyond that. It's still strange to think of the Wrath's brothers forming the Seven Deadly Sins, but he's been fairly accepting to the whole concept.

The stakes around his curse are higher than he assumed, but he empathizes. It's strangely easy to relate the collapse of Hell to a looming apocalypse. Stranger because he struggles to relate to anyone. Musing over that, he realizes may be out of his depth, but his phrasing seems to imply something.

"They need you." If his curse impacts all of them, and he's presumably the one who can maintain a balance. Five thinks of the brief time he returned home using the beacon and everything he didn't ask then. "Was it worse when you went back?"

[inferus]

Wrath nods slowly in response to the comment.

His brothers need him to undo the curse. They have all lost because of it, and Hell itself hangs waiting for Wrath to solve it, to break the curse placed upon him- upon all of them.

"There was less time. In that way, it was worse. However, there were some advancements made toward solving the curse - more than had been made since it was put in place."

But there is a long way to go still. Even if Emilia does accept the marriage bond, accept and want him as he is (the devil himself), there will be more required to break the curse. Without that, he can never give himself to her fully, never hand over his heart, never tell her how he truly feels.

[somebadnews]

Five can read between the lines of what that means. It's one thing to be a demon, which he accepted pretty easily, but he's more or less saying he's the one who keeps Hell from falling apart. Which would mean... something catastrophic, probably. Since he befriended him, the most likely outcome is an apocalypse or the collapse of the universe.

He reaches to refill his glass.

"You sound optimistic." And vague, but Five can't blame him for that. If Wrath hadn't automatically sensed his curse, it would have been a long while before he admitted to it. "Does it affect you here?"

[inferus]

"I don't know that I am."

Optimistic. There's a brief tone of his voice that appears to be more resigned than anything, but he can admit more progress has been made in the last several months than in the many decades before that. Wrath also doesn't know that the curse can be broken in time. Emilia would have many decisions to make. Some of these changes will completely change her entire life, her entire world.

She will suffer greatly, and why- She does not deserve to. The curse was not her fault. Even then, it isn't assured to be broken. He will continue to have to hold himself back. "It does. It's why there is much I am unable to say about it." A pause as he considers if it will allow him this much, if he will be allowed to give these words: "It is why I was looking into Necromancy when we arrived in Taravast."

[somebadnews]

Five frowns, and suddenly wishes he'd been drinking less. This is important to know. Some piece of information Wrath wouldn't have given if they hadn't forced him to drop a clue that Five couldn't help but poke at. Wrath could have refused to explain, but he still tried his best to answer as much as the curse would allow him to. Either because he's polite, and even Five can admit that this is what friends do. Or it could be because Five is a smart guy, and he should reasonably be able to provide some useful insight into the matter.

So drinking was a mistake, but he works around it to give him the attention it deserves.

He thinks about the anguish inside him that he ignores. No one but Wrath even notices, and so it could be the same for him. Wrath's curse could be causing him excruciating, unending pain, and he doubts he would have said one word about it if he was given the choice.

"You were hoping to learn from them, and it ended up the other way around? Or is bringing someone back from the dead key to breaking it?" He doesn't know if he can answer that, but Five theorizes anyway. "I've done it, you know. I've brought my siblings back three times now. Some things you can only fix through time travel."

So in theory... if that's the answer, Five could do it. Only at the cost of everything, but it's not like he hasn't been that desperate before. It's what he's still planning, after all.

[inferus]

Wrath plans to have this conversation again when Five is sober as well. He's telling him for both reasons: both because they are friends (and Wrath does not have many of those at all either here or in Hell) and because he does know Five to be smart and to have good ideas- ideas that would not occur to Wrath given their different experiences. In some ways, it's easier to speak of it without any expectation of a solution, because he hasn't been able to find one, and it feels like he is failing his wife- failing Hell itself for all that he is supposed to rule it.

He appreciates the seriousness with which Five attempts to listen through the haze of alcohol.

"...I had heard they had experience and knowledge of curses. Of course, the curses they were experienced with were ones of this world. They knew how to remove a cursed item from someone but not how to break the curse completely, how to dispel it, and I am afraid my own curse is far more powerful than any they have dealt with before." In the process of learning from them, Wrath gained disciples so he might have more power in the city itself. His finger slides over the rim of his glass as he looks at Five then at the revelation. "Three times? Do they remember it?" They can't if the time travel worked as intended. "Do they know?"

Somehow he doubts Five would tell them, but-

[somebadnews]

Five doesn't doubt it's powerful if it's able to work on someone who holds together an entire plane of existence. It also seems reasonable that Wrath would be more openminded to solutions for as long as he's suffered with it. The likelihood of finding a cure in another dimension might be low, but it also gives him some new options to explore.

"You never know what you'll run into here," he offers, just to give him something. A possibility. Five is often faced with problems he has no business solving, and despite how many times he's ended up making them worse, he has a small margin of success.

He quiets at the follow up questions after he casually mentioned cheating death. Not many people know everything he's done for his family. He's not even sure they do.

"They don’t remember, but they know about the apocalypses. That was two of them. The last time...," he frowns, because it isn't a pleasant memory. "The last time was different. They'd all... we'd all been shot, but luckily I was dying slower than the others. I rewound time. A few minutes. Just enough to bring them back and fix it."

That was the only time he's done that. He's been meaning to try it again when he isn't in the middle of bleeding to death, to see if he can. He shrugs.

"I never told them. There's no reason to.”

[inferus]

Wrath has started to wonder if the solution isn't partly in some within the group along with something that lies inside of this universe. It is another reason why he involves himself in the world itself. Without resources, what can he hope to gain? How can he dream of finding the way to at least break parts of it? There are so many active at any given time - all the effects on Emilia, the effects on himself, his wings cursed into an amulet.

He looks over at him at Five at his answer and then nods in simple acceptance of it. It's nothing Wrath would say either so he understands.

"I did not think you would have."

He takes another drink from his glass.

"You were able to turn back time while you were dying?"

Wrath raises an eyebrow at that, however, clearly impressed.

[somebadnews]

He nods, expression grim. As much as he talks about time travel, using his powers to do it is always a last resort. Take out his reckless jump as a kid, his time in the Commission, and he's only ever done it to keep his family alive. They're just... remarkably bad at that.

"It was that or die, and I'm too stubborn." It took a lot out of him, but it was the one and only time it worked like it was supposed to. He'd really been looking forward to sleeping for a week before he wound up here instead. He's been tired ever since. "I hadn't done it before. A jump that small."

There are aspects of his powers that he still hasn't explored, even at his age, after dedicating most of his life to the intricacies of time travel. Some of them might even help Wrath with his problem. He doesn't know how, but he's one person he'd do it for, if he could eliminate the risks. He owes him after all he's done.

"I've done things that shaped history, broken every bullshit rule, because I refused to let fate run its course. What's a curse, but one more impossible problem?"

[inferus]

"Many simply would. They are too afraid to do anything else." Wrath has seen countless mortals die or he has seen them when they cross over into the Underworld. He understands death intimately for all that it will never affect him like it does for the mortals whose souls remain below. Wrath's gaze lifts, filling his glass again, nodding in understanding. "You do not use the ability often."

It makes sense. It's an ability that requires caution for many reasons. Wrath lifts the bottle over, fill up Five's as well as his own until it is properly full at the moment. Tonight is not a night for making decisions or plans, not a night for action even as much as he is a demon of action (and not of words).

This small part of him forced to speak when he did not want to despite all Wrath had given up to avoid being placed in such a position again - it's unsettled him, angered him in a way few things can. But he can hear the offer within what Five says, the attempt at offering him some hope, and Wrath deeply appreciates it.

The vulnerability of hoping has been its own weakness. "In that, Five, we can relate." He'll lift his drink toward him in toast. Wrath was not made to be King of the Underworld, not made to be a demon but an angel instead with wings - to be commanded and controlled by his Maker. But not even his Maker could bend Wrath to his will so neither will fate and neither will this curse.

The reminder is an important one.

[somebadnews]

Five's jaw tenses when Wrath states that he doesn't use it often. The reasons why are a lot more complicated than he makes it sound. It's not so much that he chooses not to use it often, but that he can know more than anyone ever has about temporal jumps and still barely be able to control them. Time travel ruined his life in ways he can't simply go back and undo. His body might have regressed, but his personal timeline doesn't change. If it were as easy as it is for him to jump between places, things would have been different.

It's never a good option, but he has his limits. The death of his family was always the tipping point.

He stays quiet as he considers the man across from him. There's no one else who knows so much about him because he's willingly told him. Not from his reputation, or some file kept at the Commission, or coerced by magic. Of course they're fundamentally different, but there's a level of understanding and lack of judgment there that makes it easier.

Sure, he rules Hell and whatever that entails, but that barely matters to him. Wrath is driven, the same way he is. He refuses to accept the fate that others would put on him, and Five isn't enough of a hypocrite to tell him to give up when he's the worst offender.

Being like them takes a toll and Five can't say he isn't tired. Wrath may not show it as often, but he seems to get why he needs a drink now and again. So he accepts the glass and lifts it towards him in toast.

"Salute."