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npc inbox

npc inbox

NPC INBOX

Reach out to your (not-so-)favourite NPC here, putting their name in the comment header. Try to keep it to just quick text/audio/written exchanges or inquiries that can accept summarised answers, please!

Previous NPC inbox posts:

■ Arc I: Sa-Hareth

■ Interlude: Stairs of Sighs + Arc II: Taravast

■ Interlude: Ellethia

■ Arc III: House of Ravens

SERTHICA | ALLIED NPCs | OTHERS

SERTHICA

	ARABELLA Mistress of discipline and Minaras' Watch ships, and member of the ruling governance. Her manner at once innocent, ruthless and cold-blooded. Mother to clockwork children.
	CAIN D'UBIQ Foremost dragon rider and gentleman of Eidris, accepted by the great fire-breathing Ashtart. War hero of the conflict with Minaras. Too young for his rank and achievements. Patron of several dragon schools. Appears perpetually absent-minded, thoughts astray.
	MA'AM MARIOL Motherly figure to the orphans of Serthica's impoverished underworld of exiles, the Mouse House. After years of rearing, prone to treating everyone as children. Her temper runs hotter than a first glance might indicate. Knows just about everyone.
	(KING) THIVAR II Formerly king of Serthica, holding a diminished court in Eidris — the single citadel contingent that still recognises his authority. Headstrong, firm, dignified. Claims Minaras and Serthica's dragons as his birthright.
	CHRICHTER Only available to those who join Remembrance. Leader of the radical Remembrance resistance movement that calls for a different solution to Serthica's post-plague political landscape. Unaffiliated with Eidris or Minaras.

ALLIED NPCs

	KARSA Sorceress, young (?). Employed by the Merchant and deferential to him. Talented but fiery and frequently impatient, intolerant of fools. She will get today's job done yesterday. Struggles to sympathise with men, objections and those who cannot absorb information quickly. Enchanted the group's translation devices. Furtively left the group, bearing injury, at the end of Arc II.
	'QUICKSILVER SAM'(UEL VANE) Pirate king of great renown, master of haunted waters. Recovering from a journey through the Crossing Seas, where he summoned the drowned dead for a foolish act of vengeance with an elusive artefact he himself misunderstands. Agile, quick-witted, charming and possessed of more street smarts than many. Intent to repay his debt to the party.
	HATISSE Revived witch of the Attaryl, partly responsible for the massacre of the Stairs of Sighs. Formerly a court witch of the Attaryl. Manipulative, vicious, a trained seductress. Formidably powerful. Buried with wards and injuries by her own sisters to prevent her return. Somewhat bound to Wrath.
	ASGEIRR The ghost of a scholar monk. Haunts the tattered execution cloak that the party stole from the La Rea bank in Sa-Hareth. Once a champion of equality and freedom, he faced ire for converting his followers against the regionally profitable trade of slavery. Soft-spoken but wise and just, slow to regain his strength. Will speak to those who visit his cloak in brief interludes. Favours necromancers.
	THE MERCHANT The patron ~~saint~~ of etiquette and the eastbound getaway expedition. Seems to largely trade information alongside wares. Appreciates spices, strategy and collaboration. Has an eerie and overly cautious manner. Committed. Defends the benefit of the many, to the detriment of the few. Not travelling with the party.

OTHERS

"HALTHAM" | ANURR
The undead warlord Anurr, previously posing as gentle-mannered giant Haltham. An embodiment of Sa-Hareth's cold storms and wind, who regained his territory from contender Unhalad with the inadvertent help of the party in Arc I. Frostily rational and amenable to some negotiation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( With the Doctor and Finn acting as Mouse House liaisons, while Zhou Fei and Red have been raising coin for the Mouse House, they might or mightn't be surprised to receive the following message from good Mariol: )

Ah, hello there? Hello... now, won't be troubling you long, know how busy you are, you're all grown up and frightfully busy and... now, poppet, wouldn't be rushing back down here for a smidge. It's all gotten a little bit rough around the — ( Reedy, aimed in the distance: ) You stop burning your sister's hair, Theodore, ain't be making her prettier, you're not! Oh, no, no, Lily, you're plenty pretty, is not what I meant, you're a handsome, darling blossom, and we only lower the bonnet on yer face so low so people don't... steal you, is not cause we don't want to see you!

( And back to order: ) They're being rude or God-fearing, or whatever it is, upstairs, that's got their frill-filled heads sending the gas thick down again. They keep it nice and even most often, but now it's thick, and it's warm, and it's making people... sweet but sleepy and honest slow, and... a bit irritable, you know, poppet, prone to stubbing toes and drifting into people and the like. And that's when them knives come out. We don't be wantin'that. So, just keep to yerselves upstairs for a little, won't you? We'll be all sorted here, as long as — Theodore, I'm smellin'her locks again.

( You can handwave Mariol's reassurance that she and the children are fine for now, but feel free to continue the thread by commenting here if your character wants to ask other questions. You can keep this for background knowledge going into the finale, or share it with the group o/ )

As long as what?

[ Thanks she hates it. ]

As long as it takes, dear, don't worry. This all happens more often than I'd care, every few years now, and we're all up and standing — except for you, Theodore, you'll be sitting silent and pretty for the next five years.

[ Well, this has the opposite effect on him. Sure, sure, reassurances that they're all fine. "Fine" now, but for how long? Anything already being overdone can be...even more overdone, and that concerns him greatly. ]

Bit of bother up here recently, but we'll get them sorted, dear, not to worry. [ Very little has been "fine" for anyone lately. ]

You said 'again' so they've done this before, have they, this heavy touch with the sedative? [ Sedating them, to what end. ]

What... sedative? Is only the heating gas they let in all the time, isn't it?

[ Oh, well done, Doctor. Thinking out loud too much. Again... ]

Oh, it is, yes. Wrong word there, sorry! I do that sometimes, mix up my words. It's a homonym, that one, sedative - one word with different meanings, like play - something you can watch in a theatre - or play, something I enjoy doing with the children and their games. Which I do miss, by the way, I don't intend to stay away very much longer. I've got some new gadgets for the children, in fact. Anyway! It's a homonym where I'm from, before I got here. Bit of slang, actually. That old sedative, it's a real gas. See, clever, that.

[ He says this quickly and confidently, but can he spin this? ]

Heating gas, though, it's made of a specific combination of hydrocarbons generally that, if combined and produced in excess, can have the sort of side effects you're describing. Sleepiness, slower reactions. It's nothing to worry about at all, I've seen it before. Everything will be fine when they dial it back a bit. With everything that's happened up here lately, well, they're being rude like you said, or just not paying enough attention.

[ Obviously quite the opposite is true. ]

Has it happened any other time before?

...right. Right you are, and me, ol'me, I'm mishearing all sorts. Oh, with children, can't be having a second to me-self, not that I'm complaining, even with Theodore. He's barely come to us, bless.

( Where... was she. ) Oh, now and then, once a year or more, they get the pressure wrong, I think, or it's the pipes, or... five years ago, when they rounded us like rats, was when it last happened long. Think they were only learning how to handle us, now they'd locked us in. Was a month of it, awful, puppet, couldn't gather me own thoughts with a spindle. Though, tell you the truth, right after the coal sick, don't think I wanted to think about that.

It's all good, pet, nothing happens. Just some tempers rouse, best not to be your good selves here for'it.

Old pipes, you know, bit hard to manage sometimes. Calibrations have to be reset.

[ How to handle us and locked us in. Well, this isn't alarming in the slightest... ]

The thing about that, actually - can you recall a pattern to it of any sort? If it happens once a year or more, is it random or does it seem to coincide with a particular...event? If it gets worse with any sort of consistency, I can help them fix it. Keep it better regulated. You're fine, I know, but if we can avoid tempers rousing, all the better, eh? You have enough to worry about as it is.

Right... you're very right, you can speak to all sorts, can't ye? Being the liaison, right... let me... let me quickly have a thi — Lilian, you cannot burn his trousers for what he's done, I know he's done you wrong.

( ...round two: ) It's not the kind of thing you put in your calendar, now is it? And it's always been... I think it's all the heat, you know, you sleep more, you forget more... I just remember, me, forgetting a bit, poppet. I suppose, once a year or so? Nothing bad, they're excellent pipes, and I'm not, I'm not, me, complaining. I'm not a complainer.

[ ...he needs to get them all the hell out of there, is what needs to happen. Immediately. ]

Oh, you're far from it, dear. You carry on quite well, with all you've got on your hands.

So they rounded you up and brought you down here after the coal sick swept through, started feeding the gas down here to you. Bit of a kindness, from the sound of it, as long as they get the pressures right. [ The furthest thing from a kindness but, tread lightly and all that. ] And they will, I'll help them.

I do think I ought to pay a visit, though. Compare the air up here to down there, bit of experimentation.

And they don't charge nothing for it, either. I know there's all sorts upstairs too, and they're not all nice, are they, but that's not bad, is it?

[ Interesting. And ever more alarming. Keep them docile and submissive. Yet, some resist. ]

They should take better care of you and do far more for you than they have been, but they're trying, I suppose. They don't get it right all the time, exactly, bit like our own parents, eh? But after the sickness, they brought you all down here, they've kept you safe, warm.

Does it seem to affect everyone's memory then, the children too? And some people get angrier about it than others?

Well, we all lived here, more like... we can't be going up no more. Which, all right. Well, you seem to.

It's not about memories, poppet, I'm sure it's only heating. And the anger's no more than a stubbed toe.

[ He'd thought more than once about trying to get them back up here, but he's conflicted. It's not entirely safe up here, but not safe in the Mouse House, either. They'll have to be careful and strategic. He has to cut the gas off at the source, at the very least.

He wants to get them all out, but he's worried about endangering them if they make a sudden move to bring them all topside, and yet being gassed is equally concerning. If they bring them up topside, do they risk exposing them to something terrible? ]

I'll work this out with the officials, I promise. We'll have the gas sorted.

You said you're fine for now, I know, but I'd like to visit with you and the children if you're up for company again. Have a look at the vents where the gas is coming through. Just make sure everything's working properly on both sides.

[ Can he cut something off down there? Can he find a way to recirculate the air? At the very least, can he gain a better understanding of the gas itself and, possibly, how it affects him versus them? ]

→ the doctor, zhou fei, finn, red

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caaaaaaareful

/facepalm

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finn, m8

he's only screaming on the inside, it's fine

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