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Lustrum
Lustrum ambience
Lustrum (Sidebar)
Located in The Reach
Ports Prospector's Quarter
The Claim Fields
Shops Sweet Jane's Trading Post

Lustrum is a port in the outer circle of the Reach, located in the same snowy segment as Carillon.

Lustrum: The Mountain Beckons Guide[ | ]

Lustrum: The Mountain Beckons is a longer quest line that rewards you a Searing Enigma. It can be completed without leaving The Reach. However, you'll have get the Stained Glass from a random encounter.

  1. Attempting to Climb the Mountain costs 2 Supplies. Its a pretty hard Iron check, but you can just keep trying until you make it. You'll suffer +5 Terror each time you fail.
  2. Explore the Singing Caves to get an Ambiguous Shard.
  3. Show Melusine the Ambiguous Shard at the Golden Tea Shop.
  4. Bring Melusine a Bronzewood, a Munitions and a Stained Glass.
  5. Climb the Mountain again and explore the Singing Caves with Melusine.
  6. Resolve the situation and earn a Searing Enigma.

Log Entries[ | ]

A flurry of snow blows past the window. A crewman curses the cold.
Frost filigrees the window. The crew shivers. A pipe splits in the cold.
Snow-laden peaks rise from the mists. And dwarfing them all, the impossible immensity of the Mother of Mountains.

Incautious Driver: "Hours are mined in Lustrum - good for going faster than possible. Going to get some?"
Inconvenient Aunt: "If we're stopping at Lustrum, remember to wrap up warm when you head out."
The crew sees the snow on Lustrum, then stares at the Rat Brigade. The smiles hide thoughts of ear-muffs.
The Eccentric: "Lustrum, where you can spend all your hours suffering in the hopes of finding more."
The Princess has taken all the blankets. "Lustrum's cold. Throw something on the fire. Books, if you must."
The Vagabond puffs on his pipe. "Last time I climbed that mountain, I left four toes behind."
"The Mother of Mountains bleeds hours. Can you taste her misery?" The Repentant Devil is curious, not sad.

Prospector's Quarter[ | ]

The frantic, hustling heart of Lustrum, crammed with prospectors, pedlars, and purveyors of essential — and occasionally legal — services. Most business takes place here, unless you're a dreamer seeking your fortune on the claim fields.

The Mountain Sings
Drink
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 303718


The Mountain Sings[ | ]

Wind whistles through the Mountain's caves, promising good luck to the miners below. They raise their tankards and toast the fortune it promises.

Trigger conditions

Calendar icon DateClock icon An Opportunity in Lustrum,


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Join the celebration
Any passing miner will happily fill your tankard.
A rousing chorus
Cheers rise to the Mountain and its bounty of hours, until the soft panpipe sounds fade and the back-breaking work of mining must begin again. After another drink or two, of course. Something to ward off the chill of the cold mountain slopes.
Recruit crew amongst the miners
A few broke miners are not celebrating. They have already lost everything.
Giving up on the dream
Many come to Lustrum to make their fortune. Most leave poorer for the attempt. A few are willing to sign up with you, hoping for profits beyond the next horizon. A warm bunk, at the very least.
Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.


Investigate the soup seller
The man stirs a large cauldron with a wooden ladle. As you draw closer, the thick aroma of a meat stew drifts over.
Listen to rumours of an undying engine
The miners are exchanging tall tales.
The Immortal Skyfarer
The songs, for now, have ended. It is a quieter time, a time for stories.

In a hushed voice, one bearded miner relays legends he heard from a travelling merchant. Rumours of an immortal who roams the skies, restless, indefatigable; a captain who can neither die nor be killed.

This immortality, the miner insists, was a curse bestowed by the Devil for crimes in the dark. One listener objects; he's heard the same stories, and in those, the immortal captain is a saviour, come to deliver us from the Empress's tyranny! A scuffle breaks out, and the rest of the tale is lost.

Advanced query needs investigation



An Unfrequented Soup Stall
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 305498


An Unfrequented Soup Stall[ | ]

"Want some?" He waggles a full ladle at you. "It's free. I'll fill you a flask, for later." Despite being on the edge of the prospectors' shanty-town, no one else is taking him up on his offering.


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Eat your fill
He asks for nothing but the pleasure of a good deed done. So he says.
Served with trembling hands
Perhaps the man is older than he looks, for his hands shake as he moves to serve you. He swears – then apologises – when he spills a clot of tomato on your shoe. The stew is sharp with spice, and rich with fat. Chunks of onion bob lazily, jostling the soft flesh that falls apart in your mouth. "You've just got to cook it slow," he says, refusing to disclose his butcher.
Perhaps not
While the Mountain Sings, there are better uses of your time.



Explore Lustrum
Locomotive
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 277450


Explore Lustrum[ | ]

What was briefly a modest, pleasant town on the Mother of Mountains now runs on increasingly desperate dreams of riches. Fools sell their futures for the chance to mine years from the Mountain's frozen sides. Sharper minds sell pickaxes, supplies, and the promise of a warm bed at the end of a bitter's day work.


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Write a Port Report
Hours are the new gold in Albion and the Reach. While Lustrum's fortunes remain, it is of interest to many.
Limited Prospects
So much for the quiet retirement village that used to be here. The rush of prospectors has ripped the civility from the place as efficiently as the geodes from the mountain side. The scars that remain are no less vivid. Fewer and fewer prospectors return with geodes of hours, and the cost of processing them off-site grows every day. Still, for now, Lustrum thrives, and offers the promise of riches for any lucky or industrious miner willing to come and risk everything in the snow and the mud.
    • Lustrum icon Report: Lustrum = 1 [To earn rewards, hand your port reports in to the Indurate Veteran at Victory Hall, or the Prudent Secretary at Company House. Both docks are near New Winchester]

Ambition: Establish a spider-colony here
You send your sorrow-spider scuttling between the tents and shacks. There are few locked windows to worry about in Lustrum. Few barred doors.
A strand of the web
You spend a week at Lustrum, while grisly stories of stolen eyes increase in tempo and hysteria among the miners. When your spider returns, it leads you to an abandoned cabin, the interior fogged with webs. You spend a day knotting the legs of juvenile sorrow-spiders together, and Lustrum has its first spider-council.
Ask after the magician
The Fortunate Navigator wants to see a tiger, and needs a magician to do so. The travelling magician, Miss Peppercorn performs here – 'To Alleviate the Cold with the Sublime'.
Gone
The urchin takes your sovereign before answering your question. "Yes, I know of 'er. Wears a toff's outfit but isn't one, and does all sorts with handkerchiefs."

He peers at the Fortunate Navigator's companion, strapped to his back. "Is 'e sleeping, or dead? He's dead, inee? Did you lose a bet? Anyway, the magician left yesterday. Dunno where she's going."

Still, you've narrowed down the list.

Game note: Each time you fail to find the magician, you increase your chance of finding them at the next location.


Give the Fortunate Navigator's friend a sky burial atop the Mother of Mountains
It'll be a viciously cold trip up the Mother of Mountains. But the effort will give the burial value.
    • Fortunatenavigator icon The Navigator's Promise = 1700 [The Fortunate Navigator wishes to give their friend a sky burial on the Mother of Mountains, at Lustrum]

Final parting
The Fortunate Navigator is swaddled in thick clothing. He has packed supplies for two, rope and climbing axes. "I knew you'd come." He needs you to help Altan's body onto his back.

The snow is sometimes thigh deep; even the walk to the base is exhausting. The Navigator scales ice and traverses narrow ledges. Finally, when it's impossible to climb any higher, he stops and slices the straps holding his friend. He places the body in a hollow beneath a ledge, facing outwards.

You don't hear the Navigator's last words with his friend. He rejoins you a while later. "Thank you. Now, let's get out of this blasted place." You begin the taxing climb down in silence.

Game note: You can appoint the Stalwart Navigator to be your First Officer.

Game note: This will transform the Fortunate Navigator into the Stalwart Navigator, a First Officer who increases your Iron by 10, your Affiliation: Establishment by 1 and your Affiliation: Boheme by 1.


Finish an unfinished story for the Gardener-Archivist
Instigate conflict. Answer questions. Tie loose threads. The Unflower can guide you.
A denouement
You read the petals of the Unflower. It becomes apparent what you must do to bring the story to an end...

You kick open the door, a spade held aloft, and shove it in the hands of a confused woman sitting down to dinner with her family. "Dig!" you roar. "Dig, damn you! Your father buried the key in the garden to keep it from falling into the hands of your uncles! It's not too late to unlock the attic and confront the thing that wears his face!"

You leave her sitting open-mouthed, spade in one hand and a spoonful of soup in the other.
Climb the Mother of Mountains in search of a lost sigil
The Singh-Jenkin's expedition was hunting for sigils. There are reports they headed up here.
Failed event Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.


An aborted expedition
Three days later the remains of your expedition stumble, frostbitten, down the mountain – empty-handed.
Successful event
A cruel climb
The cold is vicious. Rocks crumble, turning solid ground into a grasping abyss. The snow is sometimes waist deep – team members take turns at the front, flattening a path for the rest to follow. Near the summit, ice-mummified and huddled together, are two corpses. The bodies have the quill-and-star emblem of the Singh-Jenkins expedition sewn onto their frozen jackets. Carved on the mountain behind them is a sigil. You copy it quickly, and make your way back down.
Stand for Parliament in Lustrum
The prospectors here like their representatives cagey and careful.
Failed event

Advanced query needs investigation

Game note: A new Election will be called here after a while, if you wish to try again

Game note: It costs 50 sovereigns to stand. It is refunded when/if you win.

Minor setbacks
The polls are not in your favour. Your opponents appear to have the will of the people behind them. Fortunately, it is a long way from here to Parliament. You suspect that it will not be long before the winner tires of their new position and steps down.
Successful event
The election is called...
At least a few of the people bother going to the polls.
Deliver the Previously Impounded Goods
There should be payment for delivering this.
A slice of civilisation
One of the maids from Murgatroyd's Golden Tea Shop is on hand to collect the supplies. "The mistress will be so happy," she tells you. "We've been mixing the last of our leaves with soil to eke them out and – well, you can only do that for so long before you're just drinking mud."


Look out for Mme. Lumière's production
She's expressed concern about one of her productions, currently filming somewhere on Lustrum.
Infamous?
Mme. Lumière's film is not difficult to find. Everyone's heard of the daft actors who're attempting to stage the siege of New Winchester in a shed.

The historical production has run into difficulties. The director has been caught by the fever for hours, and spends his days on the Mountain. The lead actor has run off with a successful prospector. The producer is doing his best, but assistance is urgently required if the film's to succeed.

The Pernickety Factor expresses her displeasure at being involved in the cinema and returns to your locomotive for a smoke and the Gazette crossword.
Take over the reins as the director
You can make do without a lead actor, but someone needs to have vision.
It did not lack for vision, the producer admits later, over several beers at the Hanged Man. Having the same actress play Sweet Jane and the Governor of New Winchester was certainly a choice that was made. One of many choices. The improvisation of the shed burning down was the most surprising and final of these choices.
Take the lead's role
You're sure you can carry off the Governor of New Winchester. And besides, there's no dialogue.
Everyone agrees afterward that your performance was mesmerising. No one could beat you for solemn gazes, steely defiance, or vehement arm waving. It's a shame the set wasn't more durable after you got a bit carried away, but the film is certainly finished.
Rewrite the script
A good script will save anything.
Mme. Lumière, for all her many talents, has a shaky grasp of plot and a shakier grasp of history. You work with what you have, and dramatise the rise of the Tacketies; the back-room deals in the Round Table, the clandestine intrigues of Sweet Jane rather than the fall of New Winchester itself. Someone says afterwards the film felt more like a play than a film, as though that's a bad thing.
Search for the Amenable Host's identity
Successful prospectors tend to leave their mark on the mountain. People remember those who were able to leave, flush with hours.
The locket is passed around the camps of prospectors. Most scratch their heads. Others sigh and look away. An elderly prospector approaches, carrying her hat in her hands. "You're the one looking for ol' Grey?" She sighs. "Long dead. Shot, south of the mountain. Wouldn't share his hours. Fool. No point rising high on the mountain if there's no one at the bottom holding you up."
Put up a flyer for the Strongwoman
The miners are bound to have interesting heavy objects for her to lift.
You post flyers around the drinking establishments and around the miners' camps. By night, the miners are discussing whether she could hold a year in her arms.
Find the Runaway Acrobat
A bleary-eyed prospector has seen someone of their description. They are attempting to make a living as a miner.
You find the acrobat fast asleep in the camp outside the mine. Their clothes are soiled by coal dust. It takes some effort to shake them awake. Once conscious, they push your hand away. "You're here to take me back to the Circus, aren't you? Good luck to the miners without me. Who will they send into the upper crevices now?" They burrow back into their blankets. "So it goes; just give me fifteen more minutes to rest, and I'll join you."
Find the Race Marshal
Lord Rochester is staying at the Hanged Man He needs to confirm you've reached Lustrum.
"Thank God. It's bally freezing!" Lord Rochester exhales a frozen cloud of breath "Well? Don't just stand around. Get a shake on!" He waves you out of the Hanged Man, though not before ensuring your engine is stocked up for the journey back.
Listen to the Will Of The People
A delegation has been sent to petition you in your role as Minister.
    • Genericcharacter icon Constituents Waiting = 2 [Delegations are waiting in Carillon, Lustrum, The Most Serene Mausoleum and Worlebury]

Endless problems, few solutions
You listen with appropriate amounts of care to each person who begs a moment of your time. The majority are local issues, not worth bringing up in Parliament. Occasionally, inspiration strikes for a new law. You promise with a practiced politician's sincerity that even if there is nothing you can do, you will do it to the best of your ability. They seem mollified by that.
Rare event (10%)
Endless problems, few solutions
You listen with appropriate amounts of care to each person who begs a moment of your time. Until the egg hits you in the face. The perpetrators run off giggling. You wipe away the dripping yolk. Someone should make a law against that sort of thing...
Investigate the hours trade
Someone has been diluting mined hours with common-or-garden minerals.
Watered down time
Many prospectors are up to it. As new veins of hours become harder to find, barrels are increasingly packed with hourless geodes of quartz and chalcedony. Hard to spot, until the hours are put to use and found to be caustic or to induce bouts of frantic recklessness.
Report the miners to the Windward Company
The miners do not work for it, but Windward engines still end up shipping most of their barrels.
Even with your sign of office, it is hard to get an appointment at the local factory. Nevertheless, you persuade the local Chairman to hear you out. As you talk, his face gets redder. Future barrels, he swears, will be Imperial-grade hours or those responsible will feel the harshest of sanctions! So far, he informs you, they have been polite.
Turn a blind eye
The miners are impoverished and getting poorer. The Empire can survive a few compromised deliveries.
Your decision draws more than a few suspicious glances from the overseers. But with it, a few slight nods of the head from the relieved miners.
Turn a blind eye... for a price...
Say, a few of those barrels. Not those ones. The ones without any quartz in them.
The miners reluctantly accept. They can't promise not to dilute the shipments in future, but do at least swear to be more circumspect about it.
Drop off a passenger for the New Street Line
It will be easy for them to vanish in the hubbub and tumult of Lustrum.
A new arrival
Lustrum does not offer an easy life, but it does offer an escape from the law. Your workworld escapee will ostensibly be brought in to work for one of the more affluent prospectors. This prospector has won their riches not through mining but through the Philanthropist's friendship. Now, they pay their debt by providing for those the New Street Line sends their way.
Drop off a settler
You're here!
Explore Lustrum
This port started as an enclave of well-off Londoners hoping to absorb the youthful energy of the mountain. Then the prospectors arrived.
A tale of two ports
Your boots crunch through the snow; clean and bright, lacking the lingering sadness of London's ammonia-suffused lacre. The townspeople nod politely to you, a distinguished visitor, but avert their eyes from the grizzled prospectors and get-rich-quick merchants who have taken over their slice of civilisation on the mountain. They wait impatiently for a day when the mountain has nothing more to offer and the uncouth invaders finally leave, hoping that something still remains when all of value has finally been plundered.
Explore Lustrum
They say the mountain used to sing, once. Then it stopped.
Silence in Lustrum
The mood in town is sombre. They say the claims are going dry. A drunk next to the Hanged Man waves a bottle to the mountain. "Bad omen when the music stopped. Brought us luck. Now—" He holds the bottle above his tongue, but there is no last drop left. He shuffles away to find a soft muddy patch to sleep the night away.

Advanced query needs investigation


Explore Lustrum
Wind whistles through the mountain's many caves, drifting into town as a duet of deep rumbles and soft, unearthly fluting.
Song of good fortune
Prospectors flood out of the Hanged Man pub, pulling on packs and lighting fresh vapour lamps. "Good fortune when the mountain sings!" promises a salesman, presenting his wares. Woodworm-riddled pick-axes. Damp dynamite. Shovels that would struggle to handle even a little light gardening. Worthless, all of it. Even so, he soon has a flock of desperate hopefuls stocking up before heading out to make their fortune.

Advanced query needs investigation


Explore Lustrum
Your wandering leads you deep into the back streets.
The means of production
What was once a small but attractive fenced-off park built for leisure is now little but a frozen muddy pit. Miners' partners and older children handle the smaller and poorer quality geodes brought to them from the claim fields, chipping away at the delicate rocks to get to the fibrous growths inside. Many sniff and sob as they work. The luckier ones are simply overcome by maudlin memories brought back by exposure to fresh hours. They dry their eyes and tear-streaked faces and continue working. The rest have no time for such luxury. Their salted, hour-blackened hands never stop trying to tease every last second out of each tiny geode. They smile only when their younger children look up from playing in the frozen mud – a moment's false assurance that all will be well.

Advanced query needs investigation


Explore Lustrum
There is a commotion at the end of the high street.
Beaten and broken
Two prospectors drag a wounded man on a small sledge. His legs are broken, frozen blood glinting on a splinter of exposed bone. His right arm has been folded onto his chest. It shouldn't bend that way. "B____y Windward neddies," mutters the Weary Prospector, taking a nip of whisky from his flask. The injured man is rushed into the pub for whatever treatment can be found in cheap bottles. All other medication left town weeks ago, along with Lustrum's last doctor.
Lend assistance
You have a few supplies to spare.
The arm is dislocated. You lack the medical supplies to stop the poor wretch's pain as you wrench it back into its socket. His teeth all but bite through the wooden stick you press in his mouth. Fortunately, he soon passes out. His fellow prospectors have little to offer in gratitude save the contents of their pockets, but promise that the first round of drinks is on them.

Advanced query needs investigation

Pretend to lend assistance
Nobody will be looking too closely.
You offer a helping hand while slipping the other into the fellow's pocket. As expected, the wretch had little. Now what little he had is yours.
Keep walking
This is none of your business.
Worse things happen on the mountain, especially on claims that the Windward Company covets.
Explore Lustrum
Your wandering takes you to the edge of town.
Shacks and tents
When they first arrived, the prospectors hastily constructed tents and shacks next to the prim houses of the Londoners desiring proximity to the mountain. Now most of those houses are deserted or taken over by squatters. The tents and shacks spread out from the shanty-town to anywhere with enough space to raise a roof. Your wandering takes you too far. Foul breath spiced with rum. Something sharp in your back. "Just a few sovs, friend," whispers a voice in your ear. "Don't act like you can't afford it."
Pay up
A few sovereigns? Bargain.
You turn slowly, reaching into your pocket for a few loose coins. Behind you is a slight woman in a long, muddy dress. Not one of the miners, but a lady of former class – an original Lustrum pioneer. "Sorry," she whispers, taking the money. "I have to get out of here. I—" She hitches up the tattered edge of her dress and flees as quickly as she can.

Advanced query needs investigation

Refuse
You are not so easily cowed.
Nothing happens. After a moment, you turn to see a figure disappearing around the corner. What a poor class of criminal this place has.
Turn the tables
A mugging? How quaint.
You reach for your pocket, only to suddenly launch a vicious kick to your assailant's left kneecap. She – the scream makes it obvious – falls back. You turn to see a slight looking woman in what was once a fine dress lying in the mud. She does have a knife, but her hand trembles enough that she is more likely to do herself harm than cut you. She clearly has nothing to take, and Lustrum has no law of note to either arrest her or pay for her capture. She's not worth any further effort.
Visit the Hanged Man pub
An embossed plaque under the hastily painted sign reveals this miners' pub to have once been the Empress' Lustrum guesthouse. Its once fine mahogany tables and chairs are now little but sawdust on the floor and a lingering smell in the fireplace.
Visit Murgatroyd's Golden Tea Shop
Some come for the fine teas, others for the carefully prepared manilla folders underneath the counter. All agree that the scones are divine.


Seek a claim of your own
For safety reasons, all claimants must hire a hour-harker to escort them on the mountain. The hour-harkers all agree on the importance of this.
A cold journey into the snow
"Stay close, friend," warns your hour harker. He grins. "Or not. Ye've paid already." He lights a vapour-lamp, glowing purple like the gases of the nearby nebula. It occasionally sparks with little flecks of green. Soon enough the lamp is the only light, as you move out to the treacherous, mostly unclaimed edges of the mountain. Occasionally he stops to sniff, or to drag a foot through the snow and mud in what looks like a line. Finally, he seems satisfied. He shoots you a mostly toothless grin as he lights a cigarette. "Reckon this has your name all over it. What you think?"

Game note: It will cost 100 Sovereigns to stake a claim, if you find one


Visit the Windward Company
Tensions between the Company and the Tacketies grow by the day. The poison air coming from Windward's processing factory is only the latest insult.
Turned away at the door
The Windward Company was not the first to begin harvesting the mountain, but no other came in harder or faster once the hours were detected. The Company began by bribing prospectors to sign over successful claims, and even offering to help process lucky prospectors' hours in their huge factory ovens. But neddy-men are cheap, and big sticks even cheaper. As the claims began running out, things changed quickly. Now the whole facility is out of bounds. The guard is uninterested in any business you might have. No, she does not know who you are or care who you may be friends with. This branch is a closed facility. Certainly, it is closed to you.
Visit the Windward Company
The burning smoke of its factory no longer hangs over Lustrum. The miners are no better off financially, but at least breathe easier.
High security
The huge factory doors are surrounded by Windward's neddy-men; stick-wielding strikebreakers pressed into service as guards. There is no getting anywhere near the factory while it remains on high alert. It is always on high alert.
Speak with a watcher by the station
He stares at your crew as they disembark your engine. He turns away when none emerge holding anything. He is clearly agitated.
Missing in delivery
"Sorry," the man apologises. "I didn't mean to stare. It's just, we've been waiting for a delivery from London. Really important supplies. I don't suppose you might be heading anywhere near the Relay to Albion, would you? If you could check if anything's happened to it, we'd really appreciate it." , near Port Prosper.
Attempt to climb the mountain in search of the Singing Caves
No path leads up to the peak, but with a sturdy stick and a stubborn attitude, you may be able to forge one.
Failed event
An almost impossible climb
The snow is deeper than expected, and the cliffs in your way both taller and more treacherous than you can handle. You reach for a rocky handhold; it crumbles under your hand. Luckily, a snowdrift not too far below catches your fall. Lying winded in the snow, you give up. The mountain is victorious, for today. You retrace your already fading footprints to Lustrum, where the fireplaces are always burning.
Successful event
A long, challenging hike
The snow is deep and much of the mountain demands scaling cliff-sides and clambering across treacherous ledges. There is no way to tell how long the climb is. Eventually, you claw up onto a ledge near the peak and sit, exhausted. The air is too thin to keep going, even if you had any strength left.


The Hanged Man
Drink
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 277519


The Hanged Man[ | ]

Irritable miners jockey for space by insufficient fireplaces. They pay for the overpriced drinks with their dwindling coins or lowest quality Hours. A few fortunates bear the mark of minor success; the baby-soft hands that come from regularly handling unseasoned Hours.


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Buy a round of drinks for the miners
Prospectors are not trusting people. Every new arrival is more competition. But while the drinks last, you're welcome to sit at their table.
Alcohol, the great leveller
An elderly prospector and a hulking, scarred miner move aside to give you just enough space to squeeze in. Everyone seems to be talking shop. More importantly, everyone at this table appears to have had at least some luck out here.
Listen to gossip about geodes
To hear the miners talk, you'd think the rocks were alive.
One prospector tells of finding a geode in the shape of a lion – apparently a mark of great fortune. Another talks of chipping away in silence so as not to startle the hours inside. Another mentions how cold the geodes are. As difficult as it is to work, a layer of thick ice underneath the snow is considered a sign of a good claim. They all agree that the mining day must begin with a libation; a cup of moonshine poured to the mountain's good graces. If it rumbles, it is said the offering is accepted. If purple wisps appear over their claim afterwards, its prospector is blessed indeed.
Listen to gossip about the mountain
They might have ideas on where to look for a claim.
"Those newcomers reckon they've got it made, digging in the mud. Don't realise the geodes is cold, do they? Hardens the muck. If you're not breaking your back, you're not doing it right. Serves 'em right for thinking a claim just out of town's going to pay out."
Listen to gossip about mining
At least a few have had some success out there.
"Look for the trees," a drunk prospector warns you. "Not too tall. The young ones. The Hours keep 'em young. Lots of trees? No good. Just enough trees and scrub to break the ice, that's the sign of a proper vein."
Listen to gossip about recent troubles
Mining such treacherous terrain has its difficulties.
"It's them Windward b____rds, ain't it? Didn't mind them sending round their neddies. Honest competition. Lads enjoyed the distraction. But did you see the state of that Parzifal lad—" The miners huddle. "That weren't Windward. That's them night hunters they talk of. Tearing folks up with their claws and teeth and eatin' them whole. All you see's a black rush before your eyes and then— Snap!"
Retrieve your Crew
They can't keep hanging around on the Mountain forever.
Approach the figure in the corner
It sits wrapped in a dusty, disintegrating shroud, nursing a flagon that never goes to where its lips presumably are.
Speak with a Weary Prospector
He's tired of the mud. Sick of the snow. He's going home just as soon as he can find someone to take on his claim.
A deal is struck!
No written contracts are needed in a town where most folks struggle with reading. He spits in his palm and holds the expectorate out.
Shake on it
His spit is thick and yellow with phlegm.
You grit your teeth, spit in your hand and shake. You'll take the first opportunity to scrub your hand clean of any diseases you've just been exposed to.

The Weary Prospector nods approvingly and calls over an hour-harker. She will escort you to your new claim whenever you like.

Game note: This will purchase you a claim that can at best be described as 'adequate'. You may have better or worse luck seeking out your own.

Refuse to shake
You will happily take his word that all is legitimate.
A verbal agreement it is. The Weary Prospector wipes his hand on his trousers and counts your money, biting down on every Sovereign. When all is to his satisfaction, he calls over an old hour-harker friend of his. She will lead you to the claim fields when you are ready to go.
Join a plot against the Windward Company
The Windward Company's factory poisons the air. Worse, their miners take all the best claims. At the back of the Hanged Man, schemes are in motion.
A new member of the cabal
The prospectors still see you as a newcomer, but you've proven your mining chops. Their numbers are too few to reject you. They let you into their war-room at the back of the Hanged Man. Something, they say, must be done. When asked what, they frown. Something big, they declare. It appears that is as far as their resentment has got them.
Suggest aggressive action
It's time for action. And a very large explosion. You can even build the device they'll need.
The back room of the pub is silent while you work. It isn't long before you've assembled the bomb. All that remains is to slip it into one of the barrels heading for the Windward factory's mighty furnace. When it comes, the explosion is glorious; a slow-motion flowering of flame that lasts much of a day. Nobody is hurt. Even the closest have plenty of time to evacuate. The damage to the inside of the factory, however, is nigh-incalculable. This facility will not be processing any more Hours for the foreseeable future.
Suggest diplomatic action
Windward is just another company, and companies are made up of people. They must listen to reason.
The plotters consider this. It is worth a try. You spend the evening writing down a polite but firm list of grievances, which is entrusted into the care of a young prospector's apprentice. An hour later he is chased back to Lustrum by two very large, angry dogs. From this, you deduce the answer is "No."
Return to the street
It's warm in here. It's cold out there. But needs must.
Recruit the Rat Brigade
"Oi! Down here." Three rats glower up at you from below a table, where spilt beer has trickled down to form a rat-reachable puddle.
A new beginning
The smallest, most scarred rat is called Cinders. She introduces her companions. "This—" she indicates the rat wearing goggles "—is my second, Petronella: our mechanic." She gestures towards a rat with glossy fur. "And this is our agent provocateur, Albrecht." The rat inclines his head. "We need a locomotive." These battle-hardened rats are all that remain of the Rat Regiment: a mercenary company active in the early days of the Winchester War. "Used to be a dozen of us – the best sappers around," says Cinders. "Now look at us." Her whiskers twitch. "Time for that later. We'll pay, Addressed As(SpeechInformal)."
Deliver the Cryptozoologist
This is as close as you can get to Mr Pennies, if it is still alive.
Nowhere to be seen
Unsurprisingly, Mr Pennies has not visited the Hanged Man in some time. "Oh well, I'll wait," decides the Cryptozoologist. "It's got to appear some time. Right?" You leave her to her long wait. For now at least, she seems happy enough.


Murgatroyd's Golden Tea Shop
Melusinemurgatroyd
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 277521


Murgatroyd's Golden Tea Shop[ | ]

An oasis of London civility and culture in a town with little of either. Melusine Murgatroyd stands proudly behind the display of fresh scones and slightly yellowing cream buns. At small wooden tables, successful prospectors and their significant others welcome themselves to the world of the nouveau riche with a spot of afternoon tea. Pinky fingers stand proud and erect from bone china cups covertly topped up with moonshine.


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Speak to Melusine Murgatroyd
She single-handedly runs both the family business and the family 'business'. Unless you count the small gaggle of overworked and underpaid maids, which Melusine does not.
Enjoy a lovely cup of tea
A reminder of proper civilisation is a thing to be cherished, especially out here in the Reach.
A moment's peace and quiet
Melusine's maids hurry around, serving a clientele more used to bellowing at bartenders than sitting politely with exquisitely cut cucumber sandwiches. Eventually, it is your turn to be served. You are invited to choose your preferred blend.
Empress' Favour
The taste of home.
Familiar, comfortable, with just a hint of lingering bitterness. A true Londoner's blend.

Advanced query needs investigation

Eleutherian Gold
It looks like tea, with the occasional sparkle.
A single sip and you feel slightly dizzy. Two sips and you struggle to find your legs. The sense of pleasurably disconnected bonhomie lingers for a few hours.
Indulgence Blend
Straight from the Blue Kingdom.
A tea for the true connoisseur. It tastes of dust swept from the darkest corner of a sepulchre. It is best served with a drop of milk, ideally on the very edge of turning. You sip gently. Between sips, a bite of a sugared biscuit to take away the edge.
Examine a familiar looking plant
Black and purple leaves. It sits in a small pot on the countertop.
Midnight's Flavour
"Oh, that?" says Melusine. "That's from my big sister Amberley. Arrived a while back. She says it's the big new flavour over in Eleutheria and I should get working on our own crop before anyone else gets in on it first. This one's still just a little baby plant though. Hope it doesn't get too big. I'm sure its leaves took a nip at my fingers the other day."
Bring Melusine her components
She waits eagerly for her supplies. Her gunpowder-stained fingers twitch at the possibilities.
Science in action
Melusine disappears into her workshop for a few hours while you sit and sample her finest teas – on the house, of course. She returns clutching a spike-covered bronze contraption housing and pushing light through the Ambiguous Shard. "Artefacts of the Red Science have resonance, obviously. We can track them with this. Probably. So long as the shard doesn't explode. That's unlikely, though. Fairly unlikely. Well, nothing ventured! I'll meet you on the mountain."
Return to town
That's quite enough tea and espionage for now.



A Potential Claim On The Mountain
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 277523


A Potential Claim On The Mountain[ | ]

"Lustrum: The Quality of a Claim(Description)"


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Attempt to stake this claim
Your hour-harker will gladly take and process your fee on behalf of whomever in Lustrum gets the money.
There are unforeseen complications
You plant your flag, only to hear "Hey! What's your game? Claim jumper! It's a b___dy claim jumper!" You turn to see an angry prospector in your face and a rapidly disappearing hour-harker quite some distance from it, still with your money in his pocket. Now that you look more carefully, there is indeed another flag sticking in this land. It's white and covered with snow, but definitely there.
Pay him off
Perhaps fifty sovereigns are in order?
He reluctantly accepts the offer and shuffles off. Hopefully that does not say anything about the quality of the claim you just purchased.
Accidents happen...
Nobody asks questions when people go missing.
The paths are known to be treacherous. The canyons are deep. Deep enough that nobody will ever find the previous owner of this claim, his head cracked with a pickaxe handle and his body already covered by a thin layer of snow.

With a quick flag-exchange, this claim is more or less legally yours.

Politely withdraw
It's clearly his claim.
The prospector's shouting uses all available swearwords known to the English language, and a few Empyrean curses for good measure. He is still shouting at you as you stumble exhausted into town. Fortunately, the only claims anyone cares about here are their own. You get a few dirty looks, but nobody takes action.
Reject this claim
You can do better.
The search continues
The good claims are running out quickly. This could get expensive.


The Wound that Saves Your Life
Sigil15
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 306273


The Wound that Saves Your Life[ | ]

A ragged sigil of loss and devastation, of bitter survival.


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Store the sigil safely
Once back on your locomotive, you copy the sigil to a thick sheet of parchment and store it in a brass box.
The Surgeon's Miracle
You return to your notes on the Singh-Jenkins expedition. Finding this sigil cost them two bearers, half their provisions, and a donkey. It took less from you. The Clerk's notes suggest that Singh and Jenkins began their expedition at a great obelisk in the Reach. It is also said that they went off the maps, into the sunless wastes where the winds wait.


Sweet Jane's Counting House
Book
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 278032

Sweet Jane's Counting House[ | ]

A little accountancy firm, snuggled in the snowy drifts. Sweet Jane oversees everything herself: the transference of funds, the balancing of probabilities, the transport of commodities, the termination of contracts. She is huddled behind her desk, swaddled in a monstrously ugly red scarf. While she fiddles with her abacus with one gloved hand, she heats the other over a little coal-fire. Her one good eye focuses on you. She smiles.

Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Listen to Sweet Jane's offer
She surveys you alarmingly.
A bloody request
She limps to the window. Snow batters the windowpane; the shadow of the mountain is all but lost in the blizzard. The lanternlight means the offices of the Windward Company are just about visible. "I was raised by the Company. Children are faster workers, you understand."

Her fingers drum on the windowsill. "Such a waste. Where they see men, they see labour. Where they see time, they see chains with which to bind us. But where they see death in the skies, I see victory."

She turns to you and smiles. "Bring me nameplates, torn from London's ships. I will see you adequately compensated."
Accept her offer
You will hunt London locomotives, and bring their name-plates to Sweet Jane.
She reaches out and touches your hand, just for a moment. Hers is ice cold. "Thank you."
Decline
You will do no such thing.
Sweet Jane turns back to the window, and stares at the dizzying snow. "Understand, on this matter, I have no pride. It is too important. The offer will be open, if you change your mind."
Reconsider Sweet Jane's Offer
You are ready. You'll hunt Dreadnoughts for her.
She responds to your acceptance with a bark of laughter. "Knew you'd see the sense of it eventually. You can't exist out here and not see sense eventually. Thank you."
Turn in three Charred Nameplates for Ministry-Stamped Permits
Sweet Jane is in a jovial mood. She watches you from behind her desk while sipping coffee grey as the grave.
She examines the scorched nameplates with little interest. "None of these are known to me, but one dead dreadnought is as good as another" She opens a drawer, and takes out a sheaf of permits bearing official London stamps. Stolen? Forged? It doesn't matter. They will do.

Game note: You will also gain the Tacketies' Gratitude.


Turn in three Charred Nameplates for an Otherworldly Artefact
Sweet Jane keeps a locked wardrobe behind her desk. She glances at it occasionally.
Rising, she unlocks the wardrobe. Inside are a collection of dresses and uniforms, and keys hanging on pegs. She opens a hatbox at the bottom, and takes out an otherworldy artefact, gleaming and gnomic. "For your service," she says, "As once it was given to me for mine."

Game note: You will also gain the Tacketies' Gratitude.


Turn in twelve Charred Nameplates for a Moment of Inspiration
Sweet Jane sits on a hoard of stories. Has she anything you could use?
Her smile is swift and savage as the murder of princes. "I have walked in blood, in my time. What's that line from Macbeth? About the seas incarnadine?" She shakes her head, glances wistfully at a few old playbills stuck on the walls behind her. "All right. Once, I was once captured by the Stovepipes..."

Game note: You will also gain the Tacketies' Gratitude.


Turn in all your Charred Nameplates for Sovereigns
Sweet Jane has promised recompense for murder.
Blood money
Sweet Jane counts your bounty out with relish, then slides it across the desk with a wink of her good eye. "There's more where this came from," she says.
Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.


Game note: You will also gain the Tacketies' Gratitude.


Return to the street
It isn't much warmer in here than it is outside.


The Vagabond's Residence
Amiablevagabond
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 314444


The Vagabond's Residence[ | ]

The Vagabond's Obligation(lustrum_description)

Trigger conditions

Amiablevagabond icon The Vagabond's Obligation ≥ 30 ≤ 39,
Location: Lustrum
Area: Prospector's Quarter
Frequency: Always (100%)

Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Explore the mansion
The Vagabond has shrugged out of his coat and is heaping logs on the fire. You have a few moments to roam the place.
Dilapidated luxury
The mansion is colossal, its walls built with bronzewood logs, its bathrooms gleaming with ivory, its walls decorated with gold-framed portraits of a younger, better-groomed Vagabond. But it's also obviously been years since it was properly maintained. Some of the windows are broken, and snow has heaped the floor beneath. Black mould streaks the carpet. There is an overpowering smell of damp.
Ask how the Vagabond could afford such a place
Ten bedrooms, a kitchen that could staff a dozen cooks, a chandelier that drips with diamonds. Princes have lived less ostentatiously.
The Vagabond's fortune
"Ah, you should have seen it in its heyday!" The Vagabond rubs his hands before the fire. "Warm, noisy, bustling with staff and guests! Our parties could be heard in New Winchester. Isn't that right?"

"Quite so, sir," says the Tragic Butler.

"I struck it lucky in the mountain, you see," says the Vagabond. "Found enough Hours to make me rich. Rich enough to buy all this, and more besides!" He claps you on the back. "All the luxury in the world can't compare to the majesty of the open sky though – right, Addressed As(SpeechFormal)?"
Ask about the Butler's letter
He's been brandishing the envelope for more than half an hour now.
The Sugarspun Garden
"Just give me the gist of it, will you?" asks the Vagabond, idly tossing snowballs at a portrait of a severe-looking woman in black.

The Butler clears his throat. "The letter was delivered by a skylark who called himself Quivers, sir. In it, he claims to have discovered the location of the 'Sugarspun Garden'. He was seeking your help."

The Vagabond pauses mid-throw. "But that's a myth. A story to tell over camp-fires, when the night is cold and hungry." He sounds uncertain for a moment, then shrugs. "Young Quivers means well, but he must have been mistaken."
Spend the night at the Vagabond's mansion
The blizzard outside has worsened. Best you stay until the morning.

Game note: This will end your stay at the mansion.

The Vagabond's obligation
You stay up into the night. Your conversation is meandering, but the Vagabond repeatedly circles back to the mysterious letter.

"I'm worried for Quivers," he says. "The other skylarks haven't seen him in months, and he comes to my house babbling about a myth?"

The next morning, the Butler says his plaintive goodbyes. As you crunch through the snow toward Lustrum, the Vagabond says he plans to track down Quivers. "What kind of a king would I be if I didn't protect my subjects?" he asks. "Besides, I once believed in the Sugarspun Garden myself. I must admit, I'm curious."



The O'Brien Factory
Smokinggun
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 316260


The O'Brien Factory[ | ]

A busy factory on the outskirts of Lustrum's sprawling shanty-town. Here, the Tacketies are hard at work on their own answer to London's new Monitor-class locomotives.

Security is high, but the project relies on donations of expertise and resources from sympathetic communities. Game note: If you wish, you may aid or impede the Tacketies' effort. Left to their own devices, they will eventually finish on their own.


Trigger conditions

The Tacketies' Answer ≥ 10 ≤ 30,
Location: Lustrum
Area: Prospector's Quarter
Frequency: Always (100%)

Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Donate bronzewood to speed construction
Bronzewood is used for plating, particularly on war-engines, and the Tacketies need an enormous amount of it.
Gratefully accepted
You unload the bronzewood before the factory gates, where a Tobacco-Whiskered Foreman orders it taken inside. As the doors swing open, you catch a glimpse of a behemoth of a locomotive, bulked with layer upon patchwork layer of plating.

Game note: The Tacketies' project will be completed more quickly.

Advanced query needs investigation


Send volunteer engineers to aid the construction
Perhaps some of your crew would rather work somewhere with solid ground beneath their feet. The Tacketies could certainly use their expertise.

Game note: Some of your crew will leave permanently.

A change of scenery
A number of engineers take you up on the offer, and you release them from your service. A Tobacco-Whiskered Foreman swears them to secrecy on a battered bible, then finds them work in the factory.

Despite their oath, the next time you see some of your ex-engineers, they can't resist talking shop. They are alarmed by the goings-on in shed twelve, where they "concoct the incendiaries."

Game note: The Tacketies' project will be completed more quickly.

Advanced query needs investigation

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.


Sabotage the construction
The plan is simple: a couple of crates of munitions stacked against the correct wall and then detonated.

Game note: This will delay production.

Failed event Advanced query needs investigation

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.


Caught in the act
One of the factory's watchmen catches you in the act of lighting a fuse, and chases you away from the munitions. A hue-and-cry is raised. Several of your accomplices are arrested. However, in the wake of your attempt the factory increases security, inconveniencing the workers and draining much-needed resources. Progress slows.
Successful event
Away into the night
You are long gone when the explosion blooms over the factory's rooftops. That should slow them down. From what you overhear at the station the next day, the detonation itself didn't do too much damage. But the fire it started destroyed vital blueprints. Progress has been pushed back by more than a month.
Check on progress
Things have changed at the factory. Activity has shifted from development to production.
Into the breach
Liberators lumber out of the engine-sheds: heavy, armoured engines that act as mobile repair and resupply points for the lighter Tackety Scouts. Each has a pair of huge, cylindrical tanks mounted on its back to hold the fuel for its experimental (some would say 'cobbled-together') fire-belchers.

The Tacketies are in high spirits.

Game note: You will now encounter Tackety Liberators while exploring.

    • The Tacketies' Answer = 40 [[COMPLETE]The work is now completed, and the new Liberator-class engines have taken to the skies]

Advanced query needs investigation


Leave
Go elsewhere in Lustrum.
Another time
You leave the clamorous noises of experimentation behind and return to the throngs of the Prospector's Quarter.



Victory Hall in Exile
Indurateveteran
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 278040


Victory Hall in Exile[ | ]

After being driven from New Winchester, the Colonial Assembly have retreated to the Mother of Mountains, and a cluster of bronzewood log cabins. The Tackety resistance operates here, on the far side of the settlement from a Windward factory.

Trigger conditions

Verdantseeds icon Dominant in the Reach ≥ 3 ≤ 3,


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Chat with the Indurate Veteran
She stands outside her shed, knee-deep in snow, staring up far-off stars.
Her skin is brown and her hair is beginning to grey. She wears a heavy, unbuttoned coat – medals gleam in the shadows behind its lapels. One half of her face is scarred from frostbite, the other from more recent wounds. She is smoking a blackened cigarette and does not seem to be enjoying the experience.

You talk for a while about life in the skies. When her cigarette is just a stub, she says, "I'd be grateful to hear reports of your travels, Addressed As(SpeechFormal). We need whatever information we can get, if we're to have any chance of surviving."

Game note: As you visit ports, you may obtain Port Reports. Turn them in here to receive rewards.

Game note: Learn how you can be of use to the Tacketies.


Deliver your port reports to the Indurate Veteran
Her tireless exertions during the Collapse have earned her a continued seat on the Assembly and enemies in London. She likes to keep abreast of events.
She listens with a scowl. "Well, I'd rather know than not, I suppose. And thank you for bringing this to me, rather than the b___dy Stovepipes. I'll arrange a gratuity."
Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.

Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.


Game note: Trade your Port Reports for rewards.


Trade Favour for a Savage Secret
It's time she told you a few things.
She leans close before she speaks. Her voice is low, and laden with tobacco. She shares what she knows of several planned engagements in New Winchester. The Tackety defeat is only temporary.
Trade Favour for an Otherworldly Artefact
When the Tacketys were ousted from New Winchester, they took what they could from their stores. Their supplies are dwindling, but their remaining allies still visit and honour the old traditions.
The Indurate Veteran is now doing double duty, ensuring the survival of the Tacketies and curating the meagre store house. She rummages through the battered crates, pausing to occasionally comment fondly on this or that, before finding something she deems suitable for your services.
Trade Favour to affect the balance of power in the Reach
You've provided a great deal of information. Rather than repaying the debt, you'd rather the Tacketies used it in the cause of restoring their independence.
Sweet Jane commands the war effort now, from her wintry counting house. The Indurate Veteran leads you to her office. "Don't upset her," she warns, "She's – well, she's the best hope we have now, despite all else."

Inside, Sweet Jane is huddled by her fire. A great board is laid out on the desk, smothered in cards. "Luck and bluffing are the only strategies of any use now," she says by way of explanation.

Sweet Jane invites you to sit. You discuss distant ports and the patterns in recent events. "We shall have victory," she says after an hour. "I'll be damned before we surrender to the Company."
Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.



The Tacketies' Arrival
Boot
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 295313


The Tacketies' Arrival[ | ]

The riotous, ramshackle port of Lustrum now hosts a fragile political enterprise. The independent settlers' nascent government, the Colonial Assembly, has been driven from New Winchester and retreated here, to a hastily-erected complex of cabins on the mountain's slope.


Trigger conditions

London icon Recent Dominance ≤ 2,
Verdantseeds icon Dominant in the Reach ≥ 3


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Learn more
It's all the prospectors want to talk about.
Ousted
The Tacketies are struggling. The Windward Company – whose dreadnoughts, on loan from London, prowl the Reach – have them outgunned. New Winchester was no longer safe. Here, at the very edge of the Reach, the Assembly hopes to mount a resistance. If you have business with the Tacketies, you'll need to conduct it here.

Game note: This change in the balance of power will affect encounters, discoveries, bargains and prospects in the Reach. For example, the Tacketies' retreat means fewer independent miners to compete with, and so more hour-laden sky-rocks for you to claim.



The Tacketies' Restoration
Boot
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 295315


The Tacketies' Restoration[ | ]

The fortunes of war have shifted again. The Stovepipes – represented by the London-backed Windward Company – have suffered severe setbacks. Enough that the Tacketies' Colonial Assembly have quit their temporary headquarters here at Lustrum and are even now making full steam back to New Winchester.

Trigger conditions

London icon Recent Dominance ≥ 3
Verdantseeds icon Dominant in the Reach ≤ 2,


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Learn more
The prospectors are desperate to talk about the upheavals with anyone who'll listen.
Stalemate
Lustrum's populace are an free-spirited lot, despite (and perhaps because of) the presence of a Company refining factory near the town. They will not miss hosting the Assembly, though. Many of Lustrum's prospectors consider even an autonomous government of the Reach, free of London control, government too much.

Now both Tacketies and Stovepipes must share New Winchester again, and the balance of power in the Reach has returned to its traditional state of simmering stalemate.

Game note: This change in the balance of power will affect encounters, discoveries, bargains and prospects in the Reach. For example, the renewed conflict means wrecks are more common, and unmined sky-rocks fewer.


Recruitment in Prospector's Quarter[ | ]

Recruit the Fortunate Navigator
Fortunatenavigator
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 303824


Recruit the Fortunate Navigator[ | ]

"A Fortunate Navigator is thoroughly examining your engine's pipework. "Crucial bit, this. Look how it's been maintained – beautiful!" Your stoker beams. "That was me. A mid-flight patch, too." "

Game note: Officers require a sign-on fee.


Trigger conditions

Fortunatenavigator icon Fortunate Navigator ≤ 0,
Terror icon Navigator's End ≤ 0,


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Offer him a role on your locomotive
He's eager for a new challenge.
A fond interruption
"You won't regret this, Captain." The Navigator pumps your hand. He is an Empyreal, a people descended from ancient Mongolians and led by the Eagle Khan, whose technology opened the door to the skies.

A passing skyfarer tousles the Navigator's hair. "For luck," the woman says, with a grin.

The Navigator rolls his eyes. "She's from my last crew. They thought I brought them luck. I didn't, but I'm still a good hire."

Game note: This will give you the Fortunate Navigator, a First Officer who increases your Iron by 6 and your Affiliation: Establishment by 1.


Recruit a Gentle Eccentric
Felinedeccentric
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 310151


Recruit a Gentle Eccentric[ | ]

"She's been doing odd jobs in the shanty-town that sprawls across the mountain. Mending drills and constructing shelters that are proof against the icy winds. Fixing burst pipes and hidden stills. Now she's looking for work on a locomotive. She wants to see the skies. "

Game note: Officers require a sign-on fee.


Trigger conditions

Felinedeccentric icon Felined Eccentric's End ≥ 2 ≤ 2,
Felinedeccentric icon Gentle Eccentric ≤ 0,


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Offer her a position
She brings her own tools and a comprehensive knowledge of every model of locomotive from Albion to the Empyrean.
A new engineer
You negotiate pay, and she shakes your hand, her smile bright. "Hello, you," she says fondly as she climbs aboard. She's talking to your locomotive, not you.

Game note: This will get you Chief Engineer who will increase your Mirrors by 10 and your Affiliation: Villainy and Affiliation: Academe by 1.



The Claim Fields[ | ]

The mountain's slopes are veined with the unmined hours the Enduring Empress hungers for. They are dug from the stone as geodes, minutes growing within them like salt. Most geodes are the size of a walnut, but legend says Old Tom — one of the first prospectors — excavated a whole century, the size of a whale.

The Claim Fields
BarrelofUnseasonedHours
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 277531


The Claim Fields[ | ]

The Mother of Mountains stretches on almost forever, from its snowy peak down through seemingly endless strata of lethal nebula gas. On the far side of its cliffs, the Windward Company's machines strip the rocky flesh from the mountain and cast its ore into the perpetual fire of their furnaces. Prospectors from Lustrum have to do everything the hard way, chip-chipping away at their frozen, hard-won claims in search of precious Hours.


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Search for a claim
The mountain is treacherous. Most of the accessible parts are already staked out.
An aborted journey
Conditions are harsh. The mountain seems to fight your every step. Ropes left behind by other prospectors coil around your ankles. Old boxes of supplies loiter under the snow, ready to trip you. It's almost impossible to tell the difference between one patch of land and another, never mind the value of individual claims. "What you need is an hour harker," advises a passing hour-harker. He grins. He doesn't have many teeth, but those that remain are capped with gold. "Come find me in town if you want. Or not. There's always more of you showing up, eh?"
Visit your Claim
It would not do to leave it for too long. Claim jumping is rife.
Your claim is silent
Nothing remains of your small mining operation.
The mountain giveth
More prospectors keep flooding into town. Every day, new claims are snapped up. Most will leave with nothing but regret. You may not have made great riches out of this place, but at least you leave to new opportunities and new adventure. Not all are so lucky.
Attempt to climb the mountain
No path leads up to the peak, but with a sturdy stick and a stubborn attitude, you may be able to forge one.
Failed event
An almost impossible climb
The snow is deeper than expected, and the cliffs in your way both taller and more treacherous than you can handle. You reach for a rocky handhold; it crumbles under your hand. Luckily, a snowdrift not too far below catches your fall. Lying winded in the snow, you give up. The mountain is victorious, for today. You retrace your already fading footprints back to the relative flatness of the Claim Fields.
Successful event
A long, challenging hike
The snow is deep and much of the mountain demands scaling cliff-sides and clambering across treacherous ledges. There is no way to tell how long the climb is. Eventually, you claw up onto a ledge near the peak and sit, exhausted. The air is too thin to keep going, even if you had any strength left.


Your Very Own Claim On The Mountain
BarrelofUnseasonedHours
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 277529


Your Very Own Claim On The Mountain[ | ]

It is marked off by frayed ropes wrapped around tent-pegs. Your claim was expensive, but any hours below the surface are yours. Of course, your crew will handle the actual mining work.

Trigger conditions

Lustrum icon A Claim on the Mountain ≥ 1


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Order your crew to begin mining
There's Hours in this mountain. And if you can get them out, they'll make you rich.
Work begins
The Quartermaster hands out pickaxes and food rations. The crew begins digging. Since you don't have access to furnaces large or powerful enough to get the most out of the mountain's larger geodes, they will focus on filling barrels with Unseasoned Hours. You can sell these at other ports. It will be some time before they have dug out enough. You should return later.

Game note: Once you do this, you will not be able to recall your crew until after collecting your next shipment of Hours.


Observe your crew in action
Your presence will surely keep them motivated.
Intense work
Back breaking labour. Frozen drops of sweat on every forehead. Between gasps, a few lines of an unfamiliar working song. "Working dawn till dusk. Our pick-axes are blunt. For not a penny more. Cause our Captain is a... splendid boss."
Advanced query needs investigation


Assign a crewmember to work on your Claim
One crewmember will do little good here. One more might help.
The short straw
It is not exactly a plum assignment, but a volunteer is soon volunteered to join the mining operations. He disembarks, ready to get started.

Game note: You will get your crew back later, assuming you have space aboard and there are no accidents on site. The more crew you assign, the faster new Hours will be ready for collection.

Rare event (50%)
The short straw
It is not exactly a plum assignment, but a volunteer is soon volunteered to join the mining operations. She disembarks, ready to get started.
Retrieve your Crew
Better pull them back before they drink what should be your profits.
Your foreman has bad news
Your claim has run dry. It's time to call it a day.
Back aboard
The crew gathers together your final haul of Hours and awaits further instructions. Their frostbitten fingers twitch for the warmth of the train.
Advanced alteration value probably needs examination.


Game note: If you do not have space for everyone, you can collect them later from the Hanged Man in Lustrum.


Collect your haul
Your crew takes a break. The fruits of their labours are barrelled up and ready for your inspection.

Advanced query needs investigation

Game note: Have some cargo space ready before doing this.


Assign 5 crew to work on your Claim
They were hired to work for you. Nobody said anything about it being exclusively working on your locomotive.
"Don't forget about us, cap'n."
Your chosen crew disembarks, both volunteers and volunteered. They should quickly get the hang of things.

Game note: You will get your crew back later, assuming you have space and there are no accidents on site. The more crew you assign, the faster new Hours will be ready for collection.


Return to town
Enough of this place. Back to civilisation. Or Lustrum, anyway.



The Singing Caves
Category Story Event
Type Story
Data ID 277533


The Singing Caves[ | ]

This is as close as you can get to the peak. The air is thin, but the view is majestic. From here the Reach stretches out before you in endless waves of purple and violet, occasionally broken by a flicker of gold deep within the clouds. Far below, Lustrum is little but a small yellow glow on a blanket of winter.

Trigger conditions

Lustrum icon Lustrum: The Mountain Sings No More ≤ 0,


Interactions

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Explore the Singing Caves
The lightest breeze passing through causes a sound like a soft whistle. The cave's music is considered a good omen by those in the town below.
A brief serenade
Half an hour into your explorations, the wind picks up. The caves fill with the sound of distant fluting. There is no tune to it, just a pleasant, natural melody, like the echo of birdsong. Just as quickly though, it turns sharp. Less birdsong, more bird prey to a ravenous cat. The atonal screech rocks the mountain, though by the time it leaves the caves, their unique acoustics have turned it too into something soft. Your feet crunch against something. A shard of glass, red-tinted. Looking through one side, the world seems a burning inferno. From the other, all is well. Looking closer, part of a glyph remains on the shard. Extremely precise work, though its function is alien to you. Perhaps there is someone in Lustrum who would know more.
Explore the Singing Caves with Melusine
A small pedal-powered flying machine cools off behind her. Certainly a faster way to ascend the mountain. Probably not a safer one.
The deeper caves
Some of these caves appear natural, winding with no apparent destination or design. Others appear hand carved, albeit with deep slashes which suggest that those hands came with extremely unpleasant claws. Melusine follows close behind you, carrying a purple-flamed hour-harker's lamp along with the little bronze device containing the Ambiguous Shard. She swings it around in the air – in response it occasionally makes a 'click' sound.
Explore the Singing Caves
As you approach the nearest cavern, you can hear the quiet whistling of the wind.
Nothing of interest
As you walk through the caves, your feet crunch on bits of loose stone or broken glass. Whichever route you take, it leads you through the mountain and to the other side; occasionally higher, usually lower. There seems no rhyme nor reason to the maze of tunnels. One wrong turn too many brings you back where you started. Without some form of guide, the chance of finding anything of interest feels remote.
Explore the Singing Caves
They whistle quietly as you approach.
Meandering in the dark
You explore the caves for a while, but without Melusine's device, you can neither find your way back to Mr Pennies' cavern or anything else of interest. You retrace your steps to the edge of the mountain, ready for the descent.
Explore the Silent Caves
They sang once. Now the mountain is still and quiet, save the occasional quiet whistle of the nebula winds through empty caves.
Empty spelunking
A few caves offer a brief diversion, but no treasures or trinkets of note. The paths to the deeper levels of the mountain are blocked.
Climb back down the mountain
It's a long way. Even a small slip could be fatal.




Shops[ | ]

Sweet Jane's Trading Post

A bustling, family-run concern that supplies skyfarers, and trades in hours bought from local prospectors.

Item Buy Sell
Fuel square icon Fuel Sovereigns icon 20 Sovereigns Sovereigns icon 10 Sovereigns
Supplies square icon Supplies Sovereigns icon 40 Sovereigns Sovereigns icon 20 Sovereigns
BarrelofUnseasonedHours square icon Barrel of Unseasoned Hours Sovereigns icon 80 Sovereigns
Locations
Region Hub Ports Discoveries / Spectacles
The Reach Newwinchester icon New Winchester Carillon icon Carillon

Hybras icon Hybras
Naturereserve icon Leadbeater & Stainrod's Nature Reserve
Lustrum icon Lustrum
Magdalenes icon Magdalene's
Circus icon Polmear & Plenty's Inconceivable Circus
Portavon icon Port Avon
Portprosper icon Port Prosper
Titania icon Titania
Traitorswood icon Traitor's Wood
Transitrelay icon Transit Relays

Signalbox icon An Abandoned Signal Box

Default icon Faith's Fall
Well green icon Old Tom's Well
Regentsgrave icon Regent's Grave
Rose icon The Flowerfields
Default icon The Regent's Tears
Wreckgeneric icon The Silent Saint
Reach icon The War of Fossils
Wreckgeneric icon Wreck of the Parzifal

Albion London icon London Avidhorizon icon Avid Horizon (The Stair to the Sea)

Perdurance icon Perdurance
Brabazon icon The Brabazon Workworld
Clockworksun icon The Clockwork Sun
Floatingparliament icon The Floating Parliament
Serenemausoleum icon The Most Serene Mausoleum
Royalsociety icon The Royal Society
Transitrelay icon Transit Relays
Worlebury icon Worlebury-juxta-Mare

Default icon Skyhenge

Lantern icon St Anthony's Lighthouse
Avidhorizon icon The Avid Horizon
Well purple icon Well of the Wolf
Wreckgeneric icon Wreck of the Boatman

Eleutheria Pan icon Pan Achlys icon Achlys

Caduceus icon Caduceus
Eaglesempyrean icon Eagle's Empyrean
Langleyhall icon Langley Hall
Piranesi icon Piranesi
Houseofrodsandchains icon The House of Rods and Chains
Transitrelay icon Transit Relays

Default icon The Xanthous Moon

Well yellow icon The Well of Wonders
Wreckgeneric icon Wreck of the Berrenger

The Blue Kingdom Tolltower icon Sky Barnet Deathsdoorstep icon Death's Door (The Shadow of the Sun)

Forgeofsouls icon The Forge of Souls
Whitewell icon The White Well (Wellmouth)
Transitrelay icon Transit Relay

Deathsdoorstep icon Horologion
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