>girl that passes for a boy

>crumpled piece of blank paper

>>13143368
>Oh gods, thank you for having a better picture! Update in just a couple.

>>13143368
Seconding that, but with poem written in aelfish.

Sounds like a particularly intoxicating icthyoid.

The port is busy, and there's nobody around here to give you much trouble. Which makes it a good place to hang around. Across the street is "The Wife's Pie" a mid-range pub. You know the owner, an old woman with a mean right hook, but you also know the back way in. Down the street you can see the docks, there are piles of crates and just as many seamen working to load and unload them. Mostly raw materials from parts unknown, but a few old fishing boats as well. It looks like the Geleise is tied up, she's was a pirate hunter in a former life, but know she's a fishing boat. To the northwest is the market district, north is the Royal Academy of Science and Magics, and the slums begin somewhere across the river to the east.

>What's the plan, what else do you need to know? What sounds good to eat?

>>13143368
>>13143394
>You are a girl that passes for a boy, but I'll wait for a second on your 'heirloom'

Inventory:
Street rags (A blouse, a pair of pants, a worn jacket.)
A shiv, about as long as your middle finger made out of iron.
Two copper pence.

>>13143460

Grab a bite to eat, then scour the docks for easy pick pocketing.

You told yourself you were going to jinx it. Constable Franco is coming down the way, twirling his billy club. The alley twists onto Loguare Street behind you, but he hasn't seen you yet.

Steal some food, then go see if we can hang out outside a lesson at the academy. Listen through the window.

>>13143548
You'd love a bite to eat, but you turn out your pockets and don't even find crumbs. You can get pubfare for a haymark, seven and a half pence, from the place across the street. Or a licking if you walked in right now.

>>13143605
In the alley here you find an apple core and some moldy bread. Better pass this up.

The constable stops a girl in a frilly dress, somebody's doxie maybe, to chat. This is your chance to make a move you thinks.

>>13143565

Ah fuck it. Beg for some scraps in the Academy then. Can't work without food.

>>13143634

Docks would be good I think. Either there's a boat with tourists, or a bunch of crates we can steal from.

>>13143655
You take the alley out of sight of the constabulary and their pins. Its fifteen minuets to the academy, you know a hole in the fence and make your way onto the grounds. The buildings are big, the new ones are brick, the old ones, white marble.

A couple students are sitting under a big tree smoking pipes, they wave you over.

"Think you can spare a bite to eat?" You ask.

"Oh, I think we can manage that. If you don't mind working for it." One of the students asks. He's not much older than you, but he's got a scraggly little beard of brown, the tips dyed grey.

>>13143713
>Sorry mate, already finished the update when you posted.

>>13143729
Ask what he's got in mind.

Ways we are willing to 'work for it':
-Minor normal jobs
-Petty theft or other minor crimes
-Spying on/stalking people, that sort of general low thing
Ways we are not willing to 'work for it':
-Be magically experimented on
-Sexual favors
-Anything else highly questionable or degrading

>>13143729

Agree. They probably think we're a guy, so at least we're safe on that point.

>>13143822
You eye the student, he's up to no good. Your stomach grumbles, but you are there's good reason you haven't jumped at the offer.

He puffs his pipe. "C'mon kid." He says, reaching across and pulling a big, autumn apple from his satchel. He points out a brick building, there are four gargoyles on the corners. "Nothin' murky. Just sneak up to the third floor, that's the new alchemy lab. Find us a bottle of Qatam Reserve, blue sparkly one. Party tonight, don'tcha'know."

>>13143897
His college turns the page of a leather bound book balanced on his knee. "We'd do it ourself, but Dr. Illi is hanging around, not to mention the janitors. Maybe a hom--"

The first smacks his shoulder.

>>13143897

Petty theft is right up our alley!

Ask if we can get up through the windows. If they don't have any useful info, we scope it out ourselves.

>>13143932
"Well that's what I wanna hear! Alright, you've got an hour before we have to head out. And The windows? They're probably open, but the whole quad would see you." He produces an hourglass from the bag and turns it over. "Go!"

You nod and head up the hill the the building. The main door is beveled wood, the frame is carved on one side with scenes of science, and mages opposite. Around the back, you find a small greenhouse, with trellises on the outside leading up to the roof.

>>13144035

Scope the greenhouse. See if you can find food/people.

Pick up a good sized rock too. Rocks are always useful.

>>13143897
Odds we could sell that bottle for way more than the price of an apple? I'd say they're pretty good...

>>13144035
Examine the visibility of our routes in. Walking through the building interior will almost certainly get us picked up as someone who shouldn't be there, so an exterior entrance as close to the target as possible is preferred.

>>13144076
You find a broken piece of a brick, its got a nice heft too it, and you could lob it right. You also pocket a few small chips as well.

The way into the greenhouse is inside the building, you can see one person, blue robes, milling around inside. Through the steamy windows they don't notice you outside. There's a hatch on top you might be able to get in. No food outside though. But you can make out big red somethings growing on a row of plants inside.

Five minutes burned, you guess.

>>13144104
From the top of the green house you could get in through a second floor window. You could easily find a first floor window too.

>>13144141
Also, would the first poster please roll d2 and call it either evens or odds, and whether you would like the Aelfish Poem, or the blank paper heirloom?

>>13144168
The figure in the greenhouse leaves, you could easily slip inside now.

But a couple minutes burned waiting.

rolled 1 = 1

Blank Paper

Even.

rolled 2 = 2

>>13144278
All right, let's move, then. Into the greenhouse, snag a snack. There's no point in stealing something valuable and having someone else pay us something petty for it when we could just steal something petty in the first place.


And the poem.

>>13144308

This.

>>13144304
>You have a hand-written page torn from a book with an Aelfish poem. You've committed it to memory, its not long. Too bad you don't speak a word of Aelfish, but clearly Mom didn't care to teach you.

>>13144308
You assail the trellis and drop into the green house. Tomatoes. You pop one off the vine and devour it, its crisp and the juice runs down your chin. You wipe it off on your sleeve and find a few cherries to pluck as well. Its enough to tide you over.

You open the door to the hall, they're empty now, a wrought metal staircase spirals up to the next floor, and lecture halls line corridor.

There's a grandfather clock, eleven minutes, if you're keeping track. Getting in good with the students may have other benefits than dinner.

>>13144402

Next floor, hide in the lecture halls, while picking up any loose change/items. Gotta look out for yourself first after all.

>>13144441
You run up to the second floor and duck into a lecture hall. There's a big, dusty chalkboard at the bottom and stadium seats. They're all empty. You root through the desk, fountain pens and paper, nothing too attractive.

There's an oak closet pushed against the far wall, but its locked. Under the handle there's a small brass keyhole. There's also some kind of cloth draped over a chair in the top corner.

When you're done, the stairs go up to the third floor.

>>13144500
Cautiously head upstairs.

>>13144597

This, but take the cloth. Kleptomania is useful and IN character!

>>13144624
You ball it up and find room to stuff it inside your shirt. Its an academy robe, but its too big for you. Maybe you can hem it later.

>>13144597
There's nothing worth looting here. You glance back as you spiral up the stairs, you left just in time, a woman walks into that room as just behind you.

The third floor smells strongly of chemicals, there are just five doors here, two on the right, three on the left. They're all closed. You check the ones on the right, they're both labs. The first has a big stone slab laid on a table, the second has a twisting chemistry still. The far door on the left is another lab, crystals in big beakers of colorful fluid. The middle door is locked. The last lab looks empty.

You think you hear the stairs tink as someone comes up.

>>13144674

Quickly look for a blue sparkly potion and try to leave through the window. Prepare to throw your brick at the potions if you need a distraction.

>>13144726
You've only peeked in the labs, to make sure they're unoccupied this evening. Which lab did you want to search first?

The half-hour bell rang a few minutes back when you were looting downstairs, you figure you've got another thirty if you want to meet your employer again. ((By no means required, just keeping track))

>>13144756

The one on the left sounds promising.

>>13144768
You creep inside, adjust the robe under your shirt. Heh, you actually have curves.

The big beakers are filled with red, blue, purple, and green fluid. Some of it sparkles in the dying evening light. Crystals are suspended in some, in one green bowl they've sunk to the bottom.

No bottle, certainly not one with a label. But there's a door to the left that would match up with the middle room of the floor.

>>13144823

Lock the door behind you and try the new one. Oh and open any windows you see.

>>13144863
You slide the chain shut on the door, and pop open a window. You can see the glass top of the green house below, but that's not a fall you want to take.

The side door is open. Jackpot. Its a supply closet shelves and shelves of bottles in all sizes. You find a crate of the Qatam Reserve, each one is wrapped in tissue paper.

You tuck a bottle under your arm. You wish you could pack more.

>>13144920

Fantastic. Wrap the bottle using the academic robes. Seems fragile. Any ledges we could use or pipes we can shimmy down on? And do we hear someone on snooping around?

>>13144951
You wrap up the bottle and find a good way to tie it up and keep your hands free.

There's a ledge outside the window you could get onto, and a drain pipe running down the corner of the building. But it might be further than you can reach. Getting down won't be fun, but you've climbed pipes like that before. Its not the worst idea.

You stand up on a stool and peer through the peep hole. Your stomach drops out when you look outside. There's something in the hall, pallid skin, with brass ...thingies coming out at off places. They look like thermometers or tea pot whistles. Its got four legs and four arms, and its mopping the floors. Where a person's head should be, it looks like a big crystal with cut glyphs.

>>13145031
Fuck yes! We're a New Crobuzon street urchin!

Wait for it to pass, or hide and leave as it enters.

>>13145031
looks like that ledge is our only way out. Throw the brick, and any other ballast that might make us fall, over teh greenhouse and onto the schoolyard.

>>13145031

That thing won't bother us if he can't see us. Plus the door is locked. Servants don't open doors lightly when cleaning. Is there any cloth in the room? Anything we can fashion as a rope or device that we can use to reach the pipe?

>>13145069
>>13145141
It finishes mopping the floor and heads toward your door. Well that's not good, but you did pull the chain.

The metal on the door glows, the chain moves on its own volition and the door enters. You hide in the closet as the thing comes in and begins to mop up the lab floor. The door is cracked just enough for you to see a sliver of the room. It's left the door out open.

You're definitely running out of time now, and this thing is thorough. What to do, what to do? You think, nerves mounting. You've got a brick, and your legs work. So what's the plan?

>>13145154

We are so fucking screwed. If we get out of here I vote we ditch the student, this thing is worth more trouble than a gods damned apple and should sell well.

Wait for the thing to get near the bottles, throw the brick dash to the room with the slab, lock the doors, and check the window.

>>13145154
use the brick as a distraction and throw it at some of the various bottles located in the room and bolt out the door.

>>13145209
>>13145243
When it's in the far corner you turn the brick over in your hand and give it a chuck. It hits a round bottle dead center, cracks, and knocks it from its perch with a crash. The thing stops and you take your first big step toward the door. You glance at it from the corner of your eye, its 'head' is like a big eight-sided die, and every side looks like it has the glyphs. It bends its head down to the spill and keeps mopping as you bug out.

The room catty corner from you contains the rock slab, and you slide it and slide the chain on. And then set a chair under the knob for good measure. The window opens just fine, but its a straight, three story drop into the grass below.

>>13145335
Alright, think, think. Got a robe, some pebbles. The stairs. You're pretty sure its time to book it though.

>>13145409

Ah screw it. Three stories will kill us. Two stories might work though. That thing doesn't seem to be concerned about us. Freeclimb down that wall! Academies are old, crumbly brick pieces of shit. We can do it until we can drop safely.

>>13145409
see if you can tie your jacket sleve to the robes sleve to make a rope. Then tie the makeshift rope to something heavy and big in the room so you can climb down

>>13145470
Alright, alright, you can do this. You crawl out onto the ledge. One, two, three. You count off as you hang and drop onto the level below. You slam into the ledge, almost stumble but manage to hang on. Thanks fully, there's no one inside. Your knees are scuffed up and ache from the first jump, but the next one puts you in the bushes at the bottom, and rolls you into the grass. Ow.

But the bottle is in tact, and you can see the two guys still sitting under the tree at the bottom of the hill. But its up to you now, New Crobuzon is your oyster.

>>13145555
Wait... Did I actually guess right, or are you taking the name because I was enthusiastic?

And obviously head over and get payment. Let's see if we can mooch some extra out of them, though.

>>13145585
>Ack. I'll have to retcon that. I was going to use that if it was an original name. Sorry mate, but thanks for the enthusiasm. I usually take my names from the Captcha.

New Clerafte is your oyster tonight. You meet up with the students at the bottom of the hill.

"Hey, kid. Got the stuff?"

"Maybe. How about pay?"

"But of course." He says, putting the hourglass away. He bundles up the rest of dinner, a sausage and a wedge of cheese, and some bread.

"I don't really think that's entirely fair. Now is it?" You say curtly.

"Hmm. Maybe not. Tell you what. You know the White Stag Lodge in the upper city?" Not somewhere you'd ever expect to see the inside of, but, yes, you do. "Meet us there, tonight, and we'll set you up. What'd you say your name was?"

>>13145682
Alex Carvic, Keep it gender nuetral to keep them guessing

>>13145753
"Well Alex, I'm Gains Knoverni, House Knoverni. And I'll see you at the White Stag Lodge, nine o clock?"

His buddy mumbles something, slumped against the tree and half asleep.

"And that's Carson. And he's right, I take it you have an appropriate wardrobe." Gains bids you good day and takes off to greet a professor, buying you some time to make for the hole in the academy walls.

>Should we resume later? Say, 14 December 1900 Eastern Time?

>>13145858
thats 3p.m western time right? thats fine by me.

>>13145858

Sure.

Fun quest by the way.

>>13145886
>>13145914
Thank you so much for the participation. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes! I already like our protagonist. Can I answer any question you might have about her, the quest, the setting, etc.?

"Cur- Curtis' fine enough." While that sounds a nice set-up, be prepared for a trashing or worse when you come in tonight. Scope out the place first.

For now, polish that dish,

>>13145934
So si this supposed to be like a 1800's london steampuinkish society, or something different?

>>13145945
Ah, should've refreshed first.

>>13145934

So is the poem going to come into play?

>>13145953
I don't want to use the word 'steampunk' (not that I don't really enjoy steampunk. You'll find more Magitek here. My first thought was: Standard Fantasy Setting + 200 years or so. Enlightenment / First Industrial revolution era. Magic and Science are basically considered one-in-the-same, you'll find guns to be fairly common place. On the streets a pistol is a prize possession, but since its only one shot you're wise to keep a blade or a spell around too. Or, if you had the coin, just keep an enchanted cartridge in your gun.

New Clerafte is sort of a second city to the capital. Not a wretched hive of scum and villainy, but obviously not a city on a hill either. Alex is most familiar with the port district and the slums. But she knows her way around the other parts of the city too (The Industrial, Academy, Garrison, Temple, and Upper City.)

Also, a word about currency. Alex has two tin pence, cut the coins in half and you have a half-pence. Seven and a half-pence is a Haymark. Fifteen pence (two Haymarks) is a Silver Mark. Thirty Pence, two Silver, four Haymarks is a Mark, which is the standard denomination (pence are coinage.)

>>13146004
It most certainly will. And I'll let slip that its always in your pocket. In fact, <redacted>, tonight even.

>>13146054
Quick "behind the screen" if I may indulge myself. The "Great House Signet Ring" would indeed have tied your parentage to one of the great houses (Like Knoveri,) but your bastard status wouldn't have allowed you back in. But it would have been worth something if you went legit, and got in with the city watch or some such. And the blank paper was actually a note written in invisible ink, which could have been discovered by some underworld types in the slums which would have given you an inroad into a street gang.

>>13146047

>Standard Fantasy Setting + 200 years

Nice. One of my favorite things. Any other races?

>>13146141
Elfs and Dwarves, but you're not likely to meet any just walking around. The rich may employ 'House Halflings.' Hopefully its clear that Aelfish is the Elven language. (Yes, I'm just too lazy to insert the Æ/æ ash symbol.) There may be savages out there too, but those are the civilized peoples.

What was the monster in the lab?