To Fellow Avengers [Nemesis Spoilers]

Fallen London
1

Citizens,

Recent developments have allowed me to continue my investigations into the despicable Scathewick. It seems that, as it always seems to be, the Bazaar is behind my terrible loss and a certain Master (or should I say Masters) in particular.

But the reasons for this betrayal have completely mystified me. Certainly my time here has shown me no sycophant to the Masters. Since its first issue &quotThe Neathean Review of Political Economy&quot has hosted my pointed criticisms of the current administration. It is no secret that I am close to some of our most radical and revolutionary thinkers. It was Providence or serendipity that lead me to sense that the Masters were somehow guilty.

Yet, this antipathy arose only long after the slaying of my kin. So what was the purpose of the Master’s cruelty?

I have only one hypothesis. My talks with a certain Moral Moneychanger have led me to believe that the Masters have a form of secret currency that they treasure above all. Other sources have indicated a obsession with the passionate and romantic. So here is my theory: The Masters killed my loved one for the purpose of drawing me into this strange adventure. They somehow consume what has become my twisted love story.

Should I worry that all I have learned has only been through the Master’s allowing me to? My recent progress, directly into the heart of the Bazaar, while expensive, were almost too easy. I have begun to worry for my future…

Does my theory hold weight? Can you conceive another reason for these creatures to be commissioning murders of surface innocents?

Anxiously Yours,
Professor B
Benthic College

2

Dear Professor B,

I feel your conclusion matches mine. However, I’m afraid that I’ve gone too far to step off the path now.

We must use the Master’s arrogance against themselves and beat them at their own game. For now, all I can do is plot and wait.

Dirae Erinyes

3

My Dearest,

I have come to a different conclusion altogether, hearing details from a more bohemian acquaintance. Considering a recent…rendez-vous I had with our lovely Royals, and the particular sight seeing tour that my friend (maddened in her quest for vengeance) took, I think that perhaps you are being…I suppose &quotprimed&quot is the word for a coup! It isn’t only the revolutionaries who see the Royals as a threat, you do know. And considering the nature of red honey, and of those that pollinate it, as I discovered on my extensive voyages at sea…perhaps the royal family may owe a debt to Hell, of all places, to supply this…peculiar habit of the children. And perhaps the Bazaar is not pleased with this arrangement, or our dear dual-master(s) is/are not. I suggest you brace yourself. You stand at the cusp of the Neathy &quotDay of the Jackal&quot.

Yours,
Duke Lawliet

4

Dear Beloved Ladies and Gentlemen,
After receiving a visit from one of the Mr. Sacks and contemplating the different natures of each Master before reading the words of Duke Lawliet, I wonder if the aim is for a change in regime in sphere of the Masters. We know there used to be more if one considers the matters of North. Could the other Masters want to dispose of one or two of their fellows. Or maybe we are to bring death to those who long for those shores after their long (thousand, millennia?) of years? Despite my time in Neath, the minds of the masters are still a mystery to me.

Yours,
Dirae Erinyes

5

Friends,

Look to love. Always.

I believe Professor B is quite correct in his surmise.

A reckoning is not to be postponed indefinitely.

Yours,
Asclepius Unbound

6

Citizens,

Sincerest of thanks for your surmises and solaces. While my fears remain, your steadfastness is as a glass of brandy to my nerves.

D---- E---- and Duke L-----, your hypotheses are particularly interesting. What do you think the other Masters might have against Messrs. C---- and M-----? To build off of your ideas, perhaps these are the Masters closest to the Empress and preventing more overt action against her? I must admit I find implausible that this is all a very roundabout means of suicide.

What we really need is more information about Messrs. C---- and M----. Does anyone know anything relevant about these two? Some troubles at University have led me to a connection between mirrors and spiders. There also seems to be a connection to madness. Mr. C---- we know less of, but a connection to porcelain to me connotes an alliance with the Palace.

While I have called for constitutional constraints on the power of the Masters, I had never imagined screaming ‘Sic Semper Tyranus’ myself. Especially if only to serve the purpose of other, subtler Masters (masters?).

Your Truthful Correspondent,
Professor B-----
Benthic College
edited by MysteriousS on 12/28/2014
edited by MysteriousS on 12/28/2014
edited by MysteriousS on 12/28/2014

7

I’m addicted. I hope it’s in good form to reawaken these old discussions.

Scathewick tells us we were led on a &quotvery specific&quot chase. We were meant to see the Cage Gardens, the Grand Sanatorium, and the Iron Republic. The first two fit with a theory about overthrowing the Palace (although Carrywell’s ultimate intentions are still disappointingly obscure), but why the Iron Republic?

Well, Scathewick also mentions that he took on the job to pay &quotmore abstract debts.&quot Abstract… as in soul abstraction? If Scathewick’s reward was the return of a soul, that explains why he is in the Iron Republic. It also suggests that his employers are devils or related entities, perhaps the growers of Hell’s flower (which, crossbred with exile’s rose, produces red honey). This hypothesis doesn’t explain why Scathewick is imprisoned, or why devils would want to show their hand. (Although if any faction is unafraid of death and chaos…)

Remember, also, that a deviless was guarding Mackay’s tomb of red honey, and that

Devils might be swarms of lamplighter bees… although oddly, that particular deviless is not.

So what do devils, or a particular faction of devils, want me to do?
EDIT: Well, crap. I forgot that you can explicitly investigate Hell and find no evidence of culpability. If they (or the Great Game, or the other Masters) are involved, it’s tangential to the chain of contacts that led to the murder.
EDIT AGAIN: On the other hand, The face of the one you lost hangs in the mirror like a reflection in water. It mouths: Brass. In my soul. You blink and shake your head.

Also, a final question for people who let Scathewick go. Is it true that he returns to the Surface? Refresh my memory (I took a very long break from the game) — the fact that he can survive up there just means he hasn’t died in the Neath yet, correct? This seems odd, since he’s been sailing to distant lands working a dangerous profession.

EDIT: I can’t stop speculating. I’ll add some snippets:
— Cumberbold calls himself &quotthe Mute,&quot which harks back to Carrywell’s comment &quotI should have you thrown to the Mutes.&quot At the time, I thought she was referring to voiceless patients at the Sanatorium, but apparently she has a whole collection of Unfinished Men. (More tenuously, Cumberbold’s contact, the Boastful Chivver, wrote a book with &quotRed Hands&quot in the title, and Carrywell might be the Red-Handed Queen.)

—Very tenuously, the Effulgent Galleries are made of marble, as is the Grand Sanatorium. No evidence of blinding brightness in Venderbight, though.

— Does anyone know of any significance to the name Gulbahar Redaction? It’s Persian/Urdu/Turkish, so First City-ish I suppose.
edited by TheThirdPolice on 7/2/2015
edited by TheThirdPolice on 7/2/2015