News - Turn 14

The City has changed again! View the City Map page for details.

A report from the Union's Civil Engineers:

In the wake of the City's sudden movement to the Moon, we had many concerns about the City's infrastructure. We had lost our underground sewage pipes and maintenance tunnels, and the new curvature of the City put great strain on the supports of the Canopy. Not to mention, a third of the City had been left behind on the world below. That last problem, at least, has been fixed by a joint effort between Sylvios Brandt and the mages of the Circle. While we had pondered this logistical nightmare for days they seem to have found a far more efficient solution, converting the remaining buildings on the surface into flocks of brick and concrete birds that flew the distance to the moon while Captain Worthington transported the denizens of the Underground up to our new City. Though there's no underground for them to live in, we're already reaping great benefits from their knowledge of the City's inner workings. The birds landed and transformed back into the original buildings, and now you almost couldn't tell the City had moved if you don't look up!

From Mad's Men Press:

The guide to the City's nightlife, with all the details you never thought you'd read in a magazine!

Contents:

• The best of the best of Trembling Orchid's!
• How to go at it at the river dive!
• How to find the lucky one on a lonely night!
• Which ladies and gentlemen of negotiable affection are the best, ratings here!

Looking through the large paper, there are exceedingly crude and descriptive details of all the brothels in the city along with and several pages of sketches.

Views expressed herein are very much those of Mad’s men

…We can report today of two attacks against the City by the Empire that were thwarted due to the hard work of the citizens of this city! Councillor Elluvia was attacked by five empire gunman in her temple. While casualties where high, Elluvia herself was unharmed after the intervention of a number of people under orders to protect the Councillor by Sir Henry Fitzwilliam Smythe. A second and more organised attack against the Union tower occurred however the defenses of the tower, combined with divine help from the Goddess Madison Vogontia, drove the attackers back with minimal damage being done to the tower…

Excerpt from The Green Street Times

A despairing politico in the Renaissant confides to a journalist:

“I don’t know what’s gone wrong! A few weeks back our campaign was going well - the public wanted a government that could take responsibility and manage the chaos of their lives, and donations were flowing now. Now every time we go out there canvassing they listen to what we have to say, take in our arguments, and then just shoot them down. Nobody seems to have any appetite to be governed anymore - they’re all irritable, touchy and self-confident. Still, everyone gives us a fair hearing. Even if they don’t want what we’re selling, this City has never given us a more attentive audience.”

A pamphlet put out by the Citizen's Alliance Against the Empire

“Thanks to the combined efforts of the finest and bravest the city has to offer, the tyrannical Empire has been put to flight! We thank every bold man and woman who gave their lives fighting for our freedom, and we thank all of fine minds whose military and magical prowess made this possible. It is a mark of what makes our city truly great that so many, when faced with the forces of oppression, came together to beat it back. The city stands liberated in more ways than one, but we should not grow idle - the Empire is on the run, and this is our chance to strike a blow against oppression that the entire Universe will remember!

“That is for the days to come, however, and for now, we celebrate and laud those who did their part: Hurrah for Gaius, Hurrah for Winterdell, Hurrah for Sir Henry, Hurrah for Jovic, Hurrah for Dastolt, Hurrah for Firstborn, Hurrah for Kanon, Hurrah for Architect Hurrah for Verte and Hurrah for the martyr One. Truly, these of all people can call themselves true citizens of our glorious world.”

A pamphlet put out by the Union

“The Union honours those who die fighting for freedom, and One, one of our best and brightest, lost his life fighting against perhaps the greatest force for oppression this city has ever seen. Rising from humble beginnings to great strength through skill and purpose, and willing to give his all in defence of city against tyranny, he was in every way a child of the Union, and we are poorer without him.”

Excerpt from Gardeners Questions - a relatively new pamphlet published roughly every month.

Areas of the moon, which once were barren rock, have begun to be transformed by Lao Jin and his followers into fertile ground. Gardens have been established and the hard ground broken up by the efforts of a number of Dirrigatapi burrowing into the dust and earth and ensuring its irrigation. From this base other plants have been introduced and appear to be thriving nicely while the Dirrigatipi move out to make larger swathes of land suitable for growth. Insects have been introduced to the system with the most prevalent being fireflies. This has led to the expansion of the fertile region being marked by the beautiful glow of the fireflies at night - showing the boundary where life ends and rock begins - a boundary that is retreating with every day. We at Gardeners Questions look on hopefully to see what people will do with the land and how the moon will take to the new life upon it.

Fans of Anathama's maze will be disappointed to learn that his establishment upon the city appears to have been destroyed by an upwelling of molten rock from beneath the earth. From above all the maze tunnels can be seen to be filled in with cooling obsidian. No sign has been seen of Anathama himself nor any word of whether he is intending to re-establish his premises upon the moon…

From the City Times

An article in the Waterway Gazetteer:

Over the course of the past few weeks, Lucien the mage and Fei the river goddess have been placing a number of inscriptions along parts of the third turn of the river. When questioned, they simply said that they were creating a great mingling of rivers from around the multiverse, and invited all who asked to come and watch.

Yesterday afternoon, starting with the Glorious Equation district a portal sprang into existence at the site of the inscriptions one by one around the city. As each portal appeared a wave poured out of them and continued round the river, growing with each new portal until it was as high as many buildings.

Once the wave had transversed the city a new path for the river sprung into being causing the wave to cut back to just before the first portal where it then died down again as it once again passed each portal in turn.

The river is now higher and before and has some unusual life in there. For one thing, spotted flatfish haven't been seen in the river before, and reports say they're exceedingly tasty!.

Article from Factor:

Over the past few weeks the Academy of Progress has gotten much quieter and the garden has been dismantled, despite it surviving the trip to the moon. The wonderful helix with the sun at the top shining its light for far around has vanished.

When this reporter entered the academy dust was covering everything and though the rooms were still there anything of worth or records of previous experiments has vanished.

Everyone here is asking: What happened to this wonderful place of learning?

“Have you seen those posters around? You know - the ones with stories on and the little red crosses in the corners? So many people's stories. About their lives, their troubles and their trials. Yeah… I read a few, they're actually really interesting. I mean who would have thought a toff from the glittering district would have anything interesting to say but turns out he used to be more of a union man before ending up in the City, I guess he does know a bit about the common folk after all. Even my story ended up on one of them posters - I had a chap from the Equation ask me if that was my story - said it reminded of him when he was my age. We ended up sitting down over a pint and having quite a nice chat. I don't think I'd have ever even spoken to him if wasn't for that. Just goes to show the more you know the less different we all are.”

The overall mood in the city - while fiercely independent - is also fairly tolerant. People seem more inclined to try and understand each others points of view even if in the end they agree to disagree. This seems to stem from a series of posters bearing a red cross containing snippets of life, true stories, from a vast swathe of the city residents.

• “Did you see it? We turned around for one second, and Peter was attacked by some guy with six arms monster with massive claws. He'd nearly fought it off, but the bloody thing clicked its fingers and Peter was on fire. What is this city coming to?”
• “I don't care if the undead army's helping us. So long as the night walker's still out there, I'm not walking the streets at night.”
• “I heard Sir Henry went on an expedition to the moon - I wonder what treasures he found?”
• +++Who am I?+++