Mr Stones

"Are you quite sure you want to know this?" Beyond this point lie major spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include endgame or major Fate-locked spoilers. Proceed at your own risk. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

"You have proven useful. But I am a step ahead. Observe. Caught him trying to sell the diamonds you gave him. New to the city. Didn't know that the diamonds are mine. All mine. Now he knows."

Mr Stones is a Curator and a avaricious Master of the Bazaar.

Mine.

"Jewels. Quarrystone. Salt. Blasting Powder. Enough."

Mr Stones controls trade in all manner of stones and minerals. These include jewels, quarrystone, salt, blasting powder, corrosive mineral compounds, brick, metal, moon-pearls, and glim.

Mr Stones is an elusive Master who prefers to have employees do its bidding. It only intercedes personally on matters of business or when valuables catch its interest.

Diamonds in the Rough

"Why are diamonds so hard to find down here? Does Mr Stones really keep them for itself?"

"Magnificence! A piece of eternity! Especially brilliant. Exposed to the surface. Sunlight is trapped within. Pinned. Like insect in amber. Majesty. Mastery. Potential."

A Magnificent Diamond.

Mr Stones is fascinated with diamonds and claimed all the diamonds in London. Trading or hoarding diamonds without permission is illegal. Any citizen, visitor, or rival jeweler who violates Stones' laws is punished harshly. Because of Stones, diamonds in London are seen as rare. Even official trades in diamonds may happen without Stones' knowledge. Despite these rules, Stones does permit a few diamonds to be sold to those of "good character", such as patrons of the Bazaar Side-Streets.

Stones has quarries in the Neath. They're staffed with Clay Men who patrol the area and spot smugglers. They're usually far from London, but when the mines move too close they can cause earthquakes and other disturbances. The quarries sometimes fill with lacre from the Bazaar and the resulting floods may swamp entire mining teams.

Mr Stones is very interested in jewels from the Surface. Diamonds and apparently any jewel can trap sunlight within themselves. Thus, Mr Stones demands a high tax on any Surface-imported gems. It experiments on sunlit-diamonds in its workshop and compels them to "blaze" with "inner light."

Other Responsibilities

"Most people think Mr Stones only cares about gems. But Mr Stones controls value itself. Precious minerals are just one way to manipulate it, to accumulate it."

Mr Stones isn't solely interested on the gem trade, it has domain over "value itself". This may be part of the reason it's fixated on gems, and why its products have high price tags. It also has domain over walls and certain boundaries, since it controls the sale of building materials.

Appearance

"Anyone else strutting about with this many exposed jewels, as ready to be plucked as ripened fruit, would be plucked very barren indeed in London. But Mr Stones plucks back."

Mr Stones' talon.

Mr Stones is the most outlandishly dressed of the Masters. It's covered from head to toe in jewels and adornments, such as teeth made from gold and diamond, fangs covered in jewels, a numerous under its robes, and ornaments affixed to its hood. Unlike the other Masters, it does not wear gloves to conceal its claws. Its talons are very sharp and are, of course, covered in gemstones.

Stones also has a dark robe that's covered in minuscule, shimmering diamonds. It may try to dress anonymously in generic robes, but its preferences for adornment give it away anyway.

Personality

"Stones is curt, impolite, wary, and very, very rich."

"Dispose? Ignominy! Outrage! Flee, thou false little worm, before I tread thee underfoot!"

A Flawed Diamond.

Mr Stones has an avaricious personality. It wants everything that interests it, and it responds with anger, threats, and violence when denied. For lesser valuables it may bargain, but its greed is undiscerning. In spite of these qualities, it may reward charity when it is the recipient.

Stones is prone to threats, intimidation, and violence when enraged. It has a tendency to fixate, especially when gems are involved, and it can be very persistent. Stones respects cunning, perseverance, brutality, and mercilessness. Individuals who display these traits may receive an offer of employment.

The Echo Bazaar

Mr Stones respects the Great Chain of Being, and it's aware of humanity's place on the Chain. Thus, it looks down on people. It seems to mistrust the Echo Bazaar, and it considers arriving in the Neath a grave mistake. It also resents its fellow Curators of the High Wilderness, from the time before it arrived in the Neath.

Mr Stones has a very terse manner of speaking and does not burden itself with formalities or politeness. Its statements usually consist of single words or sentence fragments. When it's feeling verbose, it may speak an archaic form of English, using words like "thou" and "thee."

According to its iteration of Mr Sacks, Mr Stones does not drink. It also dislikes lacre.

A Mindscape of Mr Stones

"Iron shackles circle your wrists and your ankles. You are dragged forward by copper-helmeted guards and deposited before a golden throne. Looking up, you find yourself faced with Mr Stones, dressed in a robe of fine silk, considering you as a schoolboy might consider an ant."

"Behind it, an alcove of a dozen multi-faceted mirrors show six other iterations of Mr Stones: one dressed in furs, one in its familiar robes. One crouched over a well. One soaring upon an astral wind, and another squatted grotesquely atop a glittering heap. The seventh mirror is shining so brightly it hurts to look upon."

"Thou has a request of me," says Mr Stones. "Speak now, and if thy words displease me, thy tongue is forfeit."

Businesses

"Go as far upstairs as all the stairs at the Emporium will take you, and you may find Mr Stones' discreet little counter. The prices are monstrously expensive. Mr Stones knows the value of everything. But where else can you find sapphires of this quality?"

An emerald.

Mr Stones has many businesses in London and beyond. It has a shop in the Labyrinth of Tigers called Mr Stones' Exquisite Gifts and Luxuries. This shop offers jewels such as emeralds, diamonds, and sapphires for extremely high prices.

During the Grand Clearing-Out, Stones opened a tent in Moloch Street called Mr Stones' Pavilion of Subterranean Delights. There, it sold items found in the dig sites to aid in excavation. Following the Grand Clearing-Out, Stones was absent during the Masters' efforts to quell the Stone Pigs who were about to destroy London.

Chilly.

In the past, Hell made a deal with Mr Stones to explore the Hurlers, but their expedition failed. After the Great Hellbound Railway reached the Hurlers, Stones established a trade outpost there. It seeks the Hurlers' many rocks and crystals, especially those that "unmake boundaries."

Mr Stones has an exclusive contract to receive products from Lowell's Locks and Cages.

Dwellings

"Your footsteps echo in Mr Stones' cavernous workshop. The place is an assault on the eyes – a cascade of glimmers and glitters and gleams. Emeralds embedded in beeswax. Opals nested in silk cushions. Vats of smoking ochre. Precise tools with complex geometries laid meticulously upon a table top."

A Winking Gemstone Ring.

Mr Stones typically dwells in its jewel-encrusted workshop. It has a floor tiled with gems whose colors are apparently chosen to match Stones' mood; for example, darker gemstones line the floor when its feeling dreary. In its workshop, Mr Stones inspects, experiments with, and cuts jewels with its various tools, which include hammers, chisels, lenses, and clamps.

Mr Stones has an Astrarium within the Echo Bazaar. The chamber is massive and contains tunnels lined with dark onyx and glass, with gems embedded within to resemble constellations in the night sky. Inside, Stones has a glass box it uses to torture and execute prisoners. They're sealed within the box while diamonds cascade from above, falling until they completely bury the victim.

While traveling, Mr Stones prefers luxurious transports, such as hansom carriages with interiors covered in gemstones and gold. It has a train for the Great Hellbound Railway with a private car for itself, opulently decorated and well-armed.

Other Names

"Nowadays, nobody mentions the Khan of Gifts... or the Khan of Shackles. Those were other names for the Master. I have to keep my value high. No matter what."

Mr Stones was known as Mr Marble until a recent issue with the Tomb-Colonies. This trouble probably involved the massive marble palaces being constructed there for the dead.

In the Fourth City, Mr Stones was known as the Khan of Gifts... and the Khan of Shackles, implying it was a slaver during that time period.

The Chairman of the Subcommittee

"Mister Stones, Chairman of the Subcommittee, passes the three scrolls to you. Each is a piece of legislation drafted to improve one segment of London life."

"It can't all be done! Pick one. Destroy it. We'll revisit the others later."

A Master of the Bazaar.

During a period of unrest in London, the Masters convened the Subcommittee for the Betterment of Our Beloved London to address the public's grievances. It was headed by Mr Fires, Mr Hearts, and the Chairman of the Subcommittee. Its purpose was to pass exactly one policy to improve the lives of Londoners in some way, as mandated by the Masters' Obligations.

The Chairman of the Subcommittee was none other than Mr Stones. It mainly used its position to browbeat the exhausted Parliamentarians in attendance, and punctuate the assembly with strikes of its mighty gavel.

The Affair of the Box

"This thing has seven locks, each more difficult than the last. You haven't yet found a way to open it."

"...And Mr Stones is furious that its box has gone missing again. The Clay twins are tearing the place up looking for it. No box means no moon-milk. And that means our exiled captain won't provide it with the troops it wants. It'll just have to wait for its blessed Sixth City."

Despite sharing an employer, the Masters are not united. Each has their own schemes and plots that oppose others, and Mr Stones is no exception.

A Heavy Iron Box.

Mr Stones' plan began with capturing and trapping a moon-miser in an iron box. The box also had love letters from the Fourth City that were stolen by Stones from Mr Fires. It was secured with a lock that could only be opened with a song from a Drownie, and seven decoy locks were placed on the box and fake keys were scattered across London. For further security, Stones ordered two Unfinished Men, Jasper and Frank, to keep track of the box if it was ever lost. The box was kept secret from the other Masters and was transported around London repeatedly. Given these facts, it's not surprising powerful figures in London were intrigued by the box, such as the Gracious Widow and even devils.

Mr Stones wanted to give the valuable moon-milk produced by the moon-miser to an exiled captain of Hell. In return, the captain would assemble an army and start a war in London. It also wanted to give the love letters in the box to the Echo Bazaar. These acts were to expedite the fall of the Sixth City, as Mr Stones tires of London.

Adornment

"This is simple caprice. It is an obsessive. You are here to complete its collection. You flee. You do not get far, in this realm where the light is word is law. The weight of its gaze almost crushes you. It utters a single incandescent word."

"Adornment."

A Curator.

Like the rest of the Masters, Mr Stones is a Curator, bat-like creatures who roam the High Wilderness in search of treasures for their collections. Before it arrived in the Neath under the employ of the Echo Bazaar, Stones repeatedly violated the laws of the Judgements.

Its luck finally ran out when its home was subsumed by a Judgement. This star was a collector of creatures, and Stones was its latest "adornment." The star apparently did not know its captive was a criminal, but it kept Stones under its control anyway for an indeterminate amount of time. Stones was outraged at this treatment and the Judgement's violation of the rules, filling it with inscrutable rage... and bitterness.