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== References ==
== References ==
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[[Category:Unfinished]]
[[Category:Places]]
[[Category:Uncited]]
[[Category:London]]
[[Category:The Neath]]
[[Category:Devils]]

Revision as of 00:56, 31 December 2023

"The Celestial Embassy was once a grand pagoda, looming above the rooftops of the Fourth City. When London fell, the Embassy was buried deep below the earth. Its many levels now descend far underground.

The ruined chambers display battered mosaics and brass-work imitations of Fourth City decor. Every room is clogged with the detritus of diplomacy: papers and journals, brass-bound tomes and broken scrolls. [1]

The Sunken Embassy is an abandoned embassy in London, found below Moloch Street. When London fell the Celestial Embassy was crushed like most of the Fourth City. On it's place, the Brass Embassy was constructed, however, the embassy was later rediscovered during the Grand Clearing-Out.[2] Both the Devils of Hell and of Mount Palmerston have a keen interest in the documents found within the embassy and will pay well for there recovery.

East or West?

In the eastern halls of the broken Embassy, one finds documents concerning external affairs. In the western halls, correspondence with Old Hell.[3]

To the East of the ruins lies the remains of the Embassy's Reception chambers, in which citizens and notables of the Fourth City could enter. While to the West of the ruins lies the interior of the Embassy, in which the correspondence between the Embassy and old Hell was secured.

East - Embassy Reception

Ruins of the Embassy Reception

Old Hell liked to make its statements, when the Celestial Embassy still stood it would have been one of the tallest buildings in the city, soaring over the parapets and pagodas of the Fourth City.[4] However, it is now in ruins with lacquered walls bulging inwards, buried miles deep underground, filled with traps, forgotten secrets, and deadly chasms.[5][6]

Brasswork features mock the Fourth City; mosaics depict myths and khans of legend, with key figures replaced with grinning devils. Ceilings are painted with stars and skies in lush and lurid azures and cobalt, a permanent reminder of that which the Fourth has lost, and which can now only be glimpsed within the Embassy's friendly walls.[7]

The entrance to the Embassy is covered in a brass mosaic which mocks the Fourth city and the Khanate of old.[8] From the entrance the Embassy spreads across a cacophony of maze like halls, passages, and chambers. Individual departments were established for various dissenting groups in the Fourth City, with these groups being classified as being either roses, black spiders, or swords.[9]

Categories and there meaning:

  • Roses denotes those who fell sway to the whispers behind the glass.[10]
  • Black spiders denotes those who sought solace with the Sorrow-Spiders. [11]
  • Swords denotes those who clung to an old rite and an antique calendar.[12]

The Celestial Embassy was a particularly treacherous space, riddled with spies, hidden spaces, and two way mirrors facing a reflective lake deep in Parabola.[13] Devils and the Fourth City spied on each other, and the Devils upon themselves; with traps designed to catch both wandering staff and unwanted visitors of the embassy.[14] Espionage, misinformation, and influencing were the main responsibilities of the Celestial Embassy, with the beliefs and rituals of the Fourth City being favored tools of the diplomatic core of Old Hell.[15] Everything in the Celestial Embassy was meticulously recorded with careful notes on the qualities of the Fourth City kept in secret places deep in the interior of the embassy.[16]

Deeper within the Celestial Embassy, there is a Bureau to process, contain, and display the endless gifts of statues, mosaics, artists, choristers, dancers and instruments offered by the Fourth City.[17] However, this lavishness was not solely out of the generosity, evidence can be found of hollow statues and carriers, alongside the remains of those whose occupants were unlucky enough to be caught.[18] However, such incidents have to be seen as an acceptable part of an ancient Great Game, with relations between Old Hell and the leadership Fourth City being amicable enough for in times of crisis for the embassy to serve as a refuge of last resort.[19] Hidden under a floor of cedar, the chambers of the Khans were furnished with vast and elaborate mirrors and costumes of silk, copper, and floral design made for Embassy staff to please any visiting member of the ruling family.[20] Most disturbingly, in these chambers can also be found a hardy set of shears forged in violant, flecked with ancient venom, next to a room of shed snakeskin surrounding a crumbling throne.[21]

Finally, in the concealed heart of the Celestial Embassy lies the Mocking Tree, it's twisted branches gleaming in untarnished brass. From each branch hangs a different leaf, each a page from the vaults of Hell's archives, charting the forgotten cosmologies of the Fourth City.[22]

West - The Innermost Chambers

Ruins of the Innermost Chambers

The western chambers are dominated by ivy and white stone, in reflection of old Hell. Brass fixtures are functional and unembellished, in contrast to the marvels of stonework. Masonry flourishes in architectural follies, statues and intricate fretwork. Roses cling to the upper walls – still blooming and clustered tight as spiderwebs.[23]

To the west of the Sunken Embassy lies the heart and administrative center of the embassy. Now wreathed in webs and roses, it is here where the staff of the embassy toiled and the juiciest secrets lie yet to be discovered.[24]

In the innermost chambers lies the Khatun's Gardens. Made to honor Khatun, the gardens are now overrun poisoned weeds and bloated lily-candles, and are impossible to enter.[25] However, near the gardens entrance lies a storehouse of prophecies and predictions, assembled from the then ongoing study of the Fourth City and it's belief, each marked to be revealed at dates calculated to garner the maximum political advantage.[26] A nearby, still intact, secret stair allows for hidden access to the Ministerial suites from the embassy's public chambers. Here, the devils plied their spycraft, in neat impartial recordings of each minister's forbidden peccadilloes and how best to cater to them.[27]

Yet even deeper into the inner courts of the Sunken Embassy, lie the cellars for those who thought they could trick the devils of Old Hell.[28] Written on the cell walls in faded Fourth City scrips, the final messages of those caught record how the devils recruited from the factions of the Fourth, the Rosers with their mirrors and the Copper with their burning dreams and how the government of the city sought to plant spies within these organizations to be recruited by the devils.[29]

Though still not yet discovered, deep within the heart of the Sunken Embassy lies a still operational Law-Furnace which is in the process of erasing certain records from ever having been.[30] These pages, marked by a sigil, have complicated the collection of Hell's documentation, with as of yet uncounted documents having been incinerated, defaced, or otherwise erased.[31]

But perhaps this was by design. Old Hell was a fractious place, with each department within the Embassy was staffed by liars, each keen to promote their own value while denigrating and undermining those both above and below them. Inside a sagging vault hidden within the embassy, lies a series of texts that suggests a connection between the law-furnaces in Hell and one particular department's success.[32] Those who could not live up to the legal claims they'd made found themselves swiftly and spectacularly extinguished. [33] Further proof of this notion can be found buried deep in the embassy's concealed sealed vaults.[34] Though difficult to discover and reach, these sealed vaults store a fraction of the old laws of Hell; broken edicts and shattered clauses, contradictory rites and observances, with which it becomes clear that the chief preoccupation of these Byzantine instructions was the behaviour of the Embassy's staff themselves.[35]

Finally, laying within the inner sanctum of the Sunken Embassy lies the Concordium. Damaged during the Fall, the Concordium remains intact, alongside it's soaring pipes, moving hot brass floor, and sonorous brass machinery. Great bellows pump a cadence of a lullaby, with the pipes resembling a church organ.[36] Lying on a nearby lectern carved with the heads of Goat Demons, lie old sheet music, which attempted to record the notes, with it's final pages scorched and the tune requiring extra limbs to play.[37]

References

  1. ↑ Seeking Documents in the Sunken Embassy, Fallen London "The Celestial Embassy was once a grand pagoda, looming above the rooftops of the Fourth City. When London fell, the Embassy was buried deep below the earth. Its many levels now descend far underground. The ruined chambers display battered mosaics and brass-work imitations of Fourth City decor. Every room is clogged with the detritus of diplomacy: papers and journals, brass-bound tomes and broken scrolls. In the eastern halls of the broken Embassy, one finds documents concerning external affairs. In the western halls, correspondence with Old Hell. Which way will you go?"
  2. ↑ Beneath Moloch Street, Fallen London " A shaft of light shines down from above – gas lamps and false-stars. But the tunnels leading off in all directions are dark. A few concerned Devils direct Londoners away from digging in directions likely to hit the foundations of the Brass Embassy."
  3. ↑ Seeking Documents in the Sunken Embassy, Fallen London "The Celestial Embassy was once a grand pagoda, looming above the rooftops of the Fourth City. When London fell, the Embassy was buried deep below the earth. Its many levels now descend far underground. The ruined chambers display battered mosaics and brass-work imitations of Fourth City decor. Every room is clogged with the detritus of diplomacy: papers and journals, brass-bound tomes and broken scrolls. In the eastern halls of the broken Embassy, one finds documents concerning external affairs. In the western halls, correspondence with Old Hell. Which way will you go?"
  4. ↑ Deep, dark, Fallen London "The Sunken Embassy is very deep; when it stood, before its fall, it must have soared over the parapets and pagodas of the Fourth City. Antique Hell liked to make its statements. You find yourself navigating a chasm that extends miles deep – until, of course, you fall. The thought that you are plummeting down several storeys of one of the tallest buildings in that bygone city is of some comfort before your fall is broken by a sturdy pillar. You land on solid ground in a catacomb extending into the chasm, but some of your recovered documents spiral on, down into the yawning dark."
  5. ↑ Broken History, Fallen London "Lacquered walls bulge inwards; scroll cases crack like beetle shells beneath your feet. Broken lanterns hang from yawning door frames, illuminating nothing. Guided only by your candlelight, you creep through the sinking darkness of the Embassy, heading ever downward."
  6. ↑ Break open sealed chambers, Fallen London "The Embassy was crushed between the bed of the Neath and the city that fell down on top. Many of its halls are hazardous. Some are entirely trapped."
  7. ↑ Spelunking in the Sunken Embassy, Fallen London "Brasswork features mock the Fourth City; mosaics depict myths and khans of legend, with key figures replaced with grinning devils. Ceilings are painted with stars and skies in lush and lurid azures and cobalt, a permanent reminder of that which the Fourth has lost, and which can now only be glimpsed within the Embassy's friendly walls."
  8. ↑ Spelunking in the Sunken Embassy, Fallen London "Brasswork features mock the Fourth City; mosaics depict myths and khans of legend, with key figures replaced with grinning devils. Ceilings are painted with stars and skies in lush and lurid azures and cobalt, a permanent reminder of that which the Fourth has lost, and which can now only be glimpsed within the Embassy's friendly walls."
  9. ↑ Hell's relicts, Fallen London "The Embassy appears to have devoted individual departments to various dissenting groups in the Fourth City. Papers are printed with symbols to help categorise them. Roses denote those who fell sway to the whispers behind the glass. Black spiders for those who sought solace with the Sorrow-Spiders. Swords denote those who clung to an old rite and an antique calendar. Following this system through the morass, you're able to recover a sheaf of related Embassy notes."
  10. ↑ Hell's relicts, Fallen London "The Embassy appears to have devoted individual departments to various dissenting groups in the Fourth City. Papers are printed with symbols to help categorise them. Roses denote those who fell sway to the whispers behind the glass. Black spiders for those who sought solace with the Sorrow-Spiders. Swords denote those who clung to an old rite and an antique calendar. Following this system through the morass, you're able to recover a sheaf of related Embassy notes."
  11. ↑ Hell's relicts, Fallen London "The Embassy appears to have devoted individual departments to various dissenting groups in the Fourth City. Papers are printed with symbols to help categorise them. Roses denote those who fell sway to the whispers behind the glass. Black spiders for those who sought solace with the Sorrow-Spiders. Swords denote those who clung to an old rite and an antique calendar. Following this system through the morass, you're able to recover a sheaf of related Embassy notes."
  12. ↑ Hell's relicts , Fallen London " The Embassy appears to have devoted individual departments to various dissenting groups in the Fourth City. Papers are printed with symbols to help categorise them. Roses denote those who fell sway to the whispers behind the glass. Black spiders for those who sought solace with the Sorrow-Spiders. Swords denote those who clung to an old rite and an antique calendar. Following this system through the morass, you're able to recover a sheaf of related Embassy notes."
  13. ↑ What must be concealed, Fallen London "The Sunken Embassy was riddled with spies. One could not take a meeting without being observed, from under the marble paving stones or in the lacquered walls or even via a series of mirrors, both facing a reflective lake deep in Parabola. Devils spied on their guests, and upon each other. Crawling under the toppled masonry via crawlspaces and brasswork shafts concealed in pipes, you're able to navigate the interior of the Embassy. In its secret places, Antique Hell took careful notes on the qualities of its Fourth City counterparts, knowingly and otherwise."
  14. ↑ Dead places , Fallen London "Demons scowl down at you from the walls, the inhabitants of Hell rendered comprehensible to their Fourth City observers. The chambers ahead narrow; constricting you as you progress. It is as though being squeezed down the gullet of a great beast. The walls taste your skin, your sweat, they drip with the condensation of your breath. Eventually, you can go no further; your satchel tears as you squeeze your way back. Was this a trap for wandering staff? Or visitors to the Embassy, to be lost in the dark for good."
  15. ↑ The currency of lies, Fallen London "The Sunken Embassy practised a variety of falsehoods upon its Fourth City counterparts. Belief and ritual were tools in the trade of Old Hell's diplomatic corps, distorted facsimiles of the Fourth City's own. You sift through documents that parody the processions and masques of the Fourth City, leavened with spite and irony. It is arduous work. But, eventually, you come across a few observations that seem like they contain a grain of truth."
  16. ↑ What must be concealed, Fallen London "The Sunken Embassy was riddled with spies. One could not take a meeting without being observed, from under the marble paving stones or in the lacquered walls or even via a series of mirrors, both facing a reflective lake deep in Parabola. Devils spied on their guests, and upon each other. Crawling under the toppled masonry via crawlspaces and brasswork shafts concealed in pipes, you're able to navigate the interior of the Embassy. In its secret places, Antique Hell took careful notes on the qualities of its Fourth City counterparts, knowingly and otherwise."
  17. ↑ The spider's web , Fallen London "The Fourth City offered the Sunken Embassy many gifts: statues and mosaics, artists, choristers, dancers and instruments. Such lavishness required both containment and display – the Sunken Embassy was forced to create a Bureau for the processing of such municipal munificence. From your investigations of this department, it is clear that the Fourth City was not just generous. It sent its best, ferried inside hollow statues or the carriers who bore them in, disguised – and through persuasion, eventually within the hearts of some of the bureaucrats themselves. You find evidence of this inside the statues whose occupants were unlucky enough to be caught."
  18. ↑ The spider's web , Fallen London "The Fourth City offered the Sunken Embassy many gifts: statues and mosaics, artists, choristers, dancers and instruments. Such lavishness required both containment and display – the Sunken Embassy was forced to create a Bureau for the processing of such municipal munificence. From your investigations of this department, it is clear that the Fourth City was not just generous. It sent its best, ferried inside hollow statues or the carriers who bore them in, disguised – and through persuasion, eventually within the hearts of some of the bureaucrats themselves. You find evidence of this inside the statues whose occupants were unlucky enough to be caught."
  19. ↑ Locate an inner sanctum , Fallen London "In times of crisis, the rulers of the Fourth City sheltered in the Embassy. Perhaps you can find those protective chambers. What might yet remain?"
  20. ↑ Deeds that were done, Fallen London "The chambers of the Khans lie under a floor of cedar, each room furnished with vast and elaborate mirrors. There are costumes, made for Embassy staff, in silk and copper and floral design. Notes pinned to the costumes make clear which is most pleasing to which member of the ruling family. You also uncover a particularly hardy set of shears, forged in violant. They are too brittle to remove, and flecked with ancient venoms. In an adjoining room, shed snakeskin surrounds a crumbling throne. All bear the marks of long abandonment."
  21. ↑ Deeds that were done, Fallen London "The chambers of the Khans lie under a floor of cedar, each room furnished with vast and elaborate mirrors. There are costumes, made for Embassy staff, in silk and copper and floral design. Notes pinned to the costumes make clear which is most pleasing to which member of the ruling family. You also uncover a particularly hardy set of shears, forged in violant. They are too brittle to remove, and flecked with ancient venoms. In an adjoining room, shed snakeskin surrounds a crumbling throne. All bear the marks of long abandonment."
  22. ↑ The hidden embassy, Fallen London "The texts are ancient; some written when the Fourth was at its height, others from the comfort of Hell in the aftermath. You must work out what is gone, so that you can focus on what remains, not search for that which is lost. The Mocking Tree still stands at the Embassy's concealed heart, its many twisted branches gleaming in untarnished brass. From each hangs a different leaf – each a page from the vaults of Hell's archives, charting the forgotten cosmologies of the Fourth City. There are too many to take all, but you recover what you can."
  23. ↑ Spelunking in the Sunken Embassy, Fallen London "The western chambers are dominated by ivy and white stone, in reflection of old Hell. Brass fixtures are functional and unembellished, in contrast to the marvels of stonework. Masonry flourishes in architectural follies, statues and intricate fretwork. Roses cling to the upper walls – still blooming and clustered tight as spiderwebs."
  24. ↑ The spider's web, Fallen London "The inner courts of the Sunken Embassy are wreathed in webs and roses. Navigating them requires balance and a strong core as you descend. There are cells there; writing on the walls in Fourth City scripts. The oldest have faded with time but the newest record how the devils recruited from the factions of the Fourth: the Rosers with their mirrors, the Copper with their burning dreams. The government of the City sought to plant spies there so that the unknowing Embassy would recruit from their own. The success of that scheme is attested in these lonely cells. You take what rubbings you can."
  25. ↑ The hidden embassy, Fallen London "The Khatun's Gardens, made to honour her, are now a morass of poisoned weeds and bloated lily-candles. You cannot risk entry. But the secret stair that allowed access from the Embassy's public chambers to the hidden suite of its ministers remains intact, if precarious. Within that suite you find concealed chambers where the devils plied their spycraft, documents languish: neat, impartial recordings of each minister's forbidden peccadilloes, and how best to cater to them. Near the entrance, you find a storehouse of prophecies and predictions, assembled from a study of Fourth City beliefs. Each was revealed at dates calculated to garner the maximum political advantage."
  26. ↑ The hidden embassy, Fallen London "The Khatun's Gardens, made to honour her, are now a morass of poisoned weeds and bloated lily-candles. You cannot risk entry. But the secret stair that allowed access from the Embassy's public chambers to the hidden suite of its ministers remains intact, if precarious. Within that suite you find concealed chambers where the devils plied their spycraft, documents languish: neat, impartial recordings of each minister's forbidden peccadilloes, and how best to cater to them. Near the entrance, you find a storehouse of prophecies and predictions, assembled from a study of Fourth City beliefs. Each was revealed at dates calculated to garner the maximum political advantage."
  27. ↑ The hidden embassy, Fallen London "The Khatun's Gardens, made to honour her, are now a morass of poisoned weeds and bloated lily-candles. You cannot risk entry. But the secret stair that allowed access from the Embassy's public chambers to the hidden suite of its ministers remains intact, if precarious. Within that suite you find concealed chambers where the devils plied their spycraft, documents languish: neat, impartial recordings of each minister's forbidden peccadilloes, and how best to cater to them. Near the entrance, you find a storehouse of prophecies and predictions, assembled from a study of Fourth City beliefs. Each was revealed at dates calculated to garner the maximum political advantage."
  28. ↑ The spider's web , Fallen London "The inner courts of the Sunken Embassy are wreathed in webs and roses. Navigating them requires balance and a strong core as you descend. There are cells there; writing on the walls in Fourth City scripts. The oldest have faded with time but the newest record how the devils recruited from the factions of the Fourth: the Rosers with their mirrors, the Copper with their burning dreams. The government of the City sought to plant spies there so that the unknowing Embassy would recruit from their own. The success of that scheme is attested in these lonely cells. You take what rubbings you can."
  29. ↑ The spider's web , Fallen London "The inner courts of the Sunken Embassy are wreathed in webs and roses. Navigating them requires balance and a strong core as you descend. There are cells there; writing on the walls in Fourth City scripts. The oldest have faded with time but the newest record how the devils recruited from the factions of the Fourth: the Rosers with their mirrors, the Copper with their burning dreams. The government of the City sought to plant spies there so that the unknowing Embassy would recruit from their own. The success of that scheme is attested in these lonely cells. You take what rubbings you can."
  30. ↑ Locate an inner sanctum, Fallen London "Every Embassy has its heart, even a sunken one. Political control of the law-furnaces in Hell determines the existence of this one. A law must have changed there, for the way to the Concordium yawns open."
  31. ↑ Hell's relicts, Fallen London "Hell's documentation is erratic. Much has been incinerated, defaced or otherwise erased. A still operational Law-Furnace deep within the Embassy is in the process of erasing certain records from ever having been; several disappear in your hands. You'll have to find paperwork that's likely to continue existing. Eventually, you're able to recognise the sigil which marks pages for destruction: avoiding those, you recover a slim sheaf of correspondence"
  32. ↑ The currency of lies, Fallen London "If its correspondence is to be believed, Old Hell was a fractious place. Every department within the Embassy was staffed by liars, each keen to promote their own value while denigrating those both above and below them. A series of texts stuffed in a sagging-open vault suggests a connection between the law-furnaces in Hell and one particular department's success. Those who could not live up to the legal claims they'd made found themselves swiftly and spectacularly extinguished."
  33. ↑ The currency of lies, Fallen London "If its correspondence is to be believed, Old Hell was a fractious place. Every department within the Embassy was staffed by liars, each keen to promote their own value while denigrating those both above and below them. A series of texts stuffed in a sagging-open vault suggests a connection between the law-furnaces in Hell and one particular department's success. Those who could not live up to the legal claims they'd made found themselves swiftly and spectacularly extinguished."
  34. ↑ What must be concealed, Fallen London "Below hidden passages, sunk deep in the stone, the Sunken Embassy concealed sealed vaults. You must breach marble and brass to reach them. Roses and thorns cover the space, thick as cobwebs and suspended from the high arches above. You must dangle from them to make your way down. Here the Embassy stored a fraction of its old laws; broken edicts and shattered clauses, contradictory rites and observances. Taking only that which can be carried, you discern that the chief preoccupation of these Byzantine instructions was the behaviour of the Embassy's staff themselves."
  35. ↑ What must be concealed, Fallen London "Below hidden passages, sunk deep in the stone, the Sunken Embassy concealed sealed vaults. You must breach marble and brass to reach them. Roses and thorns cover the space, thick as cobwebs and suspended from the high arches above. You must dangle from them to make your way down. Here the Embassy stored a fraction of its old laws; broken edicts and shattered clauses, contradictory rites and observances. Taking only that which can be carried, you discern that the chief preoccupation of these Byzantine instructions was the behaviour of the Embassy's staff themselves."
  36. ↑ Deeds that were done , Fallen London "The Concordium opens around you like an unfurling rose. Despite the damage the Fall did the Embassy, this place of soaring pipes and sonorous brass machinery remains intact. Great bellows pump. The floor, which is hot brass, shifts below you like the twitch of a heart. The pipes resemble a church organ; the air blowing through produces the cadences of a lullaby. On a lectern carved with the heads of Goat Demons nearby, is old sheet music – an attempt at recording the notes. The final pages are scorched and the tune would require more limbs than you possess to play."
  37. ↑ Deeds that were done , Fallen London "The Concordium opens around you like an unfurling rose. Despite the damage the Fall did the Embassy, this place of soaring pipes and sonorous brass machinery remains intact. Great bellows pump. The floor, which is hot brass, shifts below you like the twitch of a heart. The pipes resemble a church organ; the air blowing through produces the cadences of a lullaby. On a lectern carved with the heads of Goat Demons nearby, is old sheet music – an attempt at recording the notes. The final pages are scorched and the tune would require more limbs than you possess to play."
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