Mr Stones

"Mine."

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

Mr Stones is a terse and materialistic Master of the Bazaar.

Mine.

Mr Stones is in charge of trade in all manner of stones and minerals, including jewels, quarrystone, salt, blasting powder, and numerous corrosive mineral compounds. It also trades in less valuable jewels and currencies, such as moon-pearls and glim-shards.

As a Master, it is not particularly interested in anything at all apart from growing its hoard of precious jewels. As a result, purchasing gems from the Echo Bazaar is next to impossible, and prices for them in the Bazaar Sidestreets and its stall in the Labyrinth of Tigers are far, far higher than what should be considered reasonable. In fact, taxes on jewels are so high in London that gems are considered contraband, so trading these must often be done under Stones' nose.

Mr Stones resides in a lodgings "as bejewelled as a rainbow's colon", as to be expected, with each centimeter of its workshop encrusted in enough jewels to buy ten kingdoms.

Before becoming Mr Stones, this Master was known as Mr Marble, until "that trouble with the Tomb-Colonies". Said trouble may have involved the construction of the Grand Sanatoria, massive palaces for the dead made of marble. During the time of the Fourth City, Mr Stones was known by multiple different names, including the Khan of Gifts and the Khan of Shackles.

The Affair of the Box

"There are some things we were not meant to know, they say. But you wouldn't be down here if you took that seriously." Beyond this point lie spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include midgame or minor Fate-locked content. Proceed with caution. You can find out more about our spoiler policy here.

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

"So. Box is opened. Our box. No more. Disappointed. Didn't need glim. Needed moon-milk. Devils interested. Valuable trade opportunity lost."

A Heavy Iron Box.

Fancy rocks aren't the only gems Stones is interested in; one must only look up to the gems of the roof, to the false-stars: the moon-misers.

Using a lock that could only be opened with a special song from a Drownie, Stones managed to trap a moon-miser within a heavy iron box. The box also contained several important Fourth City love letters from Mr Fires, which led to the Gracious Widow taking notice. Stones hid several false keys throughout London, such as within Mahogany Hall, to throw off interlopers. Then it tasked two Unfinished Men, Jasper and Frank, with supervising the box at all costs, adding even more moving parts to this mysterious scheme. This chaotic game of shadows became known as the Affair of the Box.

Using the moon-milk produced by the miser, Mr Stones sought to bribe an exiled captain from Hell to start a war with London and raze it to the ground. All of this, it turns out, played out because Mr Stones tires of life in the Fifth City, and hopes to expedite its destruction. The Box is just one of many means to this end.