Mr Pennies

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"Everything ends," the figure wheezes. "Even law. For everything, a reckoning. Need help. Need hours. Postpone reckoning. Shadows with thistle ropes and broken wings, waiting on riverbank to catch final breath. Everything dies. Must outlast. We trade, yes? Trade Hours? We trade Hours now, yes? Good quality merchandise..." "If the boon of a long-life is that one out-lasts one's mistakes, its curse is that they nip at your heels for eternity. I wonder what Mr Pennies hides from. Perhaps one day I will ask, before I too beg for protection under the mountain."

Mr Pennies, known as the Caretaker, is a Curator of the House of Rods and Chains.

Pathetic and moth-eaten, Mr Pennies fled to Lustrum after the House's death. There, it runs a "shop" (more like a begging stand, but charity is a crime) where it exchanges Hours for trinkets and Sovereigns. Mr Pennies dislikes the practice of serving the Messengers; according to it, the Curators who serve them simply go unrewarded.

Deep within Lustrum lies Pennies' hideout, the Light in the Mountain. There, it uses its gathered Hours to keep a horde of ailing, elderly Curators alive. According to Pennies, these Curators are sinners who chose agony and life over dying and possibly facing the consequences. Pennies himself is a sinner; it looks after these Curators as a form of penance. Mr Pennies also uses a dangerous Red Science array for its purposes, though it seems to be malfunctioning. Curators who wish to live longer must trade in one of their beloved treasures for Hours.