Difference between revisions of "Imperial City Shops & Eateries"
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Revision as of 10:46, 14 October 2012
Blossoming Orchid Pavilion
Patents: Imperial.
Price: • • •
Description: A large teahouse in the Imperial Palace, left open to the breeze in the mornings and closed against heat in the afternoon. Many Dynasts come here in its public hall or private alcoves to enjoy refreshments such as flower teas and dim’sum. However, as with the rest of the palace, the walls are said to have ears, and a closed door draws more attention than one left open.
Morning Lily Tea House
Patents: House Tepet
Price: • • •
Description: This tea house is quite large, generally well lit except for the back tables, and lavishly decorated... just what one would expect from an establishment catering to members of the Dynasty. Its selection of teas is high class, and its staff well trained in the formalities of the tea ceremony which was central to Terrestrial dining in the long-past days of the Shogunate. The tables are open, with plenty of space between them, for this is not a house of clandestine meetings but of stepping out for the sake of being seen.
Folded Lotus Inn
Patents: House Nellens.
Price: • • •
Description: Located within the Onyx Curtain District. Over the past decade, the Folded Lotus Inn has become one of the premiere places within the City for socializing amongst the lower levels of the Dynasty. Growing and slowly expanding over the years, the Inn currently includes four buildings around a fairly large private garden. The first building is the Inn proper, which is where most of the guests stay, the only way into the complex (which is walled for privacy), and also includes the common room where food, wine, and tea are taken, and entertainment performed, as well as the private tea rooms. The common room and each private tea room (there are two) have exits to the gardens, and the rooms of those staying at the inn share another exit to the garden, as well. The second building is a bath house, which can be used by those staying at the inn, for a small additional fee on their tab, or by those not staying, for a slightly higher fee. The third building, which is nearby, is the house where the inn’s owners (a patrician merchant named Gusei and his son, Taysuke) live, as well as those people currently working at the Inn. The garden contains a small stream, which has a series of small waterfalls in it. The fourth building is a large, empty hall of simple furnishings and wooden floors: sometimes it is rented out for parties, and sometimes it is used for Dynastic duels between hotheaded young scions of the Great Houses.
Much about Gusei’s method of running his inn is often considered odd. The arrangement of furniture in the common room changes at least once a week, and the people who are serving at the inn change even more often, and often without any reason, it seems. Mirrors hang all about the inn, in seemingly random arrangements that change as often as the furniture of the common room, some of the mirrors even being set on the floor and ceiling. While the food is slightly more expensive than the average establishment of this class, it is widely agreed that it is a fine place to eat, and there are few places with better service in the city. Many Dynasts will use the Inn as a place to hold what parties and festivities they throw, and be able to sleep safe in the knowledge that whatever they have arranged will go off without a hitch.
Ujimaki's Kitchen
Price: x
Description: A small dining place in the Western Districts, specializing in fried rice with eggs or vegetables. The citizen Ujimaki family has held the establishment for many years, despite frequent fires that claim the wooden structure. The food is cheap peasant fare, but the atmosphere radiates a low-class charm.
Southern Pepper Restaurant
Patents: House Sazuro (patrician house).
Price: • •
Description: On the Street of the Fatman, just off the Eastern Market, can be found the Southern Pepper Restaurant, one of several businesses owned by the prominent patrician merchant Sazuro "the Fatman" Nisemono. The food served here is in Sothern style, not bad if a bit spicy, and not very expensive by patrician standards.
Teishou Suzume Eatery
Patents: None.
Price: x
Description: A low class restaurant in the Western District, which sells fried fish and squid. The food is quite cheap, but overcooked... likely because rot has set in by the time fish reaches the poorer markets of the City.
Unagihime Restaurant
Patents: House Peleps, House Ledaal.
Price: • • •
Description: The Unagihime has a well-deserved reputation as one of the best seafood restaurants in the city. Its chefs are experts in Western School cooking, and its ties to fishermen in Vatamu allow the freshest of fish to be rushed from sea to table before they suffer much deterioration. Many Dynasts from the coastal regions enjoy taking meals here, where they can enjoy the familiar tastes of the sea.
Pavilion of Culinary Enticement
Patents: House Tepet, House Cynis, House Peleps, House Ragara.
Price: • • • •
Description: The Pavilion of Culinary Enticement is a luxurious dining establishment for the wealthy members of the Dynasty. There are no chairs or couches in the Pavilion: guests sit upon embroidered carpets in private rooms, resting on piles of silk cushions. Dishes rest upon individual raised trays made of intricately-etched silver. Each group of guests is seated around its own host or hostess, who prepares and serves the meal as it is delivered from the kitchens. The host not only determines the order of courses and the seasonings sprinkled over the dishes, but also selects and mixes the teas or spirits that best accompany each dish and orchestrates the mood of the meal. These hosts are artists, trained to shift the contents of a meal both subtly and drastically based not only upon factors of season and ambience, but upon the topics of conversation amongst the guests, their attitudes and modes of dress. It is impossible to eat at the Pavilion without making a reservation at least a week in advance, and the price of a meal here is gargantuan.
House of Healing Repast
Patents: House Sesus, House V'neef, House Ledaal.
Price: • • • •
Description: Many physicians and apothecaries have often repeated the adage 'treat food as medicine', and nowhere is this lesson taken more to heart than the House of Healing Repast. Jars of ingredients fill the shelves that cover the walls and sprigs of dried herbs hang from the rafters. Every ingredient and every dish carries meaning. Hazelnuts give energy, root vegetables are restorative and calming, and parsley lifts the spirits. Each dish is tailored to the needs of the individual guest. The staff expect their guests let their needs be known, and at the start of a meal a cook and waitperson with medical training greet each table to enquire about their health and offer knowledgeable advice and suggestions on what dishes they ought to try (Lacking direction from the guest, the staff will make their own determinations as best they can). A hearty soup served to the burly Legion officer might be accented with fennel and button mushrooms, while the same soup served to an elderly patrician might be seasoned with lamb, spring onion, and cilantro. Such personal attention comes, of course, with an appropriately astronomical price-tag.
Seijo Inn
Price: • •
Description: The oddly-shaped Seijo Inn is a mixture of architectural styles... the central building, now over a century old, was originally a teahouse, well designed and appointed. Over the years rooms for housing were added, forming a new wing of different style than the first. The food is decent, and the tea is good.
During the time when the 1st Legion was garrisoned in the Imperial City, the Seijo Inn was a popular residence and meeting spot for its officer corps, perhaps because of the 1st Legion scalelord's uniform preserved in an alcove by the entrance... the Inn having been opened originally by an ancestor of the Seijo family who worked his way up through the ranks to an officer's post.
Golden Silk Teahouse
Patents: House Tepet.
Price: • • •
Description: A large courtyard surrounded by private dining rooms, the Golden Silk Teahouse is known as a place for quiet meetings away from the ears of the Palace... the walls are thick and the windows readily shuttered against prying eyes. The food is of fine quality here as well, and the selection of teas is large indeed, with varieties from across the South and East. The master of the Teahouse is the unExalted Dynast Tepet Berel Rensai.
Honey-Touched Teahouse
Price: • •
Description: A small teahouse in the Eastern Districts, frequented by patricians and the wealthier citizens of the City. The Honey-Touched Teahouse is known amongst such clients for the honey mixed into the tea here, which is harvested from bees in the Teahouse's small garden and mixed with beet sugar.
Green Pond Inn
Price: • •
Description: A three story building with a fenced-in garden, that features a large and well-maintained koi pond as the center piece. The common room, where guests can take meals, tea, wine, and entertainment are on the ground floor, along with two private tea rooms. All three of these rooms have an exit into the gardens, kept open on most days to provide a pleasant view for the guests. The second floor contains several private tea rooms, and a few of the cheaper rooms guests can take for themselves. Despite the usual business in the common room, the private tea rooms and bedrooms for rent on the second floor are surprisingly quiet, the floor having been designed to muffle the sounds from downstairs going up. The third floor contains larger rooms for more wealthy guests. These rooms are set around the outer walls of the building, each one having its own balcony that gives a magnificent view of the city by night or by day. The Green Pond, located in the Eastern Districts, has a mostly-patrician clientele, though Dynasts of lesser wealth also make use of it. Its kitchens are particularly known for the quality of their noodle dishes. The master of the Inn is Nellens Jin.
White Mountain Inn
Price: x
Description: A dilapidated, three-storey tenement, filled with the smell of mildew and the twittering sounds of cockroaches. The White Mountain Inn is the favoured dwelling of peasants coming to the City to hawk their wares, due to the low cost of rooming here. The Inn serves meals as well, in a smoky common room... a watery stew of rat meat and root vegetables is most common.
Starflower Tea House
Price: •
Description: This tea house is a simple place, located in the Eastern Market, where patricians and merchants often come to discuss matters of business.
The Drunken Trierarch
Patents: Yasuki household (House Peleps)
Price: •
Description: A bawdy tavern in the Western Districts, operated by Peleps Ichibei. Ichibei is a man of advanced years and a strange sense of humour: his wife and children dwell in the west of the Blessed Isle, serving in the Water Fleet, but Ichibei chose to spend his retirement and his considerable mercantile fortune running a lower-class tavern in the City.
Ichibei spend a considerable sum in purchasing gaudy cotton caricatures of high Dynastic fashions, with which he dresses his serving girls. He is a great embarrasment to many Dynasts, especially his own House, and his behaviour has also been frowned upon by many Immaculate monks, but such thing seem only to make the establishment more popular to his chosen clientele. Most objectionable, Ichibei flies the mon of his own Yasuki household from the gables of the inn.
Ball and Chain Tavern
Price: x
Description: A seedy tavern in the West District. The ale is strong but the tavern stinks of sewage.
Hidden Gem Teahouse
Price: •
Description: A teahouse and tavern in the Eastern Districts, near the Crystal Palace, frequented by servants in the employ of House Mnemon.
Complete Collection of Virtues Eatery
Patents: House Sesus.
Price: • • •
Description: A famous duck and fowl restaurant in the Eastern Market, catering to Dynasts and wealthy patricians. Known for the excellent quality of its meat, cooked perfectly to remain moist and full-flavoured.
Shop of Convenience and Pleasure
Patents: House Nellens.
Price: • •
Description: A famous duck and fowl restaurant in the Western Market, catering to lower-end patricians and wealthy merchants. Known for excellent dishes made from broth and rice, mixed with all manner of ingredients from prawns to cardamom pods to dried apricots.
Hall for Listening to the Orioles
Patents: House Tepet.
Price: • • •
Description: A restaurant amidst the manors of the Dynastic districts. The “Feast of the Ever-Living Lake Child” is a specialty of the restaurant. The fish is caught from nearby rivers and cooked in a unique way. When the fish is served on the table, its mouth is still opening and closing and its gills flapping. Diners should not be frightened; it is falsely alive. The secret lies in keeping the nerve of the fish intact.
Nectar & Sweets Pavilion
Patents: House Tepet.
Price: • •
Description: Small restaurant near the Academy for the Cultivation of Youthful Talents, a Dynastic primary school in the Imperial City. Sells a variety of sweet pastries, as well as light meals, mostly to students, parents, and alumni of the Academy.
Hall of Western Waves
Patents: House Peleps.
Price: • •
Description: Small restaurant near the Academy for the Cultivation of Youthful Talents, a Dynastic primary school in the Imperial City. Sells meals and snacks of the Western school, mostly to students, parents, and alumni of the Academy.
Teahouse of the Summer Moon
Price: • • •
Description: A well-appointed teahouse in the Onyx Curtain District, popular with actors and musicians of Dynastic or patrician backgrounds. The teahouse has rooms sometimes rented by visiting troupes as they put on performances in the City. The Summer Moon is known to brew its own variety of sweet potato brandy, quite popular with artists and theater-goers, and provides barrels to be sold by hawkers during events at the Grand Coliseum.
Parlour of the Flying Fish
Patents: House Sesus, House Ragara.
Price: • • •
An upscale restaurant in the Eastern Market, specializing in Western Cuisine. During the lunch and afternoon, they do not accept reservations, and the place is always packed. Dynasts go to the head of the line with their guests. At night, tables are by reservation only... unless you are a dynast, in which case someone with a reservation might get kicked out to make room for you. Everyone wants to eat here. The decor is rose wood panelling throughout, making the place feel warm and inviting. There are colourful lanterns strung everywhere providing a soft light. There is a special light and frothy beer called sudzou, that is served to everyone who gets a table. This is the only place in the City that serves it, for it is brewed carefully in the basement.
Xinia’s All-Night Teahouse
Price: •
A quiet shop in the Western Market, panelled in warm, golden woods. There are no tables here, nothing formal. There's a bar where you can get over priced sandwiches and nearly any kind of tea in creation. The rest of the room is devoted to worn, plushy couches and chairs. There is plenty of good light, and smoking is allowed. This is a popular hang out for students, various government clerks studying for exams, and young patricians or Dynasts interested in a night of 'slumming.'
House of Ten Thousand Ecstatic Moments
Patents: Barat household (House Cynis).
Price: • • • •
Description: High-class slave brothel for Dynasts in the Red Lantern District, and centre of management for a ring discreetly connecting prominent Dynasts and exotic concubines (which have been rumoured to include spirits, demons, and outcastes). The master of the House is the wood-aspect Cynis Barat Hurkon, known by the nickname ‘the Rat Whore’.
Rivan’s Inn
Price: x
Description: Low-class brothel in the Red Lantern District, whose prostitutes are drawn from the peasants of the Blessed Isle, who sell their daughters into servitude to make ends meet.
House of Kei
Price: • •
Description: Brothel in the Red Lantern District, whose prostitutes are drawn from the peasants of the Blessed Isle, who sell their daughters into servitude to make ends meet. Far more complex than Rivan’s Inn, the House of Kei is made up of several small suites where the rich play at being peasants: A session lasts six hours, during which the hired girl maintains the fiction of being a peasant wife. She prepares up to two low-class meals, launders clothes, and satiates lusts either on the rough bed, or on a pile of fresh hay in a room with walls painted to depict open fields.
Season’s Paradise Pavilion
Patents: House Nellens, House Sesus
Price: • • •
Description: High-class concubine office in the Red Lantern District, which rents out trained female consorts on month-long contracts.
Theatre of Enticing Display
Price: • •
Description: A tavern-theatre in the Red Lantern District, wherein dancers display themselves in sensual performances to customers, who then place bids at an auction of their virtue.
House of Massage and Relaxation
Price: • •
Description: Brothel in the Red Lantern District, of male masseuses and prostitutes.
Garden of Youthful Pleasures
Price: • • •
Description: Brothel used primarily by pedophiles due to the low average age of its slave-whores. Located in the Red Lantern District.
House of Open Flowers
Patents: House Cynis.
Price: • • •
Description: Brothel and pleasure-slave training academy in the Red Lantern District, operated by Cynis Liu.
Upright Pillars Pavilion
Price: • • •
Patents: House Mnemon, House Sesus.
Description: High-class concubine office in the Red Lantern District, supplying male concubines to the upper classes on month-long contracts.
House of Otoki
Patents: Imperial, House Tepet.
Price: • • • •
Description: A massage parlour in the Eastern Market run by Otoki Anma, whose skill with his hands is second to none. No sex is sold at the House of Otoki, for it is a place dedicated to the art and craft of the masseuse, and sensual pleasure would debase its perfected forms. Many Dynasts wait years for an appointment with master Anma, showering him with gifts and favours in exchange for a turn on his couch.
Grand Colosseum
Patents: Imperial.
Price: • • / • / x
Description: A massive stone arena in the Eastern Districts, capable of seating thousands. Within it are held frequent games... the gladitorial contests occasionally hosted here by House Cynis can be large, including dozens of slave-gladiators, and chariot races are very common and highly popular with the masses of citizens and patricians (fatalities are not uncommon). Dynastic boxes are numerous here, allowing wealthy Dynasts to observe while removing them from the stench of the crowd.
Strength-of-Arms Arena
Patents: House Nellens.
Price: x
Description: A large arena in the Western Districts, capable of seating several hundred. Within it are held frequent dog races, and sometimes gladitorial contests where slaves desperately battle each other sometimes to the death. Occasionally the arena is used for a Dynastic duel, or pits a brave young bravo against a ferocious wild beast so he might test his skills and courage.
Crane Theater
Patents: House Tepet, House Mnemon.
Price: • • • •
Description: Located in the Onyx Curtain District and operated by House Tepet. The oldest playhouse in the Imperial City, located within a small marble building that seats barely a hundred people. Seats must be reserved years in advance, and only the most esteemed companies of players are invited to perform their works there, and these are always the traditional classics of Shogunate theatre.
Celestial Stage
Patents: House Nellens
Price: • •
Description: Located in the Onyx Curtain District and operated by House Nellens. The largest playhouse in the Imperial City, capable of seating up to 5,000 people. Seating for wealthy Dynasts is located on upper balconies, while rows of seats for citizens fill lower balconies and surround the central stage. Theatre companies rent the Celestial Stage to put on their performances and collect their own admission, which tends to be affordable by many City residents... on major holidays or in response to events, the Scarlet Empress herself would often sponsor performances here to inform or mollify the public.
Theater of the Limber Thespian
Patents: Bretegani patrician clan.
Price: • •
Description: Located in the Onyx Curtain District. Operated by the Bretegani patrician clan. Small theatre, sometimes used for patrician performances and sometimes rented out by companies of players to provide a practice venue for rehersals. The Limber Thespian is surrounded by a pleasant wooded garden, filled with private nooks popular for refreshing breaks or late-night trysts.
Lazy Flame Theatre
Patents: None.
Price: • • •
Description: Located in the Onyx Curtain District and operated by House Ragara. Small theatre, usually hosting plays from outside the Realm, particularly from the vibrant playwrights of Nexus. This foreign influence means the Lazy Flame is required to charge far higher prices for admission than it would normally like, placing it outside the range affordable by most citizens in the City. Its typical audience contains many rebellious young Dynasts, along with Guild emissaries, Threshold ambassadors, and the like.
Stage of Midnight Song
Patents: Agate patrician clan
Price: • • •
Description: Located in the Onyx Curtain District and operated by the Agate patrician clan. A small theatre, whose primary performances come from Black Robe Theatre troupes visiting from Chanos.
Rising Jade Pavilion
Patents: House Cynis.
Price: • • • •
Description: High-class betting house run by the lady Cynis Nebada, with a staff of accountants and astrologers to set its numbers. Here, Dynastic clients may enjoy tea, the attentions of nubile slaves, and perhaps a game of Gateway as they bet huge sums on matters from who will take the throne to the harvest yields of Cherak in the coming year. Those who place only small bets need not bother coming to the Pavilion... artifacts, manses, and jade talents are the standard currency here
Office of Odds and Investments
Patents: None.
Price: • to • • •
Description: Nellens Jimmu, from his offices in the Eastern Market, operates a betting ring far more mundane than that of Cynis Nebada. He travels with his betting table to sights where gambling might ensue... Dynastic duels, hunting parties, and the like... and sets up shop to take money on who will come out on top. Jimmu deals in relatively minor sums, and his cut of winnings is quite small, making him popular with casual gamblers amongst the Dynasty. [OOC: Minimum bet R1, maximum bet R3].
The Six-Side Hole
Price: x
Description: A low-class bar and gambling den, where dice and cards are the games of choice.
Ten Lanterns Casino
Price: x
Description: A low-class bar and gambling den, featuring rat racing, mahjong, and the deadly game of venoiko.
House of the Golden Cloud
Patents: House Cynis.
Price: • • •
Description: An ornate drughouse in the Red Lantern district, filled with rooms coated in silk cushions and lit with marijuana-burning braziers. Here, for the right price, a discerning Dynast can enjoy all manner of intoxicating delights, with experienced pleasure slaves available to intensify the experience. Most Dynasts come not only for diversion, but for business: the master of the House, Cynis Penor, is known as the City's most resourceful drug-dealer, though his prices are steep.
Tang's Parlour
Price: • •
Description: A simple teahouse in the Red Lantern district, Tang's parlour offers more than steeped tea leaves. Along with a number of drinks and snacks, the servants here offer up various blends and mixtures that can be alternately smoked in pipes, made into tea, or sprinkled over sesame cakes. Not ornate enough for many ranking Dynasts, Tang's Parlour is a place for patricians and poor Dynasts to wile away the hours.
Den of Blissful Flight
Price: x
Description: A shady, dilapidated building in the Red Lantern district, the Den supplies the needs of those whose lot in life is the drudgery of peasant or citizen life. The drug of choice here is quat, though there are often rumours of more potent and numbing agents at work here as well.
Bathhouse of Ever-Flowing Waters
Price: •
Description: While Dynasts and rich patricians enjoy the luxury of private baths, those with only moderate wealth are often forced to visit the Bathhouse. Here, for a few coins one can enjoy use of large pools containing hot and cold water, as well as pumice stones and horsehair brushes. For a few more coins, one may purchase a bit of vinegar to clean one's pores, or oil to massage one's skin. The visitor is, of course, expected to accomplish these tasks without the aid of servants, as personal service is a thing for the wealthy.
Spa of Comforts Ascendant
Patents: House Cynis.
Price: • • •
Description: While almost all Dynasts have access to their own baths, from the large copper tubs carried by servants through the Imperial Palace to the saunas of the Deliberative to the private pools of many manse-gardens, there are a few who prefer to depart their dwellings and attend the Spa of Comforts Ascendant. The spa has saunas and a number of hot and cold pools for bathing in groups, followed by the individual attentions of a servant in a private bath... here, a visitor is bathed clean with soaps and shampoos, before receiving an expert massage using scented oils.
Spa of Comforts Ten-Yards-Distant
Patents: House Ledaal.
Price: • •
Description: Ten yards from the main building of the Spa of Comforts Ascendant sits a much smaller bathhouse, the Ten-Yards-Distant Spa. It offers similar services to its larger neighbour, though the opulence of the decor is somewhat reduced. The Ten-Yard-Distant Spa serves an exclusive clientele: sorcerers, who are barred from entry into the Spa of Comforts Ascendant.
House of Ijibe, Sword Polishers:
Patents: House Ijibe (patrician house), House Mnemon
Price: • • •
Description: The shop of the Ijibe artisan house is considered to be the best place to have one's jade alloys cared for in the city. Located in the Eastern Market, the polishers of House Ijibe are experts at treating and cleaning jade weapons and armour, maintaining such valuable pieces to ensure they last on unmarred into eternity. A full polish usually takes the staff at least one day. Slightly more costly than visiting the House personally is to hire House Ijibe polishers to visit one's dwelling and polish one's artifacts.
Violet Brush and Ink:
Price: • •
Description: This shop, in the 9th Ward of the Eastern districts, is owned by an elderly artisan named Gakou, a skilled calligrapher who sells brushes, ink and paper; both for writing and artwork. He also makes copies of paintings and calligraphy pieces by demand and it is said that his work is of excellent quality.
House of Sazuro:
Patents: House Sazuro (patrician house)
Price: • •
Description: On the Street of the Fatman, just off the Eastern Market, can be found the shop of "the Fatman", Sazuro Nisemono, a wealthy patrician with extensive mercantile interests. If you need to sell something and you are not interested in how much you will lose on the transaction, then go to the Fatman Sazuro.
Gilded Saffron Silk Works:
Patents: House Cynis
Price: • • •
Description: One of the finest (and most expensive) tailors and silk producers on the Blessed Isle, working only in custom pieces... clients consult with owner Cynis Tomi to choose fabrics and patterns for the creation of truly unique textile artworks. Located in the Eastern Market.
Seamstress of Sensual Silks:
Patents: House Sesus
Price: • • •
Description: One of the finest (and most expensive) tailors in the Imperial City. Owner Sesus Ditara crafts elaborate and beautiful items of clothing, displayed in her warehouse in the East Districts for Dynastic clients to peruse and purchase those that strike their fancy.
Warehouse of Perfected Cloth:
Price: • •
Description: A textile dealer and tailor in the Imperial City's Eastern Market, dealing almost entirely in cotton wares imported from Incas prefecture. The Warehouse has a clientele of mostly patricians and wealthy merchants.
Warehouse of Succulent Chops:
Patents: House Nellens
Price: • •
Description: Warehouse of Nellens Spolumbo, the City's largest dealer in meats and cattle.
Quarrelous Peridot-Cash and Security:
Price: • •
Description: Travelling and need some local currency? Just arrive in the most beautiful city in Creation? Need a safe place to keep a document or jewelry? Come to Quarrelous Peridot's cash shop. The shop is a small, well-off storefront, occupying the street level of a very tall and narrow building filling the space that was an alley two hundred years ago, in the Eastern Market. The floors are marble as are the walls and pillars, the whole place gleams tastefully. In such a small space, it seems silly to have grand pillars, at first, but a clever person will see that they are meant to making robbing the place more difficult. There is hardly room to swing a sword. Further precautions are taken, however, and Peridot always employs one archer to sit in a concealed room near the high ceiling where she can help should trouble arise. Peridot keeps the valuables in an elaborate series of vaults, further complicating any robbery attempt. She is licensed to change money in the Imperial City, but also charges a small fee to people who'd like her to keep small valuables safe for them.
Ragged Lace: Exclusive Fashion
Patents: House Cynis, House Tepet, House Sesus, House Mnemon
Price: • • • • •
Description: The Ragged Lace boutique occupies the first floor of a building that used to be a modest palace in the Eastern Districts. The inside of the building is decorated in a spare, elegant style with restful colours. It is very quiet, and the air smells fresh and sweet making it a sharp contrast to the noisy market outside.
Servants stride from place to place with great purpose and efficiency on socked feet. The clientele is, without exception, wealthy. When a noble man or woman sets foot in the Ragged Lace, he or she is escorted to a small suite of rooms with its own staff to be measured and interviewed about the clothing that will be made for them. Everything is custom, and to suggest otherwise would offend the highly skilled staff.
The second floor is a hive of industry. Tailors and seamstresses scurry about cutting, sewing, and pinning. While their hands are busy, so are their mouths and the shop side of the Ragged Lace is known by some to be the very best place to hear the latest gossip of the city. Indeed, the staff is so well informed, that some nobles make it a point to shop here just to buy information from their fitters.
The styles produced here represent the bleeding edge of fashion, but the designer is one of the great social mysteries of the ruling class. Nothing is clear about Onherra, neither her House, her aspect (most agree that she is Exalted), nor even her gender. She's extremely eccentric, dressing herself from head to toe in veils and scarves, only her eyes (painted with garish, iridescent make-up) are ever visible. Onherra is known to take offence when she is not invited to a party, but she rarely shows up when she is invited. Her voice is seldom heard. Instead she whispers to her beautiful man-servant and he announces her wishes in his thrilling baritone voice.
Velvet Mortar's Herbs and Apothecary
Price: • •
Description: At first glance the herbalist's place seems to be little more than a grubby counter on Salt Apple Street in the Western Market. But if you go through the little door in the back, you find yourself in a small warehouse, a virtual cornucopia of herbs and chemicals from across creation.
Shop of Ba
Price: • •
Description: Mister Ba is a very old man. His back is hunched and his hands shake. His only attachment to life is his old music store in the Red Lantern District. It is a tiny shop, with reams of sheet music for sale, much of it out of print. Mister Ba knows where every piece is, even though some of his bins haven't been opened in decades and are covered in dust. He loves it when students from the Lyceum of Dulcet Sound come in to his store, chattering about music and composers. Mister Ba never joins their conversations, he is extraordinarily quiet. The shop itself has a green door with the Old Realm character for 'music' painted on it, and nothing more. It is crowded with files and bins of sheet music. There is a desk, behind which Mister Ba sits, sometimes dozing. He has an old grey cat who haunts the store like a jealous lover.
House of Whirling Blades
Patents: House Tepet
Price: • • •
Description: A restaurant for Dynasts and wealthy patricians, located in the Dynastic districts. It is famed for the performances of its carvers, who carve the fowl that makes up most of the menu at the table of diners just before eating, a task embellished by acrobatic flourishes and showy bladework. The Blades is operated by Boiler Pipe, a retired officer of the 3rd Legion once renowned for his skill at swordplay.
Bleeding Ruby Teahouse
Price: •
Description: A large teahouse for artisans and poorer patricians, located in the 9th Ward of the Eastern districts and owned by Thesk Tarn. The teahouse is three floors tall, the upper two floors open at the center to allow diners to gaze down below. The building gets its name from its roof tiles, a faded red colour... when originally built, the tiles were bright and vibrant red, but the paint and lacquer were of poor quality and the colour ran down the walls, staining them with waves of red and pink.
The Painted Log
Patents: None yet.
Price: • •
Description: Woodcarver’s shop in the 9th Ward of the Eastern districts, specializing in lacquered wood figures, available in a variety of poses and colours. Custom work can also be done, though this can take some weeks and is quite a bit more costly. With the arrival of the 4th Legion in the City, the Painted Log has seen brisk business with two new figures: one a giant officer with horns of flame, the other a lancer riding a lion-horse.
Ukino House of Print
Price: n/a
Description: Shop in the East 9th Ward, formerly specializing in carving woodblock prints and producing broadsheets. This remains an expensive process, but is the primary means of disseminating information to the general population. As with all print shops, the largest part of its business was producing copies of the Immaculate texts, but it diverged to print an anti-Fourth Legion broadsheet. In RY768 it was forcibly closed by the 4th Legion, its owner Ambrim Baig killed and its assets seized to found the Zhoutarn Printery.
Zhoutarn Diligent Printery
Patents: Dochao household (House Sesus).
Price: • •
Description: Newly opened shop in the East 9th Ward, specializing in carving woodblock prints and producing broadsheets. Owned by Thesk Tarn and Sesus Zhoutai.
Chisel and Saw Quarry
Patents: None yet
Price: • •
Description: Stonecarvers’ workshop of moderate size, located in the East 9th Ward, operated by the Gadugi family of citizens. Recently suffered closure for violating Immaculate strictures, but has since been re-opened.
Farm of Blessed and Eternal Chains
Patents: House Cynis
Price: • • • •
Description: Large slave market controlled by Cynis Akabar, located just outside Imperial City. The Farm is a place for breaking slaves so that they can take up duties in the residences of the City without acting against their Dynastic masters. It is a major source of slaves for the Bevy of Effacious and Facile Blossoms.
Bed of Crocus and Peonies
Patents: House Cynis
Price: • • •
Description: Compound in the Western Districts, containing quarters and pens for the Peony and Crocus Troupes of the Cynis slave company Bevy of Effacious and Facile Blossoms. The troupes, overseen by Cynis Theren and Sesus Kimiasha, are rented to serve for various Dynastic galas and functions around the City.
