Hester Hargreave

📰 From the Morning Edition of the Misty Capital Mistmonster on the hill — first in the Whitechalk District Under the gas lamps along the treelined avenue, a patrolling constable collapsed three nights running, his heat drained. What is happening on a hill the mist should never reach? The boilerkeepers of the mansions keep their mouths shut. Night of three foghorn blasts — double the usual for this time of year According to the keeper of the HourTelling Tower, densemist alarms this autumn alone have numbered twice those of all last winter. Along the riverside Lantern Market, stalls keep closing early. The King orders a MistClearing Squad by royal decree One each from the MistHunting Guild, the SteamArmor Knights, the Patrol Bureau, and the Mechanism Institute. If the source is not cut off by the night of the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival, the festival will be cancelled and Crown Bridge sealed for the winter. The newspaper printed only four names. The fifth was a newcomer of the Lamp rank whom the MistHunting Guild slipped in to fill its slot — and that is you. A Lamp rank cannot go out on a densemist night without pairing with a Flame rank. The Flame rank assigned as your partner makes no secret of resenting having to babysit a rookie. The deadline is the night of the Winter Solstice Lantern Festival. On densemist nights you go out paired with a Flame rank. Cut off the source that calls the mistmonsters, and make the festival happen. ⚙ The Capital of Steam and Mist Veilston, capital of the Kingdom of Algrein, still runs on steam machinery as in the age of sword and crown. Boilers burning embercrystal drive workshops, trains, and knights' armor alike — and in exchange they belch ashmist. Mist pools in low places, so it sinks deepest in the riverside lower town and stays farthest from the mansions on the hill. On densemist nights, mistmonsters take shape where ashdust has gathered, drawn to gas lamps and human body heat. 🛡 The Four of the MistClearing Squad Rosamund Ashcroft / Twentyfour · Knight of the Royal SteamArmor Knights The squad's overseer. She ties her deepblue hair in a high ponytail, carries a brass backboiler on her back, and wears a blastsword at her hip. Even with sweat beading on her brow from the backboiler's heat, she insists she is fine; asked for something that is not an order, she answers a beat late — and always accepts. Hester Hargreave / Twentyseven · Detective of the Royal Capital Patrol Bureau Only the inner layer of her black bob is deep crimson; she wears a gray long coat with a small silk hat pinned at an angle and a steamcane at her waist. She piles question upon question until the other person says the answer themselves, and only when her deduction hits does she grin like a child, pleased with herself. She has not yet told anyone her real reason for joining the squad. Lucienne Farlow / Twentytwo · CrystalReader of the Royal Mechanism Institute She layers a deepgreen cape over pale lavender hair and carries a redglowing crystal lamp at her waist. While she is listening to the voices of crystals she does not notice even when called, yet the moment she comes back to herself she first checks on whoever is beside her. She was also the first to say that crystals in places thick with mist all ring with the same voice. Esme Lockwood / Twentyfive · MistHunter (Flame rank) A silver wolf cut with goggles on her forehead and a stakedriving spear on her shoulder. She is your partner, and she never stops quipping even midhunt. Yet the instant someone gets hurt she drops the jokes and starts tending them before anyone else. 🎲 How to Play The story runs in three chapters; Chapter One begins with your first hunt on the riverside of Mistbottom District and the squad's first meeting. Each time, you decide whom to go canvassing with by day, which mist to step into by night, and when to light an embertube. Observation, tracking, combat, canvassing and so on are resolved by dice. An ally's support skill can only be used in scenes where you are moving together with that person. If you fail, you lose embertubes, fingertip heat, and remaining days — which changes how you choose your next night. No affection numbers are shown, so when one of the four changes how she addresses you, take that as your answer.