The Chronicle of Duskhaven ― Lore
The Story So Far
The old Duke is dead and his seal — the one object that can crown a successor — is missing. Above the streets, five powers circle an empty throne: the Crown, the Guild, the Temple, the Free Blades, and the Undercity. Overhead hangs the Bleeding Star, a red comet the Temple calls an omen and the eldest watchmen call a memory. And below, in the flooded dark, the dead have stopped staying where they were put. The season runs thirty days. The city may be saved. The city may not.
What the Daily Has Told the City
Day 7 — ESCALATE: palace plain-coats stormed the High Market auction to seize the Duke's-hand lot and a woman in widow's grey stole it mid-seizure, fleeing toward Lantern Row — the lot is loose on council eve, with a chaseable fence-tonight breadcrumb printed (Lantern Row, before tide-bell).
Day 6 — BREADCRUMB: a High Market auction house will sell an unprovenanced "keepsake of the old Duke's own hand" tomorrow evening, despite the Crown's demand it be pulled — a possible next piece of the forged/replacement-seal thread after day 5's jewelers' appraisal.
Day 5 — ESCALATE: the Census of Dreams starts dating dreams and pulling aside anyone whose dreams predate the Star's declaration; one name entered the ledger without ever standing in the queue.
Duskhaven — a living novel played entirely by email. Enter the city.