The Pit at first snow: a sunken stone ring with a boarded gate, a frosted post with its chain snapped and lying in the snow, and four long gouges running to the dark mouth of an old drain. Across the river the red towers burn.

Lore · The Pit, on the south bank of Tallowmere

The sealed villain

A villain is coming. This is everything we know so far.

See what we know

This is a story. A villain arrives in a future chapter, announced first by @DiponSol_. Nothing here is news about $DIPPY.

What we know so far

  1. It left a message.A decree hung on the market hall door, sealed in black wax. No name, only four strokes pressed into the wax.
  2. Its name is sealed.The market hall keeps a page on everything that ever moved a price. On this page, the name and kind are sealed.
  3. It has been seen three times.The night watch writes down every sighting, sworn to by someone who was there.
  4. It sleeps under the Pit.In the ring above, a post stands empty, its chain snapped at the last link.

It arrives in a future chapter, announced first on @DiponSol_.

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The Sealed Decree

The villain’s message

It hung on the market hall door, sealed in black wax. Here it is, copied by hand.

BY DECREE OF , WHO KEEPS THE FOILS

To the Bourse of Tallowmere. To its Houses. To the thing under the inn that calls itself a Kitchen.

Know that I have slept, and that I have counted.

I slept through three winters. I will not sleep through the fourth.

Those who sold at the bottom have already paid. Their tribute is noted. They are thanked.

From first snow, all Sauce left out after the Curfew Bell is forfeit to .

Every Tendie shall be eaten dry. Every table shall seat one.

Those who hold will be last.

When the nail falls the year is sold, and I have placed the only bid.

Given under my seal, which was never broken, from .

No name. Four strokes pressed into the wax, side by side.

The seal · Intact

Buffalo copied this from the Bourse door and inked out what he would not write. Chalked under it, in a hand everyone knows:

You will Dip.

A seal is broken when its owner dies. This one never was.

The last folio of the Bourse bestiary

Its page in the records

The Bourse keeps a page on everything that ever moved a price. This page was begun and never finished.

Name
Sealed
Kind
Sealed
Last seen
The Red District sky, the night of the reddest candle (disputed)
Sleeps
Beneath the Pit
Known mark
Four strokes, side by side, each a palm wide
The great round gold door of the Stockhold, shut fast, a broad black wax seal over its lock, four long gouges torn across its upper rim and frost crusted at its foot.
Beneath the Pit, below the last rail of the Trenches. The Stockhold door, sealed from the inside.

The Sightings Ledger, kept by the night watch

Where it has been seen

Every row was sworn to by someone who was there. A new row is written each time the seal gives.

  1. The night of the reddest candleRed District

    A shape in the smoke over the towers. The watch says it was smoke.

  2. The second winterThe deep Trenches

    Ranch heard breathing below the last rail. He will not say more.

  3. CandlemasThe south bank

    Something came to the mouth of the old drain under the Pit, saw its shadow, and went back down.

Four lines are left blank. The watch keeps them for what comes next.

The post in the middle of the ring: snow on its cap, twenty notches cut down its face in fours with a stroke through each, and its chain lying in the snow, snapped at the last link.

In the middle of the ring

The empty post

A post stands in the middle of the ring with its chain snapped at the last link. Nothing has been kept in it since.

Twenty times loose, and twenty times bound.

The twenty-first time, it was never found.

Counted on the south bank, by children, on the way past.