text: [Themes: Mystery, steampunk, female protagonist, mystery, coming of age, horror]
  
  > Go down
  You push the drain cover out of the way and carefully lower yourself into the opening. The cold and clammy walls of the pipe swallow you whole, and the shadows from your lantern turn the nooks and crannies into long billowing black stains. Into them you descend.
  
  into long billowing black stains. Into them you descend.The walls are close enough that you can keep yourself propped up with your elbows and the soles of your shoes. But then your left foot slips on something and you find yourself losing purchase. You grab your lantern close and tuck in your head as you find yourself accelerating, rapidly, sliding out of control into a drainage system not built for human traversal --
  
  human traversal ---- and the Bilious Canal opens up before you, vast and writhing and pungent, the carrier of all the district's fury and decay, and you plummet from the drain pipe into cold noxious water twenty meters deep -- flailing, squeezing your eyes shut, holding your breath --
  
  breath ---- a gasp, as your head bobs above water, and the sun burns your face, wind, klaxons --
  
  your face, wind, klaxons ---- and then you crash into the Canal proper, and it buffets you without mercy. You cling on to the lantern for dear life as you are thrown across stretches and around bends, as arches and bridges fly past, as the lights of the city stretch out into streams of aquamarine other-light. You swim for dear life. You breathe, and breathe again --
  
  breathe, and breathe again ---- and then you see a dangling rope, and on bare instinct reach out and grab it like a lifeline. You slip a couple of inches -- your grip holds. And there you are, swaying from a rope as the rest of the Canal washes away before you.
  
  rope as the rest of the Canal washes away before you.You take a couple of deep breaths, and then you climb up.
  
  of deep breaths, and then you climb up.## Flooded Row
  Between towering foundations, the rain lashes rusting hulks and flapping canvas shelters; it eats away at corpses piled in ankle-deep water. Where once there were buildings, posters, lamplights, the Bilious Canal has burst through the polder and swept them all away, carrying off the detritus of innumerable unknown lives.
  
  Through an open sewage pipe, you see lights to the south.
  
  > Go south
  The Bilious Canal's runoff rises. It swallows these buildings and alleys in dark writhing water. Unsteady plank bridges run between the few islands of dry stone; hollow-eyed residents crowd around what lanterns pierce the gloom.
  
  A sewage pipe spews outflow from the north. Above, rope ladders climb to the rest of the Shanty Quarter.
  
  The bouncer from the Crow's Nest sits quietly by the shore, cradling Crow's body in his arms.
  
  > examine Crow
  She isn't moving. A thin stream of black liquid runs from the edge of her mouth.
  
  > examine webster
  Webster stares into the water, transfixed.
  
  > talk to him
  You step gingerly between the rivers of bile as you approach him. The rain is merciless, and it has not stopped since you left the Channelworks. It stings your cheeks where it lands; it runs in the joints of Webster's walking-chassis, pooling in his shadow.
  joints of Webster's walking-chassis, pooling in his shadow.As your reflection appears in the water, he starts. He turns to face you with disbelieving eyes.
  disbelieving eyes."You?"
  disbelieving eyes."You?"He looks you up and down.
  disbelieving eyes."You?"He looks you up and down."What on earth happened to you?"
  
  1) "I fell into the canal."
  2) "It's a long story."
  
  > 2
  "It's... a long story."
  
  Water drips from your disheveled hair. His eyes flicker across your tattered clothes.
  tattered clothes."You don't say," he replies.
  tattered clothes."You don't say," he replies.The tide of decay rises and falls around you. The rain plays on the face of the girl in his arms, and her eyelids run black like ink.
  
  1) "Are you all right?"
  2) "Is she..."
  3) "I'm sorry."
  4) "Aren't you worried her body will be contagious?"
  5) "Listen. I've found out the truth about the disease..." <Tell
  him about Justinian's plot.>
  6) "I need to get into the Channelworks. Can you help me?"
  
  > 2
  "Is she..."
  
  Webster's shoulders stiffen. He looks down at Crow -- at her unmoving form.
  form.She has been dead for a while. You can see the black blood settling in her body. You can see the skeins trailing from
  what remains of her animus.
  what remains of her animus."I should have listened." Webster murmurs. "When you talked about the disease... I thought it was just another run of bad luck. Another bug. The kind that happens in the Shanty Quarter all the time."
  Quarter all the time."He touches Crow's cheek and his shoulders shake silently. He does not meet your eye.
  silently. He does not meet your eye."She didn't deserve this. No one deserves this."
  
  1) "Are you all right?"
  2) "I'm sorry."
  3) "Aren't you worried her body will be contagious?"
  4) "Listen. I've found out the truth about the disease..." <Tell
  him about Justinian's plot.>
  5) "I need to get into the Channelworks. Can you help me?"
  
  > 3
  "Aren't you worried her body will be contagious?"
  
  He laughs. "What does it matter? She's dead. The Crow's Nest is dead. I'm living on borrowed time anyhow. It's only a matter of... of when."
  I'm living on borrowed time anyhow. It's only a matter of... of when."He strokes her hair.
  when."He strokes her hair."Maybe a pair like us wasn't ever meant to last. Maybe we just weren't meant to be part of this world."
  
  1) "You don't know that."
  2) "Are you all right?"
  3) "I'm sorry."
  4) "Listen. I've found out the truth about the disease..." <Tell
  him about Justinian's plot.>
  5) "I need to get into the Channelworks. Can you help me?"
  
  > 1
  "You don't know that," you say.
  
  He gazes at Crow's face for a long while, and does not reply.
  
  1) "Are you all right?"
  2) "I'm sorry."
  3) "Listen. I've found out the truth about the disease..." <Tell
  him about Justinian's plot.>
  4) "I need to get into the Channelworks. Can you help me?"
  
  > 3
  "Listen," you begin. "I... I've found out the truth about the disease. It isn't an epidemic. It's a genefactured weapon, and someone is using it to kill people."
  
  Webster stares at you.
  
  "Uh huh," he says.
  
  "Uh huh," he says.You feel yourself growing flustered. "I'm serious. I've seen the laboratory where it was produced. I... I read the research papers." Your voice cracks. "Webster, I nearly drowned trying to escape --"
  
  to escape --""Calm down." He shakes his head. "I... You're serious, aren't you? You aren't joking."
  
  aren't you? You aren't joking."He stares at the sky for a moment. He takes a couple of deep breaths.
  
  takes a couple of deep breaths."It... it really is. Primes. It's just another fucking alchemist's joke..."
  
  another fucking alchemist's joke..."He chokes, a little. His gaze falls to the earth, to the filthy water lapping at his mechanical legs.
  
  legs."I'm so fucking tired," he says. "I'm tired of feeling like a pawn in someone else's game."
  
  1) "Are you all right?"
  2) "I need to get into the Channelworks. Can you help me?"
  
  > 1
  "Are you all right?"
  
  A moment passes. Webster stares mutely at you. Then he looks down at himself, as though he has forgotten his tired arms and creaking joints for some time.
  for some time."I'm... I'm fine," he says. "Don't worry yourself about me."
  me."The silence returns. The rain traces the world in stinging white.
  
  1) "I'm sorry."
  2) "I need to get into the Channelworks. Can you help me?"
  
  > 1
  "I'm sorry."
  
  You feel numb as the rain falls around you. You don't know what to say.
  say.Webster just gazes at the body of his friend, before reaching up and wiping his goggles with the back of his hand.
  and wiping his goggles with the back of his hand."It's none of your fault, sweetheart," he says. "You've got nothing to be sorry about. Don't go around feeling sorry for other people, you understand?"
  
  1) "I need to get into the Channelworks. Can you help me?"
  
  > 1
  "I... I need to get into the Channelworks," you say. "Can you help me?"
  
  Webster gives you a long, probing look. After a moment, he reaches into his jacket pocket.
  
  into his jacket pocket."You'll need this," he says.
  
  into his jacket pocket."You'll need this," he says.He tosses something small and oblong in your direction, and you catch it with a fumble. It's slick from the rain, glowing with faint sigil-work and warm with alchemical energy. The insignia of the Council of Works is etched into its face.
  
  its face.You look back up at Webster, who simply regards you quietly.
  
  its face.You look back up at Webster, who simply regards you quietly."It's the disease, isn't it?" he says. "That's what you're heading back to the Channelworks for. You have unfinished business."
  
  heading back to the Channelworks for. You have unfinished business.""I... Yeah."
  
  business.""I... Yeah."He smiles grimly. "Crow won't need her passkey any more. You, on the other hand... Go spit in the guy's face, you hear? It's what she would have wanted."
  
  hear? It's what she would have wanted."You turn over the passkey in your hands. It is only a small weight in your hands, but it feels heavy all the same.
  
  1) I have to go."
  
  > 1
  "I have to go."
  
  The canal-water heaves around you, and the mist curls around the passkey in your hand. You grip it tightly.
  
  Webster gazes at the body he is carrying in his arms.
  Webster gazes at the body he is carrying in his arms."You do that, sweetheart," he replies. "You do whatever you have to do. I... I think I'm going to stay here for a while."
  I'm going to stay here for a while."## Rats' Run
  The Bilious Canal's runoff rises. It swallows these buildings and alleys in dark writhing water. Unsteady plank bridges run between the few islands of dry stone; hollow-eyed residents crowd around what lanterns pierce the gloom.
  
  A sewage pipe spews outflow from the north. Above, rope ladders climb to the rest of the Shanty Quarter.
  
  The bouncer from the Crow's Nest sits quietly by the shore, cradling Crow's body in his arms.
  
  > J.
  Seventh of Aquaria, Auritum IV
  
  My heart is pounding. I can feel white fire in my blood. There's nothing to do now but go -- go and finish what Justinian began.
  
  Current objectives:
  
  The Bilious Canal's runoff rises. It swallows these buildings and alleys in dark writhing water. Unsteady plank bridges run between the few islands of dry stone; hollow-eyed residents crowd around what lanterns pierce the gloom.
  
  A sewage pipe spews outflow from the north. Above, rope ladders climb to the rest of the Shanty Quarter.
  
  The bouncer from the Crow's Nest sits quietly by the shore, cradling Crow's body in his arms.
  
  > Go upward
  A labyrinthine morass of concrete and claustrophobia. You can feel death about you, like a fog that clings to every corpse and every brick. In the edges of your perception there are dozens or hundreds of spirits, broken and fractured and too incoherent to utter a whisper -- but you can feel their misery and longing all the same.
  
  Tangled rope ladders lead up and down. Somewhere to the north is the Via Mercurii, and to the west, Cadaver Walk.
  
  > Go up
  Rotting beams spiral from the Shanty Quarter like a stairway grasping for the stars. At their head is a jutting structure like a watchtower, and it shadows all that is beneath it, shielding grimy brick and concrete from desolate sky.
  
  The Shanty Quarter yawns below. Above you is the public house called the Crow's Nest -- closed, locked, and empty.
  
  > look at the structure
  At first glance it is haphazardly built. Only on closer inspection do you see the buttresses, the care that has gone into its construction.