Paris

Paris is very technologically advanced, much more so than London as it never had to contend with the destruction London did. It has become the centre for the Ordinateurs and is an important banking centre, due to all the computing power. The city is also the hub for organizing a lot of logistics for Meritocratic endeavours. There are a number of gyropters and airships flying through the air, and the city itself is gleaming. The city itself is busy, with a lot of straight roads, and lots of traffic. However, it's much more efficient; the roads are strictly for vehicles, and pavements are clearly for people. There are huge amounts of technology and magical creatures moving around, a number of different races.

Near the Louvre, there's a 60-foot high statue of all the Meritocrats, which is considered one of the wonders of the world. The greatest sculptors in the world worked on it as a sign of thanks for the Meritocrats and their deeds. It towers over the buildings that surround it.

At night, Paris looks nearly neon; there are a number of incredibly bright lights around, most of them magical. Billboards come to life; in the more garish areas, it's like looking at the video screen. The billboards advertise for lectures and flying ships and the party can hear the strains of orchestral music around the city.

After the incident with Mr. Ceiling, the streets are more crowded, but in disarray. There's a large crowd in front of the police station. The waiting room itself is also crowded, with a lot of very annoyed people. The main market district has a lot of closed shopfronts. Every mechanical man on the streets has been vandalized or tipped over; the streets have devolved into complete rioting. Any building that stored food has been looted.

Beginning in episode 59, the party escapes the Locksmith's and begin to run down the street. There's a building near to the exit they took, with a set of stairs up to the roof. They run down a number of alleyways. The weather has become a torrential downpour. Across a central square, where a number of people are fighting, there's an aeroport.

## Eiffel's Folly

In this universe, the Eiffel Tower is instead known as Eiffel's Folly. It only goes about 3/4 of the way up, and is full of buildings built into it. For the most part, it's a vertical shantytown, with a lot of people living inside and police surrounding the outside. People are able to enter, but the cops give a lot of trouble to people trying to leave. It was originally built as a monument; however, Eiffel was found to be embezzling funds, and the construction of it was a nightmare, so the development stopped. As Paris grew, gentrification shoved most of the poor to this area, and they began squatting in the tower. It's known as the eyesore of Paris, and is much more subdued, in direct contrast with the rest of the gleaming city. It's a mix of cardboard and corrugated iron.

In episode 54, there are more people in unrest around Eiffel's Folly. There is a line of guards preventing people from both getting into and leaving Eiffel's Folly. There's a fence surrounding it.

In episode 62, Guivres destroys the tower.

## L'Arc de l'Ordinateur

It's basically the Arc de Triomphe, but instead was built as a monument to the greatest technological marvel that people have achieved. It's the entrance for anyone who wants to visit the Ordinateurs. It's located on the Champs-Elysees, in a large open area so that nothing else draws focus from it. Heading up beneath the arch, there's a set of double doors, with a sign saying 'Institute of Ordinateurs'. Inside, there's a large lobby. It's quite modest, even though it's large, and it's a perfect cube. It has tiled floors, is completely white with a couple of windows, and a woman sat behind a desk. Most of the interior is quite boring, a lot of corridors with art depicting various points of its history. The tour itself explains how the Ordinateurs helped Paris rise to prominence in the world.

The workers' canteen is on the ground floor of the institute.

**Francois Henri****'s office:** His office is at the top of the arch, almost like a penthouse office. His name is on a placard saying "Francois Henri, Director of the Institute de l'Ordinateur". On the way up, a few of the rooms have panels at the side where the Ordinateurs need to place their hands for access - the panels themselves look similar to a pentagram. The office itself is completely dusty apart from a single pathway tracking from the desk to the door, and where Henri's hands rest on the desk.

### Mr. Ceiling Complex

The complex for Mr. Ceiling is located throughout l'Arc de l'Ordinateur.

**Medical Bay:** This is where the party wakes up after the catacombs. The room itself is a large cube, with high ceilings. There are a number of complex apparatuses hanging from the ceiling, and piping running down to Sasha. It's very clean, clearly kept in mint condition. There's the distant sound of machinery, some metallics and steam engines. Zolf wakes up in a tube, and it's so bright that he can barely see. Sasha is laid out on a metal table; there are a large number of pipes pumping green and black fluids in and out, and her innards are held around her body. The table itself has a lever to raise and lower it (manual and electric). Hamid is also laid out on a table, scar opened up.

There are some lockers behind all of the machinery; it's all carefully itemized, and they have some surgical equipment in them, along with a pair of mechanical legs and a mechanical arm. The mechanisms sticking out of the ceiling almost seem like limbs, and have a mix of divine and necromantic magic. One of the limbs sticking out of the ceiling is a double-hinged joint, and a lens on the end. There's a wide array of equipment, both surgical and other, around the room (one thing Hamid recognizes a scalpel with an adamantine handle).

The corridor outside is lit electrically - there are bulbs as opposed to strip lighting. The walls are metallic, with a white finish. There's some worked stone also throughout the wall. Down the corridor and to the right, there's still the distant sound of machinery; it seems as though someone has done an enormous amount of construction work on the catacombs to make them usable.

**Brain Room:** The main room where Mr. Ceiling is housed is about ten floors up from the main level. There are a set of double doors at the top of the stairwell - they are large and metallic, and there's a large circular mechanism in the middle. The room, once they step inside, is absolutely massive. It's full of large glass columns, about 5 foot wide each, and are filled with a blue-green liquid. Inside, there are a large number of mechanisms, all converging toward a brain. This happens multiple times in the column as it stretches up 50ft toward the ceiling. There are hundreds of these columns, stretching as far as they can see.

Once Hamid has flipped the switch in the control room, this room also goes dark, with hissing noises coming from it. The brain columns around the room seem to no longer have any fluids entering or leaving them. There are a few lights blinking on in the distance, and a small amount of steam rising from the middle of the room. As the party get closer, they realize that a small panel has opened in the middle of the room, with a spiral staircase leading downward. The steam itself is cold.

At the bottom of the spiral staircase, there's a small room. The steam seems to be coming from a number of pipes in the wall and ceiling. It's a bit more dirty and grimy than the room above. There are some hot pipes and some cold pipes; there's an enormous amount of machinery down here. There's a large vault door on one side, with four bolts that have already receded; the door is slightly ajar. There are white crystals embedded periodically in the wall, what seems to be emergency lighting.

**Power Room:** Through the vault door, there's a large room; it's not as large as the brain room, but it is a hemispherical dome. It slopes slightly downward (sort of like an amphitheater), and there's a light coming from four edges of the sphere. The walls are made of metal, without anything embedded in them. Lights are embedded in the ceiling, but they don't seem to be on. There are two huge crystals on the opposite end and two on the close end; they're the size of the column that was holding the brains - but they're wider, and look rough-hewn. They have an organic vibe to them. There's almost no machinery in here, but there are tracks leading toward both of the crystals. Both of them are on carts that have been wired into the system, and the carts are on rails leading toward the center of the room which has four slots. There's a vaguely complex column in the center, which seems to be a junction for the crystals to connect into. The red (fire elemental) crystal is to the far right of the door, blue (water elemental) is far left to the door, green (forest, potentially) is to the direct left, and white (air elemental) is to the direct right. All four crystals house elementals, and are all being used as containment devices - they're of the conjuration school. The generator pumps power upward; there are basic instructions written on it in English. There are four buttons associated with each of the rails.

After the elementals were let out of their crystals, the entire room has been trashed. The rails are torn up from the floor, and there's scorch marks and fist marks in the walls. There's also a wall where a door used to be, after having been punched away. There's a steel staircase leading down at a natural grade, not super steep, and levels out in about 15 feet. It's dark, but at the end of the stairs there's another door.

**Henri's** **Workshop:** The door itself doesn't have a lock; inside, there's a desk on the far right-hand side. There are a lot of papers, devices, and crystals on it. In the drawers are more papers and journals. The entire room is a mess. Across from the desk, there's a conspiracy board - there are a lot of sheaves of papers and designs on it, with a lot of threads connecting them. On the far left side, there's a top-of-the-line alchemy set. There's a lot of dust in the room, and it's clear that no one's used this room in a while. On the workbench, there's a number of half-constructed things, and then a mostly complete sphere (the size of a human head), similar to the sphere that led them around.

**Control Room:** This room is directly off of the brain room. It's about 40x45, rectangular. At the far side of the room, there's a control panel, 25ft wide, with a number of different buttons and controls to Mr. Ceiling and its nutrient intakes. It's deep, ramping away, and then more heading up toward the rafters. On both sides are lots of piping, wiring, and nutrients. There are a lot of cables hanging down from the ceiling, very sleek and functional. When Hamid presses the button, the pipes full of fluid run dry, and the machinery starts to grind and grate. As it's touched by positive energy, it starts to splinter and shatter. Green and black fluid seems to spurt from the different pipes (this is in the dream sequence).

Once Hamid has flipped the switch, the entire room goes dark, and there's a strange noise coming from the brain room.

## La Triomphe

This is the most expensive hotel in Paris - maybe in the entire world. It's located in the square surrounding the Arc de l'Ordinateur. It's an older hotel, but was one of the first things that the Meritocrats reformed in the city. It changed from what used to be something similar to a brothel into the premier establishment; it's the most common place for ambassadors and diplomats to stay while in the city. There's a red carpet that leads up the steps to the main entrance. Sasha has been gifted the Presidential Suite of La Triomphe, held in perpetuity. There are a number of mechanical men working in the hotel, and the staff exclusively speak French. The lift is huge; there's a coffee table, and chairs for people to sit in on their journey. It opens right into the Presidential Suite.

The roof has cornicing, and a section dedicated to a rooftop garden. There are a number of gargoyles spread around the roof. The gargoyles are animated.

### Presidential Suite

It's a huge, sweeping room, with a glass-domed crystal ceiling. Bay windows open onto a balcony that has a perfect view of l'Arc and the entire square. The sitting room itself is the size of Hamid's entire flat, and is well-stocked with everything (a drinks cabinet, with some items that are hundreds of years old - some made with grapes that are now extinct). There are three/four corridors leading off from the sitting room. In front of the bay windows, there's a long table for a buffet setup, that could probably feed about 20 people (seafood, turkey, lamb, veggies, obscure fruit, etc.). There's a central table; round, and would sit about 12 people. It's mahogany, with an expensive vellum envelope propped up in the middle of the table. The mechanical men set everything up for everyone, and then go into alcoves to wait until they're needed.

### Null Room

This room is located in a third-level basement. It's still plush and velvet, with no windows, and a straight corridor leading to a pair of oak doors staffed on both sides by mechanical men. The room itself has been completely warded against all the schools of magic; the entire point of the room is for people to have private conversations with no one being able to scry or listen in - it blocks every form of magical observation. Once the room is locked from the inside (a gilded key), it seals them inside. There is no way for them to be contacted in the event of an emergency. As the doors close, there's a visible sheen across them; it's clear that the most powerful people in the world worked together to make this room. The power emanating from this room interferes with the basic level enchantments that some of the party have.

## La Gazette Grande

La Gazette Grande is definitely in a less well-off area. The buildings surrounding it are well-designed, but poorly maintained. It is a particularly seedy building near Eiffel's Folly, with one door hanging off. There's a large sign on the arch over the door. Inside, there's signs of it being frequently disturbed; it looks as though it's still in use, but bits of detritus have blown in from the street. It's deceptively large. A staircase heads straight up, with a corridor on the left hand side of the staircase. It expands slightly into the properties on both sides. All the doors are closed, and a set of footprints lead up the stairs.

Upstairs, there is a landing, with a few open doors off to the side. Off to a corridor on the right-hand side, there's a closed door. It's had a decent amount of traffic, maybe only a few people. In one of the desk drawers on the upper floor, there's a lockbox, with newspapers and a safe inside. The safe, unlike the rest of the building, is incredibly well-done. There's a fire escape on the outside of the building. There's corrugated roofing between this building and the next.

In the basement there's a printing press, that appears to have been shut off recently. It's clear that they were starting to close everything up. There's a doorway to a cellar, and a manhole cover in the basement. The building itself has a walkway leading into the building behind it, and the building is a part of a complex; the walkway isn't a door as much as it's a hole in the wall. It seems as though they grabbed some apartments and tried retrofitting them to be a business.

## Parisian Central

The train station in Paris where Bertie leaves. There's a disproportionately large number of street entertainers, and it's still very tourist-y and upmarket.

## Amelie Rose's old flat

Her flat is located at the outskirts of Paris; it's very much so a middle class area for working professionals and the like. Her apartment block has a bunch of buzzers on the left hand side; they're tiny little pentagrams that you have to push. However, her flat has 'The Johnsons' listed as the current residents.

## Madame Rose's house

Her house is located in the countryside, in a similar direction to where the party washed up in Calais. It's an isolated farmstead; not an actual farm at the moment, more like someone bought an old farm and did it up to be a nice house. It's quiet, with a few dogs barking in the yard. There are bay windows at the back of the house.

## Notre Dame

A Cathedral Temple of Apollo, described in episode 41. The bells are ringing continuously. The temple itself is completely colored; everything, including the cornicing and the facades, are brightly colored, and border on garish. Each statue is colored - hair, clothes, skin, etc. Paladins and clerics roam the area around the temple. There is a large window with a sun symbol, a huge (30 foot) golden statue of Apollo where the lectern would be at the front (the statue is him on a chariot towing the sun), and a choir at the doors. On the ceiling is a picture of the Greek pantheon approving the sunrise, magically moving in real time. There's more magic here than there is in the Poseidon cavern.

Paladins of Apollo are almost too eager to give free, identical tours of the Cathedral. There is a central space for tourists, with doors leading off to the sides and to the higher levels, but the public is not allowed on the balconies. There is an entrance to the Catacombs that is completely off-limits.

The building used to be dedicated to one of the Meritocrats until it was repurposed into an Apollo temple; however, it's still named for and dedicated to a Meritocrat, possibly Guivres.

## Catacombs

Used to be full of creatures until the Paladins of Apollo took up residence in Notre Dame and started smiting. The entrance to the catacombs that the party uses is through the construction. There's a steep slope downward, seeming like a drainage path (storm drains, etc.). There's a large bridge - it's clearly very old construction, and there appears to be a large amount of construction at the base of the bridge. They've been making use of earth elementals - they're slowly moving around and heading into a tunnel that is well lit. With the elementals, there are a number of what seem to be keepers and archaeologists. There's about 40 people total there, with a foreman overseeing the group. The main entrance looked like an earthen tunnel, but as the party gets closer they see a gate/doorway, made of wrought iron. The edges are slightly crusty from the earth elementals, but its completely worked stone and metal. It's a huge project, as well. Down through the tunnel, there's a large cavern, with a low vaulted ceiling. It's not elaborate, and it's clearly not a space meant for the public.

Everything has a safety code: green is used for "miasmas"; yellow is used for unexplored/unknown, blue is to do with utilities; red is structurally unsound.

There are small alcoves around the sides of the room, with identifying plaques beneath. The western tunnel apparently leads to the ordinatists (Note: Alex says the western tunnel does at first, and then changes to say the eastern tunnel). The catacombs themselves are a complete maze. The tunnels all lead off in a certain direction, but about 50ft out that direction completely changes. There are earth elementals here as well along with about 30 employees.

### Eastern Tunnel

Down this tunnel, the party sees a full set of armor intended for a skeleton, a lot of off-the-wall stuff. As the party go, they turn left, right, continue forwards twice, and left, and then find themselves in a yellow district. It's not particularly dangerous, and there are still people there, but they slowly drop off as the party keeps moving. They reach the edge of the explored dig; it just so happens that this aspect of the alcoves is mainly dealing with human remains (indexed femurs, mostly). There are a few damaged statues in the corners, water damage, blank masks, some eroded old finger bones, etc. There's no natural light down here. There are three tunnels leading off from where they are; the stone still looks worked, although occasionally there's a broken flagstone and huge amounts of dirt. A few areas to the side have red tape, and have been caved in.

As they keep walking, the stone begins to be in worse condition, and the water damage becomes universal. Any human remains in the walls have deteriorated to mush - small amounts of water is seeping through the walls. There are a few tunnels that lead off into rock, and the path they are following leads deeper and deeper underground. The further east they get, the worse the smell becomes. It's a really vile odor, and really powerful. The stone begins to look completely unsafe, brickwork falling away. As the cave-in begins, the entire arch of the tunnel the party has been in collapses, with a large amount of water coming with it as the stone and dirt completely caves in.

### Post-Cave In

The longer it takes for the party to get out from the cave-in, the worse it becomes. The mud and stone get heavier from the water, and it's completely pitch black. The tunnel ahead leads into a vault very similar to the first large cavern, with paths curving off to the north, east, and west. There's lots of grime and muck; down the western tunnel, Sasha can hear a peculiar sound, almost like a creature screaming underwater, with an echo bouncing around the cavern (she can only go 50 ft. in each direction, as she's tied off to a rope). Down the eastern tunnel, Sasha hears the same peculiar sound.

Down the northern tunnel, the smell gets even worse. The working of the flagstones gets even rougher and it starts angling down more, and there's the sound of sloppy water ahead. There's a space on the other side of the tunnel, another large cavern, apparently man-made. There's a five foot ledge, and then a 10 foot drop into rancid, almost-black liquid. The floor has clearly been imploded in and taken much of the floor with it. There's a few pipes around the cavern that are adding to the liquid (sewage, etc.). There's a sharp vinegar smell coming from one, with a bright purple fluid. The weird screaming sound can also be heard in this room. A few of the pipes seem as though they're traversable; one has no liquid coming out of it, but some green slime inside. The pipe curves upward. Further along the wall, the liquid has been splashed up.

Through another maze of tunnels, they come out into another large cavern; it's a natural cave formation this time. It's unworked stone, and the ground is bumpy and wobbly. There's a bridge across a large, 40-ft long, 50-ft wide ravine. It looks to be in very bad condition, and there's the sound of running water at the bottom. The water itself is extremely cold.

## Locksmith's

This is where the party hides out after Wilde and the rest are attacked by the gnome assassins. The shop itself is abandoned, and seems to be very secure. The front door is trapped with two tanglefoot bags. There's a trap door under the floor that looks almost like a saferoom; there's a small amount of food and water, and would only fit a single smaller person. There's a door out back to an alleyway.

## Aeroport

The airfield is a huge expanse, with a number of hangars off to the left. All three hangars have their front bay doors open. Through the first, there's a dismantled thing that they can't make out. The second is chock full of equipment and different pallets, along with crates that are being shuttled toward the third hangar. The third hangar has an incredible airship. It's a full-size retrofitted steampunk ship, and has engines on the back and front with chemical tanks strapped to the side.