The Chamber of Ten

Compatible with Basic Roleplaying System

GM-Info!

Work in progress!

Slightly NSFW!

FEATURED

History

The Chamber of Ten was first raised 2695 BC, 285 years after the founding of Bridgeport. The city, swollen with trade and ambition, could no longer be steered by a single duke or monarch. Ten guilds and noble houses forged an uneasy compact: they would each provide one councillor to speak for their interests, sharing power within a formal chamber.

Appearance

The Chamber itself sits in the heart of the Tenner (government district), a domed hall of pale sandstone capped with a lantern tower that floods its interior with shifting light. The chamber floor is circular, with ten carved seats of dark oak arranged like spokes around a sun-shaped mosaic of brass tiles. Each seat is fitted with a small desk for scrolls and ledgers, and each is subtly different - carved with the sigil of the guild or house that first placed it there. Additional tables and chairs for scribes and accountants and a large table with a realistic map of Bridgeport County complete the hall.

"Walls remember more than men; I sometimes think the stones of the Chamber know the truth better than its councillors." -- Unknown scribe, after a long afternoon attending debates.

The walls are lined with frescoes depicting Bridgeport’s founding, its markets, and its struggles, though sharp-eyed visitors notice that these are frequently touched up: details shift, and figures fade or brighten, as though the past itself is being edited to suit present politics.

Use

Here the Council of Ten meets, debating trade tariffs, taxes, city law, and matters of high scandal. Attendance is restricted to councillors, their aides, and a handful of scribes. Ordinary citizens are never admitted, though summaries are published in the city’s broadsheets (often "interpreted" to favour one side or another). The Chamber is also where oaths of office are sworn, where treaties are ratified, and, on occasion, where treachery has been committed in plain sight. More than one councillor has collapsed mid-session, poisoned cup in hand, and the Chamber’s mosaic still bears faint stains no scrubbing can erase.