Khan's Heart

Khan's Heart
Khan's Heart (Gazetteer)
Located in	The Salt Steppes
Ports	Yes
Shops	Licensed Exchange  Red Stallion Publishing
Shipyard	No
Data ID	143346

Khan's Heart is one of three Khan's Fortresses ruled by the Khanate. This island is the direct rival to  Fallen London.

Port description

"London's rival."

Port interactions

Port description

"Khan's Heart: London's rival. An oasis of light in the salt black wastes. Canals thread the painted city. Street-lamps glow and water-taxis putter."

Interactions

Actions	Requirements	Effects	Notes
Leave in haste The White-and-Golds, who guard Khaganian security, are watching for you. On board ship you're safe enough, as long as the delicate treaty with London holds, but on shore you're liable to arrest at any moment.	Something Awaits You ≤ 0  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≥ 20	The zee beckons Khan's Heart is an iron garden. You'll walk there again some day.	Game note: Visit Khan's Glory, where the noble clans keep their estates, and plead with the Taimen Clan for mercy. You will likely need Drowning-Pearls or Strategic Information.
Seek a commercial license The Khaganians dislike merchants, and they dislike foreigners. Foreign merchants induce paroxysms of antipathy. Perhaps sufficient bribes will buy your way into the Nephrite Quarter.	Nephrite Ring = 0	"Not here, Surfacer." (Surfacer? But the Khaganians have been generations underground, and to them, all Londoners are Surfacers.) It seems you'll need to go to Khan's Glory, the nearby palaces of the nobility, to seek a license.
Time in the tea-house The Copper Quarter offers comfort to foreigners, but the prices are, to put it mildly, mischievous.	Terror ≥ 1  50 x Echo  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 19	Solace A gentle, trickling music plays behind screens of painted weed-wood. Khanate merchants sip tea and swap stories with darker-skinned Elder Continent captains. You sip pale golden tea and wince at the bill.  -3 x Terror  -50 x Echo
A delivery for Mr Sacks This is far enough from London. It will suffice.	Sacks and Snow: In the Service of Mr Sacks = 30 [You must deliver hunger to Khan's Heart or Pigmote Isle]	A hunger that can never be satiated The Copper Quarter pulses as the feast rages on. Its people gorge themselves too quickly to taste the food on their lips. Their cheeks bulge and stomachs swell, but still they eat. The White-and-Golds wade in to silence the growing mob before it can escalate further, or set its sights on the royal food stores.  Sacks and Snow: In the Service of Mr Sacks = 39 [You have made your first delivery for Mr Sacks]  +2 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion  -1 x Supremacy: The Khanate (if ≤ 6)  +10 x Drowning-Pearl
Hire Crew Khaganians are wary of your people, but perhaps you can find someone.	Crew ≤ Quarters-1  30 x Echo  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 19	A hungry sort This zailor is thin enough to slide through a porthole and desperate enough to sign on even with a 'sunbitten Empress-gobbler'. She doesn't use those terms when she thinks you're nearby.  +1 x Crew  -30 x Echo	Advanced query needs investigation
Drop off a spy Your sweetheart.	1 x Key of Histories	null null	Game note: this will need two branches.
Wander Khan's Heart Foreigners are restricted to the Copper Quarter, but as long as you don't try to cross the bridges, you can explore in reasonable safety -	Something Awaits You ≥ 1 and ≤ 25  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 19	A Shrine of the Deep Blue Heaven Above, the roof of the Neath is black, impassive, prickled with false-stars: but the Khaganians still remember the sky. You pass an open-walled shrine with a domed roof - the interior is painted a deep pure indigo. Citizens kneel below it while a Blue Priest speaks. As he reaches the climax of his prayer, a rosy-golden light swells inside the dome. The worshippers murmur in complacent delight. The dome is now a perfect, heartbreaking, morning-sky blue, a colour you haven't seen for - how long? "Filament-bulbs," your bo'sun whispers importantly beside you. "Give me honest gas-light any day."  Something Awaits You = 0  -5 x Terror
Wander Khan's Heart Foreigners are restricted to the Copper Quarter, but as long as you don't try to cross the bridges, you can explore in reasonable safety -	Something Awaits You ≥ 26 and ≤ 50  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 19	A song of the surface Someone is singing in English! Something about a tree of wines and a stolen city, a sea of grass and a storm of bats... melancholy, pure and sweet, achingly familiar. You cross the street, cut back through an alleyway, trying to find it, but it ends before you get close. You find yourself humming it on the way back to the ship. Another zailor takes up the tune...  -2 x Terror  +1 x Vision of the Surface  Something Awaits You = 0
		Rare event (50%)
		Lost light The canals of the Heart are lit by incandescent-filament lamps in bulbs of glass, in a multitude of colours. Ruby, sapphire, topaz, emerald by turns. There's nothing else like it in the Neath or on the surface. You spend a happy quarter-hour strolling the alleyways of the Copper Quarter, until an irritable workman sees you eyeing the bulbs and accuses you of plotting their theft.  -2 x Terror  Something Awaits You = 0
Wander Khan's Heart Foreigners are restricted to the Copper Quarter, but as long as you don't try to cross the bridges, you can explore in reasonable safety -	Something Awaits You ≥ 51 and ≤ 75  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 19	A relentless fishmonger You are cornered by a screaming, cheerful woman in a sort of lacquer-armoured fish-suit. As far as you can make out, she was attacked in the Moon Canal by something with tentacles. She still has this tentacled thing, slung over her shoulder. For some reason she is determined that you should purchase it. You plead, evade, offer her nothing but the smallest coins - but she is relentless. Tentacles it is, then.  +1 x Strange Catch  -1 x Echo  Something Awaits You = 0
		Rare event (50%)
		A quiet street A narrow street opens on your left. The filament-bulbs here are green-tinted, and the street is unusually dim, like the space between a thick forest canopy. Ten steps in, and the noise of the crowds on the canal-side is oddly hushed.  Something Awaits You = 0 Triggers event:  A Candle-Lit Shop
Wander Khan's Heart Foreigners are restricted to the Copper Quarter, but as long as you don't try to cross the bridges, you can explore in reasonable safety -	Something Awaits You ≥ 76 and ≤ 100  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 19	Something Awaits You = 0 Triggers event:  A Stranger in Difficulties
Enter the Nephrite Quarter You have the token that permits you to enter the Nephrite Quarter, and buy directly from Khanate merchants.	1 x Nephrite Ring  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 9		Game note: Visit the Shops tab.
Enter the Nephrite Quarter You have the token that permits you to enter the Nephrite Quarter, and buy directly from Khanate merchants.	1 x Nephrite Ring  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≥ 10	Pursed lips "We regret, Addressed As, that your name has entered the list of Causes for Concern. Excuse me." He turns aside to speak to a serious woman in dark glasses. Now is the time to leave...
Purchase Fuel at an outrageous price The Khanate merchants grin when they see you coming. An unlicensed foreign captain? They'll pick a price and triple it.	50 x Echo  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 19	The rattle of coal Where does the Khanate even find its fuel, so far from Hell? The lumps of coal have a swimming blue-green sheen.  -50 x Echo  +1 x Fuel	Game note: Gain access to the Nephrite Quarter to purchase less expensive fuel.
Purchase Supplies at a ludicrous price Foreigners are permitted to buy food in the Copper Quarter, but only poor quality in small quantities. And so you go from street-vendor to street-vendor, trying to purchase enough soggy smoked fish to feed your crew.	50 x Echo  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 19	Smirking Khaganians They watch you carry armfuls of brown paper packages past the canals back to your ship. They know you're skirting the edge of the law: either they don't care enough to stop you, or they're having too much fun watching you carry all that smoked fish.  -50 x Echo  +1 x Supplies  +1 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion
Pay a storyteller The storytellers in the Square of Cedars wear brightly coloured caftan-like clothing with silk sashes, in contrast to the more sober and subterranean dress of the citizenry. For coin, even foreign coin, they'll sing epics of their nation's history...	5 x Echo  Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≤ 19	The Temptations of Parabola ...where London now stands, the capital of the Khanate once stood, after its own disappearance from the surface. After the clean sky and wide earth they went half-mad in the close night under the Earth. They found serpent-things in mirrors that promised them diversion, escape, new horizons. In time the mirror-serpents became masters, not servants, and the last True Khan led the last of his people to the Salt Steppes, to a black rock where he founded this city. How he built it is a tale for another day... You feel eyes on you. A woman in a white and gold uniform watches you closely. The Loyalty Service is suspicious of foreigners who want to learn Khaganian history.  +1 to +3 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion  +1 x Memory of Distant Shores  -5 x Echo
		Rare event (50%)
		The Fall of Karakorum ...the last Great Khan of the Surface was corrupt and foolish and cowardly. (How fortunate we are that the Leopard Clan overthrew his line - long may the Leopard endure!) He sold the Khanate's capital to the Masters of the Bazaar to satisfy his greed and escape battle. So Karakorum fell - so it came below the earth, to the long night of the Neath. Seven hundred years ago, Karakorum stood where London now stands... You feel eyes on you. A woman in a white and gold uniform watches you closely. The Loyalty Service is suspicious of foreigners who want to learn Khaganian history.  +1 to +3 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion  +1 x Vision of the Surface  -5 x Echo
Show a Pewter Horsehead You did a Khaganian a favour. Perhaps this token will win you favour in turn.	1 x Favours: A Pewter Horsehead	A spicy evening You show the talisman rather cautiously to a clutch of captains chatting by their warship. One grabs it cheerfully and claps you on the shoulder. "I've heard about you! Come on. I'm buying." With more friendliness than Khaganians usually show, they drag you off to a little place by the park and fill you with rare spiced seaweed and Elder Continent wines. They grumble about Chelonate delinquency, the 'idiot children' of Khan's Shadow, and - until they remember you're there - the London captains cluttering up the clean zee...  -1 x Favours: A Pewter Horsehead  -1 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion  -5 x Terror  +1 x Memory of Distant Shores
Find your Contact The Khanate is wary of Imperial spies. Go very carefully. You have half the directions you need - the other should be at a dead-drop on the docks.	Objective: An Admiralty Commission = 10 [Retrieve Strategic Information from Khan's Heart, somewhere a good way east of London]  Veils challenge (125 for 100%)	Failed event
		Hurry on by You find the address - but the street outside is thronged with white and gold uniforms. Loiter on the corner. There - two hard-faced men in no uniform but their own authority are directing operations. Their white-uniformed henchmen manhandle an unconscious body into a waiting boat. Your contact! Back to your ship, quickly.  Objective: An Admiralty Commission = 0  +1 x Terror  +1 x Memory of Distant Shores  +2 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion
		Successful event
		Mislaid letters You find your contact in a filthy lodging-house behind the tanneries. "Tell them this is the last time," she says, helplessly. She knows perfectly well it won't be. She gives you a double handful of tiny notes with chicken-scratch markings. "Zee-bat courier-notes. From the temple. I don't know how much of it - I don't know. Go now. Go!"  Objective: An Admiralty Commission = 0  +1 x Strategic Information  +1 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion
Search for the Last Constable Could she be keeping the peace in the Copper Quarter?	The Last Constable: On The Trail challenge (99 for 100%)  The Last Constable: Khan's Heart ≥ 1 [You have not looked for her in Khan's Heart]	Failed event	Game note: Check your journal to be reminded of where the Last Constable might be!
		No need for more The streets and canals of the Copper Quarter are quiet today. The foreigners pass under their coloured lights. Tranquil men and women stand at each street corner, in white-and-gold robes. "They've been out in force, lately," one ex-Londoner confides over a pot of tea. "Everyone keeps to themselves now."  +35 x The Last Constable: On The Trail  The Last Constable: Khan's Heart = 0
		Successful event
		Stopped by the law Two men rush past you on a bridge, each shouldering one end of a carpet. A woman chases after them: the Last Constable! She chucks her truncheon at the one in the back, knocking him square between the shoulders - he goes down, and the carpet crashes onto his companion. It unfurls - a bundle of electrical cable rolls into the street. She slips into an alley before the White-and-Golds catch up, and rounds on you, clutching her cudgel. "What business do you have with me?"  The Last Constable: Demeaux Island = 0  The Last Constable: Gaider's Mourn = 0  The Last Constable: Khan's Heart = 0  The Last Constable: Venderbight = 0  The Last Constable: On The Trail = 0 Triggers event:  The Last Constable
Collect the Cheery Man's cargo You meet a Blue Priest in a tiny noodle-shop by the Moon Canal. Fizzing electric light shows the weary lines in his face. "You have my money?" he asks.	Objective: Collecting Cargo for the Cheery Man = 3 [Collect from Khan's Heart, in the Salt Steppes]  Unstamped Crate of Brilliant Souls = 0  1000 x Echo	A hiss of distaste "Oh, your stupid Imperial coins. No, give it here, it'll do, it's what was agreed. Take this, go. You never saw me."  +1 x Unstamped Crate of Brilliant Souls  -1000 x Echo	Game note: Return to the Blind Bruiser in London. Don't lose your cargo.
Find out what your spies need To improve the quality of your network, you'll need... something. Find out what.	Networks: Khan's Heart ≥ 1 and ≤ 6  Networks: An Opportunity - Khan's Heart ≤ 0	Networks: An Opportunity - Khan's Heart = [1-100] Triggers event:  Shadowy work in Khan's Heart	Game note: This will improve your Network here.
Fulfill your spies' needs They wanted something...	Networks: Khan's Heart ≥ 1 and ≤ 6  Networks: An Opportunity - Khan's Heart ≥ 1 [Your network needs something to flourish.]	Triggers event:  Shadowy work in Khan's Heart	Game note: This will improve your Network here.
The Poissonnier requests shore leave And back pay, in a form preferred in the Khanate.	Learning About: The Bandaged Poissonnier = 6 [The Bandaged Poissonnier has mysterious business in Khan's Heart]	He stands stiffly before you "I will not need long, or much." Triggers event:  The Poissonnier's Predicament
Gather a Port Report The Khanate generally assumes that all foreigners are spies or worse. It would be a shame to disappoint them, but it might be dangerous to prove them right.	Veils challenge (Special for 100%)  A Port Report: Khan's Heart = 0	Failed event	Special is calculated as follows: 50+(Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion*2)-(Networks: Khan's Heart*5) * 1.67 Advanced alteration value probably needs examination. Game note: As Khaganian Suspicion increases, this action becomes more difficult. If you have an intelligence network here, it's easier.
		Eyes everywhere Your listeners meet your questions with courteous, frightened silence. The back of your neck prickles. Don't turn around.  +1 to +3 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion
		Successful event
		Precious scraps Rivalry between the Leopard and Eagle clans. The Concerns about Chelonate raids. Some appalling gossip about the Traitor Empress back in London. Perhaps you shouldn't write that last one down. And move on quickly. That fellow in the corner has an informer's look.  +1 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion  +1 x A Port Report: Khan's Heart
Establish a spy in Khan's Heart If you're caught, it'll mean trouble. If you're successful, you can tap your network later for Intelligence. The Dark-Spectacled Admiral and the Voracious Diplomat, among others, will be interested...	Veils challenge (84 for 100%)  Networks: Khan's Heart ≤ 0  100 x Echo  1 x Networks: A Diplomatic Agent	Failed event
		The White-and-Golds are watchful Your agent does not return. Have they spent your funds and run? Are they chained upside-down somewhere in the Taimen stronghold?  -100 x Echo  +2 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion  -1 x Networks: A Diplomatic Agent
		Successful event	Game note: On subsequent visits to Khan's Heart, you'll be able to grow your network, or tap it for information. The more it grows, the more effective it'll be.
		Success! Your Agent sends a message via bat-courier. They have found lodgings, contacts, possibilities.  +1 x Networks: Khan's Heart  -100 x Echo  -1 x Networks: A Diplomatic Agent
Seek intelligence If you have eyes and ears in the Khanate, you can use them to gain more than just a Port Report.	Something Awaits You ≥ 1  Networks: Khan's Heart ≥ 2 [Cautious Contacts]	Failed event??(*someone verify)	Game note: The better your Network, the easier this will be. Can get Vital Intelligence -- result "Silent as Stone"
		Not what you hoped for At the appointed place, at the appointed time, in the appointed cipher... you find a message. It's information, certainly. Something of it is even new. But your agents are obviously struggling to send you something of use. Perhaps they need assistance - or a suitable incentive.  +1 x Moves in the Great Game  +1 x Memory of Distant Shores  Something Awaits You = 0
		Rare event (25%)
		Ill luck... or betrayal The hammer of hurried feet. A flash of eyes in the darkness. An urgent message whispered through a jillypaper screen. Someone has betrayed you. Game note: Your network has suffered.  +1 x Moves in the Great Game  +1 x Memory of Distant Shores  Something Awaits You = 0  -1 x Networks: Khan's Heart
		Successful event
		The dangers of success The Message arrives on a tiny fishskin sliver, bound inside a copper ring. The cipher speaks of fleet movements and power struggles. London will want to know about this. But your agents have attracted attention. Game note: After a significant success, you'll often need to lie low or rebuild your network.  +1 x Vital Intelligence  +1 x Memory of Distant Shores  Something Awaits You = 0  -1 x Networks: Khan's Heart
Put a blemmigan ashore There are no laws specifically forbidding the seeding of blemmigans on Khan's Heart. It is unlikely to make you popular, however.	1 x Docile Blemmigan  Propagation: Khan's Heart ≤ 0  Veils challenge (167 for 100%)	Failed event
		A qualified success The damp and dark places of the city are fertile ground indeed. In the months that follow, blemmigans stalk the guttering of Khan's Heart, pullulate in the shadows of the alleys. They menace citizens after dark with their sinister poetry. They steal dogs and house-bats and the occasional baby. Trade, prosperity and security suffer outrageously. The White-and-Golds ask their questions and compile their careful records. They note the report that your ship was among those that visited just before the infestation began. It isn't proof of your involvement: but there is a little mark beside your name on a little list.  -1 x Docile Blemmigan  +1 x Propagation: Blemmigans Abroad  Propagation: Khan's Heart = 1  -1 x Supremacy: The Khanate  +2 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion
		Successful event
		A victory for discretion The damp and dark places of the city are fertile ground indeed. In the months that follow, blemmigans stalk the guttering of Khan's Heart, pullulate in the shadows of the alleys. They menace citizens after dark with their sinister poetry. They steal dogs and house-bats and the occasional baby. Trade, prosperity and security suffer outrageously. But by then, you are long gone.  -1 x Docile Blemmigan  +1 x Propagation: Blemmigans Abroad  Propagation: Khan's Heart = 1  -1 x Supremacy: The Khanate
Drop off the August Travel-Writer "Your payment, Addressed As. It has been a pleasure."	Zubmarine ≤ 0  Closing Chapters = 20 [Bound for Khan's Heart]	By evening bell The Travel-Writer sets across the planks with good speed, his steamer trunk in his arms. A storyteller pesters you for coins as you eat your dinner at a steam-filled restaurant. You throw him a coin for quiet, but before you can resume your meal an explosion tears through the next street. Citizens, zailors, and the White-and-Golds hurry to the crater. Once the smoke has cleared, you can see the innards of a secret shipyard. Torn brass and steel. Mangled faces staring lifelessly from the rubble. The White-and-Golds argue in their own tongue. The storyteller ambles up to you. "They are saying that the Leopard made underwater ships here, in violation of an Agreement with London," he whispers. "They say London's assassin has visited. You might want to slip away."  +200 x Echo  Closing Chapters = 25 [The August Travel-Writer enforced an Agreement]  +3 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion
Where has the August Travel-Writer gone? There's no trace of him on board. How are you supposed to get paid?	Zubmarine ≥ 1 [Your ship is capable of zubmarine travel.]  Mirrors challenge (117 for 100%)  Closing Chapters = 20 [Bound for Khan's Heart]	Failed event
		He's not in the bunks, nor the engine room, nor the hold. Maybe he could be - ____ing hell! The ship lists violently, throwing you to the wall. Smoke billows from beneath your boards - fire! Fire! The Khaganian docking authorities rush to help you. A White-and-Gold takes your report. Her face pales. "The man you been transporting is Lieutenant Robert F. Harris. He is an agent known to us. You are lucky to live; luckier too to posses a zubmarine. But what might he be interested in here?" You claim your haven't the slightest idea. She considers you carefully, then passes you a purse. "We cannot offer repairs at present, but please: accept these funds."  Closing Chapters = 50 [The August Travel-Writer - one Robert F. Harris - nearly blew up your ship and zubmarine]  +300 x Echo  Hull = Hull / 2  +1 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion
		Successful event
		Just in time! He's not in the bunks, nor the engine room, nor the hold. But you do find something he left behind: his briefcase. He's also left you a bomb, concealed inside. You scream for your engineer; they dismantle it in cautious haste. A White-and-Gold takes your report. Her face pales. "The man you been transporting is Lieutenant Robert F. Harris. He is an agent known to us. You are lucky to live; luckier too to posses a zubmarine. But what might he be interested in here?" You claim your haven't the slightest idea. She considers you carefully, then passes you a purse. "For your cooperation, please accept this small gift."  Closing Chapters = 75 [The August Travel-Writer - one Robert F. Harris - failed to blow up your ship and zubmarine]  +200 x Echo  +1 x Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion  +1 x Torpedo Components
A panicked wave There's someone in the shadows, trying to draw your attention with equal parts discretion and desperation.	Hideaway: The Impolite Investigator ≤ 0  Hideaway: The Truth ≤ 0  Under the Unterzee ≥ 1  Zubmarine ≥ 1 [Your ship is capable of zubmarine travel.]	Triggers event:  Well Intended Questions
Lure the adventurer to Wrack A London captain smokes a Khaganian pipe as she admires the reflection of the streetlamps in the water. Spin her a story of lights.	Wrack: New Prey for the Wreckers = 2 [Khan's Heart]	You sidle beside her and comment on the water. It's beautiful how the city ripples, isn't it? It reminds you of a port you once came across, you say. A place where they light their way with coloured fire and dine on fish-fed flowers. She need only find the red and white lights beneath the waves... The captain huffs. Blue smoke streams through her nose. She dumps her ash into the water, and sets off for the docks without another word. She'll be zailing over Wrack in no time.  +3 to +6 x Wrack: The State of the City  Wrack: New Prey for the Wreckers = 0  +6 to +10 x Wrack: Ships Sent to Wrack

Triggered interactions

These only trigger when you are docked in Khan's Heart.

Find help for the Genial Magician

See the Find help for the Genial Magician page.

This interaction appears if you have the following:

 Learning About: The Magician ≥ 10 and ≤ 11

Triggered events

These events trigger when you dock and certain conditions are met.

The White-and-Golds

See the The White-and-Golds page.

This event triggers if you have the following:

 Something Awaits You ≥ 1
 Menaces: Khaganian Suspicion ≥ 20

Khan's Heart story events
Find help for the Genial Magician • The White-and-Golds