Avaritia

[cancrymods]

AVARITIA

Larger than life and brighter than bright, Avaritia is the Greed layer of Purgatory. Despite sitting under a permanent night sky, Avaritia blazes with light of all kinds, in searing, strobing neon colours. Jazzy, mid-tempo music spills out from every corner of the streets and there always seems to be someone laughing, shouting, crying or making some manner of raucous noise. Unlike the previous two layers, Avaritia does not have any pretense of being a real, functioning settlement and instead presents itself as a city-sized monument to hubris and gambling. It's... well, it's Vegas, baby! Or it's a rough approximation of the general aesthetic and feel of Las Vegas's repuation, but, you know. Same difference, really. As well as being perpetually dark, Avaritia is also perpetually rainy. For the most part, this is just a thin drizzle that only barely makes itself known but on occasion, the heavens will really open up. Because of this 24/7 rainfall, the streets are constantly damp and dotted with puddles which quite frankly, with all the lights and signs reflecting in the wet asphalt and puddles, looks fucking dope. This, combined with the thin fog that's constantly seeping through the place, gives Avaritia a similarly disorienting effect as Limbo, where it can be hard to exactly find your way through the streets, even if you have a good idea of where you're going. The actual structure of Avaritia is rather scattershot. Rather than streets, most of the buildings are grouped together into small clusters, leaving wide open spaces of asphalt for people to congregate. This is to provide room both for the tidal wave of Spectres constantly coming and going but also for the many pop-up stands and kiosks that are pitching their wares to potential customers. Some of what they're selling is food, but a lot of it is gaudy accessories or clothes or trinkets or any kind of overpriced souvenier you can imagine. What does stand out in Avarita, however, are the four main buildings that the entire layer is more or less built around: the two banking towers, the vault and of course, the casino. Each of these buildings stands out against the skyline and the other buildings in its own way, so if you're ever terribly lost, you can use these as a landmark to re-orient yourself. Avaritia is markedly different from the previous two layers in that it runs very much on our old friend, capitalism. Unlike Limbo or Invidia, you won't be able to trade or barter here. The only kind of payment the residents will accept is cold hard cash, in the form of fat golden coins, colloquially referred to as "novas". Each coin is printed with a denomination of either 5, 10, 25 or 50 and prices in Avaritia run high – even your average shit-tier fast food meal will easily run you thirty nova. How you make money in Avaritia is up to you – but even if they won't barter, the Spectres of Avaritia are always up for a good gamble... Like other layers, players are given freedom to handwave some incidental locations to better facilitate play, and the fixed locations of Avaritia can be found below. ⚝ Apartments and Houses: Well, you've got to sleep somewhere. In a brief respite from the relentless crush of capitalism alive and well everywhere else, the apartments and houses of Avaritia don't seem to actually be owned by anyone, so you're free to just move yourself in. Unfortunately, while there might not be any money, you'll find yourself paying a different kind of price – the quality of housing is on a sliding scale of "basically habitable" to "I would not let a dog sleep here". The hot water frequently runs out for no apparent reason, there's a weird damp smell everywhere and in a fair few of them, there's no electricity (or what passes for electricity in Purgatory, anyway). At least it's a roof over your head, though. Wait, is that a leak? Aw, nuts. ⚝ Phantastma Fantastique Theater: Tucked away in a rather lonely corner of Avaritia, the Phantasma Fantastique is nevertheless a... well, fantastic spot to visit if nothing else. Based in a grandly constructed opera house, the Phantasma Fantastique Troupe specializes in ballet and musical performances or even a fusion of the two. Tickets are pricey, but you might be able to sneak in if you're the tricksy sort. The inside of the theater is lavishly decorated in shades of red and gold and the chairs are comfy and plush – there's an odd visual incongruity as well, as no matter where you sit, you'll get an optimal view of everything happening on stage. ⚝ Neon Light Graveyard: Even in Purgatory, things can't last forever – and when those neon lights adorning near every single building in the city start going just a bit dim, this is where they end up. Instead of being just trashed, however, the lights are all cleaned up and cared for as best as they can be and put on display in rows and rows of scorching neon. It's a huge junkyard, arranged into neat rows of birghtly lit neon signs – some still beaming away into the dark and some with a letter or two missing but still generally doing their best. When combined with the fountain shows you can catch now and then, it makes for quite the striking place to visit. ⚝ Banking Towers: It's said there's nothing in life as certain as death or taxes, and that's twice as true in Purgatory. With capitalism being alive and well, Specters need some way of earning money, and that's where the banking towers come in. Flanking either side of Fort Nyx, these towers stretch high up beyond the skyline and buzz with constant activity, no matter what else is going on in the city. What could be going on in there that's so interesting...? Maybe if you investigate you'll be able to see for yourself. ⚝ Fort Nyx: An enormous underground bank that collects and stores the wealth of all the Specters in Avaritia. Requires investigation to unlock more information. ⚝ Et Voila Casino: While it may not have the honor of being the tallest building in Avaritia, Et Voila Casino is absolutely the most striking. Modeled after Ancient Greek temples, Et Voila is constructed out of a silvery-white material that most closely resembles porcelain. There are numerous cracks running through the building's outer walls that have all been filled in with an unfamiliar bright blue material, creating an effect similar to kintsugi that causes the building to give off a silvery-blue sheen in the right sort of lights. Once you're inside, the difference is quite striking; the walls and carpets inside are dark and dull, probably to make the obnoxious neon lights of the casino machines pop all the more strongly. Et Voila is enormous – it would take forty minutes at a brisk stroll just to get from one end of the pit to the other. And it's crammed full of all sorts of horrible money-sucking machines – mostly your average joe slot machine but on occasion, you'll see a pachinko machine or two, even an... arcade gacha game?? If it takes money from you, it's here. Thakfully, things are spaced out quite well to keep things from getting crowded, but between the music piped in from the speakers, all the slot machines going off, chatter and yelling from the Spectres and every else, the noise is almost deafening. This place is sensory hell. If things get too much for you, you can always head to one of the bars dotted up and down the place, but be prepared to shell the hell out if you want to even think about drinking. ⚝ Train Station: On the outskirts of the layer is an old-timey train station with a single platform. Steam trains come through here every half hour on the dot, stopping only briefly to allow Executors to board. Using these trains, Executors can either travel back to any of the other layers of Purgatory without having to pass through the Underside. Isn't quick travel convenient?

THE UNDERSIDE OF AVARITIA

Full details of the Underside will be found on the appropriate dungeon long when posted.