Ex Curio

Undercity culture has always had a strong nomadic bent. The first kindred settlers rarely dared remain in the same nest for very long, fearing that with nothing to call law, their secrets, their herds and the vitae in their veins would soon fall prey to stronger, unseen predators. King Beneath's rule hasn't so much allayed this culture of fear as harnessed it, transforming the mirror domain from a dead engine into a leaner beast. Bound by strange contracts and warped law, mindful of the consequences delivered at each drowned court, the fear and mistrust undercity's residents have for each other has lessened to an extent. But still the worms burrow circuits around the city below Motor City. Perversely, some have come to regard anonymity as a mark of status. And so they hemorrhage deeper into the mirror domain, leaving rare, grisly traces of their presence.

A staple of the nomadic circuit since Undercity's birth has been Ex Curio. Now a socio-economic linchpin of Undercity, what began as a collective of peddlars, moving from nest to nest, has blossomed over the decades, into an influential coterie of shadow brokers, buying and selling contacts, curios and secrets. Ex Curio never advertise. They don't need to. The coterie set up 'market' in undisclosed locations for up to a week at a time, appearing in unfinished metro tunnels and the basements of buried buildings. The fact that lesser brokers of information can ask a kings ransom to divulge where Ex Curio has set up shop this week only raises their status in Undercity's culture of coveted anonymity.