6 The SEVEN ROADS SOLFEO

La Calle Roja	The Passage Palanquinium	UT queant laxis
La Caraterra Anaranjada	The Alley	REsonare fibris
El Camino Amarillo	The Echoway	MIra gestorum
La Via Verde	The Heroute	FAmuli tuorum
La Avenida Azul	The Cleanduit	SOlve polluti
El Sendero Morado	The Brain Bridge	LAbii reatum
La Rada Perdida	???	S'ancte Iohannes

There are seven paths out of the Ciudead. Each is a frequency as much as a road : if you (or at least one of your companions - range varies wildly) vibrates in the correct manner, you will pass through what is otherwise solid stone. Their physical features are things out of a dream : real enough to drift away pitter patter, but lose the tune and the walls will close back in and crush you (1). The hope is that the shrieking dead harmonize themselves around the strongest voice of the pack: they will be able pass by one road only, and so, even hotly pursued, upon reaching a junction, you can escape.

One way is lost already - the way by water : La Rada Perdida. The Sinquisition mines the Bloom for that ONE revenant who possesses some vestigial memory of the pure tone which will open the gate - who can be coerced into passing on the secret. They have found a number with a weak intonation, a suggestion of the song, but none who can open it yet.

There are certain characteristics that the Sinquisition looks for, while sorting. It's not an exact science. The Sinquistion being who they are, it's not a science at all. It's re-li-djinn. But on the off chance they get a lead on that elusive SI tone, they'll keep trying (2). Well, not really THAT off chance. 0 .5%, so 1 out of 200. That's what the Sinquisition is counting on. If only they could stop killing people while interrogating them.  Very regrettable.

 

Shotei, Takahashi (1871-1945)

La Calle Roja : The Passage Palanquinium

Toxic environment : must be traversed in caravans carried by Cyclops type giants or other native and immune creatures. They tilt and stumble : dumb brutes, ferociously strong, some carry platforms with dozens of occupants. Occasional accident but mostly just close calls. Smaller creatures carry one or two : faster, but out of control most of the time, capering about on two stork legs or flightless hop wings.

Characteristics : Artificial, Fizzy

La Caraterra Anaranjada : The Alley

Barely a road at all. Dead-ends all over the place, or "basalt bridges" : fissures that need to be wriggled through : easily taken by bandits and held to ransom. Garbage is strewn about : strange, indomitable, almost worthless, almost priceless junk : plastic drink containers and circuit boards. This is the most cavern-like of the Roads Solfeo: although there are some concessions for its artifice : gemstones that glitter a dull amber light. Prying them out is a bad idea : the walls are brittle and prone to collapse : but then, they were already anyway. However, in succeeding you have acquired a worthless little dull thing that neither sparkles nor casts anything but darkness.

Characteristics : Gritty, Agitated

El Gran Camino Amarillo : The Echoway

Huge : rounded stone : built for some ancient race of giants? The scale will drive you bonkers. There are all sorts of overhangs and elegant ornamentation, although plenty have been pried loose for the raw materials, for the copper in the piping. Several famous graffitiests do complicated murals. Some are magic. Some are protected by guardian creatures, although the most protective element is that to go far off the central path makes you visible for a long way and other travelers are bound to wonder what you're up to and interfere with your life.

Characteristics : Hollow and Nasal.

La Via Verde : The Heroute

The path of adventure. Your basic dungeon hex crawl type operation. There are torches in the wall, burning constantly, until maybe they don't. Curves and labyrinths around - whispers to itself in a low thrum, come hither sailor. Every room has a secret door, a trap, and a treasure. Often they are all one and the same.

Characteristics : Brooding, tortured artist. Imagine Beowulf in Grendel, mumbling to himself, covered in blood and ghosts.

La Avenida Azul : The Cleanduit

Living but infected bone. Ghostly scarved ladies constant cleaning who polish everything as the fuzz will otherwise return and clog the works. You may be compelled to clean it too. A hand may reach out to grab you, to digest or help you find it's fingers. Were these to wake : other than finding themselves brittle fossils entombed by time, there would be some shaking going on. "That's not a cave, it's a mouth!" kind of thing.

It's important to note that these critters are NOT undead per se : they have no part in the great tree of unlife, they can neither be raised or turned. Think of them more as some kind of microbiome in soil, turning the deadspace into something that the quick can crawl through. And were the soil to sort itself into thought and instict, well.

Characteristics : Congested, Sick.

El Sendero Morado : The Brain Bridge

Elevated over infinite chasms. The bridge is of strong gossamer, but easy enough to fall off of. Built and maintained by spiders, who skitter underneath, it's for hunting and for transport, but the things they are after are spindly and half-formed. If the bridge catches one, a whole lot of activity happens real quick, but mostly they have been hunted to extinction.

Occasionally you might run into a spider, neither side paying attention to anything but their work: "Oh, sorry, are you just doing road repairs? Carry on". A big ask perhaps for a murderhobo, so used to being bit and biting in return, but there's bound to be more of them than you.

Characteristics : Wooly, hairy.

La Rada Perdida

Who can say? It's lost, innit?

Characteristics (alleged) : Flabby, dense.

TABLE A-1 : Under which Tone are you (un) Born?

The amplitude of the number is how well you can pass. A 6 could allow a caravan to pass, a 1 won't even allow you through alone without some sort of amplification (be it by spell, device, chorus, or high crisis) but it shows some sort of potential.

Freq: Rnge:	1 UT	2 RE	3 MI	4 FA	5 SO	6 LA
1	See Table A-2	UT 1 RE  5	RE 2 MI 4	RE 1 MI 2 FA  3	MI 2 FA 2 SO  2	UT 1 RE 1 MI 1 FA 1 SO 1 LA  1
2	UT 5 RE  1	See Table A-2	RE 1 MI  5	MI 2 FA  4	MI 1 FA 2 SO  3	FA 2 SO 2 LA  2
3	UT 4 RE  2	RE 5 MI  1	See Table A-2	MI 1 FA 5	FA 2 SO  4	FA 1 SO 2 LA  3
4	UT 3 RE 2 MI  1	RE 4 MI  2	MI 5 FA 1	See Table A-2	FA 1 SO 5	SO 2 LA 4
5	UT 2 RE 2 MI  2	RE 3 MI 2 FA 1	MI 4 FA 2	FA 5 SO 1	See Table A-2	SO 1 LA 5
6	UT 1 RE 1 MI 1 FA 1 SO 1 LA 1	RE 2 MI 2 FA 2	MI 3 FA 2 SO 1	FA 4 SO 2	SO 5 LA 1	See Table A-2

Table A-2 : On doubles, roll a third die :

Original Dice	1 -1	2 - 2	3 - 3	4 - 4	5 - 5	6 -6
3rd Matches	UT 5 SI 1	RE 5 SI 1	MI 5 SI 1	FA 5 SI 1	SO 5 SI 1	LA 4 SI 2
Any other #	UT 6	RE 6	MI 6	FA 6	SO 6	LA 6

Footnote 1 This obviously begs the question : what happens when the "key" to that particular corridor you are passing dies : from misadventure or deliberate murder or disease. If killed by the inhabitants of the road, then you might need to kidnap one of them, being creatures of the tunnel itself, they'll keep it open. Redundancy is always encouraged : perhaps another member, even if they don't quite have a handle on the frequency, vibrates with something close : so the way will become THIN and perilous but not quite cease altogether.

Footnote 2 There are of course successes, but those who reveal such abilities are generally so brutalized by the techniques used to release it (dunking in water, cold-torture, finger-screws) that they are unable to properly cultivate their gift : or else if they do, manage to escape as the Watery Rada Perdida rescues them its own self.