Netwrck
The Ninth Hearth
The fire saint's contract expired. Forty thousand homes did not.
- ~60 min
- 5479 words
- 20 scenes
- 11 branch points
- 4 endings
- Anselm, an invented second-world river city, winter 2027
26 recorded plays (one per visitor per day)
Cover art · no audio · listing metadata: listing.json · counts: authored
About
The Ninth Hearth heats forty thousand homes beneath the river city of Anselm. On the coldest morning in thirty years, the fire saint inside it clocks out. Municipal inspector Maelin Voss finds a missing contract page proving Orris completed her two hundred years of service last spring. The city kept taking heat. Maelin's former partner Sera leads the ash porters who refuse to service a compelled saint. Chancellor Renn can correctly predict deaths if the heat stays off and still hides the palace subsidy from his model. Across twenty scenes and four endings, the player allocates heat, handles a strike, negotiates elemental labour rights and decides whether a city in danger can demand one more week from a worker who has already given it two centuries.
Content notice8 topics · tap to review
- coerced magical labour
- cold exposure and threatened deaths
- class inequality
- institutional deception
- strike conflict
- adult relationship tension
- sex implied and cuts away
- no slurs written out
Cast
-
Maelin Voss
protagonist and municipal flue inspector
-
Sera Pell
ash porters' union leader and Maelin's former partner
-
Orris
adult fire saint bound to the Ninth Hearth
-
Dain Renn
city chancellor
-
Jori Kes
junior thermal engineer from Low Quay