Overview

The Stacks is the memory palace of Baltimore’s hidden city: shelves of deed boxes and microfilm, a ledger room for markers and favours, a key press for doors that matter, and a small clinic for mortals who run too hard for too long. The Gloam keep it tidy, polite, and boringly legitimate. Stories are filed, not spread.

House Maxim (etched on the desk-lamp base): “Write it down. Lock it up. Remember.”

Rooms & Layout

Reception Vestibule

• Bell & Book: visitors ring once, sign the day card, and surrender phones; lockers issued with brass tokens.
• Display Case: innocuous deeds and conservation tools for cover; nothing sensitive ever shown.

Main Reading Room

• Six Lamplit Tables: blotters, pencils, and white gloves; cameras don’t behave in here.
• Catalogue Nook: card drawers (true index), a computer (public index), and a small bell for staff.
• Listening Desk: reel-to-reel and microfilm viewer screened by drapes; headphones only.

Closed Stacks

• Shelving A–F: property rolls, donor ledgers, permit runs; access by call slip only.
• Cold Case Row: cross-index to police scrapbooks and clippings; restricted; Meridian by appointment.

Ledger Room

• Favours Book: leather-bound indices of who helps whom; entries in pencil, dates in ink.
• Chit Cabinet: copper markers in labelled drawers; settlements noted at quarter-days.

Key Press

• Bench & Blanks: legitimate key-cut kit; passcards and coded tags; log before cutting, log after delivery.
• Red Drawer: “Do Not Copy” requests and destroyed patterns; requires two signatures to open.

Quiet Clinic

• Trolley & Cot: tea, salts, glucose, blankets, blood-pressure cuff; no questions beyond what helps.
• Renewals Shelf: strictly measured tonics for registered Gloam-lines; countersigned by Ruthie.

Courier Alley

• Service Door: opens to a narrow alley; Mr Finch’s route board; parcels logged in and out.

Wards, Customs & Safeguards

• Lamplight Veil: warm-spectrum lamps that nudge eyes away from oddities; photographs blur into beige.
• Paper Calm: a hush worked into shelves and felt; raised voices feel wrong; arguments drift to the alley.
• Key Oath: cutters speak a brief promise: “For the named lock, for the named bearer, for the named hour.”
• Catalogue Decoy: public index is accurate but incomplete; true index sits in the card drawers.
• Seal Strip: tamper tape on closed-stack doors; a snapped strip rings a desk chime and locks the lift.

Access & Schedules

• Reading Hours: Mon–Thu 13:00–19:00, Fri 12:00–16:00 (by appointment). Pencils only; gloves on request.
• Closed Stacks: pull slips at the desk; staff retrieve; items used at lamplit tables only.
• Ledger Appointments: Tues & Thurs 17:00–19:00; two witnesses; copper chits issued/retired.
• Key Press: mornings 09:00–11:00; emergency cuts require two signatories and a reason on paper.
• Neutral Window: daily 16:00–18:00 for cross-faction handovers at Reception. No weapons, no entourages.

House Protocol

Reading Room Rules

• No phones. Pencils only. White gloves when asked. Names whispered, not shouted.
• Sign the card; return what you take; late fees are favours, not cash.
• Closed stacks mean closed. Ask Mayra; do not force a door.

Boundary Courtesy

• Do not escort outsiders into Free Court salons, Harbour red rooms, Iron Belt tracks, or Lodge slips without written invitations.
• Coordinate with Meridian if access risks exposure; the Stacks value quiet more than speed.
• No gossip that breaks the Veil. Records are for memory, not leverage at parties.

Keepers & Regulars

• Aunt Mayra Cortez — Archivist-General; keys, cards, calm voice; knows which box you really want.
• Benedict Hale — Ledger-Keeper; dates correct to the day; chits balanced to the copper.
• Onyeka Ibeh — Custodian of Doors; cuts keys, fixes locks, opens stairwells that matter.
• Ruthie Glass — Healer-of-Habits; tea, soup, sense; signs off renewals and sends you home to sleep.
• Mr Finch — Messenger; delivers letters that shouldn’t be emails; never late, never loud.

Logistics & Cover

• Conservation Cover: acid-free boxes, humidity logs, and dull paperwork for inspectors.
• Borrower Cards: each item has a card; missing card triggers a quiet search before anyone panics.
• Off-site Cache: duplicates of truly sensitive ledgers held at a second address known to three people.
• Tea Fund: biscuit tin labelled “staples”; pays for biscuits, stamps, and cab fare for delicate returns.

Hooks & Scene Seeds

• The Missing Card: A call-slip returns without its borrower card. Find the item before anyone else realises it moved.
• Key That Wasn’t: A copied passcard opens two doors; Onyeka swears that’s impossible. Who altered the pattern?
• Unsigned Entry: Benedict finds a ledger line written in the Archivist’s hand—on a night she was away.
• Clinic Overrun: Three exhausted petitioners arrive at once; Ruthie needs triage and tact before the Veil frays.
• Courier Shadow: Mr Finch is followed. Lose the tail without starting a cross-faction incident.

GM Notes

• Tone: lamplight competence; secrets managed, not brandished; leverage written in pencil.
• Capacity: Reading Room seats 12; Listening Desk 1; Key Press 2 at a time; Clinic 1 cot.
• Complications: surprise audits, a donor gala upstairs, a rival “researcher” with excellent manners.
• Map Keys: vestibule, lockers, main tables, catalogue nook, listening desk, closed stacks door, ledger room, key press, clinic, courier door.