The Cambist and Lord Iron
"The Cambist and Lord Iron" follows two men: Edmund Scarasso, Lord Iron, famous as one of the most extraordinarily debauched, corrupt, and wicked nobles in the city, and Olaf Neddelsohn, a cambist (exchanger of currencies) at the Magdalen Gate postal authority, not famous at all, whose greatest vice is the reading of adventure novels. The fates of these two grow entwined as Lord Iron sets for the cambist three challenges of exchange, each with greater consequences than the last.
The story is publicly available under a Creative Commons license -- in text here and here, and as a podcast here.
Tropes used in The Cambist and Lord Iron include:
- Absurdly High Stakes Game: Lord Iron plays these frequently, it seems.
- Deadly Decadent Court: Lord Iron and his acquaintances.
- Deal with the Devil: Discussed in the context of the third challenge.
- Funny Money: The currency of the Independent Protectorate of Analdi-Wat, one presumes.
- Hookers and Blow: Lord Iron indulges in both sex and drugs, although not generally with either hookers nor blow.
- A Party - Also Known as an Orgy: Apparently these are common at Lord Iron's city mansion.
- Science Hero: Of a most unusual kind -- Olaf is an expert of economics, and it is this knowledge that he uses to face these challenges.