"Bribe someone who has knowledge of the area. The urchin-gangs commonly know. The Stolen River is also usually reasonably consistent, but if you follow it too close you might have to contend with Drownies..." He shrugs artfully. 

"Right." Is he angling for a bribe himself? They just established she didn't have any local money. Maybe he just wants her out of his soup line. "Thanks for the help."

"It's no trouble."

And he turns away and returns to doling out soup.

-Mrs Chapman's Boarding House
-can sleep here
-currently no rooms to let (maybe in future?)
-food from kitchen (may need money?)

Keep an eye out for
-surface money, maps, street signs illegal (unknown enforcement method)
-urchin gangs (hatfishing, pickpocketing)
-Drownies
-skulls (memory loss?)

Landmarks (maybe)
-The markets of Spite (Fifth City)
-Prelapsarian Museum?
-Department of Menace Eradication
-Ladybones Road (Brass Embassy & Concord Square)
-The Singing Mandrake (Veilgarden)
-The Stolen River

"Which way to the river? Can't you zmell it?" The woman she's accosted points back over her shoulder. Her accent is odd, not one Ellie has heard before.

"I didn't know the smell was associated with the river. I'm new in town."

"Ah. From the Zurface. May you enjoy the neath."

The woman with the gogglez givez her a deep, ironic bow and continues on about her buzinezz. 

Yeah, fair enough.

Ellie heads riverwards.

The smell intensifies as she draws closer, and then she finally arrives against the Stolen River. The water is clearly choked with refuse and not at all palatable for drinking. But along the shorelines, things glitter in the deep, sucking mud. Broken glass? Fallen coins? It's hard to tell for certain in the dim light.

...They need fewer laws about maps and more laws about environmental protection.

Jolteon, Vaporeon, you're up. Jolteon because Ellie rented a TM to teach it Dig last year as part of her project to shore up her coverage, and Vaporeon to wash things off.

Things quickly start emerging from the mud. 

Little fragments of jade. Blue-glowing shards of something that might be a gem. A brass button that feels warm in her hand. A broken bottle of wine. And... another bottle, this one whole. It glows faintly green, and contains what looks vaguely like a child's face, looking up at her in ethereal smoke through the glass. 

That is creepy as hell and Ellie doesn't like it. She is strongly tempted to throw it right back into the river, except that might get her cursed.

It's not screaming, or anything, right? Reacting to her if she moves the bottle around?

It sort of bobs. It does orient towards her a little if she moves the jar, but it doesn't seem to actually see her. There's no associated sound.

Eeehhhh. She still doesn't like it. Given what happened last time she's reluctant to ask Espeon to take a look at it, but... Maybe Sylveon? At least the empath will be able to tell if the ?creature? is in pain or actively malicious. (And her little Sylvie always makes Ellie feel better, which is a side bonus.)

It has a soft ambient aura of sorrow to it, or perhaps that's just the overall landscape. It doesn't appear to be actively in pain or malicious.

That's not the worst. Okay. She'll carefully tuck the bottle into it's own pocket inside her backpack and sort out the other items she retrieved as well. Ellie is done with this mudlarking for now, she thinks. Time to move on and see what else she can find in the city. She'll recall Jolteon and Vaporeon, walking on with Umbreon and Sylveon, holding hands with one of Sylvie's ribbons.

In a few more turnings, she arrives at a crowded intersection beneath three large arches. There is a gallows beneath the central arch, and a crowd mills below as a hooded woman in ratty grey clothing has the noose looped around her neck by a man wearing a high, domed hat with a silver badge at the front, and a matching blue uniform. 

A... public execution? How grisly. Ellie does not much want to stop and watch.

She finds herself in a train station filled with orange-eyed men and women in slightly more modern-looking clothing. There is also a goat-like, hunch-backed creature that walks on two legs by the platform.

There's no schedule or destinations posted in the station.

What does this city have against being helpful and/or comprehensible?

Is there a ticket kiosk at least?

There is, indeed, a ticket kiosk, manned by an orange-eyed man in a fedora.

How convenient.

"Hello," she says. "Where does the train go?"

The man gives her a winning smile. "Hell."

"I see."

"Thank you."

Yeah she's just going to leave now.

She is back out in the streets beneath the arch. The crowd has dispersed. A few stragglers are still hanging around chatting to each other.

There's two large buildings that catch her eye, one on the west side of the thoroughfare and one on the east side.