If you like you can look at the (sketchy, incomplete) GM notes as well.

The Under-Chamber

Although the name implies a Lower City equivalent to the Goodly Chamber, the Under-Chamber is in fact much more like a criminal equivalent of the Merchant's Arm, in that its primary purpose is to establish and maintain a monopoly for its members over professional criminal activity in Horizon. Of course, the Under-Chamber doesn't expect to be able to control all crime in the city - lovers will always kill each other in fits of jealousy, angry children will always throw bricks through their teachers' windows - but if you're planning on making an income out of criminal activity within Horizon, you'd better be a member of one of the Under-Chamber mobs. The Under-Chamber has succeeded, in the two years of its existance, in making life very hard for freelance criminals in Horizon.

The secondary purpose of the Under-Chamber is to try to keep order in the streets. During the Year of Chaos, martial law was imposed on Horizon twice, with severe consequences for the criminal underworld's profits. It benefits none of the Under-Chamber members for this to happen, and the Under-Chamber mobs recognise that it's in their own interest to co-operate to make sure that things don't get underhand. To this end, the Under-Chamber has issued the following edicts:

• Open gang warfare is to be avoided where possible; differences should be settled through negotiations, duels, or at worst small-scale battles in quiet places away from prying eyes.
  
• At the same time, if a gang member is caught making trouble in another gang's territory, then the trespassed-against gang has every right to slit the trespasser's throat. Furthermore, the Under-Chamber will not interfere in internal squabbles within a gang.
  
• Don't get caught committing crimes against the dogs, the Ghouls, the government or the Embassies. The government will step on you, and the Under-Chamber won't get in its way.

This last point is the most contentious, and the Family's connections to the Steam Union and (allegedly) the HPLF are making this last rule more and more tenuous; the Under-Chamber has consistently voted against sanctions against members over these issues (with the exception of the Hidden Mob), except in cases where the crimes in question are of a magnitude likely to provoke martial law.

The early Under-Chamber meetings were confused affairs, not least due to them coinciding with the Cartel civil war - whilst the Under-Chamber members were happy to let Eric Tuco into their meetings, they were not keen to do business with Haythim Marid. Things have become much more stable of late, and the Under-Chamber's business is usually conducted as follows:

• The Under-Chamber operates under a rotating presidency: the Family get the presidency first, then the Dockyard Rats, then Inmack's Boys, then the Hidden Mob, then the Family again. When a group has the presidency, their Under-Chamber representative is the President of the meeting in question.
  
• Under-Chamber meetings occur at the Riverview every two months, exactly halfway between each Moon Truce gathering at the Riverview - so it is held on the days when the Old Moon is full but the Young Moon is new.
  
• Each represented group has one full representative, who may bring one guest to the Under-Chamber meeting. (Representatives usually always bring the same guest.)
  
• All representatives and guests may speak at the Under-Chamber meeting. Only the representatives of the Under-Chamber mobs, and the guest of the meeting's President, can propose motions or vote (so the group which has the presidency effectively has two votes in that meeting).
  
• All motions should be declared in advance of the Under-Chamber meeting in private messages circulated amongst the Under-Chamber representatives and guests.

In practice, the Under-Chamber meetings themselves are devoted almost entirely to voting on motions, the discussion and politicing having taken place in private in the weeks leading up to the meeting. This minimises the amount of time the meeting takes, and thus makes the meeting more secure - the individuals in question can get to the Riverview and get away again within a few minutes.

Please note: The Under-Chamber has no resources of its own; the enforcement of its policies depends solely of the willingness of its constituent mobs to divert resources towards enforcing those policies. If somebody claims to be working for the Under-Chamber, they are lying. If somebody says that they're working for the Family (or the Rats, or the Boys, or the Hidden Mob) and they're on Under-Chamber business - then you'd better pay attention.

OOC Considerations

• We've deliberately placed the Under-Chamber meetings halfway through the turn. This is so that there is enough time for actions to be completed before and after the meeting; by and large, actions which would have results that the Under-Chamber will want to consider will happen after the Under-Chamber meeting (so that players of Under-Chamber representatives have an IC rationale not to have dealt with the issue in that meeting), while actions which would get the PCs responsible in trouble with the Under-Chamber if they happened after the Under-Chamber meeting will happen before the meeting (unless the PCs obviously want to provoke the Under-Chamber).

  It is entirely appropriate to put in contingency actions in your turnsheet along the lines of "if the Under-Chamber votes in favour of motion X, I'll do action 4a; if they vote against motion X, I'll do action 4b."

• All players whose characters have the Under-Chamber Representative quirk (or become Under-Chamber representatives or guests during the course of the game), and all the GMs (representing various NPC representatives and guests) will be given subscriptions to a special mailing list for Under-Chamber negotiations outside of Horizon sessions. (Since it is especially important for Under-Chamber representatives to be able to negotiate with one another outside of sessions, we do not recommend that players without regular internet access play Under-Chamber representatives.) Messages to this mailing list will represent messages sent to all Under-Chamber representatives and guests as part of the pre-voting negotiations. They do not represent the Under-Chamber meeting itself - which, remember, takes mere minutes to complete for security reasons - and so the focus in mailing list discussions should be rousing debate, not niggling points of order. Remember, you're a gaggle of mobsters, not a JCR committee.

• Motions for the Under-Chamber should be raised in posts to the Under-Chamber mailing list, in messages with subject lines like "MOTION: Censure of Family" or "MOTION: War against Merchant's Arm" to make it absolutely clear that a motion has been proposed. Remember: while full representatives can submit motions, guests can only submit motions if their mob has the Under-Chamber presidency in the turn in question.

• At some point after midday Friday, Arthur will send out an Under-Chamber ballot, covering all the motions proposed since the last Horizon session - after the electronic ballot is sent out, you may not propose additional motions. Players of Under-Chamber representatives should send their completed ballots to the GM team, not to the main Under-Chamber list, with their turnsheets. This means that after the turnsheet deadline of 11:59pm Friday, you should not send e-mails to the Under-Chamber mailing list because people will have already made their voting decisions. There should be no activity on the Under-Chamber mailing list from that point until after the next session of Horizon.

• The results of the votes will be announced via the Grapevine in the turnly news. At the beginning of each Horizon session all players of Under-Chamber representatives will receive a full breakdown of who voted which way on each motion.