Who could say what ghosts linger here, sighing into the zee?
Orthos is Coming! 0-4
Corpsecage Island
This spit of black rock and stunted heath is hard to find, even with a map. But it's said that each of the Bazaar's previous cities has at least touched the place.
Digging up bones and rough justice
Certain radicals say that the Constables occasionally dispose of the worst and most scandalous criminals here. They say this is a tradition that began in the Second City.
Before the Fall
You unearth the remnants of the path. The thin, poor soil gives up its secrets easily. Horse-bone amulets and cracked clay rice-bowls. A stone monument, its bell-like shape familiar to you from your outings to the Forgotten Quarter, now subsumed by clinging moss. The denizens of the Fourth City came here in numbers.
Watchful increase
You've gained 12 x A Page of Prelapsarian Archaeological Notes
You've gained a new quality: Orthos is Coming! at 1 - Smoke on the Horizon (2 change points)
Remains long undisturbed
You stroll alone in the fog. Worn bones poke out from the thin soil. Their owners stopped needing them centuries ago. Not such a pleasant little place.
Watchful increase
Nightmares is increasing…
Orthos is Coming! has increased
The Corpsecage bat
The bats of Corpsecage aren't the cheery carefree wild fellows. They chitter and squeak grumpily. Perhaps they're exiled operatives of the Great Game.
How old are these bats?
The bats are surly, but they don't object to you getting close and removing tiny cylinders from their legs. It's all in code, of course, but some of this material will still be worth something. One of the messages is written in the picture-alphabet of the Second City. The part you can make out says, '..all the Pharoah's daughters bar one are gone…'
Watchful increase
You gained 60 x Cryptic Clue
Orthos is Coming! has increased (2 change points)
Are you going peculiar?
Chasing bats on the off-chance that they have expired messages from the Great Game? Are you sure this is worth your time?
Watchful increase
Nightmares is increasing…
Orthos is Coming! has increased
Orthos is Coming! 4-6
The Religions of Corpsecage Island
All these relics of the Bazaar's previous cities. What can they tell you about their spiritual beliefs?
Examine the ruins for clues
Did the peoples of previous cities look to the Correspondence for spiritual guidance? Were they sceptics, or spiritualists, or totemists, or monotheists, perhaps?
Anthropological insights
You spend some careful hours looking at bas-reliefs depicting what could be rituals from the Third City, and turning over what might be potsherds from vessels used for offerings in the Fourth City. You make some deductions and a lot of assumptions, and come up with some satisfyingly erudite-sounding theories. Perhaps both cities shared a form of syncretic animism? Perhaps Second City polytheistic religions lingered on in debased and corrupted forms involving human sacrifice and orgiastic rituals? You might not have any concrete evidence, but you don't let that stop you.
Watchful increase
Orthos is Coming! has increased (2 change points)
You've gained 13 x A Page of Theosophistical Notes
South and East
This isn't a temple covered in prayers. This is a map. Well, a set of directions. You can't decipher all of it, and some parts depend on roof-light configurations, which have since changed. There's somewhere East over the Unterzee. But on the way there, the zailors of the Fourth City visited the Elder Continent. Perhaps they left something there? A camp? A colony, even? You must see for yourself one day!
Watchful increase
Orthos is Coming! has increased (2 change points)
You've gained 5 x Mystery of the Elder Continent
Walking the Falling Cities is increasing…
Puzzling potsherds
You examine chunks of fallen masonry, their surfaces rippled and twisted. Are those carved figures crouched before an altar, or just distorted by the weathering of centuries? You dig up little pieces of lumpy clay that, to be honest, probably aren't Second City fertility goddesses at all. You remain stumped. And slightly disturbed by some of those carvings.
Watchful increase
Orthos is Coming! has increased
Nightmares is increasing…
What's written here?
A stone tablet and a few columns have the scratchy writing of the Fourth City on them.
Far to the East
This isn't a temple covered in prayers. This is a map. Well, a set of directions. You can't decipher all of it, and some parts depend on roof-light configurations, which have since changed. But there's somewhere East over the Unterzee, or at least there was. Somewhere that zailors of the Fourth City called 'our last bastion and salvation'.
Watchful increase
You gained 61 x Cryptic Clue
Orthos is Coming! has increased (2 change points)
Hardly worth the effort
Whoever this writer was, they had an original vocabulary and a shaky chisel. After hours of examining the faded inscriptions, you have a vague idea they were talking about tortoises. You also have a thumping headache.
Watchful increase
Wounds increase
Orthos is Coming! has increased
Orthos is Coming! 6-7
Up the Hill
Tiny animal tracks lead steeply upwards, to a little plateau. You can see what might be ruined buildings up there. Why not?
See what you can dig up
The ruins resemble a long, walled courtyard rather than a building. If you weren't here to research, you might think to string up a tennis net.
Teasing out the trail
The thin, dusty soil up here puts up little resistance to your digging. Your finds confirm what the carvings on the walls suggested. Skyglass shards, perished lumps of indiarubber, a few bones. This court was definitely built and used by people of the Third City. It's chilly up here. They must have wrapped up warm.
Watchful increase
You've gained 13 x A Page of Prelapsarian Archaeological Notes
Orthos is Coming! has increased (2 change points)
Ow!
The ruins are covered in a layer of thin, flaky soil. No good for rhubarb or even mushrooms. Especially as it's studded with sharp, glossy-black stones.
Watchful increase
Orthos is Coming! has increased
Wounds increase
Caging ancient echoes
The walled courtyard echoes with shrieks and howls. Mindless, inhuman things from a previous age. Let's see if there are some empty jars in the stores…
In you go!
The shrieks cannot resist a sympathetic ear. Your boatswain won't be able to hear for days, but you have a creditable rack of rattling, scream-filled jars for your troubles. The walled courtyard is peaceful, now. Anyone for tennis?
Watchful increase
You've gained 62 x Primordial Shriek
Orthos is Coming! has increased (2 change points)
Aaaaaaeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
There are no screams in your jars.
The screaming is in your dreams.
Watchful increase
Nightmares is increasing…
Orthos is Coming! has increased
Orthos is Coming! 7-8
Another Sort of Relic
Although the island looks abandonded, you do see signs of visitors. The remains of a campfire, long cold, dotted with blackened Mason jars. Scraps of mooring rope.
Rummage around the fire
Perhaps there's more here than evidence of the Neath's past. If the stories are to be believed, Corpsecage Island is studded with valuable caches.
A little something in the hollow
You consider the mind of a criminal. Perhaps a revolutionary. Where, during a brief escape, would such a person hide something of value? There. Under the rotting tree stump, a package wrapped in brown paper and string. Radical texts, jade, and the discarded manacles and mask of a prisoner. So the stories were true.
Watchful increase
You've gained 1 x Prisoner's Mask
You've gained 1 x Prison Shiv (Or: Prison Shiv hasn't changed, because it's higher than 0)
You've gained 77 x Jade Fragment
You've gained 12 x Proscribed Material
Orthos is Coming! has increased (2 change points)
Regrets?
You consider the mind of a criminal. Perhaps a revolutionary. Where would such a poor sort hide their treasures? Memories of the cells of New Newgate flood your mind. You recall the cold iron of the bars, the stench of rot and the dreary shuffling of gaolers.
Watchful increase
Orthos is Coming! has increased
Nightmares is increasing…
A message long cold
Perhaps the greatest treasures on the island are the ones drawn in the camp-fire ashes with a stick.
Rock and a hard place
It's a map. That's a piece of the Carnelian Coast, there's the Iron Republic. And that line is… it's the course of something. An iceberg? A mountain of the Unterzee? It looks like these people - radicals or escaped prisoners - were heading for it. But why would they go to a moving mountain of the zee?
Watchful increase
You gained 13 x Cryptic Clue
Orthos is Coming! has increased (2 change points)
You've gained 10 x Map Scrap
Not a treasure, exactly…
The thoughts of what Jeremy will do for a penny will jolt you from slumber in the weeks to come.
Watchful increase
Nightmares is increasing…
Orthos is Coming! has increased
Orthos is Coming! 8- He is Here!!
The Shore Near the Jetty
If the Constables used this place, they must have sheltered somewhere when the maddening winds blew and the Unterzee grew rumbunctious.
The zee-caves
The caves dotted along the shore are little more than stone notches, half-clogged with silt and slipped earth. The question is, which one do you dig into?
A little box
You're tired, covered in mud and your shoulder hurts something fierce after all that digging. But your spade hits something that isn't a rock or a crab, with a 'thwunk' that speaks of matters carefully buried. It's a little wooden chest, with the lock wax-sealed against the zee water. The seal bears the locked-book crest of the Ministry of Public Decency. You force it open and extract a small book. It's a decade-old diary. You flip through the pages. The author was evidently a radical thinker. Good Lord! There's some complex stuff here about class and capital. It's no wonder the author ended up here.
Watchful increase
You've gained 125 x Proscribed Material
Orthos is Coming! has increased
Drawing a blank
You're tired, covered in mud and your shoulder hurts something fierce after all that digging. And the tide is rising fast. There's nothing here but irascible crabs the size of barrel-tops.
Watchful increase
An occurrence! Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality is now 9
Wounds increase
The Back of Corpsecage
An isolated cove on the far side of Corpsecage Island. No ruins here, but a path leads to a stubby jetty of crumbling stone.
Inauspicious iron
As the tide recedes, you can see rusted iron manacles of recent design firmly fixed to the rock. They're below the zee-weedy strand of the high tide line.
Amber and, perhaps, essences
The manacles are of a style that was standard issue for the Constables of ten years ago. But not even the Velocipede Squad would stoop to this barbarity, would they? You look around.
Scraps of amber. A strange greenish pebble, as out of place amongst the local rocks as a lady in last season's dress at the Opera House. Marks on the stone under the water, made by something with a lot of spines. Theories extend suggestive tentacles of insight. Rubbery tentacles.
Watchful increase
You've gained 40 x A Page of Cryptopaleontological Notes
An occurrence! Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality is now 9 - He is Here!!
You've gained 10 x Warm Amber
And then gone
The tide rises, enfolding the manacles like a patient lover. Perhaps the Unterzee will swallow you like that, ship and all.
Watchful increase
Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality is now 9
Nightmares is increasing…
Orthos is Coming! 9-10
Looking for Relics
The splendid thing about the past is that it's worth a fair bit to the right customer.
In the bag you go
Third City relics from up by the walled court. Horsehead amulets from nearer the shore. Your sack is a better place for them than the cold uncaring earth.
Unearthed
You dig, you scrape, you clean. Your fill your sack to bursting with the riches of the distant past. Enough for a score of cabinets in the studies of the wealthy. Or perhaps you should open a museum? Light appear on the horizon. Your crew shouts for your attention. What now?
An occurrence! Your 'Embarking on a Voyage of Scientific Discovery' Quality is now 4 - An Established Scholar!
You've gained 100 x Relic of the Fourth City
You've gained 100 x Relic of the Third City
An occurrence! Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality is now 10 - He is Here!!
Finish your notes on Corpsecage Island
There's solid evidence that Corpsecage Island has been sporadically inhabited over the ages. Relics from other cities stolen by the Bazaar lurk all over this place like currants in a bun.
Writing it all down
You have seen proof of Fourth and Third City inhabitation, and some evidence suggesting the Second City. There's material for a few weighty works here.
A work to rock academia
You take shelter in a cave, which has a shelf for your lamp and a rudimentary seat carved into the wall. It is nearly morning when you stop writing. There are lights out to zee, and your crew is shouting for you. Best go and see what they want.
An occurrence! Your 'Embarking on a Voyage of Scientific Discovery' Quality is now 4 - An Established Scholar! (Or: Embarking on a Voyage of Scientific Discovery hasn't changed, because it's higher than 3)
You've gained 150 x A Page of Prelapsarian Archaeological Notes
An occurrence! Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality is now 10 - He is Here!!
Orthos is Coming! 10
Orthos Has Set Upon You
The Fleet of Truth will be here at any moment - with or without Dr Orthos.
Time to go
You should make your escape now, before it's too late. [There is some risk of losing some of your research notes.]
A serendipitous escape
You haul anchor and depart as silently as you can. In your wake follow dark, muttered curses.
You've moved to a new area: the Broad Unterzee
Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality has gone!
Tarry a little
What? You're in the middle of something. These interruptions are intolerable. [There is some risk of losing some of your research notes.]
(A matter of luck: pretty good odds.)
Like a galleon
Orthos' Fleet of Truth has landed, but at the far end of the island. You gather your things and make a dignified pace back to your ship.
You've moved to a new area: the Broad Unterzee
Gain 20 x A Page of Prelapsarian Archaeological Notes
Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality has gone!
Risking mutiny
The crew grows insistent. You must leave right now. Bah! There is so much left to do…
You were unlucky. Better luck next time…
You've moved to a new area: the Broad Unterzee
You've lost 5 x A Page of Cryptopaleontological Notes
You've lost 5 x A Page of Prelapsarian Archaeological Notes
You've lost 5 x A Page of Theosophistical Notes
Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality has gone!
Cut it fine
Orthos couldn't threaten a one-legged syphilitic rattus faber. You'll go when you're done and not before. [There is some risk of losing some of your research notes.]
(A matter of luck: the odds are against you here.)
Carrying on regardless
The last relic is cleaned, labelled and stowed. Something about ships is going on? Hardly important. You have better things to do.
You were fortunate!
You've moved to a new area: the Broad Unterzee
You've gained 40 x A Page of Prelapsarian Archaeological Notes.
Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality has gone!
A pragmatic approach
Orthos' men want you to share your work. Well, of course. Sharing academic information is nothing less than your duty. Those rifles they're holding don't come into it.
You were unlucky. Better luck next time…
You've moved to a new area: the Broad Unterzee
You've lost 5 x A Page of Cryptopaleontological Notes
You've lost 5 x A Page of Prelapsarian Archaeological Notes
You've lost 5 x A Page of Theosophistical Notes
Your 'Orthos is Coming!' Quality has gone!
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