The preferred method to get to Polythreme is to use your own ship. It is much cheaper than buying a ticket at Wolfstack Docks. This way is quicker, and allows experience of the Sea of Voices.
The Sea of Voices
Who would choose to go to Polythreme? But some duties cannot be denied.
Unlocked with 1 x Screaming Map .
_
A Zee-journey
A calm swift journey? Or will even the dragons that live at the edges of the maps be shaking their heads and telling you to turn back? To reach your destination, raise Approaching Journey's End to 9. You don't need to choose your destination until then. Beware of the Troubled Waters quality…
Approaching Journey's End shows your progress in the Venture.
Gain: 1 x
Zee-Ztory
Steam Carefully
Stay on the charted routes. Steer far away from known hazards and the more vital islands.
A cautious captain
Slow ahead! That's the safe option. Safer than the alternative, at least.
Steady going
A zailor's life is troubled enough without the singular hazards of the Sea of Voices. How long can you stay ahead of the screams?
Approaching Journey's End increase
(1 change point)
Troubled Waters increase
(2 change points)
Steam Bravely
Only boundless courage will see you home safely. Forth into the unknown!
Extrapolate from the charts
Keep an even course, and stay away from the loudest of the screams and singing. Rashness killed the captain.
A matter of luck: it could go either way.
Smoke and fog
If this fog hides the horizon, it also hides your ship. The crew whistle and joke to conceal their nerves, but you're making good time.
You were fortunate!
Troubled Waters increase
(1 change point)
Approaching Journey's End increase
(2 change points)
Eerily quiet
The Voices are silent. You can barely hear the waves slap against your ship's hull. Only the engines disturb the peace. Is something coming?
You were unlucky. Better luck next time…
Troubled Waters increase
(at least 2 change points)
Approaching Journey's End increase
(1 change point)
Make it up as you go
Those other captains lack your vision! Steam off the maps and into history!
A matter of luck: the odds are against you here.
A new way
A few blessedly quiet days. Well, except for the Voices. Your wake trails back to the horizon, and the crew are concerned only with their sewing and their next tattoos. Those other captains know nothing!
Approaching Journey's End increase
(3 change point)
Troubled Waters increase
(1 change points)
What can it mean?
The Sea of Voices quivers, like the skin of a drum slapped by a city-sized hand. The movement sends your ship a dozen feet into the air, splashing back down violently into the black water. The crew scream and pray as the waters return to normal.
Approaching Journey's End increase
Troubled Waters increase
(at least 4 change points)
Can it get any worse?
Man-eating zee-bats. A malicious bulk that you might remember as a whale if you don't think too hard about it. You own ship's anchor importuning your breeding and manners. Surely you're heading for calmer waters.
A matter of luck: the odds are strongly against you here.
unlocked with Troubled Waters 9
Respite
You're making decent time, although you have to keep an eye on the crew over-stoking the boilers. With a little more luck, you'll soon be back on the charts. Pay no attention to the Voices laughing.
Approaching Journey's End increase
Nightmares increase
And where are we now?
With no stars to navigate by, you can't be sure. But it looks like you've been going backwards. But that makes no sense at all.
Approaching Journey's End decrease
Opportunity Cards
A Good Meal
You drift in shallow, warm water as your engineer untangles ropy seaweed from the propellers. Those among your crew who can swim are delighted to spot oyster beds.
And a little bonus
The crew eats well tonight, and you take your cut of the pearl harvest.
A Light in the Fog
Your lamps only caress the fog. But there's a light somewhere up ahead. And a voice.
Get as close as you dare
The lighthouse moans and mutters in the fog. What is it saying?
Getting quite chatty
The lighthouse has a high, wavering voice. Like an elderly matron who's had more sherry than is entirely respectable. It clucks and hems as your ship steams close. 'There you are! He said he was seeking after a name but that can't be true as he had a name, and when that nice Mr Fires came past in his dirigible he didn't even smile even though I winked at him and the wax wind will be back and then we'll all see the bees and the garden and I can't see I can't see I can't see…'
Troubled Waters increase
( at least 1 change point)
Gain: 2 x
Zee-Ztory
Walking the Falling Cities increase
Keep away from the lighthouse
One plots a wide course around lighthouses, if one has any sense.
Through the black waters
Away you steam, quick and smart. And what can a lighthouse have to say that's worth hearing?
Approaching Journey's End increase
A Hazard to Shipping
The tangled floating island-raft is mainly black coral. But you can see ship timbers, a tin shack and a number of what could be mouths.
Set a course around the thing
Who knows what hazards could be reaching for your keel? But how far does this thing extend?
(Watchful Challenge Straightforward at 125)
A handshake of sorts
The fingers of coral scrape along the hull of your ship, but you turn hard away from them and they lose their grip. Fifty mouths on the island-raft curse you in a dozen languages, but you're clear.
Watchful increase
Approaching Journey's End increase
(At least 2 change points)
A little souvenir
The fingers of coral scrape along the hull of your ship, but you turn hard away from them and they lose their grip. Fifty mouths on the island-raft curse you in a dozen languages. When your crew hack off the last bits of coral, they find a daguerrotype, clutched in a polyp's hand-like tentacles. A family enjoying a walk near a church, under a bright sky. How did it get down here?
Watchful increase
Approaching Journey's End increase
(At least 2 change points)
Gain 2 x Vision of the Surface
Best get an axe
Your engines strain and roar as the coral under the waves tangles itself up with the stern of your ship like the fingers of a curious child. You're going to lose days to this, and what might crawl out of the island-raft in the meantime?
Watchful increase
Approaching Journey's End increase
(At least 1 change points)
Troubled Waters increase
Crossing Paths
This steamer is a modern design, and is making admirably good time despite her heavy load. She'll pass close to you.
Hail the ship and have a chat with the captain
A discussion framed in lamp-flashes over the black waters. As cosy as a series of lights can make it.
Presumably a metaphor
These fellows are London traders who chanced their fortunes in Polythreme. They've given up and are heading home. It's not because they wanted for profit there, though.
The next bit of signal-lamp communication is hard to understand. Something about 'vitality', 'terror' and 'socks'.
Troubled Waters decrease
Walking the Falling Cities increase
Gain: 1 x
Zee-Ztory
Steam on by
Your journey is too important to interrupt with sea-borne gossip.
Business as usual
The two crews salute each other amicably, but both you and the other captain have business elsewhere. You steam on into the foggy gloom. Was that other steamer heading away from trouble?
Troubled Waters increase (3 change points?)
Approaching Journey's End increase (2 change points?)
Listen to the Wind
Only it's not really the wind. It's the Voices.
Listen to the Voices
The Sea of Voices is seldom quiet. It takes patience and luck to pluck out the interesting morsels.
A matter of luck: it could go either way.
The stories the Voices tell
The Voices moan and wail about love and loss and jealousy and forgiveness and an unbearably long vigil in paralysed isolation long ago. It's fascinating, but hardly useful. But sometimes the Voices speak of ships and captains and currents. Is any of this recent? Can you rely on it?
You were fortunate!
Approaching Journey's End increase
(1 change point)
Walking the Falling Cities increase
Gain: 1 x
Zee-Ztory
The Voices
You silence your engines and listen as you drift. The Voices scream and whisper and roar. They sound like they're about to make sense, but the meaning is always beyond you. Are the Voices thoughts from the dreams of Polythreme? Or is there some truth to the story that you're living in the skull of a dead god?
You were unlucky. Better luck next time…
Troubled Waters increase
Steam the way the voices tell you
If some of the screams are attempts at pronouncing Correspondence sigils, then… hard to port!
Unlocked with a Scholar of the Correspondence 1
Do they mean you well?
Could that long ululating moan be 'A path unmarred by obstacles'? Or perhaps 'A future consumed and forgotten' would be more accurate? Well, you'll find out soon.
Approaching Journey's End increase
(1 change point)
Troubled Waters increase
(At least 3 change points)
Calm Seas Opportunity Cards
Calm Seas: Meeting a Local Steamer
This steamer's fittings are all burnished copper - a Polythreme vessel. You can't see any crew on her decks.
Hail the steamer to exchange news
Assuming you can find someone - or something - to talk to.
Steam on by
You have more important things to do than bandy words with some overly vital chunk of copper and steel.
Should one be concerned about hurting a steamer's feelings?
The steamer dwindles to a copper-tinged speck in your wake. Did the vessel look disappointed at the snub? Possibly. However - onwards.
Approaching Journey's End increase
Troubled Waters increase
I say, must you do that?
The Steamer sails dangerously close to your yacht, engines purring.
[Unlocked with 1 x Majestic Pleasure Yacht]
Calm Seas: The Giant of the Unterzee
A little island appears in your ship's path. Grey and perfectly round. And getting bigger. Good Lord! It's a huge head surfacing!
Erm, hello?
The Clay Head is bigger than the New Newgate Dirigibles. Let's hope it's friendly.
(Persuasive Challenge Straightforward at 125)
Stone skipping
The coral-wrapped giant bends down and peers at your ship. Its marble eyes sparkle. Is that a flinty smile?
A judder and a wrench as great grey fingers grab the hull of your ship. The giant looks to the horizon and flexes its arm. Oh no. He's not going to throw you? He is!
Persuasive increase
Approaching Journey's End increase
(At least 2 change points)
Splash!
The grey-skinned coral-swathed giant takes no notice of you. It scans the far horizon, shrugs immense shoulders and then leaps up to splash back into the Unterzee.
The seismic wave it creates is taller than your ship. Man the pumps! Batten the hatches! There's about to be a thousand tons of water right where you are now.
Persuasive increase
Approaching Journey's End increase
Troubled Waters increase
Lashing Waves Opportunity Cards
Lashing Waves: The Iceberg
The giant jagged floating mass is more slate-blue than white. At least you've seen it in plenty of time.
Keep a prudent distance
As you watch, cracks spread along one side of the blue mountain, and house-sized chunks wrench off and fall into the Unterzee.
Fascinating, but dangerous.
A matter of luck: it could go either way.
Was that an act of kindness?
As you steam away, the sea-mountain rises perhaps ten yards in the sea, and falls again. The wave it creates soon catches you, and, rather than tossing your ship like a terrier with a rat, propels you along at double your previous speed. Your crew is panicked, but you're making fine time.
Approaching Journey's End increase
Walking the Falling Cities is increasing…
A silent song
One of the house-sized chunks of blue… whatever it is floats with some speed towards your ship. As it comes, the Voices of the sea fall silent. Bats and dogs on your ship start screeching and howling, reacting to something you can't hear. Reverse engines!
Troubled Waters increase
Have a look around under the iceberg
Why would one have a zubmarine if one didn't intend to poke around where one shouldn't?
unlocked with 1 x zubmarine
Taking a look Who made this storylet? On the underside of the slate-blue iceberg, your lamps pick out details. Long-dead trees, a low wall, a little marble temple, all upside-down. The iceberg is a small hill, possibly sloughed off from Polythreme. Every minute or so, a vibration rocks your vessel, sending the crew sprawling. It's like the beat of a slow, slow drum.
You've gained 2 x Zee-Ztory
Walking the Falling Cities is increasing…
Troubled Waters decrease
Lashing Waves: Unfinished Pirates!
This vessel flies no colours and is brimming with armed Clay Men. Pirates!
Repel Boarders!
Your crew outnumbers them, but the Unfinished are devils in a close fight.
[[Dangerous]] challenge, low risk at 166
Do they drown? Or is it just a matter of a long walk?
Clay Men are strong and determined and can endure startling punishment. But they're not quick. And that's what you need when zailors are trying to push you into the sea. The water swallows a handful of the Unfinished before the rest retreat.
[[Dangerous]] increase
Approaching Journey's End
You've gained 1 x Zee-Ztory
A little entertainment
They're not out to plunder your cargo or capture your ship. The Clay pirates just want a fight. A fist like a steam-piston catches you early in the fight and it all goes black. When you wake, a third of your crew is gone, and the rest have been beaten ragged. But at least the Unfinished pirates have vanished. For now.
Troubled Waters increase
[[Dangerous]] increase
Outpace them
A fast vessel you wanted, and a fast vessel you have. They will have only your wake for company.
**unlocked with 1 x Swift Zee-clipper
Fury of the Unterzee Opportunity Cards
Fury of the Unterzee: Taken
The ship's engines stop. But you're picking up speed.
Oh no The boiler chuckles to itself. Ropes knot themselves into snares for your crew. Your ship has turned against you. Warning - this could remove all the progress you've made on your journey.
Watchful challenge
A close escape from damnation
The ship's ropes coil and sway, but leave your crew unmolested. The ship speeds up, fairly skipping across the crests of the waves and sending great streamers of spray flying behind you. Whatever it's thinking, the ship is following your course. Half a day later, and the crew is getting used to the ship's new vitality. It maintains itself, now. It doesn't need them for the time being, so your crew shrug and play cards. A few days later, the ship's animating principle gives out and it's just a ship once more. But you've skipped ahead of trouble this time.
Walking the Falling Cities is increasing…
Troubled Waters decrease
[[Watchful]] increase
Fury of the Unterzee: Lost but not Alone
The lights in the roof above you are going out one by one. You shiver in your overcoat. Where are you?
Hands tapping on the hull Grey hands under the water, reaching up. Hundreds. Thousands. Warning - this could remove all the progress you've made on your journey. A matter of luck: it could go either way.
{unknown}
You've moved to a new area: 
A twist in your tale! You are now 
Gain: 1 x 
Gain: 1 x 
Gain: 1 x 
Gain: 1 x 
