Wildsea: Explosions on the Wildsea!

Back to the trees! Here's last time.

Three of our wildsailors - Rozek, Kazera, and Tztik - head into Dusty Fields to search out Wir, the ektus slinger apparently looking to find an kill an ironbound named Lod (that enough nonsense words for one sentence?). Rozek and Kazera find Lod in the market; he's heading off the strip into another area of town, probably going home.

Tztik spots Wir lying on a rooftop aiming a pistol at Wir, and slithers up to another rooftop to watch (Tztik doesn't have any particular regard for Lod, and is interested to see where this goes). Kazera tries to talk Lod into getting out of the street. Lod is suspicious, however, and just then a bar opens up and a bunch of people stream out to watch a fight. Lod winds up on the other side of the chaos to the characters, and Wir, no longer having a clear shot, rolls of the roof out of Tztik's line of sight. 

Tztik repositions, and Lod moves away from the crowd. Rozek and Kazera have a quick "Fezzik, please?" "EVERYBODY, MOVE!" moment, and catch up with him. Just then, a small metal sphere rolls out of an alley towards Lod (and therefore the others). 

Kazera steps in front of Lod just before the sphere explodes. It releases shrapnel, which dings the ironbound a little and puts holes in Rozek's furs, but also releases a blast of electricity that demagnetizes Kazera's rivet swarm and scrambles her brain. Pieces fall off of her as she stumbles back, trying to gather herself up.

Tztik, meanwhile, surges off the roof and finds Wir in the alley, taking aim with her pistols. They drop down onto her with a club ("NO ONE HARMS OUR CREW") and knocks her down, but she pops back up and points a gun at them and another at Lod. Tztik faces off and focuses their psychic energy, pushing into her brain, and she winces, and then flees. Tztik rejoins their crew and helps gather up Kazera, and they head for the ship.  

But where, you might ask, is Chamberssen? Chamberssen staggers off of the ship a little after the others leave. He's still hung over (too much blacknut whiskey) but the hammering from the work being done on the Heart of the Seeker isn't helping. He wanders into town, perhaps thinking of getting another drink, when in the distance he hears a muffled boom and some electrical discharge. And then, a moment later, a much bigger BOOM from a different part of the town. He looks down and realizes that the float is coming apart.

Dusty Fields, you'll recall, is composed of multiple ships all joined together, surrounding one hub, the upended Move's Chorus. But something has disrupted the integrity of the place. Chamberssen realizes with horror that in its current condition, the Heart isn't going to survive if its dock goes away. He tries to signal to the crew working on the ship to secure it, using the strange mirror he traded a tzelicrae merchant for (back here). He fumbles, however, and drops it into the wildsea. 

The others get back to the ship, and realize what's happening. Tztik decides to find Estramu, the closest thing Dusty Fields has to a leader. When they get to Estramu's place of business, however, they realize that was the site of the explosion. An ironbound carrying its own arm staggers out, and Tztik asks where Estramu is. The ironbound tells themm that Estramu was in the room when the explosion happened; anything left of him is in there.

Tztik pushes their way into that room and finds only destruction. They also spot a chunk of a box embedded in the wall, and recognizes the markings. That box was the one the fightersap was housed in - that, apparently, was the source of the explosion. Just then, they hear a voice - Estramu! He tells Tztik to look around and find what looks like a chunk of mast ("that's my back"). He tells Tztik to carry it to the Move's Chorus, and Tztik surges through the town, moving through and between spaces and ships, until they get to the central ship.

Once there, Estramu focuses and pulls together a rudimentary body from debris on the ship. He tells Tztik that by his reckoning, they have about four hours before Dusty Fields comes apart entirely. He starts coordinating people as best he can, but tells Tztik that he'll need help.

Tztik obliges and finds some of the seams of the float, spreads out, and starts lashing them together with spider-silk. Meanwhile, the others have been informed of the situation, and they get to work as well. Chamberseen heads to Estramu and has him sketch on a piece of canvas where the seams are and where they need to focus their efforts. Rozek brews a powerful tea to keep everyone awake (it has the effect of making those who drink it loud and enthusiastic, but that's fine). Kazera goes out into the float and rallies her fellow ironbound to keep the float together.

The night wears on - Rozek mixes up some powerful glue to fix the joins, Tztik makes more silk, Kazera and Chamberssen rally the works. Chamberssen checks over the work to make sure they aren't missing anything, and Tztik shouts a Whisper - "CHORUS OF MINDS."

For a few moments, all of the consciousness on the float are linked. Reading any one person's mind isn't easy, but everyone can coordinate efforts. Tztik feels that they have tasted divinity, creating a hive mind with complex minds, and shudders in satisfaction. They also try to grab Wir and Lod's minds and put them in a "room" to hash out their differences. But that doesn't have the desired effect. Wir focuses and learns all she can about Lod, and Lod just tries to get away. Whatever the animosity between them, it's not a misunderstanding.

Kazera, for a moment, switches minds with Lod, and looks down at the sleeve of that nifty-looking cloak he was wearing. She realizes that it's not just a cool pattern, it's a map...and then she snaps back to her own body. 

The crew just has some cleanup to do - Rozek and Charness treat folks who were injured in the work. Chamberssen goes to the Move's Chorus and tries to find Estramu, but can't. He focuses on the fading group-mind, and realizes that Estramu's own mind and soul, spread out over the entire float as it was, was catalyzed to allow that melding. Estramu, then, is gone.

Chamberssen heads back to the ship, and on the way realizes he's being followed. He sits down and pretends to be confused, and the person following him actually approaches - Lod. He asks for passage off this place, since there's an ektus who's trying to kill him. Chamberssen brings Lod back to the Heart, and they agree to get Lod away (they're headed to the Emerald Wheel, and Lod says that's fine). They also ask about the cloak, and Lod says that it's a map, and he'll be glad to tell them all he knows as soon as they're out on the wildsea.

The crew spends a few days resting while the repairs to the ship are complete. Chamberssen gets the map of Dusty Fields that he and Estramu made and gives it to Estramu's crew as a memorial, Kazera and Rozek try to rest and repair, and Tztik delves deeper into their own minds... 

Wildsea: Dusty Fields

I've gotten out of the habit of doing write-ups immediately after games, but Michelle's playing a mission in Midnight Suns so I've got a little time. Here's last time!

Our wildsailors pull into Dusty Fields. It's kind of misnomer; there are no fields in evidence. Instead, Dusty Fields is a float, a ramshackle flotilla made of ships all lashed together. As they approach they see that many of the component ships are not in tree-worthy shape; they wouldn't float if they weren't attached. The central hub of the float is a huge cargo ship sticking bow-end out of the thrash, the words Move's Chorus written down the side in fading letters. 

They pull up and some dockhands moor their ship. Charness tells Chamberssen, Kazera, and Tztik that Rozek is a little under the weather ("she drank some tea and it's having...effects") so she'll catch up with them.

They disembark and Chamberssen talks with the dockhands. There's no docking fee, and the dockhand notes some damage to their runners and assumes that's what they're there to fix. He tells them to head down this main road until they come to a crossroads. If they want to see about repairs, he recommends going straight and finding an ironbound named Estramu. If he can't help them, he'll know someone who can. If they want to shop or trade, head left into the market. If they want to head to the shipwrights and talk with them directly, go right. If they want to go to the docks...turn around and walk back here. 

Chamberssen and Kazera decide to find Estramu, while Tzitik heads to the market (they want to find some scrap metal and wood and build a new shell to hold their spiders). Chamberssen and Kazera walk up to the Move's Chorus and see an ironbound chatting with a couple of folks in hoods - they're speaking Knock, which neither of the sailors understand. The two figures turn around and the characters can see that they're tzelicrae, like Tzitik. The ironbound makes a gesture like cracking one's neck, but his head just flips around entirely. 

They approach and say they're looking for Estramu. "You found him," replies the ironbound. Chamberssen explains their position - they need repairs and would be interested in making some improvements to their ship. Estramu asks after their ship and Chamberssen describes it, and Estramu asks what they have to trade.

Chamberssen leads off with the salt and the honey, but Estramu doesn't have any interest in those. "Tell you what you do," he says. "Go to the market and talk with Fetio. He's a Marketeer. He'll appraise your stuff and give you a voucher, you come back and give it to me and we'll talk." 

Chamberssen is willing to do that, but first he mentions the fightersap that they have on the ship. Estramu perks up at that - that stuff he's willing to trade for. They haggle a bit, and Estramu agrees to fix the damage to their runners and armor and do some improvements for them. He sends a couple of his guys to go get the fightersap, and tells the characters to find him a little later and they'll do up a contract.

Meanwhile, Tzitik looks about the market and finds a shop called Flotsam; it's basically a big building full of scraps of wood and metal. Perfect! The proprietor tells Tzitik to go talk to Fetio and trade whatever they're using as currency, and then bring the voucher he gives back here. 

Tzitik obligingly heads further into the market and finds an open-air office. A pale yellow Ketra sits behind a desk; Tzitik recognizes Fetio from the description the scrap salesman gave them. Tzitik introduces themselves and asks Fetio whether he'd have any use for salt or firebloom honey; Fetio isn't interested in salt but agrees with Tzitik that honey is useful (edible, calorically dense, doesn't spoil, medicinal, "and flammable," notes Fetio). He asks Tzitik where to find the stuff and dispatches two flunkies (one ardent, one ektus) to get it. He then takes a small wooden rectangle off a pegboard and dips two fingers into ink, putting a mark on it. Tzitik takes it back to the scrap salesmen and loads up a cart, tying stuff down with webbing.

Kazera and Chamberssen split up; Kazera heads back to the ship, while Chamberssen goes to the wordbearer post. He doesn't see anything that he needs to pick up, but he does have an envelope to deliver to someone called Wir. He asks around a bit and learns that Wir is an ektus, and can usually be found at a pub called Barb. He heads down the road and turns at someplace where a hole in the hull has been patched. He notes a gau touching the patch almost wistfully. Chamberssen makes contact and asks if she knows where Barb is; she tells him she'll show him. She stands up and one of her scarves (she is dressed in long, flowing fabrics) kind of pats him on the shoulder. Chamberssen realizes that all of her fabric is moving some. 

She leads him down the alley to a pub marked by a sign reading "Barb," held up with huge fishhooks. Chamberssen thanks her and enters, and notes that this place is an ektus bar - most of the clientele are ektus, a few gau, and one ironbound behind the bar. Chamberssen asks for a drink of whatever's local and good, and the ironbound draws him a glass of some black liquid. He tastes it and finds it has a strangely nutty taste. It's also making him hear whispers from the corners. 

He asks after Wir, and the bartender points him to the corner. Chamberssen approaches, and finds that Wir is an ektus with spikes up and down both arms - these spikes are longer and thicker than most ektus spines. She also wears a couple of pistols on her hips. A slinger, then. 

Chamberssen delivers the letter and she opens it with one of her spines. She reads it and mutters something in Brasstongue, which Chamberssen doesn't understand. He does, however, receives whispers from the dark corners and notes that Wir's demeanor isn't frustrated or annoyed. Actually she seems excited. Chamberssen tries to note the phrase she said so that he can ask Rozek (who speaks a little Brasstongue) about it later. He asks Wir if she has any messages that need delivered, and she questions him about their route. She doesn't have messages, she says, but maybe they'd transport her to Emerald Wheel? 

On the ship, Rozek emerges from her cabin and sees Dusty Fields for the first time (she can still taste light, but it's fading. That was good tea). She sees a few of the undercrew arguing with a couple of large fellows, and intervenes. The thugs - an ardent called Salas, and an ektus called Luarig - tell her they're here for the honey. She of course has no idea what they're talking about, and they tell her that their boss, Fetio, told them to come collect the honey as part of a deal someone on the crew made. "An ironbound?" she asks. "No, tzelicrae." "Ah." She makes them a cup of tea and goes to have the undercrew bring the honey out. As she does, she sees Tzitik and Kazera approaching with a cart full of scrap (Kazera met up with him as he was leaving the market).

"You traded all of our honey?" she asks. "Honey can be exchanged for goods and services," Tzitik responds. Rozek rubs her temples and tells Tzitik that in future, they're not to trade cargo without checking with the rest of the officers first. She also starts calling him "Sticky," but that's incidental. Chamberssen comes back and passes the thugs as they're leaving with the honey. He explains what he's been up to, and repeats the Brasstongue phrase for Rozek as best he can. She doesn't catch all of it, but the second half translates to "kill that machine". Might that be an ironbound? Maybe, but the marker that would indicate that "machine" in this context means "living being" would have been in the first part of the sentence. 

The crew talks over what they'd like to buy for their ship, and then takes a breather for a couple of hours. That evening, they all head to meet Estramu, who unrolls a sketch he did of their ship and asks what they'd like done. 

They ask for more cargo space; he says he can knock out a wall and widen some things. He'll also put some canvas netting on one side and a container of loam (for transporting unstable or dangerous substances). They want an outrider ship, and Estramu says he can cut open the back of the ship and refashion part of the hull into doors. He takes them to a small bay to look at some outriders, and they pick one with a flatbed (able to haul people or stuff). He tells them all this will take a few days, and has them move the ship around to the dry dock. 

The next morning, the crew is awakened by the workers starting to cut open the ship. They decide to go and explore. Kazera and Tzitik go back to the market. Chamberssen goes back to the Barb. Rozek goes to find food to learn what's tasty in local cuisine.

She finds a guy running a huge grill, with various bugs and animals cooking. They chat a bit, and she buys some lunch. She asks him if he's got recommendations for ingredients for making fermented tea, and he tells her to head to an alchemist in the market. He's got a powder that helps speed and stabilize fermentation.

Meanwhile, Tzitik and Kazera look around. Kazera chats with other ironbound, and Tzitik swipes a small jar of black powder from a store. He then notes a strange looking person - an ironbound, but instead of a collection of parts from ships, it's a construct that looks very much like an ardent. But it's also wearing a coat with an amazingly intricate pattern embroidered on it. As Tzitik watches this person, they spot an ektus watching him - an ektus with pistols on her hips. Recognizing Wir from Chamberssen's descriptions, Tzitik scampers up a wall and watches. They figure Wir is going to kill this dude; this was the "machine" she was after.

Rozek arrives and finds the alchemist, a gau, who's presently counting his jars of black salt, as he seems to be missing one. Rozek trades for some of the powder and some oak tea leaves, and talks shop for a minute. Kazera joins her (looking for Tzitik), and a moment later the construct that Tzitik was watching comes into the shop and strikes up a conversation. He introduces himself as Lod, and is very polite and erudite. He tells them he traded for this cloak in a place called Zalan's Rest, but if the markings have any significance he doesn't know it. 

Eventually, they head back to the ship. Tzitik follows when it becomes clear that Wir isn't going to attack her quarry in public, and Chamberssen meets them (now pretty drunk on blacknut whiskey). 

They all exchange notes, and Tzitik reveals that Wir seems to be stalking Lod. Kazera isn't willing to let this assassination happen, and heads back out into town. Rozek goes along to find Wir, and Tzitik goes along to watch. Chamberssen says he'll catch up, but for now, he needs a little lie down.

Wildsea: A New Journey Begins!

That kinda makes it sound like we started a new game. We didn't, the crew of the Heart of the Seeker has just embarked on a new journey after leaving Stonebark.

So, last time, the crew had talked about returning to Tart, the settlement they previously visited that produces vinegar. Thinking about it more, though, they decided they'd rather go someplace new. Part of that is just their natural wanderlust, and part of it is that Chamberssen has messages to deliver and none of them are going to Tart. After all, he just talked with Sagave, the wordbearer on the Drumheller, and traded her the small wooden box he was given in Tart for a ring with a strange inscription on the inside. He also still has that weird canvas that shows the Conflagration in the moonlight (that is, in the moonlight it shows the Conflagration, but otherwise it's blank), as well as a more conventional envelope. That last is addressed to one "Captain Mak" of the Emerald Wheel.

The crew has heard of the Emerald Wheel - it's a spit with a huge mill where they grind nuts and acorns into flour. The mill is apparently powered by the local fauna, but none of them are sure how it works, and they're interested to see it. So with that destination in mind, they start planning their journey.

Kazera recruits some new undercrew from the folks on Stonebark, and gets some enthusiastic response. After all, there's a dearth of housing here now, and there are some folks who would rather get the hell away from this place. 

Chamberssen grabs the Chart of the Firebloom Prairie and maps out a route. They can pass by the honey-hive they saw on their way to Tart, and taking that route puts them past both a copse of Fightersap trees (so named for the explosive sap they produce - dangerous to harvest and carry but very valuable to the right buyer) and a ramshackle float of ships called Dusty Fields, not stable but known to house some talented shipwrights.

Tztik gathers some of the cockroaches from the island and puts together a little habitat. They are still intent on Varying the Hive, incorporating different bugs into their makeup, and they figure the roaches would be a useful addition if they can figure out how to make it work.

They set off in the morning. Tztik takes the helm (this would later become regarded as a mistake). They pour on the speed, forging a path through the wildsea, while Kazera watches the weather, Chamberssen stands on lookout, and Rozek starts making a chart. Kazera notes that a storm is coming, and it will probably hit tomorrow. Chamberssen notes what looks like...no, can't be...FIRE?!

Chamberssen sounds the general alarm, and Tztik employs all of the limbs and skill to stop the ship short. They do manage it, but there's a horrible wrenching sound from the runners and the crew winces, knowing some damage has been done. Fortunately, though, what Chamberssen saw wasn't fire, it was an immense, conical plant with brilliant reds and yellows on its body, and from a distance it resembled flame. 

Making the best of it, Rozek harvest some of the pollen from the Giant Soursweet plant, and Chamberssen grabs a leaf as they pass by. They note some bees, too, and figure they're on the right track. Rozek notes the Giant Soursweet on the map, and they continue on to the Honey-Hive Tree. Chamberssen notes that they're near the Firebloom Prairie, but that the flowers aren't in bloom presently, which means the bees are ranging further out to get their pollen (including to the Soursweet).

They pull up near the giant ironwood, and Rozek spends some time making a fireless smoking agent with the help of Pearl, her little salamini. Chamberssen tries to watch the bees to get a sense of their movements, but he falls asleep and dreams of the Firebloom, realizing as his former comrade Jakesta once did that the Firebloom Prairie is a garden, somehow cultivated deliberately. Tztik takes over learning about the bees, but takes a more direct route and assimilates and controls a couple of them to act as sleeper agents of a sort. 

The next morning, Chamberssen sets up guideropes with the undercrew's help, and Rozek goes into the tree and starts collecting honey. With Tztik's decoy bees (beecoys?) she collects enough to fill a space in the ship's cargo hold, and the Heart moves on, just out of reach of the storm. 

As they approach their next stop, the Fightersap Copse, Kazera (now on watch) spots a wrecked ship. Always happy for salvage, they pull up alongside and examine it. It's a small ship, a sloop, and Chamberssen notes the name of it painted on the side in Highvin - Thunder of Kosmers. None of them have heard of it, and the port side of the ship is sticking up, but largely covered in vegetation. 

Tztik jumps off the Heart with a guiderope and lands on the Thunder, while Chamberssen and Kazera take a more reasonable approach and ride down on the magnet dredge. Tztik notes movement in the wreck, something that sounds serpentine. Chamberssen starts pushing some of the vegetation out of the way, and the vines in the ship grab the ironwood branch he was using and yank it out of his hands! Kazera, who grew up (so to speak; she didn't really "grow" anywhere) on the wildsea, recognizes these things as a snarevines, a carnivorous plant that will grab whatever they can, wrap it up, and then slowly suck the nutrients out of organic matter. She hacks her way in, figuring (correctly) that they won't bother her, and the sailors see something in the cargo hold of the Thunder, covered in vines.

Whatever it is, it's about four feet high and two feet wide - a barrel, maybe? Something on it glitters, so it might be metallic. They use the dredge to pull up the starboard side of the Thunder so they can actually get into the hold (and in the process, Chamberssen finds a prosthetic leg pulled up from the tangle by the magnet - from a crew member?) and hack the vines away, at which point it becomes clear that this thing is a seed - it's just very big. Tztik uses a whisper (Nothing is Forgotten) and learns that this thing has hacked out of a nut, and then stolen, and people died in the process. Chamberssen touches it, and his Voltaic Mantle reacts with the fuzz on the side of the seed, making sparks. That fuzz is metallic, and that's the glitter they saw.

Obviously this is worth taking! Kazera picks it up and they take it back to the ship, where Rozek scrapes a little of the fuzz and makes a tea, Reading the Remains. Those "leaves" settle into the form of a star, and Rozek realizes this thing is a "Starcore Seed," but none of them have ever heard of such as thing. They put it in the cargo hold - if this thing is worth killing over, it's valuable to someone. Chamberssen, now on cartography duty, omits the wreck of the Thunder of Kosmers on the map they're making, just in case it's not a good idea to advertise that they've been here.  

Back on the Heart, the crew continues on! They arrive at the Fightersap trees later in the day, and Tztik and Rozek build a box in the cargo hold to safely transport a bottle or two of this stuff. And then Rozek heads over to the trees, which are thin and tall, with papery birch-like bark. She peels off the bark and scrapes the sap (gently!), collecting enough to sell, and then the Heart moves along.

But the next evening, a fog comes up and the sky goes green. The fog is thick, almost thick enough to taste, and the sailors order the lanterns lit (remember, no fire on the wildsea, so lanterns usually work on bioluminescent creatures and can be shuttered to "extinguish" them). Rozek gets up on the kite-tether to keep a broader watch, and notices the lights going out, so she yells to relight them. And then the lantern she has with her goes out. She relights it, and she sees the fog reach a tendril out and close it again!

She pulls a tool from her kit and has Pearl heat it up, and pushes it out into the fog. It sizzles and the fog retreats, and somewhere on the deck the sailors hear a crew member yell for help. Kazera runs up and sees an undercrew member getting pulled overboard while others hold his arms, and she pull the poor dude back in. The fog itself is alive!

The fog lashes out, striking the sailors and knocking the undercrew around, and Kazera gets on the storm rail cannon. She fires a bolt out into the fog, cutting through it, and the ship turns and escapes. Chamberssen marks "the Living Fog" on the map, and the ship moves on. 

The next day is uneventful and smooth. Rozek spends some time making some new tools for her apothecary kit with Charness' help, Chamberssen contemplates a whisper (Well Enough Alone) to free himself of the sad old secrets tugging at his dreams, Kazera watches movement and fauna off the ship, and Tztik continues their practice of mesmerism. Rozek notices a bee from the Honey Hive Tree has stowed away, and wonders if she could train it to find flowers and pollen for them.

Tztik, now on watch, points out a caravan of traders riding huge beetles! The leader of the caravan signals to them, and they stop to trade. The leader raises a veil off their face to reveal a tzelicrae like Tztik, and the crew trades some goods. 

Tztik has a vial of venom from one of their spiders, and trades it for a crown of blades ("Made of blades to punish those with fleshy heads," says the Trader, "but friends" - indicating Tztik and Kazera - "without fleshing heads would not be harmed and might wear crown for decorative"). Tztik takes it, planning to take it apart and made weapons from the blades. They also show the Trader the bone key they've been carrying, and the Trader says that without knowing what it's for it's not really worth trading. Considering, though, the Trader calls out one of their crew, an ardent, who tells Tztik that there's a small spit called Zalan's Rest where unsavory sorts gather. He remembers that Zalan has a bone chest and a standing offer that anyone who can open it eats free. 

Chamberssen trades the mysterious coin and the inscribed metal disc he's been carrying. He finds a coat made to look like a waterfall, and a mirror that reflects the room it's in, but...different, as though in a different time or place. He also asks if the caravan has a wordbearer. It does, an ardent named Melona. She hears that they're headed for Dusty Fields, and gives Chamberssen an envelope for someone there ("This will be delivered.").

Rozek trades the blue paste she got from the Americium Pool for a bloodstained scalpel. The Trader assures her that the blood on it is not ardent; they know the taste of ardent blood. That's fine, Rozek figures she can just clean it, and then it's a perfectly good tool. 

Kazera trades a chunk of red quartz for a bottle of polish that an organic being could use to length their fingernails. She doesn't know what it'll do for her, but it's probably going to come in handy (so to speak) at some point.

The crew of the Heart bids farewell to the Beetle Caravan, marks the spot of the encounter on their map, as well as the shipping lane they're in as they approach Dusty Fields. Rozek finishes up the Salty Honey Trade Route chart as they pull in. Next time, we shall see what awaits them there!  

Wildsea: The Madness of Stonebark

Yesterday we played some Wildsea! Here's last time.

Our heroes are still at the spit of Stonebark, where the population has been infected by the bite of a venomous cockroach. Said bite causes hallucinations, paranoia, mania, and an obsessive belief that other people are going to eat you. They've managed to come up with a cure that not only purges the poison but inoculates against further bites. Now the trick is getting it into the villagers.

They decide to set up some ambush sites on the island, and then have Tztik spin some webs to trap villagers. Then they can drive them towards said webs, drag them to the ship, and give them the cure. They decide they need a base on the island, so they decide to also fortify the community building (which they found back here). 

Chamberssen takes a few of the undercrew onto the spit to set up some ambush sites, finds a likely spot, and hears a thud and a wet gurgle from behind him and sees one of his undercrew pinned to a tree with a spear. Realizing that this ambush site is perhaps not giving the sort of ambush they wanted, Chamberssen heads further into the island. He finds a wheelbarrow in the brush, obviously left there for a long time, covered in moss and earth. He spots something shiny under it and goes to prod it over, when a bunch of chitinous legs emerge! Some kind of crab is living in the wheelbarrow, and it grabs Chamberssen's leg, breaks his ankle, and starts pulling his foot towards its mouth. 

Chamberssen lets loose his Voltaic Mantle, shocking the crab into letting go and retreating into its wheelbarrow-shell, but the Ketra is now officially injured and the undercrew is demoralized. They head back to the ship and Rozek patches him up, and Chamberssen gets put in the sick bay with Rokko while the others start working on this problem.

They decide to start with fortifying the community hall a bit. Kazera, Rozek, Tztik, and some of the undercrew head into the island, and Kazera finds some debris to block off doorways. Tztik strengthens it with webbing, and then they go find a better ambush site. They find a spot with a slight slope, meaning if they can drive people towards it, they should just fall into the webs. Tztik spins a bunch of webs, and they take this whole thing for a test run!

Kazera smashes through the underbrush and drives villagers toward the webs, and once they're entangled, heaves them to her shoulders and lugs them back to the community center. Rozek gives them the cure, and they start the process over again.

While setting up the site again, though, Tztik (scouting in the trees) notes that there's a ship approaching. It's not very big, but they can see a mothryn on a tether gliding above it. Kazera heads for the docks to wave them off so they don't get bitten. She gets there just in time - an ardent hops off the ship (labeled Drumheller) and hails her. 

Kazera notes a saprekk standing on the deck, leaning on a cannon (but not in a threatening way). She warns them about the roaches, and tells them to head back out into the thrash, but they'll signal when the threat is resolved. The captain doesn't seem to entirely believe her, but heeds the warning, and Kazera heads back into the interior.

The crew sets up the ambush site again, Rozek makes up a protein shake from worms and so forth to help Tztik regain their strength (they've been producing a lot of webbing), and they get back to work. Over time, they manage to capture and cure enough villagers that the villagers can start to help, and with their assistance they manage to hunt down, tackle, and cure the rest of Stonebark. 

The crew sticks around for a while, resting up, healing, and practice new skills. They also visit with the Drumheller's crew - turns out the saprekk, Sagave, is a wordbearer like Chamberssen, and they trade a couple of messages before parting ways. Rokko stays on Stonebark to help reclaim it, and the Heart of the Seeker makes ready to get underway. They decide to return to Tart, maybe trade for some more vinegar. 

Wildsea: Ghost vs. Spiders

We missed a month because of illness (been a rough spring), but back at it yesterday! Here's last time.

The wildsailors take some time to rest up - Tztik lures spiders with roach parts to assimilate into their hive, Chambersson gets Charness' help to mix up a soap with some algae to scrub off the oil that got dumped on him, and Kazera chops up some metal bits to replenish her rivet swarm. Rozek, however, gets right to work. She draws a blood sample from the Stonebark inhabitant they captured and makes what she thinks is an antidote for the roach venom. Come morning, they bring out their captive and she pours some down his throat. Moments later, he becomes lucid again.

There are some side effects - he's dizzy and can't really find "up" - but he's able to speak and not constantly hallucinating that people are going to eat him. He apologizes to Chambersson for stabbing him, and the undercrew takes him to the infirmary to rest up. The crew decides to wait a little before making more; they want to know if this is temporary, if the side effects get worse, and so on.

That night, while most of the crew sleeps, Kazera stands on the deck and watches the spit in the distance. She sees a soft glow in the thrash, and gets over to the front of the ship just in time to see it vanish underneath the hull. Reasoning that discretion is the better part of valor, she rings the alarm bells and wakes everyone up, and informs the others. She didn't really get a look at what it was, though, so maybe nothing harmful? After what they've experienced, though, the wildsailors don't want to take that chance.

Kazera, as the only one in the crew with any real ability to wavewalk, takes a few of the undercrew with her and slides down ropes to the thrash. The pull their way under the ship, and Kazera notes that the voltaic runners that propel the ship are screwing with her magnetic fields, which could be a problem if she needs to use her abilities. Ignoring that for the moment, they push their way underneath the ship, and see what looks like a humanoid figure.

Kazera calls out to it, and it turns. It's definitely human-looking, and from its clothes an inhabitant of Stonebark. But it's translucent and luminous - the figure reminds Kazera of Jakesta, the navigator. Before Kazera has much time to do more assessment than that, the being opens its mouth to an inhumanly wide degree, and lets out an unearthly scream!

The undercrew panics and runs. Kazera does likewise - she has no desire to fight whatever this is underneath the ship, in the thrash, this close to the runners. She pushes her way back to the ropes and the others haul the four of them up to the deck. The undercrew are babbling about ghosts, and Kazera confirms this person did indeed look spectral.

The sailors discuss, but they don't have long to wait. The figure appears on the side of the ship. The wildsailors look over the side, and the ghost looks hostile anyway, but when it sees Tztik - composed as they are of bugs - it screams in horror and flings daggers at them! 

Tztik swarms backwards and the daggers miss them. Rokko looks over the side and yells "Keru!" in recognition, and the others remember that Keru was the first person on Stonebark to be infected with the roach venom (he killed his sister and then was cast out into the wildsea). Keru responds by flinging more glowing knives, and Rokko falls with two in his chest. Rozek rushes to him and calls Charness for help, and the two of them manage to stabilize Rokko, but Keru floats upwards to face the crew.

Kazera tries to talk him down, and Chambersson helps - they point out that Tztik is made of spiders, not roaches. This helps momentarily, but Tztik, operating mostly on vicious instinct, strikes at the spirit with a tarnished letter opener they found somewhere. The spirit howls in...pain? rage?...and the letter opener rusts away and crumbles. Tztik feels their hive-mind start to de-cohere. 

Since diplomacy seems to have failed, Kazera hits it with her rivet swarm, but the ghost absorbs this violence, and Kazera feels the magnetism holding her together weaken as well. Tztik swarms over the ghost and bites, and Chambersson grabs Tztik, wrapping their arms around the cloak, and pulls them back. Tztik falls back on the "flight" part of fight-or-flight, dissolves into spiders and flees into dark corners.

Chambersson pulls out a metal disc that he found some time back and uses it to channel his electrical powers at the ghost. Rozek, still working with Charness on Rokko's wounds, speaks, using a Whisper: "I remain." The ghost grows slightly more solid and lands on the railing of the ship with the thump. The crew finally manages to get its attention, and Keru talks to him, if briefly.

It listens when Rozek tells it that she has a cure for the venom, and some part of Keru that still wants to protect his people hears. It breaks off the attack and drops into the wildsea, the glow fading as it moves away from the ship. 

The crew spends the rest of the night in contemplation and rest, and in the morning they check their patient. The venom still isn't affecting him, and his balance has returned. Rozek has the roach they caught bite him, just to see if the cure has immunized him, and while the bite tingles a bit he doesn't suffer the hallucinations or paranoia. Success!

Now all they have to do is figure out how to get the spit's other inhabitants to take it...

Wildsea: The Hills Have Roaches

Yesterday was Wildsea! We're down a character, since Jakesta's player can stepped out of the game, but we gained a spidery new friend (you'll see). Here's last time.

Our wildsailors have pulled up to the spit of Stonebark, the home of their passenger, Rokko. The Heart of the Seeker breaks through the fog, and they come up to a dock, but the dock has been smashed beyond repair. Rokko confirms that it wasn't like that when he left (over two years ago, granted). Chamberssen gets on the signalling lamps and sends a message ashore, but they don't get a response.

The characters - Chamberssen, Rozek, and Kazera, along with Rokko - wavewalk ashore and spot a man in a cloak further up the spit. Rokko recalls that there's a second dock around the other side of the spit, and the sailors call back to Charness on the boat to sail the ship around and meet them (they'd rather walk across the spit than try and wavewalk back; this decision will come back to haunt them). 

Anyway, they call and wave to the "man", and see the cloak kind of...deflate a little as the figure flows toward them. As they approach, they can see that it's a tzelicrae, a hive mind created for thousands of spiders. 

The tzelicrae introduces themselves as Tztik, and them seem very glad to meet new people. Rozek asks what happened here, and Tztik says that the people here went made, became hateful, and killed each other. This, of course, horrifies Rokko, and the group of them starts walking toward town to try and see what happened. 

The pass by what Rokko identifies as an inn, but one side of it has been smashed in. It doesn't look like it was done by the weather, but rather deliberately with hammers and axes. Likewise, the island has been mostly reclaimed by trees (plants grow quickly on the wildsea, and so plants retaking civilization is a constant concern if you're not doing upkeep, and clearly no one has been). 

As they get into town, Rokko spots his house. He tells the others that he lived her with his brother; both of them were craftsmen and carpenters, but his brother was more into building houses and he was more interested in ships, so he left Stonebark to find work elsewhere. Turned out that might have been wise. The characters see occasional flashes of movement in the trees, as though there are people watching them.

Rozek starts looking at the local plant life to find something that might be causing the madness here, and Chamberssen joins her. The plants look normal enough, but when she pulls her hand back there's a huge cockroach on her wrist. Chamberssen deftly moves it away, but it lands on his hand and bites him. He reflexively zaps it, but Rozek claps it in a jar for study and the group continues toward Rokko's house.

As they go, Chamberssen starts to realize that Rokko intends to slaughter and eat them all. That's why he's leading the to the house. He slows down and puts himself between Rokko and the others; Rokko doesn't notice and walks up to his house (now mostly collapsed). Rokko calls back to Kazera for a hand lifting a beam to get in, but Chamberssen is onto him.

"Hey, Rokko, how long ago did you say you left?" Chamberssen asks, suspicious. "I will kill you and eat your eyes," Rokko answers.

Well, no, that's just what Chamberssen hears. The others hear "uh, about two years, I think."

Chamberssen crackles with electricity, and hears Rokko say "That will just make you taste spicy!" The others start to realize what's happening, and Rozek uses a whisper (The Sigh of Steam) to calm Chamberssen and give him his mind a little. Chamberssen shakes off the effects of the bite for a second, and sleep claws at his mind, an old and dangerous friend. He collapses and passes out.

The wildsailors figure out pretty quickly what's happening now - these roaches carry a venom that induces paranoia and hallucinations. Tztik, for their part, knew the roaches were on the island, but as far as they knew they're just a local delicacy. Rozek chews up some willow bark she's been saving and spits it into Chamberssen's hand to draw out the venom, but otherwise they let him sleep. Tztik breaks themselves down into spiders-form (side note: Tztik is my son's character and he actually did the math, and figured out that based on the mass of a black widow spider Tztik is composed of approximately 62,000 spiders, which is a lot less than I'd have guessed) and flows into Rokko's house, killing and eating all the roaches they find. They also find a small key made of bone, and show it to Rokko. As far as he knows, it's nothing his brother ever used.

Kazera and Rokko lift the heavier debris so they can look around inside. Everything in here has been smashed, the roof's caved in, but no sign of Rokko's brother. They pick their way back out, and Rokko remembers that when he was leaving, there was a central "meeting house" being built. If there any records, they'd be there.

The wildsailors find said building - again, smashed up, but still standing. Kazera goes in (she's immune to cockroach bites, after all) and finds three books, exposed to the elements, but still potentially useful. She brings them back out and the characters discover that only one has writing; it's meant as a log of events in Stonebark (the other two, presumably, were going to house future volumes of said log). 

Rokko reads out what's there. The first few pages are just goings-on in the town; what ships happen by, what the town needs or could trade with, and so on. But then there's a record of a man name Keru who was out foraging but came back agitated and paranoid and that night stabbed his sister to death, claiming she was going to kill and eat him. The village decided Keru should be cast to the wildsea, and so he was. But then it happened to more people. The paranoia spread, and the last pages of the record with anything on them are just smears of blood. It looks like the village never even figured out what was causing this.

At this point, the characters decide to get the hell out of here. Tztik can't possibly eat all the roaches on the island, and Rozek thinks maybe she can make an antidote so they can maybe save the people who remain, but not here. Chamberssen wakes with a start (he's still pretty sure someone wants to eat him, but he's able to recognize that as the venom talking and keep it under control, thanks in part to Rozek's poultice). At this point, they realize that the Heart of the Seeker is all the way across the spit.

They start heading through the forest, finding what trails they can. Kazera and Tztik take the lead, Kazera pushing back the forest with her rivet swarm and Tztik eating whatever roaches cross their path. Kazera also finds a wooden box, apparently for messages - there are some letters in it, now damaged beyond repair by time and exposure, but also a small box containing a chunk of amber. The group continues on, but gets a little turned around and starts looking for the path again. They also start to hear voices and movement...the villagers are closing in.

Chamberssen casts about the forest floor with his long, hooked pipe, and it gets caught on something. He yanks it back and trips a rope trap, which dumps a bucket of...sap? Some thin, smelly liquid, anyway. It splashes on him and Kazera, and he realizes that whatever it is, it's preventing his natural bio-electricity from working. Kazera, too, feels it; it's acidic enough to sting.

Tztik spreads out a little to find the crazy people in the woods, and spots one about to throw a wooden club. The man hurls it at Rozek, but Tztik catches it deftly by growing another limb. The group starts to move again, but the villagers hurl spears. One pierces Chamberssen's side, and Rozek dodges one but steps in a hole and twists her ankle. 

Kazera lashes out with her rivet swarm, and something in the woods screams in pain, but the path is visible again! The group starts heading out, Rozek propping herself up on the spear that hit Chamberssen, and Tztik spreads out and wraps one of the villagers up in silk, dragging him along so Rozek can have a test subject. They make it to the treeline and see Charness waiting on the Heart, and he and the undercrew help them all back on. 

They sail out a ways (out of spear distance), but they are in no condition to leave. Rozek has a work to do, and Tztik wants to familiarize themselves with the ship. 

Wildsea: Radioactive Giants!

It's just the one giant, actually. Here's last time. 

Kazera and Chambersson come back on board the Heart of the Seeker, and Jakesta emerges from her rooms. She's been feeling a weird sense of deja vu ever since getting close to this spit, and it was a bit overwhelming for a while, but she's coping now. 

They explain what they found to her - the tunnels, the giant bug, the glowy blue rocks - and Jakesta, always the cautious one, worries about what effect these rocks might have. But Chambersson is interesting in establishing communication across the wildsea, and these rocks - which harmonize with each other when struck - might hold a way to do so. Rozek brews tea from the green moss she plucked from the top of the spit, and in drinking it she sees the bottom of her mug become the blue pool in the shaft, and something waiting inside it, beckoning, and understanding settle in. The realization of truth long forgotten, tantalizingly close...but then gone. This convinces Rozek that they're something down there worth investigating...

They decide to rest for the evening, and then in the morning go back into the cave, pull up some more rocks, and let Jakesta look around (since she suspects she may have some ancestral memories of this place). 

The crew takes some time to recuperate. Chambersson dreams of a slow, comforting, crushing weight and wakes up to find he's wrapped his blanket around his neck. Rozek grates up some ironwood to get her pet salimini, Pearl, back to snuff, but in the more poor Pearl looks listless and sick. 

Jakesta realizes that the glowing blue rocks have a detrimental effect on living things, and so they put the few they brought up in a box and put that box in another box to prevent things from getting any worse. And then Kazera, Jakesta, and Chambersson lower themselves down on the ship's magnet crane to reenter the tunnels. Chambersson doesn't borrow Rozek's furs this time, and she refuses to let Pearl go back down there, so Chambersson decides he'll only go as far as he can push himself before it gets too cold. Kazera and Jakesta, neither of them "alive" in the fleshy sense, shouldn't have any problems.

They enter the tunnel and make their way into the central shaft, and Jakesta remembers again that she has been here before - or maybe not her, precisely, but she has memories of building this place and putting the coolant in the pool. They approach the pool and Jakesta looks in, but realizes the danger of this place and advises leaving. 

Chambersson, though, still wants to grab some of the rocks - if the coolant nullifies the harmful energy, maybe they can take some of that, too? But would the rocks' sonic properties still work if the rocks are the coolant? Chambersson wants to experiment with them, but both Jakesta and Kazera feel this is a bit more risk than necessary...

And as they're arguing, a hand reaches out of the coolant pool, and then another. A torso pulls itself out, a torso make of the glowing rocks and held together with a circulatory system made of the coolant. "JAKESTA," it moans. 

Jakesta turns and sees the creature, and she starts to back up. She yells to Chambersson and Kazera to run, that it probably can't hurt her; she's already dead. "NOT DEAD ENOUGH!" it booms, and reaches for her. 

The creature's fingers strike her just as she goes spectral, but it hurts and drives her back. The creature, which Jakesta somehow knows is called Americium, recoils, and the three of them flee. Chambersson paws through the tunnels, remembering the quickest way back, and finds a crack in the walls. He figures he can make a barrier and starts beating it with a pipe he carries. Kazera catches up and digs her fingers in to help, and they cause a minor cave-in, trapping Americium further down the tunnel. But they've also found a small room...

Jakesta looks into the room and sees that there are a bunch of placards on the walls, all written in unfamiliar writing. She instinctively grabs one and the three of them head back to the crane and pound on the cable.

Rozek hauls them up and they clamber onto the ship. Jakesta hands the placard off to a crew member and tells him to get it to someone who can translate it, but another one points to the island and asks if that is the monster that chased them. They see Americium burst up through the spit (probably out of the loose covering they made when they got here to keep the bug-monster away) and roar in rage and pain.

Jakesta uses a whisper (Hidden Sins) to quiet the crew and keep them focused on their jobs, and Rozek straps into the Storm Rail gun and fires a blast at the creature. It recoils, bits of rock flying off of it, but then lunges out across the wildsea at them. The Heart sets off, the voltaic runners on overdrive trying to outrun it, and Kazera goes to find the box of rocks and throw it overboard.

Chambersson, however, has already removed a couple of them and put them behind the Leviathan Heart in the engine room where no one will notice them. He's not ready to give up on his ideas of long-distance communication quite yet.

Rozek blasts Americium with the Storm Rail again, and more of the rocks and coolant fly off. Americium sinks into the tangle, and the Heart sails on, apparently to safety. Kazera throws the box of rocks overboard, just to be sure.

As things calm down, Jakesta gets the placard to Chambersson, and he translates the markings - apparently salt can be employed to siphon off the baleful energy from the blue rocks. Rozek has some table salt, but not nearly enough, and she demands they plot a course to somewhere they can buy some salt so she can heal her little friend Pearl. Jakesta thumbs through the Captain's Log they got from the Sanguine Dress, and finds there's a marking of an island that sells salt. The Heart sets sail, Rozek at the helm and forging ahead to get there quickly. They pass by a curious tree, with holes in the branches that whistle when the wind blows, but have no time to stop and investigate.

They arrive at the quarry - it's a huge, rectangular stone island with a big hole in the middle where they take the salt rocks out, and immense steam-powered grinders that crush it down to powder and bag it. There are docks for ships all around, but they're all full. The Heart pulls up next to a ship called the Gallant Wren, and a Gau on the deck halloos them.

Rozek calls back and asks how this works; the Gau, who introduces himself as Odsin, says that you just get in line, but it can take a while. She says that theirs is a medical emergency ("For which you need salt?" "YES." "Oh...sure, I don't know how you fleshy people work, I guess."), and Odsin agrees to trade his ship's place in the queue for the Chart of the Brittle Circle (there's a Gau colony near there, and Odsin is very interested!).

The Heart pulls up to the quarry and, after some haggling, trades the copper piping in their hold for some bags of salt. They pull away and Rozek gets to work treating it, and after an initial failure that results in a minor explosion and some smelly smoke, she figures it out. She mixes up enough of the treated salt to leach away the radiation from little Pearl, and starts the process for herself, Kazera, and Chambersson.

Where to now? Rokko, their passenger, reminds them of his existence, and they decide to head for Stonebark (which is actually where they were going when they found the Americium Spit). They set sail again, and Chambersson draws a map as they go. They come to a trading post - what used to be a big cargo ship that's now moored in place (and surrounded by ebony-black ivy leaves, as well as multiple signs saying "NO SINGING"). They disembark and enter the main building, and ask why the prohibition on singing. The proprietor only says that the black leaves react to singing, and leaves (lol) it at that.

They do some trading, a bag of salt for some trinkets - Jakesta finds a sword, Rozeks gets some willow wood and some actual tea, Kazera picks up a pair of iron hatchets, and Chambersson finds a metal disc inscribed with some weird writing. They set sail once again, and they spot Stonebark in the distance, just as a thick fog comes up. 

They circle the island for the night, resting, and wait for the fog to break. In the morning, it's at least thinner, and they head ashore to see whether Stonebark is as Rokko remembers it.

Wildsea: Rocks Shouldn't Glow

Yesterday we played Wildsea for the first time in three goddamn months. Here's last time!

Our wildsailors pull up to the spit that sank the Sanguine Dress. They realize that it might stick out of the thrash to a greater or lesser degree depending on what the "waves" are doing, and it wouldn't be hard for a ship to slam into it if it were mostly submerged (which is what happened to the Dress). They feel a notable drop in temperature as they get closer, and they smell loam and moss and earth. They also notice that the base of the spit is wrapped in vines that descend below the surface into the tangle, but the spit itself is covered in thick green moss...and these two things share a root structure.

They pull up near the spit and decide to wait until morning to go ashore. Rozek brews some tea to help Chambersson and herself with the wounds they've suffered (Chambersson got hit with a spike thrower some days back and it's still bothering him). Chambersson drinks the tea appreciatively, and he and Kazera busy themselves with their own interests before sleeping. 

In the morning, they take three undercrew and head ashore (Jakesta elects to stay behind on the ship, for reasons known only to her own ghostly self [her player was absent]). Obviously Rozek takes samples of the green moss, and Chambersson peeks over the edge to see if one could, say, use the vines to climb down the side of the spit. One could, in fact, if one wanted to risk the other dangers of the tangle. 

Kazera pulls up some of the moss to see what's beneath, and finds a hollow in the stone. The sailors discover that it leads deeper into the spit, but it's not a straight drop; there are landings and ledges. They decide to enter, but slowly - Chambersson and one of the undercrew go first to blaze their trail, while Kazera and another crew member follow, lodge spikes in the rock and stringing rope to give them a way back.

Chambersson is doing all right, though he is still suffering from sparks and jolts (from mire) and that makes it slow going. And then he comes to a place where the tunnel splits unexpectedly, and he and the crewman he's with both slide down different spokes! He selflessly tosses the other guy a the rope and wedges himself into the tunnel with his limbs (and tentacles), and listens to the whispers in the dark - there's something in here, something powerful and valuable, but dangerous.

The crew member scrambles back and tells Kazera what's happened and she tosses the rope down to Chambersson and hauls him back. As he's climbing, he hears something move in the dark, and the crew decide maybe this isn't the best approach. Chambersson and the crew head back to the surface, but on the way he bumps against the sides of the wall, his spike wound leaving a smear of his blue blood behind. Kazera, meanwhile, chips into the rock to see if she can find any interesting samples and finds a rusted iron spike. Another crew of explorers has been this way before...

This turns out to be a good thing, because the thing that was moving follows them.

It scuttles up out of the darkness, an immense creature like a giant house centipede, but translucent and with a slight blue glow. It ignores Kazera entirely, following the blood trail that Chambersson left, but Kazera hurls the rusted spike she found at it along with her rivet swarm. It backs off enough for her to get ahead of it, and the crew puts the moss back over the whole and weighs it down with rocks (and Kazera). 

They aren't ready to give up yet - Chambersson senses something important inside the spit, he's dream of a pool of impossibly cold water, somehow cooled deliberately, but to what purpose? Rozek, who is not built for delving and is not so interested in being frozen (she was, after all, raised out in the cold), stays on the spit to anchor ropes while Kazera and Chambersson climb down the sides of the spit on the vines. She does, however, loan Chambersson her furs and Pearl, her pet salamini, to keep him warm (Kazera isn't affected by the cold but Chambersson is especially susceptible).

They find a spot where the vines hide a gap in the stone and Kazera punches through it, and climb into the interior. This tunnel, unlike the one they were in before, is man-made - the stone is smooth and shaped in a way that Chambersson cannot identify. He tries to light up the area with his voltaic mantle but can't quite get it steady enough, and Rozek sends down a lantern on a rope instead. The two of them venture further in, and the chamber opens up into an immense shaft in the center of the spit.

They see a blue glow, and realize that there are rocks further down that are producing it. At the very bottom is a pool of water, with no current but somehow in random motion. The temperature drops precipitously as they descend, but Chambersson is fascinated by this water and these weird rocks. He and Kazera work at one until they dislodge it from the walls, and find it's kind of formed there like a salt deposit. But then Kazera taps it, it produces a ringing sound that harmonizes with all the others, and the sound echoes up the shaft and out over the Wildsea. 

Chambersson holds the rock and peers closer, but then he realizes that it's making his hands tingle and he tastes metal. He gives it back to Kazera to hold onto, and asks her to take a sample of the water as well. She does, but when she dips her hand into the water she feels the cold - which shouldn't be possible. The rivets and metal swirling around her also start to drop and lose power, and she pulls her hand back out. She takes a sample in a jar, but they decide to head up. Whatever this is, it's unquestionably powerful, and these rocks would make amazing cargo...

...and yet, as they ascend, they both feel strange. Chambersson returns the furs to Rozek, and she starts to feel it, too. What strange energies have they been exposed to? And what long-term effects might they have?

Wildsea: PIPES

Back into the Wildsea! Splash! Or rather, um, rustlerustlearrrghthecrezzerin. Here's last time.

The crew of the Heart of the Seeker got into a barfight last time, and kinda got their butts kicked a bit. They figure, however, that they're aren't in any particular danger on their ship at the Tart docks - sure, Zeku and his friends might hold a little grudge, but it's not likely they're going to raise a posse and hunt anyone down. They take the night to rest and recover - Rozek mixes up a poultice of honey and vinegar to treat her cuts, Jakesta and Chambersson start practicing fighting so that this won't happen next time, and Kazera breaks up a rusted cup she found to replenish the chunks of metal in her rivet swarm.

In the morning, they consider their options. They talk about taking on some cargo to sell, but they don't really have much to trade with to get cargo. They do, however, have a line on a ship to salvage - the Sanguine Dress, the ship Clanksburg was on when it went down. They decide to go find that thing, since they have a map to it, and spend the morning getting ready to go. 

Rozek goes to visit Lightrime, the ironbound chef, and asks if, when they return, she might come back for another lesson. Lightrime says they'd be happy to do that, and Rozek asks if there's anything the Heart might bring back for them. They tell her that if they happen to stop by the big ol honey-tree (which the crew passed on the way into town), and they can do so safely, maybe get some honeycomb? Lightrime has honey, but wants the wax.

Chambersson and Jakesta go to the wordbearer post in Tart. Most towns have these, places where people take letters and packages they want delivered, and a wordbearer eventually comes through, takes them, swears the oath (This Will Be Delivered), and goes about it. There are a bunch of letters and packages in the post, and Chambersson, not wanting to overload himself, picks up a letter and what looks like a blank canvas in a wooden frame. 

Jakesta notes that there's a gau here dropping off a package, and says that she's looking for someone - maybe he could help? The gau looks uncertain, but then Jakesta describes the person that she saw last night in the bar who said (whilst leaving) that he knew how Jakesta died. The gau says, from the description, that it sounds like Ippet, an ardent who used to be a wildsailor but now lives here in Tart. Noting that Jakesta is with Chambersson, the gau asks that Chambersson take on his package as well - a small, rectangular box. Chambersson agrees ("this will be delivered"), and they head back to the ship.

And back on the ship, Kazera is directing the undercrew in preparations to ship out. She hears an "ahoy there!" from the dock, and sees an ardent man, short in stature but very wide and with a big potbelly and huge bushy beard, calling up to her. He asks if they're shipping out and if they might consider taking on a passenger. Kazera invites him up and notes that he has tools for working metal and wood on his belt. He says that he's happy to trade his skills for passage, and Kazera says that she's willing, but needs to talk to the others first. The man, Rokko, takes up residence in a cabin to wait.

The others return and Kazera explains the situation, and the others agree. Rokko wants to go to the spit he grew up on (if it's still there), but he's not in a hurry. The crew agrees, and they set out, making their destination the wreck of the Sanguine Dress! 

They zip across the thrash out of sight of Tart, and then Kazera (on watch) and Rozek (on weather-watch) spot a storm coming, But as they peer closer at it, they see what look like tentacles in the clouds and hear voices in the thunder. They've all heard tales of living storms, and they have no desire to meet one up close. 

Jakesta tries to steer them away from the storm, but misjudges where it is and actually steers closer. But she does find the wreck of the Dress - they can see parts of it in the thrash, and every so often a gout of steam jets up (Clanksburg said it was steam-powered). The living storm is still distant (though closer than they'd like), and the crew considers whether they should explore the wreck or come back later. They also, however, notice another ship approaching. Jakesta peers through the spy-glass, and sees that the hull is painted with stormclouds and the crew has tattoos and face painting depicting lighting. The captain, too, is wearing big rectangular sheets of metal, but their face is obscured. 

The crew asks their passenger, Rokko, if he has any idea what's happening here, and he says he's heard stories of the "Storm Hive", a tzelicrae who captains a crew - or a cult - or storm-worshippers. The crew wonder how these folks will respond to their ship, which rides on voltaic runners. 

Rozek snorts a big handful of bloompollen and lets the visions take her. She sees - feels - pressure, from the oncoming storm, from the storm-chasers, and from the wreck itself - and knows that if the pressure isn't relieved, something will explode. She feels that if they don't salvage the wreck soon, it might not be here tomorrow. The crew decide to take their chances with the storm-chasers, and lower Chambersson on the magnet crane to scout out the wreck.

He sees a big hole in the hull, and pipes running all along in the inside of the ship. Every so often one bursts open and spews steam, and he realizes that the pipes are rattling - attracted by the magnet! He yells to the others to turn it off, and then returns to the ship and opines that maybe Kazera should go down (she's a screw, and is therefore more conversant with metal).

Kazera and Jakesta lower down on the crane, and start working on relieving the pressure so they can safely remove the pipes. They spot a valve that looks important, but it's hard to reach. Kazera takes a different tactic, she talks to the ship itself, and the ship howls in pain - the pressure is too much! It tells her that in the captain's room, the pressure can be relieved, and Kazera and Jakesta start picking their way through the ship.

Meanwhile, on deck, the storm-chaser ship glides close and Rozek and Chambersson see them pointing at the runners and the rail cannon. They take the initiative and use the shutter-lamps to signal "everything's fine, no assistance needed" and the ship signals back "acknowledged, see you soon, storm-runners" and pass them by. 

Down in the ship, they reach the captain's room, and it's full of valve that are, for the most part, unlabeled. (They also find a Captain's Log, but that's no help.)  Kazera asks the ship again, but it doesn't know which valve does what, and it's not sure about concepts like "color" or "see." Kazera instead touches the valves and lets the ship guide her to the right ones, and little by little lets out the steam in the ship, averting the possibility of explosion. The ship sighs in relief, and Kazera and Jakesta get to work ripping out pipes. They check the cargo hold, but it's full of serpents in a big pile, and although the serpents pose no threat to them, they aren't interested in disturbing them.

They retrieve a bunch of pipes and raise them up with the magnet. Kazera also notes a strange blue substance on the hole in the hull, maybe residue from whatever the ship hit. She takes a sample to give to Rozek, and the crew gets underway.

They want to go back to Tart at some point, but they also want to go to Stonebark, the spit that Rokko called home (if it's still there). They decide to do that first, and to take a roundabout way there and see what they see in the meanwhile. Jakesta goes on watch while Chambersson takes them helm. Kazera goes on weather-watch and sees nothing but clear skies and moonlight!

Chambersson finds the canvas he took on to deliver and asks Rokko if there's a way to protect it or secure it; Rokko says he'll build a better box for it. Chambersson also notes that in moonlight, images appear. He sees the Conflagration in the background, a ship moving across the thrash away from it in the foreground, and a person standing on the deck holding what looks like a small flame. "Well, that's not a good omen," murmurs Chambersson.

Jakesta, on watch, spots a land mass (using Captain's Log + The Past Abides in Stone to make a discovery, if you're interested) and figures that must be what the Dress hit. Chambersson decides to drop anchor for the night, and in the morning, they'll explore this tiny spit. He dreams of the stone, descending down into the trees, past the sink and into the drown, and at the bottom, into a deep, deep pool of icy water. He knows that this lake was man-made, not natural, and that those who made it also made it cold on purpose. He also knows that it has changed the stone somehow.

Next time, perhaps we'll find out what that means!

Wildsea: Barfight!

Yesterday we played The Wildsea. Let's get vinegary! (I promise it makes sense. Here's last time.)

Recall that The Heart of the Seeker had pulled in to a port, and they had noticed a few things: There are a bunch of ships in port, all marked in Highvin (the difficult-to-learn and primarily written language used by treasure-hunters and historians). The air also tastes sour and acidic, and they can hear high-pitched whimpers or whines. They spot a well-dressed mothryn standing on the dock, and figuring him to be a dockmaster or something, Jakesta jumps down to talk to him. 

The mothryn turns out to be not a dockmaster, but still someone of some importance in the area. The town is called Tart, and the primary industry here is the production of vinegar (useful product, applicable in cleaning, preservation, cooking, chemistry, etc.). He tells Jakesta that ships here are required to be marked in Highvin, and he's happy to do it for the Heart if they don't have anyone on board who can write the language (Jakesta says they do). He goes back on board and tells the others what's doing, and they all hop down and talk to Ollingwood more. 

Ollingwood tells them that he co-owns one of the three big vinegar concerns here in Tart: Liquid Amber (he hands Chambersson a small bottle to sample, and he promptly gives it to Rozek). The other two are Hollek Barrel, which produces large quantities of very functional and basic vinegar and is run by an ektus, and Stern Astern, which produces small batches of highly concentrated vinegar meant for cooking, run by an ironbound named Lightrime. 

The town produces all this vinegar in part because this place isn't a spit, it's a mountaintop - a permanent settlement. It has a natural spring, so fresh water isn't a problem. The crew tells Charness, their mothryn medic, to make sure to get some water while they're here, and then they prepare to explore the town.

Chambersson paints the ship's name in Highvin, and then goes off into town, searching for rumors about the place's geology. He winds up talking to a fellow named Zeku, who promises to take a Chart ("The Junction Network") to someone who knows all about it and come back with more info, and then disappears. Ollingwood spots Chambersson and tells him that Zeku is a known con artist and thief, and he probably isn't going to get that Chart back.

Jakesta and Kazera go to the shipyard and talk to the proprietor. Kazera tells him about the load of red quartz they have in their hold, and he says that that would be superb barter material. He could improve their ship however they'd like - clean and calibrate the voltaic runners, add some armor plating, whatever. They decide to go and talk about it. Jakesta also learns that typically if one wants to take on a load of vinegar to sell, one buys it from one of the three concerns and then goes and sells it wherever one can (though the proprietors will give them directions on where to go to get a good price). Stern Astern stuff takes up less space and goes for a higher price, but finding a buyer is harder. Hollek Barrel vinegar is easy to sell, but Hollek generally insists on ships taking larger loads. Liquid Amber is kind of in the middle.

Rozek wanders the city and gets a sample of Stern Astern product (barely a tablespoon). She also learns that there a lot of smaller production concerns, mostly family-owned; they tend to just produce vinegar until they have enough to sell then try to find someone to ship it out. Liquid Amber, Hollek, and Stern Astern are just the ones that have been most successful. Hollek, in particular, owes much of their success to building a factory directly over the spring, so they control more of Tart's water supply than the others. 

The characters learn the other factor in vinegar production here - the screamers. Ollingwood shows Chambersson the pens of these great big lizards; sometimes they rear up and let out long mating calls, which is the whimpering sound that the characters heard upon arrival. Handlers come and scrape their teeth to collect the secretions (it's also harvested from their droppings, Ollingwood notes), and that chemical is used in the fermentation process. Ollingwood also notes that screamers don't exist in the wild anymore - they're bred here in Tart. 

The crew comes back together and talks over what's happened today. They decide to have the shipyard improve the Heart's speed in trade for the load of quartz. They also realize they still need to talk to Clanksburg so he can tell them the location of the Sanguine Dress, the ship he was on that went down, so they can salvage it. 

Jakesta finds Ollingwood talking with an ardent man with tattoos of bugs up and down his arms, and Ollingwood introduces the man as Wyeshin, a bug hunter and entomologist. Wyeshin has heard of the Heart of the Seeker, the ship powered by a Leviathan heart and a cocoon attached to it, and asks Jakesta to let him see it and perhaps take a little sample? Jakesta mentions that her friend Chambersson got robbed earlier ("Zeku," notes Ollingwood), and Wysehin says he'd be happy to show them where Zeku is. He gives Jakesta a little box and tells her to shake it up and open it whenever they're ready to talk.

The characters track down Clanksburg at the home/shop of Lightrime, the owner and proprietor of Stern Astern. As they approach, they smell delicious food cooking, and Lightrime insists they come in and eat (those that do eat). Lightrime outright says they're something of an oddity - an ironbound char. Jakesta asks how Lightrime cooks without a sense of taste, and Lightrime replies that cooking is chemistry, the balance of acids and salts and sugars, and one can learn that without tasting (though it is difficult). 

Lightrime gives them a salad made of greens and little mushrooms, and a tiny cup of vinegar to pour on it ("but eat quickly, if you leave the vinegar too long it will wilt the greens"). They all converse, and Rozek eagerly asks for tips on cooking and brewing. After they've eaten dinner, Jakesta and Chambersson take Clanksburg outside to talk about the Dress. He gives them a quick map and tells them that the Dress was powered by steam - iron and copper pipes ran throughout the length of the ship. The ship itself probably isn't saveable, but the pipes might be, and that would be a superb haul.

The characters have dessert, and Jakesta asks Lightrime where one might sell their wares? Lightrime says that they're between batches and don't have anything to sell at the moment, but Jakesta is more interested in going to new places anyway. Lightrime mentions "the Splinter," a long, tall spit where people live in dwellings attached to the side of the rock. Weight is a concern there, so anything that provide flavor without much volume is prized. 

The crew head back to the Heart. They decide to summon Wyeshin so they can find Zeku (Chambersson does not have a sense of humor about people taking his shit). Chambersson shakes up the box and releases a tiny, glowing bug, and it flies off into the town. A few minutes later, Wyeshin approaches. 

He again asks to see the engines of the Heart, and Chambersson detects no malice or ulterior motive in his bearing (though he does note that one of Wyeshin's tattoos is a brittle bug like the ones that crew just destroyed near here). Rozek trades the carcass of a lightning cicada for a messenger bug like the one Wyeshin have Jakesta to call him here, along with a tiny vial of liquid that attracts the bug. 

They show Wysehin the engine and he marvels at it, and takes gentle scrapings from both the heart and the cocoon. Then he has the group follow him into the seedier section of town, away from the spring, to a road house that clearly caters to a rougher clientele. "Zeku is in there," he says. "Best of luck!" 

The crew enters, and Chambersson spots Zeku playing a card game in the corner. He approaches and tells Zeku in no uncertain terms that he wants his Chart back. Zeku laughs and says that it's long gone. Chambersson demands to know where it got left, but Zeku says he doesn't remember. Chambersson, angry, grabs Zeku by the hair and crackles a bit.

Some of the patrons stand up and reach for weapons. Jakesta turns and says that she's already died once - if they feel lucky, step up! A couple of them leave, one of them saying "I know how she died the first time - brutal!" 

The man sitting next to Zeku kicks his seat back and angles a pistol up, and a spike embeds itself in Chambersson's side. He tries to yank Zeku in the way, but fails. Kazera flicks her rivet swarm at the shooter, knocking him to the floor, and Jakesta stabs him with a knife she brought. A bunch of the patrons attack, but their strikes go right through Jakesta. 

Zeku pokes Chambersson in the stomach, and Jakesta snatches the gun away from the dude on the floor. Rozek grabs the fossilized skull she was carrying and intones a Whipser ("You gotta break some eggs!"). The skull explodes and blows her through a window; she lands outside in a heap. Frustrated, she runs back in and throws a handful of cave lichen on the fire in the fireplace, filling the place with smoke. The characters run out in the confusion, and head back to the ship - no Chart, down a few resources, and a couple of them injured. Not exactly a successful fight, and who knows if Zeku's going to take this personally.

Wildsea: To Trap a Termite

Yesterday we played Wildsea! Here's the last session.

The crew of the Heart of the Seeker has a dilemma - there's a termite-creature the size of a cat loose on their ship, and it's been mutated by crezzerin so they aren't entirely sure what it's going to do. Jakesta dresses Chamersson and Rozek down for this (Rozek grumbles that it was really Chambersson's idea to give the thing crezzerin) and they start thinking about solutions. 

They decided to build a trap to catch it before it grows again. Rozek goes to her taproom and whips up an epoxy to trap it fast. Kazera hangs off the side of the ship to find some delicious wood to bait the trap with (hopefully this thing still wants to eat wood). Jakesta goes up to the crow's nest and keeps watch - she isn't sure if that ship that was following them is still doing so - which gives her a chance to keep a bird's-eye on the ship's deck. She spots a couple of the undercrew cleaning, and one of them yelps and backs up...and pitches over the rail! 

He catches himself, and Kazera runs over and pulls him up. He tells them that he saw the bug skitter across the hull and under the voltaic runner. Chambersson follows the duct work and hears it skittering around, and opens a panel to catch it, but winds up inadvertently directing it toward the engine room!

Chambersson and Jakesta follow it there and search the room; Chambersson finds little nicks on the Leviathan Heart that powers the ship (apparently the bug was trying to burrow into it). Chambersson invokes a Whisper ("All tunnels end") and seals the room. It's trapped in the engine room, but they need to catch it quick before it makes another attempt to get into the Heart.

Kazera goes to her workshop and grabs a box, and Rozek (with some help from Charness) rigs it with the bait and the epoxy; Rozek slices her hand pretty good in the process, though. Kazera takes the trap to the engine room and Chambersson sets it, and everyone hides. 

They don't have long to wait - the horrible little beast skitters out of a dark corner and into the trap, and, stuck fast, starts flopping around desperately. Kazera runs up and smooshes it, and Jakesta points to Chambersson - "get a mop."

The crew takes a bit of a break. Rozek whips up an omelet using some of the bug eggs and a handful of bitter scald she found. The omelet is bitter and earthy, but filling, and she and Chambersson both partake (Kazera doesn't eat and Jakesta is wary of those eggs). They discover that the eggs have a similarly euphoric effect on living beings, enabling them to see and feel things normally heard and smelled. Chambersson, having eaten, now sleeps - he's had a long night.

Jakesta stays up and relaxes, watching the dawn break, and Kazera stays in her workshop and tinkers. In them morning, the crew comes together rested (and without mire), and talks over what to do about this Brittle. 

Rozek wonders if electricity will kill the eggs without hatching them, and with some difficulty the crew brings a few aboard and puts them in a jar. Chambersson discharges a bit of lightning at them and the sizzle and pop. The crew decides to let loose with the storm rail cannon on their deck and fry as many of them as possible, and that works pretty well. 

As they're firing, they spot a flash of light in the distance - another ship, sending a message in the Signalling language. The message basically means "do you need help?"'; the crew realizes that their lightning storm must have looked like a chaotic signal from this distance. They signal back that they're fine, and Jakesta, ever paranoid, signals that this area is dangerous and they shouldn't approach. The ship acknowledges this, and Jakesta, through her spyglass, can see the spray of leaves from a sawprow ship, but doesn't think it's coming toward them.

They stop when the cannon starts to overheat, and instead use the ship's magnet crane to lower Chambersson down and do some pruning. He discovers that the remaining eggs are in the very edge of the circle, and the branches above them aren't brittle, but as the sun moves in the sky it will heat (and therefore hatch) these eggs. 

The crew also discovers a boulder jutting up from the Sink ("discovers" here meaning "the crane hits it while Kazera is moving it around"). Chambersson investigates and finds that the boulder is riddled with red quartz - very hard and potentially useful for making tools. The crew continues their pruning, moving the crane around and having Kazera use her Rivert Swarm to trim the affected branches, and as night falls they have eradicated the Brittle. As Kazera destroys the last of it, she spots a fuzzy little face looking at her - a pack of lemurs emerges from the thrash and regards her curiously. She calls the crew's attention and they watch the little beasts leap and play, and Chambersson remembers something - buildings where people could go and see animals not native to their local environment. But how much control could people exert to force a habitat for a non-native creature? How could they make the world colder or hotter at will?

They take another night to rest, though the crew is getting restless (they've been here too long). Jakesta stays up cleaning her spyglass, and as she does, she sees an inscription in Highvin (a language usually found on Pre-V ruins and used by antiquarians and treasure hunters). She shows it to Chambersson, who reads a little Highvin, and he realizes that it's a dedication: "To [name], [date]", but he can't read the name and without a point of reference can't figure out the date.

In the morning, they decide to mine the boulder, and spend the day trading off shifts on the crane, hewing big hunks of red quartz and raising them up to the ship. Rozek finds something unsettling - a fossilized skull embedded in the rock. She collects it and Jakesta hears a Whisper ("The Past Abides in Stone"). The crew, having taken on cargo, sets sail. They promised Clanksburg they'd drop him off, and they want to get to a town with a big enough shipyard that they can trade their cargo profitably.

Jakesta takes the helm and Kazera takes watch, and as they sail she sees bees. The Thrash around them is full of blooming flowers, and an immense beehive sits cradled in the branches of an ironwood some distance off. Rozek has them stop so she can try and get some honey, but fails to wavewalk close enough before the bees notice her and start to swarm. She comes back to the Heart and Chambersson, making a chart, marks the location of the hive. 

They continue, and Kazera spots an immense spiral of flowers, alternating red and yellow. Jakesta sees it and realizes that it could not have happened naturally, but how could anyone "garden" the Wildsea? As she ponders this, the wind picks up and blows immense clouds of pollen at them, covering the ship in red and yellow dust. The undercrew pulls on their scarves and everyone coughs a bit, but then they all hear a big clunk from the side of the ship and it starts to list. 

An immense furry animal, boxy and muscular, has latched onto the hull and is slurping up the pollen greedily. Kazera rallies the undercrew and they take brooms and push the pollen off in a big lump, and the animal jumps off to follow the food. The ship righted, the crew sees a city in the distance. As they approach, they can smell an acidic, vinegar-y smell, and hear a high-pitched whimper like a dog in distress. Jakesta notices that all of the ships in the dock are marked in Highvin, and Chambersson spots a mothryn in fine, ostentatious clothes standing on the dock as they pull in. Clanksburg starts getting his stuff together, and the crew starts to prepare for a shore leave...

Wildsea: Behold, the Heart of the Seeker

Yesterday we launched into our inaugural session of The Wildsea! Some introductions:

The ship is called The Heart of the Seeker, and it's a bit of an odd beast. Wedge shaped like many ships sailing the wildsea, but the Heart runs on voltaic runners, big electrical devices that cause the ship to hover slightly above the tangle. It's formed from the chrysalis of some giant leviathan, and powered by its still-beating heart. But in addition, a cocoon - perhaps the parasite that killed the leviathan in the first place - clings to the heart and feeds on the crew's dreams, acting as a secondary power source. 

The crew of the Heart, our heroes, are:

• Jakesta, the Navigator: Jakesta is an ardent, but died out on the wildsea and returned as one of the anchored. She remembers almost nothing about her life or death, but hopes to discover her past out on the wildsea.
• Kazera, the Screw: Kazera is an ironbound, formed of wood and metal, the living wreckage of other ships. She claims chunks of metal salvage to improve her metal body, and travels with a magnetically charged swarm of debris she can send out with a flick of the wrist.
• Rozek, the Steep: Rozek is a ridgeback, from one of the few permanent cracks of land amongst the Verdancy. She is an expert at making and reading teas and other hot and foamy draughts. 
• Chambersson, the Wordbearer: Chambersson is one of the mysterious Ketra, the cephalopod-like people who have evolved to live in this strange green world. He is amberclad, trapped in suspended animation for years, and is now a deliverer of messages on the wildsea.

Our crew begins leaving port from a small spit, urged to hurry by Jakesta - the people of this spit seem like they're hiding something and she doesn't want to find out what or why they're so secretive. And Chambersson agrees. While he was there, he met a man who was struggling from hunger, barely strong enough to move, and helped him. The man told him a rumor about where he might find an ironbound named Clanksburg, for whom Chambersson has a message. Actually it's one of his oldest messages, one that he hasn't been able to deliver because he's never been able to find the recipient. But now there's a lead, and the Heart has a direction! Rozek reads some tea leaves and sees all the leaves pushed out to the sides of the mug, creating a ring that she can see straight down into. A Rift, perhaps, a place where the tangle and thrash give way and allow sight into the sink, or even the drown? She shudders at the thought, but knows Chambersson will be thrilled - he has something of a fixation with such places.

Jakesta takes the helm and Kazera goes on watch. Jakesta pushes the ship - she wants to put distance between the Heart and the spit - but Kazera spots something up ahead in the tangle and yells a warning. Jakesta manages to steer the Heart enough to avoid crashing into it - it looks like a small spit. But having a closer look, the crew realizes this is something strange.

Most spits are just small chunks of land or rock that jut up out of the tangle, and are generally swallowed back up by the Verdancy quickly. But this one looks like the top part of a cavern, leading down into the dark. Could this be the ring that Rozek saw in the tea leaves? In any case, Rozek was watching the weather, and storm-clouds are gathering. 

The crew can't just pass this strangeness up, though, so they tie off ropes and lower themselves into the dark. The trees don't grow into this cavern, so they're essentially rappelling down the side of the thrash. They note that the cavern walls are covered in lichens and fungus, and Rozek swings over to scrape some into a sample pouch. As she does, she hears whispering in the dark and hears something move. She calls to the others, and Chambersson cocks an ear-hole and recognizes the voice as speaking Gaudimm, the strange language of the mushroom-people called the Gau. Chambersson doesn't speak any Gaudimm, but calls out in Low Sour, the pidgin language that has developed amongst travelers, hoping the unseen beings understand it.

A young Gau appears clinging to Rozek's rope, above them, legs linked around the branches in the thrash. In halting, broken Low Sour he establishes that the characters are not here to hurt anyone, and indicates that they should go below (he drops back into the branches and wavewalks down fluidly). The crew lands at the bottom, and discovers that this whole place is a concave, almost half-spherical structure made of rock. Actually, when Kazera lands, it gives out a loud clong - this place is as much metal as rock. 

The crew talks with the Gau youth a little - there are a bunch of other Gau here, and after a little tension everyone relaxes. Rozek signals to the Gau in Old Hand, the gesture-based language that predates the Verdancy. An old Gau tears itself up from the floor and joins the conversation, and with some difficulty the crew learns that this place is called the Bell, and that they are not the first visitors - one like Kazera was here, but went mad and struck out into the thrash. The crew was headed in the right direction to find him.

The crew takes their leave (Rozek gets a small pouch of purified earth from the old Gau, and trades some spirit gum for it), and they climb back up their ropes to the Heart. They strike out again, this time with Chambersson on the helm and Jakesta on watch, while Rozek draws a map of the area and includes the Bell. The crew notices a ship following them, and Jakesta recognizes it from the Secretive Spit - she saw it in port, and it had something big on the deck covered in a tarp, shaped like either a crane or a gun. Either way, the crew doesn't want them catching up. They grit their teeth and sail into the storm.

Lighting cracks above them, but the larger issue is what's in front of them! Jakesta spots a group of insects and warns Chambersson, but they decide that they can handle some bugs and the ship forges ahead. They discover, however, that these aren't just bugs - they are Lightning Cicadas! The cling to the hull and when they touch, an electric charge builds up. A whole swarm of them touching means the charge gets too big, and shorts the front two voltaic runners. 

The ship's front end drops into the tangle, and the back end flies up into the air a ways. All of the crew is banged around a little, but no one is seriously hurt. The ship has stopped, however, and it's still storming, and their front runners are out.

Rozek quickly mixes up a repellent/grounding solution and sprays it on the hull, causing the bugs to peel off and fall into the tangle. She grabs one of their carcasses, and notes with some alarm that it kinda looks like the same kind of carapace of the leviathan that makes up their ship. Is the Heart formed of the body of some giant cicada? A question for another time. Kazera heads to the engines and works her magnetic magic to get them running, and the Heart presses on.

They pass through the storm and realize they can no longer see the other ship behind them, so apparently they didn't want to chance the weather just to raid the Heart. Up ahead, Jakesta spots a weird circle where the leaves are just a bit yellower than the rest of the tangle, and warns Chambersson. He pulls the Heart alongside this area, and through a bit of trial and error they discover that this whole circle is brittle and crumbling. Their ship would travel over it, because of the runners, but a sawprow ship would crash right through. Looking carefully, they see that the branches between the tangle have thousands of little white eggs on them. Rozek wants to get a sample - mostly to see if she can figure out what's happening and maybe stop it, since if this spreads it would be really bad - but she's not particularly good at wavewalking and asks for help.

Jakesta agrees to go (she is, after all, dead, so what's the worst that could happen?) and clambers down into the tangle. She moves to gather some eggs, but they are more delicate than she thought and she crushes them, getting egg goop on her fingers. She hovers back up and realizes that the goop is starting to burn, which is weird because again, dead. Rozek and Charness (the ship's mothryn medic) scrape the goop off Jakesta into a vial, and the burning sensation goes away, but Jakesta starts to feel euphoric and see sparkly colors - whatever this stuff is, it has an effect on the mind. 

Chambersson and Rozek get on the ship's crane-mounted salvage magnet, and Kazera lowers them down into the hole that Jakesta inadvertently created. The hole goes all the way down into the sink, and it's cold down here, cold, dark, and quiet. Everything here seems...dead, but those eggs are still everywhere. Rozek gets some into a sample jar, and Chambersson looks around and sees an odd branch growth - looks like five wooden fingers grabbing a stick. And then he looks more closely and realizes, no, those are fingers. It's an ironbound, covered in brittle wood, trapped. 

Chambersson signals for Kazera to activate the magnet, and pulls the ironbound from its wooden prison. The crane drops it on the deck, and they hear it moan "help me". The crew scrapes off the crezzerin and brittle wood, and slowly the ironbound reanimates. It stands up, and points to itself - "Clanksburg."

Chambersson is overjoyed, and hands over the message that he was carrying. Clanksburg reads it and then rolls it up and stashes it in a hollow in his arm, and turns to Kazera and begins speaking in Brasstongue, the language of merchants and traders (Kazera does not actually speak Brasstongue, but possesses the ability to speak with any ghost or ironbound regardless of language). Clanksburg thanks them and says that he was on a ship called the Sanguine Dress that hit...something, he isn't sure what. The ship went down in the thrash, and Clanksburg was cast overboard. He made it to the Bell, but something there screwed with his head, and he warns Kazera to pay attention to how she's feeling lest it happen to her, too. He struck out from the Bell hoping to find a spit or a ship, but found the Brittle instead and fells into the sink, where he became trapped. 

Clanksburg is happy to direct the crew to the wreck of the Sanguine Dress if they want to try and salvage it, but perhaps they could drop him off at a spit or port whenever it's convenient? They agree, but decide they really should drop anchor and rest, and they also want to see if they can stop the Brittle before it gets worse. 

Rozek and Chambersson stay up and experiment with the eggs. They manage to hatch a couple by raising the temperature, and the things that come out are like tiny white termites. They burrow into living wood and start feeding on it, almost like they're draining its life, and then lay eggs. Their life cycle becomes clear - they eat the wood and lay eggs, the wood becomes brittle and eventually crumbles, exposing the eggs to sunlight, while warms and hatches them, the new bugs spread, and on we go. 

Curious, Chambersson exposes one of the bugs to a bit of crezzerin, and it twitches, turns over, and molts. What emerges from the skins is bigger with pointier claws - it cracks the jar it was in and runs for the dark corners. Chambersson tries to grab it, but he's been experiencing jolts and starts in his extremities (anxiety and electricity), and misses. The creature scampers away and is lost on the ship.

Jakesta spends the night going through a leather-bound journal and making some notes about the area, while Kazera stays up and talks to Clanksburg about his experiences on the Dress. In the morning, Chambersson and Rozek are pretty rough-looking - they've been up all night unsuccessfully chasing this creature. It's still on the ship somewhere. Chambersson isn't necessarily worried about it damaging the ship; these creatures only feed on living wood and the ship isn't made of wood anyway, but Jakesta isn't nearly so hopeful. They decide to stay where they are, find the damn thing and kill it, and try and deal with the Brittle before moving on.