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vanity-delve/core/content/port.json
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slaguru666andClaude Opus 5 d22421efbd feat: settlement family complete — village, market, city, port theme packs 
Four settlement-kernel themes on village geometry, each 4 motifs:
  village  kinship · harvest · custom · quiet
  market   bargain · weights · crowd · credit
  city     works · rolls · wards · liberties
  port     cargo · passage · tide · wreck

All validate. 11 themes total; index.json rebuilt. Module → 0.5.0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-05 18:57:31 +01:00

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{
"id": "port",
"label": "Port",
"forgeStageType": "village",
"schema": 1,
"placeNameStyle": "own",
"_model": "Settlement kernel on the water. The appetite belongs to the harbour, which is a place people are always about to leave — so every cruelty here is a way of stopping them, and every prize is something that makes leaving possible again.",
"facetProgression": {
"approach": "institution",
"complication": "ritual",
"turn": "demand",
"descent": "wound",
"threshold": "anchor",
"ending": "demand"
},
"claimants": [
"Harbour Board",
"Custom House",
"Trinity Brethren",
"Master of the Quay",
"Company of Pilots",
"Water Bailiff",
"Merchant Venturers"
],
"appetites": [
{
"id": "busy",
"want": "never to have an empty berth",
"lack": "empty",
"purpose": "there would always be something alongside",
"motif": "cargo",
"prize": "manifest",
"conscript": "the shippers",
"asks": "\"What have you brought me?\"",
"appeasement": {
"move": "land something on the quay, anything, and enter it",
"attribute": "Brawn",
"successes": 2,
"why": "the quay is working again",
"gain": {
"vanity": 1
},
"cost": {
"bane": 1
},
"repeatable": true
}
},
{
"id": "returned",
"want": "that everything which sails from it should come back to it",
"lack": "left behind",
"purpose": "nothing would ever be lost to somewhere else",
"motif": "passage",
"prize": "light",
"conscript": "the outward bound",
"asks": "\"Are you coming back?\"",
"appeasement": {
"move": "come back to a place in this harbour you have already been",
"attribute": "Poise",
"successes": 2,
"why": "something came back",
"gain": {
"vanity": 1
},
"cost": {
"bane": 1
},
"repeatable": true
}
},
{
"id": "obeyed",
"want": "that nothing should ever fail to move when it says",
"lack": "ignored",
"purpose": "every tide would be kept",
"motif": "tide",
"prize": "glass",
"conscript": "the latecomers",
"asks": "\"Have you missed it?\"",
"appeasement": {
"move": "do one thing exactly when the harbour says, and not a moment after",
"attribute": "Wits",
"successes": 2,
"why": "the tide was kept",
"gain": {
"vanity": 1
},
"cost": {
"bane": 1
},
"repeatable": true
}
},
{
"id": "safe",
"want": "that nothing should ever be lost within sight of it",
"lack": "lost",
"purpose": "every soul would come ashore",
"motif": "wreck",
"prize": "bell",
"conscript": "the drowned",
"asks": "\"Who was aboard?\"",
"appeasement": {
"move": "name one thing the sea took, out loud, and where it went down",
"attribute": "Poise",
"successes": 2,
"why": "it was accounted for",
"gain": {
"vanity": 1
},
"cost": {
"bane": 1
},
"repeatable": true
}
}
],
"accommodations": [
{
"id": "shipped",
"text": "shipped {conscript} out on a bottom that was never coming back",
"cruelty": 3,
"fits": [
"returned",
"busy"
]
},
{
"id": "pressed",
"text": "pressed {conscript} aboard and would not sign them off again",
"cruelty": 3,
"fits": [
"busy",
"obeyed",
"returned"
]
},
{
"id": "bonded",
"text": "held {conscript}'s goods in bond until there was nothing left to redeem them with",
"cruelty": 2,
"fits": [
"busy",
"obeyed"
]
},
{
"id": "detained",
"text": "kept {conscript}'s ship in the harbour and never cleared her",
"cruelty": 2,
"fits": [
"returned",
"obeyed",
"busy"
]
},
{
"id": "misled",
"text": "showed {conscript} a light that was not where they took it to be",
"cruelty": 3,
"fits": [
"safe",
"returned"
]
},
{
"id": "lodged",
"text": "lodged {conscript} on the low quay, where the tide comes over",
"cruelty": 2,
"fits": [
"safe",
"obeyed"
]
}
],
"prizes": {
"manifest": {
"label": "the manifest of the last ship to clear",
"function": "the only complete account of what left here and with whom"
},
"light": {
"label": "the lamp out of the harbour light",
"function": "the only thing that ever brought anything home"
},
"glass": {
"label": "the tide glass, still running",
"function": "the only clock here the water agreed with"
},
"bell": {
"label": "the bell off the ship that went down in the roads",
"function": "the only marker over what the harbour lost"
}
},
"placeNames": {
"first": [
"Salt",
"Old",
"North",
"Deep",
"Black",
"Kings",
"Low",
"Stone"
],
"second": [
"Haven",
"Quay",
"Roads",
"Hythe",
"Wharf",
"Staithe",
"Pool",
"Mouth",
"Reach",
"Strand"
]
},
"areaNames": {
"approach": [
"The Sea Gate",
"The Long Quay",
"The Roads",
"The Bar",
"The Pilot Stair"
],
"complication": [
"The Warehouses",
"The Bond Store",
"The Rope Walk",
"The Sail Loft",
"The Custom House Yard"
],
"turn": [
"The Custom House",
"The Trinity Hall",
"The Harbour Office",
"The Great Crane",
"The Watch Tower"
],
"descent": [
"The Mud Berth",
"The Hulks",
"The Careening Ground",
"The Under-Quay",
"The Drowned Street"
],
"threshold": [
"The Light",
"The Chart Room",
"The Bond Room",
"The Master's Cabin",
"The Last Berth"
],
"ending": [
"Where the Tide Turns",
"The Empty Roads",
"Under the Light",
"The Bell Buoy"
]
},
"factions": [
{
"id": "board",
"name": "the Harbour Board",
"kind": "undead",
"essence": "still clearing, still entering, still refusing to sign anything off",
"handledBy": "proof of right"
},
{
"id": "crews",
"name": "the crews",
"kind": "living",
"essence": "came ashore for a night and the ship never sailed",
"handledBy": "trade"
},
{
"id": "trinity",
"name": "the Trinity Brethren",
"kind": "undead",
"essence": "still keeping a light for ships that are not coming",
"handledBy": "courtesy"
},
{
"id": "tidewrack",
"name": "what comes in on the tide",
"kind": "beast",
"essence": "was never on anybody's manifest",
"handledBy": "force"
}
],
"triggerGlossary": {
"announced": "came along the quay in the open and were hailed",
"seenTwice": "seen from the water twice, from different berths",
"loud": "a raised voice across water, which carries further than you think",
"lingering": "stayed alongside long enough to be entered as a vessel in port",
"disturbed": "cast off a line, opened a hatch, or moved something off the tideline"
},
"rosters": {
"skirmish": {
"line": "3 Bandits off the hulks",
"foes": [
{
"n": 3,
"name": "Bandit",
"atk": 3,
"def": 3,
"grit": 4,
"nerve": 3,
"note": "wreckers; they take from the drowned and would rather not fight the living"
}
],
"harmedBy": "anything",
"avoid": "give them something off the tideline and they take it and go"
},
"fight": {
"line": "4 Bandits and a Hobgoblin Soldier as bailiff's man",
"foes": [
{
"n": 4,
"name": "Bandit",
"atk": 3,
"def": 3,
"grit": 4,
"nerve": 3,
"note": "scatter if the bailiff's man drops"
},
{
"n": 1,
"name": "Hobgoblin Soldier",
"atk": 4,
"def": 4,
"grit": 6,
"nerve": 4,
"note": "demands your papers before it strikes"
}
],
"harmedBy": "anything",
"avoid": "show it any paper with a seal on it and it stands down to read"
},
"battle": {
"line": "1 Wraith of the Quay Master and 4 Skeletons of a drowned crew",
"foes": [
{
"n": 1,
"name": "Wraith",
"atk": 5,
"def": 3,
"grit": 10,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "INCORPOREAL — chill touch ignores armour, drains 1 max Grit"
},
{
"n": 4,
"name": "Skeleton",
"atk": 3,
"def": 2,
"grit": 1,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "fearless; still working the ship they died on"
}
],
"harmedBy": "blessed, silvered or magical weapons for the Wraith ONLY; anything for the Skeletons — say so before initiative",
"avoid": "it wants the crew accounted for; name one of the drowned and it stops to enter them"
},
"nightmare": {
"line": "1 Wraith, 1 Ogre out of the mud berth and 5 Skeletons",
"foes": [
{
"n": 1,
"name": "Wraith",
"atk": 5,
"def": 3,
"grit": 10,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "INCORPOREAL"
},
{
"n": 1,
"name": "Ogre",
"atk": 5,
"def": 3,
"grit": 12,
"nerve": 3,
"note": "came in on a tide and was never entered anywhere"
},
{
"n": 5,
"name": "Skeleton",
"atk": 3,
"def": 2,
"grit": 1,
"nerve": 5,
"note": "fearless"
}
],
"harmedBy": "blessed, silvered or magical weapons for the Wraith ONLY; anything for the rest",
"avoid": "do not run this without an appeasement route open"
}
},
"motifs": {
"cargo": {
"danger": "the lading",
"dangerLine": "the quay is still working, and it does not care that there is nothing to work on",
"trigger": "disturbed",
"facets": {
"institution": [
"warehouses running the length of the quay, all of them full",
"a bond store with the goods held and the duty unpaid",
"cranes standing over every berth"
],
"ritual": [
"a manifest checked against the hold before anything is signed",
"goods weighed off at the quay edge and entered",
"the day's landings read back at the office each evening"
],
"demand": [
"a sling loaded and hanging over an empty hold",
"a berth swept clean with the bollards polished",
"a manifest with a line left open at the bottom"
],
"wound": [
"a warehouse packed with cargo nobody ever claimed",
"bond store doors sealed on goods that rotted",
"a crane left slewed over the water with the load down"
],
"anchor": [
"the manifest of the last ship to clear",
"a bond book listing every hold and its duty",
"a crane that still runs"
]
},
"features": [
"a sling hanging loaded over nothing",
"a berth swept with the bollards bright",
"a manifest open at a blank line",
"a bond seal broken and refixed",
"cargo stacked and unclaimed",
"a crane slewed out over the water"
],
"decisions": [
{
"cue": "a manifest with a line left open at the bottom",
"cost": "entering something makes it landed here, on your account",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you enter something plausible and the Board treats you as a shipper in good standing",
"failure": "you enter it wrongly and the duty falls on you: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "leave the line open; the ship is not cleared and neither are you"
}
},
{
"cue": "a sling loaded and hanging over an empty hold",
"cost": "lowering it lands the cargo; cutting it loses it",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Brawn 2",
"success": "you land it properly and the quay works for you — the crane and the crews are yours",
"failure": "the sling parts and the load goes into the water: roll the clock",
"orElse": "leave it hanging; it hangs over the berth you have to cross"
}
},
{
"cue": "a bond store sealed on goods that were never redeemed",
"cost": "the seal is the Custom House's, not the owner's",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you find whose goods were bonded and can trade what they need for what you need",
"failure": "you break the seal and the Custom House has you for smuggling: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "leave it sealed; whatever is in there stays in there"
}
},
{
"cue": "a warehouse packed to the roof with cargo nobody claimed",
"cost": "the marks on the bales say who shipped it",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you read the marks and learn where the last ships were bound and why",
"failure": "you shift a bale and bring the stack down on the aisle behind you",
"orElse": "leave the warehouse; the shipping marks are the only trail there is"
}
},
{
"cue": "a berth swept clean with the bollards polished and nothing alongside",
"cost": "tying up in it makes you a vessel in port",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you make fast properly and the harbour enters you, and gives you a berth's protections",
"failure": "you tie up and cannot be cleared to leave: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "stay off the berth; the quay will not work for you at all"
}
},
{
"cue": "a crane left slewed out over the water with the load still down",
"cost": "bringing it in recovers what is on the hook",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Brawn 2",
"success": "you bring the load in and it is what somebody has been waiting years for",
"failure": "the crane runs away with itself and takes the quay edge with it",
"orElse": "leave it slewed; the thing on the hook stays under the water"
}
}
],
"situations": [
{
"occupant": "two of the Board",
"doing": "checking a manifest against a hold with nothing in it",
"onArrival": "they run a finger down the page and look up at you",
"because": "the tally must agree and there is nothing to tally",
"offer": "give them one item for the list and they will clear you for anything"
},
{
"occupant": "a crane driver",
"doing": "swinging an empty sling over a berth, over and over",
"onArrival": "it stops the sling in front of you at chest height",
"because": "the load was never landed and the shift never ended",
"offer": "put anything in the sling and it will lift you anywhere along the quay"
},
{
"occupant": "a living factor",
"doing": "counting bales in a warehouse that is already counted",
"onArrival": "they ask whether you are here for the consignment",
"because": "the goods were never claimed and they cannot leave until they are",
"offer": "claim the consignment and they will hand you the shipping marks"
},
{
"occupant": "the Master of the Quay",
"doing": "standing at an empty berth with a fender in his hands",
"onArrival": "he asks when she is expected",
"because": "nothing has come alongside since and the berth is kept ready",
"offer": "tell him she is coming and he will open the bond store"
},
{
"occupant": "a stack of cargo",
"doing": "standing on the quay with the marks fresh and the ropes tight",
"onArrival": "the ropes creak as though something has just been added",
"because": "it was landed and never entered, so it cannot be moved",
"offer": "enter it on a manifest and the whole quay begins working again"
},
{
"occupant": "the bond store",
"doing": "standing sealed with the doors sweating",
"onArrival": "something inside shifts its weight when you stop walking",
"because": "the duty was never paid and the doors were never opened",
"offer": "pay something toward the duty and it opens, and gives up what it holds"
}
],
"temptations": [
{
"id": "manifest",
"cue": "a page off the last manifest",
"benefit": "once, prove a thing was landed here lawfully",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the Custom House checks the entry, eventually"
},
{
"id": "bondkey",
"cue": "a bond store key",
"benefit": "open anything held in bond here",
"useCost": {
"bane": 2
},
"standingDrawback": "the duty on it becomes yours, and it compounds",
"acceptanceCost": {
"vice": "Greed"
}
},
{
"id": "marks",
"cue": "a set of shipping marks",
"benefit": "once, make a thing appear to belong to somebody powerful",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "they find out that their mark is at large"
},
{
"id": "sling",
"cue": "a crane sling and hook",
"benefit": "once, lift or lower anything you can rig",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "whatever you lift, the quay enters against you"
},
{
"id": "bale",
"cue": "a bale nobody claimed",
"benefit": "once, have exactly the trade goods you need",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "it was claimed, by somebody still looking"
}
]
},
"passage": {
"danger": "the outward bound",
"dangerLine": "everything here is about to leave and none of it ever does",
"trigger": "announced",
"facets": {
"institution": [
"a harbour office where every clearance is signed before a ship may sail",
"a pilot company that takes every vessel out and brings it back",
"a light kept burning at the harbour mouth"
],
"ritual": [
"a ship cleared outward and her papers stamped at the gate",
"the pilot taken aboard at the bar and put off outside it",
"a lamp lit at dusk whether or not anything is expected"
],
"demand": [
"a clearance made out and unstamped on a desk",
"a pilot boat lying off with the oars shipped and nobody in her",
"a light burning at noon"
],
"wound": [
"clearances refused in a single day, every one of them",
"a pilot stair with the bottom steps gone",
"the light kept burning for a ship that had already gone down"
],
"anchor": [
"the lamp out of the harbour light",
"a book of clearances with every sailing entered",
"a chart of the bar that has never been wrong"
]
},
"features": [
"a clearance made out and unstamped",
"a pilot boat lying off, empty",
"a lamp burning in daylight",
"a pilot stair missing its bottom steps",
"a chart of the bar left open",
"a sea chest packed and corded"
],
"decisions": [
{
"cue": "a clearance made out and never stamped",
"cost": "stamping it lets something sail",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you stamp it properly and one thing here is finally released, and it repays you",
"failure": "you stamp it blind and have cleared something that should have stayed: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "leave it unstamped; nothing here can leave, including you"
}
},
{
"cue": "a lamp burning in the harbour light at noon",
"cost": "putting it out ends the watch; keeping it lit continues it",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you learn what the light is being kept for and can answer it",
"failure": "you put it out and something loses its way in, badly: roll the clock",
"orElse": "leave it burning; it goes on calling, and things go on coming"
}
},
{
"cue": "a pilot boat lying off the stair with her oars shipped and nobody aboard",
"cost": "taking her out means crossing the bar",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Brawn 2",
"success": "you take her out and can move on the water, which nothing ashore can follow",
"failure": "you take her out on the wrong tide and are set down on the bar",
"orElse": "stay ashore; every route from here is along the quay, in the open"
}
},
{
"cue": "a pilot stair with the bottom steps gone",
"cost": "the missing steps were taken, not worn",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you find where the steps went and what was being kept from the water",
"failure": "you go down anyway and the stair puts you in the mud at low water",
"orElse": "use the next stair along, costing a Turn"
}
},
{
"cue": "a chart of the bar with a sounding altered in a different hand",
"cost": "the alteration put a ship on the sand",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you find who altered it and can prove what was done to whom",
"failure": "you take the chart as read and trust a channel that is not there",
"orElse": "leave the chart; you have no proof of the transgression at the ending"
}
},
{
"cue": "a sea chest packed and corded at the head of the stair",
"cost": "somebody was leaving and did not",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you open it and learn who was going, and where, and what they were taking",
"failure": "you shoulder it and the harbour takes you for them: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "leave the chest; whoever it belonged to is not identified"
}
}
],
"situations": [
{
"occupant": "a pilot",
"doing": "standing at the head of the stair with a bag over his shoulder",
"onArrival": "he asks whether you are the ship he is taking out",
"because": "he was called for a vessel that never came to the bar",
"offer": "tell him you are and he will take you over the bar, safely, once"
},
{
"occupant": "the harbour clerk",
"doing": "holding a clearance and a stamp without bringing them together",
"onArrival": "it looks up and asks the vessel's name",
"because": "the clearance cannot be issued without a name and there are no ships",
"offer": "name a vessel and it will clear you out of anywhere"
},
{
"occupant": "a living mate",
"doing": "sitting on a corded chest at the top of the tide",
"onArrival": "he asks whether the tide has turned yet",
"because": "he has been waiting to sail since before you were born",
"offer": "tell him the tide and he will give you the chest and everything in it"
},
{
"occupant": "two of the Trinity Brethren",
"doing": "carrying oil up to a light that is already burning",
"onArrival": "they hand you the can rather than pass",
"because": "the light is kept and cannot be let out",
"offer": "carry the oil up and the light will show you a way through anything"
},
{
"occupant": "a pilot boat",
"doing": "lying off the stair with her oars shipped",
"onArrival": "she comes in to the stair as you reach the bottom step",
"because": "she was pulled out for a vessel that never signalled",
"offer": "get aboard and the water opens to you where the quay does not"
},
{
"occupant": "the Master of the Company",
"doing": "reading a book of clearances aloud to the water",
"onArrival": "it stops at a sailing with no return entered against it",
"because": "every vessel is entered out and in, and one never came in",
"offer": "supply the ending of that voyage and it will sign anything you ask"
}
],
"temptations": [
{
"id": "clearance",
"cue": "a stamped clearance, blank",
"benefit": "once, leave anywhere without being stopped",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "you leave in the name on the paper, not your own"
},
{
"id": "lamp",
"cue": "oil out of the harbour light",
"benefit": "once, be found by whatever is looking for you",
"useCost": {
"bane": 2
},
"standingDrawback": "everything looking for you finds you, not only the friendly",
"acceptanceCost": {
"vice": "Sloth"
}
},
{
"id": "chart",
"cue": "the chart of the bar",
"benefit": "know the true channel through anything here",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "you know which channels were altered, and by whom"
},
{
"id": "chest",
"cue": "the corded sea chest",
"benefit": "once, have what a traveller would have packed",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "they packed it to leave, and still want to"
},
{
"id": "pilotbadge",
"cue": "a pilot's badge",
"benefit": "once, be taken aboard anything on the water",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "you are expected to bring the vessel back"
}
]
},
"tide": {
"danger": "the hour",
"dangerLine": "the harbour keeps time by the water and it is not going to wait for you",
"trigger": "lingering",
"facets": {
"institution": [
"a tide glass in the office window, turned by the watch",
"tide marks cut into every quay wall for two hundred years",
"a harbour that is a basin at high water and a mud flat at low"
],
"ritual": [
"the glass turned at the top of every tide",
"the gates of the basin shut at the same point on the flood",
"a bell struck for the turn, twice"
],
"demand": [
"a glass running out with nobody by it",
"a basin gate standing open on the flood",
"a tide mark reached and passed with nothing moving"
],
"wound": [
"a glass left unturned and the sand all through",
"basin gates jammed open and the water gone",
"tide marks cut for years that never came"
],
"anchor": [
"the tide glass, still running",
"a tide table in one hand, correct to the minute",
"a gate that still shuts on the flood"
]
},
"features": [
"a glass with the sand nearly through",
"a basin gate standing open",
"a tide mark freshly cut",
"a bell rope swinging after the turn",
"a tide table left open",
"water standing where it should not"
],
"decisions": [
{
"cue": "a tide glass running out with nobody by it to turn it",
"cost": "turning it keeps the harbour's time going",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you turn it at the right moment and the harbour keeps your time — one thing here waits for you",
"failure": "you turn it late and the hour here is wrong for the rest of the delve: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "let it run out; the harbour stops keeping time and everything happens at once"
}
},
{
"cue": "a basin gate standing open on the flood",
"cost": "shutting it holds the water in; leaving it lets the basin drain",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Brawn 2",
"success": "you shut the gate on the tide and the basin fills — the drowned street goes under and stays there",
"failure": "you shut it with something still coming through: roll the clock",
"orElse": "leave it open; the basin empties and the mud berth is walkable, both ways"
}
},
{
"cue": "a tide mark cut fresh into a wall above the waterline",
"cost": "somebody is still recording tides that do not happen",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you read the marks and learn exactly when the harbour stopped, and what was in it",
"failure": "you cut a mark of your own and the water rises to meet it",
"orElse": "leave the wall; you will misjudge the water later, at the worst point"
}
},
{
"cue": "a bell rope still swinging after a turn nobody struck",
"cost": "the turn was struck by something",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you strike the turn correctly and everything here that keeps time comes to order",
"failure": "you strike it wrong and the harbour turns early, against you",
"orElse": "leave the rope; nothing here agrees about what hour it is"
}
},
{
"cue": "a tide table lying open, correct to the minute, in a dead man's hand",
"cost": "the table is right and the harbour is wrong",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you take the table and can predict every movement of the water here",
"failure": "you take it and the hand closes: whatever kept it wants it back",
"orElse": "leave it; you cross the mud on a guess"
}
},
{
"cue": "water standing on a quay it should not reach for another six hours",
"cost": "the harbour's tide is not the sea's any more",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you work out what the harbour is keeping time to instead, and can use it",
"failure": "you wade it, and what the water is standing over notices",
"orElse": "go the long way round above the waterline, costing a Turn"
}
}
],
"situations": [
{
"occupant": "the tide watch",
"doing": "turning a glass that has already run through",
"onArrival": "it asks what the hour is, and means the tide",
"because": "the glass is turned at the top of every tide and the tides stopped",
"offer": "give it an hour and it will hold the water back while you cross"
},
{
"occupant": "two of the Board",
"doing": "standing at a basin gate with the winch bars in their hands",
"onArrival": "they look to you before they heave",
"because": "the gate shuts on the flood and the flood has not come",
"offer": "tell them to shut it and the basin fills, and the drowned street is closed"
},
{
"occupant": "a living lighterman",
"doing": "waiting on the mud with a boat that has nothing to float on",
"onArrival": "he asks how long until the water",
"because": "he came in on a tide that never went out again",
"offer": "tell him a time and he will put you across the harbour when it comes"
},
{
"occupant": "the Water Bailiff",
"doing": "cutting a tide mark into a wall well above the water",
"onArrival": "it steps back and asks whether that looks right to you",
"because": "the marks are cut for tides the harbour still expects",
"offer": "agree with the mark and the water will rise for you, once, where you need it"
},
{
"occupant": "a bell",
"doing": "hanging in a frame on the quay head with the rope still moving",
"onArrival": "the rope stops when you take hold of it",
"because": "the turn was struck and nobody struck it",
"offer": "strike the turn properly and everything here that keeps time obeys you"
},
{
"occupant": "the harbour",
"doing": "lying full at a state of tide that cannot be happening",
"onArrival": "the water is dead flat and there is a good breeze",
"because": "the harbour keeps its own time now and will not be corrected",
"offer": "name the true hour aloud and the water goes back to the sea's time"
}
],
"temptations": [
{
"id": "glass",
"cue": "the tide glass, running",
"benefit": "once, make something happen exactly when you say",
"useCost": {
"bane": 2
},
"standingDrawback": "the harbour's time is yours and everyone else's is wrong",
"acceptanceCost": {
"vice": "Wrath"
}
},
{
"id": "table",
"cue": "the tide table",
"benefit": "know when the water will do anything here",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "you also know how little time you have"
},
{
"id": "gatebar",
"cue": "a winch bar off the basin gate",
"benefit": "once, hold or release the water",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "whatever the water covers is uncovered, or the reverse"
},
{
"id": "bellclapper",
"cue": "a clapper out of the quay bell",
"benefit": "once, call the turn and be obeyed",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "nothing here can strike the true turn while you hold it"
},
{
"id": "mark",
"cue": "a chisel from the tide-cutter's belt",
"benefit": "once, set where the water stops",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the water treats the mark as a promise"
}
]
},
"wreck": {
"danger": "what the sea kept",
"dangerLine": "the harbour lost a ship in its own roads and has never once admitted it",
"trigger": "seenTwice",
"facets": {
"institution": [
"a hall hung with the boards of every vessel lost off this coast",
"a bell buoy moored over a wreck in the fairway",
"a burial ground for the ones who came ashore unnamed"
],
"ritual": [
"a name read out and a board hung for every ship that does not return",
"the bell buoy answered from the shore each night",
"the drowned laid out on the quay and given names if anyone can"
],
"demand": [
"a board hung blank in a hall where every other board is lettered",
"a bell buoy sounding with no sea running",
"a grave dug and left open above the tideline"
],
"wound": [
"boards taken down and burnt in one night",
"a wreck in the fairway with no mark over it at all",
"the drowned buried unnamed, all of them, in a hurry"
],
"anchor": [
"the bell off the ship that went down in the roads",
"a list of the lost with every name written",
"a board lettered for a ship the harbour denies"
]
},
"features": [
"a blank board in a hall of lettered ones",
"a grave dug open above the tideline",
"a bell sounding with no sea running",
"charred boards in a grate",
"a list of the lost with a gap",
"wreckage stacked and sorted"
],
"decisions": [
{
"cue": "a board hung blank in a hall where every other board is lettered",
"cost": "lettering it admits the loss",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you letter the board with the right name and the Trinity Brethren give you everything they have",
"failure": "you letter it wrongly and a ship that came home is entered as lost: +1 Bane",
"orElse": "leave it blank; the harbour goes on denying the wreck and so does everything in it"
}
},
{
"cue": "a bell buoy sounding out in the roads with no sea running",
"cost": "something is moving it",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you answer the bell from the shore, properly, and what is under it comes up to talk",
"failure": "you go out to it and it stops sounding while you are alongside",
"orElse": "let it ring; it rings all night, and the drowned come in on the tide"
}
},
{
"cue": "a grave dug open above the tideline with nobody in it",
"cost": "filling it needs a name and a body",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Poise 2",
"success": "you name whoever it was cut for and the ground here settles, and lets you pass",
"failure": "you fill it with anything else and the ground takes exception: roll the clock",
"orElse": "leave it open; the burial ground stays restless behind you"
}
},
{
"cue": "charred boards in a grate with the lettering half readable",
"cost": "somebody burnt the record of what was lost",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you read enough off the char to name the ship the harbour denies",
"failure": "you are found reading it by something that helped burn them",
"orElse": "leave the grate; the ship's name is never established"
}
},
{
"cue": "a list of the lost with every name written and one line short",
"cost": "the missing name is the one that matters",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you match the gap against {priorCue} and have the name for the ending",
"failure": "you write in a guess and the list accepts it, and it is wrong",
"orElse": "leave the gap; the ending is fought rather than answered"
}
},
{
"cue": "wreckage stacked and sorted on the quay by size, not by ship",
"cost": "somebody has been keeping it, not selling it",
"resolve": {
"roll": "Wits 2",
"success": "you find the piece with the ship's name on it, which is what the sorter was hiding",
"failure": "you disturb the stack and the sorter comes to see who is in their yard",
"orElse": "leave the stack; the only proof of the wreck stays buried in it"
}
}
],
"situations": [
{
"occupant": "a Trinity brother",
"doing": "holding a blank board up against a wall of lettered ones",
"onArrival": "it asks you what name goes on it",
"because": "the board must be hung and nobody would say the name",
"offer": "give it the name and it will open the light and everything under it"
},
{
"occupant": "the drowned",
"doing": "lying in a row on the quay with their hands crossed",
"onArrival": "the nearest turns its head as your shadow falls on it",
"because": "they came ashore unnamed and were buried unnamed",
"offer": "name any one of them and they will carry you across the harbour"
},
{
"occupant": "a living wrecker",
"doing": "sorting salvage into piles by size in a locked yard",
"onArrival": "they stop and ask what you are looking for, without hiding anything",
"because": "nobody has come for any of it in living memory",
"offer": "tell them and they will find it, and tell you what ship it came off"
},
{
"occupant": "the Water Bailiff",
"doing": "standing at an open grave above the tideline with a spade",
"onArrival": "it asks whether you know who this one was",
"because": "the grave was cut for somebody who never came ashore",
"offer": "give it a name and it will fill the grave and let you through the ground"
},
{
"occupant": "a bell buoy",
"doing": "sounding steadily out in flat calm water",
"onArrival": "the sounding changes when you come to the quay edge",
"because": "it is moored over a wreck the harbour will not mark on any chart",
"offer": "answer it and what is under it will tell you what happened here"
},
{
"occupant": "the Trinity Brethren",
"doing": "standing in a hall of boards with one wall bare",
"onArrival": "they part to let you at the bare wall",
"because": "the boards on that wall were burnt in a night",
"offer": "letter one board and the whole hall will vouch for you"
}
],
"temptations": [
{
"id": "bell",
"cue": "the bell off the wreck",
"benefit": "once, make a loss be admitted",
"useCost": {
"bane": 2
},
"standingDrawback": "everything drowned here hears it and comes to be counted",
"acceptanceCost": {
"vice": "Wrath"
}
},
{
"id": "board",
"cue": "a lettered board off the hall wall",
"benefit": "once, prove a ship was lost and when",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the ship it names is unaccounted for again"
},
{
"id": "salvage",
"cue": "a piece of named wreckage",
"benefit": "once, be recognised by any of the drowned",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "they recognise you as one of the crew"
},
{
"id": "list",
"cue": "the list of the lost",
"benefit": "know every name the sea took here",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the gap in it is a name that wants filling"
},
{
"id": "spade",
"cue": "the bailiff's spade",
"benefit": "once, put something to rest",
"useCost": {
"bane": 1
},
"standingDrawback": "the ground opens for you wherever you carry it"
}
]
}
}
}
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