Part 4: Finding Pigmote

Entry three – Discovering Pigmote

The Journal of Petra Blackwood

December 10th, 1887

As my crew finish final preparations to depart, I paid one last visit ashore. I wanted to assess if Venderbight would be a place we could refuel and restock, if we needed too.





A new update hit today! That 'Monstrous Almanac' is new to me. Exciting!

I discovered a place that would pay well for those bringing stories from distant places, and another place where a tomb-colonist would sell me what my ship needed to keep going at a premium. While it's nice to know I can restock here, I hope I never need too.

After being out to zee only a short time, a call went out from the upper deck – Bats. As I emerged from my quarters, I saw the crew already getting into combat positions. Grandalt told me the lookout had spotted a swarm of blood-sucking bats descending towards the Correspondence. Fortunately, our ship is equipped to deal with this; I gave the order to prepare our grapeshot, and the men got ready.





The little flying vermin dove upon our ship, but the crew was ready for them, and fended the beasts away. They attempted to flee into the darkness for another pass, but I did not let them. We pursued them closely until the cannon was loaded and a second shot killed enough that the swarm disbanded.




Ship v. monster combat is fairly similar to ship v. ship, except that instead of firing a gun, a monster will charge you when it has a firing solution. There's a very simple way to deal with this; their charge has a minimum range. Plow into them. Stick to them and do not let go. You can defeat almost every zee-beast (with a few notable exceptions) like this without taking damage, except possibly one charge on the way in, if you can pull it off – they'll try to juke you, but usually not very well.




The remains of our battle were littered all over the deck. The crew seemed rather put-off by it all, but I saw it as an opportunity. I ordered the zailors to collect them and bring them to the galley. There was some grumbling, but they went along with it. Fresh meat – especially meat that isn't fish – is rare out here, and I think the unpleasantness of having to deal with all the little carcasses will be made up for by the taste of real meat.




The whole event reminded me of another tool we had at our disposal. I ordered our bat-keeper, Kalan, to fetch our zee-bat and send it out. It returned a short time later, letting us know there was no-place worth stopping nearby.

When exploring new areas, the zee-bat is your best friend. It can be dispatched at will, and is the little bat-button on the lower control bar. You can see it zipping off to the east in the first image, and returning from the south-west in the second. If there's a port nearby, it has a chance to notice it and tell you what direction it's in, even mark it on your map! The larger the port, the higher the chance of the bat seeing it, and the farther it sees it from.

We continued west.

December 10th, near midnight



I was awoken by the night watch shouting an alarm near a place I was later told is named Lick-a-monkey crag. A crab had been sighted.




It was enormous, and I had no desire to fight it. I ordered a the deck light to be turned off, in hopes that we could slip away under cover of darkness. As large as it was, it was also slow and lumbering. Without our deck light on, it lost track of us, and we slipped away into the night.



I had heard many stories of monsters out at zee, but seeing one for the first time is a real experience! That creature was nearly as large as our ship. I should return to sleep, but am writing this instead, while the memory is fresh in my mind. There is a sigil for beasts like that. "A creature so large/dangerous/unusual seeing it changes one's opinions". Now I understand what that means a little better.

December 11th, 1887. Early morning.




We spotted land early this morning. The island, called Pigmote island, is strange; it looks inhabited, from a distance, but there was no town to greet us at the docks. Instead, there was something far more unusual.








Two warrior nations of rodents both desired the aid of myself and my crew. I could make a valuable ally here, if I chose wisely – if it was worth the effort at all.

Okay, decision time! Do we side with the regal Cavies, or the ingenious Rattus Faber?