Sunless Sea Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Khan's Shadow
Khan's Shadow (Gazetteer)
SS khansshadow portgaz
Located in The Salt Steppes
Ports Wanderer's Haven
Shops SS remainssmall Dearly Departed

SS mechanismsmall Traveller's Friend
Shipyard No
Data ID 152332

The city that swam.

Khan's Shadow is one of three Khan's Fortresses ruled by the SS khansheart portgaz Khanate. This island is where the former warriors of the Khanate, now exiles, live.

Port interactions[ | ]

SS khansshadow portgaz Khan's Shadow[ | ]

Long ago, the Khanate turned its back on its warrior traditions. It has no place for pirates and would-be nomads: so here, in the Shadow, the exiles make their home, amid a hundred wrecked, grounded, decommissioned ships.

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Compile a Port Report

So many malcontents. So little time.

Closely-written notes

Conniving, debauching, speechifying, drinking, singing, speeching, poeting. Now and then a drunken duel. Very occasionally, a savage ritual murder.

Have a One-Eyed Scrimshander carve something from your Hunting Trophy

His tools are laid before him in a neat row.

He runs his knobbled fingers over the trophy; clicks his tongue. "Good bone."

He grinds. He chips. He engraves. He mutters in a half-dozen languages of the Presbyterate. Soon, four little blocky figures of bone stand in a row before him. Their eyes are wide and angry. "Saw these in the Elder Continent, once. Still do, when I sleep; or when my mind wanders."

He drops them into your palm. "No charge. If they start watching you, maybe they'll stop watching me."

Game note: Trade a Hunting-Trophy for four Watchful Curios.
Let your Longshanks Gunner go ashore

"I'm no more good to yer, Captain. I've got the scent o' freedom, now, and I'm for the city of broken ships."

A profitable parting

"So I've got a confession to make. I've been moonlighting in the old trade. Not aboard ship. I'd never steal from a shipmate, cap'n, I zwear!" She winks. "But a port here, a port there. Here's some of my haul, and thanks."

She hands you a collection of clinking objects wrapped in cloth, shoulders a bundle, and, whistling, hurdles the rail to land in a rusting coal-barge. She's gone.

Put a blemmigan ashore

The exiles are unlikely to be bothered by one more outcast.

A knack for concealment

The blemmigan disappears into the moist shadows of a nearby wreck. A Shadow watches it go. “Mushrooms,” she says cheerfully. “I've missed mushrooms.”

Acquire a Doomed Monster-Hunter

The rebel lords of the Khanate are hungry for the secrets of the Dawn Machine. One among their number will volunteer to die for you, should you provide what they need.

Peligin eyes

He tugs at the brim of his dripping hat. His eyes are the colour of the deepest zee. "I'm ready," he tells you. "No, I need no food. No water. I will feed myself from the zee."

Sell an exotic weapon to Shadow buccaneers

"Icarus in Black! The masterwork of an Iron Republic Artificer. Captains fear it. Monsters flee it!"

Failed event Game Note: A Hearts success will get you a slightly better price.

A fair price

The Icarus is an eccentric weapon, and the Scarred Buccaneer who purchases it may not find success in piracy. But she seems content enough.

Successful event
An excellent price!

The Icarus is an eccentric weapon. The Scarred Buccaneer who purchases it may not find it very much use against the Khanate Navy. But she purrs with delight: it's a trophy to inspire envy in rival buccaneers!

A gathering of anarchists

That is nothing unusual here, of course. Most nights, half the Shadow hatches plots over cheap wine and old insults. But who is that Officer in the crowd?

The usual diatribes

The Haunted Doctor stands listening in rapt attention, his remaining eye closed. On a stage made from tables and upturned chairs, an attractive young man and woman take turns raging against injustice and talking of the glorious day when London and the Khanate and all others who dare to elevate themselves above others will face their reckoning. (The irony is, as ever, lost.)

Once the meeting ends he hurries over to thank you, glowing with second-hand fervour.

"I have... missed this," says the Doctor, something strange taking over his face. If you didn't know better, you'd say it was a smile. He heads over to the young woman to try it out, renewed purpose in his stride.

Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother

"She was a spy, once, I think. I think she might still be one. Well, a lot of us are. Freelancers, anyway. Look, perhaps you shouldn't say that to anyone at the Admiralty. I do talk nonsense when I'm nervous.

Failed event
"No luck."

"She murdered a White-and-Gold here last month. Or someone else in lilac did. It's an unlucky colour here, I think. But let me tell you something else I heard. And then we can look elsewhere. We'll find her."

Successful event
"She was here last week, but - "

You follow the Daughter's stunned gaze. A woman in a lilac gown leans in the doorway of a tea-shop. Her features bear an unmistakable resemblance to your officer's. "We should talk," she says to the Daughter, quite calmly.

The Daughter assembles the rags of her composure with remarkable speed. "Excuse us," she says...

Seek the Cladery Heart among the abandoned hulls

If she is here, the Cladery Heir will recognise her.

Failed event
Start over

The shipwrights are watching you. Everyone here seems unduly fascinated by your presence. You've only walked a quarter of the docks when the Cladery Heir takes your elbow. "The light is too dim. I can't be certain of the shapes of the hulls. She might be here without me seeing her."

From the deck of the closest ship, someone spits something at your feet. It's... actually, what is that?

"Chunk of tongue," the Cladery Heir says, giving it a poke with the toe of her boot. "To say they don't care to speak with us. Let's go."

Successful event
A memory of a memory

The Cladery Heir walks the dock, watching the hulls and the outlines of the ship. She moves slowly, so that she doesn't look too eager. "We probably won't find her here," the Heir says. "I don't expect to. I don't believe in clinging to specific hopes and expectations of that kind; it's just the sort of obsession that ruins lives, just the kind of thing I'm always having to repair..."

You don't find the ship, though you walk the docks three times over. "It doesn't matter," says the Cladery Heir. "I don't mind." But surely there is more you can do?

Ask about the Cladery Heart among the Shipwrights

If the stories are true, they must at least remember her.

On to Frostfound

"She made the other ships restless," says the Khaganian Shipwright. "In the end we had to repair her enough to let her go on. She turned north, with the last of the crew that still lived on her. But she sailed too close by Frostfound, and the ice swallowed her. At least, that is the story that has come back to us."

Healing the Cheery Man: take honey with a Once-Great Poet

He can smell it. He baggy eyes grow suddenly sharp. "Nothing's forgotten; nothing's gone. I have seen it. There was a wood, once - a place where things that were, are. Dream with me!"

Transportation

He leads you to his dismal chambers, where the air is sweet and rotten, like fruit left in a bowl. Pages of unfinished poetry litter the furniture.

"Sit! We will take a spoonful each, you and I, and I will show you the way." Dipping a spoon into the honey, he shovels a blob of it into his mouth. "You, too. Quickly!"

Plunder the decommissioned remains of the Stone Turtle

An old research vessel, chained and boarded-up at the Shadow's rim. If the Khanate's zonar schematics survived, perhaps they're on board.

You climb aboard

Your bo'sun applies bolt cutters to a chain, securing entry. Slipping inside, you close the door (muting the clamour of the Shadow) and light lamps. The hull is well-preserved. Down in the hold are orderly piles of crates, boxes, and cabinets.

Eventually you uncover a detailed set of schematics that - despite the complexities of Khanate script - look like what you need. You cram them into your jacket.

You have discovered fingerprints in the dust, and suspicious gaps in the runs of certain records. Has someone been here recently? Perhaps the Khanate hasn't abandoned zubmarine research quite as absolutely as they claim.

Game note: Return to Port Carnelian to complete your zubmarine research.
Approach the man staring at you

His gaze is rather intense. What does he want?

Planned interactions[ | ]

Actions Requirements Effects Notes
Roister Failed event
"5"
Successful event
"undefined"
Khan's Shadow shops
Dearly DepartedTraveller's Friend
Shops
Arcade of SighsBultitude's House of VisionCaminus YardsCarrow's Naval SurplusDahut ExchangeDaily BreadDearly DepartedDockside MarketFire in the BellyFortune & FortuneHarbour ProvisionersHollow TempleHouse of HarmsHouse of HarvestsHouse of MilksHouse of PleasuresHull-harvestJonah's EndLicensed ExchangeLow ChurchMalebolge ExcavationsMrs Plenty's Shipside ProvisionersPeleghast's PostPortentumRed Stallion PublishingRequisitionsSapphire ExchangeStonemarketTemple of LaboursThe Arrant LimpetThe Charnel LoungeThe Fisher of DawnThe Hunter's CageThe Iron & Misery CompanyThresholdTraveller's FriendUncle Ankle's Lean PlaceWind-Come-CallingWolfstack Exchange
Locations
Ports Abbey RockAdam's WayAestivalAigulAntheAvid HorizonChapel of LightsChelonateCodexCumaean Canal Staging AreaDahutDemeaux IslandEmpire of HandsFallen LondonThe Fathomking's HoldFrostfoundGaider's MournGant PoleGodfallGrand GeodeHideawayHunter's KeepIremIron RepublicIsle of CatsKhan's GloryKhan's HeartKhan's ShadowKingeater's CastleLow BarnetMangrove CollegeMount PalmerstonMutton IslandNookNuncioPigmote IslePolythremePort CarnelianPort CecilRosegateSalt LionsScrimshanderShepherd IslesStation IIIThe UndercrowThe UttershroomVarchasVenderbightVisageWhitherWisdomWrack
Places of Interest An Abyss...The Admiralty Survey OfficeAvernusThe Brass EmbassyDawn MachineDrydockThe EyeThe Forgotten QuarterThe House of the QuestionLight-ShipNaplesQuaker's HavenRoser's WharfSurfaceThe UniversityViennaWolfstack DocksThe Wreck of the NocturneYour Lodgings
Characters Blind BruiserMerchant VenturerThe Dark-Spectacled AdmiralThe FathomkingThe First Curator
Advertisement