| Salt Lions | |
|---|---|
| Salt Lions (Map) | |
 | |
| Located in | Stonesoul Isles |
| Ports | Zeel Port |
| Shops | No |
| Shipyard | No |
| Data ID | 159176 |
If you see two gigantic basalt beasts lying in the middle on the Unterzee, you'll know that you have arrived at Salt Lions. These are a pair of colossal sphinx statues, vestiges of the Second City. A company of London stonecutters known as the Unmakers has set a camp on the top of the northern Lion to quarry precious Sphinxstone and send it back to London.
Linked Objective: Deliveries from the Salt Lions is a very profitable venture in early game. London's Ministry of Public Decency and, later, some more suspicious customers will gladly pay good money for ancient stones. Be wary that the number of deliveries is limited: once you advance in the storylet far enough, the Unmakers will leave, abandoning their work.
Port description[ | ]
There is a vast sorrow in their empty eyes.
Port interactions[ | ]
The Salt Lions[ | ]
Location description[ | ]
Two basalt beasts, cathedral-sized. They frown eternally at each other across the black waves. The north one carries an encampment: creeping human figures eat away at its features like rot, pick-pick-picking. There's a supply dock below.
Interactions[ | ]
This interaction is only available while 
Objective: Deliveries from the Salt Lions ≤ 149. Each load you deliver, regardless of the amount you carry, will increase the Quality by a random number between 1 and 5.
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compile a Port Report
Time, basalt, dissolution. |
Notes for the Admiralty
Record the activities of the Unmakers, such as they are. Write of stone and silence. |
||
| Visit the Unmakers
Muscular pick-wielders rest on camp-stools, watching you approach, passing hip-flasks around. An Unctuous Overseer beckons you to sit. |
Fungal tisane and teacakes
“We get funding from the Bazaar, it's true, but... Station IV? I wouldn't call us Station IV. It's a little grandiose. The stones are stuffed with secrets, but most of them are used as garden statuary, or occult ballast. Most of them. Some go down to the places under the Bazaar... More teacakes?”  -5 x Terror
 +1 x Fragment
 That's all for now |
||
| Salt's Rites
The face of the northern sphinx is all but gone. Lost faces are sacred to Salt, they say. You are drawn there. To what end? Salt's voice is distant, but clear... |
Into the zee
Dive from the sphinx's face, down, a clean arc into the zee's chilly darkness. Float there in the quiet, until your lungs are bursting, until light blooms behind your eyes. Rise gasping to the prickle of false-stars, the shocked faces of your crew. You've brought something with you. |
||
| Carry Sphinxstone to London
The Unmakers are here to reduce the Salt-Lions to rubble, one block at a time. Help them in their work by carrying the rubble back to London. |
 200 x Echo |
“If the stones weep,” an Unmaker advises you, “ignore them. Unless they flood your hold, of course. Then you should probably drop them overboard. Don't tell anyone I said that.” -200 x Echo
 +20 x Sphinxstone |
Game note: You will need a deposit, and 20 units of spare cargo space. |
| "Shalt-Flions"
You've brought the Nacreous Outcast here. With luck, it knows why. |
Moist wide eyes
"Shaltsh Ftentshion," it insists. "Godshly!" It gestures at the face of the northern sphinx. It brandishes the cruet. |
Game note: You'll need Salt's Attention to continue. You can gain it in Whither, among other places. | |
| "Shalt-Flions"
You've brought the Nacreous Outcast here. With luck, it knows why. |
Unexpected grace
The face of the northern sphinx is all but gone, but the Nacreous Outcast scrambles doggedly up. It pauses at the top, and then flips into the air - an arc as precise as a compass-line, down into the darkness of the zee. It's gone with barely a splash. You wait. There is no reason for alarm. It can probably breathe water. You wait longer. There is a certain degree of decorous alarm. Longer still, and the alarm manifests in the form of zailors clustering casually by the rail - only casually, because no one would admit any concern for the fate of a Rubbery Man. The Rubbery Man surfaces! It mounts the steps to the quay, with the ceremonious delight of a vicar mounting the steps to a pulpit. It holds a sphinxstone chess-piece aloft in its hand... "Principles," it wheezes. |
||
| Put a blemmigan ashore
The island isn't entirely sheer rock. Just mostly. Blemmigans have populated harsher environments. |
Scenting something familiar?
The blemmigan scales the face of the north lion, squeezing fine tendrils into the narrowest of cracks, pressing on to the Unmakers' abandoned encampment. You leave it groping blindly at the laces of a tent, twittering softly. |
||
| Drop off the Impolite Investigator
The Impolite Investigator listlessly watches the unmakers toil beneath the sphinxstone bricks. |
 Hideaway: The Impolite Investigator = 2 [He has asked you to take him to the Salt Lions] |
Before he disembarks, the Impolite Investigator turns to you and asks: "Addressed As, why did you fight to maintain an illusion which will kill a city? What do you gain? What - no, sod it. For once, I think I'd rather not know. Good day." And with that, he walks down the boarding plank and into the Salt Lions. | |
| Drop off the Impolite Investigator
The Impolite Investigator smiles up at the Lion and breathes deeply. |
Before he disembarks, the Impolite Investigator turns to you and asks: "Addressed As, why did you help me back in Hideaway?" His smile widens - he laughs. "On second thought, Addressed As, I think I'd be happy to live without an answer." He salutes you and heads down the boarding plank, a spring in his step. |
Triggered interactions[ | ]
These only trigger when you are docked in Salt Lions.
The Salt Lions, after[ | ]
See the The Salt Lions, after page.
This interaction appears if you have the following:
| Salt Lions story events | |
|---|---|
| The Salt Lions, after | |