| The Corridors of Frostfound | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Linked to | Frostfound |
The Corridors of Frostfound is a Sunless Sea Story Event.
Trigger conditions[ | ]
The Corridors of Frostfound is triggered by doing the Enter Frostfound action in Frostfound.
Overview[ | ]
The Corridors of Frostfound are tough for low level players to navigate. They will either take stat points directly, or use up all your resources, or perhaps both. Unless you have a specific goal, it's not wise to enter. With that said, specific goals include
Objective: The Mechanic's Secret in Frostfound
The Name-Which-Burns
The Gods of the Zee: Stone's Curse, a Steam achievement- A Page from 'The Neathbow': Gant. (note: there are other, far easier ways to obtain this)
Also note that if you choose to use items and stat checks to pass the rooms, 
Terror will decrease with every failure (which counter-intuitively is NOT a good thing here); it sets your progress back, returning you to earlier rooms. The thresholds for each room are listed below. Losing a single point of a statistic isn't necessarily the worst choice in this case. Also, unless you wish to leave with 100 x Terror, bring a 
Judgements' Egg, 
Sunlight-Filled Mirrorcatch Box or make sure to renounce the gods before hand. If you have Something Awaits You, you can reduce 10 terror in 
Frostfound port.
Interactions[ | ]
The Corridors of Frostfound[ | ]
Light! A hundred rich and blinding colours filter through the ice. It's like drinking a kaleidoscope. It's like being kidnapped by rainbows. The colours shift with every step you take, revealing shining corridors. In each and every corridor, your reflection waits.
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leave
You aren't really in this chilly labyrinth. (Are you?) You can open your eyes at any time, and you'll be safe. (Won't you?) |
|
Frostfound
|
|
| Enter the Sapphire Chamber
This corridor shimmers with a blue as rich as the sky of the Surface. |
Terror = 20 - 24
|
A howling wind
It fills your ears, but the air is still.
 Sapphire Chamber
|
|
| Enter the Amethyst Gallery
Over here, a corridor is the deep violet of the more colourful Unterzee corals. Dappled shadows drift like fish. |
Terror = 25 - 34
|
Predatory shapes
You are the centre of hunters' attention: things like and unlike sharks, long, sleek, half-visible behind the walls. You have the sudden sense that they are vaster than sharks - vaster than Frostfound itself.
 The Amethyst Gallery
|
|
| Enter the Cavity
That corridor glows the rich red of sunlight on fresh blood. |
Terror = 35 - 49
|
Bright as pain
As you tread the corridor's crimson facets, you almost expect your feet to come away sticky.
 The Cavity
|
|
| Enter the Emerald Vista
The green of forests, of poison, of leaves haloed by arc light. |
Terror = 50 - 69
|
Leaf-shadows in motion
Chilly air. The scent of pine.
 The Emerald Vista
|
|
| Cross the Diamond Bridge
Here the light is brightest - lightning-bright, migraine-bright, bright as humiliation. |
Terror = 70 - 94
|
Even when you close your eyes, the light does not diminish.
 The Diamond Bridge
|
|
| Enter the Iridescence
A softer, pearlier, mirror-fog glow coils from this corridor. |
Terror = 95 - 99
|
If this is Frostfound's pearl, what dark inclusion provoked it?
 The Iridescence
|
|
| Enter the Dark Room
Nothing is visible. |
Terror ≥ 100
|
Sacred ground.
 The Dark Room
|
Sapphire Chamber[ | ]
| Sapphire Chamber | |
|---|---|
| |
| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 181438 |
Description[ | ]
Every facet of the ice-crystal wall is the hard and depthless blue of a desert sky. You take one step further in, and that blue plucks at your senses. Vertigo spins you. A voice intones: THIS WAS THE SKY.
Trigger Conditions[ | ]
Terror = 20 - 24
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Step into the sky
You'll be terribly exposed. But perhaps you'll learn something. |
 Veils ≥ 25
|
The horror of emptiness
Yes, this blue is a brittle, savage barrier. Press against it and it will shatter, spilling you into the High Wilderness. The stars are hungry, and there is a horror upon you. Your head spins. Increase your Terror further to penetrate further into Frostfound. The right items mean you may not have to sacrifice skill points. |
Game Note: This will sacrifice a point of Veils. |
| Return to the Corridors of Frostfound
Step out into the nexus of corridors. |
There was a terror you found, out on the zee. You remember it keenly. But what does it mean, this chamber, this place? Frostfound shivers around you. Memory is fragile.
The Corridors of Frostfound
|
||
| Recall other places where there is no sky
You are far from any sky. Stare fiercely into that fierce blue, and call to mind your memories of skyless islands. |
 Memory of Distant Shores ≥ 1
Veils challenge (167 for 100%)
|
Failed event | |
| Confusion
Where are you? What is happening here? Around you, Frostfound shivers like a bubble. Is it even real? -1 x Terror
-1 x Memory of Distant Shores
| |||
| Successful event | |||
| An accommodation
Yes, this blue is a brittle, savage barrier. Press against it and it will shatter, spilling you into the High Wilderness. But you are safe in the dark. You are afraid, but you have mastered your fear. Increase your Terror further to penetrate further into Frostfound. The right items mean you may not have to sacrifice skill points. +5 x Terror
-1 x Memory of Distant Shores
|
The Amethyst Gallery[ | ]
| The Amethyst Gallery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 181456 |
Description[ | ]
Perspective confounds you. This place stretches away every direction through a dusty purple haze, as if you float in a cloud. The air is chill and crackling. Vast and shadowy shapes hang lifeless in the distant cloud, fluid staining their hides. Whale-things and beast-things, bigger than dirigibles, bigger than cities. You are a speck in the cloud. Are you still inside Frostfound?
Once again, there is a voice, lifeless as leaden type. THERE WERE CASUALTIES.
Trigger Conditions[ | ]
Terror = 25 - 34
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Approach the colossi
Fear is the way to the heart of Frostfound. You will not escape unscathed. |
 Iron ≥ 25
|
Terror profundi
Great sad dead eyes like stagnant crater-lakes. Mouths which could drink rivers. Your entire ship would be a glint on a speck in a pockmark on the least limb of these things. Every time you enter battle, you will remember this. |
Game Note: This will sacrifice a point of Iron. |
| Return to the Corridors of Frostfound
Step out into the nexus of corridors. |
There was a terror you found, out on the zee. You remember it keenly. But what does it mean, this chamber, this place? Frostfound shivers around you. Memory is fragile.
The Corridors of Frostfound
|
||
| Recall the zee
These things are giants. But you have faced something greater. |
Failed event | ||
| Uncertainty
These things cannot be real. The zee is real. What is Frostfound? A delirium of ice. Nothing real. | |||
| Successful event | |||
| An old familiar fear
Great sad dead eyes like stagnant crater-lakes. Mouths which could drink rivers. Your entire ship would be a glint on a speck in a pockmark on the least limb of these things. But you are a zee-captain. Your enemy, your companion, is the Unterzee, against which even the eldest of these beasts is nothing. |
The Cavity[ | ]
| The Cavity | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 181452 |
Description[ | ]
You are bathed in crimson light, thick as cream. It warms your skin and fills your mouth with the taste of iron. THIS IS ONLY A MEMORY, a voice intones. THE CRIME IS FORGOTTEN. ITS SHADOW REMAINS.
Trigger Conditions[ | ]
Terror = 35-49
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surrender to the traces of horror
Whatever was remembered here is gone - but even its traces still scald the air. You can give in to it, but it will damage you. |
 Hearts ≥ 25
|
That art
All living things are joined in the Chain: men and apes, bees and roses, messengers and stars. When the Red Science breaks it, even time is scarred. Now that scar has touched your spirit. |
Game Note: This will cost you a point of Hearts. |
| Return to the Corridors of Frostfound
Step out into the nexus of corridors. |
There was a terror you found, out on the zee. You remember it keenly. But what does it mean, this chamber, this place? Frostfound shivers around you. Memory is fragile.
The Corridors of Frostfound
|
||
| Compare your own memories of horror
Find the similarities - but keep a safe distance. Understand the fear that haunts this place, without surrendering to it. |
 Tale of Terror!! ≥ 1
Hearts challenge (251 for 100%)
|
Failed event | |
| Distraction
There was a terror you found, out on the zee. You remember it keenly. But what does it mean, this chamber, this place? Frostfound shivers around you. Memory is fragile. -1 x Terror
-1 x Tale of Terror!!
| |||
| Successful event | |||
| All living things are joined in the Chain: men and apes, bees and roses, messengers and stars. When the Red Science breaks it, even time is scarred. It happened, and it is a terror on the sky: but it's only another story, like your story. It is past.
-1 x Tale of Terror!!
+15 x Terror
|
The Emerald Vista[ | ]
| The Emerald Vista | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 181465 |
Description[ | ]
Rich deep fresh green of infinite depths and tints. If secrets had a colour, it would be this. It baffles and delights the eye. A chilly wind brushes you. SOMETHING SOUGHT, the voice intones. SOMETHING LOST.
Trigger Conditions[ | ]
Terror = 50-69
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Make use of little secrets
You could wander in this colour for ever. Seek little fragments of understanding, to steer by. |
Failed event | ||
| Bewilderment
What is this promise of green? Nothing. Frostfound is a lie, a memory, and your secrets are only secrets. | |||
| Successful event | |||
| Rocks in the flood
There are changes which will wash away all that you were and all that you are. Nothing is familiar. Everything is new as morning. But you have something to cling to. | |||
| Peer into the depths
Surrender your understanding to the wind. |
 Mirrors ≥ 25
|
Changes
There are changes which will wash away all that you were and all that you are. Nothing is familiar. Everything is new as morning. Your sight is dazzled, your perceptions confounded. |
Game note: This will sacrifice a point of Mirrors. |
| Return to the Corridors of Frostfound
Step out into the nexus of corridors. |
There was a terror you found, out on the zee. You remember it keenly. But what does it mean, this chamber, this place? Frostfound shivers around you. Memory is fragile.
The Corridors of Frostfound
|
The Diamond Bridge[ | ]
| The Diamond Bridge | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 181??? |
Story description[ | ]
A narrow space of blinding light, all colours and none, between the towers of Brite and the towers of Teneb. Once on the Bridge, you will be exposed, like an insect in the desert, like a fresh carcass on the operating table, like a jewel in the sun.
Trigger conditions[ | ]
Terror = 70 - 94
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross the bridge
You remember the sun. |
 1 x Vision of the Surface
 Pages challenge (334 for 100%)
|
Failed event | |
| Brittle brilliance
What is this light? There is no sun below. A trick, an illusion. Frostfound is nothing real. -1 x Terror
-1 x Vision of the Surface
| |||
| Successful event | |||
|
-1 x Vision of the Surface
Terror = 95 [Haunted]
| |||
| Cross the bridge
You have the sun in your pocket. |
 1 x Element of Dawn
|
The New Sequence
You stumble through a mounting haze of dread. The light tears at you. But you have the sun in your pocket. Across, into the merely brilliant light of inner Frostfound. +1 x Supremacy: The Dawn Machine (if ≤ 2)
Terror = 95 [Haunted]
Triggers event: The Corridors of Frostfound
|
|
| Cross the bridge
The light will erode what you are. |
Pages ≥ 25
|
An acid dazzle
You stumble through a mounting haze of dread. The light tears at you. Thoughts wither like charring paper. Across, into the merely brilliant light of inner Frostfound. -1 x Pages
Terror = 95 [Haunted]
Triggers event: The Corridors of Frostfound
|
Game Note: This will sacrifice one point of Pages. |
| Return to the Corridors of Frostfound
Step out into the nexus of corridors. |
There was a terror you found, out on the zee. You remember it keenly. But what does it mean, this chamber, this place? Frostfound shivers around you. Memory is fragile.
The Corridors of Frostfound
|
The Iridescence[ | ]
| The Iridescence | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 181??? |
Description[ | ]
The light here is very different. The ice-crystal walls are invisible behind a soft and luminous fog. Even the air is warmer. Your shadow paces you, stalking the boundaries of the fog.
KNOW YOURSELF, a voice intones.
Trigger Conditions[ | ]
Terror = 95 - 99
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Know yourself
You have brought burning knowledge across the sea. Use it now to unveil your shadow-reflection in the fog. |
 1 x Searing Enigma |
You What crimes have you forgotten? What shames do you bear? Or is cowardice your sin? Are you hypocrite enough to believer yourself flawless? Or do you glory in your crimes? The fog eddies away, and there your reflection stands with all its scars and stains and deformities. Take a long, long look, until you see yourself fade back into the fog, leaving only that exalted terror. +5 x Terror
|
|
| Wrestle yourself
Know yourself? Never mind that. Take the direct approach. Assault your shadow-reflection. |
- | A savage battle
Over and over you go, in a tumble of furious limbs. You know all your weak spots. But so do you. Fingernails gouge your flesh, reach for your eyes. Words gouge deeper. At last you rise, trembling, your blood on your hands. |
Game note: This will sacrifice one point of each skill, and increase your Wounds. |
| Retrieve the Mechanic's Secret
"This," the Mechanic says, very quietly, "is as far as we go. Let's get what we came for, and get out. I don't want to see what's in the fog - not again." Has he been here all along? Nothing is certain in Frostfound. |
The Mechanic fumbles in the drifting mist on the floor. (His shadow does the same. From within the fog, as it scrapes away in imitation, there is a dull grating noise, as of claws on rock.) He comes up with a stone piglet, small enough to lie comfortably on the palm of his hand. Its eyes are bright pearls.
"I'm sorry," the Mechanic confesses. "My imagination is rather literal." He stows the pig away out of sight. "Now please can we go? I can feel my teeth chattering, out there." -35 x Terror +1 x The Mechanic's Secret Something Awaits You = [1 to 100] Objective: the Mechanic's Secret in Frostfound = 0
|
The Dark Room[ | ]
| The Dark Room | |
|---|---|
| |
| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 181469 |
Description[ | ]
Almost silence. Soft breath. The crushing pressure of once-lived experience, as at the core of a star-corpse. Frostfound's lightless heart.
Trigger Conditions[ | ]
Terror = 100
| Interaction | Unlocked by | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| TRAVELLER RETURNING
You have been here before. You wrote your name - you wrote it in your blood, which is fire. |
The Western Stigma ≥ 1 [You have the Western Stigma] The Mark of the East ≥ 1 [You have the Mark of the East] The Scars of the North ≥ 1 [You have the Scars of the North] The Touch of the South ≥ 1 [You have the Touch of the South] Dread Surmise ≥ 1 Letters of the Name-Which-Burns ≤ 0 Menaces: Yearning, Burning ≥ 100 [When you close your eyes, you see the light] |
"You"
You permit your hand to drift outwards. Your finger touches the first letter of the Name. It flares instantly into light. Yes, this is what you wrote, before you went East. Blisters blossom on your finger-tip. The second letter. This is what he required, that fierce old creature in the dark. The third letter. When you came below, you knew it would hurt, but not this much. Not this much. The fourth letter -
|
Game note: This will Wound you. |
| Unveil a Judgements' Egg
Light overcomes darkness. If you are are done with darkness, this will preserve you. |
Judgements' Egg ≥ 1 |
Birth?
The Egg cracks. The dark withers. For a moment, you see a reflection in the Frostfound wall - a shining shape of many limbs, crowned with law and masked with light, a seed-fragment of a greater whole. YES, the voice you heard intones. YES. The reflection is gone, and so is the Egg. You are alone in an empty cell of softly glowing ice.
|
Game note: This will set your Terror to zero, and expel you from the Dark Room. |
| Return to the Corridors of Frostfound |
|
|
|
| Open a Sunlight-Filled Mirrorcatch Box
Light overcomes darkness. If you are are done with darkness, this will preserve you. |
A wash of sunlight
Open the box as wide as you can. The dark withers. For a moment, you see a reflection in the Frostfound wall - but not yours, or not only. Its belly is puckered and empty, its bones are ridged like claws. It dissolves, with a desolate sigh, and you are alone in an empty cell of softly glowing ice.
|
Game note: This will dramatically reduce your Terror, and expel you from the Dark Room. | |
| Eat
You are mortally wounded. You will die when you wake. Here in the dark, you can feast, committing an unpardonable sin, and live. You will feast only on memory, but your wound, too, is a memory. |
Hearts ≥ 25 Menaces: Wounds ≥ 3 [Your wounds are mortal!] |
The taste of a higher flesh
Your mouth is stained with golden blood. It will be gone when you wake. Oh, the heart of it. The heart of it! You swell with light. Perhaps you will live forever.
|
|
| Harvest a Star-Shell
Something desolate remains of a long-ago change: something the Curator might desire. |
 A Page from 'The Neathbow': Gant ≥ 1 Star-Shell ≤ 0 Mirrors ≥ 100 |
An end, or a beginning?
Cradle it in your hands, that bubble-light fragility. It might be a caul or a coffin.
|
|
| Fumble in the darkness
Was it only curiosity that brought you this far? Perhaps you can salvage something, regardless. |
 Luck challenge (50% chance to win) Doom: Frostfound's Core ≤ 0 |
Failed event | Game note: This is only possible once. |
| Need
Your hand closes on a memory: Long ago, a traveller went East, seeking something that could not be found in the black and starry kingdoms of the High Wilderness, nor in the irrigo temptations of the Nadir. Not in the glow of the Forge nor the crushing silence of the Unterzee deeps. Not in the shapeling citadels, not in the light of the South, not of the Sundered Sea. The traveller went East, and others may follow. You have found something the traveller tried to forget: that naked need. The traveller won't be pleased.
| |||
| Successful event | |||
| Distant acquaintance
Your hand closes on a memory: Long ago a hungry monarch built a castle. The monarch saw a light in the south, in the palace of the south's queen. In those days, hungry as the monarch was, that light provoked nothing but appetite. But she was too far to devour. Over time, their correspondence calmed the monarch, and when the time came for the monarch to depart, the monarch's appetite was transformed, like blood into tears. You have one word from the queen's correspondence. She won't be pleased.
| |||
| Rare successful event (50% chance) | |||
| Shapeling days
Your hand closes on a memory: Long ago a hungry monarch built a castle. The monarch sent messengers to the thunder-dragon in the roof, but the dragon ate them all. The monarch sent more messengers - shapelings from Axile, malleable and eager - but the dragon ate those too. Then the hungry monarch found the dragon's name, and the dragon had to listen. It didn't do either of them much good. You have one syllable of the thunder-dragon's name. It won't be pleased.
| |||
| You are defiant
What? It's only some imaginary god's imagined lair. Leave and live. |
 The Gods of the Zee: Defiant ≥ 1 [You are defiant] |
Awakening
The air is cold. The ice is real. All else was memory.
|
Game note: This will eject you from Frostfound, removing any Terror. |
