| The Pursuit of Sharpness | |
|---|---|
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| Category | Story Event |
| Type | Story |
| Data ID | 256227 |
The Pursuit of Sharpness is a Sunless Sea Story Event.
Story description[ | ]
A woman gives advice to new Antheans: her eyes are cubes of salt. She speaks of going sharp as a numbness, and as an awakening; as the loss of sensation and the beginning of insight. Some Antheans use other metaphors. Clarity. Dryness. Regularity and structure.
Trigger conditions[ | ]
Under the Unterzee ≥ 1
Area: Limbo
Frequency: Always (100%)
Interactions[ | ]
| Actions | Requirements | Effects | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cultivate the capacity for sharpness
It isn't easy to go sharp as the Antheans do. But most who come here find themselves desiring the condition, sooner or later. |
 Anthe: Capacity for Sharpness ≤ 6 [Six. Six sharpnesses.]
 Hearts challenge (Special for 100%)
|
Failed event | Special is calculated as follows: (40+25*Anthe: Capacity for Sharpness) * 1.67, which expands to 66.8 + 41.75*Anthe: Capacity for Sharpness.
Note that there is no Terror check here, so you can spam this until you have maximum capacity, topping your terror at 100. This would be fatal, except you can lower your terror by holding up the ceiling before leaving Anthe. |
| A struggle in the dark
You struggle to right your mind. Instead, you give yourself nightmares of body parts that grow brittle and snap off.  +7 x Terror
| |||
| Successful event | |||
| Nights of meditation
The environment is a help, but you must also prepare your mind and your will. Going sharp means giving up many sensations. | |||
| Cultivate the capacity for sharpness through chemical means
Old logbooks record a preparation of minerals and salts that helps the body convert. It is... untested. |
 1 x Unread Log
 ( Anthe: Capacity for Sharpness + 1) x Mutersalt
Anthe: Capacity for Sharpness ≤ 6 [Six. Six sharpnesses.]
 Luck challenge (50% to win)
|
Failed event | |
| The preparation disagrees with you
It's a sludgy grey-blue drink when you swallow it. Then it's fire in your gut, and rasping in the throat. You lose the ability to speak for a few hours. Your ears ring. You have feverish thoughts of standing on a mountain top and becoming one with the stone. But you are no better prepared for the society of Anthe. +2 x Terror
-(1 + Anthe: Capacity for Sharpness) x Mutersalt
-1 x Unread Log
| |||
| Successful event | |||
| A quicker and less spiritual solution
In Anthe there are teachers of sharpness who emphasise self-knowledge, patience, and similar tedious methodologies. In your case, a day of distillations and preparations is enough. You drink the dose from a goblet, and within two hours you are ready to go sharp in a new way. +1 x Anthe: Capacity for Sharpness
-(1 + Anthe: Capacity for Sharpness) x Mutersalt
-1 x Unread Log
| |||
| Go sharp in the spleen
Surrender your capacity for anger. Join the society of diplomats, saints, and cold-blooded tyrants. |
The Venous Salon
Descend into the Anthe chamber reserved for those who flourish at the spleen. The stone of the chamber is veined with red. Some members of the Venous Salon wear clothes that reveal the midriff, so that one can see the telltale points of the crystal form under their skin. It is a party game here to take turns reading aloud offensive letters to the London newspapers, and insulting missives from home, and to compete at not caring in the least.  Anthe: Sharpness of Spleen = 1 [Sharp-spleened]
 +1 x Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses
Triggers event:  Anthe
|
The check is meant to be equivalent to Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses < Anthe: Capacity for Sharpness, which is what you would expect. However, the subtraction is clamped to 0, meaning you can select this (or sharpness of the liver) without any capacity for sharpness.
| |
| Go sharp in the liver
Take on a proud indifference to toxins. Fraternise with spies, assassins, professional poisoners, and those who need to survive on strange diets. |
The Salon of Silver Salts
When you have grown liver-sharp, you may take the left exit from the main chamber of Anthe and descend a staircase gritty underfoot. The Salon of Silver Salts is hung with small lights, and the inhabitants look ordinary. They are sipping arsenical teas and dining on poisonous toadstools. A woman in the corner offers a constant flow of wit at the expense of jaundice victims. Another wears the tattered remains of an Iron & Misery uniform. Anthe: Crystallization of Liver = 1 [Crystal-livered]
+1 x Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses
Triggers event: Anthe
|
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| Let your lungs become a chamber of crystal
Breathe less often and more purely. Take on the companionship of divers, opera singers, coal miners and producers of poisonous gas. |
The Salon of Incense
The chamber is lined with black crystal. Braziers are lit and a low haze hangs in the air, troubling none of the inhabitants.  Anthe: Barbing of the Lungs = 1 [Barb-lunged]
+1 x Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses
Triggers event: Anthe
|
Starting here, you need an existing sharpness first, as well as enough capacity. This pattern continues. | |
| Flourish in the groin
Diminish passion, promote hygiene, perfect performance, and dazzle any onlookers. Pursue the company of Anthe's nuns, celibates, dancers, and brothel habitués. |
The Chamber of Pillow-cut Rock
The walls of the chamber are hard, but the facets and the deep red colour give them the shimmer of whorehouse velvet. One reclining gentleman demonstrates what, in another context, you might take for a gigantic pair of matched blue topazes. But for the most part, the inhabitants wear cream-coloured robes and make no display of their altered state.  Anthe: Flourishing of the Groin = 1 [Bristle-groined]
+1 x Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses
Triggers event: Anthe
|
||
| Undergo acumination of the tongue
Give up soft speech and slow words. Come to know poets, court jesters, liars, and artists in cipher. |
Tongue-point Pinnacle
The sharp-tongues gather on a point of rock. There is little room for newcomers. The wit is crisp and dry. The diction is precise. Nothing is slurred, and nothing said in error.  Anthe: Acumination of the Tongue = 1 [Hard-tongued]
+1 x Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses
Triggers event: Anthe
|
Game note: If you cannot select this, you may need to raise your Capacity for Sharpness. | |
| Mineralise your skeleton
Strength that cannot be seen is often the most praiseworthy. Walk among the labourers, the circus strongwomen, the persons of iron will and unshakeable integrity. |
The Bone-Barrow
The room is oval in cross-section and about fifty feet long. The walls are packed earth rather than stone. The inhabitants take turns to hold up the part of the ceiling that is in danger of caving in. "I still don't recommend falling from a height," one of the old-timers is saying to a new member. "True, you won't break your bones. Now they'll break you. Tear right through your muscle and skin, and stick out! Ha! Unless you go the rest of the way and grow a sharp skin, but..." He shrugs. "Bit tasteless, that, isn't it?"  Anthe: Spinosity of Bone = 1 [Spiny]
+1 x Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses
Triggers event: Anthe
|
||
| Let your skin be clear as water and hard as armour
This is where the fighters are, and those who got tired of their scars, and the people too proud to hide anything about themselves. |
The Blistering Abyss
The sharp-skinned of Anthe have no reason to fear heat, or edged implements, or bruising rocks. Snakes and stinging insects are a game to them. The suicide of wasps on crystal Anthean skin is one of their primary sources of comedy. These people have the most to do if they wish to conceal their condition from those above the Unterzee. They almost never leave Anthe, but if they do, they wraps themselves in bandages and pass as Tomb Colonists, or mask themselves like a native of Visage.  Anthe: Clarity of the Skin = 1 [Transparent]
+1 x Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses
Triggers event: Anthe
|
||
| Cut away all your sharpness
Return to something closer to your natural state. |
Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses ≥ 1
 Menaces: Wounds ≤ 1 [You have one Wound. At three Wounds, you'll die.]
|
Your case wasn't too advanced
Happily, you don't have to cut away everything. But there are losses. You will bear the scars, in exchange for being merely flesh again. +1 x Menaces: Wounds
Anthe: Sharpness of Spleen = 0
Anthe: Crystallization of Liver = 0
Anthe: Number of Sharpnesses = 0
Anthe: Acumination of the Tongue = 0
Anthe: Barbing of the Lungs = 0
Anthe: Flourishing of the Groin = 0
Anthe: Spinosity of Bone = 0
Anthe: Clarity of the Skin = 0
Triggers event: Anthe
|
Game note: This will remove your sharpness and gain a Wound. Your Maximum Sharpness will remain, so you can pursue different sharpnesses if need be. Be careful: three Wounds will kill you. |
| Relinquish the pursuit for now
Perhaps there is other business for you in Anthe. |
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Anthe
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